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‘On the contrary, I have met very few that compare with your translucent beauty,’ he said. ‘Your blonde hair is like a skein of silk. Your eyes are the most amazing grey-blue and you are tall, slender and graceful. You are any man’s dream.’
She looked at him searchingly. ‘You don’t think I’m too tall?’
He gave her a reproving look. ‘You are surely not going to apologise for being tall, are you? You are doing my neck a huge favour. I do not have to bend down to hear what you are saying.’
Nikki giggled, which in itself was a novelty. She couldn’t remember the last time she had found anything or anyone amusing. ‘You’re the first man in ages that I’ve looked up to,’ she said, still smiling. ‘It’s quite a change, I can tell you.’
‘Is there a current man in your life?’ he asked.
Nikki hesitated for a fraction of a second. How could she tell him she was engaged to be married to a man twenty-five years older than her? A man who was offering her a passport out of the shame that had haunted and hunted her for so long.
‘No,’ she said, rationalising that for a week at least there was no one. She was a free agent until the following Saturday, and after that she was off the market for who knew how long.
‘I find that hard to believe,’ he said. ‘What is wrong with all the young men in Melbourne?’
She smiled at him again, and took another sip of her champagne. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you currently unattached?’
‘Yes,’ he said on a little jagged sigh. ‘I was involved with a woman in Sicily a few months back, but it did not work out.’
‘Have you recently arrived from Italy?’ she asked.
‘I have dual citizenship,’ he said. ‘I travel back and forth a lot on business.’
‘What sort of business?’
‘I am building up an international investment portfolio. My plan is to seek ailing companies to buy and then resell them for a profit,’ he said. ‘With proper management teams in place, a flagging business can be turned around within a year or two, or even a few months.’
‘It sounds very interesting, but rather expensive and extremely risky,’ she commented.
‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘I have a meeting later this week to hopefully organise financial backing for a company takeover I have planned for years.’
‘You sound very determined,’ she said, reaching for her glass and taking a little sip.
‘I am.’ A frown brought his dark brows together as he reached for his glass. ‘The company I want to take over was launched using money defrauded from my father. He was swindled by someone he trusted as a friend. I am on a mission to get every cent of it back.’
Nikki felt a faint shiver run up her spine at the determination in his tone. His expression had darkened, his eyes losing their playfulness, and instead they had begun to glitter with hatred. ‘So you’re after revenge?’ she asked.
He nodded grimly. ‘It is all I think about. I want to take my father’s enemy down, and I will do so, even if it takes me a lifetime to achieve it.’
‘How will you take him down?’ she asked, her heart beginning to thud with alarm. ‘You’re not going to do anything…er…underhand, are you?’
He smiled at her worried expression. ‘Of course I am not going to do anything illegal. I am simply going to outwit him in business. It should not be too hard. The best tactic in any sort of successful campaign is to know your enemy. I know all his weak spots, and so it will be relatively simple to disarm him when the time is right.’
‘He sounds like a truly horrible person,’ Nikki said, suppressing a tiny shudder. ‘Is that why you’re here?’
‘Yes and no,’ he said, his expression clouding slightly. ‘I have some meetings to attend…’He appeared to give himself a mental shake and exchanged his serious expression for a smile. ‘But enough about my troubles,’ he went on in a lighter tone. ‘Tell me about your family.’
Nikki felt her stomach drop with all-too-familiar panic. ‘M-my family?’
‘Yes; have you any brothers or sisters?’ he asked.
She concentrated on the bubbles in her glass rather than meet his gaze. ‘I have a brother two years younger than me.’
‘What about your parents? Are they still married?’
‘Yes,’ she said, reflecting wryly that it was more or less true. Her mother had still been married to her father on the day he had taken her life and ruined Jayden’s for ever.
‘You are lucky to have come from such a loving and stable background,’ Massimo said as he refilled the glasses. ‘My parents divorced when I was sixteen.’
Lucky? Nikki almost laughed out loud. The last word she would ever use to describe her background was ‘lucky’. Each day had been a fight for survival, each night an agonising wait for disaster to unfold as soon as her father had walked through the door.
‘Losing the business was bad enough, but losing my mother tipped him over.’ He paused, as if searching for the words to continue, the flash of pain in his dark eyes all the more evident.
‘What happened?’ Nikki prompted gently.
His gaze meshed with hers. ‘He took his life a few months later,’ he said. ‘I came out to the garage and found him unconscious. He had killed himself—the fumes had poisoned him, and he was unable to be revived.’
Nikki felt tears burn in her eyes for what he must have suffered. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said, reaching for his hand, her fingers curling around his. ‘No wonder you are after revenge. This ghastly man took everything away from you.’
Massimo gave her another grim look. ‘But I am going to get it all back, every single cent of it. I do not have the money to do it yet, but I will do it eventually. I know I will.’
‘Do you know something, Massimo?’ she said with an encouraging smile. ‘I believe you will, too.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘I have never met anyone like you before,’ he said, his dark eyes melting as they held hers. ‘I feel this amazing connection with you. Our backgrounds are very different, but I feel as if I have known you for a very long time—and yet we have only just met.’
