It was. And yet...
She didn’t like it that Gregorio was treating her with the polite distance of a concerned acquaintance, rather than a lover. Not that she didn’t fully deserve it, but Lia missed the intensity of passion radiating from him. That had never been far from the surface when the two of them had been together in the past.
She drew in a shaky breath. ‘Let’s get this over with, shall we?’
‘Of course.’
Gregorio forced himself to remain detached and impersonal as he aided Lia in removing her clothes. He had never acted as nursemaid to anyone before—let alone a woman he had been in bed with all yesterday afternoon. But how difficult could it be?
More difficult that he had imagined once he had removed Lia’s jacket, blouse and bra. Which had proved easy enough once he had removed the sling.
The physical removing of Lia’s clothes wasn’t the problem. It was being this close to her when she was completely naked from the waist up, the fullness of her nipples just a tempting breath away. That was enough to tax the restraint of any man—least of all one who had already enjoyed having those succulent nipples in his mouth.
Gregorio attempted to remove temptation by taking the long red T-shirt from the chest of drawers and quickly putting it on Lia before refastening the sling. The nightshirt covered her to mid-thigh.
He drew in a deep, controlling breath as he unzipped and removed her skirt, but his resolve to remain detached was shaken again as he looked at her wearing sexy panties, suspenders and stockings.
He could do this, damn it. He wasn’t an animal or a callow youth. He was a man of sophistication and experience. He shouldn’t be aroused just by looking at an injured woman dressed in an unbecoming red nightshirt—even if she was also wearing sexy suspenders.
Except he was.
Thank goodness the restrictive material of his jeans prevented that arousal from being too obvious.
‘Gregorio...?’
His distraction obviously wasn’t quite so easy to hide!
He dealt with the rest of Lia’s clothing with the minimum of contact with the heat of her silky skin, breathing a sigh of relief once he had her safely tucked beneath the bedcovers and could straighten and move away from the bed.
Lia looked...fragile. Her hair was a silky auburn cloud on the white pillow behind her, and her face was almost as pale. The outline of her body was slender beneath the duvet.
But it wasn’t just a physical fragility. Lia’s eyes were a smoky and unfocused grey, with dark shadows beneath them. No doubt some of that had been caused by the agony of having her arm broken, along with the medication she had been given to relieve the pain. But Gregorio had a feeling it was also an outward show of the turmoil of emotions she had to be feeling inside.
It must have been a shock when Richardson had attacked and threatened her in that way: the animal had broken her arm, damn it. She had intended marrying Richardson once—would no doubt have done so if her father hadn’t died and Richardson hadn’t revealed his true colours by breaking their engagement.
As far as Gregorio was concerned Lia had escaped being married to a man who one day would have become an abusive husband.
Lia, on the other hand, must feel not only foolish for ever having been taken in by Richardson, but also disillusioned with the whole concept of falling in love.
‘Try to get some sleep.’ Gregorio’s voice sounded harsher than he’d intended, and he made a concerted effort to control his anger. It was Richardson he was angry with, not Lia. ‘I will leave the door open, and I’ll be in my office or my bedroom if you need anything.’
‘Thank you.’ The heaviness of her lids was already making them close.
Gregorio hesitated at the door. ‘Would you like the light left on or turned off?’
‘On!’ She half sat up again in the bed. ‘Off.’ She grimaced as she sank back against the pillows. ‘I don’t know...’ She groaned.
‘We will compromise.’ He nodded. ‘I’ll leave the door open and the light on in the hallway, okay?’
‘Okay...’ She sighed wearily.
Gregorio adjusted the lighting before quietly leaving the bedroom. As promised, he left the door open.
Only once he had reached the sanctuary of his office did he release the anger that had been building and building inside him by slamming his fist against the door. It hurt him more than it hurt the wooden door, but he needed the release, the physical pain, after remaining calm for Lia’s sake for so long.
He wanted to hurt someone. And that someone was David Richardson. Because Lia was suffering the emotional and physical repercussions of the other man’s abuse.
He had known she was suffering physically, but her emotional trauma had shown itself in her immediate reaction to the thought of being left alone in the darkness of the bedroom. Lia was frightened, but too determined to appear strong to want Gregorio to see that fear. He had seen it anyway.