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The layers of protection she’d built around herself melted away in an explosive blast of raw chemistry. Her grip on the present slipped, and her mind twisted the highly charged sexual attraction into the ugly, destructive monster she knew it to be.
Terrified by the sudden glimpse into her own vulnerability, Lindsay reminded herself again that this was about Ruby. Ruby was the reason she was here.
‘I’m surprised you haven’t forgotten me, given the number of blonde women in your life. They must merge after a while.’
Amusement shimmered in his eyes as he reached for a towel. ‘The unexpected is always memorable. You walked away from me.’
And she could tell from his tone that no woman had done that before.
‘There was never the slightest possibility that I’d become involved with you. Unlike you, I think with my head.’
He laughed at that, and Lindsay frowned slightly because over the months she’d managed to forget that he had a sense of humour. And she knew why—that sense of humour made him seen more human and she didn’t want to think of him in that way. It suddenly seemed vitally important to remember that he was cold, ruthless and unemotional. In her head he needed to be as unattractive as possible.
But the smile he gave her was anything but unattractive. ‘So why are you standing in front of me now?’
‘I’m here because I need to talk to you.’ And that was true. But it didn’t change the fact that she was painfully aware of him.
And he knew it.
Alessio Capelli had so much experience with women that it would have been impossible for him not to know and the slow lift of his brow confirmed it.
‘You have flown all the way from England just to talk to me? I didn’t realise you found my conversation so stimulating.’
Lindsay was trying hard to ignore his superior height and the width and power of his shoulders. She hadn’t needed a display of his boxing prowess to be aware of his strength. Strength was woven through his very being; an essential part of the man. Everyone who came up against him crumbled. Physically and mentally he was a titan.
And he made his living from using that strength against others.
Against women.
Suddenly she wished desperately that she could wind the clock back. If she could have done so, then she wouldn’t have chosen Rome for a city break and she definitely would have paid more attention to where she was walking late at night.
Indirectly this whole situation was her fault.
If she’d never met him he would have remained in her head as a professional adversary instead of a man. When their paths had crossed professionally she would have been wearing her protective cloak, instead of which—
‘I tried calling you from England,’ she said crisply, ‘but no one would put me through to you. I’ve travelled here purely because you’re impossible to get hold of. Your staff will never say where you are. How do your clients contact you?’
He wiped his hands on the towel. ‘If you were a client,’ he said evenly, ‘you would have been given a different number to call.’
The same number as his women? Dismissing that thought, Lindsay bit her lip. ‘I told them on the phone that I wanted to talk to you about a personal matter—’
‘Then it’s hardly surprising that they didn’t put you through. They know that I never discuss personal matters.’
‘I said it was urgent.’
‘Which they would have translated as meaning that you were a journalist working to a tight deadline.’ He looped the towel around his neck and Lindsay frowned slightly, wondering what it was like to lead the sort of life where everyone wanted to know everything about you.
‘That was why no one would answer my questions? Because they thought I was a journalist?’
‘I’ve trained my staff to be suspicious. A tiresome necessity driven by being in the public eye.’ A cynical smile on his face, he stooped to retrieve a bottle of water from the floor. ‘I’m intrigued as to what could possibly be important enough to drag you back into my disreputable presence. Hopefully you’ve finally decided to abandon those principles of yours and explore the endless pleasures of emotionless sex.’
‘Alessio—’
‘You’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to getting you naked, tesoro.’ His dark drawl connected straight to her nerve endings and she felt a flash of heat low in her pelvis.
He was doing it on purpose, she knew he was. Trying to unsettle her.
‘You just can’t help yourself, can you?’ She struggled to keep her voice level. ‘You have to embarrass me.’
‘Mi dispiace,’ he purred, his eyes glinting wickedly. ‘I’m sorry—unfair of me, I know. It’s just that I just love watching you blush. Your cheeks are the same colour they will be after we’ve had frantic sex.’
‘That is never going to happen. Accept it.’
‘That shows how little you know me. I have a compulsive need to change situations that aren’t to my liking.’ He smiled—a slow, dangerous smile. ‘It’s called negotiation.’
‘Negotiation is when both parties get what they want—it’s supposed to be a win-win situation.’
‘I understand the winning bit—I’m not so good at accepting half a solution.’ His tone was gently apologetic but his dark eyes were as cool and unemotional as ever. ‘When I want something, I want all of it. Not part of it.’
Her heart was racing out of control and her thoughts were going in much the same direction. ‘You’re not my type, Alessio.’
‘That’s what makes it so exciting, tesoro.’ He was clearly enjoying teasing her, tying her in knots. ‘If your taste in men ran to dangerous divorce lawyers, it would be boring. The chemistry between us must be very inconvenient for you.’
The conversation had taken a dangerous direction.
It’s like sailing a ship through a storm, she thought wildly. Almost impossible to keep it from being blown off course.
He took her somewhere she didn’t want to go.
