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‘You’ve gone from modelling, to coercing middle-aged ladies out of huge amounts of money in business ventures that have no guarantee of succeeding.’ Accusation tightened every contour of the sculpted face. ‘You must really be proud of yourself.’
‘Modelling was only ever a job to put money on the table for me and my sis—’ She stopped abruptly as she heard herself attempt to justify her earliest choice of career to him.
Then the rest sank in. ‘What do you mean? I haven’t coerced anybody, and what’s it got to do with you, anyway?’ Bella had hammered out a deal with Maria Rocco, had agreed to bring her designs exclusively to Maria’s and keep them here on a five-year contract, only if Maria purchased her year’s worth of already-created stock up front, but it was a reasonable agreement, because Bella intended to succeed.
‘Maria Rocco is my aunt.’ As Luchino said it, he watched her face for her reaction. ‘That makes this very much my business.’
Bella pulled her face into a tight mask to cover her shock and uncertainty. Maria was Milanese, it was true, but the older woman had lived in Australia almost all her adult life. ‘Maria is a Rocco, not a Montichelli, and she told me she has no family.’
Bella clung to that knowledge, even as she noted that Luchino did indeed share some similarities of feature with Maria. That had to be just happenstance, though. What was a nose, after all, or the tilt of a chin?
‘My aunt left Milan, left the family and changed her name long ago. She no doubt considered herself alone.’ Harsh anger radiated from him as he went on. ‘I’m sure you saw that as an advantage when you set out to rob her of a vast amount of money.’
‘I did not! How do you even know about the agreement I have with her?’ She stopped, didn’t want to reveal anything to him. But he clearly knew something.
Luc’s hand rose to touch a spot above his heart—as though to assure himself of the presence of something in his shirt pocket? And yes, a faint square outline showed there—a photo, perhaps.
Before Bella could wonder about it, the mouth that had once offered soft seduction, had once whispered hungry words, love words to her that were oh, so false, tightened again into a strong, determined line.
‘I told my new finance manager I wanted to meet Maria. He’d heard Maria took on a protégé. When he mentioned your name, I asked him to get details for me.’
‘That’s an invasion of Maria’s privacy, and of mine!’ One that Luchino had apparently taken in his stride.
‘It was a timely intervention.’ He accompanied the declaration with a squaring of his shoulders. Low warning filled his tone. ‘Estranged or not right at this moment, I won’t see Maria go under financially because of you.
‘You somehow bullied her into buying a year’s worth of designer gowns at an astronomical price with no guarantee whatsoever that any of them would sell, and no way for her to get her money back if they don’t. On top of that, you talked her into employing you here to make more gowns which also may not sell.’
His face darkened. ‘A five-year contract where Maria carries the burden and risk, and you swim along on the high tide of all that money she’s handed to you. Don’t bother to deny it.’
Bella frowned. She had slaved over that three-page agreement herself. Luchino made it sound one-sided but it wasn’t an unfair arrangement, because Maria knew Bella’s only aim was success for both of them. Bella pushed the inkling of unease aside. ‘It’s an agreement, actually, not a contract.’ She hadn’t wanted the expense of a lawyer, but Chrissy’s past boss, Henry Montbank, had helped Bella to make sure the agreement was water-tight.
‘It’s robbery in the guise of a work arrangement.’
‘You’d call me a thief? How—how dare you?’ While Bella simmered in fury, questions vied for space.
Despite Maria’s indications to the contrary, she had a family? That family was the Montichellis?
One fact lodged deep: Luchino had investigated not only Maria, but also Bella. ‘You’ve pried into my life, behind my back, as though you had every right to do that. Just what did you find out about me, about my sisters? How far did you dig around, expose us—?’
‘I investigated your finances, Arabella, the work you’ve done in the years since I last saw you. And I learned everything there is to know about your arrangement with my aunt. I won’t apologise for doing that.’ He said the last with a hard glare in his eyes.
‘I intend to reclaim Maria as my aunt.’ His expression softened a little as he said this. ‘She’s family and…I want that bond with her if it’s at all possible. I’d have arranged to meet her before now if she hadn’t been out of the city.’
A hunger for family was bizarre, given his history. Yet he seemed sincere. Bella needed to remember he could be both convincing and duplicitous!
