The Medici Mistress: Nothing and no one would stop him from having her. (10 page)

“You’re killing me,
cara
. Why can’t you admit that there’s still something between us? That you broke up with him for me?”

“Because I don’t want there to be!” She retorted fiercely. “You are the last person on earth I want to have in my life. I will never forgive you for what you did. Even if, somehow, I managed to get over the past, and we were in a relationship together, I’d always worry that you were going behind my back. Relationships that start out of infidelity
never
work out.”

“Is that a fact?” He responded, exasperation making his voice more accented than usual.

“I know myself.” She said on a heavy exhalation of breath. “I wouldn’t be able to forget what you’re capable of.” Her expression was bleak. “You ruined it. Don’t you see?”

He shook his head. “I want you.”

“I know. But what we had isn’t something you can just recapture. You’re different, and I’m different.” She walked away from the kitchen, tea forgotten. “I suggest you find some other ingénue to impress. The girl I used to be is long gone. And I have you to thank for that.”

One of Giac’s strengths was his tenacity. Many times, he’d had reasons to walk away from a development. But, if he believed it was worth it, he always refused to let go.

And Annie was worth it.

“Give me twenty four hours of your life,
bella
. Let me show you how wrong you are about me.”

Annie knew he wouldn’t be able to change her mind. He’d been so attentive. So perfect. So absolutely gorgeous, three years ago. And all the while, a woman in America had been pining away for him. He’d made it so easy for Annie to fall in love with him, when he already had a woman’s heart firmly in his grip.

But what if he’d changed too? What if she was wrong? What if letting go of what they had was the biggest mistake of her life? She’d go to her grave wondering, unless she gave him a chance.

“Fine.” Her expression was laced with doubt. “One day. And at the end of it, you leave me alone for good, if that’s what I want.”

His smile was enigmatic. And, as she stared into his dark eyes, she had the sensation that she was being pulled down, into a deep, dark well. Ridiculously, though, she was smiling back at him.

* * *

“You picked a lousy twenty four hours,” Annie said, as she yawned for the tenth time in an hour.

He laughed. “I didn’t realize I’d be taking a zombie to dinner,” he agreed. “Though the most beautiful zombie I’ve ever seen.” The light cast by the Eiffel tower bathed her face in gold. It had been, by anyone’s standards, a perfect evening.

They’d managed to avoid any conversations that led back to his marriage, by silent and mutual agreement.

“Do you come to Paris often?” She asked, as their coffees were placed on the table.

“Several times a year,” he said, lifting the short black to his lips and drinking it in one motion.

“I’ve never been,” she said on a sigh.

He frowned. “But you grew up in London.”

“I know.” She smiled. “I was always focused on my work. School work. University work. Now work work.”

“It’s a train ride away,” he disputed, with a shake of his head.

She shrugged. “I just never made time for it.” And because they were pretending that this was a simple equation – a date between two people with an overwhelming attraction and no messy history to speak of– she elaborated. “I felt an enormous pressure to do well. I still do, I suppose. Stu, my older brother, was smart, athletic, and artistic.” She pulled a face. “I was smart. It was my thing. The only thing I really could lay claim to.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” he said, his dark eyes hooded as he watched her.

“When I was eight, I was skipped a year level. That was it.” Her smile was goofy. “I loved how it felt. The praise. The attention. But at the same time, I became terrified of losing all that. Of waking up one day to realize that I’m not that clever after all.”

He nodded, but that at least explained one question he’d held for years. Annie had been too young, when they’d been together. Too young for someone to have graduated with honors from Oxford, and to have landed a plum job at the blue-chip Amicus. That extra year, and her obsession with succeeding, explained a lot.

“Which is why I stayed up all night preparing for this rather routine trip,” she said, with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

“It showed,” his voice was thick with admiration.

“You mean I look tired,” she teased, sipping her coffee, thinking that it really was the drink of the Gods.

It wasn’t what he’d meant, and they both knew it.

“Why do you come to Paris so often?” She asked, changing the subject.

He leaned back in his chair, staring across the Seine at the monument that was famous the world over. “The first business I ever acquired was in Paris.”

“How old were you?”

He arched his brows. “Twenty one.”

“Twenty one!” She exhaled with a shake of her head. “And I thought I was an over achiever.” She leaned forward, unconsciously forming a mirror of his reclined position. “Have you been back to London? Since… since…”

He shook his head. “No. I couldn’t.” His expression was serious, his eyes glowing with some unknown emotion.

She frowned. “Amicus Incorporated isn’t the only interest you have in the UK, though. I’m surprised, frankly.”

“Are you really?” He leaned forward, catching her hands in his. He flipped his grip, so that her palm faced upwards. He traced an invisible pattern on the soft flesh there.

