His Poor Little Rich Girl

by MELANIE MILBURNE

‘You don’t have to take my advice but I would snap her up before someone else does,’ the sheikh said. ‘What better place than Paris to propose?’

  ‘I’ll give it some serious thought,’ Alessandro said trying to withstand the urge to shift in his seat. Was it true? Did Rachel truly love him or was she just a great actor? He thought of the intimacy they had shared, how much she had given of herself, how it had made him feel, how it still made him feel. His blood was still singing through his veins in elation. She had worshipped his body as if no one had ever done before. Was that love or lust or plain and simple gratefulness that her business had not gone under?

  ‘Now, about this business proposal,’ the sheikh said, interrupting his private reflections. ‘Can we meet tomorrow to go through my portfolio? There will be other meetings during the week but I’ll try and keep things to a minimum. I’ll have my secretary line up some times that suit us both. You’ll no doubt want to spend as much time as possible with Rachel while you are here.’

  Rachel came back in and both men rose as she resumed her seat. ‘Thank you,’ she said to Alessandro as he pushed in her chair.

  ‘I was just saying to Alessandro what a charming young lady you are, Rachel,’ the sheikh said. ‘I have enjoyed this evening very much. It was a great pleasure meeting you.’

  ‘That is very kind of you,’ Rachel said, blushing. ‘I have enjoyed meeting you too.’

  ‘Perhaps we can dine together once Alessandro and I finalise our deal,’ he said. ‘I hope you enjoy your time together in Paris.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Rachel said as he rose to take his leave.

  Alessandro led her to the lift back to their suite. ‘You certainly made an impression on him,’ he said. ‘I think you just nailed the deal for me.’

  ‘He’s seems a very nice man,’ she said. ‘But I think he hides behind all that wealth.’

  Alessandro glanced down at her sharply. ‘What makes you say that?’

  She gave a little shrug. ‘He’s very pleasant but I got the feeling he doesn’t allow anyone to get too close.’

  He looked away from her to stare at the numbers on the lift. ‘Having been on both sides I can see how he would do that,’ he said tonelessly. ‘You never know who your friends are when you have money.’

  She looked up at him. ‘Doesn’t it get lonely way up there at the top?’ she asked.

  Alessandro frowned heavily and stabbed at the number of their floor even though it was already illuminated. ‘No, it doesn’t. I am never without company.’

  ‘Company you pay for one way or the other,’ she remarked wryly.

  He held the door of the lift back with the stiff bar of his arm. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

  She sailed past him, leaving behind a waft of her perfume to tease his nostrils. ‘Go figure it out,’ she said airily as she released her bound hair from its clip.

  Alessandro thrust the door of their suite open. ‘Damn it, Rachel, what are you playing at now?’

  She turned and looked at him, her beautiful face defiant and proud surrounded by that cloud of fragrant hair. ‘I’m going to bed. I’m tired of playing the rich man’s mistress. I’m now officially off duty.’

  Alessandro snagged one of her arms as she began to flounce past. ‘Not so fast, young lady,’ he said.

  She gave him a challenging look. ‘What are you going to do, Alessandro? Call your lawyers and make me pay up?’

  His fingers tightened on her arm. ‘Go on. Do it. Walk out right now and see what happens. I dare you.’

  Her eyes warred with his. ‘You want me to break the contract, don’t you? You want to prove how unreliable I am. But I’m not leaving until the time is officially up.’

  ‘Then let’s not waste any more time of it bickering,’ he said, and brought his mouth down with crushing pressure against hers.

  Rachel wished she had the strength to resist him but as soon as his lips met hers she was on fire. It had been simmering between them all evening. Her frustration at him continually locking himself away had niggled at her until she had pushed and pushed for a reaction. Now that she had it she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. His response to her was so breathtaking. His erection pressed against her, igniting her desire for him like a match to tinder. He pulled down the bodice of her dress, his mouth covering first one breast and then the other, sucking, biting, drawing on her until she was writhing with need. Her dress slipped to the floor at her feet and she stepped out of it, standing before him in nothing but her high heels and lacy knickers.

