Rocco sighed with impatience at her pragmatism, but duly found the box and put the jewellery in the suite’s safe. As he went back out to the living area he yanked off his bow tie and shed his jacket. Gracie had disappeared, but the sliding doors were open. He went out. She was standing at the edge of the shimmering pool in her bare feet, shoes tumbled nearby.
Her dress glittered against the dusky night sky, her skin glowed like a pearl, and he felt as if he was falling.
Gracie heard Rocco’s footfall behind her. She finally felt a little more in control. As they’d walked through the hotel lobby she’d felt as if everyone could see her shame all over her skin. How had she morphed into this person who felt confident enough to entice Rocco away from a party and then jump on him in the back of his car like a sex-starved groupie?
In the lift on the way up to the suite she’d been so hungry for him that she’d ached for him to stop the lift and take her right there, with her dress pushed up around her waist and her knickers ripped off.
The strength of her desire had shocked her so much that she’d felt as if she might break apart if Rocco touched her as soon as they got into the apartment. She’d focused on the jewellery to stall him, even for a moment, too embarrassed even to look at him.
Rocco was standing beside her now and she glanced at him, feeling shy all of a sudden. He was looking down at the water.
She wondered if he felt overwhelmed by this intensity too, and then had to berate herself. Rocco wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by anything.
She spoke to break the tense silence. ‘The air feels denser … more humid.’
Rocco glanced up at the sky. ‘A storm is about to hit. The rain will start again any minute now.’
Gracie looked up and saw threatening clouds overhead. She heard the clap of thunder and flinched minutely. ‘Is it really warm when it falls?’
‘Yes.’
Gracie felt as if her nerve-endings were exposed. She took a breath and turned towards Rocco. ‘What happened back there … at the function … and in the car. It scares me a little—the way things escalate so fast between us.’
The air went still around them, and another distant clap of thunder came.
Rocco said carefully, without looking at her, ‘What do you mean?’
Gracie shrugged and turned back to curl her bare unvarnished toes over the edge of the pool. She looked down. ‘I’m not sure. I just … I want you to know that I don’t … I’ve never felt like this before.’
She felt him turn towards her and looked up. He seemed angry.
‘You think this is normal for me? This … insane desire?’
Hurt lanced Gracie. ‘I don’t think it’s insane. It’s just … it feels like it’s not entirely in our control …’
‘You’ve got that right,’ he said broodingly, and looked away again.
Something clicked into place and Gracie felt as if she had just stumbled on something that was fundamentally a part of Rocco’s psyche. She could sense the wildness in him that he denied, and how much he hated not being in control of it; much the same thing scared her. But he really resented it. She only had to remember the icy-cool beauty of Honora Winthrop to know which he would ultimately prefer. Gracie was a mere indulgence in his dark side.
Gracie looked back at the placid surface of the water and felt Rocco’s crackling tension beside her. That placid surface seemed to mock her now. A flicker of rebellion at Rocco’s evident distaste of this lack of control came to life deep within her and she stepped back deliberately from the pool’s edge.
Rocco said hesitantly, ‘Gracie …?’
And then she ran and dived right in, barely breaking the surface, the flash of intense colour in her dress gliding away under the surface to the other end.
CHAPTER NINE
ROCCO stared after Gracie, shocked. The irritation and anger he’d felt sparking when she’d tried to articulate what was between them was fading. Something else was blooming inside him, along with remorse for lashing out just now. It was a feeling of euphoria. The kind of euphoria he’d felt only once before, when he’d seen horror and disbelief dawn in his father’s eyes at knowing that his worthless bastard son had surpassed even his own phenomenal wealth.
Gracie’s head broke the surface of the water at the other end of the pool at that moment. Her dress, magnified under the water in a cascade of different colours, rippled out around her body. She looked impossibly wild and free, like a sea nymph, her hair slicked back in a stain of dark red.
Rocco felt the first fat drops of monsoon rain fall as he bent and pulled off his shoes and socks.
He dived in expertly, crossing the length of the pool in half the time it had taken Gracie. He saw those slim pale legs, the dress billowing around them, and reached for her underwater and pulled her down. Her eyes were wide when Rocco pressed his mouth to hers.
When they broke the surface of the water together, a few long seconds later, Gracie tore her mouth away and sucked in deep breaths. The rain was torrential now, and she tipped back her head and laughed out loud. Her arms were tight around Rocco’s neck and his hands were on her waist.
She looked at him, giddy from the shock of diving into the pool and then seeing him do the same. ‘The rain is warm!’