She had no idea what was called for, but she didn’t have time to work it out. He rose to his feet, tall and impossibly, compellingly attractive, and slung his arm round her shoulders, at which point Ellie forgot how to breathe.
Ellie wouldn’t have been able to recall a single thing the two smiling English girls said to her. She knew she answered, and her face ached, which meant the smile was still in place.
But every nerve, muscle and tendon in her body was strained in electric awareness of the feel of his skin on hers.
Casual...proprietorial...and sending her body into crazy freefall.
Her nipples pinched, and between her legs burning heat was evidence of her body reacting with bewildering speed to his proximity.
And all she could think was, Please don’t let him know what’s happening to me.
CHAPTER SIX
SHE SURFACED TO find that the smiling English girls had gone and his hands had dropped back to his sides.
‘I wondered whether you’d find me,’ he told her, sitting down and gesturing to the chair opposite him, while one of the friendly staff bustled towards them to find out what they wanted. ‘Not a creature was stirring,’ he quipped, settling back and linking his fingers on his lap, ‘when I got up at seven. Not even, as they say, a mouse. Far less a human.’
‘You should have woken me,’ Ellie mumbled, still in a daze from that casual physical touch. ‘I never usually sleep late.’
‘Nine’s hardly late and you were probably jet-lagged.’
‘Still... I apologise. I’m not here to laze around.’
‘Let’s not start the day with apologies.’ He raised his eyebrows and grinned. ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry. Remember?’
‘Very funny.’
But he was still grinning after they’d given their orders for coffee and a breakfast of fresh bread and fried fish, a local speciality.
‘I’ve had a few thoughts about the campaign,’ Ellie began, determined to get cracking on the business front. ‘The feel of the place is very different from what the photographs suggest. It’s far more peaceful and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. I mean, a person could really get lost here.’
‘That’s the idea,’ Niccolo drawled. ‘Attention to privacy. Gives people the safety of knowing that they can choose to use my resort as a place to meet someone or simply come for the joy of relaxing without being surrounded by families. My employees liked you, by the way.’
Ellie blushed and fiddled with her cutlery as their breakfasts were placed in front of them, along with a jug of fresh coffee and a selection of fruit. ‘Do all the staff know that I’m here in a professional capacity?’
‘I did think about telling them, but I thought it fairer to spare them the bother of having to try and fudge answers if anyone showed any curiosity about you, so as far as they and mostly everyone else here is concerned, we’re together.’
‘Isn’t that going to pose a problem...er...later?’
‘No idea what you mean.’
‘I’m only here for a week. What happens when we leave if they ask about me?’
Niccolo shrugged. ‘Why would they ask?’
‘Because they might be curious?’
‘Eleanor...’
‘Please call me Ellie.’
‘Ellie...’ He smiled gently. ‘They’re my employees, not the family priest in search of a confession. I’ve told them because I really didn’t have much of a choice, but my private life isn’t something they would question.’
Ellie nodded. Did she understand? Not really. She just assumed that he was so far up the pecking order that he could do whatever he wanted safe in the knowledge that, if anyone had an opinion about him, they would never dare share it, such was the extent of his power and his reach. He might be charm itself but only an idiot would take that at face value.
She changed the subject. ‘If you’ve got stuff to do today—and I expect you have, from what you’ve told me—then I thought I might wander the grounds and touch base with some of the guests if they feel inclined to chat. Find out what drew them here in the first place.’
‘Firstly, you’re going to have to try a bit harder to blend in with the wealthy set here.’ Niccolo slung his napkin onto his empty plate and relaxed back. ‘Please tell me that there are more colours to the wardrobe you’ve brought than navy-blue and white.’ Her chestnut hair was tied back, just as it always was. She looked neat as a pin and about as relaxed as a busy worker-bee forced to have a day off honey-production duty, which pretty much summed it up.
