The days dragged with an interminable slowness that made Holly’s restlessness close to unbearable. Although she enjoyed the tasks Sophia set her, as the villa was beautiful and full of exquisite works of art and priceless collector’s pieces, it just wasn’t the same without Julius there. The nights were even worse. Sophia usually went to bed early, which meant there was no one to talk to. The rest of the villa staff—the gardener and the man who looked after the horses on the property—lived in accommodation separate from the villa. There was only so much television Holly could watch and, even though she enjoyed reading, the evenings were particularly tiresome.
The one thing Julius had done for her since he’d gone away, however, was have some clothes delivered to the villa for her. They were mostly smart-casual separates, as well as a couple of dresses, including a long, slinky formal one made of navy blue silk. There were shoes and underwear the likes of which she had never seen before: cobweb-fine lace, some with fancy little bows and embroidered rosebuds or daisies. There were bathing suits as well, a one-piece black one and a fuchsia-pink bikini.
Make-up and perfume arrived in neat little packages. A hairdresser arrived at the villa and worked on Holly’s hair until she barely recognised herself in the mirror. Gone were the pink streaks and split ends. Her wild curls were toned, tamed and cut in a shoulder-length style that could be worn up or down, depending on her mood or the occasion.
But for all the finery Holly felt dissatisfied. What was the point of all these gorgeous clothes if she had no one to see her in them? She didn’t even have anywhere to go because she wasn’t allowed to leave the premises unless Julius accompanied her as her official guardian. It was part of the diversionary programme’s fine print.
Late on Sunday, well after Sophia had retired for the night, Holly turned off the show she had been only half-watching on television and made her way to her room. But on the way past Julius’s suite she stopped. She had been in a couple of days ago with Sophia to do a light clean. His suite had a balcony but the doors had been closed and Holly had kept her back to it. She had worked briskly and efficiently with the minimum of talk, desperate to stave off a panic attack if Sophia asked her to dust or sweep out there. If Sophia had sensed anything was amiss, she hadn’t said, although Holly suspected there was not much that would escape the housekeeper’s attention.
Before Holly could change her mind she turned the handle on the door of the suite and stepped inside. The balcony doors were closed and locked, the gauzy curtains pulled across the windows. Even though the room had been empty for days, Holly could still smell the lemon and lime notes of Julius’s aftershave. She turned on one of the bedside lamps rather than the top light in case Sophia saw the spill of light from her room on the top floor.
The forbidden nature of what Holly was doing made a frisson of excitement shiver over her flesh. This was where Julius slept. This was where Julius made love with his occasional lovers. The lovers Sophia stalwartly, stubbornly, refused to comment on or reveal any information about. Holly had looked on the internet on the library’s computer for any press items on him but there was virtually nothing about his private life. There was stuff about Julius’s work in astrophysics and about his software company that had come about after he had designed a special computer programme used on the space telescopes in the Atacama Desert and which had turned him into a multi-millionaire overnight.
There was plenty of stuff about his father’s love-child scandal. Every newsfeed was running with it. There was also plenty of information on Julius’s twin, Jake. Jake was the epitome of the ‘love them and leave them’ playboy: the ‘Prince of Pickups’ as one article described him. It was uncanny seeing the likeness to Julius. They were mirror images of each other. She wondered if she met them together if she would be able to tell them apart. The only slight difference she could see was in every photo Jake was smiling as if that was his default position. Julius, on the other hand, was not one to smile so readily. He was serious in demeanour and nature. He was conservative where, from what some of the photos suggested, his twin was a boundary-pusher—a born risk-taker.
Holly wandered about Julius’s suite, stopping to check out a photo of his younger sister on his dressing table. Miranda was pretty in a pixyish, girl-next-door sort of way. She was petite with porcelain-white skin and auburn hair. Nothing like her extraordinarily beautiful mother, Elisabetta Albertini, Holly duly noted. She put the photo down and stepped over to the walk-in wardrobe, hesitating for a nanosecond before she slid the door back and walked inside.
