by Penny Jordan
She breathed deeply. ‘I can’t believe that you really want to have dinner with me….’
His mouth twisted derisively. ‘Fishing for compliments, Darci?’
‘Not at all,’ she assured him hotly. ‘It’s pretty obvious that you don’t really want to be here.’
Luc relaxed back in his seat as he looked at her through narrowed lids. ‘If that were the case, Darci, then believe me, I wouldn’t be here,’ he replied. ‘Although I am curious, knowing how difficult it is, as to how you actually managed to book a table here this evening….’
Darci gave a rueful smile. ‘What’s the point in having a famous film director as a twin brother if you can’t use his name occasionally? I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any fuss made about my slight variation on the truth once you arrived,’ she added with a grin.
‘If I arrived,’ Luc reminded her coolly.
She nodded. ‘If you arrived.’
‘And if I hadn’t done so?’ he taunted.
Darci shrugged. ‘Then I would probably have found myself thrown out into the street by eight-thirty!’
Luc found himself smiling in spite of himself—both at Darci’s ingenuity in securing the dinner table and her complete lack of illusion about it. ‘Does Grant know you used his name in this shameless way?’
‘Of course not,’ she answered brightly. ‘I love my brother dearly, and the two of us are very close. But I would prefer that even he doesn’t know what a complete idiot I’ve made of myself where you’re concerned.’
‘A complete idiot, Darci?’ Luc questioned.
Yes, a complete idiot, Darci repeated to herself, as she acknowledged that she really was in love with Luc, that she loved him so much that under difference circumstances she would probably have been willing to settle for the affair he had once implied he was more than willing to have with her.
Once. Because it was more than obvious that Luc now felt nothing more than contempt for her. That he had only come here this evening to listen to her apology and so witness her humiliation firsthand.
A fine mess she had made of things where Luc Gambrelli was concerned, she accepted heavily.
She grimaced. ‘I really do have to apologise to you, Luc, for the things I said and did to you earlier this week—’
‘Do you think we could leave your self-flagellation until after we have ordered our food, Darci…?’ Luc drawled in a bored voice as he picked up his menu. ‘The least you owe me is a sinfully expensive meal, don’t you think?’ he added, unabashedly reminding Darci of her own words the evening they’d first met.
The least she owed him?
Darci picked up her own menu as she stared at Luc warily.
That statement seemed to imply that he had some other form of retribution in mind, too….
CHAPTER TEN
‘SO,’ LUC drawled once the waiter had left with their order. ‘What did your friend Mellie have to say about me?’
The moment of truth had arrived, Darci acknowledged heavily to herself as she replaced her wineglass carefully on the table after taking a sip. ‘Well, as I’m sure you’ve obviously deduced, she admitted that the two of you have never even met each other.’
Luc gave a small inclination of his head. ‘I had already told you that. But of course you didn’t believe me,’ he reminded her after giving her a searching look.
‘Try to see this from my point of view, Luc.’ Darci looked across at him appealingly. ‘I’ve known Mellie over half my life. Of course I believed she was the one telling the truth!’
‘Of course,’ he agreed tersely.
He really was every inch the son of an Italian nobleman at this moment, Darci recognised uneasily. His usual easy-going flirtatiousness and the wicked glint in his eye were no longer in evidence at all. ‘Obviously I now know that she wasn’t—’
‘Obviously,’ Luc derided bitingly.
This was so much worse than she had imagined it would be, Darci realised, and she picked up her glass and took another fortifying sip of the red wine.
But what had she imagined? That she could make her apology and give her explanation, and then the two of them would laugh it off and go on from there?
Luc didn’t look as if he found any of this in the least funny!
Neither would she when she got the bill at the end of the evening; she would probably end up in the kitchen doing the washing up for a week to pay it off!
‘You find this situation amusing, Darci?’ Luc accused as he saw her smile.
She straightened, realising that her thoughts were starting to wander. Hysterically? Probably. She was in love with a man she had insulted to such a degree that he had become a cold, angry stranger.
‘No, of course not.’ She sighed. ‘It’s all rather sad, really,’ she said. ‘You see, Mellie told me all those things about an involvement with you in the hope of making someone else jealous.’
Luc’s eyes widened at this explanation. ‘Your friend Mellie has—feelings for you?’ Not that he particularly cared about a person’s sexual inclination—live and let live had always been his doctrine—but he somehow found it slightly distasteful that another woman should want Darci in the way that he had wanted her.
Still wanted her.
There was no denying that he did still want her, that the slightest movement of her sensually alluring body and the faintest waft of her perfume were enough to fire his arousal. But it was an arousal he was determined to keep under control!
‘Of course not,’ Darci answered him disgustedly. ‘I wasn’t the person Mellie was trying to make jealous!’
Luc gave a puzzled shake of his head. ‘Then who was this mysterious person?’
She sighed. ‘Grant.’
Luc’s eyes widened again. ‘Your friend Mellie is in love with your twin brother?’
