by Maggie Cox
‘You were saying, Luca?’ He smiled.
Briefly catching Katherine’s eye in silent rebuke, as if it were all her fault that the other man was so frankly appraising her, Luca seamlessly resumed from where he had left off. But he had to seriously tamp down an almost irresistible urge to wish the meeting at an end so he could whisk her back to the office, where he could at least be alone with her again.
Knowing he was feeling both predatory and possessive, he should have despised himself for a weakness that could only bring him more of the bitter pain he had been living with for too long—but his ego urged Luca not to let Katherine run out on him a second time before exacting some kind of payment in kind from her for her unexpected desertion that morning….
An hour later, the meeting at an end and Luca’s friend’s concerns and questions about the proposed new hotel satisfactorily appeased, the wealthy Arab took the younger man aside in the elegant lobby of the hotel. ‘Luca…I have to ask. Your secretary…she is a single woman?’ He glanced over at Katherine, standing patiently near the exit, waiting for Luca to finish his business and join her. ‘I observed no wedding ring on her finger.’
For a stricken moment the most unwelcome thought of all shook Luca out of any semblance of equilibrium left to him. He had considered it before, of course, and now he was forced to consider it again. What if Katherine was married, and that was why she had left him without explanation in Milan, leaving no way for him to contact her? Had she regretted her adultery with him and, overwhelmed with guilt, fled before he could discover any personal details with which to incriminate her? He sensed himself frown deeply, felt his stomach tied in knots.
‘No,’ he said clearly, hoping fervently it was the truth. ‘She is not married.’
‘Then is there a man in her life? Someone serious, I mean?’
Feeling the twisting knots in his insides lock tighter, Luca kept his expression as impassive as he was able. ‘I am not aware that Katherine is seeing anyone else, my friend, but I can tell you that she and I do have some unfinished business shall we say? Does that answer your question?’
The Arab’s large coal-black eyes widened in surprise. Beneath his elegant designer suit he shrugged his massive shoulders and grinned. ‘I can see you are indeed the dark horse, my friend! But then your interest in her does not surprise me! Who could blame you for taking advantage of the chance to be with such innocent loveliness?’
In unison, both men moved their gaze to where Katherine still stood. Her slender yet shapely figure in her navy blue polka-dot dress, her beautiful eyes and dark gleaming hair were drawing other admiring glances besides their own, Luca observed with another helpless flash of jealousy.
‘I would give much to experience just one night with such a woman!’ Hassan slapped Luca heartily on the back. ‘No offence intended, my friend,’ he added quickly, seeing that the Italian’s mouth had firmed in what was clearly disapproval. ‘You are a lucky, lucky man!’
That was a matter of opinion, Luca thought in bittersweet reflection, glancing across at Katherine.
‘That aside,’ Hassan continued cheerfully, ‘I look forward to seeing you tonight at the little party you have most kindly arranged at your house for me and my business associates from Riyadh. They are most keen to talk to you about the incredible work you do, and if I am not mistaken, and things go well, you will no doubt have another valuable commission by the end of the evening!’
Unable to ignore the pangs of hunger that gripped her for another minute, and having forgotten to pack the dry biscuits she’d grown accustomed to carrying with her of late, Kate knocked lightly on the opened door between her office and Luca’s to get his attention.
‘What is it?’
His less than friendly response might have been intimidating if Kate wasn’t already getting used to it. Stepping inside the larger room, she saw that he was poring over some architectural drawings on the huge desk in front of him. The knot of his dark silk tie had been pulled a good three inches away from his pristine white shirt collar, and the tousled appearance of his thick dark hair also suggested that the work he faced was perhaps momentarily getting the better of him. The man worked like a Trojan, Kate observed. It was half past two in the afternoon and she’d seen no indication of him being even close to stopping for lunch or even a cup of coffee.
She frowned. ‘I wonder if I could pop out to get myself a sandwich? I didn’t eat breakfast this morning, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather hungry. Perhaps I could get you something too?’
He stared at her…really stared. As the silence in the room became almost deafening, Kate’s feet seemed rooted to the floor by his disconcerting examination.
‘Did you hear what I said?’ she asked, her throat tightening with tension.
‘My friend Hassan asked me if you were married,’ Luca drawled, his blue eyes once again travelling slowly and deliberately up and down her body.
Kate’s hunger pangs were instantly demolished. Instead, hunger of a very different kind clawed at her. His lascivious glance made her feel as if he was physically touching her, and it made her shiver with want. But then the full import of his question finally found its way to central control in her brain, and a sense of deep shock rippled through her.
‘Are you married, Katherine?’ Luca asked.
‘No! I’m not! And why should that be any concern of your client’s?’
‘You must have seen how he looked at you?’
‘I was busy taking the notes of the meeting!’
‘Anyway…it is not my friend’s interest in the answer that I am concerned with. It is my own. So, if you are not married, what about a boyfriend?’
‘I have none! Is that what you thought? That I was two-timing someone when I was with you?’
