by Abby Green
And then the pain took over. There was a sense of time being suspended, loud voices. And then it all went black.
* * *
‘Serena?’
The voice penetrated the thick warm blanket of darkness that surrounded her. And there was something about the voice that irritated her. She tried to burrow away from it.
‘Serena.’
‘What?’ She struggled to open her eyes and winced at the light. Her surroundings registered slowly. A rudimentary hut of some kind. She was lying down on something deliciously soft. And one other thing registered: mercifully...the awful, excruciating pain was gone.
‘Welcome back.’
That voice. Deep and infinitely memorable. And not in a good way.
It all came back.
She turned her head to see Luca looking at her with a small smile on his face. A smile. He was sitting down near the bed she lay on.
She croaked out, ‘What happened?’
His smile faded, and it must have been a trick of the light but she could have sworn he paled slightly. ‘You got stung. Badly.’
Serena recalled the ground moving under her hands and shuddered delicately. ‘But they were just ants. How could ants do that?’
Luca’s mouth twisted. ‘They were bullet ants.’
Serena frowned. ‘Should that mean anything to me?’
He shook his head. ‘Not really, but they deliver a sting that is widely believed to be the most painful on record of any biting insect—like the pain of a bullet. I’ve been bitten once or twice; I know exactly what it’s like.’
Serena felt embarrassed. ‘But I passed out like some kind of wimp.’
Luca had a funny look on his face.
‘The fact that you were semi-conscious till we reached the village and kept fighting to walk was a testament to your obviously high pain threshold.’
She lifted her arm and looked at it. There was only a very faint redness where she’d been bitten. All that pain and not even a scratch left behind? She almost felt cheated. And then she thought of what he’d said and her arm dropped.
‘Wait a second—you carried me all the way here?’
He nodded. There was a scuffling sound from nearby and thankfully Luca’s intense focus moved off her. She looked past him to see some small curious faces peeping around the door. He said something to them and they disappeared, giggling and chattering.
Luca turned back. ‘They’re fascinated by the golden-haired gringa who arrived unconscious into their village a few hours ago.’
Serena was very disorientated by this far less antagonistic Luca. Feeling self-conscious, she struggled to sit up, moving back the covers on the bed.
But Luca rapped out, ‘Stay there! You’re weak and dehydrated. You’re not going anywhere today, or this evening. The women have prepared some food and you need to drink lots of water.’
Luca stood up, and his sheer size made Serena feel dizzy enough to lie down again. As if by magic some smiling women appeared in the doorway, holding various things. Luca ushered them in and said to Serena over their heads, ‘I have to go to the mines. I’ll be back later. You’ll be looked after.’
Weakly, Serena protested, ‘But I’m supposed to be taking notes...’
Something flashed in Luca’s eyes but he just said, ‘Don’t worry about that. There’ll be time tomorrow, before we have to leave.’
‘Before we have to leave.’ She felt a lurch in her belly and an awful betraying tingle of anticipation as to what might happen once they did leave this place.
* * *
The following morning, early, Luca was trying not to keep staring at Serena, who sat at the end of a long table in the communal eating hut. She was wearing a traditional smock dress, presumably given to her by one of the women to replace her own clothes, and the simple design might have been haute couture, the way she wore it with such effortless grace.
A small toddler, a girl, was sitting on Serena’s lap and staring up at her with huge, besotted brown eyes. She’d been crying minutes before, and Serena had bent down to her level and cajoled her to stop crying, lifting her up and settling her as easily as if she was her mother.
Now she was eating her breakfast—a manioc-based broth—for all the world acting as if it was the finest caviar, giving the little girl morsels in between her own mouthfuls. She couldn’t have looked more innocent and pure if she’d tried, tugging remorselessly on his conscience.
A mixture of rage and sexual frustration made Luca’s whole body tight. The remnants of the panic he’d felt the previous day when she’d been so limp in his arms after being stung still clung to him. She’d been brave. Even though he knew he was being completely irrational, he couldn’t stop lambasting her inwardly for not behaving as he expected her to.
Their eyes met and caught at that moment and he saw her cheeks flush. With desire? Or anger? Or a mixture of both like him? Suddenly her significance wasn’t important any more—who she was, what she’d done. Or not done. He wanted her, and she would pay for throwing his life out of whack not once but twice.
Resolve filling his body, he stood up and said curtly, ‘We’re leaving for the mines in ten minutes.’
He didn’t like the way he noticed how her arm tightened around the small girl almost protectively, or how seeing a child on her lap made him feel. All sorts of things he’d never imagined feeling in his life—ever.
Her chin tipped up. ‘I’ll be ready.’
Luca left before he did something stupid, like take up his phone and ask for the helicopter to come early so that he could haul her back to Rio and douse this fire in his blood as soon as possible.
CHAPTER SIX
A FEW HOURS later Serena was back in her own clothes, now clean, and sitting cross-legged beside Luca in the hut of the tribal elders. She was still smarting from the intensity of his regard that morning at breakfast. As if he’d been accusing her of something. Her suspicions had been reinforced when he’d said, with a definitely accusatory tone, on their journey to the mines, ‘You were good with that little girl earlier.’
