The Truth Behind his Touch (18 page)

‘I don’t see the relevance of the question.’ Nor could he explain how it was that a beautiful, intellectually unchallenging woman could be less of a distraction than the other way around. But that was indeed the case as far as he was concerned. He had not been programmed for distraction. Somewhere along the line, that hard-wiring had just failed.

‘No. It’s not relevant.’ She looked away from him and he was savagely tempted to force himself into her line of vision and bring her back to his presence.

Instead, he slung his holdall over his shoulder and began heading towards the front door.

Caroline forced herself to stay put, but it was hard because her disobedient feet wanted to fly behind him and cling, keep him there with a few more questions. She wanted to ask him what he ever saw in her. She wasn’t beautiful, so was there something else that attracted him?
She wanted to prise anything favourable out of him but she bit back the words before they could tumble out of her mouth.

She thought of this so-called distancing that would have to take place and immediately missed the physical contact and the easy camaraderie. And the laughter. And everything else that had hooked her in.

She heard the quiet click of the front door shutting and the apartment suddenly felt very big and very, very empty.

With her mind in complete turmoil, she had no idea how she was ever going to get to sleep, but in actual fact she fell asleep easily and woke to thin grey light filtering through the crack in the heavy curtains. It took her a few seconds for the links in her mind to join up. Giancarlo wasn’t there. The bed was empty. It hadn’t been slept in. He was gone. For a few seconds more, she replayed events of the evening before. She was a spectator at a film, condemned to watch it even though she knew the ending and hated it.

The chauffeur was there promptly at nine, and Caroline was waiting for him, her bags packed. Right up until the last minute, she half-hoped to see Giancarlo appear. She guiltily allowed herself the fantasy of him appearing with a huge bouquet of flowers, red roses, full of apologies and possibly with a ring in a small box.

In the absence of any of that, she spent both the drive and the brief helicopter ride sickeningly scared at the very real possibility that he had left the apartment to seek solace in someone else’s arms.

Would he do that? She didn’t know. But then, how well did she know him, after all?

She had sworn that she had seen the complete man, but she had been living in a bubble. The Giancarlo she had known was not the same Giancarlo who dated supermodels
because they were undemanding and because they looked good on his arm.

She felt a pang of agonising emptiness as finally, with both the drive and the helicopter ride behind her, the villa at last approached, cresting the top of the cliff like an imperious master ruling the waves beneath it.

What they had shared was over. She had been so busy dwelling on that that she had given scant thought as to what she would actually say to Alberto when she saw him.

Now, as she stepped out of the taxi which had taken her from the helipad close by to the house, her thoughts shifted into another gear.

They had as left the happy couple. How easy was it going to be to convince Alberto that in the space of only a few hours that had all begun unravelling?

As she frantically grappled with the prospect of yet more half-truths, and before she could slot the spare key which she had been given when they first arrived at the villa into the lock, the front door was pulled open and she was confronted with the sight of a fairly flabbergasted Alberto.

Caroline smiled weakly as he peered around her in search of Giancarlo.

‘What’s going on? Shouldn’t you be in Milan on the roof terraces of the Duomo with the rest of the tourists, making a nuisance of yourself with your camera and your guide book and getting in the way of the locals?’ He frowned keenly at her. ‘Something you want to tell me?’ He stood aside. ‘I was just on my way out for a little stroll in the gardens, to take a breather from the harridan, but from the looks of it we need to talk …’

Giancarlo looked at his watch for the third time. He was battle-hardened when it came to meetings, but this particular one seemed to be dragging its feet. It was now nearly
four in the afternoon and they had been at it since six-thirty that morning, a breakfast meeting where strong coffee had made sure all participants were raring to go. There was a hell of a lot to get through.

Unfortunately, his mind was almost entirely preoccupied with the woman he had left the previous evening.

He scowled at the memory and distractedly began tapping his pen on the conference table until all eyes were focused on him in anticipation of something very important being said. This was just the sort of awestruck respect to which he had become accustomed over time and which he now found a little irritating. Didn’t any of these people have minds of their own? Was there a single one present who would dare risk contradicting anything he had to say? Or did he just have to tap a pen inadvertently to have them gape at him and fall silent?

