A Tainted Beauty

‘I’m not planning to raze the house to the ground, Lily.’

‘Really?’

He looked straight into her eyes. ‘Really,’ he affirmed softly. ‘I’m planning a conversion in keeping with the building, if you must know. I’ll restore your beautiful house to its former splendour and turn it into a hotel. The kind of hotel where people will pay a premium for quiet and laid-back luxury.’

Lily stared at him. It didn’t exactly fill her with joy to think of her old home being available for hire in the future. To imagine people renting out the room in which she’d been born. But maybe if it had to be sold to a hotelier, then Ciro D’Angelo might just be the best kind. Just imagine if he’d been planning to put an ugly housing development there, or had wanted to erect some horrible modern monstrosity in its place. ‘I suppose that doesn’t sound too bad,’ she said cautiously.

‘I’m glad that my scheme meets with your approval,’ he said gravely.

‘I wouldn’t go quite that far—and you’ve still managed to avoid telling me anything about yourself.’

‘What exactly do you want to know, dolcezza?’

She wanted to know what it would be like to feel his lips pressing down hard on hers. ‘Do you have brothers?’

‘No.’

Or how it would feel to be crushed against that hard and virile body. ‘Sisters?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’

With an effort, she pushed away her wayward thoughts. ‘And was it a … happy childhood?’

His eyes narrowed. Should he come right out and tell her the truth? That in its way, it had been a particular type of hell. He remembered lying in the silent darkness, listening for the first sound of his mother’s high-heeled shoes hitting the marble steps. Holding his breath to discover whether or not she was alone or whether he would hear the murmur of male laughter and her own muffled response. He gave the hint of a shrug. ‘It was okay.’

She wondered what had made his dark eyes grow so stony. ‘Just okay?’ she questioned.

A cool expression iced the dark angles of his face. ‘Is this supposed to be a dinner date, or a therapy session?’

Through the flickering light of the candles she could see the tightening of his mouth and suddenly Lily didn’t want to spoil the evening. ‘I didn’t mean to pry,’ she said quietly.

But somehow Ciro knew that. Had he been unnecessarily harsh with her, when it had been concern and not curiosity which he could hear in her voice? ‘You’re talking about something which happened a long time ago,’ he said. ‘Something I prefer not to dwell on. At heart, all you need to know about me is that I’m just a simple boy from Naples.’

His expression was so irresistible, his assertion so completely outrageous that Lily started laughing. ‘Of course you are.’

He leaned forward. ‘Who badly wants to kiss the woman sitting opposite him.’

Lily put down her glass, afraid that the sudden trembling of her hand would cause it to topple. ‘Stop it,’ she whispered.

‘Why? Is it so wrong to say what we’ve both been thinking all night?’

‘You haven’t got a clue what I’m thinking, Ciro.’

‘Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea. I’ve been watching you very carefully and you cannot disguise the look in your eyes or the reaction of your body. I know you want me, Lily, just as I want you—and only a fool would deny that. I think I’ve wanted you ever since I saw you making pastry, wearing that cute, flowery little apron.’

Lily stared at him, her heart pounding. He was looking at her with an expression which was making her tingle with a delicious heat. Her skin felt as if it were too tight for her body—as if every pore of it were stretched like a drum—and suddenly she was scared. Her stepmother might have been motivated by self-interest, but everything she’d said about Ciro had been true, hadn’t it? He dated models and actresses. He was wealthy and powerful. He came from a different world.

She smiled. The kind of smile she’d have given anyone if they’d just bought her a delicious supper. ‘It’s been a long day,’ she said. ‘And I’m pretty tired. I think I’d like to go home now.’

‘Sure,’ he answered, noncommittally—not at all perturbed by her deliberate change of subject. He saw her relax as they both got to their feet but he didn’t feel one pang of guilt as he uttered the words he didn’t mean. Because he wasn’t planning to keep her here by force, was he? To take her upstairs to his suite and chain her to the huge bed. He was planning to kiss her, that was all. And after that, all her resistance would simply melt away—it was as inevitable as the rising of the moon which was gleaming silver in the sky above them.

This time, he didn’t take her through the hotel reception on their way to the car, but pointed to a way which was heavy with the scent of newly mown grass.

‘Where are we going?’ asked Lily apprehensively as they stepped away from the lighted area around the tables.

‘I thought that a woman who enjoys looking at the real world would enjoy a more scenic stroll to the car park, than walking through a busy reception area.’

Afterwards, of course, she berated herself for not having insisted on the more traditional route, but the illuminated trees he was gesturing towards looked too beautiful to resist. And the winding path was cleverly lit to make Lily feel as if she’d fallen into some magical woodland. Silvery light illuminated the smooth trunks of the beech trees and tall grasses waved their feathery golden fronds. If it had been any other time and with any other person, she might ha