Serena had swallowed back the tart urge to apologise and explained, ‘I have a nephew just a little bit older. We’re very close.’
She hadn’t liked being reminded of that vulnerability—that from the moment she’d held Siena’s son, Spiro, he and Serena had forged an indelible bond and her biological clock had started ticking loudly.
For someone who had never seen the remotest possibility of such a domestic idyll in her life, she was still surprised at how much she craved it.
And she hated it that she’d barely slept a wink in the hut because she’d missed knowing Luca’s solid bulk was just inches away. She dragged her attention back to what she was meant to be focusing on: writing notes as fast as Luca translated what he wanted taken down.
They’d spent the morning at the mines and she’d seen how diplomatic he had to be, trying to assuage the fears of the miners about losing their jobs, while attempting to drag the mine and its administration into the twenty-first century and minimise further damage to the land. It was a very fine balancing act.
When he was being diplomatic and charming he was truly devastating. It gave Serena a very strong sense of just how seductive he could be if...if he actually liked her. The thought of that made her belly swoop alarmingly.
He turned to her now. ‘Did you get that?’
She looked at the notes quickly. ‘About coming up with ideas to actively promote and nurture growth in the local economy?’
He nodded. But before he turned back to the tribal leader Serena followed an impulse and touched his arm. He frowned at her, and she smiled hesitantly at the man Luca was talking to before saying, ‘Could I make a suggestion?’
He drew back a few inches and looked at her. His entire stance was
saying, You?
Serena fought off the urge to hit him and gritted her teeth. ‘Those smock dresses that the women make—I haven’t seen them anywhere else. Also, the little carvings that the children have been doing... I know that this village is twinned with another one, and they have monthly fair days when they barter goods and crops and utilise their skills and learn from each other...but what about opening it up a bit—say, having a space in Rio, or Manaus, a charity shop that sells the things they make here. And in the other village. A niche market, with the money coming back directly to the people.’
‘That’s hardly a novel idea,’ Luca said coolly.
Serena refused to be intimidated or feel silly. ‘Well, if it’s not a new concept why hasn’t one of these shops been mentioned anywhere in your literature about the charity? I’m not talking about some rustic charity shop. I’m talking about a high-end finish that’ll draw in discerning tourists and buyers. Something that’ll inspire them to help conserve the rainforest.’
Luca said nothing for a long moment, and then he turned back to the chief and spoke to him rapidly. The man’s old, lined face lit up and he smiled broadly, nodding effusively.
Luca looked back to Serena, a conciliatory gleam in his eyes. ‘I’ll look into it back in Rio.’
The breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding left her chest and she had to concentrate when the conversation started again. Finally, when Luca and the chief had spoken for an hour or so, they got up to leave. The old man darted forward with surprising agility to take Serena’s hand in his and pump it up and down vigorously. She smiled at his effervescence.
Following Luca out into the slightly less intense late-afternoon heat, she could see a Jeep approach in the distance.
Luca looked at his watch. ‘That’ll be our lift to the airfield. We need to pack our stuff up.’
He looked at her and must have seen something that Serena had failed to disguise in time.
His eyes glinted with something indefinable. ‘I thought you’d welcome the prospect of civilisation again?’
‘I do,’ Serena said quickly, avoiding his look. But the truth was that she didn’t...exactly. Their couple of days in the rainforest...the otherworldly pace of life in the village...it had soothed something inside her. And she realised that she would miss it.
Afraid Luca might see that, she folded her arms and said, ‘Are you going to give me a chance?’ And then quickly, before he could interject, ‘I think I deserve it. I don’t want to go home yet.’
Luca looked at her. She could see the Jeep coming closer, stopping. She held her breath. His gaze narrowed on her and became...hot. Instantly Serena felt something spike. Anticipation.
He came closer, blocking out the Jeep arriving, the village behind him.
‘I’ve no intention of letting you go home.’
Serena’s arms clenched tighter. She didn’t like the way her body reacted to that implacable statement and what it might mean. ‘You’re giving me a trial period?’
Luca smiled, and it made Serena’s brain fuzzy.
‘Something like that. I told you I wanted you, Serena. And I do. In my bed.’
Anger spiked at his arrogant tone, even as her pulse leapt treacherously. ‘I’m not interested in becoming your next mistress, Fonseca. I’m interested in working.’
Luca’s eyes flashed at her use of ‘Fonseca’. ‘I’ll give you a two-week trial. Two weeks of working in the charity by day and two weeks in my bed by night.’
Serena unclenched her arms, her hands in fists by her sides, hating the betraying sizzle in her blood. Had she no self-respect?
‘That’s blackmail.’
Luca shrugged, supremely unconcerned. ‘Call it what you want. That’s the only way you’ll get your trial.’
Serena swallowed a caustic rush of tangled emotions along with the betraying hum of desire. ‘And what about your precious reputation? If people see us together? What then?’
