For so many nights he’d dreamed of her submitting to the desire gluing them together and letting herself go.
He’d never imagined it would be like this or dreamt it would feel like this.
He didn’t want it to end.
When he felt his orgasm welling up inside him, he gritted his teeth to hold on, but the softness of her skin against him, the feel of being so perfectly fitted inside her, the friction of her movements, her breath and scent filling his senses...it was a battle he was about to lose.
And then she was crying out his name and sinking as hard onto him as she could, thickening around him, somehow pulling him even deeper into her.
He let go.
‘Elena, God, Elena,’ he breathed with the last of his air, white light flickering behind his eyes and pulsations ravaging him, taking him to a place he had never known existed.
His heart had never beaten so fast.
Much later, when lethargy had crept through his bones and sleep arrived to claim him, Elena entangled in his arms and breathing rhythmically, he opened his eyes for one last look at her and pressed the lightest of kisses to her forehead. Then he fell into the deepest, most content sleep of his life.
* * *
Gabriele gave his morning run a miss. Or, rather, his morning run gave him a miss. Today the sun had beaten him awake. And so had Elena.
He found her on the balcony, drinking coffee and gazing out at waking-up Florence.
Her face lit up with a smile to see him.
They’d shared a bed for almost three weeks yet this morning it felt as if he were handling the morning-after for the very first time.
He wanted to scoop her up and carry her back to bed.
Conversely, he wanted to get his training shoes on and run away as fast as he could.
He settled on taking a seat next to her and pouring himself a coffee.
‘I hope you don’t mind me wearing this,’ she said shyly, indicating his navy robe, which she had wrapped herself in.
Seeing her dwarfed in his robe, her hair mussed from a night of lovemaking, a sparkle in her eyes...
His chest constricted, the palms of his hands dampening.
‘Not at all.’ He added a splash of milk to his cup. ‘You’re up early.’
The sparkle faded a little and she took a sip of her coffee. ‘I woke up with cramps.’
‘Are you okay?’ he asked, immediately concerned.
‘I’ve taken some painkillers. But it does mean I’m not pregnant.’
Relief surged through him in a whoosh.
He hadn’t even realised this was news he’d been hoping for.
Elena wasn’t pregnant. He got to keep her for longer.
He stared at her, trying to read her expression. ‘You’re disappointed?’
Was she really that keen for them to be over? When she conceived their child she could walk away.
But surely she didn’t want to walk away after the night they’d just shared?
She would walk away if she learned what you were up to.
‘A little.’ She took another sip. ‘I don’t know why I thought it would happen so quickly.’
‘It will happen when it’s ready.’ He ran a thumb against her cheek, thrilling when she rubbed into his touch. He adored her cheekbones; they were made for touching. ‘You really do want to have a baby?’
He should have asked her before. Before he made her sign a contract where her only means of escaping him was by carrying his child.
What had he been thinking?
What kind of monster had he become?
And what could he do about it?
Her eyes were wide as she nodded. ‘Very much. I never thought I would...’
‘Because only girls have babies and you didn’t want to be a girl?’ he supplied.
She laughed, visibly relaxing. ‘That was certainly a part of it. But don’t forget I’d intended to stay a virgin until I died and seeing as a man’s help is needed in making a baby...’ She laughed again. ‘I just never thought I would be in the position where a baby could be possible.’
She made it sound as if he’d given her a choice in the matter when the choice he’d presented her with had been no choice at all.
How could she even exchange a civil word with him?
Her hand crept onto his and squeezed. ‘You need to get going soon, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
He didn’t want to leave her.
He couldn’t wait to get away.
What was happening to him?
‘I’ll be back Tuesday,’ he said, getting to his feet then leaning over to capture her lips.
He’d told her yesterday morning that he needed to go to America on business. He hadn’t specified which American continent and she hadn’t asked. She had no idea he was travelling to Brazil.
It would be the first time they’d been parted since he’d rescued her from those thugs on Nutmeg Island.
Her arm looped around his neck and she kissed him back, her teeth razing gently along his bottom lips when she pulled away, still holding him, and gazed into his eyes.
‘When you get home...’ She swallowed, colour flooding her cheeks. ‘We can enjoy trying again to make a baby.’
How could she be like this around him? How could she even bear to look at him?
He took a deep breath and gave her one final, lingering kiss.
He prayed it wouldn’t be their last.
As he got into his waiting car an hour later, he knew he would have to come to a decision soon. Tomorrow he would meet Carlos in Brazil. If Gabriele played his cards right, the original documents would be handed over. If he could meet Carlos’s price, he should be able to persuade him to testify in person.
If everything went as he hoped, Ignazio would be arrested within days.
And he would lose Elena.
* * *
Elena got out of the test car and pulled the helmet off her head, unable to wipe the beam from her face.
