‘Oh, but you mustn’t do that,’ she said, a frown puckering her brow as she stopped to look up at him. ‘He’s probably got a family to feed. It was my fault. I wanted to avoid the press. I wanted to melt into the crowd rather than turn up in a flash car and draw attention to myself.’
He smoothed the tiny frown away from her forehead with his finger. ‘I don’t like it when my orders are disobeyed,’ he said, ‘especially by members of my staff.’
‘Thank God I’m not on the payroll …’ She flushed and sank her teeth into her bottom lip. ‘Well, maybe I am, now that I come to think about it.’
Emilio brought her chin up. ‘You are not a member of my staff.’
‘What am I then?’ she asked.
His eyes measured her gaze for a long moment. ‘Try and rest this afternoon,’ he said and brushed a light kiss on her lips. ‘Tonight might be a late night.’
Gisele got in the waiting car, but when she turned from adjusting her seat belt Emilio had already gone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
EMILIO watched later that evening as Gisele came down the stairs towards him. She was wearing a simple but elegant fuchsia-pink cocktail dress with a matching chiffon wrap. She had skilfully styled her hair into a smoothly coiffed up-do that gave her a regal air. He had never seen her look more beautiful as she smiled at him, albeit briefly. Her smile was like sunshine breaking through the clouds on a bleak day. He had forgotten how wonderful it made him feel to see it. It was like a spill of warm fluid inside his chest, slowly spreading until all the places inside him were no longer echoing with emptiness.
It was a big step for him, taking her with him tonight. He had thought about going alone, like he usually did. Few people outside the charity knew how deeply he was involved and why. Over the past year or so he had felt the need to stop ignoring where he had come from and do something to help others escape the hell he had escaped. He had done it through sheer grit and determination but he had come to realise others didn’t always have the confidence or willpower to do it.
Giving Gisele a glimpse of his former life would be uncomfortable for him but that was the price he had to pay for wanting to make a difference. It wasn’t easy facing the dark shadows of his past. He always came away from these things feeling unsettled. He felt as if those ghostly shadows were reaching out of the darkness to drag him back to the gutter and leave him there, cold and shivering and alone.
Emilio took Gisele’s hand as she stepped off the last stair and brought it up to his mouth, pressing his lips against the soft skin of her bent knuckles. ‘You look stunning,’ he said. ‘Pink suits you.’
She gave him another fleeting smile. ‘Thank you.’
He reached for the jewellery box he had left on the hall table. ‘I have something for you to go with your ring.’
Her eyes looked at the box and then up at him with a little frown. ‘You shouldn’t be spending so much money,’ she said.
‘I have the right to spoil my fiancée, don’t I?’ he asked.
He opened the box and she touched a finger to the diamond-and-sapphire necklace glittering there. ‘I’m not really your fiancée,’ she said. ‘It’s just a game of pretend to the press.’
‘We could make it real,’ Emilio said.
Something flickered in her grey-blue gaze before she turned so he could put the necklace about her neck. ‘You want the old Gisele back but she’s gone, Emilio,’ she said. ‘You can’t get her back, no matter how much money you spend trying.’
Emilio put his hands on her slim shoulders once he had fastened the necklace, breathing in the summery fragrance of her until he felt intoxicated. He felt her skin lift in a shiver beneath his fingers, just as it always used to do. He liked that he still had that effect on her. He liked the way her body instinctively reacted to him, in spite of what she said to the contrary. ‘Is the money issue worrying you?’ He turned her back to face him. ‘The fact that I paid to have you back in my life?’
She gave him a pensive look. ‘It’s not about the money … not really …’
‘What, then?’ he asked.
Her eyes dropped from his to study his bow tie. ‘You want everything to be as it was,’ she said. ‘But I’m not sure life comes with a reset button. You can’t just pick up where you left off and expect things will be exactly the same as they were before. Things change. People change … I’ve changed.’
Emilio studied her for a moment with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. She said she had changed and she had. She didn’t eat. She didn’t sleep. She looked pale and frail. He had done that to her. He had been the one to change her. How could he change her back? He wanted it all to go away. A fresh start was what they both needed. It was no good looking back. He, of all people, knew that. It didn’t change things, brooding about what could have or should have been. Moving forwards was the only way to heal the past. He was living proof of it. Perhaps tonight would help her to see that.
He tipped up her chin again. ‘Let’s just take it from here and see how it goes, shall we?’ he said. ‘No promises. Just time to explore what we have now, instead of what we had then, OK?’
She moved her lips in a semblance of a smile but her eyes looked as if a cloud had passed through them. ‘OK,’ she said and slipped her hand in his as he led her out to the car.
When they arrived at the luxury hotel where the dinner was being held, Gisele realised the function wasn’t actually anything to do with Emilio’s architecture business but was rather a fundraising event for a homeless kids’ charity he had set up over the past year. She found out through the course of the evening that he had developed a drop-in centre in the city where young people could get a meal and a shower and a bed. His charity also offered educational and vocational schemes to help kids get off and keep off the streets. Counselling services were provided as well as drug and alcohol rehabilitation for those in need.