‘So it would appear,’ Darci confirmed. ‘Apparently she’s been secretly in love with Grant for years, but had given up all hope of him ever returning the feeling. In fact, she was involved with someone else until she went to Los Angeles six months ago. But she and Grant met up again there, and the two of them went out for dinner a few times. She began to have hope that perhaps Grant did more than like her after all.’
‘Only to discover that he didn’t?’ Luc deduced.
‘Not exactly,’ Darci continued. ‘From the sound of it the two of them did become—quite close,’ she admitted. ‘But then Grant went off on location for a couple of months, and didn’t so much as call her, and so—so—well—’
‘So Mellie decided to try and give him a push in the right direction by letting him know, through you, that she was being hotly pursued by someone else?’ Luc suggested wearily.
It sounded extremely contrived when actually put into words, Darci accepted.
Something she had told her long-time friend at great length yesterday evening, once she’d learned the truth.
In fact, she had been absolutely furious with Mellie for the deception. Not least because it meant she now had to apologise to Luc…
‘Except you didn’t tell Grant, did you?’ Luc guessed knowingly, feeling sorry for the lovelorn Mellie even though, at the same time, he could cheerfully have strangled her for creating this totally unacceptable situation between Darci and himself.
Making him wonder what relationship he and Darci might have had without her preconceived prejudice towards him….
Darci shook her head sadly, her glorious hair gleaming with streaks of red and cinnamon in the overhead lighting. ‘It never even occurred to me to do so. I only talked to you about it because I thought you already knew! Under normal circumstances I would never betray any of my friends’ confidences.’
No, of course she wouldn’t. Her defence of Mellie Chandler for what she had perceived as Luc’s callous treatment of her friend showed Darci to be a true and faithful friend.
As she would be a true and faithful lover…?
Probably. But Luc didn’t want a true and faithful lover—or anything else!—in his li
fe.
Luckily Luc was saved from having to make any reply by the arrival of their first course—smoked salmon for Darci and calamari for him.
‘So what happens to your friend now?’ he prompted several minutes later. ‘Is she going to confront Grant with her feelings, or simply walk away, sadder but wiser?’
Darci was pretty sure the cynical Luc didn’t have any interest in what happened between Mellie and Grant. Although, considering they were the reason she and Luc had met, perhaps Luc did have a right to know what happened next.
She grimaced. ‘She’s going to confront him, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Luc accepted wryly. ‘She sounds like a very determined woman to me.’ Darci gave him a questioning look. ‘Exactly the sort of woman I make a point of avoiding,’ he explained.
Was Luc giving her a warning not to even think about trying the same sort of tack with him?
Had he guessed—did he know—how Darci felt about him?
Did he think that her invitation to dinner this evening was her own way of behaving like a determined woman out to catch herself a reluctant man?
It would be just too humiliating if he did think those things!
‘Don’t worry, Luc,’ she assured him. ‘As I’ve already told you, any woman who makes the mistake of falling in love with you deserves what she gets!’
He didn’t even attempt to contradict her claim as he gave an acknowledging inclination of his head, his mouth a thin, uncompromising line. ‘Do you think there will be a happy ending for your brother and Mellie?’
‘Maybe,’ Darci answered slowly. ‘Grant was a little—cagey last week, when I asked him if he had seen Mellie while he was in Los Angeles. I hope so,’ she added. ‘Despite what you might think after what’s happened, Mellie really is a lovely person. And now that I’ve got over being annoyed with her, I believe she and Grant would be perfect for each other. She really is sorry for involving you in this,’ Darci finished, giving up on trying to eat her smoked salmon. The conversation—and the company!—had completely robbed her of her appetite.
‘And you?’ Luc pushed. ‘Are you also sorry?’
‘More than you can imagine,’ she confirmed. More than she ever wanted Luc to guess or know!
He might not have been involved with Mellie—might never have even met her!—but that didn’t change the fact that Luc really was a man who shunned all emotional involvement. It would be too awful if he were to guess how Darci really felt about him.
Luc looked across at her with assessing eyes. ‘How sorry are you, Darci?’ he pressed.
Darci gave him a sharp look, but she was unable to read anything from his closed expression and those hard, merciless eyes.
Merciless…?
Yes, she had to say that was exactly how Luc’s eyes looked at this moment….
Luc’s mouth tightened as he saw the sudden wariness in Darci’s expression. ‘I wouldn’t expect any woman to be that sorry, Darci!’ he told her, with hard impatience at what she had obviously been thinking.
She had the grace to blush. ‘In that case, I’m sorry enough to buy you dinner at a sinfully expensive restaurant,’ she came back challengingly.
He grimaced. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Darci. I’m going to pay for dinner.’
‘But—’
‘No arguments, Darci.’ He silenced her protests, the tone of his voice stern. ‘I never intended for you to pay the bill.’
Darci was a not-long qualified, very underpaid doctor, for goodness’ sake; of course Luc didn’t seriously expect her to buy him a dinner that would probably cost her a week’s wages!
‘But I do appreciate the offer,’ he added, as he easily saw that Darci’s feathers were still ruffled.
She drew in a deep breath. ‘In that case, I’m very, very sorry for the way I behaved towards you earlier this week.’
His mouth quirked humourlessly. ‘Even if you do think my own behaviour when we last met was reprehensible?’
