She didn’t believe him, but he was as good as his word, preparing
‘If you want to be useful, you can lay the table,’ he said.
The china was fine and hand-painted, set off by heavy cut glass and silver cutlery. When they were ready to eat he delayed a moment to say, ‘I’ve brought you a mobile phone. You’ll need it.’
‘But I have one.’
‘This is an Italian phone,’ he said, as though that explained everything.
It was exquisite-top of the range, with every latest gadget and several numbers already inserted for her use.
‘Those are my numbers at home and at work,’ he indicated. ‘That one is a lawyer whom I’ve asked to make some arrangements on your behalf. I dare say you’ll feel I assumed too much in doing so, but you may find them convenient.’
‘Thank you,’ she said non-committally. ‘And I promise not to disturb you at work. I wouldn’t dare.’
‘I hope you’ll call me if you should need help.’
Elise accepted because it would have been churlish not to. Besides, it really was a lovely object and she had a weakness for high-tech toys.
He served dinner with the skill of a waiter, laying every dish before her with a flourish. There was a series of wines, a different one for every dish, each one perfectly chosen.
They kept the talk light over dinner. He told her about his firm, the branches it had in many different countries. When she asked him about the Palazzo Marini he shrugged and made a wry face.
‘My grandfather bought it to show how far he’d travelled from his poor beginnings. My father wore himself out trying to keep up the pace and that’s why he died in early middle age. Then it was my turn. Luckily, I’m more like my grandfather.’
‘You admire him?’
‘He was a great man, perhaps a little too focused on work at the expense of people, but he did a lot of good for Italy.’
Vincente went to fetch more wine. When he returned she was standing by the window with the lights dimmed, looking out over Rome, which was bathed in floodlight. He filled two glasses and came to stand behind her.
‘Do you recognise anywhere?’ he asked, handing her a glass.
‘So many places, but they all look different now.’
He moved closer and she felt his breath on the back of her neck.
‘Everything is different, even in the last few months. I’ve often wondered if you’ve thought of me as I’ve thought of you.’
‘Are you expecting me to answer that?’ she asked lightly. ‘Or do you already know?’
‘What you really mean is, am I conceited enough to
She turned slightly, glancing at him sideways.
‘Don’t be so certain that you’ll ever make love to me.’
‘But I will. I must have you in my bed, to see if it compares with the times it’s happened in my dreams.’
Elise tried to answer but something had happened to her breath. She too had had dreams in which they achieved the union denied them months ago, after their first blazing few hours.
‘We came so close once,’ he murmured. ‘Do you remember the night we were one step away from making love?’
‘It wouldn’t have been love-making,’ she said quickly.
‘True, but if I’d said “having sex” you’d have thought me a vulgarian.’
‘“Sex” would have been the truth.’
‘Yes, by all means, let’s be truthful. Let’s say that when I held you against me I had to fight the temptation to strip every last stitch off you and see if your body was as beautiful as my senses were telling me it was.
‘And then, let’s be really truthful and say that this is what you wanted me to wonder, which is why you were naked under that dress.’
‘It was too tight for underwear, and you made me wear it.’
‘And do you always do what a man tells you to do? I don’t think so. You wore it knowing how it would affect me, and it did just that. It made me want you as much as you meant it to, and it lured me into being over-confident, which I think you may also have meant.’
She smiled. ‘Is that what I was thinking?’ she said softly.
‘Let’s say you were enjoying the joke at my expense. When I ran my hands over you through that silk you knew I was relishing every detail, picturing your nakedness, determined to see every beautiful inch of you before the evening was out.’
Softly he added, ‘You played games with me.’
Elise took a sip from her glass and set it down, turning to face him.
‘Not entirely,’ she said. ‘I didn’t lead you on for the pleasure of rejecting you, if that’s what you’re saying. I was sincere, but then-’ She broke off and made a helpless gesture. ‘Suddenly it felt a terrible thing to do.’
‘Terrible to satisfy yourself? Or was it me you didn’t want to satisfy?’
‘Perhaps I just didn’t want to put it to the test. After so long-’ She let the implication hang in the air.
‘That’s important,’ he agreed. ‘You need exactly the right man, enticing you to pleasure subtly. It would be a difficult choice.’
She was surprised into a choke of laughter. ‘Are you suggesting that I’m lining up candidates?’
‘You wouldn’t have to. They’re already in line. I saw them at Ben’s funeral, watching you, wondering if they had a chance. I doubt if Ivor was an isolated case. Even the delivery man who came here tonight gave you an appreciative look, and me an envious one.’
Vincente was telling her that they had come to the end of pretence. She would have known that anyway from the rapid beating of her heart, the warmth that pervaded her.
It was slightly shocking to discover that she could want a man for sex alone, but she couldn’t even deny it to herself, although she made one last desperate attempt.
‘It wasn’t the only reason I pushed you away,’ she said in a low voice. ‘You spoke once of freedom and said that only I could know what it meant to me. For eight years I was Ben’s prisoner, hedged in by his petty, spiteful demands that controlled my life. Now I’m free of him, but there’s more than one kind of prisoner-’
‘But I don’t want to be your gaoler,’ he said, understanding her at once, ‘only for us to find a new kind of freedom together. Trust me.’
The last words were full of perils, but he swept them away by simply laying his mouth over hers. For a moment they were both still, then his lips moved, not demanding but coaxing, teasing. That was her undoing. She could have resisted arrogance but gentleness lured her on, so that she moved her own lips in response, teasing in her turn, sensing his response, as helpless as her own.
She felt his arms go around her so that her head fell against his shoulder and he was kissing her in a way that was almost old-fashioned, as part of an enveloping embrace. It was natural to put her own arms about him and let her hand find its way to the back of his neck, caressing it with longing. Her lips fell apart and his tongue invaded her, moving with subtle skill, as though he’d been here before and knew all about her.
Once before, in the nightclub, she’d seen him as the devil, and now the thought was there again, for how else could he have known that the flickering of his tongue in just that spot could send scurries of pleasure through her? Or perhaps it was his unseen presence, living with her like a ghost ever since, and silently learning her secrets.
But after this there would be no more secrets. This was her last chance to run for cover, because once he’d taken possession of her she would be his, irrevocably. Every instinct she had warned her to escape now, while there was still time.
But there was no time. That moment had passed long ago, and now she was merely living out decisions taken deep inside her, in the still of the night.
He took her hand and led her into her bedroom. His fingers were at the buttons of her blouse, that plain
