‘Seems an awfully long way to go for just a few days...’ She smiled weakly because Roberto and her grandmother were both staring at her as though she had taken leave of her senses. ‘Jet lag, you know...’
‘You’re young!’ Roberto barked, dismissing this half-hearted objection with a wave of his walking stick. ‘Leave the complaints about jet lag to old fogies like Edith and myself! We’re the ones who would suffer from jet lag after a long flight! Suffer from jet lag when I go to Edinburgh! Take yourself out there, my girl, and see a bit of the world! You...’ he looked at Laura from under his bushy brows ‘...need to get out of here for a little while before you start fossilising...remember that you’re still young! And you...’ he looked at Alessandro ‘...need a break from that computer of yours! Not to mention that I could do without having you under my feet all the time! Everywhere I look you’re there, nagging, nagging, nagging...’
* * *
Over the next twenty-four hours, Laura felt her panic level rise.
She no longer knew where she stood. Her grandmother had cornered her the second they were back at their house and had started making noises about engagements, marriage and babies. She had turned misty-eyed at the thought of a little great-granddaughter. Laura had been frankly appalled but had had to smile through the conversation while making sure to reveal as little as possible.
Yes, she could understand why Alessandro had said what he had said on the spur of the moment, but she still simmered with resentment because it was an added complication to a situation that had already been threatening to become complicated.
Involvement.
That was the dreaded word that hovered at the back of her mind like a nasty little thorn.
She had stupidly signed up for a bit of fun. She had conveniently overlooked the fact that she wasn’t a fun girl. She was a serious girl who wanted love, security and commitment. And while she had enjoyed every second of Alessandro’s raw physicality, she had also strayed into more dangerous territory, had allowed herself to become involved with him. She had done that because that was just who she was. Fighting her own nature would have been like trying to plug a leaking hole in a dam with sticky tape.
Which was why, now, waiting for him to collect her and take her to the airport, she just didn’t know what she had got herself into.
Her grandmother had been fussing since dawn and had made her a little packed breakfast to take with her in the car. Or on the plane. She had been repeatedly given strict instructions about sunblock, even though Laura couldn’t see how much damage could be done to her skin in the space of a couple of days. She had been warned several times about mosquitoes.
She heard the sharp ring of the doorbell and there was a flurry of goodbyes and then she was in the car with him. The snow had diminished overnight, but the fields were still thinly covered and the temperature was bitingly cold.
‘It’s not going to be a very enjoyable long weekend if you decide to give me the silent treatment,’ Alessandro drawled, casting a sideways look at her. He startled her by pulling over to the side of the isolated road and killing the engine.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Getting our relaxing break off to a good start.’
Laura’s eyes skittered over his potent, masculine body, idly leaning against the car door as he looked at her. She felt a rush of pure sexual craving and wondered why on earth she couldn’t just relax and enjoy the situation for what it was. After all, there wasn’t anything she could do to change it.
And it wasn’t as if they hadn’t already made love. They had. He knew her body as intimately as she knew his.
‘You’re overanalysing. You’re letting your mind run away with all sorts of erroneous detail because my father knows about us. So he knows. So he thinks that what we have is more than it actually is. That’s an unalterable fact, but,’ he said drily, ‘let me make this very simple for you. I want you. You want me. And we’re about to go abroad for three days of very hot sex.’
‘You’re very black and white.’
‘I’m a pragmatist.’ His lean face wore a wolfish expression. In one easy movement he leaned towards her and slowly raised her thick jumper, then the thermal long-sleeved vest underneath, until both were gathered above her breasts.
He was proving how simple sex was. She knew that and while her head was jammed with conflicting thoughts, she still couldn’t resist the warm pressure of his hands as he reached behind to unclasp the bra so that her breasts spilled out, her nipples tightening at the drop in temperature.
He looked at them, dark eyes hot and appreciative.
‘We...we should be going to the airport... We can’t... Not here...’
‘I’m not going to make love in this car,’ Alessandro said, his eyes flicking to her heated face. ‘Too small for a big man like me. No, I’m just going to do a little touching...’ He leaned over to lick her nipples and she sank lower in the car seat. To watch his dark head suckling at her breasts with the bleak open fields stretching on either side was unbelievably erotic. Wetness seeped through her underwear but in the confined space she couldn’t rub her legs together to relieve the ache there and he wasn’t going to put her out of her torment by going any further than her breasts.
It was sweet torture and she was as helpless as a kitten as he continued to suck and tease her nipples. The only sounds were the sounds of his mouth on her, and then he stopped and neatly pulled down her bra, her vest and the jumper, and sat back.
‘Enjoy what we have,’ he said, starting the car and slowly pulling away from the grass verge to continue their journey. ‘We are where we are. No need to get tense about it.’
Laura was busy doing up her bra, tidying herself and wondering how he could manage to prove a point with such consummate ease. How could she explain to him that she wasn’t as black and white as he was, when she had gaily launched herself into a no-strings-attached affair, cheerfully accepting that it was going nowhere? What right did she have to suddenly start pulling moral scruples out of the bag? How hypocritical was that?
