Читать книгу Love Islands: Passionate Nights - Дженнифер Хейворд, Louise Fuller - Страница 13
ОглавлениеLUCY WAS APPALLED.
‘What kind of thing is that for you to say?’ she demanded shakily. ‘You’d stoop so low?’
Dio inclined his beautiful head to one side and shrugged elegantly. ‘I don’t look at it that way.’
‘No? And what way do you look at it?’
‘I look at it as a form of persuasion.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’
‘You’re my wife,’ he said in the sort of voice that implied he was stating the glaringly obvious and irrefutable. ‘When you started concocting your little plan to walk out of my life, you must surely have known that I wouldn’t lie down on the ground waving a white flag and wishing you every success. Since when did I turn into that kind of person?’
Lucy shifted uncomfortably and then began fiddling with a pile of exercise books on the desk at which she had sat. Teacher in the front with wayward pupil facing her. Except Dio was far too intimidating to be any old wayward pupil.
‘Well?’ he prodded coolly.
‘I just think it’s out of order for you to jeopardise the welfare of lots of deprived children who happen to be benefitting from what is on offer here!’
‘I’m not jeopardising anyone’s welfare. You are.’ He glanced at his watch. He had been optimistic about getting back to the office at some point during the day and had thus dressed in his suit but, the way things were going, the office felt out of reach at the moment and, strangely enough, that didn’t bother him.
He was far too invigorated by what was taking place.
‘Is this taking longer than you expected?’ Lucy asked with saccharin sweetness that wouldn’t have fooled an idiot and he grinned.
Her stomach seemed to swoop and swirl inside her, as though she had been suddenly dropped from a great height without the aid of a parachute. That grin; it transformed the harsh, forbidding contours of his lean face. It reminded her of her youthful folly in letting it get under her skin until she had been walking on clouds, hanging onto his every word, waiting for the next meeting with barely bated breath.
And just like that it dawned on her why the thought of making love to him was so terrifying.
Yes, she hated him for the way he had manipulated her into marrying him for all the wrong reasons. Yes, she hated the way he had showcased her, like a business asset to be produced at will and then dispatched when no longer needed.
But what really scared her was the fact that he could still do things to her, make her feel things that were only appropriate in the domain of a real, functioning marriage.
When she thought of having him touch her, make love to her, she knew that somehow she would end up being vulnerable. He still got to her and she was scared stiff that, the closer he approached, the more ensnared she would become.
Like it or not, she was not nearly as detached as she had presented herself over time.
And that lazy grin was enough to remind her of that unwelcome reality.
‘For my dear wife, I would be willing to put business on hold indefinitely.’
Lucy shot him a glance of scathing disbelief and Dio laughed, a rich, sexy, velvety sound that shot right past her defences.
‘Or at least for a couple of hours, while we try to work out our little differences. Show me around.’ He stood up and flexed his muscles. ‘I can’t carry on sitting in this chair for much longer. It’s far too small. My joints are beginning to seize up. I need to stretch my legs, so give me the guided tour. If I’m going to revive this dump, I might as well start assessing what needs to be done.’
Lucy’s full mouth compressed. Was he deliberately trying to goad a response out of her? Or was he just supremely confident of getting his own way, whatever she said to the contrary?
‘You’re not going to revive this dump and you’re not interested in what I do here, anyway!’
Dio looked at her long and hard, hands thrust into his trouser pockets.
‘I’m going to disagree on both counts,’ he told her softly.
Lucy’s eyes fluttered and she looked away hurriedly. The dark, naked intent in his gaze was unsettling. She decided that showing him around the school, what little there was of it, was a better option than standing here and having to brave the full frontal force of his personality.
She gave a jerky shrug and directed him to the exercise books on her desk. This was the main classroom, where she and Mark did their best to accommodate the children, whose abilities varied wildly, as did their ages.
She warmed to her subject.
Dio saw what had been missing all these months. She had presented a beautiful, well-educated, cultured mask to the outside world but the animation had gone. It was here now as she talked about all the wonderful things the school was capable of providing; how much the considerate, funny and thoughtful Mark had managed to do with minimum help and almost no funding. Her eyes glowed and her cheeks pinked. She gestured and he found himself riveted by the fluid grace of her hands as she spoke.
There were several rooms on the ground floor. The building was like the Tardis, much bigger inside than it appeared from the outside.
‘Volunteer teachers come whenever they can,’ she told him, leading the way into another small room. ‘Mark has managed to get a rota going and several subjects are now covered by experts.’ She looked at Dio and her voice softened. ‘You wouldn’t believe the conditions some of the kids who come to us live in,’ she explained. ‘The fact that they’re brought to us in the first place shows a great deal of parental support but there are stories of almost no food, noise pollution from neighbours, overcrowding in small flats...the list goes on.’
