‘I’ve never been to a ball in my life before,’ Katy confided, brushing aside her unease because not only would she have to mix with people she had no experience of mixing with but she would also be on show. ‘It would be nice if Mum and Dad came, but honestly, I doubt they will. It wouldn’t be their thing at all, and my dad’s calendar is so packed with community stuff that he will struggle to free up the time without more advance warning.’ She sighed and looked at him a little worriedly.
Lucas was overwhelmed by a sudden surge of protectiveness that came from nowhere and left him winded. He drew back slightly, confused by an emotion that had no place within his vocabulary. ‘It’s no big deal.’
‘It’s no big deal for you,’ Katy told him gently. ‘It’s a huge deal for me.’
Lucas frowned. ‘I thought everyone liked that sort of thing,’ he admitted. ‘There’ll be a host of well-known faces there.’
Katy laughed because his self-assurance was so deeply ingrained that it beggared belief. ‘Part of me didn’t really think about how this would play out when we returned to London,’ she admitted. ‘It felt very...unreal when we were in Italy.’
‘Yes it did,’ Lucas agreed. ‘Yet surely you would have expected a certain amount of outside attention focused on us...?’
He knew that this very naivety was something he found intensely attractive about her. Having experienced all the trappings of extreme wealth for the past fortnight, she still hadn’t joined the dots to work out what came as part and parcel of that extreme wealth, and intrusive media coverage at a time like this was one of those things. Not to mention a very necessary and unfortunately inevitable black-tie event. He decided that it would be unwise to mention just how much attention would be focused on her, and not just from reporters waiting outside the venue.
‘You’re going to tell me I’m an idiot.’
‘I’ve discovered I quite like idiots.’ He touched her thigh with his finger and Katy shivered and came close to forgetting all her apprehensions and doubts. They might be acting out a charade when it came to an emotional involvement with one another, or at least the sort of emotional involvement that came under the heading of ‘love’, but when it came to physical involvement there was no reporter who wouldn’t be convinced that what they had was the real deal.
‘When we get to the airfield, don’t be surprised if there are one or two reporters waiting and just follow my lead. Don’t say anything. I’ve given them enough fodder to be getting on with. They can take a couple of pictures and that’ll have to do. In a week, we’ll be yesterday’s salacious gossip. And don’t worry—you’ll be fine. You never run yourself down, and you’re the only woman I’ve ever met who gets a kick out of telling me exactly what she thinks of me. Don’t be intimidated by the occasion.’ He laughed and said, only partly in jest, ‘If you’re not intimidated by me, then you can handle anything.’
Buoyed up by Lucas’s vote of confidence, Katy watched as the door of the helicopter was pushed open to blue sky, a cooler temperature than they had left behind and a fleet of reporters who flocked towards them like a pack of wolves scenting a fresh kill.
Katy automatically cringed back and felt his arm loop through hers, gently squeezing her reassuringly as he batted aside questions and guided her towards the black car waiting for them.
A reporter yelled out asking to see the engagement ring. Katy gazed in alarm at her ring-free finger and began stumbling out something vague when Lucas cut into her stammering non-answer, drawing briefly to a halt and smoothly explaining that the jeweller’s was going to be their first stop as soon as they were back in the city.
‘But it won’t be, will it?’ she asked as soon as they were settled into the back of the car with the glass partition firmly shut between the driver and them.
‘Do you think you’re going to be able to get away without a ring on your finger at the ball?’ Lucas said wryly. ‘Brace yourself for a lot more attention than you got from those reporters back there at the air field.’ He settled against the door, inclining his big body towards her.
She was waking up to life in his world. Not the bubble they had shared in the villa, and even more so on his yacht, where they’d been secluded and tucked away from prying eyes, but the real world in which he moved. She was going to be thrown into the deep end and it couldn’t be helped. Would she be able to swim or would she flounder?
