He had another ve hours to put in before he could cal it a day. Impatient, he glanced at the wal clock again while his mind wandered to picture Ava clad in s.e.xy lingerie reclining on his bed and then immediately discarded the fantasy. Unlike most of his past lovers, she would hit the roof if he gave her a gift like that. What am I? Your lit le s.e.x toy? So at uned had he become to Ava"s feisty take on life, he could actual y hear her saying it. No, de nitely not the lingerie. What did you give a woman who acted as if your mil ions didn"t exist?
Chocolate? Boring, predictable. Exasperation sizzled through his tal , powerful physique. He could not recal ever expending this much mental energy on anything so trivial. What did she need? Clothes. Ava was the proud possessor of the very barest of necessities. But she wouldn"t like him buying her clothes either. His big shoulders squared, his strong jaw line clenched. Dio mio, she would just have to put up with it.
"Mr Barbieri ...?"
Vito focused on the speaker with a blankness of mind he had no prior experience of in a business set ing. He wondered if he was il . Maybe he had the u, maybe he had al owed himself to get too tired. Yes, that was it, too had al owed himself to get too tired. Yes, that was it, too much s.e.x, not enough rest, he decided, relieved by the explanation but acknowledging that he was not about to change his ways ... not with Ava under his roof. He stood up lithely and o ered his apologies for his sudden departure while explaining that he had somewhere else to be.
That same day, Ava made her decision over breakfast: she would go and see her father. It was a Sat.u.r.day and the older man always liked to stay home and read the papers in the morning.
Fear of rejection, nerves and guilt had kept her from the door of her former family home, she acknowledged rueful y. Her court case and prison sentence along with the newspaper articles writ en about her fal from grace had seriously embarra.s.sed her family and her father, who worked as a member of Vito"s accounting team, had been convinced that her role in Ol y"s death had ensured that he was pa.s.sed over for promotion. For those reasons, she was certainly not expecting a red carpet rol ed out for her but she wanted to say sorry and discover if there was any way of restoring some kind of bond with her relations. If it crossed her mind that there never had seemed to be much of a bond between her and them, she suppressed the thought and concentrated on thinking positively.
The past week had proved incredibly busy but al the party arrangements were running smoothly and she had party arrangements were running smoothly and she had begun to decorate the house. She tried not to think too much about Vito while she was working. After al , in less than a week"s time she would be leaving and the a air would be over. That was not going to break her heart, she told herself rmly, but the hand in which she held her cup of co ee trembled. Hastily she set the cup down again. If she gave way to stupid feelings, started fancying that she was in love and al that nonsense she would be digging her own descent into despair by the time it ended. And no man was al owed to have that much power over Ava because in her experience, with the single exception of Ol y, the people she loved had always hurt her badly. No, just as Vito didn"t do marriage, Ava didn"t do love.
Admit edly she was at ached to him in some ways, she acknowledged grudgingly. He kept on trying to take her out to dinner and places which she hadn"t expected, having a.s.sumed he would be as keen as her to keep their involvement with each other under wraps. Certainly the sta must have guessed but by the time such rumours spread further a eld Ava would be long gone. She had told Vito she had nothing to wear that wouldn"t embarra.s.s them both in public but it was just an excuse to hide the fact that she didn"t want people to know they were involved. Much wiser to stay under the radar, she re ected rueful y, having no desire to at ract controversy or see Vito outraged or upset by people who would be appal ed that he could have fal en into bed with the appal ed that he could have fal en into bed with the woman responsible for his brother"s death. That was life and Ava had learned not to fight it.