Her stomach was turning over in response to the strangely erotic way he was teasing her skin.

He lifted her hand to his lip and kissed each fingertip. “I couldn’t go back.”

“Why not?” She scanned his face, scarcely daring to breathe.

He laced his fingers through hers. “Because I knew I’d go to you.” He shook his head. “I know you think the worst of me. But what happened between us was not planned. It took me as completely by surprise as it did you.” She went to pull her hand away. Talk of the past was like a bucket of ice cold water, dousing the memories they were building now. “If I’d come to London, I would have wanted… no, needed… to see you. To be with you. I would have walked into an affair with you with my eyes wide open.”

Annie couldn’t have said how she felt. Desperate, sad, pleased, relieved. A strange combination of emotions from every end of the spectrum. That he wanted to be faithful to his wife was an odd mark in his favor.

“You both deserved better than that.”

“We both?” She sucked in a breath. The ghost of his wife had been hovering at the edges all evening. Again, she tried to pull her hand away, but he held it tight. “Did you tell her about me, Giac?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Did you tell
him
about me?”

She shook her head. Now, when she pulled at her hand, he let her have it. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because. The reason I broke up with Thomas had absolutely nothing to do with you. What would I have said? That I dated a guy a few years ago? Totally irrelevant.”

Giac beckoned to a waiter and handed over his Centurion credit card without taking his eyes off Annie. “Why did you break up with him, then?”

It was all too tempting to degenerate into a game of tit for tat. If he wouldn’t speak about his marriage, why should she talk about her ex-boyfriend? Only, she had nothing to hide. “We wanted different things,” she said, somewhat evasively.

“Such as?” Giac pushed.

She sighed. “He was more serious than I was. I was happy as long as we were just hanging out. But I didn’t want to lead him on.”

“How long did you date him?”

“Five months, apparently.” How had she let it go on so long? She lifted her sea green eyes to his face.

“Did you sleep with him?” He felt his heart squeeze at the question. He had no right to ask. He had, after all, been married. But he needed to know.

Annie glared at him, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Did you sleep with your
wife
?”

Giac should have seen it coming. “I’m sorry.” He held his hands up in the air in a sign of surrender. “We’re covering dangerous ground now. Come on. You promised me twenty four hours, and by my count, I still have twenty one to go.”

And because Annie knew that she would remember this night for the rest of her life, she pushed her frustrations over the past aside. She could feel angry another time.

“I’m ready when you are.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The view from the top of the Eiffel tower was truly beyond compare. Beneath them, the whole city was covered in a blanket of lights, and they were left in privacy to enjoy the vista.

“I can’t believe you were able to swing this,” she said with a small shake of her head. Then again, what could the great Giac Medici not achieve?

Despite the fact it was summer, there was a chill in the air, and she shivered against him.

He held her tighter, smelling the lemony fragrance of her hair. The truth was, money talked. Giac had learned, a long time ago, that there weren’t many doors in life that couldn’t be pushed through with money, confidence and power. His hard working assistant had been able to call the manager of the Eiffel tour and arrange an after-hours trip to the top deck.

Annie scanned the city, a sense of magic weaving around her as she contemplated the buzz of traffic, the well known landmarks etched against an inky black sky.

“Will you dance with me?”

She tilted her head up to his. “But, there’s no music.”

His smile was small. “Who needs music?” He held his hands out and she slid into them. Slowly, he began to move, keeping her close.

Annie rested her cheek on his shoulder. She wanted to stay wrapped in that simple, sweet moment of perfection for the rest of her days.

“How long are you staying in England for?” She murmured, her eyes closed, her body exhausted, her mind heavy, her heart full.

Giac ran his fingers down her spine and rested them at the top of her bottom. The smallest amount of pressure brought her most intimate core into contact with his erection. She gasped, her cheeks flushed, to realize he was so turned on by her. “The ceremony is next Friday, at Windsor castle.”

“Oh.” She had, somehow, completely forgotten about the honor he was to be awarded. “And then you’re going?”

He stopped dancing. With one forefinger, he lifted her chin. Their eyes locked. “No.”

“You’re staying?”

“It depends. I’ll stay as long as I have a reason to.”

Her heart turned over. She wanted so badly to hope against hope that this could be different. That this time could work for them. She loved him. She always had. But trusting him felt idiotic after what they’d been through.

She lowered her head, nuzzling against his chest. “I want to go back to the hotel.”

“Tired?” He teased.

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

He had planned to take Annie for a cocktail at Jules Verne on the way down, then to a real nightclub to dance the night away. But time alone with Annie was preferable to just about anything he could have organized.

