Clearly the closeness she’d felt with Aurelio tonight had been illusory. He left her without a backward glance.
Which is a timely reminder that tonight is all about business. Remember?No matter how tempting it was to believe he’d stayed at her side because he enjoyed being with her. Or that the rapport she’d built with him, where they seemed so often on exactly the same wavelength, meant anything other than that they were committed to working together.
‘Don’t worry,’ Allegra said, reading the hurt Amber tried to hide. ‘I don’t think Luca will keep him too long. We’re all so glad to see him here with you! The family’s abuzz with excitement.’ Her meaningful look made Amber’s heart shrink.
‘I’m afraid you’ve misinterpreted…’ She gestured inarticulately, then gathered herself. ‘Aurelio and I aren’t an item.’ Amber stood straighter as she said it, coiling her hands together before her. ‘We’re just business associates. I’m not here as a real date.’
Allegra considered her for a long moment. ‘Funny. That’s not the way it looked. And the back-off vibe Aurelio gave when that slimy media mogul tried to chat you up seemed pretty personal.’
Amber’s mouth twisted in a parody of a smile and her hand rose to her hair, nervously checking it was still in its elegant updo. Her stupid heart had somersaulted with pleasure at that apparently possessive gesture by Aurelio. Until he’d whispered in her ear that the guy had harassed Aurelio’s sister Lia and he wouldn’t trust him close to any woman, not even hisnonna. Protective he might be but it wasn’t anything personal.
‘Despite appearances, our…relationship is strictlyimpersonal.’
Those blue eyes surveyed her so long Amber wondered what they saw. ‘And that’s why you’re upset?’
‘I’m not—’ Abruptly Amber’s throat closed and she swallowed hard. It had been simultaneously wonderful and terrible, standing beside the man she loved tonight, acting the part of his date, knowing that he was only with her under sufferance. For the sake of his business.
But the tiniest hint of a sympathetic look was all it took for her façade to crack.
‘Oh, Amber, I’m so sorry.’ The other woman stepped close, putting her hand on Amber’s elbow and turning them both away from the crowded room so no-one could see their faces. ‘It was rude and thoughtless of me to ask. It’s just that Aurelio is special and his family has been concerned for him for so long. Ever since—’ She broke off, clamping her lip with her teeth.
‘Ever since…?’ Did Allegra know the reason Aurelio brooded alone in his vineyard, turning his back on any chance of a relationship? Amber’s pulse quickened.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken. If Aurelio hasn’t told you about his past I don’t feel it right to share something so personal.’ Allegra grimaced. ‘Me and my big mouth. I keep putting my foot in it, don’t I? I’m not usually so gauche, but you looked miserable and I know how awful it is working with the man you love when you think he doesn’t care for you.’
Amber gasped, quivers of shock running through her. She opened her mouth to deny it but her companion looked so earnest and so sympathetic, somehow she found herself saying, ‘Am I really so transparent?’ Pain jabbed straight to her heart. ‘Do you think Aurelio realised…?’
‘No, no!’ Allegra shook her head. ‘He’s been too busy tonight tryingnotto look at you.’ At Amber’s hiss of disbelief she nodded. ‘Truly, he worked so hard, but whenever you turned to someone else he stared at you like he wanted to eat you all up.’
Heat crept up Amber’s body, from her womb to her ears. She felt her face flame and her belly tighten.
As if reading the longing she refused to give voice to, Allegra went on. ‘I’m not mistaken. Believe me, I’m not the only one to notice.’
For a second jubilation fizzed in Amber’s veins. Maybe, despite his determination to fight it, hedidfeel something for her after all.
Then reality, like a wave of icy water, sluiced over her.
There was, of course, a rational explanation. And it had nothing to do with love or affection.
‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ she said, miserably. For now her mask of insouciance had been breached, Amber found it impossible to dissemble. Or maybe she just longed for a sympathetic ear. Even from a stranger.
She sucked in a breath and forced a smile that felt as brittle as her emotions. ‘Aurelio does lust very, very well. What he won’t do…can’tdo is relationships. He mightwantme.’ Despite the pain engulfing her Amber shivered with arousal at the idea. ‘But he’ll never…care for me.’
‘Ah, you poor love.’ Allegra put her arm around her, her body warmth in contrast to the chill eating Amber from the inside. ‘Let’s get you away from here. You’ve had enough for one night.’
She urged Amber towards a door and Amber was only too happy to leave. She’d put in hours tonight at Aurelio’s side, on the red carpet then at the premiere film screening and now at the party. But she couldn’t do it any longer.
As the two women stepped from the crowded reception room into the blessed quiet of a wide corridor, Allegra murmured, ‘Things always seem darkest before the dawn. Just you mark my words.’
But Amber said nothing. Finally she confronted the truth. It was time to walk away from Aurelio. It was too self-destructive to torture herself, working closely with him when they had no future together.