you look at it?’
‘I look at it as a form of persuasion.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’
‘You’re my wife,’ he said in the sort of voice that implied he was stating the glaringly obvious and irrefutable. ‘When you started concocting your little plan to walk out of my life, you must surely have known that I wouldn’t lie down on the ground waving a white flag and wishing you every success. Since when did I turn into that kind of person?’
Lucy shifted uncomfortably and then began fiddling with a pile of exercise books on the desk at which she had sat. Teacher in the front with wayward pupil facing her. Except Dio was far too intimidating to be any old wayward pupil.
‘Well?’ he prodded coolly.
‘I just think it’s out of order for you to jeopardise the welfare of lots of deprived children who happen to be benefitting from what is on offer here!’
‘I’m not jeopardising anyone’s welfare. You are.’ He glanced at his watch. He had been optimistic about getting back to the office at some point during the day and had thus dressed in his suit but, the way things were going, the office felt out of reach at the moment and, strangely enough, that didn’t bother him.
He was far too invigorated by what was taking place.
‘Is this taking longer than you expected?’ Lucy asked with saccharin sweetness that wouldn’t have fooled an idiot and he grinned.
Her stomach seemed to swoop and swirl inside her, as though she had been suddenly dropped from a great height without the aid of a parachute. That grin; it transformed the harsh, forbidding contours of his lean face. It reminded her of her youthful folly in letting it get under her skin until she had been walking on clouds, hanging onto his every word, waiting for the next meeting with barely bated breath.
And just like that it dawned on her why the thought of making love to him was so terrifying.
Yes, she hated him for the way he had manipulated her into marrying him for all the wrong reasons. Yes, she hated the way he had showcased her, like a business asset to be produced at will and then dispatched when no longer needed.
But what really scared her was the fact that he could still do things to her, make her feel things that were only appropriate in the domain of a real, functioning marriage.
When she thought of having him touch her, make love to her, she knew that somehow she would end up being vulnerable. He still got to her and she was scared stiff that, the closer he approached, the more ensnared she would become.
Like it or not, she was not nearly as detached as she had presented herself over time.
And that lazy grin was enough to remind her of that unwelcome reality.
‘For my dear wife, I would be willing to put business on hold indefinitely.’
Lucy shot him a glance of scathing disbelief and Dio laughed, a rich, sexy, velvety sound that shot right past her defences.
‘Or at least for a couple of hours, while we try to work out our little differences. Show me around.’ He stood up and flexed his muscles. ‘I can’t carry on sitting in this chair for much longer. It’s far too small. My joints are beginning to seize up. I need to stretch my legs, so give me the guided tour. If I’m going to revive this dump, I might as well start assessing what needs to be done.’
Lucy’s full mouth compressed. Was he deliberately trying to goad a response out of her? Or was he just supremely confident of getting his own way, whatever she said to the contrary?
‘You’re not going to revive this dump and you’re not interested in what I do here, anyway!’
Dio looked at her long and hard, hands thrust into his trouser pockets.
‘I’m going to disagree on both counts,’ he told her softly.
Lucy’s eyes fluttered and she looked away hurriedly. The dark, naked intent in his gaze was unsettling. She decided that showing him around the school, what little there was of it, was a better option than standing here and having to brave the full frontal force of his personality.
She gave a jerky shrug and directed him to the exercise books on her desk. This was the main classroom, where she and Mark did their best to accommodate the children, whose abilities varied wildly, as did their ages.
She warmed to her subject.
Dio saw what had been missing all these months. She had presented a beautiful, well-educated, cultured mask to the outside world but the animation had gone. It was here now as she talked about all the wonderful things the school was capable of providing; how much the considerate, funny and thoughtful Mark had managed to do with minimum help and almost no funding. Her eyes glowed and her cheeks pinked. She gestured and he found himself riveted by the fluid grace of her hands as she spoke.
There were several rooms on the ground floor. The building was like the Tardis, much bigger inside than it appeared from the outside.
‘Volunteer teachers come whenever they can,’ she told him, leading the way into another small room. ‘Mark has managed to get a rota going and several subjects are now covered by experts.’ She looked at Dio and her voice softened. ‘You wouldn’t believe the conditions some of the kids who come to us live in,’ she explained. ‘The fact that they’re brought to us in the first place shows a great deal of parental support but there are stories of almost no food, noise pollution from neighbours, overcrowding in small flats...the list goes on.’
Dio nodded and let his eyes drift over that full mouth, the slim column of her neck, her narrow shoulders. Vanilla-blonde strands of hair were escaping the confines of the ponytail and the way they wisped around her face made her look incredibly young, barely a teenager.
‘How safe is it?’ he asked suddenly.
‘Huh?’
‘What are the safety procedures around here? Is there just the pair of you working here? And have you been working at night?’
‘Are you telling me that you’re concerned for my welfare?’ Lucy’s voice was mocking.
‘Always.’
She felt the steady thud of her heart banging against her rib cage. His face was so serious that she was momentarily deprived of the power of speech and, when she did rediscover her vocal cords, she could hear a thread of jumpiness in her voice as she explained that neither of them worked nights and the place was always busy with people coming and going during the handful of hours in which they did work.
‘Be that as it may,’ Dio continued, ‘now that I know where you spend your time, and what you get up to when I’m not around, you’re going to have two of my guards close at hand whenever you come here—and, Lucy, that’s not negotiable.’
‘You used to say that you didn’t agree with men who felt that they had to surround their wives with bodyguards!’
‘You wouldn’t require a bodyguard if you spent your time doing your nails and shopping...which was what I thought you got up to in your spare time.’
‘What sort of impression
