The reply popped up on my phone.
Yes, Alexi, she is here... Somewhere. I think I saw her chatting to Renzo Camaro and one of his technicians earlier.
I frowned. Why was she talking to Camaro? She didn’t work for him any more, she worked for me.
I stifled my temper and shoved the phone in my back pocket. Didn’t matter. The point was, even if she hadn’t come to find Cai and me today, she would be at the event tonight. I had arranged for Carly to stay with our son until the morning, giving me ample time to seduce his mother.
Cai started to cry as I calmly and firmly explained to him again that he would not be going to the party.
He rubbed his eyes, so I hugged him a little closer. He was tired and cranky. I needed to get him back to the hotel and into bed.
But as I headed through the crowd towards the car park, still searching for a glimpse of Belle, a thought occurred to me.
Was Belle avoiding me deliberately?
Warmth and regret flooded through me. Why hadn’t I seen the obvious before now? Of course she was avoiding me. I had rejected her. And her pride had forced her to hide the hurt I’d caused.
I promised myself that tonight I would correct that mistake. I would show Belle how much I respected her, and her work, and tell her I wanted her back.
I was the one who had ended our affair too soon. So I was the one who needed to make this first move.
The surge of passion and possessiveness was joined by the visceral need that had terrified me a month ago but didn’t scare me so much any more.
I’d proved I could live without Belle for a month, but why live without her any longer if I didn’t have to?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Belle
‘YOU LOOK EXQUISITE TONIGHT, Belle.’ Renzo’s smile was full of appreciation and just a hint of more. If I wanted it.
A part of me wished I did.
Dressed in a tailored grey designer suit, Renzo looked impossibly handsome tonight—tall, dark and Italian. Even the scar on his cheek only added to his rugged masculine beauty. He had always been kind to me both as an employer and now as a friend. But unfortunately he didn’t make my heartbeat accelerate whenever he was near me. And nothing about him made me yearn for his touch. His taste. His approval.
Even so, I forced what I hoped was a flirtatious smile to my lips. Tonight I was determined to try.
It had been a month since Alexi had walked away from me, and I had spent more than enough time grieving the loss.
And beating myself up about how foolish I had been ever to believe we could have had more than a quick fling.
He had devastated me again. But this time I had let him by investing much more in that relationship than had ever been there. Alexi would be here tonight to celebrate another triumph for the Galanti team, no doubt with a new supermodel on his arm, and I wanted to be able to greet him without giving him even a hint of how destroyed I had been by his desertion.
I’d cried pitifully that night, but had picked myself up the next morning to be a mother. The first few days had been exceptionally tough as I started my new job—terrified that Alexi would appear, but thankfully he never had. And eventually the work, and Cai, had saved me from sinking further into the pit. I knew it would probably be a very long time before I would ever want another man the way I had wanted Alexi, but I had to stop hiding.
It wasn’t good for Cai and it wasn’t good for me either.
I refused to let Alexi have that power over me. He’d been callous and unkind, but he was still my boss, and I didn’t want to jeopardise my career with Galanti over something that had always been doomed to failure.
Alexi wasn’t capable of trusting women. In the back of my mind, I had always known that.
‘Are you absolutely sure I can’t tempt you away from Galanti?’ Renzo carried on talking as he whisked a glass of champagne off a passing tray and handed it to me. ‘I’m still annoyed he managed to tempt you away from me in the first place.’
I sipped the champagne.
‘I’m afraid not, Renzo, but I’m happy to let you keep trying,’ I teased, from the marble balcony where we’d positioned ourselves as my gaze darted once again to the entrance of the Grande Palazzo Hotel’s elegant ballroom.
My heart thrummed in my chest.