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Vito looked at her, picking up small details that were different from the day before. She didn’t look so washed-out and, with her hair brushed down in that shimmering veil halfway down her back, she was starting to look more like the beautiful young woman he’d shared his life with over the winter. But she was still wearing the ill-fitting suit from the day before.
‘I know this outfit isn’t perfect,’ Lily said, as if she’d read his mind. Or maybe, he thought, she’d simply read his expression. Although her shocking act of betrayal had made her a stranger to him, he mustn’t forget that they’d lived together for five months. Undoubtedly she’d got to know him quite well in that time. ‘But I don’t have anything else suitable,’ she added.
‘A dress would be better.’ Vito turned to open the huge fitted-wardrobe on her side of the room. ‘Preferably something with a bit of colour—to brighten my grandfather’s morning.’
‘But…’ Lily stared into the wardrobe in obvious surprise. ‘All my clothes.’
‘You didn’t take them with you.’
Vito selected a soft peach-coloured silk dress he had bought for her in Milan. Lily was always drawn towards natural, pale colours—her favourites were cream and ivory—and, despite the fact he knew they suited her, he’d always had the urge to liven up her choices. ‘I had to assume none of the items I bought for you were to your taste after all,’ he added.
‘I didn’t pay for any of them,’ Lily said. ‘They were all so expensive—I didn’t think they were mine to take.’
‘Of course they were.’ Vito suddenly felt annoyed. He’d enjoyed buying things for her, and when he’d seen she’d left them behind it had been a brutal reminder of how she’d duped him—like a spiteful smack on the cheek, on top of her shameless infidelity. ‘What did you think I was going to do with them?’
‘I don’t know,’ Lily said, smoothing her hand over her hair in a gesture that revealed how unsettled she felt. ‘Maybe sell them. Or give them away. I never expected to find them still in the wardrobe.’
Vito turned and looked at her, deliberately keeping his expression bland as he laid the peach dress out on the bed. He wouldn’t let himself think too closely about why he’d never got rid of all the things she’d left in his room.
Over the years he had invited very few women to share his home. And, once he had decided it was over, it was over—completely. For the most part they had taken everything with them, especially anything of value, like designer clothes and jewellery. Then any remaining items had been disposed of quickly, eradicating any evidence that anyone had ever been in his home.
But when his housekeeper had enquired about Lily’s belongings, he had barked at her to leave them. After that the poor woman hadn’t mentioned them again—and had left them well alone. Out of sight in wardrobes and cupboards. But not entirely out of mind.
‘You left the clothes and the jewellery,’ he said. ‘But you were quick enough to take every last piece of the lingerie I bought for you.’
‘The clothes, the jewellery—they cost so much,’ Lily said. A pretty flush had risen to her heart-shaped face, making the blood flow faster around Vito’s body.
‘The lingerie was expensive too.’ He took a step closer to her, getting a kick of satisfaction as she refused to back away, even though he had clearly invaded her personal space. ‘You knew that.’
‘What would you want with my lingerie?’ A spark in her hazel eyes and a defiant lift to her chin challenged him. ‘Even you wouldn’t sell second-hand underclothes.’
‘I didn’t want to sell them,’ Vito said, deliberately letting his voice drop to a seductive purr. ‘I wanted them for myself. You were gone, the nights were long…’
Lily gasped, suddenly speechless as she stared at his handsome face. ‘Don’t be so…so…’
‘Don’t looked shocked. It’s a natural desire. You know how good we were together…physically,’ Vito said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with wanting something to remember you by.’
‘Stop it,’ Lily said, hearing an edge of panic in her tone. But Vito’s voice was rumbling through her, making her remember what it had been like to make love with him.
‘I wanted to hold the flimsy little things in my hand as I thought about the good times we’d spent together,’ he drawled, with blatant come-to-bed eyes locked onto hers from under sultry, half-closed lids. ‘I longed to smooth the silky fabric against my skin—thinking about the feel of your skin against mine.’
‘Stop it.’ Lily’s cheeks were starting to burn. ‘You could have gone out and bought some more lingerie if you were so desperate.’
‘It wouldn’t have been the same,’ Vito replied, with a meaningful smile on his full, sensual lips. ‘It was knowing that the silk had been next to your body, pressing close to your most intimate places…’
Lily bit her lip, trying to think of a suitably cutting remark to put a stop to this line of discussion. She wasn’t used to Vito talking like this, but although it was unsettling there was also something strangely exciting about it.
A wave of warmth was washing through her body, putting her senses onto full alert in a way that hadn’t happened since she’d left Venice, until yesterday in Vito’s empty penthouse.
‘Are you wearing something I bought you now?’ Vito’s eyes were running over her, as if with his X-ray vision he could see through her linen suit to discover what underwear she had chosen. ‘Or have you discarded it all—along with the sanctity of our relationship?’
‘It’s none of your business what I’m wearing under my suit,’ Lily said, appalled by how her breath was catching in her throat.
‘It used to be my business.’ Vito dropped to his knees beside her and placed his large, warm hands on her hips. He tugged her gently towards him so that his cheek was resting on her stomach. ‘You used to like me to come home from work, take you in my arms and hold you close. You loved it when I ran my hands up your legs, slipped them under your skirt, and traced my fingers over the silk and lace that covered the most sensitive part of your body.’
‘That’s over now.’ Lily struggled to keep her voice level as Vito’s words set off an alarming chain-reaction of sensation t
hrough her. It was true that she had loved the touch of his hands on her body, had revelled in the way that he made her feel. ‘That was before you treated me so horribly.’