Vito and her? It was just s.e.x, she told herself every time he was with her. He couldn"t keep his hands o her but, to be honest, she couldn"t keep her hands o him either and the awareness that they had such a short time together had simply pushed the intensity to a whole new level. He was with her every minute he was at home and, although he was characteristical y working on a Sat.u.r.day, he had gradual y started nishing earlier and earlier. They argued at least once a day, being both very strong-wil ed people. But they never let the sun go down on a row either and he stayed with her every night, dragging her up to breakfast with him at an unforgivably early hour while striding through the castle shouting for her if she wasn"t immediately available when he arrived home. She knew he liked her and that he cared about what happened to her. She respected his fair-mindedness, was even fond of him. But aside of the wild bouts of s.e.x that took place every time they got within touching distance, that was the height of it, she told herself staunchly. With six days of the a air to go, she believed she was handling the upcoming prospect of their separation with logic and restraint rather than with the obsessive depth and despondency that would once have threatened her composure. After al , hadn"t that obsessional pa.s.sion of hers for Vito once sent her running out of control into that car with tragic running out of control into that car with tragic consequences? She knew bet er now.
The neat detached home that Ava"s parents had brought her up in sat behind tal clipped hedges on the outskirts of the vil age. Even though it was two miles from the castle, Ava walked there. Damien Skeel had been instructed to put a car and driver at her disposal to facilitate the party arrangements but Ava didn"t want an audience to witness her being turned away from her father"s front door. As smartly dressed as she could contrive, she braced herself and rang the doorbel .
She was bewildered when a stranger answered the door and wondered in dismay if her father had moved house after her mother"s death. "I"m looking for Thomas Fitzgerald," she said to the middle-aged blonde woman.
"Has he moved?"
"I"m his wife. Who should I tel him is here?" the woman responded.
Ava"s eyes widened as she tried to hide her shock that her father had remarried. "I"m his youngest daughter, Ava."
"Oh." The polite smile dropped away and the older woman turned her head hurriedly and cal ed out, "It"s ...
Ava!"
Her father appeared from the direction of the kitchen, a tal thin man with grey hair and rather cold blue eyes.
"I"l deal with this, Janet. Ava ... you"d bet er come in,"
he said without any sign of warmth.
he said without any sign of warmth.
But an invite to enter her former home was stil more than Ava had expected after having her existence ignored for three long years, and her tension eased a tiny bit.
True, it was a shock that her father had already taken a second wife but she had no resentment of the fact because her parents had never been happy together. The older man showed her into the dining room and positioned himself at the far side of the table, distancing tactics she was accustomed to and which felt dauntingly familiar.
"I suppose you want to know what I"m doing here."
Ava spoke rst, used to the older man"s power play of always put ing her in that position.
"If you"re hoping for a handout you"ve come to the wrong place," Thomas Fitzgerald informed her coldly.
"That"s not why I came, Dad. I"ve served my sentence- that"s al behind me now and, although I know I caused a lot of trouble for the family, I ..." Ava paled and struggled to nd the words to express her feelings in the face of the look of icy distaste that her father wore.
"I suppose you were sure to turn up like the proverbial bad penny sooner or later," he p.r.o.nounced drily. "I"l keep this short for both our sakes. I"m not your father and I have no obligation towards you."
Ava felt as if the oor had dropped away below her feet. "Not ... my father?" she repeated thickly, incredulous at the statement. "What are you talking incredulous at the statement. "What are you talking about?"
"While your mother was alive it was a secret but thankful y there"s no need for that nonsense now," he told her with satisfaction. "My wife and your half-sisters are aware of the fact that you"re not a real member of this family. Your mother, Gemma, picked up a man one night and fel pregnant by him. And no, I know nothing about who he was or is and neither did your mother, who was ... as usual ... drunk."
"Picked up a man?" Ava echoed, her pal or p.r.o.nounced and a sick feeling curdling in her stomach.
"Yes, it"s sordid but that"s nothing to do with me. I"m tel ing you the truth as your mother nal y told it to me,"
Thomas Fitzgerald continued with open distaste. "You were DNA tested when you were seven years old and my suspicions were proven correct. You are not my child."
"But n.o.body ever said anything, even suggested that ..."
Ava began jerkily, trying and failing to get her freefal ing thoughts into some kind of order and comprehend the nightmare that seemed to be engul ng her. "Why didn"t you divorce my mother?"
"What would have been the point of a divorce?" the older man asked with unhidden bit erness. "She was an alcoholic and I had two daughters, whom I couldn"t have trusted her to raise alone, and I had my career. I didn"t want people sn.i.g.g.e.ring about me behind my back either.