  He raked her all over with his gaze, the scorching heat of it making her need of him all the more irresistible. ‘I want you any way I can have you,’ he said in a low rough tone. ‘No woman has ever made me want to lose control the way you do.’

  Rachel tugged at his bow tie, ripping it out of the collar of his shirt and tossing it to the floor at their feet. She fumbled with the buttons of his dress shirt but with his help she finally managed to get him out of it. She went for his belt and trouser fastenings, her hands greedy for the feel of him against her skin.

  He pulled her knickers roughly to one side, and, putting a hand up against the wall near her head to anchor himself, he plunged into her wet softness. She gasped out loud as he filled her; the driving strength and thickness of him almost making her come right then and there. He delved between their hard pressed bodies to pleasure her with his fingers, his magic touch triggering a monumental explosion of ecstasy. She quivered and shook with the earthquake of feeling that rattled through her. He sucked in a harsh breath and then let himself go, the quick hard thrusts releasing the essence of him into the warm cave of her still trembling body.

  Alessandro was breathing hard as he looked at her. ‘I hope I wasn’t too rough with you,’ he said.

  ‘Did you hear me complaining?’ Rachel said, running a fingertip from his chest to his belly button and back again.

  ‘You’re an amazing lover, Rachel,’ he said. ‘I can’t think of a time when I have felt so … so.’

  ‘So lost for words?’ Rachel said.

  He gave her a rueful smile. ‘Yes, that’s probably the best way to describe it. You leave me breathless and speechless.’

  She played with his chest hair with her fingers, her eyes lowered from his. ‘You made me angry.’

  ‘You made me pretty angry too.’

  She looked up at him entreatingly. ‘I don’t want to fight with you.’

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. ‘Then let’s not fight.’

  ‘So, if we’re not going to fight what are we going to do for the rest of the week in Paris?’ she asked.

  He kissed the side of her neck, his breath feathering over her skin, making her shiver in response. ‘I have some meetings with the sheikh but we have most of the week to ourselves.’

  She tilted her head to look up at him. ‘What do you normally do with your lovers when you come to Paris?’

  He frowned at her. ‘Why on earth do you want to know that?’

  She gave a little shrug. ‘Just interested, I guess.’ ‘Interested or jealous?’ he asked.

  Rachel held his probing look. ‘I don’t want to do the same things or go to the same places,’ she said. ‘I want this time together to be different. I want you to think back to this week in the years to come and not have to ponder on who it was with you when you saw such and such, or ate at such and such a restaurant. I want you to remember it was me and only me.’

  ‘Believe me, cara,’ he said as he brought his mouth down to hers. ‘I will always remember it was you.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE week they spent together in Paris was unforgettable. Rachel knew she would think back on it for the rest of her life as a precious time when she and Alessandro put their differences aside and were just a normal couple exploring the city and surrounds. Alessandro could walk longer and longer distances, but he still relied on his stick, particularly at the end of the day when his muscles became tired. There was no climbing of the Eiffel
Tower or spending hours wandering around in the Louvre, but Rachel didn’t mind at all. It was enough that she was alone with him, to spend time getting to know him in a way she hadn’t been able to before.

  At night they avoided the main dining areas and instead ate in small intimate restaurants that had a homely feel. During the day they took car trips to places such as Giverny to see Monet’s garden and out to Normandy to visit the abbey of Mont Saint Michel. They stopped at local farms to buy raspberries and sat on a picnic blanket in the countryside feeding them to each other, laughing about their stained fingers or clothes. They drank wine and champagne and ate a different type of cheese every day.

  They made love with such passion Rachel’s body hummed for hours afterwards. She fell more and more in love with him in spite of the clock ticking on their relationship. She couldn’t help it. He made her feel so alive and vibrant. He made her feel as if she was the only woman in the world who could make him complete.

  But he didn’t say anything about loving her back.