All of his shirts, suits and jackets were in neat rows. His sweaters were folded in symmetrical colour-coordinated stacks. His shoes were all polished and paired and perfectly aligned on the tiered shoe rack.
She picked a pair of cufflinks up from the waist-high shelf above a bank of drawers. The cufflinks were a designer brand with diamonds in the shape of a J. She wondered if he had bought them for himself or whether they had been a gift from a member of his family. Miranda, perhaps? The photo of her in his room suggested he adored her. It was the only photo she had seen of any of his family in the villa.
The sound of a footfall in the bedroom startled Holly so much she felt her flesh shrink away from her skeleton. She slipped into the shadows of Julius’s suits, using them as a shield to hide behind. Her heart hammered. Her breath halted. She couldn’t allow Julius to find her in here. But how on earth was she going to get out? Why hadn’t he told her and Sophia he was coming home tonight? Why turn up unannounced? What if he went to bed while she was stuck here, hiding in his wardrobe? She would have to hope and pray he’d go to the en suite and have a shower or something so she could sneak out without being detected. Hopefully the fact his bedside lamp was on wouldn’t make him suspicious. He might think Sophia had left it on in anticipation of him coming home...or something.
The thoughts were a tumbling mess inside her head. Round and round they went until she felt dizzy. Her skin was breaking out in a sweat. She could feel beads of it rolling down between her breasts, under her arms, across her top lip.
‘Holly?’ Sophia’s voice called out. ‘Is that you?’
The relief Holly felt was so great it was as if her legs were going to fold beneath her as the tension washed out of her. Even her arms felt boneless, her shoulders dropping as if had just been relieved of carrying a tremendous weight. She took a steadying breath and walked out of the wardrobe with what she hoped was a calm, collected and innocent look on her face. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Did I give you a scare?’
Sophia was frowning. ‘What were you doing in Señor Ravensdale’s wardrobe?’
‘I was just...checking to see if I’d put his shirts I ironed the other day in the right place,’ Holly said, mentally marvelling at her ability to construct a credible excuse at such short notice. ‘You know how fussy he is. I didn’t want him to come home and get antsy about the blue shirts mixed up with the white ones. Oh, and I straightened his ties. One was hanging half a millimetre lower than the others.’
Sophia’s frown lessened slightly but didn’t completely disappear. ‘You don’t have to work at this time of night. You’re entitled to time off.’
‘I know, but I was bored, so I thought I’d double-check stuff.’
‘You’ve worked hard this week,’ Sophia said. ‘Much harder than I thought you would.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m not afraid of hard work,’ Holly said. ‘So, why are you up? I thought you were in bed.’
‘My wrist is giving me a bit of pain,’ Sophia said, wincing as she cradled her arm against her body. ‘I was coming past to go downstairs to make a hot drink when I heard a sound.’
‘Weren’t you worried it might be a burglar?’
‘No, I knew it was you.’
‘How?’
‘I could smell your perfume,’ Sophia said. ‘The one Señor Ravensdale bought for you. It was a good choice. It suits
you.’
Holly gave the housekeeper a quick stretch of her lips as a smile. ‘That man has serious class. Does he always buy women such expensive gifts?’
Sophia gave her the sort of reproachful look a parent would give to a persistently naughty child. ‘Come and make me a hot chocolate,’ she said. ‘Then it’s time, young lady, for bed.’
‘When is Julius coming home?’ Holly asked as they walked down to the kitchen together. ‘Have you heard from him?’
‘He sent a text a couple of hours ago,’ Sophia said. ‘His plane was delayed in Santiago.’
‘Maybe he’s catching up with a lady friend.’
Sophia pursed her lips without responding.
‘Why do you call him “Señor” instead of Julius?’ Holly asked.
‘He’s my employer.’
