A Deal for Her Innocence

by Williams Cathy

  Stumped for words, floundering and completely out of her depth in a game of words that felt way too sophisticated for her, Ellie remained silent, waiting to see where the conversation would end up.

  ‘I’m not going to be helpful and join you in that game,’ Niccolo said flatly. ‘But neither am I going to try and get what you’re determined to withhold.’ He pushed open the car door and stepped out, pausing to say in passing, ‘Shall we meet for drinks later? That’ll leave you ample time to circulate. You can contact me on my mobile if you need me.’

  ‘Won’t your staff wonder why you’re not spending all your spare time entertaining the new woman in your life?’ Ellie couldn’t resist saying without a degree of sarcasm as she joined him and they began walking towards the hotel.

  He wasn’t going to allow her to pretend. That declaration of intent rattled inside her head like a beacon warning of danger. They would be sharing a villa and he wasn’t going to allow her to pretend that the chemistry between them didn’t exist. He was upfront and, unfortunately, not the kind of man easily ignored.

  Now that he had opened that box, it wasn’t going to be possible to stuff the contents back inside and slam down the lid. Maybe if he had been just another good-looking man she wouldn’t have been so flustered. But he had a lethal combination of good looks, humour and incisive intellect that would turn any woman to mush.

  He made her think about sex. He made her aware of her body in ways she could never have imagined.

  She could feel him looking down at her and she had to stop herself from trembling.

  ‘My staff know me better than to think that I’ll be playing tour guide with a woman because I might be going out with her,’ Niccolo murmured wryly.

  Ellie stopped, shaded her eyes with her hand and gazed up at him. ‘By playing tour guide,’ she said tartly, ‘I’m taking it to mean spending quality time with a woman?’

  ‘I spend lots of quality time with the women I go out with,’ Niccolo asserted with a wolfish grin that left her in no doubt as to the direction of his thoughts.

  ‘I’m not talking about sex,’ she said scornfully, pleased, because she was due a timely reminder of just how little respect she had for his take on life.

  Sex wasn’t love and it wasn’t security either. It was a physical, bodily function. Like perspiring, which was what she was doing right now, and she wasn’t sure whether it was solely from the heat.

  ‘In that case...’ He sighed and laughed softly. ‘I would have to say that I spend as much time with a woman as I can given that work, with me, always takes precedence.’

  ‘Always?’

  They had fallen into step, with the hotel entrance ahead of them and guests coming and going, some heading out towards the bank of off-road cars exclusively at their disposal, others with towels, heading towards one of the pools.

  Some were in pairs, talking quietly, and Ellie wondered whether they were couples who were cultivating a relationship. She still had yet to see anyone under the age of forty.

  ‘Always,’ Niccolo drawled.

  ‘You’ve never been in love?’

  He laughed. ‘I’ve had my learning curve,’ he heard himself say, much to his surprise. ‘Now, unless you want to join me for the remainder of the day, I’m about to head off to see my people and go through a wad of reports.’

  Learning curve? What learning curve? Ellie blinked and then, just like that, when she was least expecting it, he dropped a kiss on her lips. A light, barely there kind of kiss. A whisper of a brush, gone before she was even aware it had been there, as fleeting as a snowflake melting before it had the chance to settle.

  For the sake of appearances. He was pathological when it came to journalists, as were his guests.

  Whatever happened on his resort, he had told her, stayed on his resort. His guests would never fear their private lives being plastered across any tabloids because there had been a pair of zoom lenses observing them from behind bushes.

  The sheer scale of the place prohibited that. No lens would be powerful enough to see anything from the outermost borders of the resort which were cleverly manned by all manner of high-tech cameras.

  That light, barely there kiss...no one would ever know about it, and for some reason that sent a shiver racing up and down her spine.

  But she drew back and looked away, gathering herself, so that when she next spoke her voice was cool and composed.

  ‘That’s fine. I’ll see you later. I’ll make sure I have some thoughts about the campaign, and also about the wider project of promoting the island—if you decide to allow our agency to have the job, of course.’

  She nodded crisply and peeled off before she could get involved in another conversation that would leave her feeling vulnerable and confused.

  Without having to worry about Niccolo putting in an unexpected appearance, Ellie found that she could really appreciate the resort and enjoy the peace for, contrary to her assumptions, this was no wild match-making resort with irresponsible young things taking advantage of sex on tap.

  The place was so vast and the grounds so cleverly landscaped that you could get lost amid the trees and the shrubbery. There were benches here and there, nestled amid the trees, and gazebos and hammocks in unexpected places.

  There was ample opportunity to find shade and she knew that this would have been planned out so that no one found themselves with an unexpected case of sunburn.

  Somewhere in the heart of the sprawling resort, she bumped into a natural pool carved into the ground. The water was clear, so that you could see that you were swimming with plants and fish, and several guests were relaxing with books and laptops. The only concession to the fact that you weren’t totally immersed in nature was the bar area where light snacks and cold drinks were served.

  Ellie could see how time could be spent here. So much to explore and, of course, the pace was so lazy that chatting to your fellow holiday makers would come quite naturally.

  And everyone was free, single and unattached.

