Uncovering the Silveri Secret (7 page)

He gave her a brief glance and turned back to the task at hand. ‘If you like.’

She watched from below as he shaved some wood off the casement with a plane. The muscles of his wrists and forearms bunched as he worked. He looked strong and fit and every inch a man in his prime. She tried not to think about what she had seen that morning but it was impossible to rid her mind of the image of his aroused body. Her insides were still smouldering with lust. She had been trying to ignore it all day but it was like a switch had been turned on inside her and she had no idea how to turn it off.

The ladder started to shudder again as he came down. She leaned her weight into it and only stepped away once he was safely down. ‘What was wrong with the window?’ she asked.

‘Water damage,’ he said, wiping some wood dust off his forehead with his forearm. ‘We had a big snowfall a few weeks back. The wood’s swollen with moisture. It’ll need replacing eventually.’

‘Why don’t you get a professional to do this sort of stuff?’ Bella asked.

‘I enjoy it,’ he said as he gathered his tools.

‘That’s beside the point,’ she said. ‘What if you had a fall? There would be no one around to help you. You could break your neck or something.’

His eyes met hers as he straightened. ‘That would be quite convenient for you, wouldn’t it?’

She frowned at him. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘You’d get the manor back,’ he said. ‘That’s what you’d like, isn’t it?’

‘It’s my home,’ she said, shooting him a resentful look. ‘Generations of Havertons grew up here. I don’t see why a blow-in like you should take it away from its rightful owner.’

‘Not happy with your four-storey mansion in Chelsea and the millions of pounds in assets?’ he asked.

She glowered at him. ‘That’s beside the point. This is where I grew up. This is where I expected my children to grow up. You don’t belong here. I do.’

‘Your father obviously thought differently,’ he said.

‘He should have consulted me about it,’ Bella said. ‘The least he could have done is put it in both our names.’

‘Would you have been happy living with me here?’ he asked.

‘No, I would not,’ she said. ‘Would you?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said with a glinting smile. ‘It could prove to be quite entertaining.’

She gave him a flinty look. ‘I can assure you that if you get sick again I will not be racing to your aid in the middle of the night. You can jolly well fend for yourself.’

‘Suits me.’

She pressed her lips together for a moment. ‘Nor will I allow you to take advantage of me like you did this morning.’

‘How did I take advantage of you?’ he asked. ‘You were in my bed.’

‘Not because I wanted to be.’

His smile was arrogantly,
irritatingly
confident. ‘No one forced you into it. You came of your own free will. And I have a feeling you’ll be back before too long.’

Bella glared at him. ‘Do you really think I’m that much of a pushover? I don’t even like you. I hate you. I’ve always hated you.’

‘I know, but that’s why it will be such great sex,’ he said. ‘I can hardly wait to feel you come. I bet you’ll go off like a bomb.’

Her cheeks fired with heat and she clenched her hands into fists. ‘I am
not
going to have sex with you.’

He ran his eyes over her leisurely, heating her with the caress of his gaze as if he had physically touched her. She felt her breasts tingle, she felt her insides contract and shamelessly weep with want. ‘It’s going to happen,’ he said. ‘You can already feel it, can’t you?’

‘I feel nothing,’ she bit out.

He took half a step to shrink the distance between their bodies. Bella had nowhere to move as the garden bed was behind her. She drew in a breath as he trailed a lazy finger across the sensitive skin stretched over her left clavicle. Her nerves leapt and danced and shimmied under his mesmerising touch. ‘Can you feel that?’ he asked, locking his gaze on hers.

She swallowed tightly as a host of sensations coursed through her like a shivery tide. ‘You have no right to touch me,’ she said, although her voice wasn’t as strong and determined as she had intended. It sounded breathless and husky.

‘You give me the right every time you look at me like that,’ he said, tracing a pathway down the neckline of her top.

She felt her breasts tighten in anticipation. Her breathing stalled. Her heart stuttered like an old diesel engine inside her chest. She scrunched her eyes closed, fighting for strength of will. ‘I’m not even looking at you, see?’ she said.