He had told her that she would be fine and again he felt it—that strong streak of protectiveness when he thought about her lost and trying to find her way in a world that was probably alien to her. He knew from experience that the people who occupied his world could be harsh and critical. He disliked the thought of seeing her hurt, even though the practical side of him knew that the disingenuousness that he found so intensely appealing would be a possible weakness under the harsh glare of real life, away from the pleasant bubble in which they had been cocooned.
‘We can stop for a bite to eat, get freshened up at my place and then head out to the jeweller’s, or else we can go directly there. And, on the subject of things to be bought, there’ll be a small matter of something for you to wear this evening.’
‘Something to wear...’
‘Fancy. Long.’ He shrugged. ‘Naturally you won’t be expected to foot the bill for whatever you get, Katy.’ He wondered whether he should go with her, hold her hand.
Katy stilled and wondered how the insertion of money into the conversation could make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It felt as though something was shifting between them, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on what that something was.
‘Of course.’ Politeness had crept into her voice where before there had only been teasing warmth, and she didn’t like it. But how could she pretend that things hadn’t changed between them? They had embarked on a course of action that wasn’t real and perhaps that was shaping her reactions towards him, making her prickly and on edge.
Yes, she was free to touch, but there were now inbuilt constraints to their relationship. They were supposed to project a certain image, and that image would require her to step out of her comfort zone and do things she wasn’t accustomed to doing. She was going to be on show and Lucas was right—she wasn’t in the habit of running herself down and she wasn’t going to start now. If she was hesitant and apprehensive, then that was understandable, but she wasn’t going to let sudden insecurities dictate how she behaved.
‘I think I’d rather get the ring and the outfit out of the way, then at least I can spend the afternoon relaxing, although I don’t suppose I’ll have much time to put my feet up.’ She sighed and said with heartfelt honesty, ‘I never thought I’d be getting an engagement ring under these circumstances.’ She looked at her finger and tried to think back to those days when she had stupidly believed that Duncan was the man for her. Then she glanced across at Lucas and shivered. He was so ridiculously handsome, so madly self-assured. He oozed sex appeal and her body wasn’t her own when she was around him. When she was around him, her body wanted to be his and only his.
What if this were a real engagement, not some crazy charade to appease other people?
She was suddenly filled with a deep, shattering yearning for a real relationship and for everything that came with it. This time it wasn’t just for a relationship to rescue her from making decisions about her future, which had been the reason she’d allowed herself to be swept away by fantasies about tying the knot with Duncan.
Time slowed. It felt so right with Lucas and yet he was so wrong. How was that possible? She had proposed a course of action that had made sense, and she had imagined she could handle it with cool and aplomb because what she felt for Lucas was lust and lust was a passing fever. But looking at him now, feeling his living, breathing warmth next to her... The time they had spent together flickered like a slow-motion movie in her head: the laughter they had shared; the conversations they had had; their lazy love-making and the soaring happiness that had engulfed her when she had lain, w
arm and sated, in his arms.
Katy was overcome with wanting more. She transferred her gaze blindly down to her finger and pictured that ring on it, and then her imagination took flight and she thought of so much more. She imagined him on bended knee...smiling up at her...wanting her to be his wife for real and not a pretend fiancée for two months...
She loved him. She loved him and he certainly didn’t love her. Sick panic filled her at the horror that she might have opened the door for hurt, and on a far bigger scale than Duncan had delivered. Indeed, next to Lucas, Duncan was a pale, ineffectual ghost and obviously one who had not taught her any lessons at all.
Lucas noted the emotions flickering across her face and instantly barriers that had been carefully crafted over many years fell back into place. He didn’t do emotion. Emotions made you lose focus, sapped your strength, made you vulnerable in ways that were destructive. Gold-diggers had come close to destroying his business, but it had been his father’s own emotions that had finally let him down. Lucas could feel himself mentally stepping back and he had the oddest feeling that just for a while there he had been standing too close to an inferno, the existence of which he had been unaware.
