Untamed Italian, Blackmailed Innocent

by Jacqueline Baird

All her life she had watched her mother humour her father every which way to try and keep his love, to keep him at her side. Well, Sally was made of sterner stuff. She took after her maternal grandma in character, and she was nobody’s fool.

  Sally had fallen in lust at the hands of an expert—as many a woman had before—and to drive the lesson home she rose to her feet, straightened her shoulders and returned to the cabinet. She brushed her hair back from her face and fastened it in a ponytail with the black band left by Zac’s last lover. A salutary reminder of what a naïve idiot she had been even to think of trying to impress a man who quite happily had sex with two women in the same week…No wonder he kept a whole box of condoms and never, even in the heat of passion, forgot to use one, she thought bitterly. As for loving such a man—never.

  She returned to the bedroom and, gathering her scattered clothes from the floor and bed, swiftly put them on. Then, picking up her purse and slipping her feet into her sandals, she left the scene of her downfall without a second glance.

  Chapter Eleven

  ZAC turned as she entered the dining room. ‘You have dressed. I thought you might simply grab a robe. Or at least I hoped,’ he said, with a wickedly sensual smile.

  ‘I never thought,’ she murmured, and tried to smile when really she felt like cursing him to hell and back. Then, directing her attention to the dishes of food laid out on the dining table, along with two plates and glasses plus a bottle of wine in an ice bucket, she added, ‘This smells delicious. I am ravenous.’ Actually, the reverse was true—she had totally lost her appetite—but she was determined not to let Zac know.

  Standing there, in jeans and a polo shirt, he was all arrogant male, and he would scent weakness a mile off, she knew.

  ‘Dinner is served, my lady.’ He gave her a sweeping bow and pulled out a chair for her, then waited until she’d sat down. With a flourish he opened the wine, which turned out to be champagne, and, filling her glass, gave a toast. ‘To us—and long may we last!’

  Reluctantly she sipped the sparkling vintage. ‘To us,’ she responded, and forced herself to smile again, when basically she felt like scratching his eyes out. But she could not afford to.

  No matter how much she despised his morals, or lack of them, she still had to stick to their deal until Zac decided otherwise. Her mother’s future happiness was at stake, short though that future might be.

  Bitterly she wondered how he could almost have sex with her one night, make love to the willowy Margot the next, then have the audacity to demand Sally become his lover the following night. She wasn’t jealous, she told herself, simply disgusted. For a brief space of time she had let herself become besotted by a man. Well, never again, she vowed silently…

  The food looked great, but she had to make herself eat, and every morsel tasted like ash in her mouth. She refused the sweet, and his offer of more champagne, and watched him fill his glass again. Then she lifted her own to take a sip of the now flat liquid.

  ‘I’ve been thinking, Sally.’

  She raised her head and met his dark eyes across the table.

  ‘We should renegotiate our arrangement and place it on a more intimate basis.’

  She almost choked on the champagne. Was he crazy? She might be inexperienced, but she was pretty sure they could not possibly be more intimate than they already were.

  ‘I know we made a deal, and you stated your guidelines, but I want to change them—for the benefit of both of us. I would like you to move in here.’

  He sounded as if he was discussing some business deal in a boardroom, and she was too shocked to speak.

  ‘You know the sex between us is incredible, but you have to admit, nice as your studio is, the bed is a little too small—especially for me.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Whereas here we have plenty of space and you can enjoy every comfort money allows,’ Zac offered. ‘Plus, I am a very busy man. I had intended taking a few weeks’ holiday, but a project I am involved in is not going as smoothly as I hoped and fixing it is going to involve quite a bit of travelling. I would feel much happier if I knew you were living here, where the security is superlative.’

  Sally listened, her anger and bitterness festering as he continued.

  ‘Think about it, Sally. All your financial needs taken care of. No more secondhand gowns, but the best money can buy.’