Dio nodded and let his eyes drift over that full mouth, the slim column of her neck, her narrow shoulders. Vanilla-blonde strands of hair were escaping the confines of the ponytail and the way they wisped around her face made her look incredibly young, barely a teenager.
‘How safe is it?’ he asked suddenly.
‘Huh?’
‘What are the safety procedures around here? Is there just the pair of you working here? And have you been working at night?’
‘Are you telling me that you’re concerned for my welfare?’ Lucy’s voice was mocking.
‘Always.’
She felt the steady thud of her heart banging against her rib cage. His face was so serious that she was momentarily deprived of the power of speech and, when she did rediscover her vocal cords, she could hear a thread of jumpiness in her voice as she explained that neither of them worked nights and the place was always busy with people coming and going during the handful of hours in which they did work.
‘Be that as it may,’ Dio continued, ‘now that I know where you spend your time, and what you get up to when I’m not around, you’re going to have two of my guards close at hand whenever you come here—and, Lucy, that’s not negotiable.’
‘You used to say that you didn’t agree with men who felt that they had to surround their wives with bodyguards!’
‘You wouldn’t require a bodyguard if you spent your time doing your nails and shopping...which was what I thought you got up to in your spare time.’
‘What sort of impression is that going to give?’ Lucy cried, feeling the wings of her freedom being clipped and resenting it even as she warmed with forbidden pleasure at the thought of him wanting to protect her.
To protect his investment. She brought herself back down to earth with a sobering bump. An investment he was keen to look after now that he wanted to take full advantage of it before he consigned it to the rubbish bin.
‘I’ve never cared about what other people think. So, how many classrooms are there in this place and what’s upstairs...?’
‘I can’t have great big, bulky men lurking around. They’ll scare off the kids.’
‘I doubt that in this neighbourhood.’
‘Stop being provocative, Dio!’
‘If you think I’m being provocative, then how would you describe yourself?’ He strolled towards her and she found herself nailed to the spot, mesmerised by the casual grace of his movements.
‘I’m just...just trying to tell you that I don’t want to...to...stand out when I come here.’ Perspiration beaded her upper lips as he curled a strand of wayward hair around his finger. ‘What are you doing, Dio?’
‘I’m talking to you. You can’t object if your soon-to-be ex-husband takes a little interest in the safety and wellbeing of his wife, can you?’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘No?’ He looked perplexed. ‘Then what did you mean?’
‘You... I...’ Her sluggish brain could not complete the remainder of her thoughts. Her body felt heavy and lethargic. Right now, she yearned for him to touch her in other places; she absolutely yearned for him to take her to all those places he frequently took her to in her dreams.
She had to exert every ounce of willpower to drag herself physically out of his mesmerising radius, stepping back and sucking in a lungful of restorative air.
‘It won’t work having great big guys standing on either side of me. Plus, when I come here, no one knows who I am.’
‘You’re not recognised?’ Dio frowned and she allowed herself a little smile.
‘Why would anyone recognise me? I dress like this, in jeans, tee-shirts and jumpers, and I scrape my hair back and I don’t wear tons of make-up and expensive jewellery.’
He heard the derision in her voice and was struck, once again, at hidden depths swirling just out of sight.
It confused him and that was a sensation he was not accustomed to dealing with. Least of all in a woman whose motivations had left him in no doubt as to the sort of person she was. Not one with hidden depths, for starters.
He raked his fingers through his hair and shook his head impatiently, clearing it of the sudden fog of doubt that had descended.
Did she enjoy the novelty of pretending to do good undercover? Was that it?
‘Now, you were asking about the other rooms downstairs.’ She briskly took him on the tour he had requested. More rooms with more low bookshelves and a scattering of stationery. She could have equipped the entire school with computers had she so desired simply by flogging one of the items of jewellery locked away in the safe in her bedroom. But she had chosen not to and he presumed that that was because she wanted, as she had told him, to keep her identity under wraps. To keep the extent of her wealth under wraps.
And yet how did that make sense?
She had been a Bishop, through and through. Surely the last thing she should have wanted would be...this.
He looked around at the shabby walls which someone had optimistically painted a cheerful yellow, similar to the walls in the hallway. Nothing could conceal the wear and tear of the fabric of the building, however, and the fact that it was practically falling down.
