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Seeing her in the flesh again had brought back all the reasons he had wanted to marry her in the first place. It wasn’t just her natural beauty or grace or poise. It wasn’t just her softly spoken voice and the way she nibbled at her bottom lip when she was feeling uncertain, or the way she sometimes twirled a loose strand of hair around one of her fingers when she was concentrating on something. It was something in her eyes, those incredible were-they-grey-were-they-blue eyes that had warmed and softened the first time she’d looked at him. What man didn’t want the woman he had chosen to be his wife to look at him like that?
As far as he had been concerned, Gisele had been perfect wife material, sweet and gentle, biddable and loving. The fact that he hadn’t been in love with her was irrelevant. For his whole life love had been an emotion he had never been able to rely on. In his experience, people used the words so freely but their actions rarely backed them up. The sex tape scandal had reinforced to him how pointless it was to love someone, for people always let you down. But in the end he had been the one to let her down. He had destroyed her love with his lack of trust in her. But he was determined to get her back. He would make it up to her in a thousand different ways. He couldn’t allow a failure like this to blot his life. It felt like a giant ink stain on his soul. He had made the error and it was up to him to do whatever it took to fix it.
And he would do whatever it took.
He knew she still wanted him. He had seen it that first day in her shop, the way her body spoke to him in its own private language. His own intensely visceral response to her had sideswiped him. He had thought he had put his desire for her behind him, but it was back with a vengeance as soon as he had laid eyes on her. It was an aching, pulsing need to feel her in his arms again. He couldn’t wait to take her upstairs and prove to her they still had a future, that the past could be permanently put aside, erased as if it hadn’t happened. She was playing coy with him but he was sure once he kissed her she would melt, just as she always had in the past. He could not tolerate any other outcome.
Failure was not an option.
‘I have arranged a flight for tomorrow,’ he said. ‘We leave at 10:00 a.m.’
Gisele gave him a brittle look. ‘You were that certain I’d come?’
He returned her look with measured calm. ‘Let’s say I know you well enough to be quietly confident,’ he said.
‘You don’t know me any more, Emilio,’ she said with another hardened look. ‘I’m not the same person I was two years ago.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ Emilio said. ‘I know we all change a bit over time but you can’t really change who you are deep inside.’
She lifted a slim shoulder in a devil-may-care manner. ‘Maybe in a month you’ll change your mind,’ she said and took a sip of her drink.
‘Is your sister still here in Sydney?’ Emilio asked.
‘No, she flew back to London ten days ago,’ she said, looking into the contents of her glass with a little frown. ‘The press were hounding her. They were hounding us both. I found it a little scary …’ She bit her lip and drained her glass as if she wanted to stop any more words coming out of her mouth.
‘It must have been a very difficult time for you both,’ he said.
She lifted her gaze to his; her eyes were like stormy grey-blue ice cubes, hard, cold and resentful. ‘I’d rather not talk about it if you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m still trying to sort it out in my head. So is Sienna.’
‘Perhaps you can invite her to stay at my villa for a few days,’ Emilio said. ‘I would like to meet her.’
She gave another shrug of indifference. ‘Whatever.’
Emilio signalled for the waiter to refresh their drinks. He sat back in his seat and observed Gisele as she tucked an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear, another one of her I’m-out-of-my-depth-and-trying-not-to-show-it mannerisms. She was not as immune to him as she tried to make out. He had seen the flare of female interest in her gaze. He had felt the shiver of reaction on her skin when he had touched her. One kiss would prove he could have her back where he wanted her.
‘Tell me about your shop,’ he said. ‘How did you come about buying the business?’
She dropped her gaze to the drink the waiter had just set before her. ‘When I came back … from Italy I … I wanted a secure base,’ she said. ‘I liked the idea of working for myself. Having more control, that sort of thing. I’d sold some items to the owner in the past and she gave me the first option of buying.’
‘It’s a big commitment for a young woman of just twenty-five, or twenty-three as you were then,’ Emilio said. ‘Did your parents help you?’
Gisele put her glass down. ‘At first, but then things got a bit tricky after my father got sick. He had a few debts we didn’t know about until after he’d died. Bad business decisions, a bit of gambling with the stock market that didn’t pay off as well as he’d hoped. I had to help my mother … I mean Hilary out.’
Emilio put his drink down on the coaster on the table between them. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t send a card,’ he said. ‘I’d heard he was terminally ill. I should have made contact to offer my condolences. It must have been a very difficult time for you and your mother.’
