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She’d seen him angry. When he’d been upset with her he’d been wild and stormy. But this was far worse. This anger was coldly controlled. His clipped, staccato voice as lethal and hostile as machine gun fire. What could have happened to make him that furious?
But the answer to that was obvious, she thought, and her own anger was cold and hard, like a small, sharp stone. For even without being able to hear what was being said, it didn’t take a genius to work out that he was talking to a woman. Probably that Allegra girl he’d been so disparaging about in the café yesterday.
Her heart felt slow and heavy inside her chest. Was it only yesterday she’d sat in that café and listened to his lies? She felt a flicker of irritation. How could she have been so stupid? So gullible? All that talk of not wanting to share her when all the time he was fully intending to keep on sharing himself! But just because she might have been stupid enough to believe his lies once, it didn’t mean she had to let him treat her like a fool now.
She let out a shaky breath. She felt cold and shivery, and if she’d been the crying type it would have been a good time to cry, but instead she stood up and padded across the room. Picking up her clothes, she dragged them over her limbs, barely registering whether they were inside out or upside down. She had just slipped her feet into her shoes when the door opened and Massimo walked in.
He stared at her blankly, almost as though he didn’t recognise her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Leaving,’ she said coldly.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Because I took a phone call?’ He stared at her incredulously. ‘Isn’t that a little extreme?’
She took a quick breath. He was so manipulative! Twisting the facts and implying that she was overreacting when he’d just got off the phone from his girlfriend!
She glowered at him, so hurt and angry that she could hardly speak. ‘I’ll tell you what’s extreme. Your selfishness. Just because you’re rich and powerful and I’m not, it doesn’t mean you can just use me—’
Massimo interrupted her sharply. ‘How have I used you? We have an agreement—’
‘Had!’ she snapped back at him. ‘I told you I was happy to have sex with you if there was no one else involved.’
The confusion on his face was so genuine, so convincing, that she wanted badly to believe him and some of her anger faded. She frowned. ‘I heard you. You were arguing with someone—’ Her anger flared again. ‘And don’t try and tell me it was work. I’m not an idiot.’
There was a long, strained silence, and then Massimo said quietly, ‘No, you’re not. But it’s not what you think it is.’
Biting her lip, she looked away, her eyes drawn to a beautiful flame-coloured sunset outside the window. He was telling the truth. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted—no, needed some kind of explanation.
‘So who was it, then?’
His expression shifted. He met her gaze but didn’t say anything. Finally, he shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
Her heart began to pound. ‘How can you say that? Of course it matters. You were upset—’
‘It’s not your problem.’
Feeling numb inside, Flora forced herself to focus on the sunset. It was so beautiful, so sim
ple. Just as today had been. Until now.
At what point had she become so stupid? She’d thought she was being so smart, so ‘modern’. But seriously, how could she ever have thought this would work? Of course it had been easy in theory, agreeing just to have sex. But the reality was far more complicated and growing ever more so because the truth was she no longer just wanted him, she cared about him too.
Glancing at Massimo’s still, set face, she swallowed what felt like a hard little lump in her throat. She cared that he was hurting. Even now, when he’d made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want or need her help, she still cared.
Because she liked him.
She liked him a lot, she thought miserably.
She might only have intended to share her body with him, but now she was in danger of sharing her heart. The lump in her throat swelled. Except that he didn’t want her heart. And, judging by the closed expression on his face, he certainly didn’t want to share his feelings.
Watching her swallow, Massimo gritted his teeth. He knew he was hurting her. But he didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t tell her truth. Let her stay as she was: soft and light, shimmering with promise like the dawn of a spring morning. There was no need to blight her life by revealing how cruel the world really was.
But even though he couldn’t tell her the truth about the past, he could tell her how he was feeling now.
‘I didn’t mean to upset you, cara. Truly, it’s the last thing I want to do...’ He hesitated and stepped towards her. ‘If I could tell you I would. But I can’t. Please don’t hate me for that.’
She looked up at him, her gaze searching his face, and he felt his heart contract with shock—for there was no hatred in her eyes, just something that unbelievably looked like concern.
‘I don’t hate you,’ she said quietly. ‘I just don’t understand you. And that seems like a reason to leave to me.’
