shivered.
It was only when the time had come for her to return to England and he’d said, ‘We had a wonderful time, hmm, amore? It is a shame it now has to end,’ that she’d understood what a stupid, gullible, naïve fool she had been.
‘I said you are not Elise,’ this other Italian with the rich, dark accent prompted.
Rachel opened her eyes and let the real world back in. ‘No,’ she agreed. ‘But very few people will be able to tell that from behind…’
A bell of understanding suddenly clanged loud in Raffaelle’s head. Next to come was an action replay of the way this woman had thrown herself on him, followed by several camera flashes. Like a wild beast sniffing danger in the atmosphere, he picked up the scent of a deliberately constructed scandal involving him and the very married Elise.
But it was a scandal he believed he had already diverted. As far as he was aware, the lovely Elise had seen the error of her ways after his last spiked conversation with her on the telephone before he’d broken all contact with her and made his quick exit from London back to Milan. The grapevine, via Daniella, said she had not been seen on the social circuit since.
So what was this devious creature up to? Why had she gone to so much trouble to make out for the camera that she was Elise?
‘Explain,’ he commanded.
Not this side of midnight, Rachel thought tensely and clamped her lips together. Having come this far, she was not about to scupper everything by getting Mark’s story pulled before going to print.
She’d already revealed more than she should have done.
‘Look…’ she heaved out instead. ‘You’re not an idiot, Mr Villani. You must know you’re asking for trouble taking me against my will like this—so just stop the car and let me out now.’
‘Not a chance in hell,’ he refused.
And the way he turned his head to slide his eyes up her legs had Rachel tugging jerkily at the short skirt of her dress. She knew that look. It was as old as the human race. She’d let him see her attraction to him; now he was looking over the goods on offer.
‘If you honestly think—!’
‘Changing your mind about the hit, cara?’ he taunted. ‘Wondering if you might have bitten off more than you can chew with me? Well, let me confirm that you have done.’ His voice hardened. ‘You made the hit. I bought it. Now you are going to play it my way.’
‘You’re crazy,’ she whispered.
Maybe he was, Raffaelle conceded. But no woman—no woman—played games with him and got away with it!
‘I’m getting out of this car—’ Rachel reached for the door handle. The automatic lock gave a clunk as it fell into place at the same time that he increased their speed.
True—true unfettered fear began to scream in her head as it finally began to sink in what a stupid, crazy, dangerous situation she had managed to get herself into here. What did she know about Raffaelle Villani, other than the details fed to her by Mark and Elise? How did she know he wasn’t some kind of mega-rich sex maniac prowling Europe unhindered because his money could buy his victims’ silence.
Just as he said, he had bought her…
Her skin began to creep, her fingers closing tightly around her small clutch bag so they felt the reassurance of her cellphone.
How much time did she need to call the police before he reacted?
She dared a quick glance at him, heart hammering, fingers tensely toying with the clasp on her bag. He didn’t look like a lunatic, just a very angry man—which he had every right to be, she was forced to admit.
‘Your partner in crime did not hang around to protect you,’ he taunted grimly next.
He had to mean Mark. ‘You don’t—’
‘Unless he is in one of the cars following behind us, that is…’
Cars—? Rachel twisted around to peer through the rear window.
‘There are three back there I can pick out as belonging to the paparazzi,’ she was told. ‘And there are most likely more of them following not far behind them.’
Twisting forward again, she stared at him. ‘But why should they want to follow us?’
‘You are not that naïve,’ he derided the question, flicking his eyes from the rear-view mirror and back to the road ahead. ‘Or you would not have chosen Raffaelle Villani to pull your life-wrecking stunt.’
Life wrecking—? ‘N-no.’ Rachel gave an urgent shake of her head. ‘You don’t understand. This was not—’
‘Not that it matters,’ he interrupted. ‘We are here now.’
As in where—? Even as Rachel thought the question, one of those shiny new apartment blocks that flanked the river loomed up close. With a spin of the wheel he sent the car sweeping on to its forecourt. He stopped it hard on its brakes and was already out of the car and striding around it to open her door.
Rachel didn’t move. She was trembling like mad and her heart was thundering. She didn’t look at him either, but just stared starkly ahead.
‘Do you get out yourself or do I have to lift you?’ he demanded.
Since she’d already learnt the hard way that he was perfectly willing to do the latter, swallowing tensely, Rachel took the more dignified choice, unfastened her seat belt and slid out of the car.
It was an odd sensation to find herself standing close to him. Nor did that sensation make any sense because she’d stood this close once already tonight and thrown herself right against him a second time, yet he hadn’t felt this tall or as powerfully built or as dangerous as he did right now.
She shivered, panicked and was about to make a run for it when car doors started slamming. The paparazzi had arrived right behind them and were already piling out of their cars.
Raffaelle bit out a curse, then he was wrapping her beneath the hook of a powerful arm.
Cameras flashed. ‘Look this way, Elise—!’ one of them called out to her.
But she was already being ushered through a pair of doors.
‘Keep them out,’ Raffaelle instructed the security man manning the foyer.
Before Rachel knew what was happening, he’d marched her into a lift and the doors were closing the two of them inside.
It had happened so fast—all of it—everything! And she’d never felt so afraid in her entire life. Her head was whirling and her legs had gone hollow. The panic had not subsided and it sent the heels of her shoes screeching shrilly beneath her as she spun round, then she lifted an arm and hit out at him with her bag.
He fielded the blow like a man swatting a fly away. ‘Calm down,’ he gritted.
But Rachel didn’t