She would never know—he would never allow her to know!—how close he had come, how nearly he had thrown all caution to the wind and taken what she had so blatantly offered that day.
But he had known even then that Darci wasn’t the sort of woman to have a meaningless affair. And that was all any of Luc’s relationships had been. What they would always be.
Let Wolf and Cesare suffer their totally besotted love for their wives. As his father had with his mother. And his Uncle Carlo with his wife. And their grandfather before them. Let them all be the ones to suffer that damned Gambrelli Curse. Luc intended remaining exactly as he was—single and heartache-free!
But just because he didn’t intend letting himself become emotionally involved with Darci that didn’t mean he couldn’t salvage something from this situation….
‘I don’t think your behaviour was reprehensible at all, Luc,’ she shot back at him reprovingly. ‘We both damn well know that it was!’
He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘You deserved exactly what you got.’
‘That’s hardly the point—’
‘The point is, Darci,’ he cut in menacingly, leaning across the table to add more weight to his words, ‘I may not be willing to let you buy me dinner, but you do owe me.’
She gave him a startled look. ‘Owe you…?’ she echoed warily.
He smiled derisively. ‘Do you think it possible to take your thoughts out of the bedroom for a few minutes…?’ he mocked.
Darci felt colour burning her cheeks. But what else was she supposed to think when Luc came out with phrases like she owed him?
He was rich as Croesus, as handsome as Apollo and one of the most successful film producers in the world. If she did indeed owe Luc, then what did she have to give him but herself…?
‘Go on,’ she invited guardedly.
‘I have to be in Paris this weekend—’
‘I am not going to Paris with you for the weekend!’ Darci protested indignantly.
He scowled across at her. ‘It’s usual to wait until you’re asked!’
‘Yes. Well. Why mention it if—if you didn’t intend asking me to go with you?’ she finished determinedly.
Although the mere thought of Luc inviting her to go to Paris with him for the weekend made her go weak at the knees!
She had visited the city once on a school trip, when she was fifteen, and even at that tender age she had recognised it as one of the most romantic cities in the world. Luc Gambrelli and Paris could be an irresistible combination!
‘Why, indeed?’ Luc conceded dryly. ‘You’re right. I was going to invite you to accompany me—’
‘No!’ she told him adamantly. ‘No, no, no!’
He raised that arrogant eyebrow again. ‘One refusal would have been sufficient, Darci,’ he observed.
She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘No,’ she told him firmly.
‘But you haven’t heard the full invitation yet, Darci,’ he taunted.
‘I don’t need to.’ Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkling deeply green. ‘There is no way I would ever agree to accompany you to Paris—or indeed anywhere else—for the weekend.’
‘Little prude,’ Luc drawled. ‘What if I were to promise you that the invitation does not include us sharing a bed, that my intentions are not in the least dishonourable?’
‘It isn’t a question of that…’
‘Isn’t it?’ he queried softly.
No, it really wasn’t. The truth was, no matter what Luc’s intentions—honourable or otherwise—it was herself she didn’t dare trust if she went to Paris with him at the weekend. Not when she was already in love with him….
‘Why do you want me to accompany you to Paris?’ she probed cautiously.
He sat back, regarding her with cool consideration. ‘I have a party to attend, and I would like you to go with me as my partner for the evening,’ he finally murmured slowly.
‘And you’re telling me that you can’t find someone else to go with you?’ she scoffed disbelievingly. ‘Someone
who actually wants to be with you?’ she added pointedly.
She had courage, this little firebrand, Luc acknowledged admiringly, even as he considered her barb about taking a partner who felt positively towards him.
He was sure that most women in Darci’s position, having initially so wrong-footed themselves, would have been only too happy to make restitution for the mistake they had made. But not Darci.
He leant further back in his chair as their used plates were removed. ‘I have my own reasons for wanting it to be you who accompanies me,’ he told her levelly once they were alone again.
‘And those reasons are…?’
‘Entirely my own,’ he told her firmly. ‘But I can assure you they have absolutely nothing to do with a bedroom—either yours or mine!’ He paused as he could see he had failed to convince her. ‘Didn’t our last encounter prove to you that I don’t lose all control at the sight and touch of your delectable body?’ he whipped out harshly, angry all over again as her cheeks paled. With himself this time. For deliberately hurting her.
But what else was he to do when even now he knew he wanted to sweep all the glasses and cutlery from the table, lay Darci across its pristine white-clothed surface and bury himself deep inside her moist and welcoming body?
Maybe he would be courting unnecessary danger in taking Darci to Paris with him? The desire he felt whenever he was in her company would make it extremely difficult to keep to his promise not to share a bed with her.
But his visits to Cesare’s and Wolf’s homes during the last two days, and the pointed comments of their wives, Angel and Robin, about the eligibility of the guests—the female guests!—who were invited to his mother’s party on Saturday evening, had confirmed that his family, and his mother in particular, were still intent on finding him a bride of his own.
After receiving Darci’s invitation to dinner this evening Luc had realised that he might have found a way of avoiding that matchmaking—at least as far as the party on Saturday evening was concerned….