He leaned forward, slid the glass partition to one side and instructed the driver to deliver them to a jeweller Katy had never heard of but which, she guessed, would be the sort of place to deal with very, very exclusive clients.
‘Where are we?’ she asked forty-five minutes later, during which time Lucas had worked on his computer, catching up on transactions he had largely ignored while they had been in Italy, he’d told her without glancing at her.
‘Jeweller’s,’ he said. ‘Stop number one.’
‘It doesn’t look like a jeweller’s...’
‘We wealthy folk like to think that we don’t frequent the sort of obvious places every other normal person does,’ Lucas said, back in his comfort zone, back in control.
‘Interesting story here,’ he expanded as the car drew to a smooth halt and the driver stepped out to open the door for her. ‘The woman who owns the place, Vanessa Bart, inherited it from her father and employed a young girl to work here—Abigail Christie. Long story but, to summarise, it turned out that she had a child from my friend Leandro, unbeknown to him, and like star-crossed lovers they ended up meeting again quite by chance, falling in love and getting married a while back.’
‘The fairy tale,’ Katy said wistfully as they were allowed into a shop that was as wonderful as Aladdin’s cave. ‘It’s nice that it happens now and again.’ She smiled and whispered, ‘There’s hope for me yet.’
‘Wrong sentiment for a woman on the verge of wearing an engagement ring from the man of her dreams.’ Lucas’s voice was less amused than he would have liked. He laughed shortly and then they were being ushered into the wonderful den of exquisite gems and jewels, tray after tray of diamond rings being brought out for her to inspect, none of them bearing anything so trashy as a price tag.
Lucas watched her down-bent head as she looked at the offerings. He was a man on the verge of an engagement and, whether it was phoney or not, he suddenly had that dangerous, destabilising feeling again...the sensation of getting close to a raging inferno, an inferno he couldn’t see and therefore could not protect himself against. He shifted uneasily and was relieved when she finally chose the smallest, yet as it turned out one of the dearest, of the rings.
‘Rest assured,’ Katy said quietly as they were once again passengers in the back seat of the car, ‘That I won’t be taking the ring with me when this is all over.’
‘Let’s just live a day at a time.’ Lucas was still unsettled and frankly eager now to get to his office where he wouldn’t be inconvenienced by feelings he couldn’t explain. ‘Before we start deciding who gets what when we’re dividing the spoils.’
‘Where do we go for the dress?’
‘Selfridges. I’ve already got my PA to arrange a personal shopper for you.’
‘A personal shopper...’
‘I have to get to my office, so will be unable to accompany you.’
As their eyes tangled, Katy felt the thrill of being here next to him, even if that thrill was underlain with the presence of danger and the prospect of unhappiness ahead. ‘I wouldn’t expect you to come with me. I don’t need you to hold my hand. If you let me have the name of the person I’m supposed to meet, then I can take it from there. And, after I’ve done all the other stuff I’m supposed to do, then I think I’m going to head back to my place and get changed there.’
Begin stepping away, she thought sadly. Begin a process of detachment. Protect yourself.
Lucas was already putting the romance of Italy behind him. There would be a ring on her finger, but he wasn’t going to be hankering for all that undiluted time in each other’s company they had had at his villa. He was slipping back to his reality and that involved distancing himself from her; Katy could sense that.
‘Why?’ Lucas realised that he didn’t want her not to be around when he returned to his apartment. He wanted her to be there for him and he was irritated with himself for the ridiculous gap in his self-control.
‘Because I want to check on my place, make sure everything’s in order. So I’ll meet you at the venue. You can text me the details.’ She sounded a lot brisker than she felt inside. Inside, she wanted so much more, wanted to take without consequence, just as she wanted to give without thought. She wanted him to love her back and she wanted to shove that feeling into a box and lock it away to protect her fragile heart.
