Читать книгу Mistress To a Latin Lover - Кэтти Уильямс, Jane Porter, Cathy Williams - Страница 12

CHAPTER FIVE

CASS watched Maximos walk toward them, the air bottled in her lungs. She’d long admired the way Maximos moved, but tonight her admiration was tempered by fear. And dread. Fearful, and yet fascinated, she followed his progress through the crowded salon, watched as people parted for him.

“Cass,” Maximos said quietly. “Sobato.”

Cass lifted her head, and her eyes met Maximos’s. He looked so angry…so disgusted. Hot tears burned the back of her eyes and her fingers curled into the palms of her hands as she prepared for the worst.

Maximos’s dark gaze slowly slid over her, the examination bold, deliberate, possessive. He was letting her know—letting Emilio know—that she was his, that she belonged to him. Still.

Cass flushed beneath his intense gaze, her skin heating even as her insides contracted. She felt her breasts swell, firm, her nipples hardening, jutting against the delicate lace fabric. She felt rather than heard Maximos harsh intake, a deep swift breath that told her he’d noticed the tightening of her nipples. He couldn’t ignore her, just as she couldn’t help responding to him. They were a rather desperate pair, weren’t they?

“You seem to be missing something,” Maximos said, his deep voice pitched even lower, the sound intimate and harsh, so like him, so very Maximos Guiliano.

Cass felt herself blush again, her face and body on fire, her heart hammering wildly. Her skin tingled. She felt a hot fizz in her veins. Want. Need. Desire. “My dress,” she whispered, only to feel Emilio squeeze her arm, his fingers pressing on a tender spot, but she didn’t wince.

“Did you spill something on your other gown?” Maximos asked, his attention focused solely on Cass, his attention so personal that she felt as if they were the only two in the room, the only two that mattered.

How she’d missed him. Missed his arms, missed his body, missed his strength. She’d missed his endless confidence, the ease with which he spoke, moved, lived. She’d always felt empowered by Maximos. His strength had fed her own. “It ripped.”

“How?”

For a moment she couldn’t speak, words deserting her, thought impossible. All she saw was Maximos. All she felt was Maximos. If only she hadn’t asked for more…if only she could go back, be the light and convenient mistress she’d once been. But some things couldn’t be undone, and the hurt had been too deep…

Maximos reached for her, brushed Emilio’s hand from her arm, and brought her toward him, brought her close enough so she could feel his warmth, smell the subtle scent of his elegant cologne. Even built as hard, as rough as Maximos was, she found him impossibly attractive. She loved his eyes, his cheekbones, his jaw, his mouth.

His mouth.

Her gaze clung to his mouth, to his incredible mouth, and his firm lips that always softened against hers…

“Your dress,” Maximos repeated, his hands firm on her shoulders, his hands both comforting and a torment, a pleasure and a tease. She remembered the way his hands used to caress her, hold her, touch her. She loved his hands. Loved the way he’d made her feel. Because he’d made her feel…and feel…

“How did it rip?” he asked again.

She looked up at him, feeling blind, exposed. “Stepped on it, I think.”

“You think?” Maximos’s eyebrows lowered.

“It’s been a long day.” She tried to smile, but her lips quivered with the effort. She was fighting emotion, fighting passion, fighting memory. At that moment she thought she’d give just about anything for one more night with him. She’d give anything to be loved…wanted…cherished.

But he didn’t cherish her. He liked sex. Because the sex was good. No, the sex was fantastic. But it wasn’t really her that kept his attention. It was just her body.

Blinking back tears, Cass tried to lift her chin. “It’s hard to keep everything straight.”

“The stories, you mean?” he asked gently, but the question was perceptive. Maximos was sharp. Too sharp. She felt her smile slip and the grittiness returned to her eyes.

“It’s a warm night,” he added, “but not that warm.” And before she knew what he was doing, Maximos was shrugging out of his black dinner jacket and draping it around her shoulders.

She bit her lip as she felt his hands clasp her shoulders, a brief touch but comforting, especially after the awful day she’d had.

“Thank you,” she whispered, unable to look up and meet his eye. This was Maximos, her Maximos, the man who’d been her heart, her soul, her world for three years…

And then he was turning away, returning to Sophia where she waited for him near the front of the restaurant.

The seating for the dinner had been preassigned and Emilio and Cass had been given seats at the end of the table farthest from the members of the wedding party.

As they sat down, their end of the table fell silent and everyone turned to look at them. Despite Maximos’s coat wrapped around her, Cass still felt exposed as she sat down and drew her chair closer to the table, pretending to be oblivious of the pointed stares.