Niccolo had never given much thought to how his lovers dressed. Now he realised that they had all been clones of one another. They’d worn small clothes to accentuate lingerie-model bodies. High heels to promote already long legs.
‘I didn’t come here for a holiday,’ Ellie said defensively, well aware that blending in was impossible when she was wearing a navy-blue knee-length cotton skirt and a white sleeveless blouse, her only concession to the tropical surroundings being the sandals she had fished out of her cupboard and dusted down for the trip.
‘But now here you are and whilst, admittedly, you’re right insofar that you’re not here on holiday, the circumstances are a little different than originally planned, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘I haven’t got sundresses and sarongs,’ Ellie imparted stiffly.
‘But surely you must have had less formal attire for a trip to a hot country?’
‘I haven’t been on holiday abroad for years.’ Ellie thought back to her wandering childhood and almost shuddered.
‘That’s unusual. Most people enjoy going on holiday.’
‘Do you?’
‘Touché. Although,’ he said lazily, ‘I do actually get around to relaxing every so often. Do you? Or is work your relaxation?’ The deeper he dug, the more complex she became, and the more complex she became, the more he wanted to keep digging. ‘What do you do for fun, Ellie?’
Ellie went bright-red. Why did she feel so defensive? It was a simple enough question. She could hardly expect him to stick to the brief twenty-four-seven, especially given the fact that he was not the sort of man who ever stuck to any brief of any kind if he didn’t want to. More than anything else, the genuine curiosity in his voice made her question all sorts of things she didn’t want to question. She realised that he had started making her question all sorts of things just by being the way he was. His emotional life might be the sort of emotional life she disliked but at least he had one.
‘I’ve been focused on my career,’ she heard herself say feebly.
‘You’re going to have to take the wardrobe up a notch,’ Niccolo said bluntly. ‘You look as though you should be quizzing the guests about their tax returns rather than relaxing and having fun in the sun.’
Unexpectedly, that hurt a lot more than Ellie thought possible. She imagined the sort of women Niccolo dated and they didn’t look like tax inspectors.
‘There are a couple of boutiques on the island,’ he said. ‘Purely catering to the wealthy tourists. And there are a couple in the hotel complex, as a matter of fact.’
‘I can’t afford to spend money on clothes that’ll only last a few days!’ Ellie was appalled at that sort of extravagance.
‘Consider it on the house. It’s the very least I could do for the woman I’m dating. Finished?’ He nodded to her empty plate. ‘What did you think of the breakfast? Food will be as important as the scenery at a place like this. Only the finest will do.’
‘Delicious.’ Some of the guests were filtering into the dining area. They were largely on their own, carrying beach bags and books. And, to her surprise, none of them seemed to be under the age of forty.
‘Not quite the raging orgy you imagined, is it?’ Niccolo murmured drily, leaning into her.
None of the guests looked their way with any curiosity. They all had the studied indifference to the people around them of the very wealthy. Two guests strolled in, both in their early sixties, sat together and seemed t
o compare books.
‘Now, I did have some plans for today, but I think a trip to the town is going to be on the cards.’
Ellie blinked and focused on the man in front of her. She’d always prided herself on her open-mindedness. Of course, she had objected to the principle of Niccolo’s resort. She had had no idea just how far from reality her assumptions were. These people would not be sneaking behind the bushes to sate their libidos. This was match-making at its most discreet.
As the guests continued to arrive, some of them drifting to other parts of the hotel, Ellie was forced to re-evaluate the sweeping assumptions she had made. She could see why Niccolo had liked the gentility of her campaign, but why he had felt it necessary to bring her to the resort so that she could see for herself where improvements could be made.
She felt the thrill of excitement at the job facing her. Niccolo’s dark eyes were warm with appreciation and she knew, in an instant, that he could read exactly what was going through her head.
It scared her.
‘Please don’t,’ she whispered, and for a few seconds, as their eyes tangled, she lost track of what she meant by that.
