One Night In…
Sometimes he wondered if the nuns in the orphanage still prayed for his immortal soul. Maybe, finally, their prayers were being heard. Maybe there was a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be consigned to eternal damnation after all.
He gave a short bitter laugh.
Or maybe he just wanted to make her wait. Who knew how long it might take to get the sale of the château completed? It wouldn’t do to rush things. The longer he kept her on a slow-burn, the better.
And the more satisfying.
In Anna’s dream she was a child again, sitting on her mother’s knee and being rocked.
She looked up into her mother’s eyes, those blue-green eyes she remembered so well, and then a really odd thing happened. They were her mother’s eyes, but they were also Angelo Emiliani’s eyes, and something about that bothered her. She felt safe, protected, loved, but unaccountably uneasy.
When she woke up the rocking continued. For a moment she lay there, as fragments of the events of yesterday and last night came back to her. She sat up with a start.
The boat was moving.
Throwing herself out of bed, she stood up and looked wildly around her. The view through the window showed nothing but sea and sky. She made a sharp exhalation of fury and had reached the door of the cabin before she stopped.
She was still stark naked.
She was in the middle of the ocean and the only items of clothing she had with her were a bikini and a pair of hotpants. Oh, and a sequinned evening scarf—which would no doubt make all the difference should formal dress be required. Collapsing back on to the bed, she pulled the covers up over her head and let out a howl of rage and frustration.
‘Ah, so you’re awake.’
In the darkness beneath the covers she felt her eyes widen in horror and for a second she froze, hoping she’d imagined that dry, mocking voice. But then the covers were drawn back and she found herself staring up into those wicked eyes.
In the clear light of morning his beauty came as a fresh shock. Naked to the waist and wearing only a pair of long shorts, his blond hair was tousled and untidy. He looked more like a carefree golden surfer-boy than a billionaire businessman.
Which was horribly unfair.
Snatching the covers up to cover her breasts, she sat up and glared at him. ‘What the hell is going on?’
That cool, unruffled smile. ‘I brought you coffee.’
‘I don’t want coffee!’
‘I believe the polite response is “thank you very much”. I can assure you, you’re very privileged. I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but I looked in on you earlier and you were rather … exposed. My crew can cope with most things, but a naked eco-warrior might just prove too much, even for them.’
It almost had for him. Lying on top of the cream sheets with her pink hair tumbling over her face and the diamond stud in her navel rising and falling with every sleepy breath, she had looked wild but unbelievably sweet. Like a panther cub. He had to keep reminding himself that if he wasn’t careful she could do real damage.
Anna took a deep steadying breath and pulled the sheet more tightly around her. Making a huge effort to keep her voice level, she looked up at him.
‘Look, Angelo … Last night was …’ Oh, God, don’t blush. Don’t behave like a pathetic, inexperienced kid. Don’t give it away. ‘A huge mistake. I shouldn’t have come here.’
‘So why did you?’
He had set the coffee down on the bedside table and was looking at the newspaper he’d had tucked beneath his arm. He looked totally absorbed, as if what she was saying was a minor distraction.
‘I didn’t have much choice,’ she hissed, thoroughly nettled by his obvious unconcern.
He looked up at her with a slight puzzled inclination of his eyebrows. It was almost as though he’d forgotten she was there for a second. ‘Sorry? That wasn’t how I remember it. I think I asked you if you wanted to go back to your “friends” on the beach—’ he looked back down at the newspaper with a faint smile ‘—and you said no.’
‘I didn’t know then that a cruise around the Med was on the itinerary.’
‘I see. A quick screw. That’s all you had in mind, was it?’ He glanced back up at her. ‘I’m hurt.’
He didn’t look hurt. He look supremely unconcerned, hugely pleased with himself. And immensely bloody gorgeous.
Anna gritted her teeth. ‘We didn’t have sex.’
‘No. But you wanted to.’
Oh, God, the bastard.
Tugging the sheet, she wound it around herself and got up. Sitting in bed she felt at far too much of a disadvantage to be having this conversation. Standing up, she raked a hand through her hair and made a huge effort to keep the hysteria out of her voice.