No one wanted them there.

It was worse than awkward, she thought, glancing at Emilio.

“Ever feel like everyone hates you?” Emilio asked, propping his elbows on the table and leaning toward Cass.

“Yes.” She felt like an intruder, and she hated forcing herself on the Guiliano family now. Weddings were special occasions, once in a lifetime celebrations to be shared with those nearest and dearest not with strangers or family enemies.

But Emilio chuckled as he whispered in Cass’s ear. “Isn’t it great?”

“No,” she answered, lifting a shoulder, puzzled by Emilio’s behavior.

Emilio didn’t care that no one wanted him there. In fact, the more people excluded him, the more people whispered, the happier he became. He’d come to inflict pain and misery and he was succeeding brilliantly.

“God, I hate these people,” he said abruptly, savagely. “They’re a bunch of hypocritical snobs.”

“And yet you came for the weekend.”

“I came to make a point.”

Cass took a nervous sip from her wineglass before carefully placing it back on the linen tablecloth. “And what point would that be?”

“That they can’t touch me.” His expression cleared and he looked almost good-humored and boyish again. “That they’ll never be able to touch me. Because I’m smarter than they are. At least I’m smarter than good old Max.”

She glanced down the table to look at Maximos, and just then, Maximos lifted his head, met her gaze. For a moment she and Maximos stared at each other, sizing the other up, the way they had that first night at the reception in New York.

They’d met at a business function in New York and the attraction had been immediate and intense. They’d barely made it out of the reception and into a taxi before Maximos’s hand had slid beneath her dress to find her hot, feverish skin.

There’d been no looking back after that. She wanted him, and she’d wait for him, and she did.

In the beginning, the waiting had been a game. She’d see how well she could fill the time between his calls. She knew he’d eventually call—he always did—but it was her game that helped her survive.

It helped that she knew when he’d—and when he wouldn’t—call. He never phoned early in the morning. He never phoned before early afternoon, and even then, it was unlikely. If he called, it would be late afternoon, from his limo, on the way to someplace, or late at night when he’d returned to his penthouse. But otherwise, he didn’t call.

She wouldn’t just sit there. She’d go do her own thing. But in the back of her mind, she’d know when he should call, or when he possibly might, and despite her best intentions, she’d try to be available. Which meant keeping phones on, available. Which meant being only so engaged with something that she could drop all when he did call.

It hadn’t seemed so bad at first. She’d been genuinely busy that first year but it had gotten worse. Harder. It had gotten to the point that the nights between calls became a point of madness. Pain. Call me. Call me. Call me. She’d watch the clock, watch the minutes slowly change and think, I could have weeks of this…I might not hear from him for weeks still.

And that’s how the anger began to build. That’s when she realized becoming his mistress had been the most dangerous, self-destructive thing she could have done. Because waiting for him, waiting on him, waiting to be loved made her doubt everything about herself. Including her self-worth.

The waiting created need, and anger, and resentment. But then, when Maximos did finally call, he’d be so warm, so interested, so devoted. She’d agree to see him and being with him, alone with him, would make her throw caution to the wind. She loved making love with Maximos, loved everything about the sex and the emotion and the intimacy, and she’d lose herself, lose control.

The lovemaking was unreal in its intensity. The lovemaking made her believe in love.

And then there were the trips they took together. He’d book her into a lavish resort and he might or might not stay with her. He might or might not have business. He might or might not spend an entire night with her and the uncertainty of it all became an obsession. Why did she have so little of him? Why was their life together so brief, so short, so rigidly controlled?

As her frustration grew and her anger mounted, she knew she needed to get out of his life and back into hers. But it had been so long since she’d really thought about what she needed—other than more of Maximos—that when she looked inside herself it was just a big black hole.

“You can’t take your eyes off him.” Emilio’s hard voice sounded in her ear.

Cass jumped guiltily. “What did you say?”

“You’ve been staring at him ever since we sat down.” Emilio turned her chair to face his. “He’s got you in the palm of his hand again, doesn’t he? One night in his house and you’re his little plaything again. God, how pathetic!”

“You know nothing.”

He laughed, his expression bitter, brutal. “I know women like you. Women that pretend to be smart and strong until you get them in bed. Women who act independent, but find their hot button and make them come and they’re your slave for life.”

She shook her head. “I’m not listening.”

“Yes, you are. I can see the wheels spinning.” He leaned toward her to whisper in hear ear. “So file this away for future reference. An orgasm isn’t love. An orgasm is just an orgasm.”

