Deserving of His Diamonds?

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘It looks like no expense has been spared to rid your bedroom of every trace of my previous occupation of it,’ Gisele said with a touch of asperity.

  His expression was unreadable as he raised his glass to his lips. ‘I thought it was time for a change.’

  ‘Out with the old, in with the new?’ she said with a cynical look. ‘Did all your subsequent girlfriends like it?’

  A brooding frown appeared between his eyebrows. ‘If you don’t like it then we can occupy another room,’ he said. ‘But you will share a bed with me, Gisele. I will not have any rumours circulating that this is not a proper relationship.’

  ‘How soon did you replace me?’ she asked.

  A muscle worked in his jaw. ‘Gisele, this is not going to help matters.’

  ‘How many?’ she asked, feeling a lump rise in her throat.

  ‘I could ask you the same thing.’

  ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘Ask me.’

  The muscle in his jaw worked even harder. ‘All right,’ he said on an expelled breath. ‘How many lovers have you had since me?’

  Gisele wished now she hadn’t provoked him. Could she lie just to hurt him? Could she play payback with a host of imaginary lovers, not one of whom would have come close to being as perfect for her physically as him? What was the point? She suspected he would see through it anyway. Hadn’t the way she’d responded to him so far given him enough proof that she hadn’t moved on?

  ‘There’s been no one,’ she said after a tight pause.

  ‘Gisele …’

  ‘Don’t get me wrong.’ She cut him off quickly. ‘I’ve had plenty of opportunities. I just didn’t want to rush into anything. You don’t have to automatically assume I was waiting for you to take me back because I wasn’t.’

  He took his drink and moved over to the windows again, his back turned towards her. It was a moment or two before he spoke and, when he did, his voice was rough around the edges, as if it had been dragged up from a place deep inside him. ‘Would you believe me if I told you I was thinking of making contact with you even before the press release came out about Sienna being the one in the tape?’

  Gisele felt her heart give a little hit-and-miss beat. ‘Why?’

  He turned from the window and faced her with an inscrutable look. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘I guess I wanted to see if you had fared any better than me.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Anger and bitterness are pretty corrosive things to be carrying around,’ he said. ‘I think I got tired of being angry. For two years I was totally consumed with it. I could think of nothing else. I finally got to the point where I wanted to move on. I thought if I contacted you, perhaps met with you face to face to ask you why you’d betrayed me, it might’ve helped.’

  ‘But I hadn’t betrayed you.’

  He let out a heavy sigh. ‘No,’ he said. ‘You hadn’t. And that’s what I have to live with. I made a mistake. It’s new territory for me. I’m not usually wrong about anything.’

  Gisele looked at the wine in her glass and thought about what he had said about carrying around anger. Her anger had burned like acid inside her. It was still burning, eating away at her, keeping her awake at night. But she wasn’t quite ready to relinquish it.

  Marietta appeared at that point with the announcement that dinner was ready.

  Gisele followed Emilio to the dining room where the long highly polished table had been beautifully set up for a romantic dinner for two. Flowers from the garden made a fragrant centrepiece along with the flickering candles in the candelabra that added to the tone of intimacy. So many times in the past she had sat here at this table and looked lovingly across the table at him. She had pictured their children one day joining them there, their little faces shining with good health and happiness and vigour. How far from her dreams and romantically infused imaginings had she travelled? There would be no happy family now. Not for her at least.

  Emilio seated her before he took his own place. ‘I’ve been thinking about your business,’ he said. ‘Do you outsource any of the needlework?’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I do it all myself. I like working to commission. I think it gives the customer that sense of a personal touch.’

  He reached across to pour her some wine. ‘But you surely can’t expect to keep up with demand if things were to take a sudden upswing?’

  ‘I’ve managed to keep ahead so far.’

  ‘Yes, but that will change as soon as things take off over here,’ he said. ‘How will you keep up then?’