Nikki felt her belly start to quiver as his long fingers stroked the underside of her wrist, the slow, sensual movement stirring her body into a whirlpool of feeling. Her breasts tightened, her nipples pressing against the lace of her bra as she held his dark-as-night gaze. ‘I feel it too,’ she said, her voice coming out low and husky.
A shadow of regret passed over his features. ‘I am only here for a week,’ he said. ‘I have to go back to Italy first thing on Sunday. But, when I return, can I see you again?’
Nikki hoped he couldn’t see the panic in her eyes as they came back to his. ‘I’m sure you will have forgotten all about me by the time you return,’ she said with a weak smile.
‘No, Nikki,’ he said, his fingers strong and determined around hers. ‘I will not forget you.’
She moistened her lips with her tongue. ‘I—I should have told you earlier,’ she said, dropping her gaze as she hastily composed her lie. ‘I don’t come from Melbourne. I’m just here on a little holiday. I won’t be here when you get back.’
‘Where will you be?’
‘Umm…Cairns.’ She said the first place that came to mind.
‘Then I will come and see you in Cairns,’ he said. ‘We can go to the Great Barrier Reef together, eh?’
‘Massimo…’ She forced her eyes to meet his. ‘I’m not sure I’m the person you—’
‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’ he asked before she could finish her sentence.
A few hours ago Nikki would have answered a resounding ‘no’, but after spending the evening in Massimo’s company she was now not so sure. She was attracted to him in a way she had never been attracted to anyone before, but it wasn’t just a physical thing—although that in itself was as overwhelming as it could ever be. It was more a sense of being in the company of a man who stood up for what he believed in. His loyalty to his father’s memory was truly admirable. It was so far removed from what she had experienced in her childhood she couldn’t help but be impressed, and indeed incredibly moved.
She thought then what a wonderful husband and father he would make. His sense of family was so strong that no one would be hurt, while under his protection. He was quite simply the most amazing man she had ever met.
‘You are taking a long time to answer.’ Massimo sent her a rueful look. ‘I have made a fool of myself, yes?’
‘No,’ she said, shivering all over again as he brought her hand up to his mouth. ‘I’m not sure about love at first sight, but I definitely feel something I’ve never felt before.’
He pulled her to her feet, bringing her to stand in front of him. ‘We have the next six days to explore and get to know each other,’ he said. ‘I do not want to rush you, but I cannot bear the thought of finding someone so special and wasting time in case we do not get this chance again.’
Nikki drew in a wobbly breath and did her best to smile. ‘If it’s meant to be, then we will get our chance,’ she said as his mouth came down to hers.
CHAPTER THREE
NIKKI spent the happiest six days of her life in Massimo’s company. She stalwartly refused to think about her wedding on Saturday. It was as if by not thinking about it she could really be the person Massimo believed her to be. She was a young carefree woman in love for the first time, relishing every moment of being truly adored and treated like a princess.
She knew it would have to end when the week was up, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. She comforted herself that Massimo was a man of the world. He would forget about her as soon as he boarded the plane back to Italy; his brief fling with the tall, blonde Australian girl would no doubt be a distant memory as soon as the first drink was served on the flight back home.
They explored the sights of Melbourne together, walking through the Bourke Street Mall to window shop, dining at some of the restaurants along the Southbank complex, and even spending some time at the world-famous Crown Casino where Nikki watched in awe as Massimo won a small fortune at one of the black-jack tables.
Later in the week they hired a car and visited the beautiful Yarra Valley, notorious for its picturesque vineyards, where the rolling green hills and valleys they passed prompted Massimo to say how much it reminded him of Sicily.
‘I would love to show you my homeland,’ he said as they drove back after spending a wonderful afternoon at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. ‘We do not have koalas and kangaroos and wombats, of course, but there are many wonderful historic buildings and artifacts.’
‘I would love to travel the world one day,’ Nikki said dreamily, looking out of the window as the verdant fields went by. ‘I’ve only ever been to…’ She stopped, her heart thumping at how close she had been to revealing how she had lied about where she had originally come from.
‘You were saying?’
‘Er…I’ve only ever lived in Australia,’ she said. ‘I know it’s a big and diverse continent, but I haven’t seen much of it really…’
He sent her a smile. ‘You have no need to be ashamed, cara,’ he said. ‘You are young. You have plenty of time to see the world.’
On the last day Massimo arranged to meet her after he had his meeting in the city. As soon as she saw him walking towards her outside the art gallery, where she had spent the morning filling in time, she knew things had not gone well for him. His handsome face looked pinched and his mouth tight.
‘Are you OK?’ she asked, touching him on the arm.
He placed his hand over hers and gave it a tiny squeeze. ‘I do not want to spoil our last afternoon and evening together talking about my business. Suffice to say things did not go according to plan.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
He gave her a strained smile. ‘I will just have to wait a little longer to achieve what I want, but then the best things in life are worth waiting for, no?’
