yourself to trust me again, but would you at least agree to stay in Sicily for a few more weeks so that I can show you something?’
Despite her reservations, the key fascinated her and it was that, together with the growing awareness that their entangled love life was now the focus of everyone’s attention that weakened her resolve. Tired of playing the starring role in a drama she hadn’t scripted, Laurel looked at him. ‘I’m not promising to stay for weeks. But I’ll stay long enough for you to show me what this opens. Then I’ll decide.’
Her words were greeted by a ripple of approval from the crowd and Laurel felt suddenly trapped. ‘Don’t get any ideas. This isn’t forever. This is—’
‘—just to get us out of this hellhole,’ he muttered under his breath, flashing her a grateful smile that said he was feeling the same way as her.
He picked up her suitcase and the fascinated crowd parted in front of them. As they made it through the obstacle course of holiday luggage to the front of the building, applause broke out behind them and Cristiano rolled his eyes.
‘Are they clapping you or me?’
‘Probably applauding your pecs. You’ve had them on display for the past ten minutes.’
He glanced ruefully down at his open shirt but buttoning it up required releasing her hand or her suitcase and it appeared he was reluctant to do either. ‘I have an excellent personal trainer.’
Seeing his sports car parked at an odd angle in front of the terminal building, Laurel stopped dead. ‘What happened there?’
He viewed the evidence of his own dubious driving with a pained expression. ‘My concentration wasn’t what it might have been.’
‘So it would seem.’ She watched as he stowed her suitcase in the boot. The key was heavy in her hand and still she had no idea what it opened. ‘Are we going back to the villa?’
The horrible feeling that she’d made the wrong decision lingered in her subconscious.
What difference was a rusty key going to make to their relationship?
Should she have held tight to the boarding card and climbed onto that plane?
‘If we go back to the villa we will be mobbed by my well-meaning family. The next part of our conversation is going to be conducted without an audience.’
‘So where are we going?’
‘It’s a surprise.’
‘I’m not big on surprises.’ Reminding herself that all she was giving him was the opportunity to apologise properly and without an audience, Laurel slid into the car. ‘Don’t you think you’d better go home first and change? Pick up some luggage?’ ‘No.’
‘You’re wearing half a tuxedo. You look ridiculous.’ Except that he didn’t. He looked insanely sexy, which just wasn’t fair because he’d literally dragged on his clothes and still had the attention of every woman in the airport.
Including her.
The engine started with a throaty roar and he turned to look at her, his dark gaze colliding with hers. ‘Do you care what I’m wearing? Does it matter?’
Even here, with horns blaring and people staring, chemistry flared hot and fierce.
She just couldn’t make it die, she thought desperately, feeling the air around them grow electric and her nerve-endings start to sing. Shaken, her gaze slid to the gap in his shirt and then back to his eyes. ‘Don’t think sex is going to get you off the hook.’
‘I don’t think that.’ He didn’t smile. He didn’t flirt. For a moment she thought he was going to say something else and then his phone rang.
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
Tense as the string on a violin, she waited for him to answer it.
His hand automatically left the steering wheel to reach into his pocket and then he stopped and she saw the exact moment he made the decision not to take the call.
Laurel sighed. ‘Answer it. Your empire might be crumbling.’
‘Let it crumble.’ Instead of returning his hand to the steering wheel, he closed it over her cold fingers. ‘I know you don’t think I can do this, but I can. I want to. I am going to prove to you that our marriage matters more to me than anything.’
Instead of reassuring her, his words increased her own tension levels because she knew that even if they could somehow put the past behind them, a future was impossible.
She knew it wasn’t just a simple question of recreating what they’d had before.
Everything had changed.
Everything except for the dangerous chemistry that sizzled between them.
Even as doubts and obstacles rose in her mind, the firm pressure of his hand on hers flicked sparks of excitement through her body.
When she’d stalked out of the villa she’d been absolutely sure of what she was doing.
When he’d stumbled into the airport, she’d still been sure.
When he’d handed her that velvet box she’d thought, Here we go again—he’s going to try and buy his way out of trouble.
And then he’d given her that old rusty key, splintering her jaded expectations and piquing her curiosity.
Material goods didn’t interest her much, mostly because she knew they were easy to come by for him.
But this was something different. He was different.
And this new Cristiano was infinitely more dangerous than the old one because she had no idea how to handle him. When he was on the attack, she attacked right back. When he was arrogant and controlling, she wielded her own brand of power and took him on. But this Cristiano—this humble, penitent, remorseful Cristiano was a person she hadn’t met before.
Confused, she looked away, thinking how unfair it was that the roughness of his jaw and his vaguely dishevelled appearance somehow made his dark Sicilian looks even more spectacular.
‘Just because I’m sitting in this car, don’t assume I’ve forgiven you.’
‘I don’t expect you to forgive me that easily.’ ‘Tell me what the key opens.’
A ghost of a smile touched that mouth. ‘If I tell you that there is no reason for you to come with me. I’m relying on your inquisitive nature to provide the opportunity for me to show you how much I love you.’
He spoke the words easily. He always had, she remembered. For months, she’d struggled to get them past her lips whereas he’d experienced no such barriers to expressing himself.
But, in the end, that love hadn’t revealed itself in his actions.
And now?
She stared down