‘It did occur to me, not long after I woke up and found you gone, that perhaps too much champagne the night before at the party had made you—possibly a married woman—a little reckless, shall we say? That maybe you were just looking for a good time and when opportunity knocked…you took it. In the morning, discovering what you had done, you were perhaps overcome by guilt and regret and decided to flee before you incriminated yourself further…’
‘Well, you’re wrong! It was nothing like that at all!’
Feeling distressed at the idea that Luca had even considered that she had run out on him because she was married or involved with someone else, Kate crossed her bare arms over the silk bodice of her dress and despairingly tried to straighten her thoughts. How could he think such a thing? she asked herself. Had she imagined the bond they had shared? A bond that she’d firmly believed had transcended the merely physical?
‘Then how was it, Katherine? And this time perhaps you will do me the courtesy of telling me the truth of why you ran out on me that morning?’
The truth. How simple that sounded…And yet the reality was that it wasn’t simple at all. It was a terrible, never to be repeated, embarrassing…mess.
CHAPTER THREE
UP UNTIL just over six months earlier, Kate had been engaged to be married to Hayden Michaels, a successful, handsome broker she’d met at a temp job she’d been doing in the City. A ‘wunderkind’ of the company, he was a young man with great ambition who worked hard to get what he wanted but played hard too.
Kate hadn’t been bowled over by him at the start. On the contrary, her cautious nature had warned her against getting involved with a man who seemed to treat life as one big party and one huge opportunity to plunder the honey-pot for all it was worth. She’d been taught firm, solid values by her mother, who had raised her single-handedly, and Kate’s own secret, small ambition was that one day she would meet the man of her dreams, fall in love and have the family that she longed for. As an only child she had yearned for brothers and sisters, and had often felt lonely growing up. Being bullied at school hadn’t helped her sense of alienation. She’d always been only too aware of the struggle her mother had had to make ends meet, and so instead of go
ing on to university when she’d got her A level results, she had opted to go to secretarial college for a year, get some qualifications, then go out to work to help alleviate some of her mother’s financial burdens.
Over the years she’d dated on and off, but had never found the partner she’d secretly been hoping for. When she’d met the handsome and fun-loving Hayden Michaels something about him had appealed to Kate, but she’d known instinctively he wasn’t the type of man who would want to settle down with a wife and family. Not whilst ambition was his driving force. She had decided to resist his appeal. Yet day after day, week after week, as Kate had worked alongside him in the office, his bold smile, perpetual good humour and unflagging determination to get her to go out with him had finally persuaded her to give him a chance. Her mother had passed away suddenly from a heart attack just two months before she’d met him, and Kate had been lonely. Even if mother and daughter had not shared the closest of relationships…As time had gone by she’d begun to see another side to her new boyfriend…a side that had warmed her heart much more than the expensive gifts, designer clothes and meals at Michelin-starred restaurants he’d insisted on treating her to. It had been a sensitive, perhaps vulnerable side, that had hinted at his fear of failure, of being judged not good enough by his peers and friends, of not being able to sustain any success he had achieved. Perhaps Kate’s ever-alert antennae had picked up on the very things that she herself had struggled with since those days at school when she had been taunted for being the poor girl in the class. The one whose mother hadn’t been able to afford to take her on foreign holidays or buy her trendy clothes and expensive dance classes like the other girls’ parents had.
Truth to tell, it hadn’t been the lack of all those things that had left Kate so vulnerable. No. It had been the lack of demonstrable affection from her only parent that had got to her the most. Worn out with working too hard and worrying how to make ends meet, Liz Richardson had grown a hard shell around her heart that had kept her daughter from getting anywhere near her emotionally. But coupled with a legacy of childhood bullying and the sense of low self-esteem that she had perhaps naturally inherited from such an upbringing, Kate had found her own heart becoming guarded and wary. Even when men had told her they found her attractive, there had always been a part of her that never quite believed them, secretly waiting to hear the truth. That she was none of those desirable things they said she was, that she was still the poor girl with the scruffy hair who was at the posh grammar school on sufferance—not because she was actually bright and deserved to be there.
When, one glorious Sunday morning during a walk in Hyde Park, Hayden had surprised Kate with an engagement ring she had honestly been stunned. He loved her, he had said, and had hardly been able to think about anything else other than getting her to marry him. She’d promised him she’d think about it—saying that it was perhaps too soon to agree to such a commitment when they had only known each other a few short months at the most. But Hayden had worn her down with his persistence and, finally convincing herself that he must indeed love her—even though her own feelings had still been less than clear—Kate had foolishly agreed to the engagement. In her own defence she’d still been in the early stages of bereavement, and she saw now that she had probably unconsciously been craving the love and attention she’d so long been denied. Maybe that was why Hayden’s proposal and declaration of love had been so appealing?
The night they’d got engaged Kate had surrendered her virginity to her husband-to-be, and had even started to feel excited at the prospect of getting married and setting up a home together. But just one week later all her dreams of a happy future—of a devoted husband and longed-for children—had come crashing down around her ears with an ear-splitting crack.
