The Italians: Luca, Marco and Alessandro. Natalie Anderson

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       CHAPTER TEN

      EMILY concentrated on applying her mascara, trying to apply a brake to the mad acceleration of her heart. Luca crossed the room and picked up the box she’d placed on the table—she hadn’t been sure what she’d wanted to do with it.

      The diamonds caught the light as he lifted the bracelet out. He walked towards her, holding the chain out straight. ‘Wear it for me.’

      She met his eyes; the fire burned in them, melting that hard chocolate.

      ‘OK.’ It wasn’t about the bracelet, it was about him. And she couldn’t say no.

      He wound it round her wrist and did the clasp. The metal was cold at first but soon warmed against her skin. Glancing back in the mirror, she pushed another pin into her loose topknot and as she did the bracelet slid down her arm a little, catching the light again and sparkling brilliantly. It was beautiful. No other adornment would ever be necessary. It lifted her simple black dress into something stunning and it lifted her status into something nearer his—she couldn’t be confused with the waiting staff now. Part of her loved it—how could she not? And yet part of her hated it—and the soulless contract she felt it represented. Was he worried about tonight and how she was going to come across? Was he sprucing her up with an expensive piece of jewellery?

      ‘Am I decent now?’ she asked softly.

      As she waited she saw his tension increasing, but it wasn’t a flush of desire growing; if anything he’d gone paler beneath his brown tan and his body was tense. ‘When I asked you to wear—’

      ‘Asked? It was more of an order, Luca.’

      ‘Whatever. I didn’t mean dressy. Your arms, your legs poke out from those tee shirts and they tempt me. And now…’ His jaw clamped, as if he was holding back more.

      ‘Now what?’

      ‘There’s your back. And there’s no bra. And you’re too beautiful.’

      She squared her shoulders. ‘Do you want me to change?’

      ‘No.’

      She tilted her chin and decided to play with that one advantage she did have.

      ‘Don’t look at me like that, Emily.’

      ‘Like what?’ OK, so in her mind she was removing his clothes, piece by piece.

      ‘Emily…’ He sounded half-strangled.

      She ran her hands from his shoulders to his waist. ‘You look good too.’

      Good enough to eat. She stood on tiptoe so she could press her mouth to his. Only she didn’t, instead she took only his lower lip, sucking it into her mouth and then catching it between her teeth to give it a nip, then sucking again. Oh, yes, he was definitely good enough to eat.

      He stood frozen, so she did it again, stepping in closer to invade all his space.

      His hands smoothed over the curve of her bottom, and as her teeth nipped the second time his fingers curled into her softness and he pulled her right into his hips.

      She smiled as she felt his body harden. This was the tension she liked to see in him. She held his jaw in her hands, fingers fluttering over the freshly shaved skin, and kissed him some more, teased him some more, tortured him some more. And he, rock-hard, let her. Until he groaned and his hands pushed while his pelvis thrust. One hand went to her dress, lifting the hem.

      It was the sound of the door opening downstairs that stopped her. She listened to Micaela greeting the guests, then whispered, ‘We can’t. They’ve arrived.’

      ‘We can,’ he growled, breathing harsh, grinding his hips against hers. ‘They’ll wait.’

      ‘You are so arrogant. We can’t be rude. They’re here already.’

      ‘We can. We only need ten, twenty seconds, tops.’

      She laughed against his lips. ‘Not enough.’

      Groaning, he pushed her away. ‘Damn it, it’ll take me longer to calm down than it would have to follow through on that.’

      Giggling, she did a final fuss in the mirror for damage control.

      ‘It’s not funny.’ He turned his back on her and stalked to the door. She followed him down to the foyer, watching from a distance as he pressed a kiss on the woman’s cheek, shook the hand of the older man.

      ‘What’s that perfume you’re wearing, Luca? So lovely and floral.’ She was as stylish as to be expected. Slim, sophisticated and coyly sharp. ‘It really suits you.’

      Pascal’s sharp eyes flew from Luca’s slightly forced smile to Emily’s own on-fire face. Emily saw him swap a smile of amusement with the woman and was confused. Surely if Pascal wanted Luca and her to get together he wouldn’t be looking so pleasantly surprised about Emily’s presence? And as for the unsubtle question mark hanging over her involvement with him…

      But Luca was downplaying it. ‘Francine, Pascal, meet Emily. She’s a friend who’s just arrived from New Zealand.’

      Unfortunately, the way he was avoiding her eyes pretty much denied the ‘friend’ status, but Pascal and Francine both smiled and said hello. Emily managed to murmur a similar response.

      ‘How’s Madeline?’ Luca asked.

      ‘Beautiful as ever,’ Pascal replied. ‘She sends her love.’

      Luca nodded. ‘Come through. Micaela has been slaving all afternoon just for you.’

      He sent Emily a look then. She refused to bite at it, after all, if she were Micaela, she’d slave too. They went straight to the intimate table in the dining room and caught up on news as their appetiser was served. It seemed Francine was soon heading off to a business school just outside Paris.

      ‘You were at Oxford, weren’t you, Luca?’ Francine asked.

      ‘For my undergraduate degree, yes, but post-graduate was Harvard.’

      Of course. He was elite all over whereas Emily was…

      Francine turned to her. ‘Where did you study, Emily?’

      ‘I didn’t,’ she answered, battling the inferior feeling and failing. ‘I left school and went straight into work. Retail.’

      ‘Retail?’ СКАЧАТЬ