I tried to make a go of the marriage in spite of you. I I tried to make a go of the marriage in spite of you. I was a decent man. I fed and clothed you, educated you, did everything a father is expected to do ..."
Momentarily, it was as though a veil had fal en from Ava"s perceptive powers as she looked back at her childhood and adolescence. "No, you didn"t. You never liked me."
"How was I supposed to like you?" he shouted at her in a sudden eruption of rage. "Some stranger"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d masquerading as my own daughter? It was intolerable that I should be forced to pretend but I was responsible for your mother because I married her. There was no one else to take care of her and I had to think of Gina and Bel a"s needs. I did my duty by you al but it was a lot more than your wretched mother deserved!"
The door behind Ava opened. "Thomas, I think you"ve said enough," the female voice said quietly. "It"s not the girl"s fault that you had to put up with so much."
It was his wife, Janet, her stepmother ... no, not her stepmother. These two people were actual y no relation to her at al . The shock of that realisation punched through Ava and left a big hole where she felt her brain should be. She turned in a clumsy circle. "I should leave."
"I think that would be best, dear. You remind Thomas of a very unhappy time in his life," Janet informed Ava in a reproachful tone.
Ava walked straight back out onto the road, feeling as if she had concussion because she couldn"t think straight.
if she had concussion because she couldn"t think straight.
The secret was out: she nal y knew why her father had never liked her and her mother had always preferred her sisters. Evidently she was "some stranger"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d", not a legitimate child of Thomas Fitzgerald"s first marriage, not to mention being a constant gal ing reminder of his wife"s in delity. No longer did she need to wonder why the man had persisted in cal ing her "Ginger", why she had been sent o to school, shunned and excluded from the family when she messed up: she wasn"t a part of the family and was barely ent.i.tled to cal herself by the name Fitzgerald. Al her life she had been a cuckoo in the nest and now she knew why and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. No amends that she could make, no bridges she could possibly build. The family reunion she had prayed for was nothing more than a sil y girlish pipe dream.
Vito ew back to the castle in his helicopter, warned the pilot he would be returning to London within the hour and strode from the helipad towards the front door.
There he spot ed Damien Skeel lounging up against the bonnet of his four-wheel estate vehicle and he frowned.
"I suppose you don"t happen to know where Ava is?"
Damien asked hopeful y. "I was supposed to pick her up at one but apparently she went out and she must have forgot en about the arrangement."
"Where were you taking her?" Vito was relieved that he was neither insecure nor possessive when it came to he was neither insecure nor possessive when it came to women. Growing up with an emotional y unstable father had taught him to despise such behaviour.
"To choose the Christmas tree for the castle from the estate plantation," his estate manager informed him with a smile. "And I hoped to fit in lunch."
Ava was stil keeping their a air a big dark secret, Vito registered, and his dark golden eyes smouldered at the realisation. He breathed in slow and deep. "I"l choose the tree with her tomorrow," he heard himself declare.
The blond man frowned in surprise but nodded cool y.
"If you see her, tel her I was sorry to miss her."
Not as sorry as you might have been had you not missed her, Vito re ected with grit ed teeth. There were times when Ava infuriated him and this was one of those occasions. Was she at racted to Skeel? Was that why she refused to acknowledge her relationship with Vito? His lovers usual y went out of their way to boast about sharing his bed. Given the smal est opportunity they showed him o like a prize and proudly posed by his side for photos. But not Ava. Ava at ached no strings and imposed strict boundaries. He was, in retrospect, amazed that he had been invited to share her bed. She never, ever asked him what time he would get back home. And she wouldn"t phone him, didn"t even text. He walked out of the castle in the morning and, for al she knew, he might have been dead ve minutes later. But then al might have been dead ve minutes later. But then al that made her one hundred per cent perfect for a guy like him, he reminded himself staunchly. No demands, no avaricious streak, no hidden agenda. What you saw was what you got with Ava and Vito knew how rare a quality that was.
