Читать книгу Modern Romance July 2015 Books 5-8 - Andie Brock, Louise Fuller - Страница 20

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘THIS COULD HAVE all been yours,’ Bella said, as they walked through Luka’s apartment in Prati on the eve of judgment day for her father.

They had picked up the keys in Reception and had declined help with her luggage, but as they’d let themselves in both had been blown away.

Yes, they had seen it online, but walking through it was breath-taking. The tall arched windows were beautifully dressed in heavy fabric. The décor was a mixture of antiques yet there was every modern luxury.

‘There’s an internal elevator,’ Bella said. ‘Shall we go up to the rooftop?’

Sophie shook her head. ‘I’ll explore there later.’

It was agony to be here and to know it was his.

Bella had been busy and now in the wardrobe in the main bedroom hung elegant dresses, skirts and jackets and some shoes. Bella had lent Sophie her mother’s heavy silver hairbrush and that was in the large bathroom, along with expensive toiletries they had bought. But even with everything they had managed to cobble together over the last few days, even with all their resources pooled and their savings almost spent, it was just a tiny drop in the ocean compared to Luka’s obvious wealth.

‘Doesn’t it make you feel jealous?’ Bella pushed.

‘I chose not to go to London with him, remember. Anyway, who knows what would have happened if I had gone? We might not have got on,’ Sophie pointed out ‘One romantic afternoon doesn’t mean that we would have lasted a lifetime. And, anyway, I want nothing that has Malvolio’s name attached to it.’

‘Luka works hard.’

‘We work hard,’ Sophie said. ‘The only difference is we didn’t get a step up on the ladder. Our parents didn’t give us a share in a hotel to kick our careers off.’

It was easier to resent him, to sound jealous. It was far easier then admitting the truth—that she missed him so much, every single minute of every single day.

And as for the nights...

‘What time is he getting here?’ Bella asked.

‘Any time now,’ Sophie said. ‘We’re going out to dinner to make sure our stories match.’

‘Well, just be as expensive as the women where we work. Don’t say sorry to staff and don’t...’ Bella gave her a smile. ‘You’ll be fine. Oh, I got you a present. Actually, two...’

‘Bella!’ Sophie scolded when she saw the latest phone. ‘We can’t afford this.’

‘Yes, we can. You can hardly pretend to be an event planner and not even have a phone. When you’re done with Luka, I want it if you don’t.’

‘What’s this?’ She opened the second present, which was a heavy bottle filled with very expensive perfume. ‘Bella...’

‘What woman wouldn’t have perfume in the bathroom.’

‘We didn’t have the money for that.’

‘Oh, well...’

‘You stole this?’

‘Yes, I did,’ Bella said. ‘And I don’t feel guilty and I don’t feel ashamed. If that’s the worst thing I do then I am glad to do it for you.’

Sophie opened the perfume and sprayed it on her wrist and then squirted Bella, who laughed but then it faded.

She had a question of her own.

‘Did he say anything about Matteo?’

‘Nothing.’

‘I thought they were in business together...’

‘We really didn’t talk that much.’

‘I’m scared I’m going to find out that Matteo is married. I know he must think I’m still a whore.’

‘Matteo paid for you,’ Sophie pointed out.

There was so much shame for them both.

‘I still think about him all the time,’ Bella admitted. ‘Do you think he remembers me?’

‘Of course he must,’ Sophie said. ‘But it was years ago, Bella. If seeing Luka again has taught me anything it is that people move on. Luka is busy with his life, his women. He has long since moved on from those days. So too must we. When all this over, you and I are going to chase our dreams. I don’t care what it takes but you are going to go design school and I’m going to have a career.’

‘On the ships.’

‘Who knows?’ Sophie said. ‘But I’m not going to spend the rest of my life mourning Luka. I want this over and done with.’

‘I’m going to go,’ Bella said.

‘Thank you.’

Bella forced a smile. ‘I want all the details. Imagine you and Luka sharing a bed after all this time...’

Sophie smiled as her friend left but alone she walked nervously around the apartment. The bedroom mocked her, the bed mocked her. It was hard to believe that soon she would be lying in there at night with Luka. That wasn’t all that upset her. It wasn’t just the thought that he had lain in this bed with others that had bile rising like a volcano.

It was that Luka had had a life, a good one.

But without her.

Alone she walked around and then pulled back the antique gate and stepped into the elevator, it was small but luxurious, and she stepped out to a view that under any other circumstances would have taken her breath away.

Now, again, she was close to tears.

Rome glittered before her, the view better than any from the hotel because you were actually in it. She could hear the noise from the street below and see the Colosseum and the Vatican. The light was fading and soon the streets would pulse with nightlife yet it was not this view she craved.

She had never ached to be back in Bordo Del Cielo till now—there were too many dark memories there. Since seeing Luka, though, she craved to be there. She wanted to get back to her secret cove and to be near water that was so clear and cool that it took the sting out of summer.

Unable to bear it, Sophie headed back down but there was no relief to be had there, for having worked out a room for her father she walked down the main corridor and peered into the bedroom she would share with Luka.

The room was magnificent, better than the presidential suite at the hotel where she worked.

The furnishings were heavy and masculine and it would take more than a silver hairbrush and a few dresses in the wardrobe to detract from the male energy that stopped her from going in.

The bed was wide, dressed in muted jewelled tones, and she could not imagine herself lying there with him.

Worse, she tormented herself by imagining him lying there with another woman.

‘Sophie?’ His deep voice made her jump and then spin around on her new high heels.

‘I didn’t hear you come in.’

‘Did you expect me to knock?’