He leaned in closer. She
felt
him. She felt his thighs brush against hers, and a wave of heat went through her like a knife through soft butter. She felt the sexy breeze of his breath against the skin of her neck. She breathed in the warm, male scent of him: the sweat, the musk, the complex cologne with its intriguing layers of citrus, spice and wood. The hairs on the back of her neck lifted one by one as his lips moved against her skin in a caressing nibble that shot an arrow of need straight to her core.

Bella made a little whimpering sound in her throat, a mixture of frustration and acquiescence. ‘I don’t want you,’ she said.

‘I know you don’t,’ he said, brushing his lips against hers in a teasing touch and lift off caress.

‘I hate you,’ she said, but the words somehow lacked conviction.

‘I know you do,’ he said and sucked softly on her lower lip until her legs threatened to fold beneath her.

Bella grasped his head between her hands, seeking his mouth in blind passion. The hot press of his mouth on hers detonated her senses and sent them into a fiery tailspin. She pushed her body against his, hungry for him in a way she had never thought possible. She ached for his possession, an urgent pulsing ache that was centred at the feminine heart of her.

He gripped her hips and ground against her shamelessly as his mouth worked its masterful magic on hers. It was so raw and primal. She felt the hot, hard heat of him throbbing against her stomach. It awoke every earthy sense in her body.

His hands moved from her hips to tug at her clothes. Her senses shrieked in rapturous delight at the rough urgency. He had her sweater pulled up, her top out of her skirt and her bra undone before she could find the fastener on his jeans. The wintry air danced over her flesh, but before she could shiver, his calloused hands moved over her naked breasts, making every nerve twitch in response. Her nipples tightened as he rolled his thumb over them, her spine turning to liquid as he brought his mouth over each one in turn. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the pleasure of feeling his rough, stubbly face moving over her soft skin.

His mouth came back to hers just as she undid his jeans. He grunted with approval as she finally freed him. The hot, silky length of him filled her hand. Her heart raced as she thought of him moving inside her. She had never been so lust-driven in her life. Every other sexual encounter paled to insignificance. No one had ever made her feel so alive and in tune with her senses. Her skin was super-sensitive to his touch, to the stroke and glide of his hands, to the hot, moist possession of his mouth.

He lifted up her skirt and ruthlessly ripped her knickers and tights down to her knees. Her mouth was still jammed on his, her tongue duelling with his in a battle that was not just about strength of wills but about mutual need.

He played her with his fingers, gently at first, exploring her in intimate detail, before upping the pace. She was swept up in the moment, unable to stop the sensations that ricocheted through her like a speeding bullet. She cried out as her body shuddered and shook against his fingers, her breath coming in startled gasps.

She sagged against him when it was over, shocked at how completely he had unravelled her.

Shocked and shamed.

She stiffened and pushed back from him, grabbing at her tights. ‘Oh, dear God...’

His expression was inscrutable. ‘We can finish this indoors,’ he said, zipping up his jeans. ‘I haven’t got a condom in my tool belt.’

Bella felt anger shoot through her like a powerful, galvanising drug. This was all a game to him. He had no feelings for her. All he felt was lust. He had ‘serviced’ her to prove a point. He wanted to reduce her to a shameless hussy who was driven by physical desires instead of intellect and morality.

‘You did that deliberately, didn’t you?’ she asked, shooting him a contemptuous glare as she tried to fix her disordered clothes. ‘You seduced me like a common little trollop to prove a point.’

‘I was right,’ he said with a glinting look. ‘You went off like a bomb.’

Bella swung her hand through the air and landed a stinging slap on his cheek. He barely flinched but her hand felt as if the bones had splintered. ‘You...you
bastard
,’ she said, cradling her hand to numb the jarring pain.

The silence pulsated with tension.

Bella suddenly wondered if he would hit her back. His face was a marble mask, his eyes soulless. Her gaze went to his hands; they were clenched tightly by his sides. Fear was like a cold, hard hand on the back of her neck. She stood rooted to the spot, staring at him with wide, uncertain eyes.

He slowly released a breath and unlocked his hands. ‘Is that really the sort of man you think I am?’ he asked.

She licked her paper-dry lips. ‘I shouldn’t have slapped you... I’m sorry...’

He picked up the ladder and tucked it under one arm. ‘Apology accepted,’ he said and strode away until he disappeared from sight.