  Rachel woke first on the morning of their last day in Paris. She looked at Alessandro while he slept, drinking in his dark arresting features, touching him with a feather-light fingertip, over his eyebrows, down his nose, on his top lip and then his bottom one. Why wouldn’t he use that mouth to say the words she most wanted to hear? Her need to hear him say it out loud was like a gnawing ache inside her. It had become almost like an obsession. She thought about it all the time, anticipating the moment when he would finally confess his true feelings.

  Alessandro opened his eyes and sent her a lazy smile. ‘I was having the most amazing dream,’ he said.

  Rachel smiled back as she traced his top lip again. ‘Tell me about it.’

  He rolled her onto her back and looked at her smoulderingly. ‘I dreamt I was in bed in a Paris hotel with the most beautiful woman in the world.’

  She shivered with delight when his hard body brushed against her softer curves. ‘Were you by any chance as madly and hopelessly in love with her as she was with you?’ she asked with a playful smile.

  His expression froze for a tiny moment but it was enough to shatter the sensual spell. ‘Rachel,’ he began. ‘This has been a crazy week, a crazy couple of weeks, actually. But this is not the real world.’

  Rachel felt her stomach sink in disappointment. ‘You don’t believe I love you, do you? You think I’m only saying it because of the money.’

  ‘I know it’s not about the money,’ he said as he rose from the bed. ‘I know you think you’re in love with me. You’re confusing physical feelings with emotional ones.’

  ‘At least I have emotional ones,’ she threw back resentfully.

  He held her gaze for a steely moment before he turned away. ‘I have to get ready for my final meeting with the sheikh,’ he said. ‘I’ll call you when I’m through.’

  When Alessandro came back from his meeting he announced the deal was completed. His mission had been accomplished, but instead of seeming happy about it he seemed to retreat further into himself as the day went on. He frowned more than he smiled, and was silent more than he talked. His limp seemed to be more pronounced and she saw him wince once or twice when he thought she wasn’t looking.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked when he stumbled slightly as they walked back to the car after a stop for afternoon tea.

  ‘Of course,’ he said.

  ‘I’m sorry about this morning,’ she said after another moment. ‘I didn’t mean that about you being without emotion.’

  He glanced at her without speaking, his lips moving in a quick on-off smile.

  ‘You don’t seem yourself,’ she said after they had driven for a couple of kilometres. ‘Yesterday you talked to me the whole way back to the hotel. Today you’ve said nothing.’

  ‘I’m fine, Rachel,’ he said, letting out a relieved sigh. ‘It’s been a big week. I’m just glad it’s over.’

  Was he glad their time was drawing to a close? she wondered. There was only a week left. Was he counting down the days now his deal was secure? He hadn’t said anything about extending her time with him. She had longed for him to do so. She had longed for him to say he cared about her. That their relationship was not just a business deal, but much, much more. She longed to hear him say he loved her the way she so passionately loved him. She had given him the perfect opportunity to say it but he had deflected yet again.

  His silence made her want to press him, to goad him into admitting he wanted her, not just for now, but for ever. ‘I’m glad it’s over too,’ she said, patting her overfull stomach. ‘Just as well I’m going home at the end of next week. With all that wining and dining we’ve done lately, if I were to stay any longer with you I’d get horribly fat.’

  He didn’t respond and when she looked at him he was frowning yet again.

  ‘Who will you get to take my place?’ Rachel asked, not quite able to refrain from intensifying her own torture.

  He threw her a dark look. ‘What?’

  ‘You know, your next mistress,’ she said. ‘Have you anyone in mind?’

  ‘Of course not,’ he said, his hands like claws on the steering wheel.

  ‘So how do you choose your next mistress?’ she asked.

  ‘How does anyone choose a new lover?’ he countered. ‘It’s a matter of chemistry.’

  ‘You can’t be such a great judge of chemistry if after a month it always fizzles out,’ she said drily.

  ‘Maybe I haven’t met the right one just yet,’ he said and pulled into the hotel arrivals bay.

