She would have said more, but di Adamo chose that moment to enter the store. He had his grandson, Nico, with him.
‘Ah, di Vitale. It is a pleasure to see you again. And this time you visit when my assistant is in town.”
‘ di Adamo.” Salvatore turned and extended his hand in greeting, before doing likewise to Nico.
‘You are getting tall, Nico. Pretty soon you will be working with your grandfather in the store, no?”
Nico beamed with obvious delight and Elisa had to wonder just how much of a friendship had developed between her employer and her ex-lover over the year she’d been avoiding Salvatore.
‘lf I have a store.” The old man’s voice lowered with defeat, but then he smiled. ‘This little girl
here, she’s given me new hope. Has she told you about the crown jewels?” alder father did.”
‘lt is a miracle she convinced the former crown prince to let us handle the auction but she is smart and pretty enough to convince any red-blooded man of whatever her heart desires.” The old man winked at Salvatore.
‘ls that not so?” She could have told di Adamo that she hadn’t been pretty or desirable enough to convince Salvatore to love her, but she didn’t. Because she no longer cared. She didn’t want his love. She didn’t want his second-hand concern either. She just wanted to be left alone.
She didn’t get her wish. Salvatore stayed and discussed the shortcomings in di Adamo’s security with the old man. He insisted on doing so in the store frequently coming into close proximity to her. And every time it happened, the desires of her body betrayed the knowledge of her heart.
It didn’t matter what she did to avoid him. She moved to one side of the store and began cleaning jewelry. He followed. The same happened when she went to a jeweler’s case on the other side to rearrange its contents. Always it appeared he had been about to move there too but she felt stalked.
Considering the primitive view he had of life, it wasn’t hard to imagine him as a predator and herself as the prey.
In less than thirty minutes her nerves were shot.
Unable to stand the pressure any longer of being around a man she had once loved who had not loved her and whom she now despised she sought escape at her desk in the back room. She would work on the auction. di Adamo could man the store.
‘you have been running away for a year, Elisa. That is over.”
Stupid. She castigated herself mentally as the voice she was trying so desperately to avoid attacked taut nerve endings. It had been really dim to take refuge in the small confines of an office that had only one exit. She faced him wishing for the numbness she had felt for so many months after the death of her baby and the destruction of her dreams.
He stood blocking that exit-his head almost brushing the top of the door-frame, his shoulders fillng it .
She refused to allow any of the emotions roiling inside her to show on her face.
‘l’m not running. I have work to do.”
’So it has not been running when you manage to be gone every time I have come to visit.”
‘I wasn’t always gone.”
‘So this is true. The first time I came you were home in your apartment but you refused to open the door.”
She’d threatened to call the police if he didn’t go away and she’d meant it. Even so, she had not expected him to leave, but he had. A male of his wealth and standing could have talked the police around, but he hadn’t even pushed it. Although she’d been relieved, she still had no real clue why he had gone .
‘You came back ” she accused.
‘And you left.”
‘I had a buyer’s trip.” He’d made the mistake of calling to tell her he was in Rome on his way to see her. She’d left for the buyer’s trip three days early.
‘You were running, just as you ran the next time I attempted to see you.”
‘I owed my mother a visit.”
‘
Your father told you I was coming to Rome. You knew that meant I was going to try to see you again. You took off on a flight for America less than an hour before I arrived.”