‘I presumed you were a part of the deal that night. I honestly thought you’d come with the intention of flirting with me, of seducing me.’
‘I didn’t.’
His lips flickered, a smile returning to his face. ‘No?’
‘You know that’s not what happened.’ She reached for her water and took a sip. ‘Laurence wanted that night to feel social. Truth be told, I think he was probably intimidated as all heck at the idea of meeting you and thought I might make that a bit easier.’ She bit down on her lip. ‘It’s not like he threw me to the wolves—or wolf, in this case.’
Amusement sparkled in Cesare’s eyes. ‘And yet, here you are, in the midst of the wolf’s den.’
‘I don’t think wolves live in dens.’
‘They rear their young in them.’
Surprise at his knowledge had her arching her eyebrow. ‘How do you know that?’
‘I have a place in Alaska. I go there when I need to work without disruption. A few times a year at least. I learned very quickly that if I didn’t become an expert in the local wildlife I wouldn’t live very long.’
‘What’s it like?’ she asked, momentarily distracted.
‘Alaska?’
She nodded. ‘Your place there.’
‘It’s... You would hate it,’ he laughed ruefully, the sound doing strange things to her nerve endings.
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s as far from this as you can imagine.’ He waved a hand around the balcony, so beautiful, so luxurious, at the boats bobbing in the background, the air of wealth that was everywhere you cared to look in Cannes.
‘It’s an old log cabin, built some time in the sixties. It’s in the middle of nowhere—you have to either hike for twelve hours to reach it, or you can fly in and land on the lake. The forest is too thick to bring even a helicopter down. When I bought the place, there was no kitchen, no bathroom, nothing. Eventually, I added a small room with basic amenities—no hot water, though—and there’s now a small solar-powered generator that means I can run a light and a fridge.’
‘Wow.’
‘You cannot imagine me there?’
‘I didn’t say that.’ The first time she’d met him, hadn’t she been reminded a little of a wild animal? Though he dressed himself in bespoke Savile Row suits, he was clearly a man ruled by passions, powerful in a way that was wild and untamed. ‘What do you do while you’re there?’
‘I work, uccellina.’ The words held a gentle reminder. ‘And sometimes I fish.’
‘How can you work? Is there cell reception?’
‘Some kinds of work require a complete lack of interruption. I do my best strategising out there. It’s where I tend to have big-picture realisations.’
‘So you can see the forest for the trees?’ she prompted, a smile playing around her lips.
‘Exactly.’ He rewarded her pun with a grin of his own.
‘It sounds kind of amazing.’
He laughed, dismissing her conclusion. ‘I think you would truly hate it. There are bugs and bears and leeches and there is not a lot to do.’
She bristled at the implication contained in his words. ‘And because I’m a model I can’t also like the outdoors?’
‘Because you are a model, or because you were raised in a particular way.’ He said the words with undisguised scorn that had a thousand questions filling her mind. ‘Take your pick.’
‘What do you know about the way I was raised?’
His expression was darkly speculative. ‘I can imagine.’