The Italian's Ruthless Seduction

‘Possibly not,’ Sergio bit out. ‘But it has to be done.’

Jeremy sighed. ‘Be it on your head, then.’

* * *

Bella was slowly packing and trying not to cry when the inevitable knock came on the bedroom door. She’d known he would come; known he wouldn’t let her get away as easily as that. Frankly, she’d been bargaining on it.

Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the door and only half opened it, standing there so that he couldn’t come into the room itself. The sight of the obvious distress in his eyes almost undid her determination to be as ruthless as he had been. She’d expected him to be upset with her. Just not this upset. Till she reminded herself that he was obsessively in lust with her. Of course he wouldn’t want to let her go just yet. He obviously hadn’t had enough. Maybe after yesterday he’d been planning on even more kinky fun and games.

This was exactly the train of thought she needed to steel her spine and harden her heart.

‘Yes, Sergio?’ she asked crisply. ‘What is it?’

His dark brows drew together in a frustrated frown.

‘What is it?’ he threw at her, his head shaking from side to side in seeming disbelief. ‘You ask me that after what we’ve shared this last couple of weeks? I thought what we had was special, Bella. Clearly, I was wrong,’ he snapped.

She found a smile from somewhere. ‘Oh, no, Sergio, you were quite right. What we shared was very special and I will be eternally grateful to you. If it wasn’t for you, I’d foolishly keep believing that I could only enjoy sex with the sort of man I even more foolishly keep falling in love with. Now I know that all I need is a gorgeous-looking male friend like you. Admittedly, I doubt I’ll find too many male friends in future who are built as impressively as you are, darling, but that’s the way it goes. Look, I know I said I wanted you to come visit me in New York once in a while,’ she rattled on, ‘but I honestly think we should leave things as they are...’

The icy coldness in his eyes sent tiny shards of glass stabbing into her already broken heart.

‘I see,’ he bit out. ‘There’s no more to be said, then. Goodbye, Bella. Good luck with the movie.’

And he was gone, striding off down the corridor without a backward glance. With a strangled sob, she closed the door, then put her head in her hands and wept.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

‘OH!’ MARIA EXCLAIMED when she walked into the kitchen just after seven the following morning. ‘You are already up. And dressed.’

Her eyes narrowed at this last remark, noting perhaps that her boss looked as if he’d slept in his clothes. Which he had. After that last soul-destroying encounter with Bella, he’d returned downstairs where he’d polished off two more bottles of wine all by himself, at which point Jeremy had told him he’d had enough, then helped him up to bed. He’d woken when he’d heard Luigi’s car on the gravel around six, not rising till Bella was safely gone, at which point he’d come downstairs where he’d proceeded to have two mugs of strong coffee in a vain attempt to make a dent in his hangover. He was now on his third.

Maria’s frown deepened. ‘Something is wrong,’ she said. ‘Where is Bella?’

‘Gone,’ Sergio growled, then gulped down some more coffee. He didn’t want to talk about Bella. Or even think about her. He should have known what she’d be like all along. She was Dolores’s daughter, after all.

‘Gone where?’ Maria persisted.

‘Back to New York. To make a stupid movie.’

‘But...but she is coming back, is she not?’

‘No, she is not!’ he snapped.

‘But she loves you,’ Maria exclaimed, sounding truly horrified. ‘And you love her.’

Sergio laughed. ‘Well, you got that half right, Maria. I do love her. At least I did. But she doesn’t love me back. She told me so.’

‘Oh, pah, that is rubbish! She told me she love you very much. But like you, she is not sure you love her. She said she die if you don’t. She want to marry you. Be your wife. Have your bambinos.’

Sergio’s heart flipped right over. ‘She honestly said that? That she loved me and wanted to marry me?’

Maria’s hands found her hips as they did whenever she was exasperated. ‘I do not tell lies! So what happened to make her leave? What stupid thing have you said now?’