That had to count as one of the best experiences of her life.
Monty, the official test driver, had called her that morning to say he had an unexpected free window and the test car was available for her to take out on the track. She hadn’t needed asking twice. She’d jumped straight into the small Mantegna sports car Gabriele had given her the keys to before he’d left, and only just kept within the speed limit in her rush to Mantegna HQ.
Monty had driven the first couple of laps, explaining all the pertinent information before letting her loose. After a cautious first lap, she had put her foot down, the speedometer reaching one hundred and ten miles an hour before she’d lost her nerve and slowed it to a more reasonable ninety.
It had been an amazing experience.
What had made it extra special was knowing she had enjoyed it for herself; not as a means of proving a point to the men of the world—specifically her father and brothers—but for the sheer exhilaration.
Finally she understood what Gabriele meant about her having desires that were specific to her and not her gender. She was a woman learning to embrace the feminine side of her nature but also learning that the feminine side didn’t exclude the traditionally masculine pursuits she enjoyed.
She suspected she would have enjoyed punching her brothers when she’d been a child even if she’d been dressed in pretty pink dresses and had her hair tied in neat little plaits.
Gabriele had done this for her. He’d opened her eyes and forced her to see and accept who she really was: a flesh and blood woman.
Knowing he was mid-air, flying back to Florence, she hadn’t bothered calling to tell him she would be testing the car. He’d told her to expect him home late afternoon so she would tell him about it then. And tell him she’d deci
ded to resign from her job. That was something that had solidified in her mind over the past couple of days, when Gabriele’s absence had given her time to really think.
She’d missed him so much it scared her. It was like a great hollow ache in her entire being.
She knew the day would soon come when she would have to live with missing him permanently. They had no future. They never would.
However her feelings had developed, she still had Ricci blood running through her veins.
But something had passed between them the night of their party; changed them fundamentally. Whether it was enough...
Enough for what though? For a life together? A real life?
After Monty had put the boiler outfits they’d been wearing away, they headed back to the car park.
About to walk through the double doors, Elena did a double take at a car parked at the front and the driver leaning against its door smoking a cigarette.
‘Is Gabriele here?’ she asked the receptionist when she’d got inside the main building.
‘He arrived an hour ago,’ the receptionist said, recognising her. ‘He’s in his office.’
‘Thanks.’ Checking her phone for any missed calls or messages, of which there were none from Gabriele, she climbed the stairs.
What was he doing here? When she’d spoken to him last night he hadn’t mentioned anything about coming back early.
Excited to see him, Elena hurried her pace, heading in the direction she recalled his office being in.
Taking a left at the top of the stairs on the third floor, she passed a skinny man in a garish silver suit. Thinking he looked familiar but unable to place where from, she arrived at Gabriele’s office door.
She knocked, not wanting to presume too much and barge in without invitation.
The door was opened by Anna Maria, whose eyes widened to see her.
From behind the desk, visible from her vantage point at the threshold, Gabriele shot to his feet.
‘Elena? What are you doing here?’ he asked hoarsely.
They were both clearly shocked to see her. No, make that horrified. They looked like a couple of children caught in the act of stealing.
Anna Maria appeared frozen, making no attempt to get out of her way. Elena pushed past her and strode to the desk.
‘What’s going on?’ she demanded, half expecting to see discarded underwear on the floor.
‘Nothing.’ A sheath of papers was strewn over the desk, which he was gathering together. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
‘I’ve been on the test drive you suggested Monty take me on.’ As she spoke, she tried to see what was on the papers. Whatever they were, Gabriele didn’t want her to see them, not if the way he was rushing to file them away was anything to judge by.
Something icy cold snaked up her spine.
That man in the corridor...
She snatched the papers from Gabriele’s hand.
‘Elena—’
He tried to take them back but it was too late.
She only needed a quick scan for her eyes to swim and her brain to fill with cold fog.
That man. She knew who he was.
‘No,’ she whispered, shaking her head violently. ‘No.’
Discarded underwear would have been preferable to this.
Not taking her eyes from Gabriele’s white face, she said, ‘Anna Maria, leave us.’
The door slammed sharply.
‘I suppose this explains why Anna Maria has been so uneasy around me,’ she said in a voice that sounded distant to her ears. ‘She’s known from the beginning?’
Gabriele dropped the papers onto the desk and stared at her with black ringing eyes. ‘Elena, let me explain.’
The coldness cleared, replaced with red-hot fury that she controlled by a whisker.
‘What do you want to explain? How you’ve been lying to me all this time? How you tricked me into marrying you to save my father from a prison sentence when all the time you were still plotting against him?’
Of all the things she’d struggled to believe since that fateful night on Nutmeg Island, this was the hardest. Of everything, this was the one thing she didn’t want to believe or accept, harder even than believing her father could have betrayed his best friend so heinously.