They were going by private jet. For such a short holiday, she was told that it worked. She listened and contributed to the conversation. She knew that she was asking all sorts of interested questions about a private jet—when he used it, didn’t he think it was environmentally destructive?
‘You’ll have to get rid of all those thick clothes,’ he drawled, as they boarded the sleek, black jet that was waiting for them on a private airstrip she had never known existed. For a while, Laura forgot every qualm and doubt.
This was what it felt like to step into something that reeked of money. It was travel without the hassle of an airport and the discomfort of crowds of people. He was amused as he stood back and watched her poke and pry, scarcely hearing him when he told her that he had made sure that a selection of light clothes be brought to the plane. He guided her into a separate, private room with a relaxing sofa and indicated the neat stacks of clothes. He stood by the door, glanced at his watch, eventually told her to get a move on because they would be taking off shortly.
‘I brought my own clothes.’ Laura looked down at the bright collection in front of her. Tropical colours. Colours she would never have dreamed of wearing.
‘So now you have more than you need. Isn’t that every woman’s dream?’
‘I’ve told you already that I’m not like every woman so, no, that’s never been a dream of mine.’ She held up one strappy, frothy little number and twirled it in front of her with a frown.
‘Try it, Laura,’ Alessandro encouraged softly. ‘Dare to live a little... And I’ll meet you outside in five minutes. I need to make some urgent calls.’
Laura glared at his departing back. Dare to live a little? It felt as though she had been doing nothing but daring to live a little, for weeks and weeks and weeks. If she hadn’t been so daring to live a
little, she wouldn’t be here now, with her thoughts in a dizzy whirl and an orange-and-pink sundress in her hand!
She would be...safe.
And she didn’t want to be safe. She wasn’t sure whether she would ever want to be safe again.
Because there was no excitement in a safe world. No thrills, no lurching stomach, no heightened senses, no edge-of-cliff feelings.
No Alessandro.
She sat down heavily on the sofa, her breath coming and going in fast little pants. She stared, glassy-eyed, at the dress in her hand and tried to arrange her thoughts in a way that wouldn’t point her in a direction she didn’t want to follow, but she felt sick.
When had he become an integral part of her life? When had he stopped being someone she disapproved of and turned into someone who filled all the spaces in her head?
When had she fallen in love with him? How on earth could something as big as love happen so fast?
It was nothing like what she had felt for Colin. That had been a silly crush, born from her own insecurities and his persistent flattery.
Alessandro had seduced her with more than flattery. He had seduced her with his intelligence, his wit, his depth. She had lost her head and her heart to the way he looked at her, the way he smiled, the way he sometimes laughed. The way he had dealt with the upheaval in his life when his father had finally broken the ice and told him about his past. He hadn’t played to her insecurities and taken advantage of them. He had dispelled them and shown her what it was to feel beautiful and sexy.
Was that why she had slept with him? Had her heart driven her to do what came naturally, even though her head had not yet had time to play catch-up? She had fooled herself into thinking that she was filling a physical need and hadn’t looked deeper.
And this was why she felt so panicked and scared now. Because it was so much more than a fling, so much more than two people enjoying sex before it fizzled out.
She wasn’t comfortable, not at all, with the idea of deception, with thinking that her grandmother and Roberto were harbouring the illusion that this was some kind of serious relationship, and she was downright terrified at the murky waters into which she had waded.
‘Fallen asleep? Do you need your knight in shining armour to come and administer some mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?’
Laura heard that deep, sexy drawl and changed out of her winter clothes into the sundress faster than the speed of light. There was a pale, silky cardigan amongst the bundle of clothes and she stuck that on.
‘Shame.’ Alessandro had spent the past couple of hours with an extremely painful erection and seeing her in a dress that could have been personally made to outline her curvaceous little body didn’t help matters. ‘I was looking forward to the mouth-to-mouth revival scenario...’
Laura smiled weakly. Now that she had recognised her feelings for what they were, everything about him seemed to affect her all the more powerfully. Draped in the doorway, he was so staggeringly beautiful that she could barely speak. He had stripped down to a T-shirt and his low-slung jeans, and he oozed shameful sexuality. When her eyes drifted south, she went bright red at the glaring proof of how she affected him.
His jeans bulged where a rampant erection sent her senses into a giddy tailspin.
‘I know.’ Alessandro followed the direction of her gaze and read her reaction with no trouble at all. ‘But, sadly, we haven’t got time. Although...I could tell the crew to—’
‘No!’ Laura yelped, as he made a move towards her. She remembered the way he had suckled her breasts at the side of the road, not at all fazed at the thought that someone might drive past them and figure out what was going on.
He was in charge of this situation because he wasn’t emotionally involved.
She nipped past him and smoothed down the dress with shaky hands. ‘It’s not really my style at all.’
‘You’re a knockout in it, though...’ He grinned because she might be as hot as a naked flame between the sheets, but out of them she was as skittish as a colt and still blushed like a teenager. ‘And you’ll be glad for it when we get to the other end. Baking hot.’
They were in their seats and he solicitously strapped her in, shooting her a wicked little look as his arm brushed against her breast.
‘What do you think your crew thinks of this...of us...?’
