CHAPTER EIGHT

‘W OULD YOU LIKE to go to New York?’

Flora looked at Vito from the other side of the dining table where they were having breakfast. A spoon upon which was heaped granola, fruit and yoghurt was stopped halfway to her mouth.

‘Seriously?’

He nodded and wiped his mouth with a napkin. ‘I’m opening a new office there and I’ve been invited to some social events.’

Flora put the spoon back down. There was a fizzing excitement in her belly. ‘I’ve always wanted to go to New York.’

‘Well, then, you’ll just need your passport. We’ll be leaving tomorrow.’

The fizzing excitement leached away. Flora sagged back. ‘I don’t have a passport.’

Vito looked incredulous but then his expression darkened. ‘Let me guess, your beloved uncle didn’t deem it necessary because he didn’t allow you to go anywhere.’

‘Something like that. It’s been on my list of things to do but I hadn’t got around to it yet.’ Flora felt pathetic. Who didn’t have a passport? ‘I won’t be able to go.’

Vito shook his head. ‘Yes, you will. You’ll come with me right now to my office and we’ll do whatever it takes to arrange a passport.’

‘But that can’t be done in a day.’

Vito arched a brow. ‘There’s not much I can’t achieve in a day.’

Now Flora felt stupid. As if a bit of bureaucratic red tape would stand in Vittorio Vitale’s way.

‘Are you sure? I don’t want to cause work for you and your employees.’

Vito held out a hand. ‘Come here.’

Flora’s heart palpitated at the look in his eyes. She still couldn’t really believe that she was here, with this man, and that last night she’d been dressed like a princess from a fairy tale—a fairy tale that had turned into something much more X-rated when they’d arrived back at the apartment.

She got up from her chair and let Vito take her hand, pulling her onto his lap. He said, ‘I know I asked you if you wanted to come to New York but it wasn’t really a question. I need you there.’

Flora’s heart fluttered, but before she could lose herself in a little daydream Vito was saying, ‘After all, we have a plan to execute—show everyone that we’re a couple.’

She went a little cold inside, even though Vito’s arms were around her waist. ‘Of course,’ she said as lightly as she could. She extricated herself from his embrace and went back to the other side of the table again. ‘How could I forget?’

She didn’t look at him but she could feel his gaze on her as she studiously ate some of her breakfast.

‘Flora...’

Reluctantly she looked up. He said, ‘You need to understand that this is just a temporary thing...for as long as we want each other. That hasn’t changed. The sex between us is...intense, but it’s just sex. I won’t want more and when the time comes we will be moving on with our lives. I will make sure you’re set up. That’s the least I can do for you after—’

Flora put up her hand. Vito stopped talking. She hid the dangerous pang near her heart because she did need to hear him spell this out. Because she knew deep down that his effect on her had already impacted her emotionally in a way that she feared was more comprehensive than she liked to admit.

She said, ‘I’ve just gained my independence and freedom. I won’t be giving that up for anyone for a long time. If ever. The man who will persuade me to one day consider entering into a relationship will have to be very special, someone I can trust. You don’t have to worry, Vito. I know exactly the type of man you are, and I might have been sheltered all my life but I’m not so naive or self-destructive to think for a second that you’ll ever want more than this affair.’

Vito didn’t say anything for a long moment and then, ‘You don’t trust me.’

Flora’s eyes widened, he sounded almost... hurt . Ridiculous. The man was impervious to anything she could ever inflict on him. ‘I do trust you. I trusted you with my innocence, didn’t I? But don’t worry, I would have to be the biggest idiot on the planet to trust you with my heart.’

Vito stared broodingly across the plane to where Flora was curled up on a seat, asleep. Benji was a fluffy ball beside her. She’d looked so crestfallen when he’d said the dog couldn’t come to New York that he’d suddenly found himself moving mountains to make it work, ensuring Benji had all the right documentation, vaccinations and health checks.

Flora was wearing new clothes supplied by the stylist, soft black leather skinny trousers and a cream silk shirt. Her hair was loose. Feet bare.

But all Vito could think about was what she’d said the day before: ‘I would have to be the biggest idiot on the planet to trust you with my heart.’

Her words should have made him feel assured that the little telltale dreamy look he’d seen in her eyes didn’t mean that she was confusing amazing sex with emotion.

But instead of feeling assured, or relieved, he’d felt...unsatisfied. Unsettled.

She’d spoken of meeting a man some day who she could trust enough to be in a relationship with. Ridiculously, Vito had felt insulted that she evidently didn’t consider him trustworthy. And worse, he’d felt an almost violent sense of rejection at the image of her with another man.