‘Please don’t do what?’ Niccolo returned, his voice low and husky, sending a shiver of unbearable awareness through her, as powerful as the sizzle of a branding iron on virgin flesh. ‘Look at you?’
This isn’t real, her mind screamed. This isn’t flirting—this is playing a part for the sake of appearances. This is about building a fiction in front of his guests just in case...
But the lazy intensity of his dark eyes was wreaking havoc with her common sense and sending her body into frantic, fevered overdrive.
Her nipples pinched into tight, sensitive buds and her breasts were heavy and painful. She wanted him to touch them, caress them, take them in his hands and massage them. She wanted his mouth all over her, licking, teasing and rousing.
Ellie felt faint. If she stood up, she knew she would end up falling, because her legs wouldn’t be able to support her.
Her mouth was dry. She was peering over the edge of a precipice, swaying in the wind, dizzy and sick as she looked down, down, down.
‘Please don’t change your plans for me,’ she managed to croak.
Niccolo didn’t say anything. The atmosphere between them was static. Did she feel it? Of course she did! Her fingers were playing convulsively with her napkin and her body language was saying it all.
She was as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof and her eyes were flicking between him and those nervous, nervous fingers.
It gave him a buzz that sent his blood pressure into the stratosphere and reminded him of what hot pursuit could feel like. He’d forgotten. Ever since he’d set eyes on her, seen her skittishness, smelled the fragrant scent of uninvited and definitely unwanted desire, he’d felt stagnant senses come back to life.
He shifted. He was determined not to make a pass at her, but he wondered what he would do if she continued to ignore the pulsating chemistry between them. It was highly likely that she would, given her blinkered, prudish take on relationships.
Freezing showers into the foreseeable future held no appeal.
He stood up, not giving her the option of backing away. ‘If we head off now, we can hit those shops as soon as they open, and then the remainder of the day is free.’
‘But I can’t...’
‘You need to start thinking I can instead of I can’t,’ Niccolo pronounced firmly, and Ellie glared at him, because she had never been accused of shying away from challenges in her life before. Unfortunately, in his presence, the ‘can’t’s definitely outweighed the ‘can’s. ‘You don’t have to dig into your savings for a handful of clothes that you’ll wear for a week and then send to a charity shop. I will cover the cost and you can call that client privilege, especially as you’re in the position of needing a new wardrobe due to circumstances not of your own making.’
‘I don’t need a new wardrobe.’ Protesting was akin to being strapped on a railway track and hoping that the oncoming train was somehow going to pirouette over your tightly bound body.
She watched helplessly for a few seconds and then tripped after him, almost bumping into him when he stopped and turned to her. He took her by the shoulders and examined her critically from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, then back up again.
‘You’re the only woman I’ve ever met who has begged not to be given the chance to buy a new wardrobe when someone else has offered to pay for it.’
‘That’s the point, though,’ Ellie muttered awkwardly. ‘I’d be more comfortable if I were paying for it myself. Besides, it’s insulting to be told that you’re not good enough.’
‘When did I ever say that?’ Niccolo asked, utterly serious. Gone was the husky, sexy banter. His voice was cool, his eyes shuttered and unreadable. He began walking, allowing her to keep pace with him as they left the hotel and headed towards a bank of all-white two-seater off-road cars that were parked like a row of soldiers against a brick wall that was coloured red and orange with clambering, tropical flowers.
He opened the passenger door for her and slid round into the driver’s seat, but as soon as he’d fired up the engine he turned to her, and when he spoke his voice was still cool.
‘Don’t take your personal hang-ups out on me.’ He held her gaze until she wanted to squirm in embarrassment, like a schoolchild being ticked off by the principal. ‘If you have insecurities, then that’s your business. The suggestion that you might welcome some clothes was a practical one. If it offends your feminist sensibilities, then we’ll head straight back into the hotel and you can hide behind your tablet and your files and pretend that you feel comfortable walking around in your utterly impractical navy-blue skirt and buttoned-up-to-the-throat blouse.’