CHAPTER SEVEN

E
DOARDO
sat behind the mahogany desk in the study and looked sightlessly at the figures in front of him on his computer screen. Work was usually the panacea for all ills but he couldn’t get his brain to focus. All he could think about was the feel of Bella in his arms. His body still throbbed with desire. It was like a banked-down fire deep inside him. Just one spark of her gaze and he was alight again.

He had made her confront her desire for him but it had come at a price. The look on her face, the shadow of fear in her brown eyes as she had stood there, made his stomach churn. He had seen that look in his mother’s eyes before his stepfather had raised his hand in one of his drunken rages. Even after all these years he could still hear the sound of that clenched fist landing on his mother’s face or body.

He pushed back from the desk, stood up and wandered over to the window. The weather forecast had predicted a heavy fall of snow overnight. He could see the clouds gathering in brooding clusters on the horizon.

They reminded him of his mood.

Fergus got up from the rug with a tired sigh and made his way creakily to the door. Edoardo opened it for him just as Bella was walking past. She gave him a startled look and stepped backwards, one of her hands going to her milky throat. ‘You scared me,’ she said.

‘That seems to be a habit of mine just lately,’ he said.

Her eyes fell away from his. ‘I know you’re not like...that,’ she said in a quiet voice.

‘So you feel safe with me, do you, Bella?’ he asked.

She slowly brought her toffee-brown eyes to his. ‘Of course I do...’

‘You don’t sound very sure about that.’

Her teeth tugged at her lower lip for a moment. ‘I know you would never physically hurt me,’ she said.

‘I sense a “but” lurking somewhere in that statement.’

She let out a wobbly little breath. ‘This thing between us...it has to stop. It has to stop before it gets complicated.’

He slanted her a cynical smile. ‘It’s already complicated, Bella,’ he said. ‘Your father made it a hundred times more so by putting me in charge of your life.’

Her gaze appealed to his. ‘You could always quit the guardianship. You’d be free of me and I’d be free of you. It’s a win-win for both of us.’

‘Not going to happen, princess,’ he said. ‘I made a promise to your father. He trusted me to keep you out of trouble. He worked damn hard to get where he got. I’m not going to stand by and see some gold-digging gigolo waltz into your life and take everything.’

‘Why do you think I’m gullible enough to let something like that happen?’ she asked with a frown.

‘You’re too trusting,’ Edoardo said. ‘You’re so desperate for approval and acceptance you can’t see the difference between genuine friendship and exploitation.’

She flashed him a glare. ‘I have lots and lots of genuine friends. Not one of them exploits me.’

He cocked a brow. ‘How much rent do you charge those four girls who share your house?’

She pressed her lips together without answering, her cheeks turning rosy red.

‘Nothing, right?’ he said. ‘You’re a fool, Bella. They’re using you, and you can’t or won’t see it.’

‘You know nothing about my friends,’ she said. ‘So I help them out with a place to stay—what of it? They help me in turn.’

‘How?’ he asked with a curl of his lip. ‘Let me guess: they help you spend your allowance on useless fripperies each month.’

Her eyes gave an annoyed little roll. ‘I don’t have to explain my personal expenses to you.’

‘For God’s sake, Bella, you went through fifteen thousand pounds in the last couple of months,’ he said. ‘You can’t keep spending like that. You have to take responsibility for yourself. I’m not going to be around to keep you on track for ever.’

She sent him a caustic look. ‘I can keep myself on track. I don’t need you.’

‘You
do
need me,’ he said. ‘And you’ve got me for another year, so you’d better get used to it.’

‘What’s the point of stringing this crazy guardianship thing out for another year?’ she asked. ‘You want to be free of me just as much as I want to be free of you. Anyway, once I get married to Julian, you’ll have to relinquish your hold over me.’

‘You’re not getting married until you’re twenty-five,’ he said. ‘Not while I have anything to do with it.’

She clenched her hands by her sides, anger in every rigid line of her body. ‘Is that why you’ve been busily trying to seduce me any chance you could?’ she asked.

He returned her fiery look with cool ease. ‘Are you going to tell your God-fearing boyfriend that you’ve slept with me?’

Her eyes turned to flint. ‘I have
not
slept with you.’

‘Are you going to tell him you had an orgasm with me, then?’ he asked.