Gisele spoke to several young people who had benefited from the charity personally. They told her stories of how they had come to be on the streets—desperately sad and heart-wrenching stories of neglect and abuse. It was an unsettling reminder of how little she knew of Emilio’s background.
He had told her almost nothing about his past. Had she known him at all back then? Had he grown up like some of these young people? Why else had he set up such a charity? What had happened to him on those dark, dangerous streets? What sort of horrendous horrors had he witnessed or experienced? She wondered how he had survived it. How had he overcome such desperate odds to be the successful man he was today?
What had happened in the past year or so that he had decided to do something as big as this? She’d always suspected he deliberately shied away from his past, that he wanted to leave it well behind him. But putting himself out there in such a public way spoke of a deeply moving concern for others less fortunate than himself. It was such a change from the super-successful businessman persona he presented to the world. He was no longer using his wealth to show how far he’d come up in the world; rather he was reaching back down into his dark past to help others climb out of it.
One of the young volunteers, called Romeo, told her how Emilio did a lot of the hands-on work himself on the streets, speaking to kids to help them realise there were other options for them other than crime or prostitution or gang warfare.
‘He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,’ Romeo said. ‘I was one of the first he helped get off the streets. He helped me see a better future for myself. He taught me that you mustn’t let what happens to you define you. It’s how you handle it that counts. You must be very proud to be his fiancée, sì?’
Gisele hoped her smile didn’t look too unnatural. She was still feeling so incredibly shocked. The world Emilio came from couldn’t be more different from hers. She couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for him to drag himself from such a rough start in life to achieve all that he had. So many obstacles must have stood in his way. How had he overcome them? ‘Yes, I am,’ she said, ‘very proud.’
After a few more words of conversation, Romeo got called away to help with serving food.
Emilio came back over with a drink for her. ‘I hope Romeo wasn’t telling tales out of school,’ he said. ‘He has a tendency to exaggerate.’
‘Is this how you grew up?’ Gisele asked, looking up at him with a shell-shocked expression. ‘Like some of these kids? Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Lots of people have it worse than I did,’ he said with a dismissive shrug as he took a sip of his drink.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about your charity?’ she asked. ‘You’ve not said a word to me about any of this. In fact, this morning you said this was a business function.’
‘Does it matter?’ he asked.
‘Of course it matters,’ she said. ‘I thought I’d be forced to speak to stuffy old businessmen and their wives, and instead I’m meeting young people whose lives you’ve saved from God only knows what.’
‘Romeo would have made it without my help,’ Emilio said. ‘He just needed a leg-up.’
‘Who helped you?’ Gisele asked. ‘Who was your leg-up person?’
His eyes became shuttered. ‘Some people need more help than others,’ he said.
‘So you did it all on your own?’ she asked.
He touched her on the elbow to position her to face a man who was approaching them with a camera. ‘The official photographer is coming over for a photo for the newsletter,’ he said. ‘Put on your happy face.’
Gisele schooled her features back into happy fiancée mode as Emilio put his arm around her waist, drawing her into his hard warmth. She felt her skin react to his closeness, to his smell, to the sense of protection he offered. It was hard not to want to get closer, to start to imagine a future where she would always be by his side, helping him help others. He had mentioned they could make their ‘engagement’ real again, but how could she give him what he wanted most? The one thing he had always been clear on was that he wanted a family, but there was no way she could risk going down that path again.
The evening soon drew to a close. Emilio escorted her out to the waiting car, but he barely spoke on the way back to the villa. He spent most of the short journey staring straight ahead, his eyes blank, the different-coloured lights of the city passing over his features like a special-effects film, making his handsome face take on grimly distorted shadows and angles.
Although he had cleverly evaded answering her question about his background, Gisele wondered if he was thinking of the life he had left behind, the life of poverty and neglect and unspeakable cruelty that lurked on the underbelly of the eternal city. She thought of him as a young teenager out there, huddled under a bush or park bench, cold, hungry, thirsty, terrified, lost and alone. It made her heart ache to think no one had protected him, no one had taught him how to love.
‘I think it’s amazing what you’ve done,’ she said into the silence.
He frowned and looked at her as if he hadn’t realised anyone was sitting beside him. ‘Sorry, did you say something?’ he asked.
She gave him a soft smile and took one of his hands in hers. ‘It must feel good to have made a difference,’ she said. ‘To think that you’re responsible for so many young people getting a chance to live a decent life— a life they would never have been able to have without your help. It must make you feel very satisfied.’
He rolled his thumb over the diamond on her finger before meshing his gaze with hers. ‘In my experience money fixes just about everything,’ he said. ‘You just need enough of it.’
Gisele felt a little frisson scuttle down her spine at the glittering darkness of his eyes. ‘I guess you have to decide which projects are going to be worth pursuing,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t want to be throwing good money after bad.’
His half smile had a hint of ruthlessness to it. ‘I don’t take on projects unless I’m sure I’ll succeed with them,’ he said.
‘Success isn’t always up to you, though, is it?’ she said. ‘Other people or circumstances can influence outcomes in spite of what you’ve planned.’
