Eliza twisted her lips in a rueful manner. ‘I’m not sure. I hadn’t met her before that night. She came as a bit of a surprise to me, to be perfectly honest.’
He started massaging his thumbs over the front of her shoulders, slowly and soothingly. ‘She came as a bit of a surprise to me, too. A delightful one, however.’
She felt a wave of sadness wash over her. How very different things would have been if she had been free to commit to the relationship he had wanted. ‘Did you really fall in love with me back then?’ She was shocked she had asked it but it was too late to take the words back. They hung in the silence for a beat or two.
‘I think you were right when you said I was looking for stability after my father died. Losing him so suddenly threw me. I think it’s hard for an only child—no matter how young or old—to deal with the loss of a parent. There’s no one to share the grief with. I panicked at the thought of ending up like him, all alone and desperately lonely.’
‘I’m sorry.’
He gave her shoulders a little squeeze before he dropped his hands. ‘You’d better get some clothes on. You’re starting to get goose bumps.’
Eliza watched as he effortlessly hauled himself out of the pool. He was completely unselfconscious about being naked. He stepped into his trousers and zipped them up without even bothering to dry himself. He bent to pick up his shoes and, flinging his shirt and tie over one shoulder, walked into the villa without a backward glance.
When Eliza came down to the salone later that evening Leo was standing with his back to the room with a drink in his hand. There was something about his posture that suggested he was no longer in that mellow mood he’d been in down by the pool. He turned as she came in and gave her a brittle glare. ‘Alessandra informed me you’d taken her outside the villa grounds on not one, but two occasions.’
She straightened her shoulders. ‘We didn’t go very far. She’d never been to the beach before.’
‘That’s completely beside the point.’ His eyes blazed with anger. ‘Do you have any idea of the risk you were taking?’
‘What risk is there in allowing her to walk down the street or put her feet in the ocean, for God’s sake? I was with her the whole time.’
‘You went expressly against my instructions.’
Eliza frowned at him. ‘But you said we’d go to London next week. I thought it would be good preparation for that.’
‘I said I’d think about it.’
‘That’s not the way I heard it. You said if I thought Alessandra would cope with it then we’d make a little holiday out of it. I was preparing her to cope with it and she did very well, all things considered.’
Anger pulsed at the side of his mouth. ‘Did anyone see you? Were there paparazzi about?’
‘No, why should there be?’ she asked. ‘No one knows who I am.’
‘That could change as soon as we are seen in public together.’ His eyes pinned hers. ‘Have you thought of how you’re going to explain that to your fiancé?’
Eliza raised her chin defiantly. ‘Yes, I have thought about it. I’ll tell him the truth.’
His brow furrowed. ‘That I’m paying you to sleep with me?’
She gave him an arch look. ‘It’s the truth, isn’t it?’
He shifted his gaze and let out a gust of a breath. ‘It wasn’t why I asked you to come here.’
‘So you keep saying, but it’s pretty obvious this is what you wanted right from the start.’
He took a large swallow of his drink and put it down, his muscles bunched and tight beneath the fine cotton of his shirt. ‘You haven’t forgotten you’re forbidden to speak to the press, have you?’
‘No.’
He faced her with a steely look. ‘You’re not very good at obeying rules, are you, Eliza?’
‘You’re very good at making them up as you go along, aren’t you?’ she tossed back.
His mouth started to twitch at the corners. ‘I wondered when she would be back.’
She frowned again. ‘What…who do you mean?’
‘The girl in the bar—that spirited, feisty, edgy little temptress.’ His eyes glinted darkly. ‘I like her. She turns me on.’
She made a huffy movement with one of her shoulders, trying to ignore the wave of heat that was coursing through her at that smouldering look in his gaze. ‘Yes, well, I liked the guy by the pool this afternoon much more than the one facing me now.’
‘What did you like about him?’
‘He was nice.’
‘Nice?’ He gave a laugh. ‘That’s not a word I would ever use to describe myself.’