‘Look, I didn’t have anything in mind. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I don’t know—maybe I drank more than I thought. I was upset and—’
‘Upset about what?’
She shook her head. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said hastily. ‘What matters now is that I have to get back. I have stuff that I need to do.’
Rubbing a hand through his already dishevelled hair, he strode towards the door. Anna squeezed her eyes shut as he passed within a few feet of her, unable to trust herself not to reach out and touch the body that had haunted her dreams all night. At the door he paused and looked at her with great seriousness.
‘How good are you at swimming?’
‘Very good.’
He nodded gravely. ‘It’s probably about ten kilometres back to shore. Just as well you brought your bikini.’
Anna gave a howl of rage, picked up a book and hurled it in the direction of his head. It missed and she reached for another, but he was too quick for her. The next thing she knew, he was beside her and had caught her wrist in a steely grip.
‘Enough.’
She let herself relax completely for a moment, until she felt his fingers slacken slightly, then seized her chance and gave an almighty lunge to break free.
‘Not enough. Not nearly enough.’
Her only thought was to put as much distance between them as possible, but the bed was in the way. Clasping the sheet to her, she leapt on to it and stood, legs apart, chest heaving, looking down at him.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, now you come to mention it …’
In one swift movement he had reached out and swept her legs from beneath her so that she tumbled down on to the soft cushion of pillows. High on adrenalin, she struggled upright, but he was already on top of her, pinning her arms above her head with one strong hand as easily as if she had been a child. Above her, only inches away from her face, his chest curved. If she lifted her head she could probably brush his nipple with her lips. Her breath was coming in huge, shaky gasps, but the rise and fall of his chest was as steady as ever.
Frantically she thrashed beneath him, desperately trying to ignore the treacherous, tell-tale stickiness at the top of her thighs, praying he wouldn’t notice that she was virtually at the point of orgasm.
Their eyes met and locked. Neither of them spoke and the only sound was the ragged gasp of Anna’s breathing.
His eyes glittered down into hers, narrow and knowing. Slowly, lazily he reached out with his free hand and trailed a leisurely finger along her collar-bone. She was no longer holding the sheet—all it would take would be one flick of his wrist and she’d be naked and exposed to his glittering gaze.
‘If you were hoping to persuade me to take you back to shore, this is hardly the best way to go about it.’
Her eyes flashed fire and fury at him.
‘Why? Would you prefer it if I begged?’ she spat.
He laughed huskily and released her wrists. ‘Amore mio, that would be equally alluring, and therefore equally counter-productive.’
She rolled out from beneath him, not trusting herself to spend one more second in such close proximity with his long golden body. ‘I’m not hoping to persuade you of anything. I’m demanding that you take me back. Today.’
‘Or else?’
‘Or else I’ll call the police.’
‘You have your mobile?’
‘You know I haven’t’
She had nothing, and he knew it. Not a change of clothes, not a toothbrush, and certainly not a mobile. Furiously she swung her legs out of the bed and stood up, yanking the sheet from under him and wrapping it around herself again.
He sighed and stood up.
‘So I guess you’ll be wanting me to lend you my satellite phone, which is a bit much considering you intend to use it to have me arrested for … well, what? Kidnapping you? Forcing myself upon you against your will?’
She blushed. ‘No.’
If only.
Unhurriedly he ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up in spiky golden tufts that only served to accentuate his perfect bone structure. Turning towards the door, he said, ‘In that case, may I just suggest you come along for the ride? You never know, you might learn something.’
She tossed her head and threw him a disdainful look. ‘What could I possibly learn from you?’
He paused and half turned back, studying her silently for a moment with his head tilted to one side.
‘We’re heading for a property I finished work on last year. It’s been bought by a certain celebrity with a bit of an environmental conscience and developed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. I’d like to show it to you. Maybe you’ll learn not to believe everything that’s been written about me. Maybe you’ll find I’m not the devil incarnate after all.’
‘I doubt it,’ she spat. But he had already gone and she was speaking to a closed door.