He pushed his papers aside and stood up. Several halfrose and then resumed their seats.

Having spent the day in the grip of indecision, with his mind caught up in the last conversation he’d had with Caroline, Giancarlo had now reached a decision, and was already beginning to regain some of his usual self-assured buoyancy.

Step one was to announce to the assembled crew that he would be leaving, which was met with varying degrees of shock and surprise. Giancarlo walking out of a meeting was unheard of.

‘Roberto.’ He looked at the youngest member of the team, a promising lad who had no fear of long hours. ‘This is your big chance for centre stage. You’re well filled-in on the details of this deal. I will be contactable on my mobile, but I’m trusting you can handle the technicalities. Naturally, nothing will proceed without my final say-so.’

Which made at least one person extremely happy.

Step two involved a call to his secretary. Within minutes he was ready for the trip back to the coast. The helicopter was available but Giancarlo chose instead the longer option of the train. He needed to think.

Once on the train he checked his mobile for messages, stashed his computer bag away, because the last thing he needed was the distraction of work, and then gazed out of the window as the scenery flashed past him in an ever-changing riot of colour.

He was feeling better and better about his decision to leave Milan. Halfway through his trip, he reached the decision that he would start being more proactive in training up people who could stand in for him. Yes, he had a solid, dependable and capable network of employees, but he was still far too much the figurehead of the company, the one they all turned to for direction. Hell, he hadn’t had time out for years!

It was dark by the time he arrived at the villa, and as he stood in front of it he paused to look at its perfect positioning and exquisite architectural detail. As getaways went, it was one that had seldom been used. He had just never seemed to find the down time. Getaways had been things for other people.

He let himself in and headed straight for the breezy patio at the front of the house. He knew the routine. His father would be outside, enjoying the fresh air, which he claimed to find more invigorating than the stuffiness of the lakes.

‘Must be the salt!’ he had declared authoritatively on day one, and Giancarlo had laughed and asked for medical proof to back up that sweeping statement.

It was a minute or two before Alberto was alerted to Giancarlo’s shadowy figure approaching, and a few more seconds for Caroline to realise that they were no longer alone.

They had not switched on the bank of outside lights, preferring instead the soothing calm of the evening sky as the colours of the day faded into greys, reds and purples before being extinguished by black.

‘Giancarlo!’ Caroline was the first to break the silence. She stood up, shocked to see him silhouetted in front of her, tall and even more dramatically commanding because he was backlit, making it impossible for her to clearly see his face.

‘We weren’t expecting you.’ Alberto looked shrewdly between them and waved Caroline back down. ‘No need to stand, my girl. You’re not in the presence of royalty.’

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Since when do I need a reason to come to my own house?’

‘I just thought that in the light of what’s happened you would remain in Milan.’

‘In the light of what’s happened?’

‘I’ve told your father everything, Giancarlo. There’s no need to pretend any longer.’

A thick silence greeted this flat statement and it stretched on and on until Caroline could feel herself begin to perspire with nervous tension. She wished he would move out to the patio. Anything but stand there like a sentinel, watching them both with a stillness that sent a shiver through her.

Caroline glanced over to Alberto for some assistance and was relieved when he rose to the occasion.

‘Of course, I was deeply upset by this turn of events,’ Alberto said sadly. ‘I’m an old man with health problems, and perhaps I placed undue pressure on the both of you to feign something just for the purpose of keeping me happy. If that was the case, son, then it was inexcusable.’

‘Aren’t you being a little over-dramatic, Alberto?’

Giancarlo stepped out to the patio and shoved his hands in his pockets.

‘There is nothing over-dramatic about admitting to being a misguided old fool, Giancarlo. I can only hope that my age and frailty excuse me.’ He stood up and gripped the arm of the chair, steadying himself and flapping Caroline away when she rose to help him.