Her cheeks bloomed with colour again. ‘I didn’t have any such thing
with
you. You didn’t...you know...’ She whooshed out a little breath and shifted her eyes from his. ‘We didn’t go that far.’

‘You probably won’t have to tell him.’

Her eyes flew back to his. ‘What do you mean?’

‘He’ll know as soon as he sees you,’ Edoardo said. ‘You won’t be able to hide it, especially if he sees you interact with me.’

She clamped her lips together as if she was struggling to keep back a retort. She released them after a moment. ‘I can’t think of any situation or event where you and Julian would be present at the same time.’

‘So you’re not going to invite me to your wedding?’ he asked.

She gave him a pointed look. ‘Would you come if I did?’

Edoardo considered her question for a moment. Over the years his mind had occasionally drifted to the day when she would walk down the aisle to some man standing at the altar. He had no doubt she would make a beautiful bride. She would love being the centre of attention; it would be her chance to be a princess for the day.

But he hadn’t planned on being there to see it.

‘Weddings are not really my thing,’ he said.

‘Have you ever been to one?’

‘Two, a few years ago,’ he said. ‘They’re both divorced now.’

She folded her arms across her middle. ‘Not all marriages end up on the rocks,’ she said. ‘Many couples spend a lifetime together.’

‘Good for them.’

She frowned at him. ‘You don’t believe love can last that long?’

‘I think people get love and lust confused,’ he said. ‘Lust is a transient thing. It burns itself out after a while. Love, on the other hand, is something that grows over time, given the right conditions.’

‘I thought you didn’t believe in love,’ she said.

‘Just because I haven’t been in love myself doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,’ he said. ‘I can see it works for some people.’

‘But you don’t think I’m in love, do you?’

‘I think you want to
be
loved,’ he said. ‘It’s understandable, given that your father’s gone and your mother has always been too selfish to love you properly.’

Her teeth snagged her bottom lip again. ‘You’re making me out to sound tragic.’

Edoardo studied her for a moment. ‘Don’t throw your life away on someone who doesn’t love you for the right reasons, Bella,’ he said.

‘Julian does love me for the right reasons,’ she said. ‘He’s the first man I’ve met who hasn’t pressured me to sleep with them. Doesn’t that say something?’

‘Is he gay?’

She gave him a look. ‘Of course he’s not gay. He has principles; standards. Self-control.’

‘The man is a saint,’ Edoardo said. ‘I can’t be in the same room as you without wanting to rip the clothes off your body and ravish you.’

Her eyes flitted away from his, her cheeks firing up yet again. ‘You shouldn’t say things like that,’ she said.

‘Why not?’

‘You know why not.’

‘You don’t believe in speaking the truth?’ he asked.

‘Some things are better left unsaid.’

Edoardo came over to her and slowly lifted her chin with the end of his index finger. ‘What are you so afraid of?’ he asked.

She moistened her lips with a nervous dart of her tongue. ‘I’m not afraid of anything.’

‘You’re afraid of being out of control,’ he said. ‘I make you feel out of control, don’t I, Bella? I’m not like all those simpering boyfriends you surround yourself with. You can control them, but you can’t control me. You can’t even control yourself when you’re with me. It scares you that I have so much power over you.’

She gave him a glittering glare. ‘You don’t have any power over me.’

He arched a brow as he trailed a finger over her bottom lip. ‘Don’t I?’ he asked.

Her lip trembled under his touch before she wrenched herself out of his reach. ‘You want to wreck my life, don’t you?’ she asked, eyes flashing. ‘You want to cause trouble for me because you’ve always resented me for being born to wealth while you were born to nothing. You think by dragging me down to your level it will somehow even the score. Well, it won’t. You will always be a reject who landed on his feet.’

Her taunting words rang in the silence.

‘Feel better now you’ve got that off your chest?’ Edoardo asked.

She put up her chin, her brown eyes still glittering with defiance. ‘I’m leaving,’ she said. ‘I’m not staying another minute here with you.’

‘Good luck with that,’ he said. ‘It’s been snowing like a blizzard for the last hour. You won’t get as far as the end of the driveway.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ she said and flounced out.

