Page 30 of Hired By The Forbidden Italian
That hand looped through his...was it a sign of something Sophie felt she might lay claim to? Emotion? Involvement?
She was young and vulnerable and had been through a tough time. If she was searching for someone, might she think that that someone could be him? This game of pretence, generated by Vincenzo and Maria’s ill-timed interruption, risked becoming a prelude to all sorts of possibilities which he knew to be out of reach.
He gently detached himself as soon as the group began heading away from the deck and stepped even further away from her to bid goodnight to Vincenzo and Maria, giving them a warm reminder that should they want anything at all they only had to ring the bell inside their suite.
‘I should thank you,’ he said once they were alone, swerving towards the stunted staircase that spiralled down towards the expansive area where their bedrooms were located.
Sophie didn’t pretend to misunderstand. He had paused on the staircase, his hand on the steel banister, to look at her seriously.
She hadn’t missed the way he had pulled back from her just as soon as he could.
Had he thought that she might be getting ideas into her head?
‘It seemed appropriate,’ Sophie said, half smiling although her voice was a shade cooler now. ‘You’re on the brink of signing your big deal and I know, from having spent the evening with the de Lucas, that they might be the sort of uber-traditional couple to disapprove of you having a romp in the sack with the nanny for a bit of fun—’
‘I wouldn’t have been quite so basic about it,’ Niccolo interrupted.
‘It’s the truth, isn’t it? Aside from that, Niccolo, I happen to really like them. They interrupted us in the middle of something and it would have been awkward and shocking for them were I to try and distance myself from you. It would have reflected badly on both of us.’
She met his dark eyes without flinching and continued, unhurried and calm, which was very much the opposite of what she was feeling inside.
‘Just in case you might have got it into your head that that phoney display of affection was in any wayreal, I feel I should set you straight.’ It was the last place for a confidence to be shared but the timing felt right. She barely hesitated before carrying on. ‘I’ll tell you about Scott. In a nutshell, we were in the same social circle for years. You could almost say we grew up together. When my parents were killed and the magnitude of their debts began unravelling, so-called friends were suddenly thin on the ground.’ She tilted her head to one side, hoping to read what he was thinking, but his fabulous dark eyes were veiled as he looked at her. ‘I couldn’t keep up with their lifestyle any longer and I was too busy trying to deal with what life had thrown at me to worry about my disappearing social life. But while everyone else melted away, Scott stuck around. He was a shoulder to cry on and I...I gave in. He was persuasive. He was charming. I also discovered that he was abusive and controlling. He enjoyed making me feel like nothing. He watched every move I made and did his utmost to wrest the few friends I had left away from me. I didn’t know what was going on and I was just so worn down from dealing with all the stuff that had happened that I suppose I let things run on for a lot longer than I ever would have in other circumstances. But when he decided that yelling wasn’t doing the trick and maybe a smack or two might get through to me more effectively I finally got it together to chuck him out.’
Sophie skipped over the fear and the confusion and then the dismay and disappointment she had felt in herself that she had allowed someone to take over her life and put her in a place where nothing had seemed manageable at all any more.
She didn’t explain how terrifying it had felt at the time to have placed her trust in a guy who had used it to try and take over her life. It had been a bit like watching a tornado, only to blink and find that the tornado was upon you and you were at risk of losing everything, including your sanity.
‘So,’ she said briskly, ‘there’s no need to be afraid that five minutes pretending to have more than what we actually have is going to go to my head. Believe me, I’m not looking for anything from anyone.’ Her voice was hard. ‘I was attracted to you and the wine and the moonlight and the atmosphere led us to make a mistake.’
Niccolo raked his fingers through his hair. He was shaken to the core. The thought of any man hitting any woman made him feel physically sick, and the fact that the woman in question was Sophie made him see red.
She was so open and outspoken and funny...
He balled his hands into fists. If the scumbag had been standing in front of him right now, Niccolo didn’t know what he would have done. Delivering a nice, long, cold dip in the midnight ocean would have seemed a very good idea.
‘Sophie, I’m so sorry.’
‘There’s nothing to be sorry about,’ Sophie said. ‘And I didn’t tell you about Scott to garner your sympathy. I just wanted you to know that I’m not interested in anything at all.’
‘Come to my room,’ he murmured. ‘This conversation can’t stop here.’
‘I don’t want to come to your room, Niccolo.’
‘Why? Are you afraid?’
‘I suppose I am, really,’ she said with a crooked smile.
‘Of what?’
He looked so genuinely shocked that this time Sophie’s smile was heartfelt.
‘Not you, Niccolo. Don’t be an idiot.’ Something flashed through her head, as fast as quicksilver: she could never, ever fear anything from this man because, however commitment-phobic he was, there was a deep core of honour running through him. Underneath the harsh exterior, he waskind, although she wasn’t sure he would want her to bring that to his notice.
Comprehension dawned on his beautiful face. ‘You’re afraid you might succumb? Give in?’
‘Something like that.’
‘And would that be such a bad thing?’