He wasn’t used to feeling possessive of a lover. To the point of almost...jealousy.

He shook his head at himself now. No, it wasn’t jealousy, because as soon as this desire burnt out he would be ready to let her go, to find this man she could trust with her heart.

This relationship with Flora was different from anything he’d ever experienced before because of what had happened six months ago. They had a history. And Vito had been instrumental in Flora being put in a perilous situation for the last six months.

He was ensuring that she would not be in that position again—he owed her that much. The fact that they shared this crazy chemistry was something neither of them could have foreseen. It would burn out soon, it always did, and then they would both have got what they wanted from this brief interlude and they could get on with their lives.

The dog lifted its head at that moment and looked balefully at Vito, as if he’d heard his thoughts and was warning him to tread very carefully.

Vito rolled his eyes at himself. He was losing it. He opened up his laptop again and resolved to focus his attention on work but then Flora’s husky-sounding voice said, ‘Where are we? Was I asleep for long?’

Vito looked over. She was deliciously tousled and sleepy. She stretched, which made the silk shirt ride up, exposing her belly.

Desire surged and Vito mentally cursed her for messing with his head. He closed his laptop and said, ‘We’re about halfway, which is perfect timing.’

She looked at him. ‘Timing for what?’

He stood up and held out a hand. ‘To show you where the bedroom is.’

She frowned. ‘But I just had a nap—’ She stopped and blushed. ‘Oh.’

‘Oh,’ Vito echoed, his blood pumping at the thought of introducing Flora to the decadent side of private air travel.

Flora put Benji down into his dog bed on the floor and slipped her hand into his. Vito pulled her up and led her down to the back of the plane, telling himself that the more he indulged this desire, the sooner it would burn out.

‘Wow, just...wow.’ Flora’s eyes didn’t feel big enough to take in the entire view spread out before her. Central Park, surrounded by the iconic sky-scraping tall, elegant buildings. One of which she was at the top of, on a terrace. The streets were far below, the sounds of the traffic barely piercing through to the atmosphere up here.

She tore her eyes off the view for a moment to look up at Vito, who was staring at her. She flushed. ‘I must seem like such a hick to you.’

He shook his head and turned to look out at the view too. ‘No, everyone should have this reaction when seeing one of the world’s most famous views for the first time.’

‘Did you?’

Vito’s mouth quirked. ‘I hate to say it but probably not. I was so consumed with restoring my father’s good name and making sure I was on your uncle’s tail that I’m sure I barely glanced at this view.’

Flora felt a pang near her heart at the thought of Vito being so driven in his quest to mete out justice that he hadn’t even looked around him to see the beauty of the world he was conquering.

Her body still felt heavy and also sensitised after what had happened on the flight. They’d been asleep in the bed after making love and the attendant had had to wake them as they were due to land shortly. Flora had been so mortified at their decadence that she hadn’t been able to look any of the staff in the eye.

Vito had looked at her with a smile around his mouth, and the thought of him being amused because he’d done this a hundred times before with other women had had Flora picking up a magazine to throw at him. He’d merely laughed then.

Benji was zipping around on the terrace full of beans after the flight. Flora welcomed the diversion from thinking too much about how Vito made her feel. ‘Can I take him to the park for a walk?’ She had a sudden vision of Vito accompanying them. Like some sort of real happy couple.

Vito said, ‘Of course. You can do whatever you want, Flora. The city is yours.’ He put out a hand.

Flora gulped. The thought of being able to move around in a city like this as if she had some sort of right to be there and take up space was daunting.

‘I think I’ll just take him to the park...’ Feeling shy—which was ridiculous when she could still feel his hands on her body—Flora said, ‘Are you busy now? You could come with us...’

Vito shook his head, suddenly turning brisk. ‘I have to go straight to the offices to meet with the managers.’

It was early afternoon in New York and Flora’s stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten much on the plane. Vito said, ‘The chef here will prepare you some lunch.’

Embarrassed at her very normal bodily functions, Flora said, ‘It’s fine, I’ll find a hot-dog stand or get a pizza slice.’

‘You have your mobile phone?’

Flora patted her back jeans pocket. ‘Yes, sir, all programmed in with all your numbers and your assistant’s number.’

‘Call me if you get lost or if anything happens. Straight away.’

Flora looked at Vito and rolled her eyes. ‘I might not have been here before but I’m not completely clueless in a city. Rome is pretty big and cosmopolitan, you know.’