The day it had happened Hayden had told Kate that he was flying out to Amsterdam on business, and that when he returned in the evening he would pick her up and take her to dinner at one of his favourite West End restaurants. But during the morning at work Kate had developed painful period cramps that had become progressively worse as time went on. By lunchtime she had felt quite ill with the pain, and her boss had told her to take the afternoon off and go home and rest. Hayden had had a house in an exclusive mews in Chelsea, and it was much closer to work than Kate’s flat in north London. He had given her his spare key to hold on to, in case he ever got locked out, or if she got off work earlier than he did and needed to meet him there. As soon as she let herself into the low-ceilinged, stylish hallway, Kate’s senses had immediately alerted her to the fact that the house was occupied.
Her heart pounding, in case the occupant turned out to be a burglar—Hayden hadn’t rung her to say his meeting was cancelled—Kate had just been nervously and perhaps rashly negotiating the stairs that led to the bedrooms when she’d heard the unmistakable sound of female laughter. Holding tightly on to the stair-rail, her mouth as dry as wood-shavings, she had made herself go up to the main bedroom door and open it wide. There she had found her fiancé and a voluptuous redhead at least ten years older than herself in bed together.
Kate remembered standing there dazedly telling herself that what she saw could only be some bizarre figment of her imagination because she wasn’t feeling well. As hard, cold reality had kicked in, like ice water being poured down her neck, she remembered she’d started to tremble from head to foot—partly in shock and partly in fury. But a worse shock was to follow, when Hayden had given her a disparaging glance, wiped his hand across his mouth and then laughed. It was the coldest, most haunting laughter Kate had ever heard.
‘You stupid little bitch!’ he’d declared. ‘What the hell made you turn up here in the middle of the day?’
That was when Kate had discovered the man she had planned to marry was not the happy-go-lucky work-driven individual with a secret sensitive side that she’d believed him to be. That was when she had discovered Hayden Michaels was a liar and a cheat, with a lover he’d had for over two years who he had no intention of giving up. In fact he’d been furious that Kate had gone and ruined it all by turning up when she had.
Her throat locking in anguish, and too upset to say anything, Kate had flung his key onto the bed and left the house as fast as her legs would carry her…
The whole thing had been an embarrassing mess. She’d made an absolute fool of herself, falling for Hayden’s lies, and for a long time afterwards she’d felt nothing but numb. When the opportunity had come a few months later to fly out to Italy and take a break with a colleague she had once worked with who had moved out there Kate had grabbed the chance with both hands.
That night at the party she hadn’t wanted to go to—when she’d set eyes on Luca for the first time—she had been utterly stunned by the depth of longing she had experienced for a complete stranger. Overwhelmed by him—and by the longing he’d seemed equally to experience for her—and still smarting from her bitter experience with her ex, Kate had allowed herself to succumb to the Italian’s expert and wonderful seduction. But in the morning she’d got cold feet and, telling herself she’d probably just made another colossal mistake with a man, she’d fled before even giving herself time to talk to Luca or think things through…
‘I was—I was getting over a break-up with someone before I came out to Italy,’ she said to Luca now.
The highly efficient air-conditioning in the room added to the chills already rippling through her body at having to recall the painful memories of that time.
‘So you slept with me on the rebound? Is that what you are saying?’ The bitter thread in Luca’s huskily rich voice was easy to detect.
‘No! That’s not what I’m saying at all! I didn’t sleep with you on the rebound!’
‘Then I was some kind of consolation prize, perhaps? Because your boyfriend had rejected you?’
‘Please just listen to me, will you?’ Unfolding her arms, Kate moved nearer to the huge desk separating her from the glowering handsome man behind it. ‘He didn’t reject me…at least not in the wa
y that you think. We’d just got engaged to be married when I found him in bed with another woman…his lover, as it turned out.’
Some of the tension in Luca’s face seemed to depart, yet his arresting blue eyes were still full of suspicion, Kate noticed.
‘Was he a wealthy man, this ex-fiancé of yours?’ he asked.
‘He was a successful broker in the City.’
‘Many wealthy men have lovers. It is perhaps not as shocking as you think, Katherine.’
What was he telling her? That he too had a lover? Suddenly she could barely withstand the wave of misery that the possibility produced. Desperately trying to field her hurt and thinking that perhaps she really should get some therapy to help her stop making such poor choices in men, she let a heavy sigh escape her. Could events get any worse?
‘Well, I think it’s pretty shocking!’ she declared with heat. ‘If you can’t trust the person you’re intending to spend the rest of your life with, then who can you trust? He lied to me. Made me think he was a very different kind of man from the one he really turned out to be! I could not knowingly or willingly be in a relationship with a man who needed another woman on the side! The idea is abhorrent to me—and would be to most normal women, I’m sure!’
‘That is your prerogative. But why did you leave my bed the next morning without telling me you planned to leave? That I still do not comprehend.’
‘I was scared.’ Kate shrugged, and inside her chest her heartbeat picked up speed a little too rapidly, making her dizzy. She was nauseous too, and a sudden urgent need to locate the nearest bathroom became absolutely imperative.