Kate Hewitt - Scandals Of The Ruthless

Ruthlessly pushing aside such incendiary lines of thought, Gio took the stairs now two at a time, his blood humming at the thought of seeing Valentina.

* * *

Valentina was still pacing in her room an hour after she’d returned from the empty marquee. Gio had disappeared at some stage and she hated the way she’d felt disappointed that he hadn’t returned to explain whatever he’d meant by ‘We’ll continue this later.’

He’d obviously gone back to the luxurious hotel in Syracuse where most of the guests were staying, and where she knew there was an exclusive nightclub. Her hands curled to fists without her even realising it as she had a vision of Gio standing at the side of the dance floor with throbbing music and lights highlighting any number of beautiful women he could have within a mere flick of his fingers. Experienced women.

A peremptory knock sounded on her door and Valentina stopped dead, breath caught in her throat. Superstitiously she didn’t move and it came again, along with a familiar voice that sounded positively angry. ‘Valentina!’

Livid with herself for the relief she was feeling but also because she’d let him get to her so much she stalked to the door and said through it, ‘It’s late, Gio, what do you want?’

On the other side of the door Gio bit back the succinct answer he wanted to give: you. Instead he said, ‘I told you I’d talk to you later.’

Valentina’s voice, husky enough to set his nerve endings alight and yet cool enough to try, and fail, to douse them floated through. ‘I’m tired and going to bed. We can talk tomorrow.’

Valentina had a sudden morbid fear of Gio coming through the door. The sting of rejection came back vividly. She knew if she was in close proximity to him she might not be able to disguise her far too disturbing emotions. Or the fact that she wanted him with a hunger that was shameful.

Gio’s voice came back hard and implacable as the wood of the door. ‘Either you let me in, Valentina, or I use the master key to let myself in.’

Valentina crossed her arms and hissed out, ‘That’s a blatant infringement of my employee rights. If you do any such thing I’ll quit right now and sue you for harassment!’

The eloquent answer to that was the unmistakable sound of a key going into her lock and turning. The door opened to reveal a dark and dishevelled-looking Gio with bow tie hanging completely askew now, his jacket hanging off one finger. And Valentina felt the inevitable surge of electricity between them like a doom-laden klaxon going off.

He was in and the door was shut firmly behind him again before she’d recovered from the shock. Gio’s dark eyes were running over her and he said throatily, ‘We hadn’t finished our discussion about your wardrobe.’

Those words returned Valentina to reality with a bump. She moved away, tightening her arms across her chest. ‘I am not discussing this with you now. So if you don’t mind...?’

Gio casually threw his jacket onto a nearby chair and leant back easily against the door, and looked at her. ‘I don’t mind at all—you can do what you like once we’ve finished our conversation.’

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