To nowhere.
Oh, she was messed up, Abby knew.
She opened the package that she had signed for and her teeth ground together as a formal invitation from her father, inviting her to his fundraiser, fell out. It was written on a thick cream card but there was also attached to it a letter, or rather a note.
Abby.
As discussed.
No signature, no kisses, no Love from Dad. Just the reminder that if she wanted money to support her team, then it came with conditions attached.
She didn’t need the money so badly now but her decision not to go was starting to waver. Seeing Matteo and Allegra together, trying to do the right thing by their grandfather, had served as a very poignant reminder as to how far Abby’s own family had fallen apart, particularly since her mother had died.
Abby peeled back the paper to reveal a walnut box and she undid the tiny clasp and the lid sprung open. Her legs folded beneath her and she sat on the bed staring at her mum’s necklace...
With the silver metal, white diamonds and the green of the emeralds, it was, like her mother had been, beautiful. And, Abby thought, holding it up so it caught the late-afternoon sun, it was possibly the most perfect accessory for her dress.
It was like a sign—not that she should attend her father’s function; that decision she would make later—it just felt as if her mother had stopped by to tell her well done.
‘Oh, Mum.’
She thought of Anette, her mother, and how her marriage had been such an unhappy one.
Her father was a cruel, egotistical man and her mother, with all her family and support in France, just hadn’t found it within herself to leave. Anette had known that Hugo would have made her life hell if she did. So she had settled for a quieter version of hell—a marriage for the sake of the children.
Abby had loved her mother so very much.
She still did.
Had she been alive, Abby knew that what had happened with Hunter would have been handled differently. Oh, Anette had been weak where her father was concerned but not when it came to her girls.
Wear the dress, Abby.
She could almost hear her mother’s voice.
Be who you are, not who others dictate that you be.
Abby could hear her mother’s voice now.
She had been fifteen when her mother had died but now she remembered a long conversation they had had and her mother’s advice.
It hadn’t made sense; even in her darkest days, Abby hadn’t been able to unravel her mother’s words. Abby had tried to be herself and speak her mind and look where that had got her.
At twenty-seven those words made far better sense now.
Abby showered and then pinned up her hair and put on her make-up and with nervous hands pulled on some panties that were a touch too sensible for such an amazing dress but which were all that she had.
And then she slipped on the dress and the feel of cool silk on her skin had her face on fire. It was backless and so there was no bra that would work with it. She could see her nipples.
It wasn’t slutty; it really was incredibly beautiful.
She wore the flat jewelled sandals that she had worn to Allegra’s gala and they worked better with the dress than heels.
It didn’t need heels; what it needed, Abby knew, taking the necklace from the box, was this.
The necklace hung as if it had been designed solely for this night.
It drew the attention from thick nipples and it made her eyes a deeper green. Abby was almost scared of her own reflection because she looked sexy and wanton and she did not want to tease the tiger.
Yet she trusted Matteo not to bite.
It was the most contrary feeling in the world, given all she had been through, and with only instinct to guide her, Abby listened to her own voice now.
Both she and the dress would celebrate tonight.
* * *
Matteo waited.
Oh, he waited for way more than half an hour this time.
He wondered if Abby was having trouble getting into a denim dress and Doc Martens but just as he smiled at that thought the elevators opened and a shining, shy beauty stepped out.
She was in a dress that was a bruised shade of silver, just one polish away from gleaming, and around her throat was the reason Matteo had first made contact.
Not now.
Oh, he watched her walk towards him—too nervous and shy to be sexy. She was utterly gorgeous—and how the hell did he tell her the truth?
Never had he been more grateful for a goldfish attention span when it suited him. Matteo just dismissed the Lost Mistresses from his mind and dealt with now.
‘You look...’ What? Often Matteo stopped himself from saying what he wanted to with Abby; he didn’t tonight. ‘You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.’
And he felt the most responsible that he ever had towards another.
This was her night.
* * *
It wasn’t a restaurant like any other that Abby had ever been to.
White, candlelit tables were set on a private beach. It was an outdoor restaurant that combined fine dining with a sunset that fired as pink as her cheeks as they were shown to their seats.
‘Champagne?’ Matteo asked, and it was as if they were starting again.
Which they were.
He knew the truth now and, more importantly, Abby felt safe to let down her guard with him. She knew, Abby just knew, that she could strip naked and dance like a banshee and still he would see her safely home.
‘That would be lovely.’
The champagne was poured and the first thing he did was raise a glass.
‘To the Boucher team. Well done, you!’
They ate delectable seafood and their fingers met in the fragrant bowls and they flirted a little but more than that they talked and they celebrated her win.
‘Pedro’s happy,’ Matteo said.
‘For now.’ Abby nodded. ‘I’ve been watching him for years, since he was about sixteen. I know he’s good and that he’s thrilled with the win but he’s not going to hang around for long and I can’t blame him for that.’
‘Is that why it has to be this year that you win the Henley Cup?’
That being Hunter.
Abby hesitated and then nodded.
