unclenched her arms, her hands in fists by her sides, hating the betraying sizzle in her blood. Had she no self-respect?
‘That’s blackmail.’
Luca shrugged, supremely unconcerned. ‘Call it what you want. That’s the only way you’ll get your trial.’
Serena swallowed a caustic rush of tangled emotions along with the betraying hum of desire. ‘And what about your precious reputation? If people see us together? What then?’
Luca moved closer. Serena’s words struck him somewhere deep inside. What was he doing? he asked himself. All he knew was that the things that had been of supreme importance to him for a long time no longer seemed as important. There was only here and now and this woman. And heat. And need.
Yet he wasn’t losing sight of what had driven him for all these years completely. He was cynical enough to recognise an opportunity when it arose. Having Serena on his arm would mean news, and news would mean focus on the things close to his heart. Like his foundation.
He said now, ‘I have every intention of people seeing us together. You see, I’ve realised that seven years is like seven lifetimes in the media world. You’re old news. And if anyone does make something of it I’m quite happy for you to be seen by my side as someone intent on making up for her debauched past by doing charity work. Everyone loves a redemption story, after all. And in the meantime I get what I want—which is you. You owe me, Serena. You don’t think I’m going to give you a two-week trial without recompense, do you?’
Serena just looked at him. She was too stunned to say anything. What Luca had said was so...cold. And yet all she could feel was hot. She should be slapping him across the face and taking a bus back to Manaus and the next flight home. Maybe that was what he was doing? Calling her bluff. Goading her. She couldn’t imagine that he didn’t have a string of willing mistresses back in Rio.
But that only made something very dark rise up: jealousy.
‘We leave in fifteen minutes.’
With that he turned and strode away, as if he hadn’t just detonated a bomb between them. She watched him incredulously, and then stalked to the small hut.
As she packed up her small backpack a few minutes later she alternated between the longing to to find Luca and deliver that slap to his face which he so deserved and pausing to remember how it had felt when he’d kissed her and touched her the other night.
She’d never really enjoyed sex; it had been another route to oblivion which had invariably ended in disappointment and an excoriating sense of self-disgust.
But Luca... It was as if he was able to see right through to her deepest self, to the part of her that was still innocent, untainted by what she’d seen and experienced as a child...
‘Ms DePiero?’
Serena whirled around to see a young man in the doorway of the hut.
‘Senhor Fonseca is waiting for you at the Jeep.’
Serena muttered something about coming and watched the man walk away. Something inside her solidified. She could leave and go home, lose any chance of a job with the charity and start all over again. Concede defeat. Or...if she was going to admit to herself that she wanted Luca too...she could be as strategic as him.
But if she was going to stay and submit to his arrogant demands then it would be on her terms, and she would gain from it too.
* * *
Luca sent a wary glance to Serena, who was sitting on the other side of the plane. She was looking out of the window, so he couldn’t see her expression, but he would guess that it was as stony as it had been when she’d got into the Jeep and on the silent journey to the private airfield near the airport.
He wasn’t flying the plane this time. Ostensibly so he could catch up on work, but for possibly the first time in his life he couldn’t focus on it.
All he could focus on was Serena, and the tense lines of her slim body, and wonder what that stony silence meant. He knew he deserved it. He was surprised she hadn’t slapped him back at the village. He’d seen the moment in her expression when she’d wanted to.
He’d never behaved so autocratically with a woman in his life. If he wanted a woman he seduced her and took her to bed, and they were never under the impression that he was in the market for more than that.
But this was Serena DePiero. From the first moment he’d ever seen her he’d been tangled up into knots. The last few days had shown him a vastly different woman from the one he’d met before...and yet hadn’t he seen something of this woman in her eyes that night in the club? He didn’t like to admit that he had seen that moment of vulnerability.
His conscience pricked him. He’d all but blackmailed her. He wasn’t so deluded that he couldn’t acknowledge uncomfortably that it had been a crass attempt on his behalf to get her where he wanted her without having to let her know how badly he needed to sate this hunger inside him.
He opened his mouth to speak to her just as she turned her head to look at him and those searing blue eyes robbed him of speech. She looked determined.
‘I’ve been thinking about your...proposal.’
Luca’s conscience hit him again. He winced inwardly. Never had he imagined that she would be so diplomatic when he’d been such a bastard. ‘Serena—’
She held up a hand. ‘No, let me speak.’
He closed his mouth and didn’t like the flutter of panic at the thought that he might just have completely mismanaged this. She could leave now and he’d never see her again.
‘If I agree to stay and do this trial for two weeks... If I do well—prove that I’m capable...and...’ She stopped, a dark flush staining her cheeks before she continued. ‘If I agree to what you said...then I want you to assure me that you’ll give me a job—whether it’s here or back in Athens. A proper contracted, paying job for the charity.’
The relief that flowed through Luca was unsettling and heady. His conscience still struck him, but he was too distracted to deal with it.
He held out a hand towards Serena and growled, ‘Come here.’
The flush on her cheeks got pinker. ‘Luca—’
‘Come here and I’ll tell you.’
He saw her bite her lip, the dart of her pink tongue. After a few seconds her hands went to her belt and she undid it and pushed herself up and out of her seat. As soon as she was within touching distance Luca had closed a hand around her wrist and tugged her so that she fell onto his lap with a soft ooph.
‘Luca, what are you—?’
He couldn’t help himself. He covered her mouth with his and stopped her words. A very dangerous kind of relief flowed through him. She would be his. She wasn’t leaving. Her arms crept around his neck after a moment of resistance. Her mouth softened under his. And when he swept his tongue along hers, and she sighed, he could have howled with triumph.
Before he lost it completely he drew back, his breathing laboured. He touched a hand to her jaw,