  She bit her lip. ‘I’ve brought some work with me …’

  ‘Gisele.’ He sounded like a world-weary parent speaking to a naive child. ‘You can’t expect to run things as you have done in the past. You’ll have to consider outsourcing. You have no choice. You can hand-pick your needlewomen. You’ll still have total control over the standard of your product.’

  She flashed him a defensive glare. ‘I know what I’m doing. I’m good at what I do. I love my work.’

  ‘The creative side of it is not the problem, cara,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen your needlework. It’s exquisite. You are extremely talented. I’m not saying you aren’t. I’m just saying you can’t possibly do it all. You need to think about how to meet demands for more of your work, otherwise people will go elsewhere.’

  Gisele pressed her lips together before answering. ‘OK, I’ll think about it.’

  He gave a sigh and reached for her hand across the table. ‘Look at me, cara,’ he commanded gently.

  She met his gaze with resentment burning in hers. ‘I won’t allow you to take over my life. I’ve been doing perfectly fine without you. My shop is the busiest one on that stretch of the street.’

  ‘I know that,’ he said. ‘You’ve done amazingly well. I’m just trying to help you do better, to maximise your profits. At least if things don’t work out between us you will have a stronger base to go home to.’

  Marietta came in with their meal and Emilio deftly steered the conversation into less contentious areas. Gisele made an effort to do the delicious food justice but being in Emilio’s presence made her feel nervous and excited at the same time. He could be such charming company when he put his mind to it. She felt the intoxicating lure of it each time he looked at her with that sexy slant of a smile. His eyes took on a dark mesmerising heat as they held hers, the sensual promise in them making every hair on her body stand up and take notice.

  After Marietta had served coffee in the salone she announced she was leaving for home.

  ‘She doesn’t live here like Concetta did?’ Gisele asked once the housekeeper had left.

  ‘No,’ Emilio said. ‘She has a husband and a couple of daughters who still live at home. She likes to spend the nights with them.’

  ‘So if she’s not here at night then there should be no problem with me having my own room,’ Gisele said.

  His expression tightened. ‘She is back first thing in the morning,’ he said. ‘What are you going to do? Run along the hall and jump in beside me just for show?’

  She put her coffee cup down and rose to her feet agitatedly. The thought of jumping into bed with him for real was far too tempting. It was all she could think about. Her body burned with hot flames of need and there was nothing she could do to dampen them down. ‘Lots of couples don’t sleep together,’ she said. ‘My parents didn’t share a bed for most of their marriage.’

  He came over to where she was standing. ‘That is not how this relationship is going to be run,’ he said. He took her hands in his and held them gently but firmly. ‘Why are you fighting what is inevitable? I know you were hurt by our break-up. I understand that you’re still angry. We have this chance to reconnect but you seem intent on sabotaging every attempt on my part to put things right.’

  ‘Some things can never be put right,’ she said, looking down at their joined hands rather than meeting his gaze. Her belly quivered as his thumbs began stroking her fingers, his darker-toned skin against hers
a spine-tingling reminder of how very masculine he was and how she couldn’t help but respond to his primal call to all that was feminine in her. She could feel the flicker of desire between her thighs, a tiny rhythmic pulse that was like a faraway drumbeat deep inside her, each throbbing second bringing it closer and closer …

  Emilio tipped up her chin, his eyes so dark she couldn’t make out his pupils. ‘Are you fighting me or yourself, cara?’ he asked.

  She sent the point of her tongue out over her lips, testing his hold but it remained firm. ‘I hate you,’ she said, but somehow the words didn’t sound as feisty and determined as they had even a day ago.

  ‘That doesn’t mean that the sex between us won’t still be good,’ he said as his mouth blazed a hot trail over the sensitive skin near her left ear.

  Gisele felt her senses go into a tailspin as his teeth gently tugged on her earlobe. It sent a delicious shiver down her spine as he moved back towards her mouth, slowly, tantalisingly, awakening each and every nerve beneath her skin, making her lips tingle in anticipation for the hot, urgent pressure of his. She gave a soft little whimper and turned her head just a fraction, just enough to make that final devastating contact.