Bella glared right back at him, but sudden weariness tugged at her. Her hands ached from the hours spent in the adjoining sewing and consultation room, meticulously stitching Chinese cloisonné beads to the fitted sleeves of her latest creation while Maria’s sales clerk took care of customers. Bella wanted to go home, slip into one of her black catsuits and indulge in an hour of Pilates in front of the TV.
Instead she had to deal with an angry man she had hoped never to see again, a man who believed she meant his aunt financial harm. ‘Despite what you say, you mustn’t have investigated very well, Luchino, because Maria is in no financial danger from me.’
‘On the contrary, the purchase of your stock almost bankrupted her.’ Luchino raked a hand through his thick, dark hair.
Glossy, silky hair with a tendency to wave…
Bella pulled herself up straighter and gave Luc the benefit of her coldest stare. It was a lot of money, but she had needed a strong capital injection to enable her to buy the best fabrics and accoutrements to create more gowns, and her designs justified the cost.
It might take a few years, but Maria would get back her investment, and much more, eventually. ‘Your aunt is very wealthy, Luchino. She owns a penthouse apartment in the best part of the city, drives the latest-model luxury car and goes on overseas buying trips every other week.
‘Maria didn’t hesitate to agree to my terms, and she can afford to carry things along until my gowns start to really pay for her.’ Bella’s employer walked and talked affluence and until this moment Bella had seen no reason to doubt her.
Luchino shook his head. ‘Maria has spent beyond her means for years. The apartment is rented, the car is a lease and those buying trips have put her heavily into debt.’ His gaze darkened as he looked around the store. ‘She was in no position to buy into a speculative venture like yours.’
‘My gowns will sell. Maria has made a good investment, and I intend to prove that.’ Yet even as Bella said it, her stomach knotted.
She hadn’t asked Maria’s financial status. She had assumed it on the evidence in front of her. Now doubt formed and Bella experienced that hated feeling of losing control. If Maria really had no money, just a pile of debts…
‘I can’t fail.’ The words were a stark statement, because she simply couldn’t. Failure had ceased to be an option when their parents unforgivably abandoned her, Chrissy and Sophia while her sisters were still in high school. Every struggle since then had underscored that abandonment, and underscored Bella’s condemnation of the man before her because he had mirrored her parents’ actions.
Bella had striven to succeed, and she had done it. For her sisters, and to assure herself they would all be OK, and now she had to do it to assure herself she was OK. ‘As I build a client base, more gowns will sell until eventually Maria ends up making a strong profit from her investment.’
But none of that would work if Maria went bankrupt in the meantime.
As the weight of concern pressed down on her, Bella wanted nothing more than to assure herself she could indeed go forward, successfully, as she intended. ‘I’ll ring Maria. Find out where things really stand.’
Maria could allay Bella’s fears, Bella could send Luchino away. All would be well again, except for Luchino’s determination to be part of Maria’s life, which would bring him into contact with Bella’s life.
‘I can’t allow you to phone my aunt. I don’t want her to know that I bought—that I investigated her.’ He paused and cleared his throat, then said in a grudging tone, ‘I want a chance to get to know her without business matters getting in the way.’
Again that reference to a hunger for family. It confused Bella, and all of a sudden she wanted the comfort of her family, of hearing her sisters’ voices. Her hand reached for her bag beneath the counter, for the cellphone within. She could get either of them with a single press of a button. Then she stopped herself.
Later she could talk to Chrissy and Soph. Right now, if she tried to talk to either of them, she would say too much. Give too much away.
They knew about that ill-fated trip to Milan, but Bella had downplayed its impact on her, left out several vital bits, had not revealed the near-devastation of that whirlwind week when she offered her heart and Luchino seemed about to take it before she discovered the truth about him. She’d been nineteen and so gullible.
‘Prevarication is a waste of time, Arabella. The agreement is stacked in your favour. Maria is in financial danger because you pushed for the purchase of your gowns. Whether you knew her financial situation or not, your demands were unacceptable and I intend to see that you make up for your actions. These are the facts. Now, I’ll give you two choices to repair the damage.’
The planes of his face sharpened as he stared at her. ‘The first choice is you pay back every cent she gave to you, and you walk away.’
He had to be kidding. Bella almost laughed, but the expression on his face stopped her. Utter determination. ‘This isn’t just about money, Luchino. Maria has agreed to help me launch my label, my name. If I took out a loan to buy the gowns back, I wouldn’t be able to afford to re-establish myself elsewhere.’
