seen him like this—there were lines fanning from his eyes and his mouth was grim, his complexion tinged grey, and his tension palpable.
He looked as if he was dreading this just as much as she was.
‘Where do you want to go for dinner?’ he asked.
‘We could have something to eat here.’
‘I would guess that we’ll be eating here rather a lot,’ Luka said. ‘If your father gets off, I doubt we’ll be going out very much.’
‘I don’t expect you to be here all the time,’ Sophie said. ‘We can say that you’re busy with work.’
‘He’s dying, Sophie,’ Luka said. ‘And if I were engaged to you, if I did love you, your father knows that I would do more than put in a few cameo appearances.’
‘Of course.’
‘I’ll give you a tour,’ he offered, but Sophie shook her head.
‘I already know my way around.’
‘Have you organised a nurse for him?’
‘I thought it better to wait and see what happens tomorrow,’ Sophie said, although the truth was there was no way she could afford a private nurse for her father.
‘I’m going to go to court in the morning,’ Luka said. ‘I’ll text you with what’s happening.’
‘Why would you go to court?’
‘To save you from having to go,’ Luka said, and with that simple sentence her heart just about folded in on itself because that was the type of man she had lost. This was what being loved by Luka would mean. ‘Have you any idea how big it is going to be tomorrow with the press and everything?’ he checked.
‘I’m starting to,’ Sophie said. ‘I saw on the news that the press are already camping out by the court.’
‘They think he’s going to be there when the ruling is made,’ Luka said. ‘Hopefully he can slip out of the infirmary before the press work it out. Is there anything else that I need to know?’
‘I don’t think so. We can talk over dinner.’
‘I’ve changed my mind about dinner,’ he said.
‘Where are you going?’ Sophie asked, as he went to walk out.
‘What the hell does it have to with you?’ he asked.
‘If we’re supposed to be engaged...’
‘The games begin tomorrow, Sophie.’ He came right up to her face. ‘Tomorrow we lie in that bed, tomorrow we pretend that we care. I’ve just realised that tonight I don’t have to even pretend that I like you, so I won’t. I intend to enjoy my last night of freedom before my sentence begins.’
He walked off and Sophie knew she should hold her tongue but it had never been her forte. ‘Oh, I’m sorry to have thrown such a spanner into your charmed life.’
‘Charmed?’ Luka turned. ‘Tell me, Sophie, what part of my life exactly is charmed? I’ve worked eighteen-hour days for this. You talk as if it has been handed to me on a plate.’
‘The share in a hotel from Daddy was a rather nice start.’
‘He had nothing to do with it. I worked for that myself,’ Luka said. ‘What I didn’t say in court was that I knew for years that my father was rotten to the core and that your father was his yes-man. So, tell me more about this charmed life, Sophie. When I came back to London I practically had to go on my knees to my partners at the hotel. Six months in prison takes some explaining. Do you really think my colleagues embraced me on my return? Do you not think that I had to prove over and over that I could be trusted?’
She stood with pale lips as he told her how things had been for him.
‘Do you not think that when somebody looks me up and finds out that I was in prison, awaiting trial, for six months that it doesn’t slur my name? I took nothing from my father. I have done everything I can to make right what he did. I handed back everything that man gave me. The only thing I couldn’t return was the education. You can’t unlearn things unfortunately but God knows there are things I’ve tried to forget...’
He was talking about them, Sophie knew it. He was back in his bed and taking her for the first time with his eyes. ‘I washed my hands of Bordo Del Cielo. I only came back that time to rid myself of you once and for all. I should never have opened that door to you!’ Even before she could move he grabbed her wrist. ‘Slap me again...’ Luka warned.
‘And you’ll slap me back?’ Sophie challenged, and she didn’t understand because he almost smiled.
Yes, he almost smiled because on so many levels she matched him and in so many ways he adored her. How he would love to end this row in a different way, to kiss her right now into submission, yet he refused that pleasure for himself.
‘Slap me again,’ he amended, ‘and before the fingermarks have faded the engagement will be off and you can tell your father why if you must. I mean it, Sophie, and you should know that I don’t give second warnings.’
She stood there and he had won but even as he passed the finish line he kept on sprinting.
‘I’m going out now and I’m going to be with a woman who does not question, a woman who is sweet and warm...’
‘Give Claudia my love,’ Sophie spat, and hoped that the fact she knew his lover’s name meant that she sailed past him on shock value alone, but Luka just grinned at the jealous snarl to her voice.
‘Claudia?’ Luka checked.
‘You were with her at Hotel Fiscella.’
‘Because Matteo and I are thinking of buying it,’ Luka said, and Sophie was grateful that she had handed in her notice as she realised how close she had come to having Luka as her boss. ‘Claudia is one of my lawyers.’
‘She was there for the purchase of the hotel?’
‘No,’ Luka said. ‘I hired her to get your father released.’
She stood there frozen to the spot, hating how he was always one step ahead, how this man continued to sideswipe her.
‘Why?’ Sophie asked. ‘Why would you hire a lawyer to get my father out?’
No, he didn’t tell her about the necklace burning a hole in his pocket and the hellish guilt that had made it his mission to see Paulo freed.
‘For this moment, Sophie.’ Luka lied. ‘So that you would come to my office and ask me to be with you. For the pleasure of lying in bed with you and doing nothing...’ Black was his smile.
‘Why do you hate me so much?’
‘You’ll work it out,’ Luka said. ‘I’m going out now. I’ll see you tomorrow when the real games begin.’