‘Mark should be back shortly.’ She ended the downstairs tour in a room that was very similar to the others he had been shown. ‘If you’re really interested, you can ask him whatever questions you like.’
‘Think I’ll pass on that one.’ He leaned against the wall and looked at his wife whose face had become smudged with pencil at some point during their tour. ‘I wouldn’t want to have to administer smelling salts because he has a fainting fit seeing me still here.’
‘Very funny,’ Lucy muttered, making sure to keep a healthy distance.
‘I have some questions to ask you, though. Is there anywhere around here we can go for lunch?’
‘Lunch?’ she parroted, because lunch, just the two of them, was not something they had done since getting married.
‘Unless you’ve travelled with sandwiches and a flask of hot coffee...? In your anxious attempts not to stand out...?’ He could have told her that she stood out just looking the way she did.
‘There’s a café just round the corner.’
‘Café?’
‘It’s not much but they make nice enough sandwiches and serve very big mugs of tea.’
‘I’ll give that one a miss. Any other suggestions?’
Lucy eyed him coolly and folded her arms. ‘You’re in my territory now, Dio.’
‘Your territory? Don’t make me laugh.’
‘I don’t care what you think but I feel I belong here a lot more than I belong in any of those soulless big houses, where I’ve had to make sure the fridges are stocked with champagne and caviar and the curtains are cleaned on a regular basis just in case...’
Dio’s lips thinned. ‘If you’re trying to annoy me, then congratulations, Lucy—you’re going about it the right way.’
‘I’m not trying to annoy you but I meant what I said. If you want to continue this conversation and ask whatever questions you want to ask, including questions about the divorce I’ve asked you for, then you can jolly well eat in the café Mark and I eat in whenever we’re here! I can’t believe you’re such a snob.’
‘I’m not a snob,’ Dio heard himself reply in an even, well-measured voice. ‘But maybe I’ve seen enough of those greasy spoon cafés to last a lifetime. Maybe I come from enough of a deprived background to know that getting out of it was the best thing I ever did. I certainly have no desire to pretend that it holds any charm for me now.’
Lucy’s mouth fell open.
This was the first time Dio had ever mentioned his background. She had known, of course, that he had made his own way up in the world, thanks to her father’s passing, derogatory remarks. But to hear him say anything, anything at all, was astounding.
Dio flushed darkly and turned away. ‘I’ll talk to you when you return home this evening.’
‘No!’ Seeing him begin walking towards the door galvanised Lucy into action and she placed a detaining hand on his arm.
Just like that, heat from his body seared through her, and she almost yanked her hand back as if it had been physically burnt.
‘We...we should talk now,’ she stammered, stepping back. ‘I know you must have been shocked at what I’ve asked and I never thought that you would...well, that you would see what I’ve been up to here...but, now that you have, well, I don’t mind having lunch with you somewhere a little smarter.’
Dio sighed and shook his head before fixing fabulous, silver eyes on her flushed face. ‘Take me to the café. It’s no big deal.’
She locked up behind her and they walked side by side to the café where she and Mark were regulars.
She was desperate to ask him about his past. Suddenly it was as though locked doors had been opened and curiosity was bursting out of her.
He’d grown up without money but had he been happy? As she knew only too well from personal experience, a moneyed background was no guarantee of happiness.
She sneaked a glance at his averted profile and concluded that he wasn’t in the mood for a soul-searching chit chat on his childhood experiences.
And it surprised her that she was so keen to hear all about them.
‘It’s not much,’ she reminded him as they pulled up in front of a café that was still relatively empty and smelled heavily of fried food.
‘Understatement of the year.’ Dio looked down at her and noticed the way the sun glinted off her blonde hair; noticed the thick lushness of her lashes and the earthy promise of her full lips. His breathing became a little shallower. ‘But I won’t forget the virtues of the brimming cups of tea and the big sandwiches...’
They knew her!
Dio was stunned. Two of the people working behind the counter had kids who had started drifting in to do maths lessons and there was a brief chat about progress.
‘And this...’ she turned to Dio and glanced away quickly ‘...is a friend. Someone thinking of investing in the building, really turning it into somewhere smarter and better equipped...’ She felt him bristle next to her. She’d always removed her wedding ring before coming here; it was just too priceless to take chances. She sneaked a sideways glance and caught the look of annoyance in his eyes and she returned that look of simmering annoyance with a special look of her own, one that was earnest and serious. ‘He’s very interested in helping the kids in this area really reach their full potential at school.’