  His mouth sealed hers but it was nothing like the bruising kiss of the other day. This was a kiss that was sensually soft, exploratory and yet unmistakably commanding and arrantly sexual in its intent. She felt the stroke of his tongue at the seam of her lips and she opened to him, their breaths mingling, their tongues mating in an erotic ritual that sent lightning bolts of need straight to the heart of her femininity. One of his hands slipped to the nape of her neck, the warm cup of his palm causing the entire length of her spine to shudder in delicious response. His mouth changed position, his lips still moving gently against hers, but she still sensed an undercurrent of urgency, of his control still tightly leashed but straining for freedom.

  His other hand pressed her in the small of her back, bringing her closer to the pulsing heat of his erection. She felt its thickness, the potent power of it stirring her body into a maelstrom of feeling. Her skin tightened, her heart fluttered, her legs trembled and still the kiss went on and on.

  It was so wonderful to feel again. To feel alive and vibrant with sexual energy, to feel the way her body inflamed his by its closeness. His hand at her back pressed harder, a low groan emitting from his throat as she rubbed against him, her feminine mound aching to feel his possession. It was a deep ache inside her, a pulsing, throbbing ache that she could feel vibrating in his body as he ground himself against her, hungry for relief.

  ‘I want you,’ he growled like a wolf against her mouth, the primal deepness of his voice and the scrape of his teeth as he tugged at her lower lip making Gisele melt like honey under intense heat.

  She didn’t need to say she wanted him too. Her body was doing all it could to relay the message of how much she needed him to relieve her of this voracious need that was clawing at her insides. She pushed herself closer, her breasts jammed up against the hard wall of his chest, her mouth feeding greedily off his.

  Emilio pulled down the zip of her dress, his hands moving over the naked skin of her back in tantalising strokes that made her legs feel as if they were going to go out from beneath her. He deftly unhooked her bra and it slid to the floor along with her dress, leaving her in nothing but her knickers and her heels. He brought his mouth to her achingly tight breast, sucking on her erect nipple before doing the same to the other. Gisele whimpered as her senses screamed in rapture. It was so good to feel him on her naked flesh, to feel the sexy rasp of his masculine jaw with its pepper of stubble on her soft skin.

  She took her hands from around his neck and worked her way down his shirt, button by button, tasting the sexy saltiness of his skin with her tongue, teasing each of his flat male nipples with her teeth. He shrugged himself out of his shirt as she moved her hands down to the waistband of his trousers. She ran her hand over the proud jut of his body, her insides clenching with feverish anticipation as he moved against her hand with a guttural groan.

  ‘I knew you would come back to me,’ Emilio said in a gravel-rough tone as his lips hovered above her mouth. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.’

  The ice-cold water of common sense doused the flames of Gisele’s desire at the hint of arrogant assurance in his tone. Did he really think she was that predictable? That he only had to beckon to her and she would come running back as if nothing had happened? ‘Wait,’ she said, dropping her hands from his body.

  He frowned at her. ‘Is everything all right?’

  Gisele took a deep steadying breath and covered her naked breasts with her crossed arms. ‘I can’t do this,’ she said. ‘Not like this … not here …’

  ‘Then we’ll take it upstairs,’ Emilio said.

  She sent him a speaking glance. ‘No.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, bending down to retrieve her dress and her bra, her cheeks so hot they felt as if they had been scorched. She got dressed with as much dignity as she could, putting some order to her hair as she faced him once more. ‘I’m sorry, Emilio. I know I should have called a halt earlier. I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn’t thinking. I don’t seem to do a lot of that when I’m around you.’ She made a self-deprecating movement of her lips. ‘I guess that’s one thing that hasn’t changed in two years.’

  He gave her a wry smile as he brushed her cheek with the tip of his index finger. ‘I like it when you’re not thinking,’ he said. ‘I like it best when you’re just feeling.’

