A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

by Cathy Williams

  ‘Your father has never mentioned her,’ Laura said wistfully. ‘I know he came here without a wife all those years ago. No one saw much of him at all. He was never around. He lived in the big house and half the time no one knew whether he was in the house or not.’

  ‘And no doubt everyone had a theory.’

  ‘I don’t know. I was busy at school, then I went away to university and then down to London. By then he had stopped working, I guess, and had begun to appear in the town with a little more regularity.’

  ‘I’m struggling to picture my father strolling into the village on a Sunday morning for a cup of tea and chit-chat with the locals.’

  ‘That might be because you don’t really know him.’

  Alessandro’s lips thinned. ‘And it’s so important to really get to know people, isn’t it?’ he remarked with smooth assurance. He strolled to pour them both another drink and she half-heartedly swatted the offer away.

  ‘I have to drive back.’

  Alessandro didn’t answer that. He perched on the table, which meant that she had to look up at him, and their eyes met. The slow flush that crawled into her cheeks was telling him something and he never, ever, got it wrong when it came to those little signals women emanated.

  His dark eyes dropped to her mouth and he deliberately let them linger there, and the way she nervously licked her lips was also telling him something.

  The fire that had been running through his veins like a deep, underground, fast-flowing river began surfacing.

  He wasn’t into self-denial when it came to sex. What was the point? If it was there, he took it. It was there now. Did she even know that? Was she even aware of the attraction she felt towards him or was she too busy trying to analyse him and probe beneath the surface?

  ‘And, yes, it’s important you really get to...er...you know, find out about Roberto before you do anything that could...um...really throw him into turmoil...’ Laura’s eyes skittered away from his, although her skin felt as hot as fire. She could still feel those deep, dark eyes of his locked onto her and it was rousing stuff in her that she didn’t want.

  Alessandro Falcone was off limits and it had a lot more to do with the complicated situation between them.

  He was off limits because he was just plain wrong on every single level.

  He was everything she didn’t want in her life. When she’d walked away from London, from her job and from a guy who had strung her along with his charm and his dashing good looks, she had made a quiet resolution to herself that she would not get involved with anyone who wasn’t open, sincere and basically just like her. Normality was what she wanted in a guy. Even if she were to have a fling, it would be with someone whose values she shared and who wasn’t out to get what he could. It wouldn’t be with one of life’s takers.

  So why was it that she felt naked and exposed when he looked at her like that?

  ‘We could spend the rest of the night discussing my father,’ Alessandro murmured. He moved, strolled to the window, which offered the view of a pitch-dark night outside, strolled back to the table and resumed his position, perching on it but this time closer to her. Close enough for her breathing to feel a little restricted.

  ‘But let’s talk about you instead. You’ve done a lot of low-level, amateur psychoanalysis on me... Fair’s fair. What was my father referring to when he mentioned your shenanigans in London?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Please tell me that you’re not one of those hypocrites who are forthright and direct when it comes to mouthing off their opinions on other people’s lives but clam up the second someone tries to get a straight answer out of them about their own lives. That would be disappointing...’

  Laura glared at him angrily. Hypocrite? That was one accusation that had never been levelled against her! Too outspoken, yes. Naive, yes. Too honest for her own good, definitely! But hypocritical? No.

  ‘Lost for words?’ Alessandro asked silkily. ‘And yet you’ve been so vocal up until now...’

  ‘You know what the older generation is like,’ she hedged through gritted teeth. ‘They gossip.’

  ‘I never took my father for a gossiper,’ Alessandro commented truthfully.

  ‘Well, he is when he’s with my grandmother. And you know...people of that generation think that walking in a park holding hands with someone if you’re not engaged to be married comes under the heading of shenanigans!’

  ‘Have you buried yourself here to escape a broken relationship?’

  The mildness of his voice was disconcerting because his eyes were shrewd and perceptive.

  ‘I don’t consider this a graveyard.’

  ‘So you had an ill-advised fling with someone you worked with. It fell apart at the seams. It happens.’

  ‘Who told you that?’ She looked at him narrowly. ‘I suppose Roberto let slip.’

  ‘Like I told you, my father and I are not on such familiar terms. I guessed and it seems that I was right.’

  She looked away. Her hands were trembling and she linked her fingers together, stilling them. She didn’t want to talk about this, wasn’t going to talk about it, and yet wasn’t he right when he’d said that she had felt free to probe but when the shoe was on the other foot, she wasn’t quite so ready to confide?

  Was this her Achilles’ heel? The place where her insecurities lay? Being brought up by her grandmother had been good, better than good, but she had never really caught on to make-up and feminine wiles—not in the way her other classmates had. Her grandmother had simply been beyond all that by the time Laura had hit her teens. When it came to the art of flirting, she was at a loss and so Colin and the way he had used her inexperience had hit her hard, had reinforced all those insecurities.

