Страница 9 из 10
‘Luca,’ she muttered meaningfully, although she hardly knew where to begin, how to protest. ‘You can’t—’
‘I already have,’ he murmured as the Jeep came to a stop in front of a sprawling villa, its pale stone walls climbing with ivy and bougainvillea.
‘I know,’ Ha
‘Mr Tyson looks forward to welcoming you properly this evening, during the cocktail hour. In the meantime you can both rest and refresh yourselves.’
‘Thank you,’ Ha
And Ha
Stefano led them into the gracious entryway of the villa, a soaring foyer that made the most of the house’s unparalleled view of the sea. Down a long terracotta-tiled corridor, and then through double louvred doors into a spacious and elegant bedroom, a massive king-sized bed its impressive centrepiece, the French windows opened to a private terrace that led to the beach, gauzy curtains blowing in the sea breeze.
‘This is marvellous, thank you,’ Luca said, shaking Stefano’s hand, and with a murmured farewell Stefano closed the doors behind them, finally, thankfully, leaving them alone.
Ha
‘How could you?’ she gasped out. ‘How dare you?’
Luca moved his gaze to her. He seemed utterly unmoved, without a shred of remorse or embarrassment. ‘If you are referring to the way I introduced you—’
‘Of course I’m referring to that!’
‘It was necessary.’ And he strolled over to the windows as if that was actually the end of the discussion.
Ha
Luca turned around to face her, eyebrows arrogantly raised. ‘I don’t embark on ventures that are doomed to failure.’
‘I think you may be in for a new experience, then,’ Ha
‘Why? Why shouldn’t Andrew Tyson believe you’re my fiancée?’
‘Because I’m not—’
‘Are you not suitable?’ Luca steamrolled over her, his voice silky and yet underlaid with iron. ‘Are you not pretty or smart or sophisticated enough?’
A hot flush broke out over Ha
‘Is that so objectionable?’
‘This whole farce is objectionable! You tricked me.’
Luca sighed, as if she were being so very tedious by objecting. ‘I’m asking for very little, Ha
‘Very little? You’re asking me to lie to strangers. To pretend to—to be in love with you!’ The words rang out, making her wince. She hadn’t meant it quite like that, and yet...that was what he was asking. Wasn’t it?
‘I’m not asking anything of the kind,’ Luca returned evenly. ‘Although surely it wouldn’t be too hard?’
Ha
‘You know me well enough,’ Luca answered, his tone deliberately unruffled. ‘You’ve worked for me for three years. In fact,’ he continued, strolling towards her, ‘you probably know me better than anyone else does.’
‘I do?’ She blinked at him, surprised and a little saddened by this admission. She’d known Luca was a solitary man, but surely he had closer people in his life than his PA. ‘What about your family?’
‘Not around.’
‘Where—?’
‘You’re the only person who sees me every day, Ha
‘Yes, but you don’t know me.’ And she didn’t care whether she knew him or not. She wouldn’t want to play-act as his fiancée even if they’d been best friends. Which they were most decidedly not.
‘I think I know you a little bit,’ Luca said, a smile curving the sensuous mouth Ha
‘What? How?’ He didn’t know anything. ‘You’ve never asked me anything about my life until last night.’
‘Maybe I don’t need to ask.’
‘What are you saying?’ He’d taken a step closer to her and her stomach writhed and leapt in response, as if she’d swallowed snakes. She pressed one hand to her middle, knowing the gesture to be revealing, and stood her ground even though she desperately wanted to take a step away from him.
Instead he took a step closer. ‘Let’s see,’ he murmured, his voice a low hum that seemed to reverberate right through her bones. He was close enough so that she could inhale the cedarwood scent of his aftershave, see the muscles corded in his neck. Some time since entering the room he’d loosened his silver silk tie and undone the top two buttons of his shirt, so she could see the strong brown column of his throat, the dark hairs sprinkling his chest below. She jerked her gaze away from the sight.
‘You don’t know me,’ she stated firmly. ‘At all. Because if you did, you’d know I’d never agree to something like this.’
‘Which is why I didn’t ask you, so perhaps I do know you after all.’
‘You don’t,’ she insisted. He was close enough to breathe in, to feel his heat. If she reached one hand out she could place a palm on his chest, feel the crisp cotton of his shirt, the steady thud of his heart, the flex of his powerful muscles...
Ha
‘I think I do,’ Luca murmured. He stood right in front of her, his gaze roving over her, searching, finding, feeling as intimate as a caress. ‘I know you drink your coffee with milk and two sugars, although you pretend you have it black.’
‘What...?’ Her breath came out in a rush. It was such a little thing, but he was right. She added the sugar when she was alone because she was self-conscious about taking it. Every working woman in London seemed to drink their coffee black and eat lettuce leaves for lunch.
Somehow she managed to rally. ‘That’s not very much,’ she scoffed.
‘I’m only begi