‘We have tickets to the opera,’ Alessandro said roughly. ‘Although...’ he disengaged his arm and stepped to one side, shoving both hands in his pockets ‘...I’m afraid that might have to be put on the back burner...’
‘Why?’ Rebecca demanded. A querulous note had crept into her voice.
‘Because the file Kate has brought up requires some urgent work...’
‘I think I’ve covered all the tricky bits,’ Kate said tightly. ‘Please... Don’t let me keep you both from...’ Words failed her and she took a deep breath. ‘From your plans for this evening.’ She smiled at Rebecca and cool blue eyes met hers. ‘I’m in a bit of a rush as well...’ she explained faintly.
‘That’s as may be... But part and parcel of your new position is a willingness to do overtime when it’s necessary. It’s necessary now.’
Alessandro looked at Rebecca. It had been a major mistake to renew contact with the lawyer. It had been an even bigger mistake to summon Kate to his office. And even worse than both those big mistakes had been the mistake of seeing them both alongside one another—because it had only fuelled his frustration at not having Kate to himself.
Not being able to touch her.
He raked his fingers through his hair, realized that he was shaking—but because of what, exactly, he wasn’t sure.
‘Apologies.’ This to an increasingly annoyed Rebecca. ‘My driver will return you to your house—unless you’d like to take someone to the opera with you...’
He was already flipping open his cell, giving instructions to his driver to come to the office.
‘Are you telling me that I’m being stood up?’ Rebecca hissed as she was ushered towards the door. She tugged free of his grasp and spun round to face him, hands on hips. ‘Believe me, Alessandro, I have better things to do than to come here and find myself without a date for the evening!’
‘Again... I apologize...’
‘Not good enough!’
‘Unfortunately...’ he eased her out of the door ‘...it will have to do...’
‘There was no need to...to do that...’ Kate felt the tiny pulse in her neck beating as she stared at him. ‘There’s really nothing...nothing that can’t wait until next week...to be sorted...’
‘You’ve been in your new role for under two weeks,’ said Alessandro, knowing very well that she was right. ‘Do me the courtesy of not overstepping your brief.’
‘Your date must have been disappointed.’
‘That’s very considerate of you... I can’t say I’m half as considerate towards yours...’
‘Sorry?’
‘The clothes...the make-up...the sexy little sandals—which, I notice, you can now wear without a serious onset of blisters. I’m not an idiot, Kate. You might not be on the way to a cocktail party, but you sure as hell won’t be having a meal in on your own tonight...’
He swung round and strolled towards the window, trying hard to get his act together.
He turned to face her, back to the window, arms folded. ‘You move fast.’
‘That’s rich, coming from you!’ Patches of angry colour stained her cheeks.
How dared he accuse her of moving fast when he was already involved with another woman?
‘Who is he anyway?’
‘We’re no longer an item, Alessandro. My private life is none of your business now...’
‘It is when it involves you playing hanky-panky with a colleague!’
‘That’s ridiculous. Who am I supposed to be...? To be...?’
‘Say it, Kate! Spit it out! Playing with... Having an affair with... Having sex with...’
‘I would never do anything with a work colleague,’ she flung back at him.
But she wasn’t denying that she was seeing someone...
Maybe not someone she worked with, but nevertheless she was still flaunting herself...parading her femininity where before she had concealed it...
And it was driving him crazy.
He wanted to point out that she was in a position of responsibility, that climbing the career ladder didn’t involve wearing clothes that turned men on... But where the hell would he be going with that anyway? He wasn’t a dinosaur, and there was no rigid dress code within his company aside from the fact that his employees had to look ‘smart’.
‘You’re jealous...’
And that angered her—because he had no right to be. Not when he was seeing another woman. Not when he had moved on at the speed of light. He had no right to be jealous just because she had been the one to walk away.
She felt sick when she thought of him and the lawyer in the short red dress.
She felt sick because he had broken with tradition and was going out with someone smart, someone high-powered, someone with a cut-glass accent—someone just like him.