  She couldn’t shake it off because she didn’t know how. She wasn’t casual enough when it came to men. Would she ever be able to shake it off? Alessandro was right, wasn’t he? She’d buried herself here and she wondered, in a sudden surge of panic, whether she would remain buried. Would she ever venture out into the big, bad world again? Dip her feet back into the water?

  Or would that prospect seem scarier and scarier the more time passed by? The only interaction with guys she had here was with the partners of the friends she had grown up with, who had left and returned or else had never left. She would end up batty and alone and talking to herself at inappropriate times in public places.

  ‘You’re not going to cry on me, are you?’

  ‘No, I’m not!’ Laura snapped fiercely. ‘And, yes, I did have a situation with someone I worked with. Satisfied? He strung me along and then I found out that he was married!’

  ‘He was just another bastard.’

  ‘You don’t understand! I really trusted Colin Scott. I thought he was a decent kind of guy but it turned out that he was a liar without any morals. So, yes, I came back here. Go on, say it... I’m a loser and an idiot.’

  ‘Is that what you think?’

  ‘What else?’ she asked bitterly.

  ‘You were blindsided by a creep but you don’t have to bury yourself and lick your wounds.’

  ‘No? What would you suggest?’ she muttered. ‘I’m not licking my wounds. I’m just...taking time out...’

  ‘Well, there is one thing I would suggest.’

  ‘What’s that? I’m all ears, as you would say.’

  ‘Step back into those muddy waters.’ He stood up and flexed his muscles. It had been a while since he had done any chasing. He wondered whether he was rusty but, no, she was looking up at him with dawning comprehension. He wondered whether it was a good idea to go there but, then, they were both adults, weren’t they? And once the ground rules were laid...

  ‘Only next time round,’ he said softly, ‘make sure you know exactly what you’re dealing with. I find that wo
rks for me. I’m honest upfront. Sex with no strings attached. No future plans made. No promises to be broken.’ He smiled crookedly and stroked a stray tendril of hair away from her face, felt her breathing quicken, saw the way her pupils dilated.

  ‘From where I’m standing, that’s the way forward. The waters might still be a little muddy but they’d be a hell of a lot safer than quicksand...’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HEART BEATING SO hard she felt as though she might pass out, Laura inched back in the chair but she couldn’t peel her eyes away from his face.

  ‘I should be leaving,’ she managed to croak. ‘I don’t...don’t want to be driving late at night.’

  ‘Why? The only thing you’re likely to pass are a couple of stray sheep. If you like, I can drive back to your house with you, make sure you get home safe and sound.’

  Laura wildly thought that safe and sound were not words that she would naturally associate with being in his presence. Unsafe and at risk would have been nearer the mark, as far as her pulse rate and blood pressure were concerned, at any rate.

  ‘And how would you get back here?’ She did her best to get her breathing under control, knowing that he was picking up on her flustered behaviour and drawing his own conclusions.

  ‘Walk.’ Alessandro shrugged.

  ‘Hand-made Italian leather shoes aren’t made for walking miles on country lanes.’ She stood up, legs feeling like jelly, and with some alarm she watched as he followed suit, standing up as well and crowding her with his towering presence.

  ‘These shoes would do what I tell them to,’ Alessandro murmured.

  Laura gripped the back of the chair and drew in a deep, steadying breath. ‘Is that how it works for you?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ He frowned, perched once more on the table so that they were now eyeball to eyeball. She had the most expressive face of any woman he had ever seen. Her eyes were wide and clear and her freckles were standing out against the waxy pallor of her skin. She was hot and bothered and there was no way she could hide it. He liked that. It made all those cool, ultra-beautiful models he had dated in the past seem like plastic dolls in comparison.

  This was a living, breathing, one hundred per cent sexy woman.

  ‘You always get your own way?’

  ‘Would it be a bad thing if I told you that I did? Ninety-nine per cent of the time?’

  ‘No wonder you’re so...so...arrogant!’ She could barely think straight and yet there he was, as cool as a cucumber, making her feel as though she was the one making a mountain out of a molehill! Her fingers itched to smack that self-assured gleam right off his face and her anger felt a lot safer than that disturbing pull towards him.

  ‘What’s arrogant about telling it like it is?’ he asked softly, unruffled. ‘And, by the way, you’re extremely cute when you’re angry. I have a feeling you don’t get angry very often.’

  Laura gritted her teeth together, not wanting to stay where she was but somehow unable to unglue her feet from the floor and walk away.

  ‘I don’t fancy you,’ she said in a strangled voice, ‘and I’m certainly not interested in having a fling!’

  ‘You do fancy me, you know.’

  ‘You’re the most egotistic man I have ever met!’

  ‘If you didn’t,’ he pointed out in an ultra-reasonable voice, ‘you wouldn’t be glaring at me and spitting fire. If you didn’t fancy me, what I just said to you wouldn’t have got under your skin the way it has. You would have been mildly amused, mildly insulted, largely indifferent. You might even have accepted my company back to your house because you wouldn’t have felt threatened.’ He grinned, eyebrows raised. ‘We could always solve this vexing situation by putting it to the test...’ he murmured, as though suddenly hitting upon the perfect solution.

