VITTORIO'S LOVER (Vittorio Series) (26 page)

For the first time in months, Raffaele was filled with the warmth of hope.

                                                     ***

Jenesa considered pulling her hair up into chignon but decided there wasn’t enough time. Grady had called earlier to say he
’d stayed too long at work and was running late but not to worry, he was sending a car around to pick her up at nine as planned. Checking herself in the mirror, Jenesa grimaced at the woman staring back at her. Grady was right; she needed to get out more often. Her skin was so pale she looked like death warmed over. 

She’d purchased a new dress especially for this evening
but her bouts with depression had caused a serious lack of appetite and the drastic loss of weight made her collar bone too prominent. The gentle slope of her shoulders was gone, replaced by harder angles, and that plump fullness of cleavage that once existed was gone too. Her waist narrowed into hips that had lost their flare, and for the first time since reaching puberty, the round softness of her belly had melted into nothing to reveal hip bones that looked alien to her.  

She looked like a million other young women who over dieted and folded to the pressures of a society that dictated you weren’t beautiful unless your bones protruded over skin that carried no fat content. This was the figure Jenesa had always coveted, that gaunt catwalk model
physique that men seemed so drawn to. She wasn’t cushy anymore, which should have made her ecstatic. Except…she didn’t like this new look. It wasn’t her, and Jenesa realized that the old adage ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ couldn’t have been more true. 

Raffaele had enjoyed the fullness of her curves, molding his hands to breasts she’d always thought were too large. She could almost hear the huskiness in his voice as he proclaimed they were pure perfection.
He’d even loved the extra layer of padding on her belly and hips, touching her with reverence while his eyes grew dark with desire.  Visions of what had followed tugged at the inner muscles that longed to feel his rigid flesh encased in their heat. A low moan hitched in her throat. Even now Raffaele had the power to seduce her body into readiness.

Abruptly, Jenesa turned away from the mirror. She couldn’t do this, not tonight when Grady was going to so much trouble to make sure she enjoyed herself.
It really was very sweet of him; she owed it to Grady to leave her morose mood behind and make an honest effort to have fun. Tonight he was doing to dine with the old Jenesa, the pre-Raffaele Jenesa that laughed at corny jokes and didn’t mind making a fool of herself on the dance floor because she had two left feet.   

She was in high spirits when the driver Grady ha
d sent pulled into the driveway and was glad she hadn’t dallied getting ready because he was twenty minutes early.  Grabbing her purse and the black beaded waist jacked that went with her new slinky spaghetti strap dress, she hurried out the door and greeted the driver with a warm smile. Settling back against the plush leather seat, Jenesa felt like a princess on her way to a ball. The sleek Rolls Royce purred like a kitten as the driver expertly maneuvered through traffic and onto the highway. 

As they left the lights of the city behind, it occurred to her that she had no idea where
he was taking her. She’d naturally assumed they would meet up at the restaurant, but when the driver turned off the highway and into a residential area, she wondered if they were picking Grady up at his house. She’d never been there, of course, but judging by the size of the houses in the neighborhood they were driving through, he made a very good living. 

Jenesa peered out the tinted windows when the car
veered right and then stopped for a few moments, inching forward again as two massive wrought iron gates began to swing open. The driveway seemed to go on forever but that was probably because she had suddenly developed a case of jittery nerves.  Dear God, had she become such a recluse that she suffered from anxiety whenever she strayed too far from home? Well, it was too late to change her mind, Jenesa thought, as they followed the curve of the circular driveway and came to a stop. 

She had just enough time to take in the huge white pillars
that stood like sentinels on either side of the front door before the driver came around to help her out.  Jenesa was overwhelmed by the regal beauty of the manor and yet she couldn’t picture Grady living here. He just seemed more the type to own a beach house or even a contemporary bachelor pad in the city. Absently taking the arm the driver offered her, Jenesa tried to gather her wits as they approached the door.

It was opened by
an elderly man, formally dressed in a dark suit and tie, who greeted her with a slight bow and asked her to follow him. The interior was every bit as impressive as the outside and it was hard to keep her head from swiveling from side to side to take it all in. Her heels made a sharp clicking sound as they made their way down a long hallway, past a sunken living room lavishly decorated with expensive furniture and priceless paintings. As they entered a smaller, less formal sitting area, she couldn’t help wonder if she’d ever really known Grady Thorpe at all.

Jenesa’s heart gave a little flutter as the door closed behind her
and she was left all alone. The room was dimly lit but there was a fire going in the large fireplace off to the right that lent a warm, cozy atmosphere to the place. She moved closer to the loveseat in front of the fireplace and noticed a silver bucket on the coffee table that contained ice and a bottle of champagne. On either side of the bucket were delicate, long stemmed champagne flutes that begged to be filled with the bubbly liquid.

The bottom dropped out of her stomach.
Had Grady misconstrued her acceptance of dinner and dancing as a willingness to move towards a more intimate relationship? Recalling his laughter earlier at her suggestion that he secretly had feelings for her, Jenesa found it difficult to believe he considered her as more than a good friend. So why go to all the trouble of creating a romantic mood when he knew there was no possibility of their relationship progressing beyond what it was right now?

Jenesa gasped as a rustle of movement on the far side of the room startled her.  She whirled around and spied a dark figure in the shadows just beyond the glow from the fireplace and let out a sigh of relief.
Grady was going to pay dearly for giving her such a fright!

“Is this your idea of fun, scaring me half to death?” she demanded, tossing her purse and jacket on the loveseat. “And just what are we celebrating anyway,” Jenesa motioned to the champagne, “the fact you pried me out of my house or that I’ve gone a whole day without bursting into tears and crying on your shoulder?”