Blood surged to her cheeks and she pulled back, putting distance between them. “Thanks for the biology lesson.”

“He slept with you, but he loved another.”

Cass’s head turned and she fixed a hard gaze on Emilio’s face. “You need serious help. You know that, don’t you?”

He smiled lazily. “So I’ve been told.”

She moved her legs so they wouldn’t touch his. “Is this why Maximos ended your professional association? He found out you weren’t completely stable?”

Emilio’s smile faded little by little. “Italia Motors was my success, not his. My car. My design, an innovative design that took the market by storm, winning us every industry award our first year alone.”

“So Maximos did nothing to contribute to Italia Motors’ success?”

“Nothing, compared to my contributions.”

“So it wasn’t his money that financed Italia Motors?”

“He wrote some checks—”

“Nearly twenty million dollars worth.” She interrupted, reaching for her wineglass and giving it a little swirl. “Because the first car did win awards and yes, it did capture the public’s imagination, but wasn’t there a design flaw? Something in the engineering which resulted in a tragic accident and a ten million dollar lawsuit settlement.”

“That wasn’t my fault. Maximos was in charge of research. If he didn’t run enough tests—” Emilio shrugged, hands extending “—you can’t blame that one on me. I had my area of responsibility and he had his, and the bottom line is that Maximos needed me. Needed my mind, my creativity—”

“Because Italia Motors was all about your genius, right?” She leaned on her elbows. “He resented you for being the brain behind the company while he was just the moneybags.”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t help shaking her head in disbelief. Emilio was ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. “Isn’t this the oldest story around? Two men go into business together and one has the money and the other has the brains—”

“It’s true.”

“Or maybe it’s true that you resented Maximos because he had money and brains.”

“No.”

“Then why are you so obsessed with him? Why should you want to make him suffer?”

“Because we had something good, very good, and he blew it. He ruined me.”

Cass glanced toward Maximos. He was engrossed in conversation with the people seated directly across from him and something inside her tugged. Maximos was such a strong person, such a powerful presence that she felt him even though he sat at the far end of the banquet table.

But suddenly his head turned and Maximos’s dark forbidding gaze met hers. For a long moment she just looked at him, drank him in, feeling the desire inside her stir. She missed him. God, she missed him.

Abruptly Maximos stood, crossed behind the table, walking toward Emilio and Cass.

Cass saw the taut, determined look on Maximos’s face, his cheekbones jutting harshly, his jaw set. Emilio saw it, too, and smiling idly, he touched Cass’s neck before running his hand through Cass’s hair.

Reaching their end of the table, Maximos spoke to the man seated on Cass’s right. The man stood and walked away, vacating his seat for Maximos.

Maximos pulled the now empty chair out and sat down.“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, leaning forward, looking Emilio in the eye.

Cass felt Maximos’s shoulder brush her breast and she shivered, nerves tightening.

“I am.” Emilio smiled, relishing the cat and mouse game he and Maximos were playing. “Your sister is beautiful. I’ve never seen her look better. She’s all grown up, isn’t she?”

Maximos didn’t even glance his sister’s way. “Adriana’s just twenty-one.”

“A woman.”

Maximos’s jaw thickened. “And you like other men’s women.”

Emilio laughed. “Not necessarily. But I do like women.” He clapped his hand on Cass’s knee, and rubbed his palm in circles over her kneecap. “Especially this one.”

Maximos didn’t answer and Emilio’s hand moved higher on Cass’s leg, sliding over her knee to her thigh. “She’s gorgeous, my Cass, isn’t she?”

Cass couldn’t bear it. She reached for Emilio’s hand, lifted it from her leg. “Stop.”

The look Emilio gave her was hard enough to cut glass. “Maybe it’s time we went home and went to bed. You’re sounding a little tired, love.”

“I’m fine,” she protested.

“No, you’re a bitch, and I don’t know what I ever saw in you.” Emilio shoved his chair back and stood. “I’m going to go get a real drink. Something better than this cheap table wine.”

He stalked off and Cass watched him go, insides twisted.

There was a long moment’s silence and Cass stirred uneasily. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, or how to make amends at this point. But she did need to make amends. This whole evening had been awful, and an embarrassment for Maximos.

“I’m sorry,” she said at length, tugging on the lapels of Maximos’s coat, cold despite the jacket’s protection. “I’ve behaved badly, and your poor family, having to suffer through this show Emilio and I’ve put on…” Her voice faded and she swallowed. “I’m sorry. I really am.”

