Unfortunately she lost sight of him again when she and the winners descended to the floor and were surrounded by admiring friends and family. It took time extricating herself from everyone who wanted to speak to her, but as soon as she was alone Sofie searched the room again, with the same negative result as earlier. Tired of playing games that had her emotions see-sawing wildly, and knowing she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make small talk with anyone right then, she sought for a means of escape and found it beyond the door to the terrace.
Outside in the warm summer night air, she made her way to the parapet and leaned on it, looking out over the city. The light was fading and all around the city began to twinkle. She had never regretted moving north, only the circumstances that had made it necessary. She had done a good job of vanishing off the map and couldn’t have chosen a better place to make a fresh start, even though she had been terrified that Lucas would find her.
When time passed and he hadn’t discovered her hiding place, she had started to think she was safe, and look what had happened—Lucas had come back into her life. The very thing she had been afraid of for so long, because, however much her heart wanted to see him, her brain knew it wasn’t safe to do so. Now, more than ever. It had gone beyond the reason for her leaving. There were things he didn’t know and, though he had a right to know them, she feared what he would do if he found out.
Life, she had learned years ago, could be cruel, causing people to make choices they shouldn’t have to make. It had broken her heart then and she had barely survived. She didn’t think she would be so lucky if fate played its hand a second time.
Just then a soft breeze blew her shoulder-length brown hair across her face and at the same time a tingle of awareness ran down her spine. She spun round, her breath hitching in her throat as she saw the source of her turmoil stroll out of the nearby shadows.
Up close he was still the handsomest man she had ever seen. A shaft of light from the windows highlighted the almost blue-black of his hair and the intense blue of his eyes. She could remember those eyes smiling at her with such love in them it had taken her breath away. Now, though, it was hard to read what he was thinking. He had closed himself off from her.
Lucas stopped a few feet away, a faintly mocking smile hovering around the corners of his mouth, whilst his eyes ranged over her. Once upon a time such a glance would have sent delicious tingles along her nerve-endings as they passed, but there was no warmth in his eyes surveying of her now. It left her feeling bereft, a faint hope dying before she was even aware of its existence. She was inordinately glad when he finally held her gaze.
‘What took you so long?’ he said huskily, the rich tone of his voice delighting her senses as it always had. However, the question made her jump.
‘L-long? I…er…’ she had to cough to clear a dry throat. ‘I don’t understand,’ she returned in genuine confusion, her emotions making it hard for her brain to work. Facing the man she loved six years after walking out on him was not a situation she had ever planned for. Quite the opposite.
Lucas shook his head disappointedly. ‘Of course you do. You’ve been watching me all evening, and I’ve enjoyed watching you watch me. That’s why I knew when you couldn’t see me you’d come in search of me.’
Sofie caught her breath, her pulse racing anxiously with her inner turmoil. ‘That wasn’t the reason. It was hot and I needed…That is…’ Realising she was almost babbling, she closed her eyes and drew in some steadying air. ‘I thought you were gone.’
‘Hoped, you mean,’ Lucas returned silkily, and she licked her lips nervously to moisten them.
‘Yes…no…w-whatever!’ she responded jerkily, then made an effort to get a grip. ‘Why would I want to see you? We have nothing to say to each other,’ she told him more firmly, because denial was all the defence she had. She needed him to walk away from her, for should he find out about her sin, he would never forgive her. In his place, neither would she.
‘On the contrary, I think you and I have one hell of a lot to say to one another, Mrs Antonetti!’ he shot back, and there was no doubting the underlying edge of anger in the coldness of his tone.
Sofie flinched, knowing he had a right to be angry. More than he knew. ‘Lucas…’ she responded helplessly, and something wild flashed in his eyes.
‘Ah, Lucas! Do you know that the sound of my name on your lips once used to send me up in flames?’ he challenged sarcastically and, because she did remember, it drove a knife into her heart.
‘Please…’ she breathed achingly, knowing she had enraged him by leaving the way she had. She should have stayed and confronted him with the proof of his treachery, but it hardly mattered now. That he had betrayed her was irrelevant, and her fears that he would have lied his way out of it and somehow convinced her to stay. She was playing for higher stakes, and the cost of losing didn’t bear thinking about.
Lucas stepped closer, eyes glittering. ‘You used to say that, too, when you begged me to make love to you. Do you remember that, Sofie? Do you remember any of it?’
Dear Lord, she remembered everything. Nothing was forgotten. None of the happiness, none of the heartache. However much she might want to throw his words back in his face, she had to be careful. She had too much to lose now.
‘Th-there’s no point in remembering. I put the past behind me.’ It was a lie. Not a day went by when she didn’t remember and long for what was lost.
A sneer curved the lips she had once craved to kiss. ‘How convenient. The trouble is, the past has a habit of rearing up and biting you when you least expect it. As it did with me, when I walked into the hotel yesterday and saw your picture advertising this event.’
Her nerves jolted as she heard that. ‘Then you weren’t…’ She cut the question off, aware of what it would reveal, but Lucas was far too astute to miss it.
‘Weren’t looking for you? No, I’m here on business, so you can imagine my shock. My errant wife, whom I had sought from one end of the country to the other, was hiding in plain sight,’ Lucas explained with a mocking laugh.
Her chin came up. ‘I wasn’t hiding,’ she denied, and it had been true once. She hadn’t started out hiding from Lucas, she just hadn’t wanted to see him again, knowing that her love for him made her weak. However, circumstances had changed, and she had ended up hiding from him for totally different reasons.
One eyebrow lifted in a gesture she remembered so well it tweaked her heartstrings. ‘Then why the change of name, if not because you didn’t want me to find you?’
Sofie’s stomach lurched anxiously. She had never found it easy to lie but, with things the way they were, she had to find some way to make him go away and leave her alone. ‘Because…Because…’ Invention failed her. Oh, God, what could she say? Her mind flailed around seeking inspiration and locked on to the first it could find. ‘I was th-thinking of, um…opening my own studio,’ she told him, her hands gesturing uneasily. ‘At one time,’ she added, hoping he would accept that, but the scoffing look he sent her spoke of her failure.
‘I might have believed it had your name been Smith or Brown, but my name sounds professional to me. So tell me, amore, why didn’t you call yourself Sofie Antonetti? You were entitled to, as my wife.’
‘Stop calling me that!’ she snapped, nerves so ragged she could scream.
Her response brought a sardonic curl to his lips. ‘Why?