‘Because...’ Dio said instantly, with the sort of charming smile that would knock anyone off balance, which it seemed to be doing to Anita, whose mouth had dropped open the second she had clocked him. ‘Because I happen to have grown up not a million miles from here,’ he said smoothly. ‘On an estate not unlike the one we passed and, take it from me, the only way to escape is through education.’
Anita was nodding vigorously. John was agreeing in a manly fashion. Lucy was feeling as though she had been cleverly outmanoeuvred.
‘This lovely young woman and I...are in discussions at the moment. It could all hinge on her acceptance of my proposal: no more rising damp, all the rooms brought up to the highest specification. Naturally, I would buy the building outright, and the cherry on the cake would be the equipment I would install. I find that computers are part and parcel of life nowadays. How else can children access vital information? Like I said, though, Lucy and I are in talks at the moment...’
As soon as they were seated, with mugs of steaming tea and two extra-large doorstop sandwiches filled to bursting in front of them, Lucy leaned forward, glaring.
‘Thanks for that, Dio!’
‘Any time. What else are friends and potential investors for? Why didn’t you introduce me as your husband?’
‘Because there would have been loads of questions to field,’ Lucy said defensively. ‘They would want to know who I really was...’
‘To have snagged me?’
‘You have a ridiculous ego.’ She sipped some tea and looked at him over the rim of the mug. ‘Were you lying when you said what you said?’
Dio knew exactly what she was talking about. Why had he suddenly imparted information about his past? He had always kept the details of his background to himself. Growing up on a tough estate, where the laws of the jungle were very different from the jungle laws of the business world, he had learnt the wisdom of silence. It was a habit that was deeply ingrained.
‘Be more specific,’ he drawled. ‘Nice sandwich, by the way.’
‘Did you grow up near here?’
‘We are breaking into new and unexplored territory, aren’t we?’ he murmured, his fabulous eyes roving over the stunning prettiness of her heart-shaped face. It amazed him that he had never seen that body. His success with women had started at a very young age and was legendary and yet, with her, his wife, he had yet to discover what lay underneath the tee-shirt and the jeans.
Bitterness refused to dampen the sudden thrust of his erection and it occurred to him that he had spent an awful lot of time fantasising about the untouchable ice-maiden who had conned him into marriage.
Not for much longer. That was a very satisfying thought.
‘Unexpected announcements, revelations all round, time together without high society peering over our shoulders... Where does it end, I wonder? Oh, yes, I know. In bed.’
Lucy flushed. Those amazing pale eyes sent her nervous system into freefall and as soon as he mentioned the word ‘bed’ she couldn’t stop the tide of graphic images that pelted into her head at breakneck speed.
The principles she had held so dear became gossamer-thin under the impact of those images.
But for her, sex and love were entwined. They were!
‘You were out of order implying to John and Anita that you were willing to sink money in the place if I agreed to your demands.’
‘Was I?’ Dio shot her a perplexed frown. ‘I thought that I was only being honest. Nice people, by the way. They seem to have bought into the usefulness of having the after-school tutoring scheme there, but then I guess they would, considering they both have children who attend. Must be tough.’
Lucy was beginning to feel as though she had been stuck in a washing machine with the speed turned to full.
‘What must be tough?’ She knew what was tough. Tough was the way her carefully laid plans had unravelled at the speed of light in the space of twenty-four short hours. She had suspected that talk of divorce wouldn’t fall on completely fertile ground, because her husband was nothing if not proud, but she had not banked on the route he had taken which had now landed them both up here.
With talk of sex shimmering between them.
‘Tough being a working parent, trying to make ends meet while still attempting to find the spare time to sit and do homework with kids. I guess that’s the situation with your two...friends.’
‘They’re going to repeat what you told them to Mark.’
‘Oh dear. And would that be a problem?’
‘You always have to get your own way, don’t you?’ Lucy looked at him resentfully and then immediately diverted her eyes, because he was just too sexy and too good-looking to stare at for very long. Especially now that the dynamics between them had changed, subtly but dramatically.
‘Always,’ Dio confirmed readily. ‘What do you think your caring, sharing friend will think when he discovers that you’re the person standing between the success and failure of his little baby...? Because, from what you’ve told me, this has been more than just a flash in the pan, try-it-on-for-size experiment for him.’
Lucy bristled. ‘Are you implying that that’s what it’s been for me?’ she demanded, sinking her teeth into her sandwich and chewing angrily on it.
‘I never noticed just how cute you are when you’re angry,’ Dio murmured. ‘But then, anger didn’t score high on the list of required emotions in our marriage, did it?’
