‘You, of course. What else? He left me in no doubt that unpleasant things would happen if I didn’t back off.’
‘What? Danvers, I don’t believe that. It can’t be true. You must have misunderstood.’
‘Believe me, when Montese sets out to make his point there is no misunderstanding. You belong to him. Keep off. That was the message.’
‘I most certainly do not belong to him.’
‘Tell him. He thinks you do.’
‘Danvers, are you saying he actually threatened you with physical violence?’
‘Nothing so obvious. He didn’t need to. He’s a man who knows everything.’
‘About what?’
‘About everything and everyone. He knew all about me, things I thought dead and buried.’
‘Things the bank wouldn’t like?’ Rebecca asked. It was a shot in the dark but she knew it had gone home when she saw his face tighten.
‘It was just a piece of foolishness and it was long ago. There was no harm done. Nobody lost out. The rules were laxer in those days anyway. But if it came to light now-well, anyway, I’m not taking chances.’
She regarded him curiously. ‘I suppose it didn’t occur to you to defend your right to me?’
‘Get real, darling. I’ve got a career to make. He’d never take his claws out of me. He had a complete dossier. Probably got one on you as well.’
‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ she said, but her voice was uncertain.
‘Rebecca, don’t be naive. You don’t have the first idea what this man is really like. He’s hard, dangerous, ruthless. And whatever there is between you, he’ll be as ruthless to you as anyone else. Ann, darling! Over here.’
‘Yes, you’ve talked to me longer than is safe, haven’t you?’ Rebecca said with a touch of contempt, and walked away without a backward glance.
She had to wait two days for Luca to return, and they were the longest two days of her life. Sometimes she told herself that what she was thinking could not possibly be true.
Her recent time with him had been glorious, a brilliant light in the grey that was her normal life. But she knew that the bliss was due entirely to their blazing sexual compatibility.
There was always one more loving to come, one more fierce, shattering pleasure to fill her world and drive out thoughts she didn’t want to think.
Lost in a haze of physical delight, she’d had little time to consider the personality of the man. Or perhaps she had chosen to look away, secretly aware that she would find too many things that she would not like.
She had heard him on the phone, giving Sonia his instructions, talking of his associates or his rivals with a blunt disregard of anything except coming out on top. She had brushed the knowledge aside, telling herself that he swam in shark-infested waters, and must survive by using tough weapons.
She had refused to see what kind of man Luca had turned into, but the knowledge had always been there like an echo at the back of her mind.
Now, she knew instinctively that what Danvers had said was true. She waited only to hear it from Luca’s own lips.
She arranged with the desk to inform her as soon as he returned to the hotel, and the call came late in the evening. Two minutes later she was knocking at the door of his suite.
His face broke into a smile at the sight of her.
‘I was just calling you,’ he said. ‘This is wonderful.’
He drew her into the room, shutting the door behind her and taking her into his arms.
As always, the sheer physical explosiveness of his kiss changed the world, driving out everything that was not him. With his lips caressing hers purposefully it was hard to believe that anything else mattered. Why stir up trouble? Why not just give in to her body’s need?
She tried not to yield to such thoughts.
‘Luca…’
But he was already removing her clothes and she lacked the will to stop him. He could ignite her excitement with a gesture, a kiss, a touch of his finger on her face. After that it was like a chain reaction, flowing like liquid fire, unstoppable until it had reached the inevitable end.
When she was naked she saw a look in his eyes that melted her, as though he was seeing her nakedness for the first time, and was astounded by it. That was one thing about Luca, she realised hazily. He was never blase. His delight in her now was the same as long ago. After nearly a week his urgency was almost uncontainable, and so was her own, she discovered, secretly shocked.
What she knew of him made no difference to her desire to have him, and that was the scariest thing of all. She gave him back pleasure for pleasure, delight for delight, knowing that her body was responding without her mind’s consent. It was like losing herself and being unable to prevent it. Then the thought was lost in the sexual release he could give her.
Luca, holding on to her quivering body, sensed something different about her. It confused him even while it obscurely pleased him. He had done the right thing in seeking her out, for she was like no other woman. What a life they would have!
When it was over he propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at her with frank pleasure. Rebecca had always enjoyed that expression in his eyes, but now the thoughts and fears that she had pushed aside came crowding back to her. And with them came the troubled knowledge that he had overcome her resistance without even trying. He had too much power over her, and if she didn’t resist now it would be too late.
‘I like you best when you’re like this,’ he said, smiling and running a hand over her nakedness.
‘No.’ She seized his hand and held it. ‘I want to talk.’
‘Can’t it wait?’
‘It’s waited too long. I meant to talk as soon as I arrived but-well-’
‘But we want each other too much for talking,’ he finished for her. ‘Does anything else matter?’
‘Yes, I think it does. Something’s happened that we have to discuss.’
‘All right. Tell me.’
‘I was at a hotel reception a couple of days ago, and I saw Danvers. He tried to avoid me.’
Looking into his eyes, she saw a look of wariness, and her heart sank.
‘Is it true what he told me? That you warned him off?’
He shrugged. ‘OK, OK. Yes, I did.’
With a violent movement she rose from the bed and began dressing quickly. Suddenly it seemed indecent for him to see her naked.
She had expected the answer, but somehow that didn’t prepare her for the brutal reality. Now she needed to set a distance between them. He too rose and dressed, glancing at her with a dark expression.
When she was finished she turned on him, her eyes kindling. ‘You dared to dictate who I could see or not see?’
‘I needed a clear field to get near you, so I drove off the competition. Don’t be so tragic about it. Men do it every day.’
‘But how many men are like you, Luca? Danvers said you threatened him with something in his past. You’d compiled a dossier. That must have taken some time. You knew about him before you ever came here, didn’t you? And not just him.’
He was watching her carefully, like a man trying to guess which way a cat would spring. How strange, she thought, that she had blinded herself to that calculating look in his eyes. How often had it been there, and she would not let herself see it?
‘The clue was there on the evening we met,’ she said quietly, ‘but I ignored it.’
‘What clue?’
‘You immediately called me “
He didn’t answer.
‘Tell me, Luca, was that meeting really a surprise to you?’
‘No,’ he admitted.
