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Later, when Alicia emerged into the bedroom after having a bath, the room was empty. Wrapping the towel tight around herself, she walked to the glass doors and found Dante sitting on the balcony, a glass of wine in his hand. He looked so cold and remote that she felt scared.
Did he think she’d made it all up? She couldn’t bear for him to think that. She came out hesitantly. ‘Dante …’
His head came up and his look sliced through her, telling her exactly what he thought of her. This was the lowest point she’d hit. She knew that.
‘Go to bed, Alicia. I’m not in the mood for any more lies and revelations.’
Mute and stung and heartsore, Alicia turned around and went back inside. She curled up into a tight ball and only fell asleep when she heard Dante come in a long time later. He got in beside her but made no move to pull her close or make love to her.
Feigning sleep the following morning, Alicia only got up when she was sure Dante had gone. She got dressed and paced the room. She hated this—not only was her own private humiliation now public knowledge but it was putting Dante in a very awkward position.
She would have to go. Leave. That was it, there was no other recourse. She couldn’t stay and give that vindictive cow, Serena Gore-Black, a reason to undermine Dante and Derek. She couldn’t feel angry; even she could see how her story might look. Derek and Patricia were lovely people who had had no reason to mistrust her on sight, as Dante had, so of course they would give her the benefit of the doubt. And she loved them for that.
Ignoring the ache in her heart—in every limb—she packed her bag and then thought, what was the point? She didn’t even own these clothes anyway. She dressed in the shabbiest clothes she could find, which, of course, were a pair of exquisite linen trousers and a beautiful white shirt. She dug out her phone and her credit card. She should have enough to get her home, with any luck.
She sat down and wrote a note to Dante, telling him that she was sorry she’d caused his own reputation to come into disrepute when he’d needed to be so careful about appearances. She wished him luck with the rest of the meetings, saying that she hoped that there wouldn’t be any adverse effects. She didn’t have any doubt that he’d be only too happy to see the back of her, after seeing the way he’d looked at her last night, when he believed she’d lied … she shivered.
Alicia used the last of her cash getting to the airport. She’d managed to evade the ever present paparazzi outside the hotel by getting a lift with one of the hotel workers from the back entrance to the main road in town. When she finally got to the ticket desk to ask for a one way fare to the UK, she could have wept with relief when the card was accepted. It was surely maxed to the hilt by now.
She made her way, following a long queue to the security desks and boarding gates. She caught a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye and looked around. Her mouth dropped open when she saw Serena and her husband Jeremy with a mountain of luggage and about three people helping them. Her husband looked very red in the face and Serena was sulky, and then she looked over and saw Alicia.
Alicia had to blink. Surely she was seeing things? But no, Serena was stalking over in her high heels, venom in her blue eyes, spittle coming out of her mouth as she shrieked at Alicia, ‘Are you happy now? Now that everyone knows that I was duped as well?’ She flung a hand back to her embarrassed looking husband. ‘I’ve been sent packing like a naughty child—’
And like something from a cartoon, suddenly Serena was gone, moved bodily out of the way, and Dante stood in front of her. She looked up and up. The queue was now snaking around Alicia, people looking at her and the little drama avidly.
He arched a brow. ?
?Going somewhere?’
‘Home,’ she said faintly. Someone jostled her and Dante took her arm and, picking up her bag, he walked her away from the line of people. She stopped in her tracks. ‘Hang on a second. What are you doing here? Didn’t you get my note?’
‘I got your note and threw it out.’
‘But why? I’m going home.’ She crossed her arms and looked at him mutinously. ‘I’m not going back there to be the cause of your embarrassment.’
‘Don’t you get it?’ he asked, as if talking to a small child.
She shook her head.
‘Serena is going home.’
‘But that’s just going to make things worse,’ she wailed, her arms going down by her sides. ‘What’s to stop her going to the press at home?’
Dante shook his head, the light in his eyes making her breath stop. ‘She won’t be doing anything of the sort. Her husband is so mortified that he’s threatened to cut her off and divorce her if she so much as breathes a further word of this. Derek went to them this morning. Of course her husband knew the full real story; she would have had to defend herself to him in case he ever found out about it. It didn’t take much to get her to make a confession that she had maliciously twisted the truth to make you look bad. She deliberately caused the rumour but luckily it hasn’t reached Buchanen’s ears.’
Alicia’s mouth dropped open again, her eyes wide. ‘But how on earth …?’
Dante shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter now. I owe you an apology. I’m sorry for doubting you, Alicia.’
She just looked at him. The way he was looking at her now was making her blood melt and flow like molten liquid.
He held out a hand. ‘So please, will you come back with me?’
Alicia looked at his hand and then back at the queue snaking behind her. She knew if she’d ever had a chance of leaving, this was it. She looked at him briefly. ‘I know I agreed to come and be … with you for the conference … but …’ Her mind seized up, the awful reality was that she couldn’t even contemplate walking away.
Dante could see the struggle on her face, in her eyes. If she turned and walked away now. But at that moment he felt her small hand creep into his palm and he closed his tight around it, relief shocking him as it surged through him. Before she could change her mind, he pulled her outside and into the car.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