  And then he had the nerve to slant a very male, satisfied smile her way—as if he was offering her the crown jewels when in fact he was suggesting she become his live-in lover in London. She could not help noticing he had not suggested taking her with him on his travels. He probably had other women living in his properties dotted all over the world.

  Zac’s arrogance was unbelievable, and his last comment had filled her with such fury that she bowed her head, so he would not see the anger blazing in her eyes.

  She fought down the bile that rose in her throat and battled to control her rage. Hard to believe a short time ago she had been in danger of believing she might love him. Well, no more delusions—and no more negotiating with the vile man…

  ‘Sally? What do you say?’

  Slowly she lifted her head her and said, ‘No.’ Pushing back her chair, she stood up and very deliberately glanced at the thin gold watch on her wrist—a twenty-first birthday present from her mother.

  ‘No explanation? Just no?’

  Only then did Sally allow herself to look at him. The watch was a timely reminder of why she could not lose her temper with the lecherous bastard. ‘Exactly. We made a deal, and I will stick by it. You said you were a man of your word, and I expect you to stand by that.’

  Zac’s eyes narrowed. ‘Wait a minute—what just happened here?’ he demanded, and she would have laughed at the look of confusion on his face if she hadn’t been so angry and—yes, she admitted it—deeply hurt…

  ‘We have just spent hours indulging in the most incredible sex, and no is your immediate reaction to my generous suggestion?’ He finished his drink and rose to his feet to move in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, his black brows drawing together in a frown. ‘I don’t see your problem with the idea. You are joking, yes?’ he prompted, his accent thickening.

  ‘No, I am not joking,’ she said curtly, finding his use of the word generous an insult too far. Zac believed he could buy anything and anyone—well, not her…She would stick to the letter of their deal, but no more, and with that in mind she added, ‘It is almost midnight, and Saturday is my time, in case you had forgotten. I need to call a cab and go home.’

  His eyes narrowed with tightly controlled anger. ‘No need to call a cab. The limousine will take—’

  She cut him off with a bitter laugh.

  ‘No, thank you. I saw the salacious look your driver gave me when we arrived here,’ she said scathingly. ‘I certainly don’t need a repeat performance to remind me. A cab will do fine.’

  Zac stilled, his mind running riot. He was furious at her hard-headed attitude, and he could not believe the passionate, eager lover he had held in his arms could change into the cold-eyed woman before him. He had actually imagined he felt a connection beyond the sexual with Sally—enough to confide in her the truth of his fighting past, something he had never done with any woman. Maybe that was his mistake!

  He had never asked a woman to move in with him before—in fact, he had never spent more than a weekend with a woman in his life. One night, two at most, and he could count on one hand how rare an occurrence that was for him. Yet he had offered Sally more than any other woman and she had turned him down flat.

  Or had she? he wondered cynically. Power and wealth attracted some women, and he had both and had learnt to recognise the type. He would be a fool if he didn’t see through every hard-headed gold-digger that came along. He had put Sally in that category at first and changed his mind. Then he remembered she had said she wanted to marry—maybe she had not been teasing him, as he had thought…Was her refusal of his offer a trick to get him hungry enough for her to give her the
ultimate offer: marriage? He didn’t know…but he meant to find out…

  Sally watched him as the silence lengthened, and when Zac finally responded, she tensed as his fingers tightened on her shoulders.

  ‘I think I understand why you refused to move in here.’ He surveyed her with dark-eyed arrogance. ‘You worry about what people will think if you live in my apartment, an outdated anxiety in this day and age. As for the driver—if you don’t like him he will be replaced.’

  ‘You amaze me, Zac!’ Sally exclaimed. ‘You don’t care a damn about anyone but yourself—as long as you get what you want, to hell with the rest of us poor mortals.’ She shook her head, her eyes hating him. ‘You treat people like puppets to be moved at your bidding. Well, keep your driver and keep your apartment. I am not interested in either them or you.’

  ‘You were happy enough in my bed earlier, and eager to do my bidding,’ he declared with a sardonic smile. ‘I only have to touch you and you will be again. But be warned—if your refusal of my offer is simply a ploy to get what the majority of females want—a wedding ring—you are wasting your time.’

