Chapter Six
Angelica woke the next morning to a low buzzing sound. She kept her eyes closed, relishing the soft cocoon of the bed. She felt disorientated and images came back—signing legal papers, Leo, maintaining a cool and icy distance that had taken more out of her than she had admitted to herself.
Somehow it was much harder to do around Leo than it had been with Aldo. Because you never wanted Aldo. She eventually opened her eyes with a scowl on her face and blinked, looking around.
Sounds from the street far below trickled up through an open window. Curtains fluttering gently in the breeze. Rome. Then that humming noise again coming from a doorway on the other side of the room.
Angelica pushed back the covers and got out of the bed, pulling the robe around her tightly. She approached the door and opened it and her eyes widened on the sight of Leo—bare-chested, with nothing but a small towel slung around his waist.
He was shaving and he stopped and looked at her. She asked, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘You slept in my bed last night. All my things are in this bathroom. It was just easier to come here.’
Angelica looked behind her into the room and saw things she hadn’t noticed last night. A man’s watch on the nightstand. Books. A clock. A suit-bag hanging from a wardrobe door. This robe that she was wearing, which was too big.
Her face got hot. ‘I’m sorry, I just came in and had a shower and went straight to bed. I didn’t think…’
‘It’s fine, I took the guest room.’
‘I’ll move there this morning.’
‘You can stay if you like, I don’t mind.’
That just brought up images of her and Leo in the same bed, waking up…as they’d used to, entwined.
‘I’ll go and get some coffee.’ She needed to wake up.
‘Breakfast should have been delivered by now.’
Angelica fled, without looking at Leo again. When she emerged into the dining area there were some hotel staff who greeted her deferentially and then left.
They’d left a breakfast spread of hot food, and pastries. Fruit and granola. And coffee. Angelica poured a cup and took a sip, hoping that would restore some sense of equilibrium.
For a moment there, finding Leo in the bathroom had felt far too much like déjà vu.
‘Have you any plans for the day?’
Angelica jolted slightly. She must have been lost in a daydream for long minutes. Leo was there, clean-shaven, wearing a three-piece suit. Every inch the successful financier. His business restored. She couldn’t deny that he deserved that.
But she strove to maintain that cool front. ‘I have some personal admin to do.’
Leo sat down and helped himself to coffee and a big portion of hot food.
That reminder of his healthy appetite. Not welcome.
She wondered if he’d been with anyone since being released from prison.
She hadn’t been with anyone since him. And now she was glad he’d come to his senses last night because the thought of him realising that he was still her one and only lover…
made her squirm with a sense of exposure.
‘I also have to go to my agent’s office. They have some upcoming jobs they want to discuss.’
Leo said, ‘I can drop you on my way to my office if you like.’
Angelica shook her head. ‘No, it’s fine, I’d like the walk.’
‘Did Aldo like your independence?’
It took a second for Angelica to register Leo’s question. She looked at him and said coolly, ‘He had no choice.’
‘I’m glad he didn’t diminish that.’
Angelica felt a surge of emotion to hear Leo say that.
To acknowledge that he remembered how important her independence was to her.
Ever since she’d left Sicily she’d been conscious of providing for her mother and brother, and then, taking on the bigger responsibility of getting them out of harm’s way.
She was proud of how she’d been able to do all of that off the back of her earnings.
A mere trifle compared to Leo’s fortune, but no less significant for that.
After losing her father, and with her leaving Sicily, she’d always felt as if she’d abandoned them so to be able to do something for them had been amazing.
And that had been her whole focus, until Leo had come along and sent her world into a spin.
And now he was sending it into a spin all over again.
Terrified he’d notice the chink in her armour, Angelica stood up and grabbed a pastry, along with her coffee. ‘I have to get ready, I’ll see you later.’
Just before she got to the door, Leo said from behind her, ‘I’ll arrange for a team to be here to help you get ready for the event.’
‘OK, fine.’ And she slipped out of the room and made sure she used the guest suite this time. Although, it didn’t help that she noticed the crumpled bed sheets and felt an almost overwhelming urge to press her face into the pillow to smell his scent.