Maximos regarded her steadily. “I was surprised to see you here with him. I didn’t even know you two knew each other.”

“We met in April, just after—” She broke off, surprised at a new thought. Quickly she counted back. She’d met Emilio in April at an advertising awards dinner, a dinner held three days after the miscarriage. Three days.

Maybe their meeting hadn’t been by chance.

Maybe Emilio had found out about the miscarriage and intended for them to meet…

It was bizarre to think about, but made sense in an awful sort of way.

“I need to go,” she said, reaching for her purse and rising. “This is—was—the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know what I was thinking, and you’ve every right to think I’ve gone completely mad. Maybe I have.”

Maximos rose, too. “I’ll take you back to the palazzo.”

“No.” She smiled quickly to soften her refusal. “I’ll get a cab. I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t send you back unchaperoned. I don’t trust Emilio and I don’t want you returning to the palazzo alone.”

“Maximos—”

“I saw the bruises on your arm. He hurt you earlier, didn’t he?”

Her mouth opened but no sound came out.

Maximos shook his head in disgust. “That’s why I wrapped you in my coat. I didn’t want anyone staring at the bruises. They were so dark. It was obvious you’d been hurt.”

Hot emotion rushed through her and she had to look away for a moment to keep from crying. “I thought you were ashamed of me appearing virtually naked at your sister’s dinner.”

“Ashamed of your body? Impossible.” He leaned toward her, kissed her temple. “But maybe it was a bit daring for my grandmother’s tastes.”

Cass smiled wanly. “I didn’t want to wear it.”

“I suspected as much.” He reached into his pocket for his car keys. “Let me just let Sophia know I’m leaving. I’ll be right back.”

In the car Cass stared out the window as Maximos drove. She watched the neighborhoods pass by, the yellow streetlights glowed like topaz at night, the old city dark and mysterious, the narrow streets nearly deserted as the car approached the Guiliano palazzo. “How long have you been seeing Sophia d’Santo?” she finally asked, gathering her courage.

“Emilio talked about her.” But it was a statement, not a question.

“He said she’d been your companion for years.”

Maximos didn’t immediately reply but Cass felt him tense. He didn’t like this subject.

“She is beautiful,” Cass added quietly, her insides feeling as if they were on fire. She didn’t know why she had to talk about Sophia now. Was it jealousy? Envy? Probably.

“Yes.” Maximos didn’t take his eyes from the road.

“And young.”

His dark brows pulled. A small muscle in his jaw tightened. “I’ve known her nearly thirteen years.”

Her chest squeezed, her heart aching. “Do you love her?”

“Cass—”

“I need to know, Maximos. I need to understand.”

“Understand what?”

Her shoulders lifted, fell. “Why you didn’t love me.”

“Christ,” he swore beneath his breath, palms pressing hard against the leather covered steering wheel. “Women. You’re all impossible.”

Cass folded her hands in her lap, nails dug into her skin. “Would you marry her?”

“Cass.”

“Is that why you only saw me part-time? Because the rest of the time you were with her?”

Maximos pulled over to the side of the road and turned in his seat to look at her, and even in the dim light of the interior his expression was fierce, forbidding. “I was not with her. I care about Sophia, but I do not love her and would not marry her.”

Cass looked at him, seeing the strong proud lines of his face in the shadowed light of the car interior. “So she’s never been your lover?”

“No!” His voice thundered in the car. “No. Any more questions?”

Cass looked away. “Not at the moment.”

“Good.” He started the car and resumed driving. The rest of the brief trip was finished in silence. But as Maximos pulled up in front of his family’s palazzo, the house having passed from one generation of Guilianos to the next for nearly five hundred years, Maximos broke the silence. “You’ve changed,” he said tersely. “You used to be strong. Optimistic. You’re so insecure now.”

Insecure. That was one way of putting it. “Things were different then,” she said.

“Not that different.”

Cass almost laughed out loud, thinking he was joking but as she caught sight of his face, she realized he wasn’t. “Things are very different, Maximos.”

“Think about it. You still have your job. You have your apartment, your work, your friends—”

“But not you.” How could he not get it? How could he value her love—relationships—so little? “You were everything to me.”

“I never wanted to be everything. I never asked to be everything—”

“Forget it. Let’s just drop it.” Cass swung the car door open. They’d been sitting in the driveway, the ornate lights from the plaza shining on the deserted square, turning the cathedral façade a yellow-gold, illuminating the elegant balconies fronting the Guiliano palazzo.