  Sally’s cheeks burned, and she was filled with an incredulous anger as his words sank home. He could not have chosen a better way to insult her, yet again, and he had made her hate him more by reminding her of her weakness and implying she was after a marriage proposal.

  ‘Oh, please!’ she cried. ‘Don’t kid yourself. I would not marry you or any man in a million years. I am here only because of my father,’ she said scathingly, and wanting to hurt him, wanting to dent his ego, his arrogant pride, she continued, ‘You and he are two of a kind. He actually told me to be nice to you, and you have to wonder what kind of man pimps his own daughter to his boss…’ She sneered. ‘And what kind of boss takes advantage of the fact.’

  ‘I am nothing like your father,’ he snarled, his face darkening in fury. ‘And you were with me from the moment we met. You practically melted the first time we kissed—the same as I did.’

  Sally’s mouth hardened into a bitter, hostile line. ‘I made a deal with my father, to back him and be nice to you when you called. In return he will come with me this weekend to visit his wife, Pamela—my mother—something he never does more than once in a blue moon. Something I was hoping to persuade him to do over lunch the first day you and I met. And we both know that didn’t work,’ she drawled derisively.

  ‘I had to bargain for the presence of my father at my mother’s bedside because for some reason my mother loves the man, and misses him. Heaven knows why. And that was the first reason I agreed to your deal. The second was keeping my father out of prison—again to keep my mother happy. I asked you for time to raise the money, and hopefully with the damn man’s help I’d pay you back, but you would not give me time. Well, now I am not wasting what is technically my time on you. I am leaving. I am picking my father up at nine in the morning to make sure he keeps his side of the bargain. As for you and I…’ she drawled, her blue eyes reflecting her contempt. ‘You know when and where I’m available, as agreed under the terms of our deal.’

  Sally felt the tension in every bone in her body as Zac stared at her in a bitter, hostile silence, and it took every inch of willpower she could muster to hold on to her self-control. She avoided his eyes, but she could feel his gaze burning into her.

  Suddenly his hands fell from her shoulders and she was free. Surprised, she glanced up at him. His face was suffused with anger, a thin white line circled his tight mouth, and his eyes rested coldly on her like chips of ice. And yet she could not look away, could not move. The continuing silence hung between them like a great black thunder cloud, and neither one seemed able to break it.

  Then, as if a veil had fallen over his face, his expression changed to one of hard indifference. He turned and crossed the room, picked up the phone and called a cab.

  ‘As you so succinctly pointed out, it is almost Saturday,’ he drawled as he sauntered back towards her.

  Sally saw how close he was, and knew she should step back, but she refused to let him intimidate her.

  ‘The cab will be here in five minutes,’ he informed her, his hand reaching out to grasp her hair, sliding off the band constraining it, his long fingers tangling in the glossy red locks.

  ‘You are an intelligent woman, Sally. But you have met your match with me,’ he told her chillingly.

  His dark head bent and his arm slid round her, pressing her against his long body while his hard mouth moved ruthlessly on hers. Her pulse leapt, and she fought an internal battle to resist the seductive power of his kiss, but his fingers bit into her waist and she lost…Helplessly she arched against him, her hands of their own volition curving over his broad shoulders and clinging in shaming response.

  He raised his head, his dark eyes gleaming down at her. ‘You see, my Salmacis,’ he drawled mockingly, ‘blame your father, make all the excuses you like, but you want me as much as I want you, and some day you might admit it. When you do, you have all my numbers—call me.’

  Mortified by her easy capitulation to his kiss, Sally jerked free of him and glanced up with a bitterness that belied the longing in her eyes. ‘That will never happen.’ Then, to her relief, the intercom rang. The cab had arrived.

  Zac walked her down to the street without saying a word until he handed her into the waiting cab.