‘Of course not.’ She could hardly bear to meet his gaze. She had seen him angry, she had seen him arrogant and aloof, but she had never seen him like this—there were lines fanning from his eyes and his mouth was grim, his complexion tinged grey, and his tension palpable.

He looked as if he was dreading this just as much as she was.

‘Where do you want to go for dinner?’ he asked.

‘We could have something to eat here.’

‘I would guess that we’ll be eating here rather a lot,’ Luka said. ‘If your father gets off, I doubt we’ll be going out very much.’

‘I don’t expect you to be here all the time,’ Sophie said. ‘We can say that you’re busy with work.’

‘He’s dying, Sophie,’ Luka said. ‘And if I were engaged to you, if I did love you, your father knows that I would do more than put in a few cameo appearances.’

‘Of course.’

‘I’ll give you a tour,’ he offered, but Sophie shook her head.

‘I already know my way around.’

‘Have you organised a nurse for him?’

‘I thought it better to wait and see what happens tomorrow,’ Sophie said, although the truth was there was no way she could afford a private nurse for her father.

‘I’m going to go to court in the morning,’ Luka said. ‘I’ll text you with what’s happening.’

‘Why would you go to court?’

‘To save you from having to go,’ Luka said, and with that simple sentence her heart just about folded in on itself because that was the type of man she had lost. This was what being loved by Luka would mean. ‘Have you any idea how big it is going to be tomorrow with the press and everything?’ he checked.

‘I’m starting to,’ Sophie said. ‘I saw on the news that the press are already camping out by the court.’

‘They think he’s going to be there when the ruling is made,’ Luka said. ‘Hopefully he can slip out of the infirmary before the press work it out. Is there anything else that I need to know?’

‘I don’t think so. We can talk over dinner.’

‘I’ve changed my mind about dinner,’ he said.

‘Where are you going?’ Sophie asked, as he went to walk out.

‘What the hell does it have to with you?’ he asked.

‘If we’re supposed to be engaged...’

‘The games begin tomorrow, Sophie.’ He came right up to her face. ‘Tomorrow we lie in that bed, tomorrow we pretend that we care. I’ve just realised that tonight I don’t have to even pretend that I like you, so I won’t. I intend to enjoy my last night of freedom before my sentence begins.’

He walked off and Sophie knew she should hold her tongue but it had never been her forte. ‘Oh, I’m sorry to have thrown such a spanner into your charmed life.’

‘Charmed?’ Luka turned. ‘Tell me, Sophie, what part of my life exactly is charmed? I’ve worked eighteen-hour days for this. You talk as if it has been handed to me on a plate.’

‘The share in a hotel from Daddy was a rather nice start.’

‘He had nothing to do with it. I worked for that myself,’ Luka said. ‘What I didn’t say in court was that I knew for years that my father was rotten to the core and that your father was his yes-man. So, tell me more about this charmed life, Sophie. When I came back to London I practically had to go on my knees to my partners at the hotel. Six months in prison takes some explaining. Do you really think my colleagues embraced me on my return? Do you not think that I had to prove over and over that I could be trusted?’

She stood with pale lips as he told her how things had been for him.

‘Do you not think that when somebody looks me up and finds out that I was in prison, awaiting trial, for six months that it doesn’t slur my name? I took nothing from my father. I have done everything I can to make right what he did. I handed back everything that man gave me. The only thing I couldn’t return was the education. You can’t unlearn things unfortunately but God knows there are things I’ve tried to forget...’

He was talking about them, Sophie knew it. He was back in his bed and taking her for the first time with his eyes. ‘I washed my hands of Bordo Del Cielo. I only came back that time to rid myself of you once and for all. I should never have opened that door to you!’ Even before she could move he grabbed her wrist. ‘Slap me again...’ Luka warned.

‘And you’ll slap me back?’ Sophie challenged, and she didn’t understand because he almost smiled.

Yes, he almost smiled because on so many levels she matched him and in so many ways he adored her. How he would love to end this row in a different way, to kiss her right now into submission, yet he refused that pleasure for himself.

‘Slap me again,’ he amended, ‘and before the fingermarks have faded the engagement will be off and you can tell your father why if you must. I mean it, Sophie, and you should know that I don’t give second warnings.’

She stood there and he had won but even as he passed the finish line he kept on sprinting.

‘I’m going out now and I’m going to be with a woman who does not question, a woman who is sweet and warm...’

‘Give Claudia my love,’ Sophie spat, and hoped that the fact she knew his lover’s name meant that she sailed past him on shock value alone, but Luka just grinned at the jealous snarl to her voice.

‘Claudia?’ Luka checked.

‘You were with her at Hotel Fiscella.’

‘Because Matteo and I are thinking of buying it,’ Luka said, and Sophie was grateful that she had handed in her notice as she realised how close she had come to having Luka as her boss. ‘Claudia is one of my lawyers.’

‘She was there for the purchase of the hotel?’

‘No,’ Luka said. ‘I hired her to get your father released.’

She stood there frozen to the spot, hating how he was always one step ahead, how this man continued to sideswipe her.

‘Why?’ Sophie asked. ‘Why would you hire a lawyer to get my father out?’

No, he didn’t tell her about the necklace burning a hole in his pocket and the hellish guilt that had made it his mission to see Paulo freed.

‘For this moment, Sophie.’ Luka lied. ‘So that you would come to my office and ask me to be with you. For the pleasure of lying in bed with you and doing nothing...’ Black was his smile.

‘Why do you hate me so much?’

‘You’ll work it out,’ Luka said. ‘I’m going out now. I’ll see you tomorrow when the real games begin.’