To her surprise he took her chin in his forefinger and thumb and planted a swift kiss on her mouth. It burned. He drew back, eyes dark, unfathomable. ‘I’ll see you later. We have a cocktail party to attend on the other side of the park. My house manager will unpack the bags and I’ve arranged for a glam team to come at five to help get you ready.’

Flora felt simultaneously hurt at the thought that she evidently needed so much help but also desperately relieved that she didn’t have to try and tame her wayward hair or do her own make-up.

‘Okay, see you later.’

And then he was gone, taking his force field of energy and charisma with him. Flora breathed out. The thought of a walk in the park and some respite from Vito wasn’t altogether a bad thing.

‘Stop fidgeting.’

Flora sighed at Vito’s admonishment and dropped her hand from the hem of the dress.

She whispered at Vito in the back of the car, mindful of the driver in the front. ‘It’s too short.’

Vito put his hand over Flora’s on her thigh and said, ‘It’s the perfect length. And you weren’t worried about the length of your dress when you went to that club looking for your first lover.’

Flora’s face burned. No, she’d been completely wanton. ‘This is different,’ she pointed out. ‘We’re not going to a nightclub.’

‘And you’re not looking for a lover any more.’

Heat filled Flora’s body. No, she wasn’t looking for a lover. She had a lover . The thought was still thrilling.

Vito curled his hand around Flora’s bare thigh. He said, ‘Want me to show you how perfect your dress is?’ His hand moved up her thigh, pushing the hem of the dusky pink cocktail dress up even higher.

Flora put her hand on his. She whispered, ‘We can’t, the driver.’ But an illicit electric charge was already making her ready for Vito’s touch.

He issued a command that Flora barely heard and within seconds a privacy window had gone up between them and the driver. He turned to face her and pulled her closer. Flora was only aware of him and this space cocooning them from the outside world.

Vito’s mouth covered hers and she allowed him full access, her whole body vibrating with desire as his tongue touched hers. His hand crept higher up her thigh and tacitly Flora opened her legs wider.

She could hear Vito’s hum of approval in the back of his throat and she felt a jolt of pure adrenalin when his fingers pushed aside the flimsy gusset of her underwear and stroked into her with expert precision.

Flora gasped into Vito’s mouth as his fingers worked to bring her to a rapid and shuddering climax, her whole body trembling in the aftermath.

As much as it excited her that he could do this to her, it also scared her a little. It was as if once he touched her she wasn’t remotely in control of her own autonomy. She opened her eyes and was mildly comforted to see the stark look of hunger on Vito’s face. On an impulse she put her hand on him, where his body was hard under his trousers. She suddenly felt audacious. His eyes glittered. He said, ‘If we weren’t just minutes away from our destination I wouldn’t stop you.’

Flora took her hand away and straightened herself as much as she could. She stored up the fact that there were things she could do to push this man off his axis as much as he did to her. Maybe on the way home...

‘What are you thinking?’

Flora looked at Vito, affecting an innocence that this man had stripped her of with her full consent. ‘Nothing at all.’

Flora heard him mutter something that sounded like temptress and resolved there and then to definitely turn the tables on him on the way home. But first she had to navigate an upmarket social event and she just prayed that the stylist who’d told her to wear this strapless thigh-skimming cocktail dress wasn’t sending her out to make a fool of herself.

The cocktail party was taking place on the rooftop of one of the tall buildings almost directly opposite Vito’s apartment on the other side of the park. The crowd here was different from in Rome, a little more relaxed. Flora was relieved to see that she was far from the only woman baring so much skin.

People here were curious about her but they didn’t have the same intense interest as the people in Rome, understandably.

The entire terrace had been set up for the party and was being hosted by one of New York’s grand dames.

‘It’s basically a very exclusive networking opportunity,’ Vito had told Flora when she’d asked the purpose of the party.

There were delicious-looking canapés, but each time a waiter appeared Flora resisted the urge to taste one, knowing that she’d end up with caviar down her chest or some other catastrophe.

Vito was locked in conversation with a couple of other men and Flora was staring wistfully at another tray of canapés leaving her sight.

‘I get it, too nervous to eat in case it goes everywhere?’

Flora turned to the woman behind the voice. A beautiful blonde woman with her hair swept up in an elegant chignon, exactly the kind of up-do Flora could never achieve.

She smiled ruefully. ‘It’s that obvious?’

The woman—who sounded English—chuckled and gestured to her own classic sheath of a sleeveless dress in a light cream colour. ‘Let’s just say I can empathise. Tell you what, I’m starving because I didn’t have lunch, we only arrived in from London today, so why don’t we go and eat together and then we can make sure we’re still presentable?’