Somewhere she’d marked as off-limits a very, very long time ago.
‘Ruby—’ she croaked. ‘I’m worried about Ruby.’
‘Ah.’ His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘I should have known that your sudden arrival would have something to do with the disappearance of that racy, naughty little sister of yours.’
‘Disappearance? So you don’t know where she is, either?’ His words successfully dampened the sexual chemistry that had been threatening to eat her alive. Deeply troubled by that piece of unwelcome news, Lindsay sank her teeth into her lower lip, her mind speeding ahead, sifting through the options. ‘I thought—I hoped that you’d know what was going on. I thought she might have said something to you.’
‘Why would she do that?’
‘Because you’re her boss! She’s been working for you for the last six months.’
‘And you think I spend my working day exchanging confidences with my administrative staff?’ Alessio lifted the water bottle to his lips and drank deeply and Lindsay watched in dazed, mesmerised silence, momentarily distracted by the bronzed column of his throat and the tangle of dark, male chest hair at the curve of his vest. Intercepting her gaze, he lowered the bottle slowly and a hint of a smile touched his hard, sensuous mouth. ‘It’s unwise to look at me like that,’ he warned silkily, ‘if you don’t intend to follow through. And we both know that this isn’t the time or the place.’
The knowledge that he’d read her so easily was almost as disturbing as the unexpected and unwelcome burst of warmth that erupted low in her pelvis. ‘Do you ever think of anything other than sex, Alessio?’
‘Yes.’ Relaxed and in control, he scanned her flushed cheeks with disturbing intensity. ‘Sometimes I think about money.’
Lindsay looked away briefly, furious with herself for giving him the opportunity to increase her discomfort. ‘Can we please just talk about Ruby?’
‘If we must.’ His tone shifted from bite to boredom and he glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Obviously you’re still trying to exert your authority over her.’
‘It isn’t about authority. I love her and I care about her.’
‘As long as she is living her life the way you think she should live it. I don’t claim to be an expert on love, Lindsay, but I think it’s something to do with accepting people as they are and not trying to change them. You grip her like an eagle holding its prey.’
Lindsay felt a stab of pain, hurt by his criticism of her relationship with Ruby. He had no idea. No idea what their lives had been like. The quicksand of her emotions shifted and she stayed still, not allowing herself to be sucked down by the past. ‘As you say, you know nothing about love.’ She wasn’t going to let her mind drift backwards. ‘She hasn’t phoned me for a week and that’s not like her. She isn’t answering her phone and when I called your office they said that she hasn’t been in but they don’t seem to know any more than that. I’m worried. Really worried.’
‘Worried that she’s slipped out of your grasp? She’s twenty-one. Old enough to make her own mistakes without any outside interference.’ He adjusted the towel. ‘And it appears that she’s done just that.’
Lindsay stood still, tortured by a moment of self doubt. Was she interfering? No, this was her sister they were talking about. ‘Ruby is extremely vulnerable. When we met you and your brother last summer—well, she’d just come out of a very destructive relationship. She was devastated and—’ She broke off, reluctant to reveal anything about their past. ‘On the surface she seems all bubbly and together but—You may think you know her, but you don’t.’
His eyes fastened on her face. ‘She’s been working for me for the past six months. I suspect that I know a great deal more about your sister than you do.’ His tone was dry. ‘And now you’ll have to excuse me. I’m seeing a client in an hour and I’m flying to the Caribbean after that. Which is where, incidentally, your sister should be. She was supposed to be assisting me with a big case.’ He strolled through a pair of swing doors and Lindsay hesitated briefly before following him.
Client—case—
He was obsessed with work; totally focused on generating still more wealth to add to his billions. Why?
Frowning slightly, Lindsay dismissed the question instantly.
She wasn’t interested in what had turned Alessio Capelli into a ruthless, money-making machine. All she cared about was her sister. And he’d just revealed a small amount of information. Not much—just a morsel, but at least it was something.
‘She knew you were expecting her to go to the Caribbean?’
‘Of course. She was in charge of all the logistics both before and during the trip.’
‘There’s no way Ruby would have just abandoned her responsibilities like that—’ Lindsay stopped dead, realising that she’d followed him into the changing room.
Fortunately for her it was empty, but Alessio threw her a challenging glance, a sardonic gleam in his dangerous dark eyes. ‘You intend to continue this conversation while I shower?’ He pulled the tee shirt over his head, his lack of concern about his semi-naked state in direct contrast to her own growing discomfort.
Faced with a full-on display of breathtaking male physique, Lindsay felt her heart thud hard against her chest. ‘Could you just—not do that for a moment—?’ Her voice cracked and she tried again. ‘All I’m asking for is a few minutes of your time to talk. Please.’