‘He retires this year. I want my revenge,’ she admitted. ‘I know it’s supposed to be healthier to forgive...’
Matteo snorted, which told her what he thought of that!
‘You’re going to do it,’ he said. ‘But if not this year, there’s still next. Don’t make your life about him.’
‘I know.’
‘Concentrate on keeping Pedro sweet,’ Matteo said. ‘Spoil him. You’ve got winnings now.’
‘He placed fifth here last year,’ Abby said. ‘It was our first race and he should have been way back but, like today, something happened. He’s a genius and now everyone really knows it.’ She told Matteo something. ‘The next night, after he placed fifth, he took me out for dinner. He was just twenty then and I’m his manager and yet he got the bill and I knew that I was being served notice. He told me that he’d already been approached by the Lachance team. We came to a deal and I asked for this year, for the Henley Cup.’
‘Things are different now,’ Matteo said. ‘He’s part of a winning team and it is a team—a progressive one. The Lachance mob are sticking to the same old formulas. Remind him of that.’
‘I shall,’ Abby agreed. ‘Pedro wants to take you for a spin when we get to Milan.’
‘No, thank you,’ Matteo said, and Abby raised her eyes in surprise. She had thought, given his daredevil nature, that he would jump at the chance, but he’d shaken his head at the offer.
‘Thanks for today.’ Abby addressed what she had to, glad that it was getting darker and so he hopefully couldn’t see that her face was on fire.
‘For what?’
‘I’ve never had a panic attack before, not a full-blown one. I th
ought I was going to die.’
‘I told you that you wouldn’t.’
‘You said that your sister got them?’
Matteo nodded but said no more.
‘I didn’t expect to react like that. I’ve seen him around before, of course.’
Matteo didn’t like that and he frowned.
‘We’re on tour at the same time,’ Abby pointed out. ‘I always make sure that we’re in separate hotels. I only really see him trackside and usually I’m fine. Well, not fine exactly but I’ve never had that happen to me.’
‘He was angry today,’ Matteo said. ‘Even if he was trying to hide it.’
‘Yes.’
‘And I would expect that brought some stuff up for you.’
‘I guess,’ Abby said. ‘I hate how he’s messed me up.’
‘Messed up?’ Matteo checked. ‘Hardly! Your team just won—you’re coming into your own.’
‘You know what I mean.’ She had said way more than she had wanted to today but she had said it—there had been no one since Hunter.
‘It’s just a matter of time,’ Matteo said.
‘It’s been nine years!’
He actually grinned. ‘How the hell do you sleep?’ he asked. ‘I need a drink or sex, preferably both.’ He thought for a moment. ‘You’re not frigid. Had there not been one hundred thousand people watching on, I could have had you this afternoon.’
‘Exceptional circumstances!’ Abby said.
He just spoke about it in such a matter-of-fact way that it made the world a bit nicer but she shook her head at the impossibility. ‘He seriously messed with my head.’
‘We’re all messed up, Abby.’
‘You’re not.’
‘Of course I am. My whole family are.’
‘Because your parents died?’ Abby asked.
‘Because of how they lived.’
It was Abby who didn’t know what to say now.
Matteo never opened up to anyone. He could talk for hours and still reveal little about himself but with all she had told him today, well, it seemed wrong to hold back. He looked at her, so stunning on the outside and so churned up within, and it felt unfair to let her think that the polished, carefree man who sat before her didn’t have dark memories of his own.
‘Do you know why I said no to Pedro taking me for a spin?’
She shook her head.
‘Because the thought of having someone drive me around at high speed makes me ill.’
‘But riding a thoroughbred racehorse doesn’t?’ Abby frowned.
‘When I was five my father woke me up in the middle of the night. Now, when I look back, he was high on cocaine but I didn’t know about drugs then. I just knew there were times we avoided him and that this was one of those times. He’d won a car.’ Matteo sat there for a moment and remembered his bewilderment at being woken up. ‘We had loads of cars, but no, he had to show me this one. He took me into the garage and I remember that the car was silver. He told me how fast it went and just all this stuff and then he told me to climb in. I did...’ He looked at Abby, and Matteo was probably more confused in hindsight than he had been at the time. ‘Do you know, he didn’t even check if I was belted in? He just revved that engine and took off.’
‘To where?’ Abby asked.
‘Everywhere,’ Matteo said. ‘It was the longest night of my life, changing lanes, swerving, all the lights blurring. I wet myself,’ Matteo admitted. ‘He just kept going faster. He was laughing and shouting. I swear I knew we were going to die that night but somehow we made it home. A few weeks later there was a huge fight and my father got loaded. My mother got in the car, apparently to sort things out once and for all. They say the car skidded out of control but I always wonder...’
‘If she was as scared as you had been?’
‘Yep,’ Matteo said. ‘She’d got clean by then, well, apart from spending...’ He saw her slight frown. ‘Believe me, I almost wish she hadn’t though. I can’t stand the thought that she might have been as sober and as scared as I was that night.’
‘What do your brothers and sisters say?’