‘You’ll be nervous.’ Lucas raked his fingers through his hair, for once on the back foot with his legendary self-control. ‘There’ll be reporters there. You won’t know what to do. You’ll need me to be there with you, by your side.’
Where had that come from?
‘But...’ His voice as smooth as silk, he regained his footing. ‘I see that you might want to check your place and check your mail.’ He was back on familiar ground and he relaxed. ‘We’ve got our lives to be getting on with.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Why kid ourselves otherwise? Don’t worry. In a few weeks’ time, this will be little more than something you will one day laugh about with your kids.’
‘Quite,’ Katy responded faintly, sick with heartache, for which she knew that she had only herself to blame. ‘I’ll see you later.’ She forced herself to smile and marvelled that he could be so beautiful, so cool, so composed when she was breaking up inside. But then, he hadn’t crossed the lines that she had.
* * *
Katy had no idea where to start when it came to looking for something to wear to a black-tie event because she had never been to one in her life before, and certainly, in her wildest imagination, had never dreamt that she would be cast in the starring role at one. She had phoned her mother but, as predicted, it had been impossible at short notice, what with her father’s community duties. She had promised that she would send lots of pictures. Now, suddenly, she felt quite alone as she waited for her personal shopper to arrive.
It took over two hours for a dress to be chosen and, no matter how much she told herself that this was all an act, she couldn’t help wondering what it would feel like to be trying these clothes on for real, to parade for a man who returned her love, at an event that would celebrate a union that wasn’t a charade.
The dress she chose was slim-fitting to the waist, with a back scooped so low that wearing a bra was out of the question, but with an alluringly modest top half that fell in graceful layers to the floor. When she moved, it swirled around her like a cloud, and, staring at the vision looking back in the mirror, she felt the way Cinderella might have felt when the wand had been waved and the rags had been replaced with the ball gown that would later knock Prince Charming off his feet.
Prince Charming, however, had left her thoroughly to her own devices. He was back in the real world and already distancing himself from her without even realising it.
The Fairy Godmother would have to come up with more from her little b
ag of tricks than ever to turn Lucas into anything more than a guy who had fancied her and had talked her into having sex with him. He would happily sleep with her until the designated time was over, and then he would shove her back into the nearest pumpkin and head straight back to the women he was accustomed to dating, the women who slotted into his lifestyle without causing too many ripples.
She had expected the car from earlier to collect her but when the driver called for her at home, punctual to the last second, and when she went outside, it was to find that a stretch limo was waiting for her.
She felt like a princess. It didn’t matter what was real or what was fake, she was floating on a cloud. But that sensation lasted just until they arrived at the hotel and she spotted the hordes of reporters, the beautiful people stopping to smile and pose for photos and the crowds milling around and gaping, as though they were being treated to a live cabaret. The limo pulled to a slow stop and nerves kicked in like a rush of adrenaline injected straight into her blood system. She feared that she wouldn’t be able to push her way through the throng of people.
Then, like magic, the crowd parted and she was looking at Lucas as she had never seen him before. Her eyes weren’t the only ones on him. As one, everyone turned. He had emerged from the hotel and was impeccably dressed in his white dress shirt and black trousers, everything fitting like a dream. He was so breathtakingly beautiful that Katy could scarcely bring herself to move.
The scene was borderline chaos, with guests arriving, cameras snapping, reporters jostling for prime position, but all of that faded into the background for Lucas as his eyes zeroed in on the open door of the limo and the vision that was Katy stepping out, blinking but holding her own as cameras flashed all around her.
Lucas felt a surge of hot blood rush through him. Of course she was beautiful. He knew that. He had known it from the very first minute he had set eyes on her in his office, but this Katy was a feast for sore eyes, and she held him captive. Their eyes met and he was barely aware of walking towards her, hand outstretched, gently squeezing her small hand as she placed it in his.
Cipriani's Innocent Captive Page 12
