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‘You’ve got it all wrong, Charlie.’
‘Charlotte,’ she snapped and looked up at him, confused by the anger and the raw betrayal which filled her. ‘And I haven’t got it wrong at all.’
‘It isn’t what you think.’ He moved to stand in front of her, obscuring her view of the car, her link to her brother.
She stood up and moved past him, towards the car, anything other than stay beneath his intense gaze. ‘So you deny you brought me here under the pretence it was what Seb wanted, seduced me so that you could get the ultimate photograph for the press and then keep the truth of Seb’s problems from me.’
‘I never meant to hurt you, Charlie.’
‘Charlotte!’ She whirled round and stood to face him, catching her breath at the hard look in his eyes. Where had the loving man she’d spent the weekend with gone—or was that also part of his game plan?
‘I can see you aren’t prepared to listen to anything I have to say.’ He sat down in the chair she’d just vacated but couldn’t disguise the tension and irritation in his body.
‘Too right I’m not. Everything else you’ve said has been lies.’ Memories of the last time they’d made love, the tender words of Italian he’d whispered to her, slipped into her mind and she realised they too must have been lies.
She turned from him and closed her eyes against the pain. She’d opened her heart to him, given herself and her love, only to find he’d used her as a scapegoat. Behind her, his silence confirmed everything she thought and, despite the pain, she had to hear it all. Maybe then she’d stop loving him.
Purposefully, she returned to the table, pulled out another chair and sat down. She was going to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she did. Part of her didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to accept that her brother had become embroiled in such a world. But she had to know—everything.
‘I saw the report, Sandro.’ He didn’t say anything but his firm gaze held hers.
‘Giovanni told me, or rather confirmed, about the drink...’ her breath hitched in her throat and she could hardly form the words as she sat at the table with him ‘...and drugs. Why didn’t you?’
He leant forward in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together. His expression was one of concern as he looked up at her and his eyes met hers. ‘It was what your father wanted.’
She shook her head. ‘Don’t use my father. He would never keep such a thing from me.’ Even as she said the words she recalled the brief call she’d made to him at the airport. The silence as she’d challenged him. He hadn’t admitted anything, but his silence had been deafening.
‘Have you spoken to him?’
‘At the airport, yes.’ She looked into his eyes and the fight began to slip from her, receding like the tide going out. ‘I don’t understand why he’d do that.’
‘He didn’t want you to know. He wanted to keep your memories of Seb untainted.’ The gentleness of his voice was almost too much and she shook her head rapidly, wanting to deny everything she was hearing. Her father might have wanted to protect her, but what about Sandro? What were his motives?
‘And what about you? Why did you lie to me?’ Fierceness exploded from deep within her, a need to shield herself from the fallout of his deceit.
‘What do you think would have happened if the press had found out?’ His firm question almost knocked the breath from her as she realised the implications of what he said. Shock sank in, washing away the strength she’d just found, and he reached out and took her hand.
Her gaze darted to his tanned hand covering hers, the dusting of dark hair which disappeared under the cuff of his shirt. She could feel the heat from his touch infusing her, awakening all she wished to suppress.
She pulled her hand from under his at the same time as jumping up from her chair, making it scrape noisily on the marble floor. ‘What would the press do?’ She gulped the words out, hardly daring to form an answer to that question.
‘What would they do with a story like that, Charlie?’ He sat back in his chair, all cool, calm sophistication, but the glittering hardness of his eyes told her he knew exactly what they would do.
‘That’s easy,’ she retaliated harshly. ‘They’d ruin your reputation.’
He stood up, his body full of restraint and composure, but ice had filled his eyes, chilling her to the core. ‘Whatever you may think, Charlotte, I have done nothing wrong.’