‘I know but you and he seem to be pretty chummy,’ Holly said. ‘How long have you worked for him?’
‘Since he moved to Argentina eight years ago.’
‘So you would’ve seen quite a few girlfriends come and go in his life, huh?’
Sophia cast her a glance. ‘Why are you so interested in his private life? Do you have designs on him?’
Holly coughed out a laugh. ‘Me? Interested in him? Are you joking? He’s the last person I would fall for. The very last.’
Sophia released a soft sigh. ‘That’s probably a good thing.’
‘Because I’m too far below his station?’
Sophia shook her head. ‘No. He wouldn’t let something like that be an issue. I think he wouldn’t fall in love too easily, that’s all.’
‘Like we have a choice in these things,’ Holly said, then quickly added, ‘not that I’m speaking from experience or anything.’
‘So you haven’t lost your heart to anyone yet?’ Sophia asked with another sideways glance.
The word yet seemed to hang in the air. It was like a gauntlet being thrown down. Fate issuing a challenge. A dare.
Holly laughed again. ‘Not yet.’ Not ever. Not going to happen.
Not in a million years.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JULIUS HADN’T PLANNED to drive home so late but his flight back to Buenos Aires from Santiago had been delayed several hours due to a storm. A solid week of work, long hours of meetings and field research had done little to quell the errant feelings he had for Holly. Feelings he hadn’t expected to feel. Didn’t want to feel. She occupied his thoughts whenever his mind drifted away from work. She filled his brain. She filled his body with forbidden desires and wicked urges. She filled his every waking moment—and even his dreams—with visions of her lithe body, her pert breasts, her cheeky smile and the way she upped her chin in a challenge or twinkled her brown eyes in a dare.
He could not remember a time when he had been more obsessed with a woman. She was as far from an ideal partner as any he could imagine. Her wilfulness, her defiance and her rebellious nature made everything that was rational, logical and intellectual inside him shrink away in abject horror. But everything that was male and primal in him wanted to possess her. He ached and pulsed to feel her body, to be surrounded by her. Every hormone in his body twanged with longing. Every nerve-ending craved the stroke or glide of her touch. He had X-rated dreams about her pouty little mouth on him, drawing on him, pleasuring...
Julius was disgusted with himself. Not just because of his uncontrollable desire for her but because he still couldn’t forgive himself for the way he had hurt her. What had he been thinking, hauling her bodily from the pool like that? There was no excuse. So what if she had goaded him? So what if she had defied him? Disobeyed him? He was an adult. He was a civilised, educated man. What had he hoped his action would achieve?
Or had he secretly—unconsciously—wanted to touch her? To hold her sexy, wet body against the throbbing heat of his...
He had wanted to kiss her so badly it had tortured him not to. Her mouth had been so close he’d felt the breeze of her sweet breath. It had taken every ounce of self-control he possessed and then some to drop his hold on her and step back. He could still feel the silk of her skin against his fingers. He could still feel the magnetic force of her body drawing his closer. It was stronger, way more powerful than anything he had ever felt before. How he had not slammed his mouth down on hers and thrust his tongue through her lush lips still surprised him.
He had been so close.
So terrifyingly, shamefully close.
Work had legitimately called him away, thankfully. He hadn’t trusted himself to be around her. He still didn’t trust himself, which was even more worrying.
But it wasn’t just the physical attraction that was so troubling to him. There were other feelings he was experiencing that were far more dangerous. Tiny sprouts of affection were popping up inside him. He actually liked her. He admired her spirit. Her edginess. Her blatant disregard for the rules. For propriety. He found himself missing her teasing playfulness. He missed her dimpled smile and the way her eyes danced with mischief.
He had no business missing her. He wasn’t supposed to get attached to her. She wasn’t his type. And he clearly wasn’t hers. She only wanted to sleep with him to prove a point. It was nothing but a game to her.
He was nothing but a game to her.