‘I’m old, but I’m not dead yet,’ he said with a return of his feisty spirit. ‘Now I suppose you two should do some talking. Sort out arrangements. I believe you mentioned to me that you would be thinking of heading back to foreign shores, my girl?’

Caroline frantically tried to remember whether she had said any such thing. Had she? Perhaps she had voiced that thought out loud. It certainly hadn’t been one playing on her mind. In fact, she hadn’t really considered her next move at all, although now that the suggestion was out in the open didn’t it make horrible sense? Why would she want to stick around when the guy who had broken her heart would always be there on the sidelines, popping in to see his father?

Besides, surely she had a life to lead?

‘Er …’

‘In fact, it might be appropriate for us to leave the coast, come to think of it. Head back to the lakes. We wouldn’t want to take advantage of your hospitality, given the circumstances.’

‘Papa, please. Sit down.’

‘And I could have sworn that you two had chemistry. Just goes to show what a hopeful fool I was.’

‘We got along fine.’ Caroline waded in before Alberto could really put his foot in it. She had confessed everything to her employer, including how she felt about his son. Those were details with which he had been sworn to secrecy. ‘We … we … We’re just … I’m sure we’ll remain friends.’

Giancarlo threw her a ferocious scowl and she wilted.

So, not even friendship. It had been an impractical suggestion, anyway. There was no way she could remain friends with him. It would always hurt far too much.

‘I’ll toddle off now. Tessa will probably be fretting. Damn woman thinks I’m going off the rails if I’m not in bed by ten.’

Mesmerised by Giancarlo’s unforgiving figure, Caroline was only dimly aware of Alberto making his way towards the sitting-room by the kitchen, where Tessa was watching her favourite soap on the television. Alberto would join her. Caroline was convinced that he was becoming hooked on it even though he had always been the first to decry anything as lightweight as a soap opera.

‘So,’ Giancarlo drawled, slowly covering the space between them until he was standing right in front of her.

‘I know I said I wouldn’t say anything to Alberto, but I got here and it all just poured out. I’m sorry. He was okay with it. We underestimated him. I don’t understand why you came back, Giancarlo.’

‘Disappointed, are you?’ he asked fiercely. He stepped away from her and walked towards the wooden railing to lean heavily against it and stare out at the glittering silver ocean below.

He turned round to face her.

‘Just surprised. I thought you had so much to do in Milan.’

‘And if I hadn’t shown up here tonight, would you have disappeared back to England without saying a word?’

‘I don’t know,’ Caroline confessed truthfully. She bowed her head and stared down at her feet.

‘Well, at least that’s more honest than the last lot of assurances you gave me—when you said that you’d say nothing to my father. I can’t talk to you here. I keep expecting
Alberto to pop out at any minute and join in the conversation.’

‘What’s there to talk about?’

‘Walk with me on the beach. Please.’

‘I’d rather not. Now that your father has no expectations of us getting married or anything of the sort, we need to put what we had behind us and move on.’

‘Is that what you want?’ Giancarlo asked roughly. ‘If I recall, you said that, were it not for Alberto, you would consider us … Well, Alberto is now out of the picture.’

‘There’s more to it than that,’ Caroline mumbled. The breeze lifted her hair, cooled her hot face. Beneath her, the sound of the waves crashing against rocks was as soothing as an orchestral beat, although she didn’t feel in the least soothed.

‘I need more than just a physical relationship, Giancarlo, and I suppose that was what I finally faced up to when your ex-girlfriend paid a visit to your apartment. She’s reality. She’s the life you lead. I was just a step out of time. When you decided, for whatever reason, to return to Lake Como to see your father, you were doing something totally out of the ordinary. I was just part and parcel of your time out. It was fun but I want more than to just be someone’s temporary time-out girl.’

‘Don’t tell me we’re not suited to one another. I can’t accept that.’

‘Because you just can’t imagine someone turning you down? I believe you when you say that you dumped Lucia—and yet there she was, a woman who could snap her fingers and have anyone she wanted, ready to do whatever it took to get you back.’