‘Don’t know. Don’t care.’
‘Is there anything you really care about, Alessandro?’ The sharpness of her tone was muffled by the roar of engines as the jet began taxiing to take off.
‘There’s a certain deal hanging by a thread.’ His voice was amused but his night-dark eyes were cool. ‘That’s getting my attention at the moment. I certainly care about that.’
‘But there must be more to life than deals.’
‘Are you about to start delivering a lecture on my life choices?’ Alessandro asked smoothly, angling his big body to look at her. ‘I immerse myself in what I know. Work. Business. Money. And when it comes to emotions, because I take it that’s what you’re talking about, I control them.’ He raised both eyebrows and tilted his head to one side.
‘By control, you mean you never allow yourself to really feel anything for anyone...’
‘Since when have you had this interest in what I feel or don’t feel and why?’
Laura blushed.
Since she had finally admitted to herself just how deeply she had fallen for him.
She shrugged. ‘We all try to find out what makes other people tick. It’s human nature.’
‘Really? I have yet to want to find out how any woman ticks.’ Except that wasn’t quite true, was it? He closed his mind to a line of querulous introspection he had no use for.
Laura pasted a smile on her face. No big surprise there. He slept with women, just as he was sleeping with her, but that was the extent of his involvement. As he’d said, he exercised control over his emotions and the things in life that didn’t require emotion were the things that garnered his dispassionate interest. Those were the things he wanted to pick apart and examine in detail.
That hurt and she hated that it hurt. When she was with him, she could feel all one hundred per cent of his fabulous interest focused on her and it stung to recognise that he would be the same in the company of any woman he wanted to bed.
She had fallen in love with a guy who had no interest in a future with her or with any woman. She was deceiving her grandmother and an old man she cared deeply for. On both scores she was behaving in a way that was completely against her nature. And now she was on a posh private jet off for a few days of complete seclusion with someone who was happy enough to promote a charade because it made life simpler all round for him. From every angle, she was vulnerable and she would have to at the very least try to curtail the fallout, and step one would be to make sure he didn’t get wind of just how deeply he affected her.
She thought about his reaction if he were to discover that this was so much more than just a fling for her.
He would be appalled, horrified, aghast. Or maybe...amused, comfortable with the thought that he could call all the shots, knowing that she would oblige. He wouldn’t see it as taking advantage of her. He would simply accept that she had fallen for him so that made her an easier conquest. He would exercise the instincts of the born predator. She wondered how many women had fallen in love with him in his chequered past.
‘You’ve never been tempted to have something more than a superficial relationship with anyone?’
‘Whoever said that my relationships were superficial?’ Alessandro asked, not liking the way that somehow made him appear shallow. Which he wasn’t. Simply practical, careful and controlled. ‘I’m a red-blooded man. I enjoy women and when I’m with a woman I’m with her and no one else. Unlike, might I add, the creep you went out with. What sort of man would you prefer? A man who was u
pfront and honest or a man who was willing to say whatever he thought would get you between the sheets, even if he had no intention of fulfilling any of the promises he made? And I’m presuming the creep you dated was full of promises.’
Laura flushed because, yes, Colin had had the big gestures down pat along with the flowery words and the overblown promises. But, between the two, surely there was a happy medium, the place that most people occupied? Except that wouldn’t be a place Alessandro would ever have occupied or even been tempted to explore.
She yawned and half closed her eyes because their conversation was going nowhere.
She didn’t think she would be able to sleep at all, not when she was travelling in a private jet with a man she was in love with and a wasp’s nest of uncomfortable thoughts buzzing around in her head, but, in fact, she slept soundly and only awoke when Alessandro nudged her and she opened her eyes to find him looking at her with amusement.
‘It’s unusual to have women fall asleep in my company,’ he quipped, still smiling as the plane began its descent.
‘I suppose they’re too busy trying to impress you.’ She struggled into a sitting position and transferred her eager eyes to the bright blue skies outside. Holiday excitement unfurled inside her and she shut the door on all the doubts that had been eating her up for the past few hours.
‘They would have spent the better part of the trip trying to get me into the bed in the private room.’
‘Idiots,’ Laura said tersely. ‘Would they be hoping that you might be interested enough with their antics to prolong the relationship?’
Alessandro was still smiling that smile that made her go all shivery and adolescent inside. ‘Not a one-way street,’ he countered smoothly. ‘I’d like to think they’d get as much pleasure as they might be desperate to give. Angling for a committed relationship wouldn’t have entered the equation.’
Laura didn’t say anything. What was there to say? She directed her attention to the stunning vista now sprawling into view and gasped. She’d had no idea what to expect at the other end of the flight she had largely slept through. Her life had hardly been littered with holidays abroad. Growing up, she and her grandmother had been to France a couple of times and she had been to Spain with girlfriends a few years previously. While she had been working in London her holidays had consisted of returning to Scotland. She certainly had no experience of anywhere outside Europe and her stunned amazement at island life continued to keep her entranced as she followed in Alessandro’s imperious wake until finally, with the sun beginning to set, they were heading off to his villa.
A Pawn in the Playboy's Game Page 15