She looked back at the contents of her glass; the grip of her fingers was so tight around the stem he wondered if it would snap. ‘He took eight and a half miserable months to die,’ she said. ‘Not once in all that time did he ever say anything about me having a twin sister.’ She looked at him at that point, her grey-blue gaze blazing with anger. ‘Both my parents knew our relationship had broken up because of that sex tape but still neither he nor my mother said a word. I can never forgive them for that.’
Emilio carefully removed the wineglass from her stiff fingers and put it to one side. ‘I can understand your anger towards them but our relationship broke up because I didn’t trust you,’ he said. ‘If anyone is to blame it is me.’
Gisele met his gaze in the long silence that ensued. ‘You know what really upsets me?’ she asked.
‘Tell me,’ he said, still holding her gaze.
‘How did they choose?’ she asked.
‘You mean who got which twin?’ he asked.
Gisele blew out a hissing breath. ‘I can’t get it out of my mind,’ she said. ‘How did they do it? How could my mother, my biological mother, give me up? And how could my father ask it of her? And not only that, what was my adoptive mother thinking by agreeing to bring up her husband’s love child? Did she have no self-respect?’
Emilio bent his forearms on his thighs so he could reach Gisele’s tightly knotted hands. He took them both in one of his, stroking the tension away as best he could. ‘Have you asked her about it?’ he said.
She looked at him with flashing eyes. ‘Of course I’ve asked her,’ she said. ‘She said she did it to keep my father happy. She spent their whole married life trying to make him happy but it never worked.’
‘From what you told me, your family always seemed so perfect to me,’ Emilio said, still stroking her hands. ‘You never said anything about them being unhappy together.’
Gisele looked down at their joined hands and hastily pulled hers away. She sat straighter in her seat, ramrod straight, angry straight, keep-away-from-me straight. ‘I never liked admitting it to anyone but I always felt I wasn’t good enough for either of my parents,’ she said. ‘I tried my best but nothing I did or achieved seemed to please them. My mother wasn’t the maternal type. She never liked cuddling me or playing with me. She employed a nanny to do that. Now I understand why. I wasn’t her child.’ She drew in another painful-sounding breath and continued, ‘My father was just as bad. Deep down, I think he really wanted a son. My mother certainly couldn’t give him one, but then his mistress gave him two daughters so he chose one. But I’ve often wondered if he thought he’d chosen the wrong one or whether he wished he had just walked away from both of us. He was stuck in a loveless marriage until the day he died, out of guilt presumably. All of those long stonewalling silences between him and my mother over the years suddenly made a whole lot of sense.’
Emilio frowned. He had never heard Gisele talk so honestly about her childhood. He had thought she had come from a reasonably happy and stable home. He had envied her background, given the bleak misery of his. It made him realise how little he had known her, even though he’d been days off marrying her. He had been struck by her beauty but had given little thought to who she was, what she valued and how she wanted her life to run. He had swept her off her feet, dazzled her with his wealth and charm, and yet had not known for a moment how deeply insecure she really was. It was like looking at her for the first time. The same beauty was there but so too was a fragility that he had not seen the first time around. But then she had been devastatingly hurt and he, to his shame, had done that to her, even more so than her parents. He wasn’t sure how he could ever fix that terrible mistake but he was determined to try. ‘How is your sister dealing with this?’ he asked.
Gisele let her stiff shoulders drop. ‘She’s a lot more chilled about it than me,’ she said. ‘I guess growing up with a single mother who was known to be a bit of a tear-away has toughened her up rather a lot. It sounded like Sienna was the parent rather than the child most of the time. She told me there were always a lot of men coming and going in her mother’s life. It can’t have been an easy childhood but she just made the best of it.’
‘Is she disappointed she didn’t get to meet your father?’
‘Yes and no, I suppose,’ Gisele said, frowning a little. ‘I think she would’ve given him a serve for what he did. She’s a bit of a straight shooter. I think I could do with some lessons from her, actually. It’s about time I learned to speak up for myself.’
‘I think you’re doing rather a good job of it,’ Emilio said with a crooked smile. ‘Perhaps I am wrong after all. Maybe you have changed.’
Her eyes glittered as they held his. ‘You’d better believe it.’
Emilio allowed a little silence to pass before he spoke. ‘Did you give the keys and all the relevant paperwork for your shop to the driver?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Your new assistant will hold the fort until you decide what course of action to take. I’ve already spoken to her about it.’
She frowned at him. ‘What do you mean?’
He held her look for a moment. ‘You might decide to stay on in Italy,’ he said. ‘It would be imprudent not to prepare for that possibility.’
She gave him a disdainful look. ‘You must get really exhausted carrying that monumental ego around. Do you really think I will step back into your life as if nothing has changed? You’re paying for a month and that’s all you’re going to get.’
