Bedded by the Italian Playboy (5 page)

How
perplexing.

“I
should probably just head back home,” she whispered. “I can ring my dad from
the station and ask him to buy me a new ticket.”

She
was going to leave? Before he got to know her better? Before he could sample
her charms?
Unacceptable.
Dominic
knew then that he had no choice but to make her stay. He wanted her exactly
where she was and when he wanted he got. That was how it worked.

“Why
would you do such a thing?” he demanded. “You are here for a long weekend you
said.”

Her
lip continued to quiver and her hands actually shook a little in his. “But I
have no clothes. No toiletries. Nothing but what I’m wearing and my only money
is in my jacket pocket. It isn’t enough to buy new things,” she said softly.
“After all those months of looking forward to this…I’m so stupid….”

“I
will buy these items,” he said, satisfaction filling him now that the solution
was obvious. He would spoil her and it would make up for the whole situation
which in reality was all his fault. He would be making amends he thought,
making her happy, making her smile again. And as an added bonus, she would be
here, with him, exactly where he wanted her.

“Excuse
me?”

He
smiled down at her, brushed his thumbs over her perfect little hands again. “I
will replace all you lost and you will stay here for your trip, in this suite.”

Rachel
pulled her hands from his as if scalded, ceasing their contact, and shook her
head quickly. “Absolutely not. I could never allow you to do that.”

“It
is my fault you lost your things in the first place,” he reminded her.

“Yes
but…”

“Had
you not been so confused you would have remembered the bag would you not? And
your hotel? It will not compare to this one.”

“No
but….”

He
shrugged. “Well, then. It will be my way of making an apology, and you will get
to enjoy your trip just as you’d planned.”

“But,
Dominic,” she said, “I could never afford this hotel in real life and you
buying me things…it does not feel right at all. My mom would say….”

“What?”
he asked. “What would your mom say?”

“That
women who let men buy them things… well, there’s a name for those sort of women
and I’m not one of them!”

Her
voice rose on the last words and Dominic had to take a deep, steadying breath.
His cock was pulsing, his balls ached. He wanted to throw her on the bed and
fuck her until she screamed. To watch her eyes widen in pleasure, to feel her
curls brushing over his chest. She was shy, modest, demure…she was everything
he’d thought women these days had long since stopped being. Physically perfect
and her personality seemed that it too was going to match up. Fate had indeed
given him something special.

She
was going nowhere he thought. Not now, not for quite some time. Not until he
discovered every little thing there was to discover about her, and certainly
not until he made his way in-between those creamy thighs. Rachel’s fate was
already decided he resolved, and he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe his was
too.

Chapter Five

The
colors on the bed curtains were so rich, so decadent. Rachel lay on the massive
four-poster bed and just took them all in. They seemed to make up a swirly sort
of pattern that defied order. She narrowed her eyes and vaguely saw a dog, or
maybe it was a horse, but the moment she relaxed her eyes the shape disappeared
and the colors came back into focus. She reached out a hand and took the
material between her fingers. It was sheer and yet still the designer, whoever
they were, had managed to embroider the patterns on. Rachel was intrigued and
yet she was a little overwhelmed. “You’re too beautiful,” she whispered.
“Almost unreal.” Unsurprisingly the curtains did not answer back.

Sighing,
Rachel turned over onto her stomach, propped her chin on one of the pillows,
and eyed the rest of the bedroom. It was dominated by the bed but various
pieces of furniture were dotted around. A large dresser, a winged armchair, the
very one Dominic had sat on. She swallowed unsteadily as she remembered him
sitting so close to her. He seemed to be even more imposing here than he was
out on the street. Taller, more muscular, more…commanding. Rachel had no idea
how to deal with it or begin to understand how he made her feel the way he did.

Hot.

Nervous.

Confused.

Around
him she couldn’t seem to keep the blush from her cheeks or her hands still.
They shook constantly and it was all so ridiculous because, without even
trying, Rachel knew she was giving him the exact impression he would most
desire. He liked his women to be shy, biddable, and most of all, he liked them
innocent. Rachel was practically made for him! In truth she was everything that
he desired, everything except her background. She sighed again, wondering what
he would think if he knew about that background. If he ever found out the real
reason she was here.

To steal his money.

“Nothing
good, Rach,” she said aloud. “He’d chuck you out faster than last week’s
rubbish.”

With
a frown she stood up, moved through to the
second
room—bigger, in fact, than her entire flat—and over to the bar area just off to
the side of the huge dining table. The concealed mini-fridge was stocked full.
Water, of course, in little glass bottles that were icy cold. About a half
dozen different juices with fruits Rachel didn’t even recognize. And then there
were mini chocolate bars, also cold and so rich she’d almost moaned when she
tried one.

Dominic
had urged her to. “Everything here is for your own use,” he’d said. “And it
would please me to see you use it.”

“Why?”
she’d asked.

“To
ease my guilt perhaps?” he’d said. “Or maybe just to make you smile.”

She’d
shivered at those words, a combination of heat and ice-cold fingers travelling
over her body. Not just because of his words but because it seemed as though
Dominic felt in her debt and that could only be a good thing, right? She’d
accepted his offer to stay in the hotel and even his offer to replace her
clothes, all with a demure shake of her head and protestations he cut off as
soon as they formed. He’d sent a woman, call me Lucinda, to her suite and
Rachel had explained the whole situation to her. The older woman had gasped,
sighed and then made an extensive list of all the things Rachel might need for
her stay in the city. Rachel had looked the list over, halved it and then
passed it back. That was over an hour ago and now it was just a question of
waiting for those things to arrive.

