He just doesn’t know any better, she told herself painfully. He was accustomed to having his own way with her sex. Sophie hadn’t been offered a Porsche for acting as his hostess alone. He might not have slept with her but it had been a pay-off. She hadn’t earned it, the blonde had said bluntly. Bella’s nostrils flared with distaste. If Rico knew what was good for him, he would keep the financial aspect out of their relationship. Bella might not be rich but she considered herself his equal on every other level.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked abruptly.
‘My estate…I’m taking you home with me.’ Rico’s mouth compressed. ‘Don’t tell me…you have an objection to that as well?’
‘If you want to rescue a stray, try Battersea Dog’s Home!’
‘What the hell is the matter with you?’ he suddenly exploded.
‘I just don’t like being taken over as if I’m some sort of cypher!’ She swallowed hard, feeling the dismaying sting of tears in her eyes. ‘Look… this—’
‘Maybe now that you appreciate that the dog, the cat and the pony will be neither required nor appropriate you’re having second thoughts!’ he grated in a tense undertone.
‘I seriously doubt that I’ll be with you long enough for it to become a pressing problem!’ Bella was angered and embarrassed at having her own words thrown back in her face.
He went rigid, his jaw-line squaring. ‘Don’t miscalculate and make it one.’
Bella paled. ‘I wouldn’t do something like that!’ She was shocked by the suggestion that he thought she might.
Abruptly Rico muttered an imprecation and released his breath. ‘How can I even say that to you after the risks we ran a few weeks ago?’ he murmured drily. ‘Let us face facts; we are fortunate indeed that you are not now pregnant.’
Bella bent her head, suppressing an urge to tell him that she was only now expecting the confirmation that their passion was to have no further consequences. Why worry him unnecessarily? It wasn’t as if she was worried that that confirmation would not arrive. It was extremely unlikely that conception could have taken place at that time of her cycle, she reminded herself, and it was precisely because of that unlikelihood that she had not allowed herself to spend the past three weeks anxiously fretting.
‘Becoming a father is not one of your ambitions, I take it.’
‘No, definitely not on my agenda. A complication I will happily do without.’ His bronzed face was shuttered, taut. ‘How did we get onto this subject?’
‘You started it.’
‘Come here…’ With a slightly twisted smile, he stretched out both hands and drew her closer. ‘If this feels like a big step to you, gatita, it feels just as big to me,’ he confided almost harshly, studying her from beneath thick ebony lashes. ‘If I get it wrong sometimes, try to make allowances.’
Her tension evaporated. He hadn’t found it easy to make that admission and she loved him all the more for making it. Asking her to live with him had been a very real commitment on his terms, she registered, a relieved feeling of contentment enclosing her, smoothing over the ragged edges of her nerves.
‘You’ve been trying to take me home with you ever since you met me,’ she whispered.
‘With a notable lack of success,’ Rico murmured thickly, tugging her relentlessly across the space that still separated them, dark eyes firing gold.
‘But you’re very persistent.’
‘And if I say please…?’
‘The world’s your oyster,’ Bella affirmed, barely able to think straight that close to him.
He linked his arms around her but he tilted his head back, narrowly appraising her. ‘You have stars in your eyes, gatita. That worries me.’
‘You have a fear of being trapped. That worries me even more.’
‘Why did you talk to the Press?’ he enquired flatly, ignoring her sally.
‘I told you why. I just wanted to bring it all to an end. And I thought that if I made it clear that nothing happened between us they would leave me alone—’
‘So you lied.’
‘I could hardly tell the truth!’ But she flushed, her eyes troubled, her mouth faintly mutinous. ‘OK…I lied.’
‘Don’t ever do it again. Don’t lie to me and don’t lie about me,’ Rico told her with level emphasis. ‘In fact don’t talk about me at all. What is between us is private.’
‘I know that!’