Emilio fought back his temper. He was not used to her being so obstructive and defiant. In the past she had been so willing to fit in with his plans. Where was the sweet young woman he had chosen as his bride?
‘Would you like another drink?’ he asked after a tense pause.
‘No … Thank you.’ She pushed the glass away with another little frown pulling at her brow.
‘I thought we could have dinner in my suite,’ he said.
She looked at him with startled eyes. ‘Why not in a restaurant?’ she asked.
‘I thought it might be more private.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘You can quit it with the whole seduction routine, Emilio,’ she said. ‘It won’t work.’
Emilio felt his groin tighten as she threw the challenge down with her flashing gaze. ‘You think not?’ he asked.
‘I know not,’ she said with a lift of her chin.
He held her gaze, hot, hungry desire leaping like flames in his body. This new feisty Gisele was turning him on. There was something about her newfound defiance that thrilled him. It stirred his blood, making it surge through his system like rocket fuel. There was one thing he loved more than anything and that was a challenge. He had left his dirt-poor background behind with the same gritty determination to succeed no matter what it cost. He had put himself through school and then university, working day and night to cover the expense. He had made his fortune by rising to the demands of difficult clients and completing next to impossible projects. He had nearly lost it all after the scandal, but he had clawed his way back.
Gisele was another next to impossible project but, just like all the rest, he was determined to succeed.
Nothing and no one was going to stand in his way.
CHAPTER THREE
GISELE stood like a statue of marble as Emilio escorted her up to his suite. She could smell his aftershave; it stirred deep memories she tried desperately to suppress. She felt as if she were stepping back in time. How many times had she stepped into an elevator to accompany him up to his penthouse suite in hotels all over Europe? The erotic images that thought triggered made her skin prickle all over and she had to bite her lip until it hurt to block them from her mind.
Back then she had been so eager to please him. She knew right from the moment she had met him that he was a proud and strong-willed man but she had never questioned him, never stood up to him and never challenged him. She had just loved him, completely and desperately. How had she allowed herself to become so vulnerable? The power balance of their relationship had been wrong. She had loved him too much and he hadn’t loved her at all.
It was only his pride that wanted her back now. She knew it wasn’t about her as a person. He wanted the world to know he was setting the record straight. His offer of a one-month trial seemed to prove it. A man with his high profile could not afford to be seen as acting unfairly. The press had gone wild with the story of Sienna and her being reunited. She was surprised he hadn’t already informed the media of his intention to resume his relationship with her.
The elevator stopped and Emilio held the doors back for her with an outstretched arm. Gisele moved past him, determined not to show how unsettled she was. Her stomach was twitching with nerves. Everything about him unsettled her. He seemed to see much more than she wanted him to see. What if he sensed she was hiding something from him? How long before he guessed the pain in her eyes had been put there, not just by him, but also by the loss of their child? The child whose soft pink bunny blanket that still held a faint trace of her sweet baby smell was folded inside her suitcase? She hadn’t been able to leave that final link with Lily behind. Her mother … Hilary, she quickly amended, had said it was unhealthy to keep holding on. She had said Gisele should put it all behind her, pack the blanket away so she could finally move on.
Gisele wasn’t ready to move on.
She didn’t think she would ever be ready to move on. What would Hilary know anyway? She hadn’t physically given birth to a child only to have that child’s life snatched away. She didn’t know, couldn’t possibly know what it felt like.
‘Relax, cara,’ Emilio said as he opened the door to his suite. ‘You look like you’re about to be devoured by a wild beast.’
Gisele stalked past him. ‘I have a headache,’ she said and it wasn’t a lie. The pain behind her eyeballs had gone from a dull ache to a pounding that felt as if a team of jackhammers on steroids had taken up residence inside her skull.
His brows moved together. ‘Why didn’t you say something earlier?’ he asked.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, licking her lips to give them some much-needed moisture. ‘I probably shouldn’t have had that second drink. I don’t have a good head for alcohol.’
‘When was the last time you ate?’ he asked.
The fact that she had to think about it didn’t go unnoticed by him, Gisele thought as she saw that dark frown deepen across his brow. ‘I can’t remember,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t a priority. I had to get things sorted at my flat and at the shop.’ She threw him a resentful scowl. ‘You didn’t give me much time.’
‘I’m sorry but I have to get back to Rome for a project I’m working on,’ he said. ‘The client is a big one. I had to work hard to get the contract. It’s worth several million.’
Gisele thought of all the money he earned from his designs. She suspected he hadn’t come by it easily. He was a prime example of the adage that anyone could do anything if they had enough determination. And the one thing Emilio had in spades was determination. She could see it in the glittering depths of his dark eyes and the strong lines of his jaw, both hinting at the implacability of his nature. In the days and weeks ahead she would be going head to head with that intransigent personality. Who would eventually come out on top? She gave a little involuntary shiver. It was a nerve-jangling thought.