Receiving nothing but silence from the corner, Jenesa felt the first prickles of fear on the back of her neck. Taking a few tentative steps forward, she could just make out the outline of his large frame.  Grady was tall, but not
that
tall, and he wasn’t quite as broad in the shoulders and…good lord, had she gotten into the wrong car and arrived at a stranger’s house? No wonder the man wasn’t saying a word; he was just as stunned as she was to discover a horrible mistake had been made.

“I’m terribly sorry,” she said with a nervous laugh. “When your driver arrived at my house, I just assumed it was the ride my friend sent for me. Obviously, he had the wrong address and I certainly don’t want your real date to think that you’re entertaining another woman and…oh, dear, my friend is going to think I stood him up
! That’s not your problem, of course, and I truly am sorry for intruding. Anyway,” Jenesa continued to babble as she backed up to the loveseat and felt behind her for her jacket and purse, “I’ll just be on my way. No need to call a cab,” she called over her shoulder as she clutched her belongings to her chest and hurried towards the door.

“
Please…stay with me,” he pleaded softly.

The
deep baritone voice put a halt to her hasty exit. The jacket and purse slipped from her hands when he repeated the words, sending a sliver of excitement coursing through her veins. Jenesa whirled around, her heart jack hammering against her ribs as he emerged from his hiding place and closed the distance between them. A maelstrom of emotions flickered across his face, but Jenesa was too busy struggling with the turbulence inside her own mind and body to interpret what he was thinking or feeling.

Running wasn’t an option; her wobbly knees would have given out after the first step. Even if her legs
were
capable of functioning, she wouldn’t get very far in the spiky heels she was wearing. Hysterical laughter bubbled up in her throat at the vision of clopping along the hallway and bursting out the front door, only to go flying ass-over-teakettle down the stairs. She’d be lucky if she didn’t break her neck! Perhaps that would be a blessing after all, she thought, as Raffaele drew nearer. 

Jenesa moistened her lips
, painfully aware that Raffaele was towering over her like a dark angel. She stared at his chest, unable to lift her head. That look of cold disdain had nearly killed her once, how could she bear to look into his eyes and see it again? Wasn’t it enough that he’d callously ripped her heart out and turned her into an emotional wreck? Her life was an arctic wasteland because of Raffaele Vittorio, what more could he take from her that he hadn’t already been destroyed?

Your dignity? Your pride?

Dignity and pride – what a laugh that was. Jenesa had been stripped of her dignity when she’d cried and pleaded with him to hear her side of the story. And what pride was there to hang onto when she was trembling like a frightened rabbit and didn’t even have the courage to look him in the eyes? She was ashamed of herself for being so weak, ashamed that she still loved him so much after he’d treated her with such ruthless cruelty. But most of all, she was ashamed of the way she ached to be held in his arms, to feel his body pressed against hers as he devoured her mouth with the same fiery passion that had consumed them both back on the island.

Somehow
Jenesa found the strength to heave the memories away. It had taken her six months to reach a point where she didn’t cry at the drop of a hat, what right did Raffaele have to rake all the raw emotions back to the surface? A spark of anger shoved its way past the hurt and despair and uninvited desire. Possessing wealth and power didn’t entitle him to keep her here against her will just so he could verbally abuse her again. Raffaele deliberately tricked her into coming here, but how had he known she would go with his driver without question? The only way he could have been confident of her cooperation was if…

Jenesa’s head snapped up. “How did you know Grady was sending a car for me?”

“He told me.”

“He…he couldn’t
have.”

“How else would I have known?” Raffaele countered.

“I don’t believe you. I want to talk to Grady right now. Where is he?”

“I imagine he’s at the restaurant wondering why you stood him up.”

Jenesa cringed inwardly. What else could poor Grady think when she didn’t show up and his driver informed him that he’d gone to her house but she wasn’t there? Raffaele was rotten to the core to do that to someone who was supposedly his friend.  Well, she certainly wasn’t going to allow him to get away with it. She may not know which restaurant Grady was at, but she
did
know his cell phone number and was going to set the record straight this instant.

“I’m calling him,” she said
, barely keeping her temper in check. Jenesa turned around and spotted her purse lying on the floor a few feet away and went to pick it up, but Raffaele reached it before she did. “Give it to me,” she demanded.

“Not until we’ve had
a chance to talk.”

“Talk? No thanks, Mr. Vittorio. The last time we
talked
, you got to unload a pile of vile accusations and hurl insults and then threw me out without having the decency to let me explain.”

“I know,” Raffaele said solemnly, “
and I am truly sorry. If I could take it all back, I swear on my life, I would.”

“But you can’t.” 

God, how it hurt to acknowledge he couldn’t undo the damage he’d done, because deep down inside, she
wanted
to forgive him. And maybe she could in time, but how could she ever trust him not to hurt her that way again? Or was that even what he was suggesting? Did Raffaele bring her here because he wanted her back or because he was looking for absolution?

“I don’t want to talk to you, Raffaele. Now, please…give me
my purse so I can call Grady. I…I’ll tell him one of my sisters needed to see me and I forgot to call him.  He doesn’t need to know about any of this; it would only cause a rift in your friendship.”

“If I let you call him, will you stay and talk to me afterwards?”

Jenesa averted her gaze. He looked so…unsure of himself. Maybe he really was sorry for the things he’d said and couldn’t forgive himself unless she forgave him first.  Did he deserve her forgiveness? Probably not…okay, definitely not. But if promising to talk with him was the only way she could get Raffaele to return her phone, then she really had no choice.

“
All right, I’ll stay. I’ll give you thirty minutes to say what you have to say, but I want your word of honor that when the time is up, you’ll have your driver take me home and that you’ll never make any attempt to contact me again.”