CHAPTER SIX
TWO hours later Anna had to admit that, whatever Angelo Emiliani was, life aboard his yacht wasn’t at all bad. She had idled away some time in the spa pool, until the steward, Paulo, had brought her a delicious brunch of fresh fruit and warm, sweet brioche and coffee, and now she was lounging on the soft white cushions feeling heavy and replete.
There was something very liberating about being out in the middle of the ocean. Something therapeutic about literally sailing away from your problems. Last night, and Saskia’s malice, seemed light years ago. Here there was no need to apologise for who she was.
Who she wasn’t.
She had spent her early life feeling torn between England and France—Ifford Park and Château Belle-Eden—but, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back against the cushioned lounger, she realised she’d missed the obvious solution. Somewhere in between.
‘Anna.’
Her eyes opened slowly and she stretched luxuriously. ‘Hmm?’
‘I don’t know what you do for a real job, but you certainly could sleep on a professional basis. It’s time to wake up. We’re here.’
Anna stumbled to her feet quickly. Too quickly. There was a roaring in her ears and she almost lost her balance.
Angelo’s hand shot out to steady her and when the fog cleared from behind her eyes she found herself staring at the bronzed plane of his chest. She shook him off and took a step backwards.
‘I don’t usually sleep like that. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it’s the sea air.’
He was looking at her with unconcealed amusement. ‘It certainly can’t be the exercise—although not for want of trying.’
Why could he make her blush so easily?
His gaze swept down over her, taking in the skimpy bikini top and minute denim hotpants. ‘Before we go ashore, would you like to get changed into something a little more … discreet?’
‘Oh, yes. Silly me. I’ll just go and choose something from the selection of cruisewear I packed in preparation for this trip, shall I?’
‘I’m sure I can find something that would fit.’
‘Why, Angelo, how fascinating. Do you have a large selection of ladies’ clothes in your wardrobe?’
‘No, but I have a number of visitors to the yacht who’ve left things.’
‘Oh, puh-leese. If you think I’m going to wear something belonging to one of your harem of mistresses, you can think again.’
‘I don’t know why you find the thought so unpleasant, tesoro. I recall that last night you were pretty keen to join them. Anyway, if you’re going to be stubborn …’
She looked at him for a moment, speechless with humiliation and loathing.
‘Let’s just go, shall we?’
Arriving at the private landing stage of Villa Santa Domitilla, Angelo held out his hand to help Anna from the tender. She ignored it.
‘Where are we?’
Angelo was already halfway along the boarded walkway and spoke over his shoulder. ‘Let’s just say it’s one of Italy’s undiscovered islands. The celebrity who’s bought this property would be extremely unhappy about having its location given away. Especially to known troublemakers.’
‘I thought you said it was very environmentally friendly?’
He nodded.
‘Well, in that case, they have nothing to fear from us. It’s only projects that put personal profit before responsibility to the planet that we campaign against.’
Why do I bother? He’s not even listening, she thought furiously as she trailed after him up a set of steep steps cut into the rock. Despite the fact that it was scorching hot, Anna was annoyed to see how cool Angelo looked in a pair of long cotton surf shorts and a white linen shirt.
Why hadn’t she taken up his offer of borrowing something to wear? Despite her olive skin, she could already feel the sun burning on to her shoulders and she felt uncomfortably exposed in the tiny bikini top and hotpants.
Exposed and—when she saw the magnificent honey-coloured house in front of them—entirely underdressed.
‘It used to be an old convent,’ Angelo explained, keying a number into the security pad beside the huge wrought iron gates. ‘The thickness of the stone walls made it ideal from an energy-saving point of view.’ The gates swung open and he sauntered through, while she hung back.
‘What’s the matter? I thought you’d be desperate to see all your principles in practice.’
Folding her arms, Anna looked up at the building. ‘I’m not going in.’
‘I see. Why not?’
‘I don’t need the whole marketing and PR package, Angelo. I’m sure you’re very good at talking the talk. It won’t change anything.’
He’d stopped and now began to stroll slowly back towards her. His long limbs moved like liquid. Pure animal grace.
