Olivia Gates - One Night In…

It was Alessandro’s companion from lunch at Angelo’s. As the man’s eyes flashed to Meghan her own stomach lurched. There was no mistaking his knowing, lascivious grin or what it meant.

‘WELL, well, well.’ Richard Harrison pushed himself away from the convertible and strolled towards Alessandro’s car. ‘You sly dog. Keeping her all to yourself.’

Alessandro flicked a cool, contemptuous gaze towards Richard. ‘I don’t recall inviting you here,’ he replied, in a voice of dangerous silkiness.

‘I was bored, and I do believe it’s your job to entertain me.’

‘You’re not a child, Richard, as much as you behave like one.’

Richard’s watery blue eyes blazed for a second. His mouth turned down sulkily. ‘You need my business, di Agnio.’

Alessandro chuckled dryly, although his expression remained diamond-hard. ‘You should realise by now, Richard, that there are very few things I need. You and your string of second-rate department stores is not one of them.’

Richard’s face suffused with colour, turning puce. He clenched his fists, half raised one. ‘You’ll regret that.’

‘I don’t think so.’

Meghan’s hand was slippery on the door handle as she grasped it. She heard the men trading insults, but it sounded like no more than dogs snarling at one another. She couldn’t take it in. The one salient detail that had made its way into her numb mind was Richard’s careless sentence.

Keeping her all to yourself.

They’d discussed her. Talked about her.

Richard’s gaze roved over Meghan with crude, insulting boldness, his eyes lingering on her breasts and thighs, sweeping over her as if he owned her, as if she could be bought. His thin lips turned up in a revolting smirk, and his watery eyes gleamed with lust. ‘She’s just as pretty as I said.’

‘I think you should leave, Richard.’ Alessandro’s voice was calm and dispassionate, but a muscle ticked in his jaw and his eyes were like black ice.

Richard raised his eyebrows. ‘What was it you said? There are better amusements in Spoleto than a two-bit part-time whore? It seems there aren’t, my friend, and I think it’s time you started to share.’ He moved towards her, pale eyes glittering, and Meghan couldn’t move. Couldn’t think except to hear the sickening echo of his words.

Alessandro’s words.

Two-bit part-time whore.

Just as she’d suspected and Alessandro had denied.

Just as she’d known.

She watched, transfixed, trapped, as Richard reached for her, his wet lips parted, his eyes glittering with lecherous intent.

He never managed to touch her. Alessandro moved with swift, calm certainty.

She heard rather than saw the crunch of Alessandro’s fist into Richard’s jaw. He staggered and fell onto the pavement by her feet.

She stared down silently. She still hadn’t moved.

‘I could sue you!’ Richard choked. He clutched at his bleeding mouth, his face contorted with humiliated fury.

Alessandro massaged his knuckles. There was a fierce, primal light of satisfaction burning in his eyes as he gazed down at Richard. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said calmly. ‘Now, you’d better get off my premises before I do something worse to that pathetic baby face of yours.’

Richard glared. ‘You’ve just lost a hell of a lot of business, di Agnio. I know what this deal meant to Di Agnio Enterprises!’

Alessandro’s smile was sardonic. ‘I’ll live.’ He turned his back on Richard in dismissal, and put his arm around Meghan’s shoulders. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine.’ Her voice came out as brittle and sharp as shattered glass. She felt as if she were nothing more than a handful of shattered glass, a fistful of jagged splinters. Shaking off Alessandro’s arm, she moved towards the villa. ‘I’ll just get my things.’

She walked on numb legs to her room, the villa streaming by her blind eyes in a blur of colour.

Almost dispassionately she saw that her haversack had been placed at the foot of her bed. Who had fetched it? she wondered. How many minions worked for Alessandro, in a life she didn’t even understand, with a power she could not begin to fathom? A power abused.

She stuffed her crumpled white shirt and black skirt into the bag. She could return the clothes she was wearing to Alessandro later. There was no time to change.

She was zipping up her bag when Alessandro strode into the room.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

In the distance she heard the roar of the convertible heading down the drive. She spoke through stiff lips. ‘Leaving.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Just like that.’ Meghan tugged at the zipper of her bag, refusing to meet Alessandro’s eyes. She couldn’t do that and get out of here. She knew she couldn’t.

‘You can’t.’

‘Yes, I can.’ Barely. The zipper had finally closed, and she swung the haversack onto her shoulder. She still hadn’t looked at him.

It was the only way she could keep the desperate shards of self-respect and sanity together.

For surely if she stayed one moment longer than necessary—if she let Alessandro talk to her, touch her—they would be scattered.

Stolen.

‘If you won’t drive me, I’ll walk.’

‘It’s over five kilometres to Spoleto,’ Alessandro warned. His mouth was a thin line of anger, his eyes black, his body tense and ready to spring, although there was a loose-limbed grace to his movements even in his fury.

Meghan shook her head wearily. ‘You can’t keep me prisoner here, Alessandro.’

‘Were you prisoner at the falls? At lunch? With me all day? When you begged me to let you stay? Don’t throw that one at me this time, Meghan. It won’t work.’

‘I enjoyed today,’ Meghan said, with a dispassionate calm she was far from feeling. ‘But I didn’t beg.’ She felt sick, and she prayed she wouldn’t throw up. Prayed she wouldn’t cry. ‘Now I want to leave.’

‘No.’

‘I’ll walk—’

‘No.’ He took her gently by the shoulders, his touch like a promise. Meghan closed her eyes. She didn’t need this. Couldn’t need it.

When he spoke his voice was a caress. ‘Look at me, Meghan.’

Damn him. Unwillingly, despite every good intention she’d ever had, she met his eyes.

‘Why are you doing this? Is it because of Richard? He’s a pig —porca—’

‘Two-bit, part-time whore.’ The words came out in a sorry little whisper.

Alessandro stared at her, his eyes blazing, filled with an urgency that almost undid her.

‘You believe what he said?’ he finally demanded hoarsely.

Meghan spoke through numb lips, her voice a rusty whisper. ‘Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t say it.’

Alessandro was silent, his gaze hard and unyielding. Then he released her, running a hand through his hair, and Meghan sagged against the bed. Her haversack fell to the floor.

‘I did say it.’

Tears pricked her lids. She’d begun to think perhaps it wasn’t true. Only now did she realise how much that brief flicker of hope had cost her. Damn him. Damn him for making her feel.

Feel so very much.

‘But I didn’t know you then,’ Alessandro continued in a voice of determined calm.

Meghan tossed her head, blinking back tears. ‘It was yesterday, Alessandro.’

‘A day is a long time.’

‘Not long enough.’ And yet far too long.

One day wasn’t supposed to be dangerous.

And yet it was. It was.

Wearily, every limb leaden, she stooped to pick up her haversack.

‘What do you want from me?’ Alessandro demanded. ‘Complete trust—faith in you before I even know you?’