‘I guess…’ she answered, looking down at their linked hands.
They walked past the Shrine of Remembrance through to the Botanic Gardens, stopping to have afternoon tea at the café overlooking the lake, where ducks waddled in search of crumbs and cheeky sparrows darted in amongst the chairs and tables in spite of the shooing actions of the staff.
Massimo smiled indulgently as she surreptitiously bent down to scatter some crumbs from the coconut cake he’d bought her. ‘You are not supposed to encourage them,’ he said, indicating the DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS sign nearby.
‘I know, but I can’t help feeling sorry for them,’ she said, a fleeting shadow of sadness moving across her face. ‘They’ve probably got little babies to feed.’
He reached across the table for her hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing each fingertip in turn, his intense gaze holding hers. ‘You have such a kind and tender heart,’ he said in a deep, gravelly tone. ‘I have waited a long time to meet someone as sensitive to the needs of others as you are.’
Nikki gently pulled her hand out of his, her whole body tingling with awareness. As each day had passed, she’d found it harder and harder to resist him. He had not pressured her to sleep with him, which surprised her. She had assumed, like many men with his jet-setting lifestyle, that he would have leaped at the chance of a one-week fling with a woman he had singled out for his attention. His kisses had been passionate and tender, enthralling and tantalising, and yet each time their mouths had touched he seemed to be keeping himself in check.
‘You are feeling nervous and uncertain, cara?’ he asked into the little silence.
‘W-what do you mean?’
He reached for her hand again and began stroking the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist in slow, sensual movements that sent a riot of sensation to her toes and back. ‘I want you,’ he stated bluntly. ‘I have wanted you from the first moment I saw you but something about you made me realise you are not a one-night stand sort of girl. I deeply respect that about you.’
Somehow she found her voice in time to croak out, ‘T-thank you.’
‘I have a bit of a reputation for working hard and playing harder,’ he confessed. ‘I can assure you, it is highly unusual for me to have spent more than three dates with a woman before bedding her.’
Nikki swallowed.
He smiled at the twin flags of colour on her cheeks. ‘You are a virgin, yes?’
Her eyes fell away from his. ‘No,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I wish I still was. My first and only time was horrible…’
He frowned, and his hand encircling her wrist tightened protectively. ‘You were…’ he paused over the word ‘…raped?’
Her eyes came back to his, her colour still high. ‘No, I just didn’t realise it would be so…so one-sided, if you know what I mean.’
His fingers began their sensual magic against the satin surface of her skin. ‘You did not experience pleasure, Nikki?’
‘Not really.’ She gave a little wry grimace and added, ‘Not at all, actually.’
His eyes darkened with tenderness as he pulled her to her feet. ‘We have one night left, cara,’ he said, linking her arm through his. ‘I want to make it as memorable as possible.’
Nikki had not dreamt how truly memorable it would be. They went back to the hotel hand in hand, the silence that hung between them heavy and pulsing with promise.
She felt it all through their last dinner together in the hotel restaurant. Each time his eyes caught and held hers, she sensed the sexual tension building in him. She could feel it thrumming in her own body, a deep and low pulse that begged to be assuaged.
She felt it in the lift as they silently climbed the floors to his room, each number showing above their heads like a countdown to paradise.
And she felt it in the thudding pulse in his fingers as they tilted her face to receive his kiss, the self-control he had been reining in all week finally slipping as the door of his room closed behind them.
‘I should not be doing this,’ he said, pressing hot kisses to the side of her neck as he lifted her hair out of the way. ‘I told myself I would wait until I return from Sicily, but I want you so much I am burning inside and out with it.’
Nikki raised her face for more of his drugging kisses. ‘I want you too,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘I want you to make love to me. I want to feel pleasure…Your pleasure as well as mine.’
He held her from him, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘Are you absolutely sure, cara? I can wait for you. I will make myself wait for you if you do not feel ready to take this step.’
She pulled his mouth back down to hers. ‘Don’t make me wait,’ she pleaded desperately. ‘I don’t want to wait another minute.’
He undressed her, the slow movements of his hands belying the true state of his arousal. She felt it against her, the hard surge of his body and how he fought to control it in order to prepare her properly for his passionate possession. His mouth was on hers, and then on each of her breasts, sucking gently at first, and then harder until her back arched with intense longing.
He laid her carefully on the king-sized bed, trailing a hot blaze of kisses all over her body, her mouth, her neck, her breasts and the tiny cave of her belly button before moving lower. She totally melted under the sweep and stroke of his tongue as it separated her feminine folds, the sensation of such an intimate caress sending her pulse skyrocketing. Her body began to convulse, the earth-shattering release beyond anything she had ever imagined.
He waited until she was calm once more before reaching for a condom. She watched with wide eyes as he came back to her, taking his time again in kissing and caressing her, until she was begging him to fill her. ‘Oh, please…oh please…’
‘You are getting impatient, Nikki,’ he said playfully, kissing her lingeringly, the sexy saltiness of her own body on his lips inciting her to grab at him greedily, her pelvis rising to meet the downward thrust of his.