Bella’s feeling of panic deepened. ‘I don’t have the money any more. I invested it in fabrics and notions for new gowns.’
‘Then I guess that leaves choice number two.’ He took a step towards her and she backed just slightly until she could sense the presence of the service counter behind her.
‘Oh? And what is that?’ Bella tried not to think about his closeness, tried not to feel threatened and confused by him.
Luchino fired his answer at her. ‘It’s quite simple, Arabella. You see to it that every gown my aunt bought from you sells quickly and for a good price.’
‘Sure. I’ll just make that happen.’ She would look up a fairy godmother in the yellow pages and get her to wave her magic wand. ‘Speed isn’t the key ingredient in my work plan. Maria knew that. It’s why we agreed on five years.’
What if he’s right? What if Maria goes bankrupt?
‘Five years is no longer an option. You must go out and attract buyers, attend the best functions, rub shoulders with the most élite of the fashion set, anything it takes to get their interest and sell every last one of those gowns, and sell them fast.’
What did the man want? I’m just a girl from the suburbs, Luchino. I don’t have those kinds of friends. She lifted her chin to a proud angle. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have entrée to that crowd.’
‘At my side, those doors will open to you.’ His grim smile made apprehension claw at her insides. ‘You will walk through them, and when you do I will be there. I will stick to you until Maria’s financial losses are recouped, one way or another.’
‘No.’ Close contact with Luchino? Do as he said, dance to his tune? No, no, no! The man must be mad, anyway. Mad about all of it. ‘I don’t even know if you’re telling the truth.’
The locked-up hurt and anger buried in her soul suddenly welled up. ‘After all, hiding the truth is what you do, isn’t it, Luchino? You pretended you had no wife. Tell me, did it hurt to lose her? Or were you simply glad to be rid of her so you could pursue your affairs conscience-free?’
CHAPTER TWO
‘I’M SURPRISED you know about my divorce.’ Luc made the observation as his gaze roved Arabella’s face. He couldn’t seem to take his gaze from her, and the unwelcome resurgence of the old attraction infuriated him.
Bella was as bad as Natalie, out to get what she could by any means available. Bella had proved it in Milan and he almost fell for her act there. She was doing the same thing to Maria now.
Luc would not be taken in a second time. He had no patience for faithless women and their untrustworthy ways.
So why the sudden flare of interest in Arabella after all this time? He had more important things to focus on.
Luc released his hold on Arabella’s arm and instead fingered the photo of his daughter that he carried against his heart. Familiar guilt rose up, followed by fierce determination. He would make things right for his daughter somehow. He had to.
‘I went to Italy for another modelling shoot five years ago.’ She looked as though she wished he would go back to Italy this instant and stay there, too. ‘Someone talked about you. I didn’t go looking for the information, trust me.’
‘Unfortunately, Bella mia, I no longer trust anyone, and certainly not you.’ In truth the ability to trust had been stripped irrevocably from Luc, stolen away by unexpected betrayal not once, but thrice.
Bella. His brother. His ex-wife. They had all played their part.
Tendrils of ash-blonde hair caressed Bella’s neck where they had escaped the knot of hair there. Eyes the colour of rich coffee shone as she seemed to gather herself.
Her anger arced, like light refracted from the planes of a sharp-cut diamond. He shouldn’t care, shouldn’t picture her with his own Montichelli jewellery designs gracing the long, slender neck. It was the appeal of her physical looks, nothing more. His mouth tightened.
Was it worth it, Arabella? What did the show manager give you in exchange for the use of your body? Money? Help to climb the ladder to greater modelling success?
Perhaps Bella simply felt no remorse. After all, his ex-wife had felt none. In the face of Luc’s agonised questions, his brother had shown none.
No more. No thoughts of the past to interfere with the present. No bitterness in this new life.
Australia was a deliberate choice. For…his daughter. For Grace. For a fresh start where betrayal could be if not forgotten, at least pushed back into its harsh, dark corner. And Luc had chosen Melbourne because he wanted to get to know the elusive aunt the family had spoken of always in whispers.
‘My car is parked a couple of blocks over. The proof of Maria’s situation is in it.’ Luc snarled the words out as he fought his memories, fought memories of Arabella that still had the ability to move him, even though he knew them to be utterly false. He strode towards the front of the shop. ‘Let’s go.’
