weakened.
Until now.
He’d been prepared for anything except what had happened to him tonight. Or had tonight merely been the culmination of something that had been creeping up for a long time, creeping so silently that he hadn’t seen the danger until it had sprung out of nowhere?
He blamed himself. A good entrepreneur planned for everything and was always ready to fight back. Those were the rules.
But the rules didn’t tell you what to do when the desire to fight had drained away, replaced by a treacherous delight in the company of a woman you’d always known was dangerous, and now seemed more dangerous than ever. If he had any sense he’d put a stop to this now, send her back to England and never see her again.
Vincente sat for a long time, watching her as she lay asleep.
They settled into a routine. She nursed and fed him, kept him hidden from the maids on their daily calls, made sure he was always at his best for his secretary’s visits, and massaged his back. She’d done this for her father and knew the trick of easing the pain, even if only temporarily.
Sometimes they talked as they had done at the beginning-about childhood, or other things, in a lighter vein.
‘I want to hear all about your other women,’ she said one night with a chuckle. ‘Go on, entertain me.’
They were drinking wine, side by side in bed, propped up by pillows, and he gave her a comical, cynical glance.
‘If you think I’m falling into that trap you have a very poor opinion of me. Try again.’
‘Shame!’ she cried. ‘What about that little flat you keep? The perfect place for orgies.’
‘That was chosen for its proximity to my office, so that when work overwhelms me I don’t have to go the full distance home,’ he said loftily.
‘Yeah, right!’
‘Well, it’s not a home, anyway.’ With a sudden note of surprise he said, ‘This feels more like home.’
‘With me paying slavish attention to your every whim? That’s your idea of home?’
‘Certainly,’ he said with a grin. ‘What else?’
She chuckled and spilt her wine, so that she had to dab herself and him.
‘How did you know about my flat?’ he asked after a moment.
‘I told you before, I’ve been reading about you in the papers.’
‘Did they say anything else about me?’ he asked in a carefully blank voice, not looking at her.
‘Just the same story endlessly recycled-glutton for work et cetera. Since you don’t ever seem to give interviews, they’re kind of stuck. They just said the flat was handy for your work, almost monk-like in its austerity. I invented the bit about orgies.’
‘That’s a relief.’
She looked at him impishly. ‘So you can relax. They haven’t found the true story.’
He returned the look. ‘Keep trying. You’ll get nowhere.’
They laughed and let it drop. But gradually it seemed to Elise that he was less willing to talk than he had been. She wondered if his life had been truly unhappy, or whether he was afraid of accidentally revealing professional secrets.
She was discovering that every time she thought she had Vincente’s measure he could surprise her again. On the day before the shareholders’ meeting he made her a gift that took her breath away.
‘Shares?’ she exclaimed, bewildered.
‘Now you’re a shareholder in the firm, so you can attend the meeting,’ he explained. ‘Call it your nursing fee.’
‘But-a few shares, yes-but this is a fortune.’
‘You’re a very good nurse. Look what you’ve done for me.’
To demonstrate his point he walked up and down, finishing before her with a flourish.
‘All your work,’ he said.
Now he could walk more easily, but if he had to stand for any length of time the pain returned and this worried her because she knew he would need to stand a great deal during the meeting.
It wasn’t his first trip out. The previous day he’d been to visit his mother, and had managed pretty well. But then he hadn’t spent much time on his feet. Today would be different.
‘Sit down as much as you can,’ Elise was unwise enough to say now.
‘Sit down? While my enemies are standing up? I don’t think so.’
‘Well, take some painkillers first.’
‘And risk falling asleep? No way!’
They travelled together in his chauffeured car and parted at the door. Once inside, she found herself escorted to a seat at the front, clearly on his instructions. Elise was prepared for the worst and found the meeting as stormy as she’d expected. She had very little idea of what was going on because her Italian couldn’t cope with the furious invective that came up from the floor and back from the platform. She only knew that Vincente was being attacked, and was attacking back in fine style.
Watching him carefully, she could see the moment when the pain began, but she doubted if anyone else would notice. The only outward sign was that he became more aggressive, more determined to crush opposition. Even with her limited understanding, it was clear to Elise that he was dominating the meeting, persuading everyone to his point of view or, if not actually persuading them, leaving them no choice but to do it his way.
It wasn’t amiable but, like everything else about him, it was exciting.
Afterwards, she lingered as he came down the steps from the platform. People crowded around to shake his hand and it seemed to her that every shake made him wince, although he never lost his smile or his air of assurance.
Then, to Elise’s dismay, someone clapped him heavily on the back, insisting that they must all have a good lunch to celebrate.
‘I’m afraid not,’ Vincente said, maintaining his smile by sheer will-power. ‘Now the meeting’s over there’s more work to do than ever.’
‘But you got your way.’
‘That’s why there’s work to do. You go to lunch. Ah, there you are.’
He seemed to become aware of Elise for the first time, although she was sure he’d seen her. As she came forward he slipped an arm about her shoulders.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
To the others it looked merely as though he was walking away with a beautiful woman. Only Elise knew that he was leaning on her heavily.
His car was waiting outside. As he settled down in the back seat, closing his eyes, Elise produced the painkillers and a small flask containing mineral water, handing them over in silence. He nodded and swallowed thankfully.
He must have given the driver her address in advance, because they headed straight there, reminding her what he’d said about it feeling like home.
Elise didn’t speak until the front door was safely shut behind them, then said firmly, ‘Get undressed, go to bed and I’ll give your back a rub.’
She joined him a few minutes later, pulling back the sheet to find him naked underneath. The strain was still there in his face, but he relaxed a little as she began to massage him.
‘So you won,’ she said, beginning to knead the tense muscles.
‘Of course.’
‘There’s no “of course” about it.’
‘That is, when I have my confederate looking after me. Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.’
‘Well, I didn’t want to risk my shares losing value, did I?’
‘Well done. I’ll make a businesswoman of you yet.’
But the next moment he winced and she said, ‘Stop trying to put a brave face on it. I’m not someone you need to impress.’
‘No, I wouldn’t get far trying that, would I? You’ve seen me at my weakest.’