Flora grinned. She hadn’t expected to meet someone so friendly in a place like this. ‘Deal,’ she said and let the woman lead her away from Vito to where caterers had a table set up groaning under a veritable feast of food.

‘Who was the woman you were talking to during the party?’

Flora turned to Vito in the back of the car. ‘I’m sorry, was I meant to stay by your side? I was just hungry and so was she and I was too scared to eat any of the canapés in case I spilled something and so was she and so—’

Vito put a finger to Flora’s lips. He shook his head. ‘I don’t expect you to stay by my side. You’re a free agent.’

He could feel Flora’s breath against his finger and he got hard. He pulled his hand back, cursing her effect on him. Cursing her for distracting him all evening—either when she’d been beside him, with her scent and presence and her body, poured into a dress that emphasised her tiny waist and shapely hips and generous breasts, or even worse when she hadn’t been beside him. When she’d been talking to someone else.

‘That’s good,’ she said. ‘If I ever went to a social event with my uncle, say if my aunt was ill, or away, he’d expect me to stay right beside him and remember everyone we talked to. He’d quiz me on the way home.’

Vito’s conscience pricked. ‘Like I am now?’

Flora shook her head, making tendrils of her hair move around her face. Her hair hadn’t been straightened, but it had been pulled back into a low bun. Acting on instinct, Vito said now, ‘Turn around.’

She did, giving him her back. Of course he was immediately tempted to pull the zip of her dress down, but he resisted. He wasn’t a teenager. Maledizione.

He pulled the pins out of her hair and it slowly loosened and fell down her back and around her shoulders.

‘Oh, that feels so good,’ she murmured.

Vito speared his fingers in her hair and massaged her skull. She groaned softly and that only made him harder. He gritted his jaw.

‘So, the woman? I’m just curious because she looked familiar.’

‘Her name is Carrie Black—’

Vito’s hands stopped moving. Flora turned her head. ‘Do you know her?’

‘She’s the wife of the man I’m hoping to do some business with, Lord Massimo Black. He’s primarily a philanthropist but he does invest in choice businesses. What were you talking about?’

He could see Flora bite her lip. She turned to face him more fully now. ‘Just chit-chat really. She was lovely.’

Flora suddenly looked nervous. ‘Actually...she recognised me.’

‘How?’

‘They’d been in Rome when the wedding...didn’t happen. The paparazzi didn’t get any shots of me afterwards but the tabloids had some old pictures of me from something with my uncle. When she realised I was here with you she said she hoped I’d made you grovel for what you’d done.’

Vito couldn’t exactly fault her sentiment. The guilt he felt at all but throwing Flora out onto the streets was still like a burr under his skin. ‘What did you say?’

‘Something about you having your reasons.’ Flora’s mouth quirked. ‘She said she hoped you were going to bring me to Tiffany’s or Cartier for a suitably expensive grovel gift.’

Flora’s mouth stopped quirking and she said quickly, ‘I told her of course I wasn’t into anything like that. And how you’d let me bring my dog to New York. She gave me her number and told me to call her if I wanted to meet up. She has her children here but she said a walk in the park might be nice some day.’

Vito thought of how he’d had a conversation with Massimo Black and the man had expressed interest in meeting Vito again to discuss things further. Meanwhile Flora had been exchanging numbers with his wife.

Normally when Vito brought a date to a social function, it was purely as an enhancement with the prospect of sating his libido. He’d certainly never experienced this kind of scenario: a woman actually helping him to foster other connections. It was disconcerting, because it made him realise that perhaps insisting on being a lone wolf was a weakness. And that having someone by his side in a more meaningful way could actually be an advantage, beyond just presenting a superficially more respectable image.

Flora said, ‘I hope I didn’t do or say anything to damage your relationship with Carrie’s husband.’

Vito realised that she looked anxious. He shook his head. ‘Not at all. And it’s not your responsibility to be concerned for my image or business concerns.’

Now she looked embarrassed. ‘Oh, of course, I know I have no influence.’

‘Oh, you have influence, Flora, don’t worry about that.’ Vito reached for her and pulled her closer, leaving her in no doubt as to exactly how her influence affected him. ‘You couldn’t but be an asset to the people around you. You’re a nice person, Flora Gavia, and that’s a miracle considering who you had to grow up with.’

To Vito’s surprise, Flora’s eyes looked suspiciously bright. ‘That’s a really sweet thing to say.’

