Helenka was stunning, and much more sophisticated.
Lydia’s eyes misted over with tears. What was the matter with her? The tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt. .felt … Gritting her teeth, she wiped her face with the back of her hand. It was only when she was fumbling through her bag in search of a tissue that she finally noticed that there was a package on the seat beside her.
The gift tag carried her name. She lifted the parcel and tore the paper off to expose a jewel case. It bore the gold logo of an internationally renowned jeweller. An incredibly starkly diamond bracelet nestled in a cushion of blue silk. Her mouth wobbled. She was being dumped, and she should be pleased. This was her freedom: the right to her own bed and diamonds into the bargain! The car door opened and she climbed out. Disorientated by the discovery that the driver had ferried her to an airfield, she stared at the second limo that was disgorging Cristiano only ten yards away. In bewilderment she froze to the spot and stared. He was so breathtakingly handsome that it almost hurt her to look at him.
‘You can keep that stupid bracelet! ‘
she screeched at him, without even knowing that she was going to say that. Cristiano studied her in polite astonishment.
”What’s the matter with you’?’
‘1 saw you with Helenka-‘ ‘Talking.’
”You were smiling, flirting-‘
‘And you were jealous,’
Cristiano slotted in, smooth as glass.
Her mouth opened and shut again. Fuming with rage at that accusation, she snatched in a ragged breath
blasted back at him, full volume.
‘l’ve never heard anything so ridiculous…1 was not jealousl’
A wicked smile that was pure provocation curved Cristiano’s wide sensual mouth. The silence simmered. He said nothing.
‘l was not jealousl’ Lydia launched back at him again.
‘You’re famous for being a womanizing rat, but (won’t put up with that kind of behaviour! I’m delighted that we’re breaking up! ‘
‘But we’re not breaking up, gioia mia. We’re flying down to Southampton to board Lestara. ‘
With no grasp whatsoever of what he was talking about, Lydia could not hide her confusion.
‘But 1 thought the bracelet in the car was a goodbye present…
‘ I’m not that tacky. When it’s over, 1‘11 tell you.’
She raised an uncertain hand to her pounding brow.
‘But you didn’t speak to me at the hotel. You let me leave the reception alone-‘
”The press can find out we’re together at some other occasion. 1 like my privacy. 1 didn’t want our relationship to overshadow the whole purpose of the photo session, which was to re-establish your reputation,’
Cristiano murmured, walking gracefully closer to her rigid figure.
‘The PR firm called to warn me that Helenka was playing up, so 1 set out to distract her-‘ Her lips felt clumsy as she parted them.
‘You distracted her… ‘
‘lt averted the attention of the press from you as well.
The journalists were more interested in the idea that 1 might have something going with Helenka than in asking you about your time in police custody,’ Cristiano pointed out.
‘lt also worked a treat with Helenka, who chose not to act the diva in my presence and submitted to the photos.’
Those ramifications were too much for Lydia to take in just then. The source of her deepest misgivings was still his manner towards the beautiful Russian model.
‘lt was obvious that you already knew Helenka very well! ‘
‘she did a series of television ads for a company of mine last year. Didn’t you know that’?’
She shook her head. She was out of touch with the modelling world and rarely watched television. She could not bring herself to ask if the acquaintance had been an intimate one. She swallowed with difficulty and said tightly,
‘She wants you…’
‘But 1 want you, care mia.’
That husky assurance set up a chain reaction through Lydia’s unbearably tense body. She was shaking, and her knees were threatening to fold beneath her. She wanted to cry. Even though that horrendous sense of humiliation had evaporated, she still wanted to cry. A storm of emotion had sent her out of control, and now she was struggling to accept that it had only been a simple misunderstanding.
He had not betrayed her or rejected her. He had not preferred Helenka. Their affair, so recently begun, was not yet over. Regardless, she had made a horrible jealous scene-and a total fool of herself. How could she be jealous of him? How could she possibly be possessive of a guy she professed to hate? But she had been jealous, bitterly jealous, when she’d seen him laughing and smiling with Helenka. It took great courage for her to make that inner admission, and in doing so she was confronted by a much worse fear. Had she been weak enough to fall in love with him again?