  He didn’t give her time to think. He couldn’t. He was so close to her that he could smell the clean, flowery smell of whatever scent she was wearing, and that fragrant scent matched the scent of her hair. With just the slightest hint of provocation, he thought that he might take her right here, in the kitchen, on the kitchen table. His erection was bulging, painful, and it was even more painful when he imagined her cool hands on it, followed by her cool, cool mouth. Since when had he ever had such an X-rated imagination?

  He had to kiss her.

  Laura sensed his intent before his mouth descended. She raised her hands to ward him off, mentally prepared to shove him firmly away, but...

  Something happened. He kissed her gently. When his tongue flicked to probe the moistness of her mouth, she stifled a whimper. Her whole body trembled against him. Somehow, she had closed the gap between them and she could feel his hardness throbbing against her, a flagrant indication of how turned on he was.

  She curled her fingers into his shirt and tugged him towards her. Every nerve in her shameless body was shrieking in hot response. Her breasts felt heavy, her nipples tingled, wanting more than just this kiss.

  ‘So...’ Alessandro reluctantly set her back gently. For a few seconds she could barely focus through the daze but when she did, mortification washed over her in a tidal wave of pure, undiluted horror.

  ‘I don’t know what just happened there,’ she whispered.

  ‘Lust.’

  ‘I...I want to go now...’ She looked away but was still hyper-aware of him standing close to her, his warmth mingling with hers in an agonising reminder of the kiss they had just shared. She was mortally horrified to admit to herself that she wanted to be back in his arms, kissing him and being kissed by him.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Her eyes flashed as they tangled with his and the breath caught in her throat.

  Lust.

  Hadn’t she learned her lesson? She’d fallen victim to lust before and look at where it had got her! Except when she thought about Colin she couldn’t remember feeling anything like what she had felt just then. That kiss, which had been meant to prove something, to prove that she was attracted to him, had sent her soaring into some crazy place where she hadn’t even been able to think!

  Colin’s approach had been stealthy, like a serpent in the grass. He had charmed her, dismantled her doubts and inhibitions. Alessandro had just...swept in like a conquering marauder, intent on plunder.

  She didn’t even approve of him! She didn’t even like him. So how on earth had he managed to...steamroller through all the defences she had so carefully put in place after her catastrophe with Colin?

  ‘You don’t want to go. You want to run away. We both know that we could easily have ended up—’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about this,’ she said tightly. ‘It shouldn’t have happened. In fact, it probably only did because I had that drink. I’m not accustomed to drinking shorts. I wasn’t thinking straight!’

  ‘Tut-tut. You don’t really believe that, do you?’

  ‘You can’t just come here and take what you want because you’re bored,’ she said, drawing in a deep breath and finally meeting his gaze and holding it.

  ‘Whoever said anything about being bored?’ He still wanted to touch her, wanted to feel the softness of her body without the barrier of clothes. The dress might not have been an overcoat but it might as well have been.

  Laura squeezed her arms tightly around her body. ‘I’m not looking for a guy like you.’

  ‘A guy like me?’ was the first response that came to hand, even though, more appropriately, he could have told her that if she wasn’t looking for a guy like him, then he, likewise, wasn’t interested in her or anyone else finding him and thinking they’d hooked him.

  He wasn’t into the business of encouraging false hope. He shoved away the uneasy thought that he had already managed to tell her a hell of a lot more than he had ever dreamed of telling any other woman in his life before.

&nbs
p; Circumstances.

  ‘You’re everything I disapprove of. I don’t know what the problem is with your father but you don’t even make an effort! In all these years you’ve never shown any interest in trying to get to know him! In finding out what his life here is like... Do you know that he was actually excited at the thought of you coming up here twice? Taking us out for dinner? He had a problem choosing the right tie!’

  For a few seconds Alessandro was lost for words. He stood up and prowled through the kitchen before leaning against the kitchen counter.

  She couldn’t read his expression. Was there uncertainty behind that glower? Surely not. Surely he wasn’t someone who was ever uncertain.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he muttered, standing directly in front of her, legs spread squarely apart, fingers hooked into the waistband of his trousers.

  ‘Don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous!’

  ‘I don’t think it’s possible for my father to get excited over my appearance here, especially given the circumstances surrounding it. Actually, I doubt it’s possible for my father to get excited over anything to do with me.’ His mouth twisted into a wry smile before he abruptly turned away, to say over his shoulder, ‘It’s an understanding we share. As few displays of emotion as possible. It works.’

  ‘He was excited because you were showing some interest in his life here. You should be so grateful you have him,’ she said quietly, to his averted back.

  That had him turning round to look at her. ‘I count my blessings every night before I go to sleep.’

  Are you always sarcastic? Laura wanted to ask him. And then it struck her that everyone had their defence mechanisms. That was his. He wasn’t just an arrogant bastard who was here to complete a mission that would make his life easier, even if it meant railroading Roberto into doing something he didn’t want to do.