“They’ll
be here before bed time,” Lucinda had said.

She
didn’t doubt the woman’s word. Likely they’d arrive any moment and then she
could shower away the grime of the
London
pavement and dress in something other than her now ruined outfit.

“What
then?” she wondered aloud as she poured herself another glass of ice water.
“What will happen then?”

The mission.

Rachel
nodded inwardly as she took a sip of the water. She would start the mission and
she’d start it feeling nervy and excited and, weirdly, kind of fine. Her
headache, at least, was gone. Her palms were feeling much better after she
rubbed some cream into them. Physically she was all good, ready to get started,
and to do that she needed to see Dominic again, but more than that, she needed
other people to see her
with
him. It
was all good and well picking his pocket but pointless if someone stopped her
when she headed off to his office to help herself to his cash!

It
was all about building the right persona.

Playing
the game.

Working
the angles.

Rachel
played back her conversation with Dominic and marveled, as if from a distance,
at the lies she’d told. In the end, though, it had been far easier than she’d
imagined because, while she sat in the amazing suite whilst the doctor checked
her over and fed her painkillers, at last the feelings of outrage that Penny
and Lyra spoke of so often had come to her also. There she was surrounded by
extravagance. A bed so soft she practically sank into it. Fabrics that probably
cost more per square inch than most normal people made in a week. And all the
while, just a few miles down the road people—people she knew—lived in abject
poverty. Families couldn’t afford to eat, to pay their bills, to put the
heating on. They literally lived hand to mouth. And here, in this plush hotel,
the rich could look at golden walls and see the light sparkling off crystal
chandeliers.

It
was unfair.

It
was immoral.

Dominic
Rimeria had billions of pounds in his various bank accounts. Billions! Of
course she should take some of that money from him. It was a miniscule amount
that she needed in the grand scheme of things. He wouldn’t even notice it and
yet it would make such a difference to so many people’s lives. She could do
this! She
would
do this! And if her
stomach rolled and her hands shook and she found herself unable to look into
his eyes without blushing, then so be it.

You’re attracted to him.
The
words echoed through her mind in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lyra’s.

“Maybe
I am,” she said aloud. “But I’ll just have to deal with it.”

Take a step back.
It
was Penny’s voice this time.
Keep your
distance.

 
Yes. She could do that. She could control the
nerves. So long as she didn’t maintain eye contact or get too close, she could
deal with the fact that he made her whole body feel like it was on fire. And if
that matched exactly what he would like to see, it was just an added bonus.
Because by the time he started trying to knock down the defenses she was
putting up, she hoped to be gone. And she wouldn’t have to deal with the
inevitable fallout from their attraction, because, oh boy, would there be fall
out.

Rachel
knew it instinctively.

She
took another swig of water, her mind whizzing in a million directions trying to
imagine what would happen if somehow Dominic managed to seduce her before she
got his cash.
Nothing good, Rach
, she
thought. She lacked the experience to know how to put a halt to a seduction as
thorough as she was sure his would be. She would, in the words of her sisters,
be royally fucked.

 
A knock sounded on the wide door that led to
the private corridor she’d walked just an hour earlier and Rachel exhaled the
breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Placing her empty glass on the bar,
Rachel smoothed down her dirty dress and moved forward to answer it. Would it
be Dominic? Her heart pounded at the thought and she had to give herself a
little inward shake.
Yep, fallout.

But
it wasn’t, and Rachel wasn’t sure if she was thankful for that or not. Instead
of the imposing Italian who played haywire with her pulse, two couriers stood
waiting, their hands full of bags. She looked at the two men and then at the
bags, far more than she’d expected. Clearly Lucinda had not taken her halving
of the list into account at all.

“Where
would you like these, miss?” one of the men asked.

Rachel
waved at the couches just off from the bar area, stepped back and watched as
the men placed the piles of bags and boxes down. They were very careful. Boxes
were stacked in tiers, bags in rows. Nothing was placed in any way that Rachel
could find fault with, not that she ever would, but likely these men were used
to difficult, spoiled rich girls.

“Thank
you so much,” she said. “I appreciate this.”

The
men both nodded. “There is also this.”

The
second man held out his hand in which a small box with
“Blackberry” written across it sat. Rachel gasped and took the
box. “Wow, if this is what I think it is, thank you.”

“Of
course. Is there anything else we can do for you?” the same man asked.

Rachel
shook her head, thanked them again, and both men nodded as they left the room,
their manner striking her as a little odd. Only when Rachel shut the door
behind them did she realize why it had felt strange. They were waiting on her.
They had that exact look she herself had perfected over the years. Head down,
eyes on a spot in the distance, polite smile, never forget your place.

She
frowned and sat down in the midst of the boxes and bags. Though she knew she
was only playing a part, playing the game, it felt…wrong to her. Lucinda had
been brisk and playful, not subservient, but those men? Rachel sighed and
opened the Blackberry box. They reminded her of so many moments in her life and
she did not like it. Did not like them thinking she belonged here, that she was
just another rich girl being waited on. That wasn’t her! She was far more than
that and in no way at all must she forget it.

A
sudden and unexpected spurt of anger had her kicking one of the bags aside. A
length of pink silk slithered out of the side and Rachel glared at it. Dominic
thought nothing of spending all this money. No, not spending it, she thought as
she lifted the Blackberry from its case, wasting it. Who needed all this for a
freaking weekend?