What on earth had she done? Kissing him like that when he was half naked and she was wearing her stupid festive pyjamas? Lara slid back under her duvet and shivered with cold and shock. She hadn’t known a man could make you feel like that with a kiss. She hadn’t known shecouldfeel like that. Only a kiss though, she reminded herself tiredly, don’t make a silly fuss about a kiss...
CHAPTER THREE
Present day
LARASHOOKOFFthose memories in haste as she changed to meet up with Gaetano. She saw no reason why she should show up barefaced and wearing her oldest jeans, looking as though she had given up on even trying to be attractive. No, she wasn’t ready to be seen in that light, not whenhewas dressed and groomed as if he were about to walk into an expensive restaurant or a fancy business meeting!
As soon as she had Freddy tucked into his sleeping bag clutching his beloved toy rabbit she went for a shower and washed her hair. She had to raid Alice’s cosmetics to do her face. She grimaced. She hadn’t given up after her marriage imploded before her eyes, shehadn’t! But she had had no interest in men after that humiliation and then, in no time at all, she had discovered that she was pregnant. And Freddy’s arrival had changed everything. Her years of evening classes aimed at helping her catch up on the education she had missed out on had counted for nothing once she’d had to work out how to survive on her own and provide for her son as well.
Alice had saved her life by offering her a home and the two women had fallen into a comfortable groove, working around each other and sharing childcare. But Lara had had few choices when it came to how she made her living. She worked at night cleaning commercial premises because those hours of work suited her. Freddy was in bed and although Alice had to babysit, she wasn’t actively having to do much. Lara operated on less sleep and contrived to spend most of her day with her son and slot Iris, who was at school, into their schedule as well. The arrangement suited both women for the present even if it didn’t allow scope for Lara to aspire to more rewarding employment. That could wait until Freddy was at school and she had the freedom to consider other options. Currently, Lara worked sufficient hours to ensure that rent, food and other basic needs were covered without her having to take too much advantage of Alice’s frequently offered generosity.
Having put on her dressiest outfit while scolding herself for putting so much effort into her appearance, Lara slotted her feet into perilously high heels. Alice had bought them for her the previous Christmas, mainly as a joke, saying that it was time Lara went out and painted the town red with her. Only that one night out being hit on by men who neither attracted nor interested her had put Lara off and persuaded her that she was far too picky. Nor did the idea of having to explain her marital situation appeal to her. Being possibly married without a husband left her in a kind of no man’s land when it came to dating and she knew she needed to do something about that.
‘You look incredible. I gather you want him to regret how he treated you?’
‘It’s a bit late in the day for that,’ Lara contended. ‘But that doesn’t mean I want him to look at me and feel that his worst expectations of me have been vindicated, which I’m sure is exactly what he thought when he took me by surprise today in the park.’
Alice handed her the keys for the hatchback parked in the drive. Lara slipped off the shoes and drove off. Her heart was sitting at the base of her throat. She just couldn’t credit that she was about to see Gaetano again. That brief encounter in the park already had the unreal hazy edge of a dream. No, not a dream, she decided ruefully, a nightmare. What woman wanted to lay eyes on the man who had broken her heart again? Gaetano di Santis had ripped her in two, but she wasn’t the same trusting and vulnerable woman that she had been. She lifted her chin.Game on, Gaetano!
The satellite navigation led her to a stately home situated in its own park. Of course, he would hardly be slumming it, not a king, not a male born into generations of royalty and the luxury lifestyle that went with such status. She drove down the long winding driveway, staring at the imposing façade of the large Victorian mansion and wincing. Immediately she felt underdressed and out of her comfort zone. Stiffening her spine while telling herself off for being so sensitive, she put on her shoes, locked the car and walked across the gravel very slowly to the pillared entrance, striving not to totter in her high heels.
Two men in suits greeted her at the door and asked her who she was visiting.
‘Gaetano,’ she said tightly, colour lacing her pallor at having to make even that much of an explanation, and their surprised looks didn’t help.
‘His Majesty is working in the library,’ one of them whispered to the other, their low-pitched voices seemingly part of their job.
‘His Majesty doesn’t like to be disturbed unnecessarily,’ another voice, which was female, interposed brightly from the rear of the hall. ‘Perhaps I can help?’
Lara glanced at the svelte blonde older woman, unimpressed by her welcoming smile when her blue eyes were as hard as granite. ‘I don’t think so...possibly I should’ve called ahead.’
‘That would have been wise. Perhaps you could phone and make an appointment first. Usually that approach works best with someone as busy as the King,’ the woman pointed out cuttingly.
Lara walked back outside, dug out her phone and the card Gaetano had given her to punch in the number. ‘Gaetano?’ she asked as soon as it was answered. ‘I’m outside and ready to head home again. I can’t get past your staff. I’ll give you a count of ten before I leave.’
Lara strolled back towards the car. As she unlocked the door a lion’s roar broke the evening silence.‘Lara!’
Gaetano now stood in the porch in person, seething annoyance emanating from him in a wave, a touch of colour accentuating his high cheekbones.
‘I should’ve phoned and told you what time I would be herebeforeI left home,’ Lara conceded gracefully as she walked back towards him, barely able to breathe above the nervous tension gripping her chest in a vice. ‘But I wasn’t expecting all this security.’
His intense dark gaze burned over her to the extent that she almost stumbled over her own feet in the grand hall.
‘Allow me to take your coat,’ a little man proffered, extending his hands.
Lara doffed the black wool coat she usually only wore for church, and it was carried off with the same reverence that a fantastically expensive designer garment would have commanded. Under Gaetano’s incredulous scrutiny the floral dress that swirled round her knees suddenly felt incredibly tight and she shifted her feet uneasily.
Gaetano studied her fixedly. In any terminology his wife was a living, breathing doll with delicate flawless features. She was tiny and shapely with perfect legs, porcelain-pale skin and a wealth of wavy strawberry-blonde hair tumbling round her narrow shoulders. She looked amazing, not a thought that he believed he should be having in such circumstances, but it was, at least, the proof that he had not been entirely insane two years earlier when he’d promised to marry her and forsake all others. As if in evidence of his susceptibility as he noted the luscious peach of her mouth and the surprisingly full curve of her small breasts, a warning pulse throbbed at his groin and he tensed, infuriated by that response. Was that reaction really so surprising when he was sex-starved?
‘What on earth are you wearing on your feet?’ Gaetano demanded abruptly. ‘All of a sudden you’re unnaturally tall!’
Lara extended bare toes cradled in clear plastic straps, her heel raised a towering six inches by the sandal. She tilted her chin. ‘Why not?’ she said lightly. She had a choice of trainers, a pair of biker boots and the silly sandals. There were few options in Lara’s slender wardrobe. She didn’t go out much and she didn’t need many outfits.
‘Let’s go into the library,’ another voice slotted in quietly.
Lara froze, uneasily conscious of being the cynosure of every eye around them. An alien dropping in could not have commanded more attention. The security men were standing at the back, frowning. The sharp-tongued blonde was staring a perplexed hole in her. She shot a glance at the lean bearded man she recalled from two years earlier, Gaetano’s protective sidekick, as she had tagged him. She tasted bile in her mouth. He was a lawyer and a personal friend. She didn’t remember his name, but she did remember his shocked and hostile attitude to her.
‘I’m here to see youalone,’ Lara told Gaetano defensively.