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The initial weird flutter of misplaced relief when she’d seen him was swiftly replaced by a much more sane dismay. She had lost her earring!
‘What are you doing here?’
His hooded eyes moved in a slow sweep up her body, from her feet to her face.
‘Have you lost something?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you going to tell me what?’
‘Just being a bit of a drama queen is all,’ she said, not quite meeting his eyes.
‘You are many things but not a drama queen.’
He watched as she blinked to clear the tears that pooled in her emerald eyes, biting down hard on her quivering lip.
‘I lost it,’ she croaked out.
Her distress touched him in a part of his heart he’d thought was dead. He walked across and placed his hands on her shoulders, aware of the warm smoothness of her skin as she continued to shiver violently as he pulled her into his body.
‘Calm down...look at me!’ he said, cupping a hand under her chin and gently turning her tear-stained, tragic face up to his. Something tightened in his chest as he studied the purity of her features. ‘Good...now, lost what?’
He could see the muscles in her throat work overtime to contain a sob that was fighting to escape. ‘My earring.’
‘Your mother’s earring,’ he realised, pulling her in tight against him.
‘Yeah—stupid, I know.’ She gulped. ‘Not like it’s worth a million dollars.’
‘It’s worth more to you.’ His hands slid down her arms and, as he pushed her away from him and looked down into her face, he felt something kick hard in his chest.
He had never embarked on any project without weighing all possible outcomes, but he really hadn’t seen this one coming, recognising the swell of protective tenderness for what it was. So much for hisperfectsolution—‘no down side’ he’d told himself, beyond the fact that he’d be losing the best PA he’d ever had.
There were other PAs, he’d told himself.
There was no other Tilda.
A fresh wave of heat seared through his already aroused body as his eyes slid over her slim figure, the black Lycra concealing enough to excite the imagination and revealing enough to entice the senses. The stark black was the perfect foil to her pale gold-tinged skin, and the swimsuit itself cut high on the thigh emphasised the slim length of her slender legs. It clung to her narrow ribcage and narrow waist, showed off the delicate, carved perfection of her collar bones and displayed her tight, high, perfect small breasts.
She’d hidden all that, but it wasn’t just her physicality she had been concealing. His PA had always had a mind and an opinion of her own but she no longer felt the need to be subtle.
‘It’s just, I don’t have much left that was Mum’s. She didn’t have much jewellery, but the rest... While we were at the funeral someone broke into the house and took it.’
She lifted her head as Ezio released a string of curses. He looked pretty awesome mad, and he was mad at that moment.
‘I know,’ she said when he paused for breath. ‘Utter callous bastards... Apparently they had quite a thing going—they read the funeral notices and knew when the house would be empty.’
‘They were caught?’ Ezio asked grimly.
She nodded. ‘Yes, but not much was recovered, which is why...’ She twirled the remaining earring, a gold stud with a small baroque pearl-drop. ‘Ah, well, it is what it is...’ She attempted a chuckle, fell short and produced something approaching a strangled croak. ‘I must have looked crazy, crawling around like that! My own fault for wearing them, really. I should have kept them safe, but Mum always said, what was the point saving things for “best”?’
As she sketched inverted commas in the air, she realised that the concept probably meant nothing to him. Pretty things, like pretty women, were all disposable to him. What did he hold precious? she wondered.
‘You mother sounds like she had a healthy outlook on life.’
A slow, reflective smile lit up her face. Lost in the memories, she didn’t notice his sharp intake of breath.
‘She did. Mum was always a “glass half-full” person, and she’d have said it is just a thing...things don’t make you happy.’ Her slender shoulders lifted in a shrug. ‘It’s gone,’ she said, sounding a lot more philosophical than she felt. ‘I could have lost it absolutely anywhere...probably when I was swimming.’