Back in the hotel, Annie felt suddenly uncertain. How was it possible to forget the past? She watched Giac surreptitiously, as he poured scotch into two tumblers. Annie didn’t drink scotch, but she’d accepted the offer simply to buy herself some breathing space.

His room was a far cry from hers. Then again, what had she expected? It was, of course, the penthouse. Far from having a bed in the middle of the living space, he had several bedrooms, a full kitchen, an elegant lounge area, and a beautiful spa bath she’d glimpsed when she’d washed her face to freshen up.

She kept chasing her dilemma around in her mind, and she couldn’t work out what the heck she wanted. Oh, she knew she wanted Giac, but she wasn’t certain she’d ever be able to forgive him. Would that simmering resentment overflow one day, and ruin whatever they could build? Was she brave enough to take a chance?

He looked up, in the midst of placing the lid back on the decanter. His eyes locked to hers and she felt an electric charge flow through her body.

Who was she kidding? She had no choice. Where Giac was concerned, she never really had.

“I think I must have lost my mind,” she murmured, curling her legs up beside her as he handed her the glass of amber liquid.

“How so,
cara?”

He sat beside her, stretching his long legs out in front of them.

“I’m really enjoying myself.” Her smile was shy. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Why is that ridiculous?” He asked, his handsome face angled to hers, his eyes carefully watching her.

“I thought I hated you!” She shook her head, staring down into the glass. “I, at least, thought I was over you.”

“Annie,” he ran a hand over her dark hair. “If it makes you feel any better, I never got over you either.”

A tiny pin prick threatened to deflate her pleasure. “I don’t think your wife would appreciate that,” she whispered.

“Ex-wife. Soon to be, ex-wife.”

Annie bit down on her lip. “It’s really over between the two of you?”

“Absolutely.” He put his scotch down and came to kneel before her. “I wouldn’t do this to you again. It’s the only reason I waited until now to come back to you.”

Her eyes assumed a faraway look. “That day in the boardroom…”. Had it only been two weeks ago? She shook her head. “I wasn’t even sure you remembered me.”

His expression was filled with barely concealed surprise. “You were the sole purpose of my coming to Amicus,
bella.
”

“You didn’t seem to recognize me.”

He skimmed his palms over her thighs, marveling at her soft, smooth skin. “You had changed a lot,” he conceded. “It surprised me.”

“I had to change after you,” she whispered, not looking directly at him. “I needed to grow up.”

“No.” He shook his head. “You were perfect just the way you were.”

“Giac,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I want to do this.” She screwed up her courage. “I never did stop loving you, you know. But I’ve never been as hurt as I was that day. Realizing what you must have thought of me was just… awful.”

Giac pushed to his knees, so their heads were level. He kissed her, wishing his body could say what his mouth could not. “There are some things I cannot discuss.” He grimaced, running his hands up her sides, and resting them just beneath her breasts. “Carrie and I were together a long time before I met you. We went through a lot together. She gave up a lot to be with me.” Annie felt ice trickle through her veins. “I was blindsided by what you made me feel. Totally unprepared for it. The only thing I thought about you, Miss Carlton, was how lucky I was to have met you.”

She kissed him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She couldn’t think about what he’d shared with his wife. How long they’d been together. How much they’d meant to each other. It was too devastating to contemplate, and so she put it out of her mind, and instead thought about how lucky she was to have had a second chance with Giac. She didn’t know if it would last. She didn’t know if she’d be able to ignore the past forever. But in that moment, she didn’t want to be anywhere else, or with anyone else.

Gently, he eased the straps of her dress off her shoulders, pressing his lips to the skin that was revealed there. He nipped at her flesh with his teeth, and rubbed his thumbs in circles over her back. She sighed as he eased her backwards on the leather couch and came to lie on top of her. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured against her neck, as he slid her dress down lower still, freeing her breasts from the black lace bra she wore.

He took one of her pert nipples into his mouth, and with his hand, he felt the weight of the other breast, pulling at her nipple until it was almost painful. “So beautiful,” he repeated, teasing her with his tongue. “Does it still drive you wild when I do this?” He wondered aloud, removing her dress and briefs quickly. He lowered his head to the apex of dark hairs at the top of her thighs, and ran his tongue over her opening. She arched her back in fevered response. “Good,” he said with a small smile. “I always loved how much you liked to be kissed here.” He moved his tongue against her again, this time, he kept her legs separated with hands on her thighs. When it became too much, and she tried to move away, he shook his head. “No,
bella
. I have dreamed of this a long time. Let your body be in my hands. Let me remind you what we mean to each other.”

She collapsed back against the sofa, her breathing labored as he moved his tongue against her most sensitive skin. A dull throbbing began low in her body and she moaned as she felt the start of an orgasm forming. It wasn’t enough though. She needed him.