A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

She longed for him but she knew that she had had no option but to be open and truthful.

Even though the consequences were beyond endurance.

He didn’t sleep next to her. She heard the soft sound of him rustling and then he left the room.

* * *

The silence between them the following day was oppressive. When he addressed her it was with the politeness of a complete stranger and she heard herself responding in the same frozen voice, making sure to avoid eye contact, making sure to keep her distance. On the plane, she buried herself in her book while he sat in front of his computer, working.

They had nothing more to say and she was miserable.

They landed back in wintry weather and grey skies. Snow blanketed the ground and reflected her mood. The bright blue, tropical skies were gone for good. Next to her, Alessandro had spent most of the drive on the telephone. One call after another, catching up on work. After wearing nothing but the bright summer wear he had provided for her, she felt weighed down in her thick clothes.

‘You don’t have to deliver me back home.’ She broke the silence to glance across at him.

‘How do you suggest you get back?’ Alessandro enquired. ‘Do you plan on walking from my house back to your grandmother’s with your suitcase on your back?’

‘I don’t want us to finish like this,’ she said shakily. ‘We could still...you know...remain friends...’

‘That’s not my style.’ He’d been dumped. For the best because the last thing he needed was the complication of someone falling in love with him, someone expecting him to be the kind of man who was willing or, for that matter, capable of sharing himself. But he couldn’t rid himself of the bitter, sour taste in his mouth. He’d spent hours the evening before walking on the beach, sitting and staring out at the black ocean in a foul mood, and things had not got better since.

Even more infuriating was the fact that he still wanted her. She had sat on the plane, absorbed in some book, oblivious to him, having dropped her little bombshell, and he had still wanted her.

He wasn’t used to being dumped and he wasn’t used to being ignored.

And now she talked about being friends?

‘Fine,’ Laura said stiffly. ‘Don’t say that I’m not trying to make peace between us.’

Alessandro’s mood worsened. ‘I take it your grandmother’s expecting you?’ he said curtly.

‘I texted when I’d be back. Look, it’s going to be very awkward if we walk in like enemies...’

‘Well, now, maybe you should have considered that before...’ He slid his eyes sideways. ‘And how do you intend to break the news?’

‘I’ll just say that spending a long weekend together demonstrated that we didn’t get along.’

‘Which is a bald lie, isn’t it?’

‘I’m not prepared to keep something going for the sake of other people, not when it’s a lie.’ She sighed and looked at his harsh, averted profile. ‘If I’d known... I...well, I never meant to get so wrapped up...’

He could never fall in love. He had built his entire life ruling out something he saw as a weakness. It was all she could do to stop herself from crying.

It was beginning to sleet by the time they made it to her grandmother’s house. ‘You don’t have to see me in.’ She turned to him as he killed the engine and sprawled back in the seat to look at her. ‘It’ll be easier if I go in alone and sit her down, break the news. You can...fill your dad in...’

‘And then when we next meet we...what, exactly? Pretend we haven’t been lovers? Going to be hard when you’re in love with me and would like nothing better than to find the nearest bed, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Then I’ll make sure to stay away until you’re gone,’ Laura said sharply. She opened the car door, bracing herself for the freezing cold, and was alarmed when he stormed out of his side, reaching to take her case to the front door.

He rang the doorbell, ignoring her as she scrambled to catch up to him. What the heck was he up to?

‘You don’t get to disappear,’ he growled. They stared at one another. Unfair as it was, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his beautiful face.