hold the fort until you decide what course of action to take. I’ve already spoken to her about it.’
She frowned at him. ‘What do you mean?’
He held her look for a moment. ‘You might decide to stay on in Italy,’ he said. ‘It would be imprudent not to prepare for that possibility.’
She gave him a disdainful look. ‘You must get really exhausted carrying that monumental ego around. Do you really think I will step back into your life as if nothing has changed? You’re paying for a month and that’s all you’re going to get.’
Emilio fought back his temper. He was not used to her being so obstructive and defiant. In the past she had been so willing to fit in with his plans. Where was the sweet young woman he had chosen as his bride?
‘Would you like another drink?’ he asked after a tense pause.
‘No … Thank you.’ She pushed the glass away with another little frown pulling at her brow.
‘I thought we could have dinner in my suite,’ he said.
She looked at him with startled eyes. ‘Why not in a restaurant?’ she asked.
‘I thought it might be more private.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘You can quit it with the whole seduction routine, Emilio,’ she said. ‘It won’t work.’
Emilio felt his groin tighten as she threw the challenge down with her flashing gaze. ‘You think not?’ he asked.
‘I know not,’ she said with a lift of her chin.
He held her gaze, hot, hungry desire leaping like flames in his body. This new feisty Gisele was turning him on. There was something about her newfound defiance that thrilled him. It stirred his blood, making it surge through his system like rocket fuel. There was one thing he loved more than anything and that was a challenge. He had left his dirt-poor background behind with the same gritty determination to succeed no matter what it cost. He had put himself through school and then university, working day and night to cover the expense. He had made his fortune by rising to the demands of difficult clients and completing next to impossible projects. He had nearly lost it all after the scandal, but he had clawed his way back.
Gisele was another next to impossible project but, just like all the rest, he was determined to succeed.
Nothing and no one was going to stand in his way.
CHAPTER THREE
GISELE stood like a statue of marble as Emilio escorted her up to his suite. She could smell his aftershave; it stirred deep memories she tried desperately to suppress. She felt as if she were stepping back in time. How many times had she stepped into an elevator to accompany him up to his penthouse suite in hotels all over Europe? The erotic images that thought triggered made her skin prickle all over and she had to bite her lip until it hurt to block them from her mind.
Back then she had been so eager to please him. She knew right from the moment she had met him that he was a proud and strong-willed man but she had never questioned him, never stood up to him and never challenged him. She had just loved him, completely and desperately. How had she allowed herself to become so vulnerable? The power balance of their relationship had been wrong. She had loved him too much and he hadn’t loved her at all.
It was only his pride that wanted her back now. She knew it wasn’t about her as a person. He wanted the world to know he was setting the record straight. His offer of a one-month trial seemed to prove it. A man with his high profile could not afford to be seen as acting unfairly. The press had gone wild with the story of Sienna and her being reunited. She was surprised he hadn’t already informed the media of his intention to resume his relationship with her.
The elevator stopped and Emilio held the doors back for her with an outstretched arm. Gisele moved past him, determined not to show how unsettled she was. Her stomach was twitching with nerves. Everything about him unsettled her. He seemed to see much more than she wanted him to see. What if he sensed she was hiding something from him? How long before he guessed the pain in her eyes had been put there, not just by him, but also by the loss of their child? The child whose soft pink bunny blanket that still held a faint trace of her sweet baby smell was folded inside her suitcase? She hadn’t been able to leave that final link with Lily behind. Her mother … Hilary, she quickly amended, had said it was unhealthy to keep holding on. She had said Gisele should put it all behind her, pack the blanket away so she could finally move on.
Gisele wasn’t ready to move on.
She didn’t think she would ever be ready to move on. What would Hilary know anyway? She hadn’t physically given birth to a child only to have that child’s life snatched away. She didn’t know, couldn’t possibly know what it felt like.
‘Relax, cara,’ Emilio said as he opened the door to his suite. ‘You look like you’re about to be devoured by a wild beast.’
Gisele stalked past him. ‘I have a headache,’ she said and it wasn’t a lie. The pain behind her eyeballs had gone from a dull ache to a pounding that felt as if a team of jackhammers on steroids had taken up residence inside her skull.
His brows moved together. ‘Why didn’t you say something earlier?’ he asked.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, licking her lips to give them some much-needed moisture. ‘I probably shouldn’t have had that second drink. I don’t have a good head for alcohol.’
‘When was the last time you ate?’ he asked.
The fact that she had to think about it didn’t go unnoticed by him, Gisele thought as she saw that dark frown deepen across his brow. ‘I can’t remember,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t a priority. I had to get things sorted at my flat and at the shop.’ She threw him a resentful scowl. ‘You didn’t give me much time.’
‘I’m sorry but I have to get back to Rome for a project I’m working on,’ he said. ‘The client is a big one. I had to work hard to get the contract. It’s worth several million.’
Gisele thought of all the money he earned from his designs. She suspected he hadn’t come by it easily. He was a prime example of the adage that anyone could do anything if they had enough determination. And the one thing Emilio had in spades was determination. She could see it in the glittering depths of his dark eyes and the strong lines of his jaw, both hinting at the implacability of his nature. In the days and weeks ahead she would be going head to head with that intransigent personality. Who would eventually come out on top? She gave a little involuntary shiver. It was a nerve-jangling thought.
‘I’ll have dinner sent up immediately,’ he said. ‘The porter brought up your things earlier,’ he said. ‘Would you like me to get a housemaid to unpack it for you? I should have thought of it before.’
‘No,’ Gisele said, perhaps a little too quickly. She saw his eyebrows lift. Yes, definitely too quickly. ‘We’re … um … leaving tomorrow, in any case.’
He held her gaze for an infinitesimal moment. ‘Would you prefer the guest suite tonight?’ he asked.
Gisele gave him a flinty look. ‘Where else did you expect me to sleep?’
He came up close and brushed her hot cheek with