  The hotel parking attendant took the keys from Alessandro. Rachel was let out of the car by another attendant and joined Alessandro as they walked into the foyer. He was leaning heavily on his stick and his mouth had white tips at the edges as if he was in pain.

  ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You don’t look fine,’ she said. ‘Maybe we should call a doctor.’

  ‘I do not need a doctor,’ he snapped at her. ‘Now will you stop fussing? You’re acting like a wife, not a mistress. It’s not what I am paying you to do.’

  They travelled in the lift up to their room in a silence that throbbed with tension.

  Inside their suite Rachel dumped her bag on one of the sofas and kicked off her shoes. ‘I’m going to take a shower,’ she said crisply.

  ‘Rachel.’

  It was amazing how the way he said her name always made her stop in her tracks. But this time there was a quality to his voice she hadn’t heard in it before. A blossoming hope rose in her chest that the reason he had been distancing himself all day was because he was finally working himself up to the confession of love she so longed for. No wonder he was so tense and on edge. He was finding it hard to put his pride to one side and admit he loved and needed her. How sweet, she thought. He was nervous about revealing himself to her. He had purposely waited until his business deal was out of the way before he told her. She slowly turned around to look at him with a soft smile. ‘Yes?’

  ‘I have something for you,’ he said, handing her a flat jeweller’s box he had taken from the dresser next to the bed.

  She took it with an unsteady hand, her heart thumping like a wild thing in her chest. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Open it,’ he said.

  Rachel took the box and opened it to find a heavily encrusted diamond and emerald evening necklace with matching dangling earrings. It was beautiful but its showy splendour was not quite to her taste, although she could only imagine how much it must have cost. She wondered if there was something significant about him selecting it for her. ‘I’m not sure what to say …’ she said. ‘It’s beautiful but …’

  ‘If you don’t like it I can easily get my secretary to choose something else,’ he said, releasing his tie as he faced the mirror.

  Rachel felt a rod of anger straighten her spine. ‘You got your secretary to choose this?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said as he fac
ed her. ‘She selects all of my gifts.’

  Rachel shut the box with a snap and handed it to him. ‘I don’t want it,’ she said.

  He frowned at her. ‘Rachel, that set is worth more than I’ve spent on any other lover.’

  She glared at him furiously. ‘Do you think I care about that? Here, take it back. Now. ‘

  He folded his arms to thwart her. ‘You could always sell it when our affair is over,’ he said. ‘Think of it as one of the perks of the job.’

  Rachel wanted to slap him but instead she threw the jeweller’s box on the bed and stalked to the other side of the room. ‘Take it out of my sight,’ she said stiffly.

  ‘I really don’t know what all the fuss is about,’ Alessandro said.

  She swung around to look at him. ‘How can you say that? How can you? I gave you my love for free and now you have cheapened it by buying the most ridiculously expensive jewellery possible. Do you have any idea of how that makes me feel?’

  He picked up the box and put it back in the drawer. ‘There, the nasty diamonds and emeralds are out of sight. Satisfied now?’

  She gave him a fulminating glare. ‘How can you do this?’

  ‘Do what?’ he asked with a snap of his brows.

  ‘You made love to me all week, treating me like a princess, and then you pay me off with a shabby box of jewellery you didn’t even take the time and effort to choose yourself,’ she said.

  ‘Five years ago I gave you a piece of jewellery I chose myself and you threw it back in my face and took another man’s ring instead,’ he said with a sneering curl of his lip. ‘Why would I take the time and effort to go through all that again?’

  The air pulsated with bitterness.

  Rachel took a breath that scalded her throat. ‘I can’t do this any longer,’ she said. ‘I don’t care if you throw me to your greedy lawyers to be eaten up alive. I can’t be with you any more, not even for another week, not even for another day, not even for another hour.’

  His expression turned to stone. ‘You will have to deal with the consequences if you leave now.’

  She swallowed as she thought of Caitlyn and the team back home. Would he do it? Would he destroy her to have his final revenge? It was a risk she had to take. ‘Do whatever you think you should do,’ she said, turning away in case he saw the heart-wrenching despair in her gaze.