‘I’m more than ready to see this so-called proof.’ Her hips moved provocatively beneath the silk dress as she collected a matching bag, stalked to the door and flipped the panel of light switches to leave only the night lights burning.
Luc burned, too, in anger, yes, but still with a hint of that old attraction and he didn’t want that.
Bella punched a button to arm the alarm system, and waited to hear the series of dull clunks as everything locked behind them. ‘The sooner we get to the end of this, the better.’
‘I agree.’ He took her arm, steered her along the busy footpath. His fingers burned where they connected with soft bare skin. Memories. Unfulfilled desire from six years ago. That was all. ‘Except this is only the beginning.’
Was he mad to choose this path? He had already made sure Maria couldn’t actually go bankrupt. Why not leave it at that and forget about Arabella?
Because you don’t want her to get one cent out of your aunt that she hasn’t worked for.
Let her squirm under his scrutiny while she worked to set things to rights. She deserved that, and he could easily control this physical awareness, even if it had taken him by surprise.
‘It’s just ahead.’ Luc produced a set of keys from his pocket and pressed the button to disable the central locking system of the top-of-the-range sedan.
Bella’s gaze followed his to look at the car. As she did so, she removed her arm from his grip. ‘Good. Show me the papers.’
Controlled, instructive, as though she had any say in this.
He opened the rear door and retrieved his briefcase. ‘Brique’s restaurant should be quiet. It’s only another block. We’ll look at the papers together.’
‘Why not here? And what if I want to check that the papers are authentic?’ Bella angled one hip and waited.
‘If you need to check once you’ve looked, you can keep the papers.’ Then in case she thought he would be so foolish, he said, ‘Naturally, I have copies.’
He waved a hand towards his car, challenged her. ‘If it suits you better to sit in the middle of this busy street…’
Bella glanced at the tinted windows of his car, seemed to size up her options. Her mouth firmed. ‘I suppose Brique’s will do.’
When they entered the restaurant, Luc ordered drinks and a platter of cheese, fruit and crackers. He considered it recompense for the use of the table, and he hadn’t eaten since lunch.
‘OK, so now we’re in civilised surroundings.’ Bella sipped her mineral water, and spread a portion of brie onto a cracker. The tremble in her hand was barely noticeable. ‘If you want me to admit that you do “civilised” quite nicely, I suppose it’s true. And I am hungry.’
As he was. Bella had a fiery spirit that called to something in his make-up. Luc forced himself to admit that. But he could and would control his awareness.
‘I like good things.’ He said it mildly enough and helped himself to brie and a cracker, too. ‘I’m not ashamed of that.’
Bella ate a morsel of the food. She closed her eyes. ‘Mmm. It may not be Pont l’Eveque, but it’s nice, just the same.’
Luc snapped his briefcase open and tried not to watch the movement of her mouth, the soft lips. He spread the relevant documents out for her to view.
Bella read for a couple of minutes in silence. Then looked up, gaze narrowed. ‘You say your finance manager obtained these?’
‘They’re the real thing, Arabella.’ As real as the woman seated across the table from him, her mouth, lush, lovely, deceptive, pursed in a combination of suspicion, and dread.
Luc welcomed the reaction, wanted her to realise she had no control in this any more, would have to cede it to him. ‘The information comes from a reputable investigative firm. As you can see, Maria’s purchase of your stock was beyond risky for her.’
He indicated the cover page attached to the report. Thought about the other papers tucked safely away at home. ‘You can ring the firm right now if you want. They’ll confirm everything you see there.’ They would once he gave them the go-ahead to reveal a certain level of information to her.
‘It just can’t be true.’ Bella whispered the words, and bent her head again. This time she didn’t come up for air until she had pored over every page. Her fingers trembled as she stacked the papers together and passed them back across the table to him.
Only then did she meet his gaze. ‘But it is true, isn’t it? Maria has extended herself too far to hope to climb back, and she’s taken my gowns and the beginnings of my reputation as a designer with her.’ Her breath faltered. ‘I should have checked, shouldn’t have simply assumed her financial status.
‘We’re both ruined. I don’t see how she can even hope to recover financially, let alone allow for my gowns to be a success. My five-year plan is over before it even got started.’