She swallowed.
He shrugged. ‘So, just enjoy the trip. Soon enough it’ll get out who’s bought this place and you’ll be able to tell all your friends that you’ve been here.’ He carried on walking up the narrow path to the front of the villa.
She stamped her foot and followed him up the path. ‘I wouldn’t stoop to celebrity name-dropping,’ she said scornfully. ‘I couldn’t care less who this house belongs to, it doesn’t alter the fact that what you’re planning to do at Château Belle-Eden is wrong!’
Smiling to himself, Angelo resisted the temptation to turn round and look at her.
Perhaps it wasn’t fair to tease her, but he couldn’t help it. She was so quick to rise to the bait and so funny when she was angry. And she was such a bloody cliché, with her tired old environmental platitudes.
He frowned.
A cliché, but a mystery too. He still wasn’t entirely sure who she was. His PA in London was right now trying to find information on Anna Field, but when he’d spoken to her just before setting out had come up with nothing. It was possible that she was a runaway, of no fixed address, which would explain why she had fallen in with those appalling campaigners. They probably had some sort of group squat.
The thought horrified him.
Reaching the front door of the villa, he stopped and waited for her. She was a little way behind him and he watched her trail slowly up the path, between the artfully planted ‘wildflower’ borders which his celebrity client had commissioned at a cost of thousands from Italy’s top garden designer. The shadows played across her glistening amber-coloured skin, the sunlight glinting off the diamond in her navel. A bumblebee, heavy and clumsy with pollen, blundered through the flowers and came to land on her arm. She stopped, her tongue darting out between moist pink lips as, with an expression of rapt concentration, she carefully scooped it into her hand and placed it on a leaf. It was the first time he’d seen her give in to the softness he sensed beneath that rebellious veneer, and he felt an unexpected twist in his gut.
Anna looked up at the building in front of her. It was solid and square, a cloistered walkway running the length of the ground floor and providing a sheltered position for olive and citrus trees in huge terracotta pots. The golden stone was mellow with age, and the overall impression was of timeless peace and spirituality.
The front door was open, Angelo having gone in ahead of her. She walked into the centre of the hallway and turned slowly around, taking in the acres of polished wooden floor and the galleried landing above, from which were suspended vast modern canvases depicting images that reminded Anna of photographs in her biology textbook at school.
‘It’s …’ She hesitated, gazing up at the massive twisted metal chandelier that hung above them, which on closer inspection seemed to be constructed from used car parts. The contrast of the stark interior with the gracious exterior of the building was like a slap in the face.
‘It’s utterly hideous.’
She’d intended to hurt him, she realized, but she was completely unsuccessful. He smiled and, with his hands in his pockets, walked casually across the hallway. ‘I’m inclined to agree. However, that’s not the point.’
‘Not the point? How can you say that? This was a convent—an ancient place of worship and contemplation and devoutness—and you’ve made it look like some soulless New York loft apartment. It’s totally disgusting!’
He’d reached one of the doorways that opened off the hall and paused, leaning nonchalantly against it. ‘There you go again.’
‘What?’
‘Making assumptions.’ His voice was very quiet. ‘Firstly, I didn’t make it look like anything. My brief stopped with the building itself. The interior was entirely the work of the client and her team of lifestyle gurus, interior designers, feng shui experts and spiritual analysts. Secondly, you’re assuming I don’t agree with you. And, thirdly, don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that convents are all places of devoutness.’
There was a savagery in his tone that made her look at him sharply. But his face gave nothing away. ‘I thought you’d be thrilled that the floor is reclaimed hardwood, that all the artwork was commissioned from a local women’s co-operative and shows magnified images of the plant-life on the estate, and the chandelier was made out of recycled industrial parts.’ He smiled sardonically. ‘Come up and I’ll show you the rest.’
He was almost at the top of the stairs now and she had to choose between following him or remaining alone in the hallway. Mutinously she stared up at him, her arms crossed.
‘No, thanks. I think I’ve seen enough.’
