In the act of arranging her on the bed with the care of a connoisseur, Andreo elevated an incredulous black brow at that announcement. ‘You need to consult a calendar, cara mia.’
‘It feels like a Friday night,’ she whispered in sudden decision, surrendering to his sheer animal vibrancy and ferocious resolve and amply rewarded by his lazy smile of approbation.
Pippa plucked a coral-pink rose from Andreo’s latest floral offering and wedged it into the buttonhole on her new blue jacket. Matched with a slim short skirt and fitted to her small waist, it gave her figure a flattering definition that she was unused to seeing.
Her terraced home was awash with flowers that perfumed every room. At least once every couple of nights she had made a supreme effort to tear herself from Andreo’s side around dawn and visit home to obtain fresh clothes. She would always bring back all the flowers he gave her and arrange them into vases. In the hall mirror she studied her reflection, absorbing the happiness in her eyes and the silly smile that just the thought of Andreo summoned up. Tension compressed her lips then instead. Indeed she gave herself a stern look. In little more than thirty six hours she would be flying off to France, not only to enjoy her holiday with Tabby and Christien, but also to take her first step towards forging a fresh existence. But leaving Andreo promised to be the toughest thing she had ever had to do…
Yet wouldn’t that only be because most ironically she would be the one to get in first and end their affair? Andreo had not yet betrayed any sign of boredom with her and why should he have? On her terms, the past nine days had been full of fun and passion and special moments. She was determined not to forget a single second that she had spent with him and had committed every single detail with religious care into her diary. However, nine days were also a very short period of time and she reckoned that Andreo had decided that it would be more convenient for him if he simply let their affair continue until the date of his own return to Italy arrived. Of course, as she had not even told him yet about her own plans, he still had no idea that she was on the very brink of leaving both Venstar and London herself.
Why hadn’t she told him? Perhaps she had been afraid that if he knew he might seek to replace her with someone who would be available for a little longer. At least she wasn’t fool enough to start imagining that someone as essentially ordinary as she was could possibly have any hope of a more lasting future with a male of Andreo’s legendary reputation.
No, she had made the sensible decision that she would make the utmost of every precious minute of her time with him but neither look for nor indeed hope for anything more. In return for her common-sense outlook, her careful, honest acceptance of her own limitations, she had had nine incredibly wonderful days living a fantasy existence with a guy whom…a guy of whom she had become very, very fond. That was all. Only a very stupid woman would have let herself fall in love with Andreo D’Alessio. And she wasn’t stupid, was she?
A limo was waiting at the kerb when she emerged from her home. Quite unconscious of the curtains twitching at the neighbours’ houses, she scrambled in and called Andreo on the car phone.
‘I told you I’d get the train,’ she scolded softly.
‘I want you to conserve your energy for me…I’ll see you at one for lunch.’
Even his rich, dark, accented drawl sent a little responsive quiver down her spine. ‘Hmm…’ She smiled while she thought about how much she enjoyed eating out in the exotic restaurants at discreet locations that Andreo chose for their daily assignations. ‘Can’t wait.’
A sudden silence seemed to fall when she reached her desk at Venstar. But then of recent she had progressed from being the first to start work in the morning to being the last to arrive and the first to leave. Furthermore, since the simple work she was currently being allotted was way below her capabilities she was free to daydream as much as she liked.
‘You know that’s a really fantastic suit you’re wearing…it’s so funky!’ Jonelle commented rather loudly.
Pippa gave the blonde a sunny smile of abstraction. ‘I think so too.’
Her colleague cleared her throat. ‘It looks very like a Versace outfit I saw in a shop window last week. Is it…I mean, Versace?’
Pippa shrugged without interest for she had never been into fashion. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t looked at the label,’ she said truthfully.
After all, Andreo had presented the outfit to her with the far more interesting news that he had had to buy it because it was the exact shade of her eyes. Apparently he had stopped the limo in traffic and got out the instant he’d seen it, so very probably the suit had featured in a window display. Whatever, Pippa kept on seeing a dazzling image of Andreo casting aside all cool sophistication and shouting at his chauffeur to stop and she thought such impetuous behaviour was incredibly romantic. It would have been true to say that had Andreo bought her a garment adorned with zebra stripes she would have been so affected by his going to so much trouble on her behalf that she would have worn it out of gratitude.
At that abstracted response, Jonelle and her equally inquisitive fellow listeners stared at Pippa in near disbelief.
‘You’re also wearing Jimmy Choo shoes,’ Jonelle dared, gazing enviously at the strappy works of art adorning Pippa’s slender feet.
‘The heel snapped off my shoe when I was out for lunch yesterday,’ Pippa confided.
‘I wonder if my heel snapped off would a total miracle take place in the street for little old me!’ With that acid comment, Cheryl shot Pippa a look of sullen resentment before she stalked out of the office.
Cheryl’s spiteful attempts to upset and humiliate Pippa and provoke her into leaving Venstar had got her nowhere, for in the mood that Pippa had been in of late, she would not have noticed Cheryl had she stood on her head and screamed. In vain did Cheryl complain about the very long lunch hours that Pippa now took. Pippa would mutter something vague about having lost track of the time and drift off looking very much as though she was existing on another mental plane entirely.
Minutes later, Andreo’s brother, Marco, phoned Pippa. It had to be about the sixth time he had called her. On the first few occasions he had asked for help with maths assignments, but since then their dealings had become more casually friendly and his latest request was for advice on what to buy for a six-year-old niece’s birthday. Ten minutes later, Jonelle answered the phone ringing on Cheryl’s desk and went off in search of the brunette. When neither Cheryl nor Ricky were to be found, Pippa received a call from a director asking her to go to the meeting room on the top floor to make herself available in Cheryl’s place for the client due to arrive.
In the act of stepping into the lift she discovered that Andreo was stepping out. Although it was only a matter of hours since they had last seen each other, she still could not drag her attention from his hard, handsome bone structure and she was utterly ensnared when she met his riveting dark golden eyes.
‘Is it long until lunch time?’ Pippa muttered, having left her watch behind in his bedroom.
Andreo lifted a lean hand and brushed a stray curl back from her cheekbone with a slow, heart-stopping smile. ‘Too long…where are you heading?’
‘The meeting room. Lester Saunders is due to arrive and Miss Long can’t be contacted.’
‘That could be Venstar’s biggest advantage over the competition,’ Andreo drawled with cutting dark humour, following her back into the lift to accompany her.
Minutes later, Andreo pushed back the door to allow Pippa to precede him into the comfortable room set aside for important appointments.
Halfway into the room, she stopped dead to gape at the man and woman writhing in passion on the sofa. Ricky Brownlow pulled himself up in consternation when he saw Pippa but his partner, Cheryl, gave Pippa a defiant look. ‘Don’t you know when to make yourself scarce?’