comeback? ‘I’m sorry. That was...unfair of me.’
‘I have to go. Natalia is waiting for me.’
A dagger went to Alice’s belly. She’d forgotten all about his gorgeous little bed buddy lying right beside him while he spoke to her on the phone. Jealousy rose in her like a beast that had been woken too abruptly. Giant paws of jealousy clawing at her insides, making her feel strangely hollow. Why was she feeling like this? She had no right to feel this way. She had ended their affair. She’d been the one to walk away, not him. She didn’t have any rights over him now. He was a free agent to sleep with whomever he pleased. There should be no reason why the thought of him talking to her on the phone while a woman was in bed beside him should...hurt her so much.
‘I’m sorry to force you to talk business in the middle of pleasure,’ she said. ‘Maybe next time turn your phone to silent so you don’t get interrupted during one of your marathon sex sessions.’
There was another little silence.
Alice wished she hadn’t spoken with such crisp venom. Every word she had spoken sounded as if it were painted bright green. What was wrong with her? It was crazy to give him ammunition he could use against her. If he thought for a picosecond she was jealous he would exploit it every opportunity he could.
‘I’ll pick you up for dinner at seven,’ Cristiano said as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘What’s your address?’
‘I’m not having dinner with—’
‘You will have dinner with me or I’ll cancel your lease as of now.’
Alice’s heart banged against her breastbone. ‘You can’t do that!’
‘Can’t I?’
She swallowed a rush of panic. She had to get control of her tongue. It wouldn’t help her cause to challenge him all the time. It would only make him all the harder to manage. She could handle dinner. Sure she could. It would be a test for her. It would be proof she could spend an hour or two in his company without wanting to tear his clothes off his hot body.
Yikes. Do not even think about that body.
It was probably still naked and sweaty from bed-wrecking sex. ‘Won’t Natalia mind you taking out another woman for dinner?’
‘No.’
Alice was frustrated by his one-word answer so went digging for more. ‘She must have a very laid-back attitude to relationships to allow you to entertain other women while she’s involved with you.’
‘Natalia knows her place.’
‘Are you going to marry her?’
‘She’s already married.’
Shock rendered Alice speechless for a moment. What had happened to Cristiano’s conservative old-fashioned values? The Cristiano of the past would never have slept with a married woman. He’d had no time for men and women who betrayed their marital vows. He’d spoken at length about the commitment his parents had made and how he admired and respected them for staying true to it until their untimely deaths. Until death do us part had been something he had believed in to the letter.
What had changed him?
You changed him.
The thought was an uncomfortable weight in the pit of her stomach. Had she been the one to destroy his faith in relationships? But she hadn’t been ready to settle down back then. Rejecting a proposal wasn’t a crime, was it? Surely she’d had the right to decide whether she wanted to be married or not. It wasn’t the Dark Ages, for God’s sake. But the thought continued to niggle at her. Had she turned him into a casual-living playboy who had no time for commitment? These days he used women to suit his needs. He was in and out of relationships faster than a racing driver changed gears. Was he really no longer a man who longed for a wife and family of his own? And why should that make her feel so...so sad? ‘Well then, I’d better get off the phone so you can get back to your grubby little affair, hadn’t I?’
‘I’ll see you tonight,’ he said and before she could think of a comeback, or tell him she wasn’t going, he ended the call.
* * *
Alice dressed for dinner as if she were dressing for combat. Each layer of clothing was like putting on a suit of armour. The armour of sophistication she had been so sadly lacking seven years ago.
She sometimes wondered what Cristiano had seen in her back then. She had been twenty-one years old and newly qualified as a beauty therapist. It had been her first trip abroad without friends accompanying her. She had been on a shoestring budget while she backpacked around Europe but she’d only got as far as Italy when she’d met him in a crowded street in Milan when a sharp catch on her backpack had become caught on his clothing, as she’d brushed past.
They’d stood in the middle of the street, comically locked together by their clothes. He’d made a comment about it bringing a whole new meaning to ‘hooking up with someone’ and she’d laughed. Once he had untangled himself he’d insisted on buying her a coffee.
One coffee had turned into two coffees and then dinner. Instead of going back to the backpackers’ centre she’d found herself accepting his offer of accommodation for the night or two she’d planned to spend in his home city. At no time had she felt any pressure to sleep with him. She was not unaware of his interest in her and she hadn’t been all that good at hiding hers in him. But his respectful handling of her had impressed her. Not many healthy and virile young men of twenty-seven, as he was at that time, would have asked a woman back to his place and not expected something in return.
In the end it had been Alice who made the first move. She still remembered their first kiss. Sometimes when she closed her eyes she could still feel those firm lips moving with such urgency against hers, making every cell in her body vibrate. One kiss hadn’t been enough. Next minute she was tearing his clothes off him and all but throwing herself at him.
Her mind drifted... The drugging kisses. The phenomenal foreplay. The earth-rocking sex. The mind-bending orgasms. The electric tingling of her flesh for hours afterwards.
How had she gone so long without it?
Alice sighed and picked up her lipstick. She had never found anyone else who made her feel desire quite like that, as if she would literally die if she didn’t have him. Which meant she would have to be super careful around him now. She didn’t want to betray herself, to give him any hint she hadn’t managed to move on with her life. Of course she had moved on with her life. She was a successful businesswoman with money in the bank...most of it borrowed, but still.
What else did she need?
The doorbell sounded and she put her lipstick in her purse and picked up her evening wrap and went to the door. Even though she was in four-inch heels Cristiano towered over her. ‘You’re late,’ she said. ‘I thought you said seven. It’s half-past.’
He gave a shrug of one broad shoulder as if punctuality and common politeness were no longer of any interest to him. ‘I knew you’d wait for me.’
The way he said it made it sound as if she had spent the last seven years doing exactly that. She raised her chin and sent him a look that would have soured long-life milk. ‘How did you find out where I lived?’
‘Your