Maximos pursued her up the front steps. “I cared about you, Cass. I cared more than you know, but you know you’re responsible for your own happiness, just as you’re in charge of your own destiny. It’s the one thing we agreed on when we met, it’s what attracted me to you. You were strong and independent—”

“And I still am.” She took a breath. “Sort of.”

“Unacceptable.”

“Caring for you changed me. It made me want more—”

“But sometimes there just isn’t more.”

She pushed through the front door. “You say that—”

“And I mean it.” He caught her by the shoulder and turned her around, the dim light of the entry hall shadowing both of their faces. “You got what I could give you. I saw you when I could. And it wasn’t a lot. I know it. We were a weekend thing. Once a month, two weekends a month, just now and then.”

She closed her eyes, counted to five, tried to keep from losing her temper. “Yet I was available every weekend,” she said carefully, “free each evening.”

“You had your own life—”

“I had work,” she interrupted shortly, opening her eyes to look at him. “But outside of work you were my life.”

Maximos inhaled sharply. “Your mistake. Not mine.”

Heat and sensation exploded inside her. Cass shuddered at the brutal tug on her heart. How could she feel so much? How could she still hurt like this? The pain was so intense she had to smile to hold the tears back. Was this love? Was it hate? All she knew for certain was that this emotion held her in its thrall, had bewitched her mind, taken control of her senses.

What she wanted…needed…

She shook her head once, a short dazed shake, the same dazed sensation she’d had since meeting Maximos two and a half years ago. “As I said, let’s drop it. Let’s just call it a night. I can’t fight with you anymore, I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t enjoy it.” She felt tears sting her eyes. Not when I like loving you so much better.

The butler appeared, formally greeting Maximos and after turning on lights for them, quietly disappeared.

“Your coat,” she said, peeling off Maximos’s dinner jacket and handing it back to him. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head. “I’ll see you up.”

“I can find my way.”

“I’m heading that way myself. It’s easy enough for me to walk you to your room.”

“Well, in that case, since you’re not going out of your way…” She was teasing him and smiling crookedly, he gestured to the marble-and-gilt staircase, where the white carerra marble had darkened to almost lavender with age.

At the top of the stairs, Maximos flicked on more lights brightening the second floor landing with its dark red paint and the profusion of oils by the Italian masters.

“This is a beautiful home.”

“I don’t come home as often as I should. My mother is always asking me to come visit.” He sighed and then laughed. “Seems I can’t make anybody happy. You never saw enough of me. My family doesn’t see enough of me—”

She shot him a swift glance, sizing him up, seeing all at once his magnificent profile, the dark thick fringe of eyelash, the sultry coloring contradicted by such fierce, masculine features. He was gorgeous. Glorious. Proud. Sicilian. And obviously not interested in a long-term, monogamous relationship. “Then who does?”

“Good question,” he answered, walking her to her room, again turning on lights for her, before crossing to the windows and drawing the heavy velvet curtains closed. “I suppose my staff sees quite a bit of me. Clients. Customers. Automotive engineers.”

“You’re introducing a new car in the new year?”

“It’s being unveiled soon.”

“Exciting.”

“Mmmm,” he said, noncommittal, before changing subjects. “The house is old, but it does have an intercom. My mother insisted on it when my father was ill several years ago. You can call the kitchen if you need anything to eat or drink, or if you require something from housekeeping.”

“Thank you,” she said, thinking that just looking at him made her hurt. Just looking into his dark eyes made her want.

He’d discovered her turquoise gown on the bed. “What the hell happened to your dress?”

When she didn’t answer she saw him lift her ruined gown, the delicate fabric of the bodice in shreds. Maximos’s brow furrowed, his expression darkening. “Sobato did this.”

She didn’t have to say anything. Maximos knew, and he swore softly. “I should just kill him and be done with all of this.”

She took the gown from him, balling it up and tossing it into a chair in the corner. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” His tone turned savage. “He’s made my life a living hell for far too long.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, wanting to go to him, touch him but she didn’t dare. He was too angry and she was too unsure of herself. Once she knew how to please him but that seemed like light-years ago. “I shouldn’t have come here with him, shouldn’t have done this, shouldn’t have needed what I needed.”

“And that was?”

“Closure.”

“Right.” His voice was quiet, thoughtful. “Closure.” He looked at her. “Is that possible? Having seen me, do you think you’ll have that…closure?”

No. Never. Because she’d never forget him, never stop loving him. It was impossible. He might as well be part of her. “I hope so.”