She’d given Gabriele everything of herself and it had all been a lie.
Sharply pointed talons clawed at her heart, slashing into her belly, slicing great chunks out of her.
‘I never lied to you.’ He spoke calmly but his chest rose and fell rapidly, his strong nose flaring. ‘The contract never said anything about me not continuing my fight to clear my name and finding the evidence to prove your father was behind the fraud.’
‘You’re lying to me now!’ Her control failed her. She grabbed a pile of the papers and began ripping into them, wishing it were his flesh she was tearing into. ‘You’ve been lying to me from the beginning. You knew damn well I thought it meant you would leave my father alone, that marrying you meant my family would be safe. God, I was starting to think you were someone special—I was prepared to have your baby! And you were lying to me and using me, you manipulative bastard.’
He yanked at his hair, his eyes black with feverish emotion. ‘Goddammit, Elena, I spent two years in prison for a crime your father committed. My dad died of a broken heart and you’ve seen how my mother is with your own eyes—do you really think I could just let that go? Your father deserves to pay for those crimes.’
‘If my father did it then yes, he does deserve to pay, but I don’t. I have done nothing, not to you, not to your family, not to anyone.’ Furious, heartbroken tears fell like a waterfall from her eyes. ‘And you know that’s true. You know I’m innocent but you couldn’t give a damn, so long as you get your vengeance.’
The colour that had returned to his face paled again. ‘Elena...’
‘How much did you pay Carlos to turn traitor?’ she screamed. ‘How much are you paying him to lie for you?’
Sadness now rang from his eyes and he raised a hand as if to reach for her before dropping it back down to his side. ‘It’s not lies. It’s the truth. That’s all I ever wanted—for the truth to be told and my family’s good name to be restored. But I swear to you, I didn’t know you were innocent. I would never have involved you in any of this if I had.’
‘And that’s supposed to make it all right? As if I will ever believe another word that comes from your mouth.’ She gave a maniacal laugh that ripped through her throat. ‘I’m nothing but a pawn in your game and I will hate you for the rest of my life.’
She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t look at the lying mouth she had kissed with such love. Couldn’t look in the eyes that had devoured her and made her feel so wanted and necessary.
It had all been a lie.
‘Where are you going?’ A trace of panic resonated from his voice.
Facing him for the last time, she said with all the loathing she muster, ‘As far away from you and your ugly vendetta as I can get. I never want to see you again.’
The door slammed shut and she was gone.
Gabriele stared at the blank space where only a moment before Elena had stood, his heart pounding and nausea rising from his stomach to his throat.
Dear God, what had he done?
What had he done?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ELENA STOPPED LONG enough at Gabriele’s apartment to get her passport and leave his car keys on the sideboard. Everything else could go to hell.
From Florence, she took a flight to Sweden, hired a car and headed for the sleepy town her mother had been raised in. She didn’t think she had ever needed her more.
During the long drive she did not allow herself to think of Gabriele. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t exis
t. She would spend the rest of her life scrubbing clean her memories of him if she had to.
Eventually she arrived at a large timber chalet on the edge of a lake.
She switched the engine off and gazed at it with a lump in her throat and an ache in her heart.
This was where her mother had spent her childhood. And here was the second-best thing to the woman who had given birth to her.
The front door opened and a tall white-blonde woman appeared, staring at the car with a quizzical expression.
Elena got out and gazed at her aunt.
‘Elena?’
She tried to speak but the words wouldn’t form.
Agnes must have seen something in her expression for concern flittered over her face and she hurried over to her. Instead of bombarding her with questions, her kindly aunt simply pulled her into an embrace and whispered into her hair, ‘Oh, Elena, it is so wonderful to have you here.’
And with those words, Elena burst into tears.
* * *
Hours later Elena sat at a scrubbed wooden kitchen table drinking sweet tea. Her aunt had sent Henrick, her husband, out on errands, with the words, ‘Don’t hurry back.’
Elena told her everything. Every sordid detail.
Agnes didn’t say much, seemingly content to listen and provide cakes and biscuits for the never-ending supply of tea.
‘Do you think your father’s involved?’ was the first question she asked when Elena finished talking.
‘I don’t know,’ Elena whispered. ‘I know there are many things I’ve been kept in the dark about.’
For the first time she forced herself to really think about her father, not just as the man who had raised and loved her but as something else. Someone else. Someone who could be cruel enough to frame his best friend and allow his own godson to go to prison for a crime he himself had committed.
‘Do you think he’s capable of doing it?’
‘If you had asked me that twenty-five years ago I would have said no,’ Agnes answered matter-of-factly. ‘But losing your mother...’ She closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened them to look at Elena, sadness emanated from them. ‘Do you know much about your parents’ marriage?’
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