‘There are some things that you just don’t discuss. We talk about other things, but the past is there—we all know it. I’m sure they have their own memories and issues. I’ve never told anyone about that night.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘So, no—tell Pedro thanks but no thanks. I shan’t be taking him up on his offer.’
He tipped the last of the champagne into her glass.
‘Enough of the sad stuff,’ he said. ‘We’re supposed to be celebrating.’
They danced on the beach, a lovely long, slow dance, and Abby was celebrating not just the win, nor that she was out in her sexy silver dress and necklace, drinking champagne and relaxed, but turned on in his arms. But that this emotionally elusive man had told her something about himself.
Something that not even his family knew.
It was, without doubt, for Abby, the perfect end to the perfect day.
Matteo thought it less than perfect. Not the day, nor the night—more what he had found out. What had happened to Abby was criminal, not just the event but the effect that it had had on her.
For the first time that he could remember he wanted to step up, but that would mean offering more than he had sworn to ever do.
He remembered their kiss and could feel the attraction but the cruellest thing in the world would be to let her think he was capable of even a short-term relationship. And so, when the music ended Matteo did as promised.
He took her safely home.
CHAPTER SIX
ABBY WOKE AND stretched and looked over to her lovely silver dress that was draped over the chair and she was more mixed up than ever.
Matteo confused her almost as much she confused herself.
She wanted him.
Oh, my, she wanted him, and last night had been perfect.
Absolutely perfect except for one thing.
Unlike the sensual kiss they had shared after the win, at the end of last night, when he’d taken her back to the hotel, Matteo had briefly kissed her on the cheek like he was saying goodbye to some elderly moustached aunt.
Maybe all that she’d told him had been a bit too much.
And, Abby conceded, Matteo was way too much to be cutting her teeth on. He didn’t do relationships—he had made that blatantly clear—and Abby really was the last person to consider a casual relationship.
Except she was.
She was lying in bed, in pyjamas, and wondering what it would be like to have sex with Matteo.
In fact, since the first night they’d met she’d often found herself lying in bed wondering the very same.
Instead of dwelling on that lovely thought, when there was a knock at the door she pulled back the covers and answered it.
It wasn’t breakfast, just the coffee she had ordered, given that they had an official breakfast starting in less than an hour.
She wondered how the team would shape up this morning.
Abby got dressed. There were several issues being a woman in a very male world and the Boucher corporate wear was one of them.
Bottle-green men’s trousers.
Yum.
A bottle-green shirt and a black belt and lovely flat black shoes.
She headed down to the restaurant and there, looking very seedy but dressed in bottle-green, were her team.
‘How was last night?’ Abby asked.
‘Kedah’s a bad influence,’ Pedro said. ‘I can see pink elephants.’
‘Just keep smiling,’ Abby said.
‘Kedah wants to sponsor us too!’ Pedro told her.
Breakfast was long and there were an awful lot of photos and after that there were even more interviews for poor Pedro.
‘How’s Pedro doing?’ Abby jumped at the sound of Matteo’s voice.
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you this morning.’
‘We’ll talk in a moment,’ Matteo said. ‘I just want to ca
tch up with Pedro.’ He went over and whatever he had to say to Pedro took ages and then finally he came over to her.
‘Can we go somewhere?’ Matteo asked and Abby nodded; he had his business face on and looked tired.
They found a table and she ordered tea and Matteo did the same.
‘You don’t look like you’ve slept,’ she commented.
‘I haven’t,’ Matteo admitted. ‘And neither has my lawyer.’
Abby frowned.
‘I’m in,’ Matteo said.
‘Officially?’
‘Yes.’ He handed her a very thick contract. ‘In a nutshell, I’ll be your sponsor for the next eighteen months. You can back out at any time. I can’t. Take your time to go through it though.’
She skimmed the first couple of pages and saw the figures he was talking and, no, she couldn’t imagine backing out.
‘What do you get out of it?’ Abby asked.
‘The Di Sione name on your car and Pedro, as well as your disgusting shirt...’ He looked at her attire. ‘Can we add a clause about your clothes? You’re wearing the same as the men.’
‘We can!’ Abby smiled. ‘What else?’
‘That’s pretty much it. Abby, I love the racing world. I can see why you’re completely hooked.’
‘It’s not always this good,’ she warned. ‘In fact, it’s never been this good till now and it might not be again.’
‘I get that,’ Matteo said. ‘I’ve just spoken to Pedro and when we’re both in New York I’m taking him shopping for a car. I’ll deal with his ego,’ he said and Abby let out a breath of relief. ‘You can concentrate on the cars.’
It felt too good to be true and she waited for Matteo to reveal the catch as he carried on speaking. ‘Now, go through the contract and flag any concerns that you have but when you read it, know that I’m in, no matter what happens between us.’
Abby looked up from the contract she was reading.
It had been business but now he had sideswiped her.
‘Us?’
‘Do I have to spell it out?’
‘I think so.’
‘I don’t do relationships,’ Matteo said. ‘I never have and I never will but I think we both know we’re heading for bed.’
Di Sione's Innocent Conquest (The Billionaire's Legacy) Page 7