It surprised him just how much he was enjoying himself. Was it the bizarre novelty of the situation? He didn’t know and he wasn’t going to waste time with pointless questions. He was in very little doubt that as soon as he had had her, as soon as he had slept with her, he would regain healthy perspective on just the kind of woman she was, at which point he would bid farewell to his manipulative wife. But in the meantime...
Lucy lowered her eyes, reminded of just how hollow and empty their marriage had been, and then further reminded of all the high hopes and girlish dreams that had driven her to marry him in the first place.
‘I find working with these kids fulfilling,’ she told him, ignoring his barb. ‘Much, much more fulfilling than making stupid small talk to people I don’t like and barely know. Much more fulfilling than going to the opening of an art gallery or a society wedding.’
Privately, Dio couldn’t have agreed more. One of the more odious things he had to do in his steady, inexorable rise to the very top of the pecking order was attend events he couldn’t give a damn about. But it came with the job and he was too much of a realist to think otherwise.
Funnily enough, it had never occurred to him that his well-bred wife would ever have found that side of life a bore. In fact, he would have thought that that might have been one of the many things she enjoyed about the position into which she had cleverly manoeuvred herself.
Now he looked at her with a frown, trying to work out the little inconsistencies he was beginning to spot underneath the polished veneer he had always associated with her.
‘It’s going to be all round the neighbourhood that a big shot investor has taken an interest in our little local after-school club.’
‘Not just any old big shot investor, though.’
‘What am I supposed to say?’ she demanded, pushing her plate to one side, making sure to keep her voice low and calm because people were beginning to filter into the café now and curious looks were being directed at them.
‘You could tell them that you didn’t care for the terms your big shot investor demanded.’
‘You should never have followed me!’
‘You know you want me...’
‘I beg your pardon!’
‘Shocking, isn’t it?’ He leant back in the chair and was amused when she leaned forward, all the better to make sure that their conversation wasn’t overheard. ‘You don’t want to face up to it, but let’s cut to the chase. You’re hot for me.’
‘I am not!’
‘Would you like to put that to the test?’ He cast his eyes round the small café and the curious faces. ‘Why doesn’t the hot shot investor apply a little physical pressure...? Hmm...? How about I reach across this table and kiss you? Remember that kiss? How about we have a repeat performance right here? Right now? Then we could take a vote...find out how many people agree with me that you’re attracted to me...’
‘You took me by surprise when you kissed me!’ Patches of red had appeared on her cheeks. She knew that she didn’t look like the calm, composed teacher everyone around here expected her to be. She looked just like she felt. Hassled, overwhelmed, confused.
Excited...
‘So this time you’ll be prepared. We can both gauge just how much you can withstand what’s simmering between us.’
‘There’s nothing simmering between us!’ Desperation threaded her voice.
‘Of course there is.’ Dio dismissed her in a hard, inflexible voice. ‘And it’s been there all the way through our sexless marriage.’
‘Shh!’
He ignored her frantic interruption. ‘I’ve seen the way you’ve looked at me when you thought you weren’t being observed. You may have connived your way into marriage, and then pulled back once you’d got me hooked, but you still can’t quite help what you feel, can you?’
Lucy rested her head in her hand and wondered if she could just wish herself some place else.
‘Tell me...did you find it offensive to think of me in terms of being your lover?’
She looked at him, horrified. ‘How can you say that? What are you talking about?’
‘We couldn’t have come from more opposite sides of the tracks,’ Dio said drily. ‘Did you imagine you might catch a working class infection if you got too close to me?’
‘I’m not like that! We didn’t have a proper marriage and I wasn’t going to...to...’
He waved aside her half-baked, stammering explanation with an air of sudden boredom. ‘Not really interested in going down this road,’ he drawled. ‘The only thing I want is you, my beloved wife. I want to feel your naked body writhing under me. I want to hear you scream out my name and beg me to bring you to orgasm.’
‘That’ll never happen!’
‘Oh, it will. You just need to give the whole thing a little bit of thought and stop pretending that it’ll be any great hardship for you. It won’t be.’
‘And you know this because...?’ She was aiming for snappy and sarcastic; she got reedy and plaintive.
‘Because I know women. Trust me. It won’t be a hardship. And just think of the rewards... Fat alimony allowance...your little school shiny and well-equipped...grateful parents and happy little children... Could there be a better start to your wonderful bid for freedom...?’ He leaned forward so that they were both now resting their elbows on the table, their faces close together, locked in their own private world. ‘In fact, I have a splendid idea. Let’s take our honeymoon, Lucy. Two weeks. After that, I have to be in Hong Kong to close a deal on a company buyout. I’ll head there and you can... Well, you can begin your life of independence. How does that sound...?’
