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Fergus got up from the rug with a tired sigh and made his way creakily to the door. Edoardo opened it for him just as Bella was walking past. She gave him a startled look and stepped backwards, one of her hands going to her milky throat. ‘You scared me,’ she said.
‘That seems to be a habit of mine just lately,’ he said.
Her eyes fell away from his. ‘I know you’re not like … that,’ she said in a quiet voice.
‘So you feel safe with me, do you, Bella?’ he asked.
She slowly brought her toffee-brown eyes to his. ‘Of course I do …’
‘You don’t sound very sure about that.’
Her teeth tugged at her lower lip for a moment. ‘I know you would never physically hurt me,’ she said.
‘I sense a “but” lurking somewhere in that statement.’
She let out a wobbly little breath. ‘This thing between us … it has to stop. It has to stop before it gets complicated.’
He slanted her a cynical smile. ‘It’s already complicated, Bella,’ he said. ‘Your father made it a hundred times more so by putting me in charge of your life.’
Her gaze appealed to his. ‘You could always quit the guardianship. You’d be free of me and I’d be free of you. It’s a win-win for both of us.’
‘Not going to happen, princess,’ he said. ‘I made a promise to your father. He trusted me to keep you out of trouble. He worked damn hard to get where he got. I’m not going to stand by and see some gold-digging gigolo waltz into your life and take everything.’
‘Why do you think I’m gullible enough to let something like that happen?’ she asked with a frown.
‘You’re too trusting,’ Edoardo said. ‘You’re so desperate for approval and acceptance you can’t see the difference between genuine friendship and exploitation.’
She flashed him a glare. ‘I have lots and lots of genuine friends. Not one of them exploits me.’
He cocked a brow. ‘How much rent do you charge those four girls who share your house?’
She pressed her lips together without answering, her cheeks turning rosy red.
‘Nothing, right?’ he said. ‘You’re a fool, Bella. They’re using you, and you can’t or won’t see it.’
‘You know nothing about my friends,’ she said. ‘So I help them out with a place to stay—what of it? They help me in turn.’
‘How?’ he asked with a curl of his lip. ‘Let me guess: they help you spend your allowance on useless fripperies each month.’
Her eyes gave an annoyed little roll. ‘I don’t have to explain my personal expenses to you.’
‘For God’s sake, Bella, you went through fifteen thousand pounds in the last couple of months,’ he said. ‘You can’t keep spending like that. You have to take responsibility for yourself. I’m not going to be around to keep you on track for ever.’
She sent him a caustic look. ‘I can keep myself on track. I don’t need you.’
‘You do need me,’ he said. ‘And you’ve got me for another year, so you’d better get used to it.’
‘What’s the point of stringing this crazy guardianship thing out for another year?’ she asked. ‘You want to be free of me just as much as I want to be free of you. Anyway, once I get married to Julian, you’ll have to relinquish your hold over me.’
‘You’re not getting married until you’re twenty-five,’ he said. ‘Not while I have anything to do with it.’
She clenched her hands by her sides, anger in every rigid line of her body. ‘Is that why you’ve been busily trying to seduce me any chance you could?’ she asked.
He returned her fiery look with cool ease. ‘Are you going to tell your God-fearing boyfriend that you’ve slept with me?’
Her eyes turned to flint. ‘I have not slept with you.’
‘Are you going to tell him you had an orgasm with me, then?’ he asked.
Her cheeks bloomed with colour again. ‘I didn’t have any such thing with you. You didn’t … you know …’ She whooshed out a little breath and shifted her eyes from his. ‘We didn’t go that far.’
‘You probably won’t have to tell him.’
Her eyes flew back to his. ‘What do you mean?’
‘He’ll know as soon as he sees you,’ Edoardo said. ‘You won’t be able to hide it, especially if he sees you interact with me.’
She clamped her lips together as if she was struggling to keep back a retort. She released them after a moment. ‘I can’t think of any situation or event where you and Julian would be present at the same time.’
‘So you’re not going to invite me to your wedding?’ he asked.
She gave him a pointed look. ‘Would you come if I did?’
Edoardo considered her question for a moment. Over the years his mind had occasionally drifted to the day when she would walk down the aisle to some man standing at the altar. He had no doubt she would make a beautiful bride. She would love being the centre of attention; it would be her chance to be a princess for the day.
But he hadn’t planned on being there to see it.
‘Weddings are not really my thing,’ he said.
‘Have you ever been to one?’
‘Two, a few years ago,’ he said. ‘They’re both divorced now.’
She folded her arms across her middle. ‘Not all marriages end up on the rocks,’ she said. ‘Many couples spend a lifetime together.’
‘Good for them.’
She frowned at him. ‘You don’t believe love can last that long?’
‘I think people get love and lust confused,’ he said. ‘Lust is a transient thing. It burns itself out after a while. Love, on the other hand, is something that grows over time, given the right conditions.’
‘I thought you didn’t believe in love,’ she said.
‘Just because I haven’t been in love myself doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,’ he said. ‘I can see it works for some people.’
‘But you don’t think I’m in love, do you?’
‘I think you want to be loved,’ he said. ‘It’s understandable, given that your father’s gone and your mother has always been too selfish to love you properly.’
Her teeth snagged her bottom lip again. ‘You’re making me out to sound tragic.’
Edoardo studied her for a moment. ‘Don’t throw your life away on someone who doesn’t love you for the right reasons, Bella,’ he said.
‘Julian does love me for the right reasons,’ she said. ‘He’s the first man I’ve met who hasn’t pressured me to sleep with them. Doesn’t that say something?’
