“Excuse us,” Luca said. “There are so many people here tonight anxious to meet Allegra. We should do the rounds.”
“We’ll have a dance later, Allegra. I’d like to get to know you better.”
“Over my dead body,” Luca mutteredsotto voceas he guided Ally through the crowd. Her eyes shifted to his quickly.
“You weren’t exaggerating about him,” she murmured. Luca had described his younger brother as someone who existed to wreak havoc in Luca’s life; she could see that for herself now. “He seems to hate you.”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“I told you about my parents.”
“But that’s notyourfault.”
“He was raised to believe it was. To believe that I was the embodiment of everything that went wrong for him, and his mother.”
She made a sound of indignation. “That’s outrageous.”
“His mother was a social climber. All she cared about was the prestige of her marriage to a Di Santis. The affair with my mother was mortifying for her.”
“Understandably, but that’s still not your fault.”
He grunted his agreement and then paused to introduce her to an elderly Italian couple, who turned out to be friends of Valentino’s. And so the evening went on, a crush of meeting people, including his cousin Dante who was far friendlier—at least on the surface—than Paolo. And yet none of his family, and few of his friends, really filled her with warmth. She was left with the impression, at the end of the night, that despite all this, Luca was a loner.
Perhaps the connection with his grandfather was the closest thing to ‘real’ she’d seen him enjoy, and even that had been marked by challenge and mistrust.
By the end of the evening, Ally was left to wonder why on earth Valentino had gone to so much trouble? With Luca in a long discussion with someone from the company, Ally made the most of the chance to slip away. “I’m just going to look at the stars,” she explained, when he held her hand tightly. “I won’t be long.”
He hesitated, scanning her face, as if silently imploring her to stay. Acting as though he wanted her with him, more than anything. He really was a skilled performer; she could almost have believed he felt something for her. After a beat though, he nodded towards a clearing across the garden. “There is a terrace that way. It’s private. I’ll meet you there soon.” And then, to emphasise their relationship in front of anyone who might be watching, he leaned down and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. The kind of kiss that—innocent though it might have been—had the power to explode her whole body.
She turned and almost stumbled as she left the party far behind.
When she heardthe noise behind her, she expected it would be Luca, and so she turned, smiling, looking forward to seeing a friendly face. Only it was Paolo who had come to her, Paolo whose face greeted her, eyes hard and assessing, body somehow bigger seeming when it was just the two of them.
“Are you enjoying yourself?”
She turned her back on him, trying to quell the strange sense of panic rising inside of her. It had been over a week since the loan sharks had threatened her. She was safe now, safe with Luca. Only, something about Paolo made her feelunsafe.Exposed and vulnerable.
“It’s a party.”
“Different to the kinds of parties you’re used to, I would imagine.”
It was the second comment he’d made about her being from a different world. Well, so what? Why would she deny it?
“I’m not really much of a party girl.”
“No, you’re not.”
The silence crackled between them.
“Is that a problem?” Ally asked, eventually.
“You’ll find my brother loses interest pretty fast.”
She swallowed past the bitterness in her throat. “That really isn’t any of your business.”
“But it is, and I think you know that. He’s using you to get our grandfather to do his bidding. He’s using you, Allegra. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”