That evening Leo waited in the living area. He was dressed in his tuxedo. The glam team had left shortly before. He hated to admit it but he felt an illicit frisson at the thought of what Angelica might wear for this evening.
When she did appear, he almost felt a spurt of disappointment. She was covered from neck to toe. A black dress, very elegant and classic. Her hair was slicked back and left loose down her back. Discreet diamond jewellery. Positively demure.
‘I’m ready.’
Leo looked at her face. That cool impenetrable mask she’d been wearing since the previous night was still in place. It made him want to go over and take her face in his hands and kiss her, or do something to bring back the spark. No.
‘OK, let’s go.’
It was only when they were walking through the lobby to his car outside and Leo noticed heads swivelling in their direction that he looked down and noticed that Angelica’s dress had a slit on one side, giving an eyeful of one long, sleek, toned leg as she walked.
Almost all the way up to her underwear. And that the dress was made of some kind of semi-sheer clinging material.
Not so demure after all. The ever-kindling spark inside him burst into flame. It was going to be a long evening.
Angelica’s face was sore from fake smiling as people came up to greet her and Leo. She’d been aware of his tension in the crowd and hated that she was. Hated that she cared. But he didn’t seem to be exhibiting the same signs of stress as before.
No one mentioned Aldo. It was as if he’d never existed.
He hadn’t ever really been welcome among Rome’s high society in any case.
He’d used Angelica in a bid to make himself seem less…
connected to a dubious past. Something Leo had never had to worry about.
He’d never hid where he came from but he’d also taken great pains to distance himself from any association with Sicily’s darker side.
Aldo hadn’t. Maybe if Leo had taken more notice of that he might not have trusted Aldo so much.
Angelica had never much taken to him, while she’d been with Leo.
She’d never liked the way his eyes moved over her, as if she were a piece of meat.
And he would invade her space, as if to provoke a reaction.
But she’d always stood her ground with him, staring him down until he was the one to break.
And when they’d married, she’d discovered that that had all been bluster. When it came to it, the man had been a coward.
But, she didn’t want to think about him now because she had something potentially very exciting happening, which could lead to her arranging a secret meeting with her family.
A job in Madrid, where they lived, on the outskirts of the city.
Surely she could arrange a trip on her own without causing Leo to suspect anything?
When the next person came up to talk to Leo, Angelica smiled for real this time, at the thought that within the next twenty-four hours she might see and hug her mother and brother.
Even if it was just a short meeting, it would sustain her, because clearly, even though she’d proven that she wanted nothing of Leo’s business or fortune, he was determined to have his pound of flesh. His three months of revenge.
‘That’s better.’
Angelica looked up as Leo’s arm snaked around her waist, pulling her into him and emptying her mind of anything rational. Damn him. Her smile faded.
‘No, don’t go back into robot mode. You were looking human again for a second.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Leo sighed audibly and took her hand, expertly moving them to the side of the vast ballroom.
He stopped and stood in front of her. She couldn’t help but notice that he made sure he was still facing the crowd, that no one was at his back.
Angelica pulled her hand away. It felt too nice.
Too disturbing. This man had humilated her in the worst way and she’d never forgive him for that.
‘Angel…’
She looked up at him, ‘Don’t call me that.’
He scowled, but then said, ‘Angelica. I want to say something about last night—’
She went to turn to walk back into the crowd. ‘Well, I don’t.’
He caught her arm, stopping her. ‘Please.’
She eventually turned back to face him, focusing on his bow tie.
‘Look, last night… I didn’t intend to do that, to stop. I wanted you, I want you. We both know it’d be a lie to deny that.’
Angelica swallowed and did her best to ignore the ominous prickling at the back of her eyes. ‘You don’t have to say anything.’
‘I do. You know I’m not like that. I wouldn’t lead someone on only to reject them, out of some sense of spite or cruelty.’
She lifted her eyes to his, feeling very vulnerable. ‘So, why?’
He sighed again. ‘Because I felt exposed.’
‘I was exposed too.’
He nodded. ‘I know. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.’
Angelica hadn’t expected that. It broke something apart inside her. Another piece of the wall she’d built to survive.
He said now, ‘I don’t trust you…not after everything that happened. But I still want you.’