Another bonus of being called away to work was that the press had stayed away from his villa. He had been intercepted at the airport and issued his usual ‘no comment’ response to the media. The last thing he wanted was the press sniffing around his home and finding a young woman in residence, especially as he didn’t trust Holly to behave herself. He’d left strict instructions with Sophia on monitoring Holly’s movements and making sure she didn’t speak to anyone if they should turn up at the villa. No one had, which gave him some measure of comfort, but how long before someone did?
Julius parked in the garage and walked into the villa as quietly as he could so as not to disturb anyone. It was two in the morning so he hoped his little house guest was tucked away safely in bed.
She wasn’t.
Holly came out of the kitchen as he came in the back door. She was wearing one of the outfits he’d bought her. The cashmere separates looked far slinkier on her than it had in the online catalogue. But then she would make a bin liner look like a designer gown, he thought. The fabric draped her slim curves like the skin of an evening glove.
‘How was your trip?’ she asked.
Julius wasn’t in the mood for trite conversation. Not with her looking good enough to eat and swallow whole. How did she manage to stir him up so easily? ‘Tiring.’
She moved towards him with catlike grace. ‘Fancy a snack?’
‘What’s on the menu?’ Bad choice of words.
Her eyes glinted. ‘What do you fancy?’
He tried not to look at her mouth but a force far more powerful than his resolve pulled his gaze to its lush ripeness. ‘What’s on offer?’ What was it with him and the double entendres? He was acting like Jake, for God’s sake.
‘Whatever you want,’ she said. ‘Your wish is my command.’
‘I thought you didn’t take too kindly to commands?’
She tiptoed her fingers along the corded muscles of his arm. ‘Maybe I’ll make an exception tonight.’
He suppressed a shiver as her fingers lit every nerve under his skin with red-hot fire. Need pulsed in his groin. Lust growled, roared. ‘Why?’
‘Because I’ve missed you.’
Julius barked out a laugh and gently pushed her arm away as he moved past. ‘Go to bed.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were going away?’
He turned back to look at her. ‘You’re answerable to me. Not me to you. Or has that somehow slipped your attention?’
Her caramel-brown eyes ran over him like a lick of flame. ‘Were you with a lover?’<
br />
He gritted his teeth until his jaw ground together like two tectonic plates. ‘No. I was working. Remember that word you seem to have so much difficulty with?’
She leaned one shoulder against the door jamb. ‘I’ve been working. Go ask Sophia.’
‘I will, but not at this time in the morning.’
Her eyes did another scan of his body, her chin coming to rest at a haughty height. ‘I even cleaned your room.’
Julius didn’t like the thought of her in his room. Actually, he liked the thought way too much. His mind filled with images of her laid out on his bed, her gorgeous, luscious body as hungry for him as he was for her. His flesh crawled with lust. It was like a fever in his blood. Raging. Taking him. Taking over his control like a shot of a powerful drug. ‘I’d prefer it if you’d stay out of there.’
‘Why?’ she said. ‘You let Sophia change your bed. Why shouldn’t I?’
Because I want you in it, not changing it, he thought with a savage wave of self-disgust. ‘I trust you left everything as you found it?’ he said.
Her brows drew together. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I seem to recall your rap sheet includes theft.’
‘So?’
‘So I want you to keep your hands clean.’
Her top lip curved up on one side. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘You have nothing I want.’
‘Only my body.’
A dark, triumphant glint shone in her gaze. ‘Not as much as you want mine.’
‘You think?’
‘I know.’
Julius wanted to prove he could resist her. He needed to prove it, if not to her then to himself. He reached for her, encircling her wrists with his fingers. Holding her. Securing her. Her eyes widened but not in fear. He could read her signals as easily as she read his. Mutual desire ran between them like the shock of an electric current. He could feel it through her flesh where it was in contact with his. He looked at her mouth and watched as she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, leaving a glistening sheen.
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