advantage of.
Wasn’t that what he was doing?
He shook off the moment of uncharacteristic doubt. He was not using emotional manipulation. This was a business deal, not a conventional one, admittedly, but he wasn’t appealing to her soft heart, just her pragmatism.
‘So am I.’ He leaned back in his seat, his chest lifting as he exhaled and admitted, ‘I’ve not really got used to the idea yet.’
‘Has he been ill long?’ she asked quietly. She’d been a child when she’d lost her father but that had been sudden. Was it worse, she wondered, to know it was coming?
At least then you got the chance to say goodbye— something she’d always wished she’d been able to do.
‘He’s never been ill—at least, if he was I don’t remember it.’ His voice drifted away as he sat there seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
‘Are you very close?’
He seemed to consider the question. ‘He was more of a father to us than our father ever was.’
‘So you have brothers and sisters...?’ Maybe it was the lone-wolf thing he had going on that had made her assume he was an only child or even that he had emerged fully grown with designer stubble and a macho ego!
‘I had a brother, Jamie.’
‘Sorry,’ she said again. His body language made it obvious that he wasn’t comfortable with discussing personal matters, which begged the question, why was he? Raoul did not strike her as the sort of person who did anything without a reason.
‘I’m not telling you this because I’m canvassing the sympathy vote. The fact that I’m the last Di Vittorio standing is relevant.’ Perhaps he ought to tell her that people around him had a tendency to drop like flies, but on balance he decided this might not be a vote winner.
He paused and appeared lost in thought again as Lara, curious despite her determination not to be, sat there willing him to continue.
‘Family matters to my grandfather. He feels strongly about continuity, about living on in his children, passing on his genetic blueprint through the generations, a form of immortality, I suppose. When I was married he assumed that I would provide the next generation.’
‘You’re divorced?’
‘My wife died. There were no children.’
His voice was a little dead as he gave her the information, just the bald facts that probably hid a world of pain.
‘What is this about?’
‘My grandfather’s dying wish.’
‘Which is...?’ she prompted.
‘To have his name live on in my child.’
It took her a few moments to digest his words. He couldn’t be...no...she couldn’t even think it, surely he couldn’t, wouldn’t? Outrage mingled with disbelief as she shook her head. Her chair scraped the floor noisily as she made an attempt to rise but her knees would not support her.
‘Which is where you come in.’
A gurgling sound left her throat. He could not be suggesting... ‘Me!’ She started to shake her head and, hands on the table edge, she pushed her chair back farther as if to physically distance herself from this insanity. ‘You are insane,’ she told him with utter conviction. ‘And this conversation is over. I’m not going to be a baby incubator for you!’
‘I wouldn’t bring a child into the world just to please my grandfather.’ When he had been considering his options that had never even figured.
She remained wary as she subsided in her seat. ‘What was I meant to think? You said—’
‘I want you to marry me, Lara, not have my children.’
‘Oh, well, that’s all right, then.’ She lost the mocking smile, unable to decide if he was serious or this was some sick joke as she directed a searching look of pained incredulity at his face... Hell, he made it sound as though he’d just requested nothing more outrageous than directions! ‘When my flight leaves I’ll be on it. This conversation really is over now.’ She jerked her hands to underline the finality of her statement.
His broad shoulders lifted, the shrug negligent, but the dark gaze that held hers was intense. ‘Hear me out.’
She shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘Nothing you can say will change my mind.’
‘Then you have nothing to lose from listening to what I have to say. Give me the consideration you’d give any other job offer.’
She lifted threads of hair from her eyes, tucking them neatly behind her ears. Were you meant to humour insane people? ‘Do you drink in the daytime too?’
He leaned in, the unexpected action bringing his face within an inch of hers. ‘Smell?’ he invited, parting his firm, sensual lips.
As his mint-scented, warm breath brushed her cheek, Lara jolted back in her seat so fast she almost fell off her chair. ‘I’ll pass, and, in case you forgot, I have a job.’
‘Not sleeping with the boss is generally a good thing but in this instance...?’ He shook his head and studied her face, letting the blush of discomfort develop before adding, ‘I see you have worked that one out yourself. Did it not occur to you to ask yourself if a weekend in Rome might have consequences beyond losing your virginity?’ Recognising it was irrational didn’t stop him feeling furious every time he thought of her throwing herself away on some loser—any man who let this woman walk away deserved the definition. ‘Do you ever think ahead? At what point did it seem like a good idea?’
‘How is your offer better?’ she choked back, eyeing him with dislike. Where did he get off lecturing her?
His lips flattened into a hard line. ‘Were you hoping to hook him?’ he speculated.
‘Hook?’ she echoed. Does he think I need reminding of what an idiot I was?
‘Was marriage what you were after?’ he cut back, coldness seeping into his voice as other features superimposed themselves over her vivid face.
Lucy, his cold, calculating wife, had not done anything as extreme as save herself for him. She hadn’t needed to... He felt a stab of familiar contemptuous self-disgust aimed more at his romantic, easily manipulated younger self than Lucy and her mind games.
‘If I was out to catch a rich husband—which, by the way, went out with pearls and twinsets—I’d have chosen someone significantly richer than Mark.’
The furious flash of eyes like emeralds burnt away that other face and as she lifted her rounded, determined chin Raoul knew he had earned the dislike blazing in them.
Lara Gray was easy enough for a child to read! Not only could she not hide her feelings, she broadcast every emotion she felt on her beautiful face.
‘It wasn’t a judgement,’ he said quietly.
She gave a snort. ‘Not much!’
‘If it’s any comfort I think you got off pretty lightly. It can take some people a lot longer to realise the person they fell for doesn’t really exist outside their own imagination.’
‘Speaking from experience, are you?’ she mocked, finding it totally impossible to imagine that situation.
He pushed his empty cup away from him, the action allowing him the time to smooth out his expression. ‘Well, it wasn’t all bad. Look, last night we had a good time.’
Lara struggled to fight her way out of the images that flickered relentlessly through her head.
He said, ‘I made you forget.’
Where she began and he ended.
‘And you returned the favour.’ The dark glitter in his eyes was mesmerising.