Page 139 of A Diamond Deal
‘You look very beautiful tonight.’
Her heart turned over in her chest. Pleasure was a mushrooming cloud. ‘Thank you.’
His lips twisted in a half-smile.
‘How was work?’
‘Satisfying.’
She arched a brow at that. ‘You like what you do.’
‘I enjoy doing it well.’
It was a fine distinction, but one she appreciated.
‘Were you always this driven?’
‘I imagine so. I never needed to be until my father’s scam was exposed.’
She winced. ‘It must have been mortifying for you.’
‘Yes.’
She appreciated his candour, the fact he didn’t try to downplay it.
‘So, is this working?’ she asked, looking around the restaurant. To her surprise, it had thinned out, so only a third or so of the tables were now occupied.
‘This?’
‘Our marriage. Are you suddenly accepted again?’
His laugh was low and husky, and he didn’t answer right away, because the waiter appeared carrying their desserts. Little buns filled with cream, and two dark coffees.
‘To stave off exhaustion,’ he murmured as the coffees were placed before them.
Heat flushed her cheeks as her mushrooming warmth turned into a solar flare.
She reached instead for her champagne and took a sip, then kept her eyes on him. Beneath the tablecloth-covered table, his knee brushed hers and a jolt ran the length of her spine. But it was nothing compared to the complete overwhelm of feeling that ran through her when his hand curved over her knee.
Her eyes flared, but held his.
‘I’m playing the long game,’ he murmured. ‘Uniting our two families is an important step, but it will take time for the sins of my father to be erased.’
‘It’s been a long time already, hasn’t it?’
He dipped his head in agreement as his hand began to creep higher up her bare leg. She sucked in a breath.
‘I have never shown any interest in mending the damage he caused, beyond making financial recompense. For my part, I do not care what these people think. Were it not for my grandfather,’ he said, lifting one shoulder as his hand crept higher still, ‘I still wouldn’t.’
‘Massimiliano,’ she whispered, with urgency, grateful that his much larger frame was on the outside edge of the booth, so when he angled himself fully towards her, resting his elbow on the table, he created a sort of screen from the restaurant.
‘But yes,cara. Already I have congratulatory phone calls from the sort of people who would not even speak my name twelve months ago.’
‘I don’t understand why it had to be me,’ she said, finding it almost impossible to concentrate when his finger crept to within an inch of the very top of her thighs and began to draw invisible figures of eight.
‘Your family is powerful.’
‘But there are many other families…’