  Gisele chewed at her lip. ‘It’s been a long time for me,’ she said softly.

  He cupped her cheek with the warmth of his hand, his eyes dark and surprisingly tender as they meshed with hers. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘That’s why I want our first time back together to be special. I don’t want to rush things just for the sake of it. I want to savour every moment with you.’

  ‘You sound like you missed me,’ she said a little wistfully.

  His thumb brushed over her bottom lip like a teasing feather. ‘Those first few days after you left I was unbearable to be around,’ he said. ‘The contract I was working on securing fell through. The man I was negotiating with was a very conservative family man. He gave the contract to the other architect who, unfortunately, was my biggest rival. I was so blind with rage I felt sure you must have had something to do with it. I thought you had been planted as a spy.’ His mouth twisted. ‘I became totally obsessed after that. I had to work hard to make up for the loss of that commission. The first real block of time I’ve had off since then was when I flew to Sydney to see you.’

  Gisele thought of him working himself to the ground in an attempt to put her out of his mind. He had always been an intensely driven man. She had recognised that when she’d first met him. It had inspired her to think of how hard he had worked for his success. He had told her once it had been his dream since childhood to become an architect and he had determined nothing would get in his way. And it hadn’t. He had become one of the world’s leading and most innovative designers with a string of accolades to his name.

  To suddenly find out he had been wrong about the accusations he had hurled at her must have come as a horrid shock to a man with his level of pride. The fact that he had put everything on hold to fly out to see her to make amends was certainly admirable, but she still suspected it was his pride and reputation that was at stake, not his heart.

  His heart was for no one. Whatever had happened in his childhood had left scars that cut deep. That was another thing Gisele had suspected right from the start, but she had been determined to be the one to heal him. How deluded had she been to think that the strength of her love could unlock his fiercely guarded heart? He had trust issues that no amount of love would ever heal. She had been a casualty of that lack of trust, and she very much doubted that she was the first or even going to be the last.

  ‘Have you spoken to Sienna about us?’ he asked.

  ‘
I didn’t go into a lot of detail,’ Gisele said. ‘I didn’t want her to feel responsible for what happened between us. You have to remember that although we’re identical twins we’re virtual strangers. It will take some time to get to know each other properly.’

  ‘Do you like her?’ Emilio asked. ‘Is she someone you could warm to?’

  Gisele thought of her vibrant, vivacious twin, with her generous and impulsive nature. From what she had picked up so far, Sienna had got herself into plenty of scrapes because of her somewhat reckless take on life, but it was impossible not to like her. ‘I think she’s lovely,’ she said. ‘She’s smart and sassy and sophisticated. But I think the press misrepresent her. They paint her as a hedonist, a wild child without morals. I don’t think she’s anything like that. I think she’s very sensitive but hides it behind the party girl façade.’

  ‘I have a client to see in London towards the end of the month,’ Emilio said. ‘I’d like it if you came with me. You can introduce me to Sienna and perhaps spend some time with her while I’m at work.’

  ‘I’d like to see her,’ Gisele said. ‘But I don’t want to lie to her about our relationship. Putting on an act for the press is one thing, lying to my sister is another.’

  ‘Perhaps by then it won’t be an act, cara,’ he said, brushing her lip again with his thumb.

  Gisele felt the sensitive surface of her lips tingle from the gentle caress. It was true what he had said: she was fighting herself rather than him. Her unruly desires were annihilating her resolve like a hurricane against a house of cards. She had no hope of withstanding him, not while her feelings for him were still so ambiguous. She stepped back from him, giving him a brief on-off smile. ‘I think I’ll go to bed,’ she said. ‘Good night.’

  Emilio didn’t answer but Gisele felt his scorching gaze follow her as she left the room.

  CHAPTER SIX

  GISELE was pulling back the covers of her bed when she heard the bedroom door open and Emilio came in dressed in a bathrobe, his hair still damp from a recent shower. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she gasped in shock.