‘If all you want is to talk, then the going rate for a minute of my time is about a thousand dollars. Unless you’ve suddenly won the lottery, you couldn’t possibly afford me. However, if you don’t want to talk then I’ll consider a preferential rate.’ His gaze raking her flushed cheeks, he gave an unsympathetic laugh. ‘What’s the matter? If you’re shocked, then you have only yourself to blame, tesoro. If you follow a man into the shower then you need to accept the consequences. It probably isn’t the best action for someone who is trying to deny the sexual side of their nature.’
‘I’m not denying anything. Yes, there’s chemistry between us—’ incurably honest, she stumbled over the words ‘—but that doesn’t mean I have to act on it. Being an adult is about taking responsibility for your choices.’ His amused glance set fire to her cheeks and Lindsay lifted her chin. ‘You’re not my choice.’
‘No?’
Somehow the conversation had become personal again and Lindsay lifted a hand and rubbed her fingers over her forehead. This wasn’t how she’d planned it. She’d been determined not to make it personal. ‘Please—can we just talk about Ruby?’
‘Of course. You talk. I’ll shower. If you’re so confident about your “choices”, it won’t bother you to see me naked.’ His hands dropped purposely to his shorts and she inhaled sharply and averted her eyes.
He was trying to unnerve her, she knew that, and the best response would have been to stare boldly at him and say something cutting, but her brain had turned to treacle and her tongue wouldn’t move.
‘Outside,’ she muttered incoherently. ‘Perhaps I should wait for you outside—’
‘Why would you need to do that?’ His voice was silky soft. ‘Not having problems with your “choices”, are you? Not finding that famous willpower of yours tested? Is that why you’re wearing the formal suit and the prim hairstyle? You’re hoping that if you’re tightly buttoned up on the outside, the inside will follow?’
‘I came straight from work.’
‘Ah, yes—your work. Lindsay Lockheart, relationship counsellor. How’s that all going? The last time we were interviewed by the same radio show you were earnestly urging people to use RAP, your new Relationship Analysis Programme.’ He sounded amused. ‘I tried it out with my last girlfriend. Unfortunately I finished with her before we reached the end of it.’
Lindsay bit her lip. ‘You don’t need my programme to identify that your relationships are all shallow and meaningless. The programme isn’t designed to factor in the emotional shortcomings of a cynic like you.’
‘So perhaps you should release a version called the Cynic’s Relationship Analysis Programme.’ He smiled. ‘Conveniently shortened to CRAP.’
Her face burned. ‘I’m not here to rehash our professional differences.’
‘I’ve always been intrigued as to how you’ve managed to build a reputation as an expert on relationships when your own experience in that area is so limited.’
It was as if he’d stripped off her clothes with the slice of a knife and left her vulnerable and exposed in front of him. Lindsay suppressed a helpless shiver, trying to find the weapons to fight him.
But confrontation wasn’t her speciality.
No wonder he was unbeatable as a lawyer—he identified a person’s weakness and then he pounced without hesitation or conscience.
If it weren’t for Ruby she would have been out the door and back on the plane.
As it was she forced herself to focus on Ruby again.
‘I need to know if my sister is involved with your brother.’ Please say no, she begged silently. Please say that isn’t what’s happened here. ‘She was definitely seeing someone, but she was very cagey about it and that isn’t like her. Normally she tells me everything.’
‘Everything? So that you can enjoy a vicarious sex life?’
Lindsay gritted her teeth. ‘Could they be together? Could she be having an affair with Dino?’
‘I’m sure she could. They seemed to find each other—entertaining.’
A cold trickle of dread ran through Lindsay’s veins. ‘And you didn’t try to stop them?’ Even without looking she was conscious that he’d removed the rest of his clothes and she kept her eyes firmly fixed on the wall. ‘It didn’t occur to you that they’re totally unsuited?’
‘Unlike you, I don’t make it my business to interfere. My control streak doesn’t extend to managing other people’s relationships. And I am not my brother’s keeper.’ Arrogantly confident, he strolled towards the showers and she caught a glimpse of hard male muscle, strong thighs and bronzed skin. Then he closed the door and she heard the sudden rush of water.
Momentarily released from his presence, Lindsay sucked in a breath and blinked back tears of frustration and worry. If circumstances had been different she would have walked away because when it came to verbal sparring she was no match for him. He tied her in knots. But his words had left her deeply worried for her sister and frustrated by his lack of support.
As far as she was concerned, this was the worst-case scenario. It appeared that Ruby was involved with his brother, to the extent that she no longer even cared about her job.
If Alessio was telling the truth, then her sister had abandoned her responsibilities.
What would have made her do that?
Why would she have behaved in such a reckless, irresponsible fashion?
And why hadn’t Alessio put a stop to it when it was obvious that the whole thing was going to crash and burn in the most disastrous way possible?
Couldn’t he see? Couldn’t he see that a relationship between Ruby and Dino was an accident waiting to happen?
Lindsay stared angrily at the shower cubicle.
Yes, of course he could see that. But he didn’t care about anyone but himself.