Luca moved closer. Serena’s words struck him somewhere deep inside. What was he doing? he asked himself. All he knew was that the things that had been of supreme importance to him for a long time no longer seemed as important. There was only here and now and this woman. And heat. And need.
Yet he wasn’t losing sight of what had driven him for all these years completely. He was cynical enough to recognise an opportunity when it arose. Having Serena on his arm would mean news, and news would mean focus on the things close to his heart. Like his foundation.
He said now, ‘I have every intention of people seeing us together. You see, I’ve realised that seven years is like seven lifetimes in the media world. You’re old news. And if anyone does make something of it I’m quite happy for you to be seen by my side as someone intent on making up for her debauched past by doing charity work. Everyone loves a redemption story, after all. And in the meantime I get what I want—which is you. You owe me, Serena. You don’t think I’m going to give you a two-week trial without recompense, do you?’
Serena just looked at him. She was too stunned to say anything. What Luca had said was so...cold. And yet all she could feel was hot. She should be slapping him across the face and taking a bus back to Manaus and the next flight home. Maybe that was what he was doing? Calling her bluff. Goading her. She couldn’t imagine that he didn’t have a string of willing mistresses back in Rio.
But that only made something very dark rise up: jealousy.
‘We leave in fifteen minutes.’
With that he turned and strode away, as if he hadn’t just detonated a bomb between them. She watched him incredulously, and then stalked to the small hut.
As she packed up her small backpack a few minutes later she alternated between the longing to to find Luca and deliver that slap to his face which he so deserved and pausing to remember how it had felt when he’d kissed her and touched her the other night.
She’d never really enjoyed sex; it had been another route to oblivion which had invariably ended in disappointment and an excoriating sense of self-disgust.
But Luca... It was as if he was able to see right through to her deepest self, to the part of her that was still innocent, untainted by what she’d seen and experienced as a child...
‘Ms DePiero?’
Serena whirled around to see a young man in the doorway of the hut.
‘Senhor Fonseca is waiting for you at the Jeep.’
Serena muttered something about coming and watched the man walk away. Something inside her solidified. She could leave and go home, lose any chance of a job with the charity and start all over again. Concede defeat. Or...if she was going to admit to herself that she wanted Luca too...she could be as strategic as him.
But if she was going to stay and submit to his arrogant demands then it would be on her terms, and she would gain from it too.
* * *
Luca sent a wary glance to Serena, who was sitting on the other side of the plane. She was looking out of the window, so he couldn’t see her expression, but he would guess that it was as stony as it had been when she’d got into the Jeep and on the silent journey to the private airfield near the airport.
He wasn’t flying the plane this time. Ostensibly so he could catch up on work, but for possibly the first time in his life he couldn’t focus on it.
All he could focus on was Serena, and the tense lines of her slim body, and wonder what that stony silence meant. He knew he deserved it. He was surprised she hadn’t slapped him back at the village. He’d seen the moment in her expression when she’d wanted to.
He’d never behaved so autocratically with a woman in his life. If he wanted a woman he seduced her and took her to bed, and they were never under the impression that he was in the market for more than that.
But this was Serena DePiero. From the first moment he’d ever seen her he’d been tangled up into
knots. The last few days had shown him a vastly different woman from the one he’d met before...and yet hadn’t he seen something of this woman in her eyes that night in the club? He didn’t like to admit that he had seen that moment of vulnerability.
His conscience pricked him. He’d all but blackmailed her. He wasn’t so deluded that he couldn’t acknowledge uncomfortably that it had been a crass attempt on his behalf to get her where he wanted her without having to let her know how badly he needed to sate this hunger inside him.
He opened his mouth to speak to her just as she turned her head to look at him and those searing blue eyes robbed him of speech. She looked determined.
‘I’ve been thinking about your...proposal.’
Luca’s conscience hit him again. He winced inwardly. Never had he imagined that she would be so diplomatic when he’d been such a bastard. ‘Serena—’
She held up a hand. ‘No, let me speak.’
He closed his mouth and didn’t like the flutter of panic at the thought that he might just have completely mismanaged this. She could leave now and he’d never see her again.
‘If I agree to stay and do this trial for two weeks... If I do well—prove that I’m capable...and...’ She stopped, a dark flush staining her cheeks before she continued. ‘If I agree to what you said...then I want you to assure me that you’ll give me a job—whether it’s here or back in Athens. A proper contracted, paying job for the charity.’
The relief that flowed through Luca was unsettling and heady. His conscience still struck him, but he was too distracted to deal with it.
He held out a hand towards Serena and growled, ‘Come here.’
The flush on her cheeks got pinker. ‘Luca—’
‘Come here and I’ll tell you.’
He saw her bite her lip, the dart of her pink tongue. After a few seconds her hands went to her belt and she undid it and pushed herself up and out of her seat. As soon as she was within touching distance Luca had closed a hand around her wrist and tugged her so that she fell onto his lap with a soft ooph.