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Had she laughed with Stephen? Had he been the recipient of that throaty huskiness?
When had he, Nico, last heard that laugh?
He forced his mind back to the subject at hand. He had no intention of Rosa ever discovering how his veins burned with fury whenever he thought of them together.
‘Give me this week. If at the end of it you still want to leave then I will not try to stop you. All I ask is that you keep an open mind. We can be good together. All you need to do is give us a chance to find out how good.’
He didn’t realise he was holding his breath until, after long, interminable seconds, she finally inclined her head.
‘It’s obvious I’m stuck here, whether I like it or not. I’m not going to lie and pretend I’m thrilled at the way you have manipulated me. But I do get where you’re coming from.’ She turned her head and fixed her beautiful yet still wary eyes on him. ‘I’m not going to make any promises other than I will try to keep an open mind about us.’
‘I can’t ask for any more than that.’ He raised a hand and trailed the back of a finger down her cheek. She really had the most marvellous skin. ‘Why don’t you get changed into something with more of a holiday feel and I’ll get us some drinks? We can sit out here, laze by the pool...the choice is yours.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘The choice of what?’
‘The choice to do what people on holiday do.’
‘But I’ve never been on holiday before.’
‘Seriously?’
A part of him thought she must be joking, while another part pointed out that neither of them had taken a break in the fifteen months they had known each other. They hadn’t even bothered pretending to take a honeymoon. She had taken her holiday entitlement from her new job to accompany him as his assistant now, not expecting to be given the opportunity to let her hair down.
When, he wondered, did his wife ever let her hair down?
Had she let her hair down with Stephen?
‘You can hardly talk,’ she pointed out. ‘When did you last take a holiday?’
That made him think. ‘It must have been around eighteen months ago.’ Before Rosa had come to work for him. ‘But as a rule I like to take a week off every six months to recharge my batteries. In future it’s something we can do together.’
Nico never holidayed with women. His relationships, if they could be called that, never lasted long enough. Once, he and Galina had discussed travelling together, or rather Galina had angled for it...
He swallowed and scratched the thought away. Travelling with Galina would have been a nightmare. She would have suffocated him.
He preferred going away with Serge and the rest of his old buddies from university, whether it was mountain climbing or trekking through the Amazon. Rosa was the only woman he would ever consider holidaying with. He doubted she could ever irritate him. She would certainly never try to suffocate him.
She gave a non-committal shrug. ‘We’ll see. I don’t think I’m a holiday-type person.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Holidays are things other people have. Not people like me.’
There was something in her voice, an almost confused ring, that pulled at him. It occurred to him that apart from reading the occasional book or watching the occasional film she rarely relaxed in the traditional sense.
Why had he never noticed that before?
‘Everyone deserves a holiday,’ he told her. ‘Now, go and get changed and I’ll meet you back out here shortly.’
* * *
Who had Nico shared his last holiday with? Rosa wondered, stepping into the dressing room and rifling through the items in there, all of which were marked with the name of a boutique from the King resort. She marvelled that they were the correct size, until she considered that someone—namely Nico—must have gone through her wardrobe. When had he done that? Back in London? At the villa? He had gone to huge trouble to make this happen, especially as the contract negotiations with Robert King were at such a delicate point.
She could not shake the feeling that she was being manipulated. Scratch that. Of course she was being manipulated—and blatantly so. He was not trying to hide it or make any excuses for it. Nico wanted their marriage to continue and was using all the means at his disposal to make it happen.
Was it possible his motives were sincere?
Was it truly possible he liked her enough as a person and desired her enough as a woman to fight to keep her in his life?
She could not wrap her head around it. Other than Stephen, people had generally fought to keep her out of their lives, not in it.
Deep in her belly was the sense that something was amiss. Try as she might to think of what it might be, she could not.