His bottomless brown eyes moved from hers to slowly gaze at her mouth. She felt her lips tingle and fizz, her heart stepping up its pace as he touched her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. ‘Overcoming obstacles is part of the challenge,’ he said, returning his eyes to hers. ‘The harder they are, the more satisfying they are when accomplished.’
Gisele felt another shimmery sensation move down her back as the car drew to a halt outside his villa. There was a premonitory weight to the air as he helped her from the car. His fingers as they curled around hers sent livewires of electricity along her arm. She followed him into the villa, all her senses on overdrive as he led her to the salone.
‘Would you like a nightcap?’ he asked.
Gisele sent her tongue out in a quick darting movement to moisten her paper-dry lips. ‘Um … I think I might give it a miss,’ she said. ‘I think I’ll go on up to bed.’
‘As you wish,’ he said, moving to the bar to pour himself a finger of whisky.
She hovered for a moment, not sure why, but unable to tear herself away. She watched as he lifted the glass to his lips, how they rested against the rim and then how his strong throat moved up and down as he swallowed the liquid.
He put the glass down and looked at her. ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked.
‘No … I … It’s just I wanted to say thank you for this evening,’ she said. ‘I had a good time. It was very … revealing.’
He picked up his glass again. ‘Don’t go out making me out to be a hero, cara,’ he said grimly. ‘I’m anything but. You, of all people, should know that.’
‘I think you care much more than you let on,’ she said.
He gave a grunt of something that might have passed for mocking laughter. ‘Got me all figured out, have you, Gisele?’ He took another swallow of his whisky, a generous one this time.
‘I think you hide who you really are and what you really feel behind that I-couldn’t-give-a-damn façade,’ she said. ‘I think that deep down you’re afraid you’re going to get let down so you do everything possible to protect yourself.’
He put the glass down with a crack that sounded like a gunshot. His eyes were blazing with a heat that threatened to consume her. She felt the lick of the flames as he raked her with his gaze, an incendiary heat that ran along her flesh like a river of fire. ‘You should’ve gone to bed while you still had the chance,’ he said, moving towards her.
Gisele stood her ground, determined not to be threatened by his devilish and roguish manner. ‘You don’t scare me, Emilio,’ she said. ‘You might scare the warlords and the pimps and the drug dealers of the backstreets of Rome, but you don’t scare me.’
‘Such brave words,’ he said, taking a handful of her hair and pulling it free from its restraining clip, unleashing with it a flow of sensations that showered over her like the sparks from exploding fireworks.
Gisele sucked in a much-needed breath. He was so close. He was too close. She could feel him there: the heat, the hardness, the need that was as hungry as hers. It was pressing against her, calling her body into play. A call she could not resist, even if she wanted to. It was too primal, too overwhelming and way too rampant to be held back any longer.
He tugged her towards him with a roughness that thrilled her as much as it terrified her, pelvis against pelvis, need against need. She could not hide behind her smart comebacks now. Witty words were no defence for the onslaught of feeling that was rushing through her like a tumultuous tide. There was nothing between their bodies now but the desire that had always pulsed and throbbed between them. ‘Such brave, foolish words,’ he said and then his mouth came down on hers.
Gisele revelled in the fiery heat of his kiss. He took control from the start and refused to relinquish it. He thrust through the seam of her mouth with a bold stroke of his tongue and she whimpered in submission as she gave him total access. He explored her thoroughly, staking his claim, leav
ing her in no doubt of who was in charge. Teeth and tongues collided, hands groped and grabbed, clothes were unzipped, unbuttoned and at one stage even torn.
‘If you don’t want this then you’d better tell me now,’ Emilio said as he all but slammed her up against the nearest wall.
‘I want this,’ she said against his mouth, her lips nibbling at his, her hands searching for him, aching to feel him. ‘I want this. I want you.’
He groaned deeply as she finally found him, her fingers closing around his hot, hard heat, rediscovering the length of him, the strength and power of him. She felt him shudder as he fought for control. He was just as she remembered him: sleek and hard, an intriguing combination of satin and steel.
Somehow she was naked from the waist down; she couldn’t remember how it had happened but it didn’t matter. There was barely time for him to put on protection before he positioned her and drove into her with a force that sent her head back against the wall, a gasp exploding from her lips as she welcomed him all the way. He grunted with deep male satisfaction and her skin rose in a fine layer of goose bumps as she held him to her. He rocked against her savagely, deep pumping actions that made her body sing with delight, a rapturous melody that struck on chords that had been played in the distant past.
She didn’t take long to reach the summit. She only teetered there for a moment before she lifted off, her body convulsing around his, squeezing, contracting, milking him of his essence in those few blissful seconds where common sense and rational thought had no place, no foothold.
He followed close behind, a shudder going through him that ricocheted through her as she held on to him.
Long seconds passed.
‘Sorry,’ Emilio said against her neck, still breathing heavily. ‘I probably rushed that a bit.’
‘No,’ she said, sliding her hands over his back and shoulders. ‘You don’t need to apologise.’
After a moment or two he eased back to look at her. ‘You OK?’
Gisele wondered what he was really asking as she looked into the black unreadable pits of his eyes. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘It was … amazing …’
Deserving of His Diamonds? Page 10