* * *

‘Damn it.’ Bella slammed her hands on the steering wheel in frustration. She had been so determined to prove Edoardo wrong. And she had almost done it, too. She
had
got further than the end of the driveway. She had made it to the road before her car had slipped sideways and become bogged up to the windows in a snowdrift. But now she was out of sight of the manor and, with the snow blocking the road for as far as she could see in either direction, she could be stuck here for hours. It was freezing cold in spite of the heater in her car. She knew she couldn’t leave the engine running for too long without flattening the battery. She could call for roadside help, which might take hours to get here. Or she could call Edoardo.

She rummaged for her mobile in her bag on the seat beside her. She held it in her hand, looking at the screen for a long moment where she had pulled up Edoardo’s number. As much as it pained her to admit defeat, she pressed the call button.

‘Do you want me to come get you?’ he asked without preamble.

Bella silently ground her teeth. ‘If it’s not too much trouble.’

‘Stay in the car.’

She glanced at the wall of snow that had fallen against both of her doors. ‘I can’t get out even if I wanted to,’ she said.

While she was waiting for Edoardo to come, her phone rang. Bella glanced at the caller ID and suppressed a groan. Her mother only ever called her when she wanted something, usually money. ‘Mum,’ she said. ‘How are things?’

‘Bella, I need to talk to you,’ Claudia said. ‘I’m in a bit of a fix financially. Have you got a moment to talk?’

Bella looked at the snow-covered landscape surrounding her little capsule of a car. ‘All the time in the world,’ she said with a jaded sigh. ‘How much do you need?’

‘Just a few thousand to tide me over,’ Claudia said. ‘I’ve decided to leave José. Things haven’t been working out. I’m in London for a few days. I thought it’d be nice if we spent some time together—hang out a bit, you know? Go shopping, do girly things.’

‘I’m not in London right now,’ Bella said.

‘Where are you?’

‘I’m...um, out of town.’

‘Where out of town?’ Claudia asked.

Bella drew in a little breath and carefully released it. Would it hurt to tell her mother where she was? Maybe if she were a little more open with her, Claudia would start acting more like a mother towards her. She longed to have someone to talk to who would understand. She was tired of feeling so isolated and alone. ‘I’m at Haverton Manor.’

‘With...with
Edoardo
?’

‘Yes... Well, not
with
him as such,’ Bella said. ‘I hardly see him. He does his thing. I do mine. He’s—’

‘I suppose he’s told you a heap of lies about me, has he?’ Claudia said. ‘Your father was a sentimental fool to let him take control of your affairs. How do you know if he’s ripping you off or not? He could be selling off your assets behind your back and you wouldn’t know a thing about it.’

‘He’s not ripping me off,’ Bella said. ‘He’s managing everything brilliantly.’

‘How can you possibly trust him to do the right thing by you?’ Claudia asked. ‘Don’t forget he would’ve gone to prison if it hadn’t been for your father vouching for him. He’s got bad blood.’

‘I don’t think you should judge someone on where or how they grew up,’ Bella said. ‘He had a difficult start in life. He was an orphan at the age of five. I think it’s amazing how well he’s done, given how hard things were for him.’

‘Goodness me,’ Claudia said. ‘This is a turn up for the books, isn’t it?’

Bella frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You springing to Edoardo’s defence,’ Claudia said. ‘You sound positively chummy with him. What’s going on?’

‘Nothing.’ Bella could have kicked herself for answering so quickly.
Too quickly.

She could almost see her mother’s snide smile. ‘You’ve slept with him, haven’t you?’

‘What on earth makes you think that?’ Bella said, injecting her tone with as much disdain as she could. ‘You know how much we’ve always hated each other.’

‘Hate doesn’t stop people having sex with each other,’ Claudia said. ‘Some of the best sex I’ve had was with men I positively loathed.’

Bella hadn’t planned on telling Claudia about her engagement until it was official, but she would do almost anything to avoid an account of her mother’s lurid and colourful sex life. ‘I’m getting engaged,’ she said.

‘Engaged?’ Claudia gasped. ‘Oh, dear God, not to Edoardo?’

Bella frowned as she tried to imagine Edoardo putting a ring on her finger—or any woman’s finger, when it came to that. She couldn’t quite see it. He would never be one to declare his feelings if he had any. He would never admit to needing someone.