‘Is he gay?’
She gave him a look. ‘Of course he’s not gay. He has principles; standards. Self-control.’
‘The man is a saint,’ Edoardo said. ‘I can’t be in the same room as you without wanting to rip the clothes off your body and ravish you.’
Her eyes flitted away from his, her cheeks firing up yet again. ‘You shouldn’t say things like that,’ she said.
‘Why not?’
‘You know why not.’
‘You don’t believe in speaking the truth?’ he asked.
‘Some things are better left unsaid.’
Edoardo came over to her and slowly lifted her chin with the end of his index finger. ‘What are you so afraid of?’ he asked.
She moistened her lips with a nervous dart of her tongue. ‘I’m not afraid of anything.’
‘You’re afraid of being out of control,’ he said. ‘I make you feel out of control, don’t I, Bella? I’m not like all those simpering boyfriends you surround yourself with. You can control them, but you can’t control me. You can’t even control yourself when you’re with me. It scares you that I have so much power over you.’
She gave him a glittering glare. ‘You don’t have any power over me.’
He arched a brow as he trailed a finger over her bottom lip. ‘Don’t I?’ he asked.
Her lip trembled under his touch before she wrenched herself out of his reach. ‘You want to wreck my life, don’t you?’ she asked, eyes flashing. ‘You want to cause trouble for me because you’ve always resented me for being born to wealth while you were born to nothing. You think by dragging me down to your level it will somehow even the score. Well, it won’t. You will always be a reject who landed on his feet.’
Her taunting words rang in the silence.
‘Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest?’ Edoardo asked.
She put up her chin, her brown eyes still glittering with defiance. ‘I’m leaving,’ she said. ‘I’m not staying another minute here with you.’
‘Good luck with that,’ he said. ‘It’s been snowing like a blizzard for the last hour. You won’t get as far as the end of the driveway.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ she said and flounced out.
‘Damn it.’ Bella slammed her hands on the steering wheel in frustration. She had been so determined to prove Edoardo wrong. And she had almost done it, too. She had got further than the end of the driveway. She had made it to the road before her car had slipped sideways and become bogged up to the windows in a snowdrift. But now she was out of sight of the manor and, with the snow blocking the road for as far as she could see in either direction, she could be stuck here for hours. It was freezing cold in spite of the heater in her car. She knew she couldn’t leave the engine running for too long without flattening the battery. She could call for roadside help, which might take hours to get here. Or she could call Edoardo.
She rummaged for her mobile in her bag on the seat beside her. She held it in her hand, looking at the screen for a long moment where she had pulled up Edoardo’s number. As much as it pained her to admit defeat, she pressed the call button.
‘Do you want me to come get you?’ he asked without preamble.
Bella silently ground her teeth. ‘If it’s not too much trouble.’
‘Stay in the car.’
She glanced at the wall of snow that had fallen against both of her doors. ‘I can’t get out even if I wanted to,’ she said.
While she was waiting for Edoardo to come, her phone rang. Bella glanced at the caller ID and suppressed a groan. Her mother only ever called her when she wanted something, usually money. ‘Mum,’ she said. ‘How are things?’
‘Bella, I need to talk to you,’ Claudia said. ‘I’m in a bit of a fix financially. Have you got a moment to talk?’
Bella looked at the snow-covered landscape surrounding her little capsule of a car. ‘All the time in the world,’ she said with a jaded sigh. ‘How much do you need?’
‘Just a few thousand to tide me over,’ Claudia said. ‘I’ve decided to leave José. Things haven’t been working out. I’m in London for a few days. I thought it’d be nice if we spent some time together—hang out a bit, you know? Go shopping, do girly things.’
‘I’m not in London right now,’ Bella said.
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m … um, out of town.’
‘Where out of town?’ Claudia asked.
Bella drew in a little breath and carefully released it. Would it hurt to tell her mother where she was? Maybe if she were a little more open with her, Claudia would start acting more like a mother towards her. She longed to have someone to talk to who would understand. She was tired of feeling so isolated and alone. ‘I’m at Haverton Manor.’
‘With … with Edoardo?’
‘Yes … Well, not with him as such,’ Bella said. ‘I hardly see him. He does his thing. I do mine. He’s—’
‘I suppose he’s told you a heap of lies about me, has he?’ Claudia said. ‘Your father was a sentimental fool to let him take control of your affairs. How do you know if he’s ripping you off or not? He could be selling off your assets behind your back and you wouldn’t know a thing about it.’
‘He’s not ripping me off,’ Bella said. ‘He’s managing everything brilliantly.’
‘How can you possibly trust him to do the right thing by you?’ Claudia asked. ‘Don’t forget he would’ve gone to prison if it hadn’t been for your father vouching for him. He’s got bad blood.’
‘I don’t think you should judge someone on where or how they grew up,’ Bella said. ‘He had a difficult start in life. He was an orphan at the age of five. I think it’s amazing how well he’s done, given how hard things were for him.’
‘Goodness me,’ Claudia said. ‘This is a turn up for the books, isn’t it?’
Bella frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You springing to Edoardo’s defence,’ Claudia said. ‘You sound positively chummy with him. What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ Bella could have kicked herself for answering so quickly. Too quickly.
She could almost see her mother’s snide smile. ‘You’ve slept with him, haven’t you?’
‘What on earth makes you think that?’ Bella said, injecting her tone with as much disdain as she could. ‘You know how much we’ve always hated each other.’
‘Hate doesn’t stop people having sex with each other,’ Claudia said. ‘Some of the best sex I’ve had was with men I positively loathed.’