‘I’ll have dinner sent up immediately,’ he said. ‘The porter brought up your things earlier,’ he said. ‘Would you like me to get a housemaid to unpack it for you? I should have thought of it before.’
‘No,’ Gisele said, perhaps a little too quickly. She saw his eyebrows lift. Yes, definitely too quickly. ‘We’re … um … leaving tomorrow, in any case.’
He held her gaze for an infinitesimal moment. ‘Would you prefer the guest suite tonight?’ he asked.
Gisele gave him a flinty look. ‘Where else did you expect me to sleep?’
He came up close and brushed her hot cheek with the backs of his bent knuckles. ‘Do you really think you’ll be sleeping in the spare room for the entire month?’ he asked.
She brushed his hand away as if it were an annoying fly. ‘I haven’t signed anything that requires me to sleep with you.’
‘That reminds me.’ He moved away from her and opened a briefcase that was lying on a table near the window. He took out a document and brought it over. ‘You should read it before you sign it,’ he said, his expression now inscrutable. ‘The full amount we agreed on will be transferred to your account on the completion of your stay.’
Gisele looked at the sheaf of papers, wishing she could walk away. But two million dollars was not the sort of money she could turn her back on right now. She took pride in her success so far; it had helped her cope. How much better would she feel if her baby wear became even more successful? What else did she have in her life other than her shop? It wasn’t as if she was ever going to get married and have a family now. That dream was long gone.
She took the papers and sank to the nearest chair, casting her eyes over the words printed there. She read it in detail but it was as straightforward as he had said. After the month was up she would be two million dollars richer and would owe him nothing. She signed it with a hand that wasn’t quite steady. ‘There,’ she said, shoving the papers at his chest.
He put them to one side before he faced her again. ‘So, it looks like we have a deal.’
She lifted her chin. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You just signed away two million dollars.’ For nothing.
His lips moved up in a curl that had a hint of mockery about it. ‘How long do you think you will hold out, mmm? A week? Two?’
She glared at him fiercely. ‘If you want a bedmate then you’ll have to look elsewhere. I’m not interested.’
‘You’re planning your own little payback, aren’t you?’ he asked, still with that sardonic half smile.
Gisele felt a betraying flush stain her cheeks. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.
‘You think I don’t know how your mind works?’ he asked. ‘You plan to make me suffer every minute of the time we spend together. But do you really think that by snipping and snarling at me it will make me want you less? Don’t fool yourself, Gisele. You will sleep with me again, not because I paid you, but because you just can’t help yourself.’
Gisele thought she couldn’t hate him more than at that moment. She wanted to slap his arrogant face for assuming she had no self-control, no discipline and no self-respect. ‘I hate you with every cell in my body,’ she snarled at him like a cornered cat, all claws and bared teeth. ‘Do you realise that? I hate you.’
Emilio’s calmness riled her even further. ‘The fact that you feel something for me is good,’ he said. ‘I can handle anger. It is far better than cold indifference.’
Gisele was determined she would show him just how cold and indifferent she could be. ‘OK then.’ She kicked off her heels and began to unzip her dress. ‘You want me to sleep with you? Then let’s get it out of the way right here and now.’
He stood there watching her silently, hardly a muscle moving, apart from his eyes. She saw the flare of his pupils, the primal signal of male attraction as she stepped out of her dress, leaving it in a puddle of fabric on the floor. She was standing in just her bra and knickers before him. She had stood in a whole lot less before him two years ago. But suddenly she felt naked in a way she had never felt before. A shiver broke out over her skin and her stomach curdled at the thought of going any further with this.
She put her hands behind her back to unhook her bra but her fingers were suddenly fumbling and useless. She felt as if she was going to cry. The emotions were like a fountain inside her that had been blocked. The pressure was building and building. She could feel it behind her eyes; she could feel it inside her chest, a tight ache that burned like fire.
‘Get dressed,’ Emilio said curtly as he turned away.
Gisele felt as if he had ripped the ankle-deep carpet out from under her feet. She had been prepared to play him at his own game but he had somehow turned the tables on her. He wanted her but on his terms, not hers.
She felt foolish.
She felt uncertain.
She felt rejected.
She watched as he walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink. He tipped back his head and drained his glass and then set in down on the bar with a thump. His shoulders looked tense; the muscles were bunched beneath the fine cotton of his shirt. She remembered how those muscles felt under the soft pads of her fingertips, how she used to massage away those tight knots, how she used to press her mouth to that hot, salty male skin …