  You mingled or chose not to. Somehow, Niccolo and his team had hit upon the perfect formula.

  The heat was exhausting, however, and it was a relief to escape back to the air-conditioned villa, where she efficiently jotted down her thoughts. Then, suddenly, it was time to change and the butterflies in her stomach woke up and began fluttering all over the place.

  The clothes she had picked earlier had all been unpacked and neatly hung in the wardrobe in her bedroom. In the boutique they had not seemed nearly as alarming as they did now and she stared at the shimmering rainbow-coloured selection in dismay.

  But what was the alternative? The starchy greys and navy blues hanging alongside the brightly coloured silks and cottons could have symbolised the struggle taking place inside her, the no-nonsense businesswoman at odds with the blushing girl. Grey versus fuchsia, navy blue versus turquoise.

  She opted for a long dress in shades of turquoise and rust with spaghetti straps and the pair of silvery sandals she had bought.

  When she stared at her reflection in the mirror, she was looking at a different person.

  On impulse, she brushed out her hair. Ever since she had arrived, it had been tied back. Quite sensible, given the temperatures. Now, hanging loose and wavy to her shoulders, she seemed to see all the different shades of chestnut and brown that were always hidden away.

  She twisted in front of the mirror and smiled, liking the way everything flowed—the dress, her hair. Her eyes were bright and she had applied just enough make-up still to look natural but...

  But different.

  She wondered what Niccolo would make of this new Ellie, and she shivered with heady, wicked anticipation as she sashayed her way to the designated meeting point, knowing that, for the very first time in her life, she would be arriving fashionably late.

  Niccolo had half-expected to find Ellie waiting for him when he reached the bar area slightly early.

  He hadn’t glimpsed her once since they’d parted comp
any, but then, that wasn’t surprising given the size of the resort.

  He expected she would have metaphorically donned her business suit and fought the energy-sapping heat to do her homework and scope out the resort and all its myriad, private little havens which had been specially planned to afford the illusion of being very far removed from the real world.

  He had spent the day wondering how much longer they would play this push-pull game of advance and retreat almost as much as he had spent it wondering why he had become so heavily embroiled in pursuing her in the first place.

  In between, he had tried to immerse himself in work, but for once his concentration levels had failed him. He’d found his mind wandering.

  Sitting nursing a rum and soda, Niccolo half-thought that the clothes she had chosen hours earlier might have been pushed aside in favour of the navy-blue fiascos she had brought with her. The cold light of day had a funny way of killing off all sense of adventure, and she’d been adventurous in that boutique.

  Musing on whether she would be armed with her favourite weapon of choice, her tablet, Niccolo glanced up from his drink to see her materialise out of the dark, a vision in blue and orange, and for a few seconds he held his breath.

  This was an Ellie he barely recognised and he was transfixed by the vision.

  The dress accentuated her slenderness—the length of her legs, the narrow span of her waist, the pert roundness of her breasts. And her hair was hanging loose, just hitting her shoulders in a thick, colourful mane of waves. As she neared him, he could see that she was wearing make-up. For one incomprehensible moment, he was jealous about the men who might have been looking at her.

  He half-stood, belatedly remembering his manners, but she was already taking her seat, composed and in control.

  ‘You shock me,’ Niccolo drawled, watching as her heart-shaped face pinkened, although she tilted her chin at a combative angle, prepared to out-stare him.

  ‘Because?’

  ‘I half-expected you to join me in your work clothes to remind me that you’re not here to relax or have a good time,’ he returned drily.

  Ellie opened her mouth to answer that with something suitably sarcastic, but she paused, because...was that really how he saw her? As the dedicated, boring office drone who couldn’t operate unless she had a clipboard in one hand and a marker pen in the other? Was that how the world saw her? Dull? Reliable? Efficient? The sort of girl who didn’t know how to let her hair down and have fun?

  He was surprised because, even though she had spent a huge amount of his money buying holiday gear, he had privately thought that she wouldn’t really have the guts to pull out all the stops and wear any of it. At least, maybe, not in his company.

  She wondered how he would react if she went a step further. What would he do if she took him up on all those suggestive, flirty remarks he had been making? Had he meant any of them, or was it just in his nature to charm, and she the easy bait because he was convinced she would not respond?

  What would he do if she responded?

  Would he be appalled? Shocked? Horrified?

  It would certainly teach him a lesson, Ellie thought with a ripple of recklessness that was quite unlike her. If he thought there was the remotest of chance of her not ignoring the chemistry between them, he would probably run a mile.

  Her heartbeat quickened. Even thinking like that was the equivalent of playing with fire.

  ‘The surroundings are...’ She stole a sidelong glance at the intimate semi-darkness of the bar area, with its overhead ceiling fans reminiscent of colonial days, the comfortable bamboo furniture and the wooden balustrade that gave out over the extensive lawns and open land to the front that led down to the coast. ‘Seductive.’ And she meant it.

  Niccolo looked at her narrowly and she held his gaze, only looking away when the waiter approached with a bottle of chilled wine, obviously ordered in advance and with the assumption that she would be drinking.

  Which, she decided, she most certainly would be.