  ‘I am going to Italy tomorrow. Maybe we will meet again some time.’ He shrugged ‘Your choice.’ And, turning, he went back inside without a backward glance.

  Sally told herself she was glad it was over between them as the cab moved off, but she had to blink away the moisture hazing her eyes.

  Zac Delucca was six feet five, and right at this moment he felt about two inches tall—not a pleasant feeling, he acknowledged as he strode across to the drinks cabinet and poured whisky into a crystal glass. He downed it in one. He was furious with Sally, but more so with himself. He was man enough to know without question that she wanted him on a sexual level, but that Sally dared class him with her father had shocked him.

  He was forced to take a long, hard look at himself, and he didn’t much like what he saw. When had he become such a cynical bastard about the opposite sex that he had mistaken an innocent, hard-working young woman for a teasing little gold-digger out for what she could get?

  He had to accept he had behaved less than honourably in demanding Sally become his mistress. It had never entered his head to do anything so outrageous before, and he definitely never would again. But Sally had the ability to get under his skin like no other woman, and blinded by lust and—yes—jealousy he had acted on impulse and completely out of character.

  Zac prided himself on his honesty and fair dealing, but his pride had taken one hell of a battering when Sally had declared with brutal frankness that as far as she was concerned her dad had tried to pimp his own daughter to save his neck, and that Zac was just as bad for taking advantage of the fact…

  He had never once considered her feelings, other than in the sexual sense, and she responded with avid delight to what he could give her in bed. But the burden she’d had to bear with her mother and father that had led her into his bed had not bothered him at all.

  One of the reasons she had agreed to be his mistress was so she could make a bargain with her despised father and get the man to go and visit his wife. How sad was that…?

  It was true that Sally had asked for time so she could try and pay the debt, and he had refused. Something he had completely forgotten in his determination to bed her. All of which made him as despicable in her eyes as her father, and he couldn’t really blame her…She deserved much better treatment from the man in her life than he had given her.

  He had behaved abominably, and Zac knew that if Sally truly believed what she had told him, he had to let her go. His confidence and his pride in himself as a man would allow him to do no less.

  He poured another whisky and tried to tell himself the world was full of beautiful women and he didn’t need Sally. B
y the time he had downed half a bottle he was convinced!

  Zac had known from the start she was going to be trouble. So far every time they had met they had ended up arguing at some point, and it was driving him crazy…He should have listened to what his head had been trying to tell him from the beginning and walked away.

  A good businessman knew when to cut his losses. He was going back to Italy tomorrow and to hell with her. As for a woman, there was always Lisa on hold in Milan…

  Sally opened the door of her apartment and stumbled inside. Zac had said he might see her some time, but she knew it was goodbye. It was what she wanted, an end to the affair that had been forced upon her, so why did she feel so hollow inside?

  She had no answer and, stripping off her clothes, she slid naked into bed and pulled the cover up around her neck.

  Tomorrow she was visiting her mother—with her father. When she had first set eyes on Zac she had been a woman on a mission…Well, now the mission was accomplished, she told herself. But it was a hollow victory, and she felt numb inside—no joy, no tears, just emptiness.

  The next morning, heavy-eyed, she staggered into the bathroom and into the shower. Immediately, the memory of Zac and the shower they had shared the night before flashed in her mind. Ruthlessly, she stamped on the erotic vision and focused on the female articles Zac’s previous lover had left in his bathroom.

  She had done the right thing in refusing his offer to move into his apartment. They had a deal, and if he didn’t want to keep it that suited her just fine. But to her horror, by the time she stepped out of the shower, stupid tears were streaming down her face.

  Five hours later, the smile on her mother’s face as Sally walked into her room with her dad was enough to make all the heartache worthwhile.

  Sally excused herself an hour later, saying she wanted to do some shopping in the nearby city of Exeter.

  But actually she could not stand to listen any longer to her father’s rant about how he had been moved sideways by his new boss. Now he had to do twice as much work for the same salary, and he had decided he was definitely retiring in twelve months, so he could see a lot more of his wife.