Vito felt a little winded for a moment. No one had ever accused him of being sweet before, certainly not a woman. He was acutely aware of Flora’s relative naivety and innocence, not just physical, and once again he felt a sense of protectiveness that he couldn’t stem, even though it unnerved him.

He assured himself again that, for all of that naivety though, she knew what was happening here and she had no false illusions. In fact, out of all the women he’d been with, she was the least likely to believe in fairy tales. They both had their respective past traumas to thank for that.

She looked shy now and her cheeks were pink. ‘Actually, there was something I wanted to do earlier but we didn’t have time...’

Vito recalled her hand on him, shaping his body, and he issued a command to put up the privacy window, but also to drive around until he told the driver differently.

He said, ‘We have all the time in the world now.’

He watched as Flora, with her tongue between her teeth, set about freeing him from his trousers. He had to call on every ounce of control he possessed not to spill right there, watching as she took him in her hand and moved it up and down as if fascinated by the way he looked in her hand.

He was about to tell her to stop, he wouldn’t be able to hold on and he would make a fool of himself, but now she was lowering her head and her breath was feathering over his sensitised flesh, and he had to put his head back and grit his teeth so hard it hurt as she wrapped her mouth around him and his universe was reduced to that hot sucking heat.

When Vito had fallen over the edge of pleasure and control and Flora came back up again, a very feminine smile on her face, Vito cursed himself for ever thinking she was naive or innocent. She was no such thing. She was a temptress through and through and he was an idiot to think otherwise.

When Flora woke the following morning she found she was getting used to the sensation of her body feeling heavy with a sensual lassitude. The night came back in fragments, the car on the way to the party, the way Vito had made her come apart, and then afterwards how she’d made him come apart. It had been intensely satisfying to see his face flushed, eyes glittering, looking at her as if she’d just stunned him.

But then, when they’d returned to the apartment, he’d shown her in no uncertain terms who was the master here. Undoubtedly him, in spite of her little victories.

She heard a sound and cracked open one eye to wince at the bright daylight flooding into the bedroom.

She opened both eyes and felt a small furry weight launch onto the bed, landing beside her. She snuggled Benji close.

‘He’s been fed and walked already, by Matthew, the housekeeper. You can go back to sleep.’

Flora looked up to see Vito standing in the doorway in a three-piece suit, hair still damp from a shower, jaw clean-shaven. He looked so gorgeous it almost hurt.

Feeling a little exposed and defensive, she said, ‘I’m not usually so tardy. I’m blaming you for keeping me up late.’ And yet he managed to get up, no problem. She came up on one elbow, holding the sheet to her chest.

Vito leaned against the doorframe with folded arms. ‘There’s a credit card in your name on the table in the hall. Go shopping or make an appointment with a spa and treat yourself. My assistant can book you in. You deserve a break, Flora. It’s nothing to feel guilty about.’

For someone who’d lived her life feeling indebted to the people around her and being as useful as she could be to mitigate that feeling, it was totally counter-intuitive to her to put herself first.

Flora said dryly, ‘I don’t think there’s much left to wax or buff.’ She looked at him, wondering if she was missing some vital piece of ‘mistress’ behaviour. ‘Unless you would like me to do...something else?’

She thought of the fact that she wasn’t shaved down there , and blushed. He hadn’t seemed to mind, but maybe—

But Vito was shaking his head and coming back over to the bed, sitting on the edge and reaching for the sheet, twitching it away to look at her. Her blood instantly got hot. He said, ‘You are perfect. You don’t need to do a thing. And, as tempting as you are, I’ll have to resist for now. I have a meeting in half an hour.’

He got up again and Flora pulled the sheet back up, lamenting his control. Pushing him out of that control was fast becoming her favourite thing.

‘See you later?’ She hoped she didn’t sound as eager as she felt.

He grimaced slightly. ‘I have a business dinner later. You don’t have to wait up.’

So Flora had a whole day stretching ahead of her to see this fascinating city and get her head around what this was with Vito. Not a bad prospect.

‘Later, then.’

‘Later.’

He looked at her so intensely for a moment that Flora almost imagined that he couldn’t help himself and would—but no, he was gone. She slumped back onto the bed. Benji crawled up and licked her face. She wrinkled her nose. ‘Just us now, Ben, a whole day to explore and amuse ourselves.’

For the first time, because she was used to her own company, Flora felt a little hollow pang of loneliness. But before it could even register she pushed herself up and out of the bed, resolved to make the most of this amazing opportunity in one of the most iconic cities in the world.

After all, this affair with Vito was finite and she would have to get used to being on her own again, sooner rather than later, she had no doubt.