‘Suit yourself. But, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a couple of things to attend to. I may be a while, so make yourself comfortable.’
‘I think that’s pretty unlikely in this—’ she said contemptuously, but was interrupted by the ringing of his mobile phone.
He answered impassively, striding away from her along the corridor, out of earshot. Left alone, Anna shivered, hugging her arms around her all too exposed flesh.
She was just about to leave the house and wait for him outside when, with a flash of defiant insight, she realised that by doing so she would be playing right into his hands. The call was obviously one he didn’t want her to overhear, and was maybe information about the château or something to do with Grafton-Tarrant.
She was wasting a golden opportunity with her immaturity and her pathetic inability to rise above his physical attributes. It was stupid and embarrassing. He was beautiful, but he was also the person who was about to rob her of the only place that tied her to a happier past.
Swiftly she made for the stairs and took them two at a time. Up on the galleried landing she paused, listening intently, but there was no sound. The silence played on her senses, making her both nervous and full of anticipation as she strained to hear the deep rumble of his voice.
All she could hear was her own heartbeat.
Fast.
Excited.
Rows of closed doors stretched away from her. Tentatively approaching one, she pressed her ear to the wood—reclaimed, no doubt—not that she could have cared less—and listened.
Nothing.
She slid along to the next door and listened again.
Silence.
In frustration she opened the door and looked inside. It was a bedroom, dominated by the biggest bed she’d ever seen. Sulkily she wandered in, her bare feet practically disappearing into the thick white carpet. It was decorated in the same aggressively modernist style, the huge canvases on the walls depicting unintelligible blobs and shapes which looked vaguely erotic. Anna stopped in front of one that seemed to show the curve of a woman’s breast against the sweep of a male buttock.
Or was she imagining that?
She tried to imagine it hanging in the château, and felt a shiver of distaste ripple down her spine.
Of course it was distaste.
She tore her gaze away abruptly and pushed open the door into an en suite bathroom. Or shower room, she mentally amended, looking round the spartan cell derisively. There was nothing so luxurious and water-wasteful as a bath tub in there. In fact, maybe it wasn’t finished, she thought, taking a step forward. The room was lined in tiny glowing green glass tiles like the scales on a mermaid’s tail, but apart from that it was empty.
Suddenly jets of water exploded on to her bare skin from all sides, soaking her. She screamed and tried to dart out of the way, but the whole room was filled with tiny water outlets and she had moved directly into the firing line for freezing cold jets.
She screamed again. Louder.
Just as suddenly and unexpectedly as it had begun, the water stopped. Dripping, shivering, incoherent with shock and fury, she pushed back her streaming hair from her face and looked up to find Angelo lounging in the doorway.
Laughing.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘I SEE you discovered the wet room.’
Anna tried to frame a coherent sentence but found herself able to do nothing more than mouth impotently. The only words that came to mind were too offensive for her to even utter.
‘Pretty impressive, no? Designed to use as little water as possible. All the shower jets incorporate tiny vacuum pumps to aerate the water as it comes out and so increase the pressure.’ He’d been lounging against the door-frame, but now he levered himself upright. ‘That way, you get a very powerful shower while using a minimum amount of water, and the whole thing is operated by sensors.’
‘Thank you,’ she spat. ‘I think I’d just about worked that bit out for myself.’
The second part of the sentence came out as a dry croak as she watched him unbuttoning his shirt. She took a step backwards, unable to take her eyes off the rippling golden chest that was gradually being revealed.
‘What are you doing?’
He looked up and grinned as he slipped his shirt off. For a fleeting moment she thought she might pass out.
He held out the shirt to her.
‘Here. Put this on.’
‘No, thanks. I’m fine.’
She made to walk past him, but as she did so he caught hold of the tie at the back of her sodden bikini. And pulled.
She breathed in sharply, making a small shivering sound.
In an instant he was behind her and, with swift, capable hands, had drawn the tiny triangles of fabric over her head, in the same seamless movement wrapping his shirt around her. She was aware of nothing but the warm scent of him, imprinted into the whisper-soft linen, the firm pressure of his hands.