She’d added diamond studs at her ears and a thin gold chain with a tiny pendant for her jewelry. Her unruly hair, she’d subdued into a French braid while it was still wet.
“You look…different,” he added finally.
“Bad different?” she asked, over the loud thudding of her heart.
“Enchanting different,” came his quick reply, accompanied by a grin that threatened to take her out at the knees. “You look striking on the runway but I like this version of you more.”
“The not strutting in only three triangles of clothing version?” she said, cocking her eyebrow.
His laughter dug deep grooves at the sides of his mouth. His gray gaze shone like liquid metal. “That too. But it’s not just that. You look real. Like the woman I met in Bali that first night.”
Warmth crawled up her neck and she stared, tongue-tied.
Seducing her like this was a game to him. Surrender, his prize.
His thumb traced the dark smudges under her eyes that she hadn’t been able to cover up as well as her makeup artist. “However, you look tired.” Low and tender, his voice snaked itself around her. “Anna told me your calendar looks impossible.”
She tilted her chin up, dislodging his fingers from her skin. “Your assistant should keep her opinions to herself.”
This time, he came closer, caging her against the car. Fading sunlight caressed the planes of his face, much like she wanted to. “You’re pushing yourself too hard. I don’t need Anna to point that out to me.”
“This is the pace of my life, V. I want to clear out my calendar and be available for any situation with Charlie.”
“You can’t run away from your grief, cara. Nor can you wrap up six months’ worth of work in two. You need to take better—”
“I’ve been taking care of myself for as long as I can remember. No one else did it for me.”
He raised his palms in surrender. “I’m showing concern, bella. Not condescension.”
The fight went out of her. It wasn’t as if the latest designer she was modeling for hadn’t muttered about Alex’s dress for his show needing to be altered because she’d lost weight. She sighed. “I haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Missing me in bed?”
“It’s not my fault you refuse to stay here at the villa. Neither Leo nor Massimo have any objection to it. You can get to know your br—” he went from warmth to frost in a matter of seconds and Alex took a long breath “—the men you hate, a little better.”
A smile broke the stiffness of his upper lip. “You really think you’re very clever, si?”
“I’ve no idea what you mean.”
“You think putting me under the same roof as Massimo and Leonardo will change my mind?”
“I told you… I have easy access to everything from the villa. I have my design room set up the way I need. Why can’t you just move into the villa? Or are you afraid of living under the same room as the men you’ve loathed for most of your life in case you discover you actually like them?
“As for missing you in bed—” she licked her lips and his gaze got hotter, hungrier “—did you see the ad I did for that sex toy company?”
He grunted and flushed slightly. And it was her turn to laugh.
It wasn’t easy to pose as a smitten couple to the world, day in, day out.
Charity galas and fundraisers, cocktail parties, being near each other, the intimate looks and touches, the rush of being near him, of feeling the lean length of him at her back and then ending the evenings abruptly, and not in the pleasurable way they could, was taking a toll on her.
It wasn’t so much the sex that Alex wanted—which she absolutely did—but the connection that had come with it. Before and after. The intense high of being seen by a person who really mattered to her. Of being wanted for who she was.
She desperately wanted to find that connection again with him—especially amidst the rubble of their relationship right now. She was terrified that Greta might be right—it had been unbelievably good sex and nothing more.
Even when they’d been hidden away from the world, it had been she who’d done the chasing. It had been she who’d been desperate to be with him, she who’d wanted their relationship to deepen.
For a man who rarely betrayed his emotions, he had been a revelation in bed. The more she gave, the more he’d demanded of her. Until she’d given him all she had—her heart and soul. Believed that he’d needed her just as she’d needed him.
For all his renewed commitment to their marriage, she wondered at his self-control. Thought again about the original reason he’d married her.
Had he thought she’d be so much putty in his hands as to betray her family? Or had she simply been something to steal away from Greta?
But now that she was getting to know him a little more, now that she understood what drove his actions, that didn’t fit with the other pieces of the puzzle.
For all the incredible arrogance of the man, there was no way he could have thought she’d be an asset to him in any way. Then why?
“Si. I saw the magazine spread you were kind enough to send me. You nailed the sexy, confident, contemporary woman perfectly.”
“Didn’t I?” Alex said, a tingly thrill electrifying her all over.
It had been the most fun she’d had in a while. And of course, sending the spread to Vincenzo—her naked limbs peeking out from under a cloud of white sheets with the pink vibrator lying next to her, had been the most fun part of it all. “Anyway, they sent me one as a complimentary gift. Technology is so marvelous, isn’t it? It was brilliantly built—steel cloaked in velvet.”
“Is there a point to this story?” His jaw tight, the words were gritted out.
“You said I needed stress