Ellie broke the connection and turned away, chewing nervously on her lip.
Her clothes were impractical, and not just because they didn’t suit her improbable role as girlfriend to a billionaire. They were impractical because they were uncomfortable in the searing heat. She had not banked on the humidity or the intensity of the sun because, in her head, she had somehow thought that she would be dealing with the sort of polite, barely there heat of an English summer.
Her outfits were all along the lines of what she was now wearing, and what she was now wearing felt itchy and uncomfortable.
But a change of wardrobe was something she had found frankly terrifying and she knew why. Whether she was pretending to be Niccolo’s girlfriend or not, boundaries could remain in place if she could continue to hide behind her sensible workman-like outfits, outfits that screamed, I’m here to do a job, whatever the changed circumstances. When she was gripping her tablet, with all its reports, work files and accounting projections, she was safe.
But when she thought of colourful clothes, and sarongs and flowers in her hair, the last pieces of armour that were protecting her would be removed and then where would that leave her?
She looked at the grim lines of Niccolo’s lean, ridiculously beautiful face, the hint of stubble darkening his bronzed skin, and she shivered.
‘I just feel as though I came here to do a job and now I’m on a rollercoaster ride and I can’t get off.’
‘Some people welcome rollercoaster rides.’ Niccolo tilted her face so that she was looking at him, and Ellie blushed.
‘I’m not one of those people,’ she blurted out. ‘My life was one big rollercoaster ride when I was growing up, and ever since then I’ve avoided them like the plague.’ She gasped because she hadn’t meant to say that. ‘But my clothes are impractical,’ she hurried on, mortified at giving away a slice of her private life when she was usually so reticent at sharing her past with anyone. ‘And I apologise if I somehow came across as being ungrateful for the offer. I’m not. It’s very...well...very generous of you...’ She tapered off into uncomfortable silence, dreading him picking up the threads of a conversation she didn’t want to pursue, because she didn’t want to talk about hersel
f.
He didn’t.
‘Glad we’re on the same page,’ he purred, reversing out of the slot and swinging the car away from the hotel. He began talking about an ambitious project to incorporate a guide book on the island linked to his resort. Ellie’s nerves settled. She kicked back and appreciated the scenery as the car bumped its way round bends, with each new corner heralding a fresh burst of colour. She listened to him, and itched to get her fingers on a key board, because there was so much she would be able to write about the stunning island they were navigating.
‘You’re really in this for more than just profit, aren’t you?’ She turned to him, her hazel eyes alight with enthusiasm, and Niccolo glanced across at her.
The windows were down and the breeze had ruffled her hair loose from its clips, pins and elastic. Strands whipped across her face and her cheeks were pink from the heat.
‘I volunteered to be on the tourist board when I was given permission to build my resort,’ he murmured absently, tearing his eyes away from her face so that he could concentrate on the business of driving. ‘My hotel might provide jobs, but it was never my intention to set up shop in this glorious part of the world so that I could take advantage of the natural beauty and make money out of it without ensuring that the island benefited. And I’m not just talking about improved employment prospects for a few locals.’
Everything he said contradicted the image Ellie had formed in her head of a ruthless, maverick playboy who was in it purely for the money.
‘You want to expand the tourist industry,’ she said slowly, realising the scale of his ambition.
‘It would help the island.’ He shrugged and looked sideways at her. ‘We’ll be in the town in a handful of minutes. You’ll see that there is a dire need for improvements in the infrastructure. There’s also the potential for more development in the farming industry. All that can be achieved if tourism is cultivated.’
Hanging onto his every word, Ellie was really only aware of her surroundings when the vehicle drew to a stop and, blinking, she saw that they were parked on a hill, below which, on either side, the main street sprawled with a combination of modern offices, straggling shops and lots of vendors on the pavements selling a dizzying array of fresh fruit and vegetables.
A Deal for Her Innocence Page 9
