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But that sense of displacement never quite left her—and it was reinforced on their last day, when he tried to buy her a beautiful black suede coat which he’d seen in the window of Valentino and persuaded her to try on.
She shook her head. ‘Thank you—but no.’
‘But I want you to have it, bella,’ he said, in a voice of silky determination.
‘No, Giancarlo,’ said Cassie firmly, even though she could barely recognise the sleek, chic woman who stared back at her from the mirror.
‘Why not?’
‘Because…because it’s so expensive.’
‘Well, why not? You’re worth it…’
‘No!’ she said fiercely, her cheeks growing pink. ‘Please don’t say that. It makes me feel like some kind of…of…commodity.’
There was a pause. ‘If you’re trying to make me feel bad, then let me warn you now that you won’t succeed,’ he drawled, but Cassie couldn’t mistake the irritation which underpinned his words.
In the brightly lit shop their eyes clashed and one word leapt to the forefront of Cassie’s mind, while nearby the sales assistant pretended not to notice.
‘Warn me?’
‘Just don’t bother trying to lay a guilt trip on me, bella. It’s coming to the end of our time together and I wanted to buy you a warm coat, that’s all. I’ve noticed you don’t have one—and there’s a long, cold winter ahead.’
Cassie stared at him, feeling sick. He was making her sound like some urchin from a Victorian melodrama—standing in a threadbare coat selling matches while snowflakes swirled down around her!
‘You know what you can do with your damned coat,’ she flared as she pulled it off and thrust it at him. And, turning round, she walked out of the shop without looking back.
He caught up with her outside and his face was dark with fury as he caught hold of her, his fingers biting into the thin material of her coat, which now seemed to mock her. ‘Don’t ever do that again,’ he snapped.
‘What, refuse to be bought off?’
‘I’m talking about making a scene in public. Do you think I don’t care about my reputation—even if you have no regard for your own?’
Her body beginning to tremble, Cassie stared at him. And as his critical words registered the scales began to fall from her eyes. How could she have been so stupid? Just because she had allowed herself to be completely captivated by his magnetism and charm, she had credited him as having all kinds of attributes which didn’t exist outside her wistful imagination.
Because to Giancarlo she was a commodity. She was his mistress and he paid the bills. He brought her to Paris and in return she provided sex on tap. It was temporary and it meant nothing. Nothing.
He had spoken of reputation, but he had missed the point somewhere along the way. Because with one stroke he had managed to both save and ruin her reputation. Yes, he had ensured she didn’t have to return to Cornwall after being sacked for suspected theft—but he had persuaded her to enter into a liaison which made a mockery of all the things she believed in. Her idealistic dreams of love and fidelity had been smashed.
She had learnt that if a woman provided good sex to a rich man she was rewarded with clothes costing tens of thousands of pounds. That had been the price she’d been paid for the loss of her innocence—and maybe the cost was too high. An adventure in London had become nothing but a sordid affair—and the sooner she left it all behind, the better.
But afterwards she half wished that she had just gone ahead and let him buy her the coat because it ruined the rest of the trip—and, in a way, it ruined their goodbye.
Countless times she had played out in her head what he might say. What she might say to him when the moment of departure came. Prior to the ugly scene in the Parisian shop, she had allowed herself to pretend that he might just tip her chin and look deep into her eyes and ask her if she would consider staying until spring…
But none of that happened. The train journey back from France was mainly silent and this time they drank no champagne. Cassie felt flat and empty as his car drove them back from the station and Giancarlo disappeared to his office the moment they arrived home.
Home.
Had she taken complete leave of her senses? This felt nothing like home. It was just a tall, city mansion inhabited by a man who saw what he wanted and ruthlessly went out and took it. Maybe it was because the woman he had loved had dumped him for his twin brother but—whatever the reason—he would never change. Why should he?
She booked her ticket back to Cornwall without telling him and when he arrived back from work she told him that she was catching the train first thing in the morning.
