Angel of Darkness
Kelda jerked violently away from the taunting caress and left the table.
CHAPTER FOUR
STANDING on the stone balcony, Kelda drained her cup of cappuccino and moodily surveyed the incredibly beautiful countryside spread out like a picturesque map. When Angelo had said ‘totally private’, he had not been joking. A patchwork of wheat and barley fields, grape and olive groves and copses of trees was interrupted by the sienna walls and terracotta roofs of occasional farmhouses. There was no town anywhere that she could see within walking distance.
And what would she do even if there was a town? Offer herself up to the local policeman? Refusing to give up her passport had to be a crime, but did she really want to try to prove such a claim against a native Italian like Angelo, who was undoubtedly a major landowner in the locality and probably held in considerable respect? She would end up with egg on her face.
She could not risk being sued for defaulting on her contract. Her relations with Ella Donaldson were poor right now. If she was sued, she would get the name of being unreliable as well as being notorious, she reflected grimly, and she might never work again. Photographic modelling was a tough business and behind her, ready to walk over her and take her place, were countless beautiful, ambitious teenage girls eager for their chance of success. Tim had called her famous but she was not in the super-model bracket, although her career had been heading that way before Danny Philips had tripped her up.
Like it or not, Angelo had her trapped. She could hitch her passage to the nearest embassy and say she had lost her passport but she would be in breach of contract if she walked out. Ella wouldn’t be a sympathetic listener to some far-fetched story about Max St Saviour and Angelo Rossetti.
She was here for only two days...what could happen in two days? Angelo was enjoying wielding power over her. Well, let him, she urged herself. Up to a point, anyway. Angelo wanted revenge for that night six years ago. This was it. Now that she was prepared, she could take Angelo in her stride, couldn’t she? Beyond keeping her here as an unwilling guest, he couldn’t force her to do anything that she didn’t want to do.
He had had breakfast sent up to her on a tray. It had been delivered by not one but two giggling maids, intent on getting a good look at Angelo’s latest bit of fluff. Her chin came up. Why should she care about what the staff thought? Nobody else was ever likely to know that she had even been here.
She strolled downstairs and paused in the doorway of the room Angelo evidently used as an office. It was so painfully well-organised and tidy, it screamed Angelo, and unexpectedly she found herself smiling, imagining him seated behind that exquisitely polished desk. Angelo wanted her. Imagine that...Angelo, sitting back to wait for her to stumble and fall into his ruthless hands. Angelo, who had probably never had to wait for any woman and who would, sadly for him, still be waiting for her on Judgement Day!
‘You look very pleased with yourself.’
Kelda spun and very nearly tripped on the corner of a rug. Angelo raised his hands to steady her, long brown fingers curving round her forearms. Without warning, he was much too close for comfort. ‘You can let me go now,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I’m not liable to fall at your feet—’
‘Ever?’ Lustrous eyes of gold challenged her with assurance. ‘Don’t be so sure, cara.’
‘Of that I am very sure.’ But her breath shortened in her throat as his scrutiny wandered at an outrageously leisurely pace over her, lingering unashamedly on the proud swell of her breasts. In shocking betrayal, her nipples tightened and thrust forward against the fine lace fabric, heat pooling between her thighs.
Kelda pulled back, crossing her arms protectively over herself. She couldn’t believe that he could make her react like that without even touching her. Her body trembled, taut and sensitive, on the brink of arousal. And it had happened so fast. She was shattered by the discovery that her body had a life of its own in Angelo’s vicinity.
A slow, sensual smile tilted his beautiful mouth but surprisingly he said nothing. He hadn’t noticed, she told herself in relief.
‘Would you like to go out to lunch?’
‘I’m allowed out?’ she prompted in astonishment.
‘You’re not in a prison cell...or a cage,’ he added with something less than his usual cool, and she noticed the strangest thing. Dark colour had overlaid his tautened cheekbones when he made that crack about a cell.
A slight pleat formed between her brows, for she had no idea why he had suddenly tensed. ‘I’d love to go out,’ she murmured truthfully.
‘So tell me about Jeff Maitland,’ Angelo invited as he raked the Porsche down the dusty hillside. ‘I hear that he wants to marry you.’
‘Surprised?’ Kelda tossed back, eyeing him from behind her sunglasses.
‘Not at all, cara. But I suspect his father might have something to say about it...’ Angelo drawled and then continued speciously, ‘Of course, perhaps you’ve already met Maitland Senior?’
Kelda compressed her lips, stayed silent.
‘He’s a narrow-minded prig,’ Angelo proffered smoothly. ‘And he’s been telling anyone willing to listen recently that he wants you out of his son’s life.’
Hot pink flamed in her cheeks.
‘Now, I am not a narrow-minded prig,’ Angelo divulged softly. ‘I can live with absolutely anything that you might choose to tell me about your past.’
Her teeth clenched but she turned her head and cast him a glimmering smile. ‘I don’t kiss and tell, caro.’
‘But your lovers do,’ Angelo inputted flatly.
Kelda stiffened. ‘I bet you devoured every word!’ she condemned.
‘Yes but I don’t say that I believed every word of it,’ he pointed out drily. ‘Of course, if you want me to tie you up and cover you with whipped cream, I’m more than willing...but on a first date?’