  ‘Interesting adjective,’ Niccolo mused, sipping the wine and keeping his dark gaze firmly on her face.

  His lazy, intimate drawl reminded her of that light-as-a-feather kiss he had earlier delivered and the sudden spurt of recklessness vanished.

  What had she been thinking?

  ‘Yet appropriate.’ She gulped down a mouthful of wine, suddenly nervous, because, having told herself that those suggestive remarks had been all show and no substance, she found herself wondering whether perhaps they weren’t—in which case, what would he do if she responded to them? Where would his hands go? His mouth? She felt faint, and steadied her nerves with another healthy helping of wine.

  Watching her, Niccolo wondered whether she was aiming for some Dutch courage and, if so, what she needed the Dutch courage for. Surely not for one of her work-related conversations? He’d rarely met anyone as incisive as she clearly could be. Some of her observations had been spot on.

  ‘The atmosphere here is seductive.’ She cleared her throat and looked around her with an expansive gesture. ‘Partly it’s the surroundings, but also it’s the illusion of privacy.’

  ‘No illusion.’

  ‘You really feel you can relax here without the world watching from the outside—and you’re right. I’ve spoken to a number of the guests here, and that’s a big draw for them.’ She was back on safe ground. For the duration of the starter and most of the main course, she talked earnestly and non-stop about her ideas for the campaign.

  ‘Of course,’ Niccolo interrupted her, as plates were cleared, ‘The resort at night is completely different from the resort by day.’

  ‘You mean there is night life?’

  ‘More than you can imagine.’

  ‘Where?’ Ellie looked around her, took in the full tables and made a mental note of how many of those tables were occupied by couples. She couldn’t think where a nightclub might be, but then she’d only seen a fraction of the grounds. Surely, though, music would carry quite some distance in the warm, still night air?

  ‘Probably best if I show you.’ Niccolo stood up and waited. The meal had been agony. That one little word ‘seductive’ coming from her lips had kick-started a series of sexual responses in him that had made the simple process of eating whilst focusing on what she’d been saying practically impossible.

  He didn’t have it in him to deal with the throbbing, frustrating sexual undercurrent under the surface. Like an over-inflating balloon, it had to be burst, and he intended to do that right now because he wasn’t going to spend the rest of his time here trying and failing to concentrate.

  ‘Unless you’d rather stay and have dessert?’

  ‘Do I have a choice?’ The wine had done wonderful things for her frayed nerves and the recklessness was back. When, heading outside, he took her hand and linked her fingers through his, she didn’t pull her hand away and that had nothing to do with keeping up a charade. In truth, there was almost no need to, as no one seemed to pay them a scrap of attention. The über-rich knew how to control their curiosity, probably because they had the curiosity of other people directed at them so often.

  They headed for a section of the grounds she had not yet explored. As they walked further along, the sound of the surf became more demanding and then, just when she was about to ask him where they were, the expanse of ocean opened up below them, the dark swell streaked with silver. Here, the waves were bigger and more ferocious, and Niccolo told her that the area was out of bounds unless patrolled by a lifeguard.

  Winding, hand-hewn stone steps, lit by fairy lights on the railings on either side, was a magical descent to the bay on which the enormous waves pounded against rocks in the ocean and close to the shore.

  ‘The night life,’ Niccolo murmured softly.

  He had led her towards one of the craggy rocks that littered the beach, which was so different from the icing-sugar sandy beaches that enclosed the resort.

  Ellie looked at him as he leant against the perpendic
ular face of the black rock. The moon picked out the lean, stunning angles of his face and there was something so achingly beautiful about his dark beauty, about the way he was staring off into the distance, that she longed to reach out and touch him.

  She longed to break her rules just this once.

  ‘There’s something musical about the sound of the sea, wouldn’t you agree?’ Niccolo looked down at her to catch her staring at him, her mouth parted. ‘A dramatic orchestra of sound, with crescendos, lulls and rising tempos.’

  ‘Are you secretly a romantic?’ She breathed and Niccolo laughed shortly.

  ‘Please don’t delude yourself into thinking that,’ he said drily. ‘This resort aims to give the punters what they want and need without even being aware of it. Picture-postcard beauty is one thing, but sometimes something more elemental can be just what the doctor ordered.’

  Ellie didn’t believe him. ‘You must feel something when you stand here.’ She took a couple of steps towards the surging black sea, and Niccolo instinctively reached out to hold her back, which made her feel warm and squirmy inside. ‘Not just,’ she said breathlessly, ‘Pragmatic because it might appeal to the guests.’

  Niccolo shrugged, instinctively pulling back, because habit had shaped him into a man who didn’t share.

  ‘I don’t do romance,’ he informed her in clipped tones. ‘So, if you’re leading me into a place where you think an outpouring of touchy-feely emotion is going to take over, then you’re barking up the wrong tree.’

  Ellie saw the flash of white teeth as he backed away from a contentious topic to grin at her. ‘Now,’ he drawled, ‘If you’re really interested in hearing how this rugged setting makes me feel, then I’m very happy to elaborate, but I’ll bet you might end up squirming because it goes against your high-minded principles.’