Cristiano curved steadying hands to her waist and gazed down at her strained face. He wondered why that stupid scene had not made him angry, for he had little tolerance for such displays in public places. His security team had retreated behind the limos in an effort to hide their amusement. But he could see that she was not aware of their surroundings or their audience. She was still very worked up.
He looked down at her, and suddenly he wanted her so badly that if there had been a hotel within reach he would have rushed her there. Disconcerted by an urge that lacked his trademark self-discipline, he tensed.
A sob was locked in Lydia’s throat. She met his smouldering dark golden eyes and it was like shock therapy, for all thought of tears vanished as though it had never been.
That devouring appraisal sent a frisson of helpless excitement rippling through her slight taut frame.
‘Our luggage should be on the helicopter by now. We should board,’ Cristiano murmured thickly, and even though he knew he should not he cupped the soft swell of her hips to bring her into closer contact with his long powerful thighs. It was an act of pure sexual provocation.
A tiny little whimper of sound, only loud enough to be heard by him, was wrested from her as she felt the hard hungry swell of his arousal against her tummy. She tilted forward into his big powerful frame, suddenly boneless with need. With a ragged laugh, he turned her round with sure confident hands and headed her in the direction of the waiting helicopter.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LYDIA was in a daze. Mercifully the racket of the helicopter rotors made speech impossible during the flight, and she sat back in her comfortable seat to recoup her energies.
She had no idea where Cristiano was taking her, and she didn’t much care either. Although she thought he had mentioned Southampton she wasn’t sure, and she believed she must have been mistaken-for, on reflection, it did not strike her as an exotic enough destination for Cristiano.
Whatever, she had lived on her nerves all day, and felt that she had more important things to worry about.
First and foremost, she refused to credit that she could be developing any form of emotional attachment to Cristiano Andreotti. Sex was the only hold he had on her, she told herself vehemently. It was shameful and disgusting, and it made her hate herself, but at least it wasn’t love.
Only an absolute dimwit would f
all for a man in such circumstances, and she was not one. Nor had she any plans to become one.
Cristiano set the jewel case she had abandoned in the limo on her lap.Lydia passed it back like a hot potato that might burn her fingers.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him flip up the lid and remove the bracelet. It lay across his lean brown |ngers like a white river of glittering |re. He caught her hand in his and attached the bracelet to her wrist. Angrily she turned her head. He was only inches from her, brilliant golden eyes challenging. Her breath caught in her throat.
He meshed his fingers into the silvery fair fall of her hair and took her soft pink mouth in a savagely intoxicating kiss that made the blood drum through her veins at an insane rate.
”Why are you so stubborn’?’ he demanded in stark reproof.
Lips tingling from that deeply sensual assault, Lydia turned away to gaze into space and sink deeper into her thoughts. If she didn’t tight his power over her at every opportunity, where would she be? His charismatic strength and assurance were traits that she found dangerously attractive and exciting. But that did not mean that total surrender was an option for her. On her wrist the bracelet glinted and gleamed like a mocking reminder of her exact boundaries.
As the helicopter settled down on a landing pad, Lydia surfaced from her reverie and unshipped her seat belt. She caught a glimpse of the view through the front windscreen.
Maybe Cristiano was coming here on business, she reflected, submitting to the necessity of letting him lift her out of the craft because he was too impatient to wait for steps. A vaguely familiar smell made her nostrils flare and she stiffened when she identified it. It was the salty fresh scent of the seaside, and her tummy immediately knotted into a little cramp of alarm.
Cristiano was guiding her towards an open door. But she was hesitating, seeking to identify her surroundings. Horror was nudging at the back of her mind and she was striving rigorously to control it. She was walking on a metal-surfaced floor, and several feet away were the polished railings that reminded her very much of a documentary about the wreck of the Titanic. She sucked in a rasping breath, yanked her hand free of his and moved towards the railings.