Alessandro had never been jealous in his life before, but he couldn’t contradict her.
‘You’ve found someone else,’ Kate threw at him, ‘but you still can’t bear the thought that I was the one who walked away from you, can you?’
He no longer wanted her, but he wasn’t quite ready for her to want anyone else.
Was that it? Alessandro thought.
He didn’t say anything. Instead he strolled slowly towards her and Kate backed away, as terrified as a rabbit caught in the glare of oncoming headlights.
Terrified because she knew that he could still have her. It was mortifying.
Her breasts felt heavy, as if remembering his touch. Her nipples tightened as she imagined his mouth on them, his tongue licking and teasing them, and between her legs she knew that she was wet for him.
She half closed her eyes, dazed at the graphic memory of him down there, sucking her, taking his time, his big hands on her inner thighs, making sure her legs were open for his lazy exploration. She remembered what it had felt like to gaze down at that dark head between her legs, to have her fingers coiled in his hair as she urged him on.
She bumped into the edge of his desk and didn’t even know how she had managed to stumble back there.
‘You still want me,’ Alessandro growled.
She shook her head in helpless denial but her eyes, pinned to his face, were telling a different story.
He was so hot for her that it hurt. Very slowly he dragged his finger gently along her cheek. She turned her head away sharply. But her breathing was ragged, all over the place, and he could feel her body burning up for him.
Kate licked her lips.
‘I... I...’ Her throat was so dry that she could barely get the words out.
You have a girlfriend...you have a hotshot lawyer... Okay, so you might have dispatched her tonight, but she’ll still be hanging around, waiting for you to say the word, because that’s just what women do for you... But not me.
‘Tell me that you don’t...’ he murmured roughly. ‘Tell me that whoever this guy is...whoever you’ve picked up...he can make you feel the way I make you feel. Tell me that if I were to slide my fingers into you right now you wouldn’t open up for me...’
‘No!’ Kate pulled away and managed to galvanize her unsteady legs into action. ‘You’ve moved on. I’ve moved on. Nothing...nothing else matters...’
She couldn’t look at him. If she looked at him—looked into those deep, dark eyes—she would be lost.
She fled.
She was so scared he would follow her that she didn’t dare look round. Her whole body prickled with tension. Her fingers were trembling as she repeatedly jabbed the button to call the lift. When it finally whirred up she leapt through the doors and pressed herself against the mirrored back, only breathing out when she was disgorged onto the ground floor.
He’d played with her the way a cat played with a mouse—toying with her to prove a point.
He’d proved it.
For the first time ever she had a driving need to talk to her mother—to actually talk to her about her feelings.
Nothing had gone according to plan, and that was something Shirley Watson would understand. None of her life had gone according to plan. She had lurched from one guy to another in search of love. And she, Kate, had tried so hard to make sure she went in the opposite direction to her mother.
She had formulated her Plan A and had been determined to stick to it. Now look at her! Whatever plan she had ended up on, it certainly wasn’t Plan A. She wasn’t even sure it was Plan B.
She dialled her mother’s number and burst into tears at the sound of her mother’s voice.
‘Mum,’ she finally hiccupped, ‘I’ve made such a mess of things... I’ve just gone and done the stupidest thing... I’ve fallen in love with the wrong man...’
‘Oh, Katie. It’s not the end of the world... You’re crying, my darling. Please don’t cry. You’re such a strong young woman. What can I say? I’ve always known that you disapproved of my lifestyle, but it’s better to have fallen in love with the wrong man than to never know what it is to fall in love. Come down to Cornwall...spend a few days. Sea air is very good for clearing the head...’
* * *
There was no Red-Hot Rebecca spending the night for fun, games and a future of intellectual stimulation. She had been permanently dispatched.
Alessandro had spent the past hour wandering from room to room in his enormous house, unable to settle down. Work was no distraction from his thoughts, and right up there when it came to those thoughts was: Who the hell was her date and where the hell was she going to be spending the weekend?