His keen gaze tracked a sudden glimpse of movement on the drive and he registered that it was Ava. On foot and dressed like a bag lady in her jeans and horrible jacket, but even at a distance nothing could outshine her grace of movement or the delicate beauty of her features against her coppery hair. He supposed they were about to have the mother and father of al rows and felt surprisingly insouciant about the fact. He was very focused and persistent when he wanted something, he would wear her down.
"Ava ..." Vito greeted her from the wide shal ow run of steps at the castle entrance.
Lost in a reverie, Ava glanced up and blinked in surprise. Was it that time already? Surely he shouldn"t be home in broad daylight? Like a vampire he was usual y only available during the hours of darkness. For a brief moment, she was s.n.a.t.c.hed from her hopeless thoughts by Vito"s sheer charismatic appeal. He was truly stunning from his cropped black-as-night hair to his hand-st.i.tched shoes and designer suit. The minute she saw him she wanted to touch him but always quenched the urge, determined not to feed his ego. If he could be cool, she could be even cooler.
could be even cooler.
Vito threw his big shoulders back and gave her a blinding smile that in a normal mood would have made her suspicious. "We"re going shopping ..."
Her lashes ut ered because she didn"t know what he was talking about and real y couldn"t be bothered asking for clari cation. Everything felt so far removed from her that a gla.s.s wal might as wel have separated them.
"And since you"re here, let"s leave right now," Vito proposed, descending the steps and closing a hand over hers.
It was second nature to Ava to yank her hand free and say in dismay, "No-someone might see-"
"It"s not like I"m trying to s.h.a.g you on the front lawn!"
Vito flamed back.
"Don"t be crude," Ava told him.
Vito expel ed his breath in a furious hiss. He thought of al the years he had spent with normal women, greedy, vain, untrustworthy women, who would never have dreamt of pushing him away. And then there was Ava. He stopped dead and closed his arms round her like a prison.
"What you ... doing?" she mumbled, al at sea again, an odd distracted air about her.
Vito took advantage. He never failed to take advantage when the right opportunity o ered because Ava didn"t drop her defences very often. He scooped her up against him so that her feet parted company with the ground him so that her feet parted company with the ground and brought his mouth crashing down on hers with devouring eroticism, and that explosion of high-voltage sensation broke through her barriers and she blinked in bewilderment, suddenly depth-charged out of her state of shock. His tongue snaked against hers and a helpless shiver ran through her. He was so incredibly s.e.xy, she thought dimly, swept away by the throbbing swel ing of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and the hot dart of pulsing warmth between her thighs. He just touched her and she wanted to chain him to the bed. He rocked against her, let ing her know that he was equal y aroused, and that was when she recal ed that they were stil in ful view of the castle windows and she shimmied down the length of him like a fleeing cat.
"No! I don"t want to be seen doing this with you!"
They were already more than halfway to the helicopter. Vito decided not to make an issue of it, although where had not making an issue of Harvey got him? Harvey kept on giving him a paw and nudging him expectantly. Harvey was pushy, desperate to be noticed now that he was sentenced to sleeping downstairs at night, and he stalked Vito round the castle when he was at home. "He likes you," Ava had said appreciatively but it was not an honour that Vito had sought.
"Where are we going?" Ava prompted suddenly.
"London ... shopping," Vito pro ered casual y, wondering why she wasn"t put ing up a ght about the wondering why she wasn"t put ing up a ght about the prospect.
"In a helicopter?" Her head ached with the force of the self-discipline she was utilising to hold her ailing emotions in check.
"It"l give us more time."
"I"m not real y in the mood."
"It"s your birthday tomorrow. This is my treat," Vito p.r.o.nounced.
Presumably he wanted to buy her a present and if he had organised the trip for her bene t she didn"t want to be dif icult about it.
"Is there anything wrong? You"re very quiet," Vito commented, leaning down to do up her seat belt for her when she ignored the necessity.
"Thanks." Ava forced a smile, striving to behave normal y. "No, there"s nothing wrong."
The helicopter rose noisily into the air. Nothing short of physical force would have dragged the truth from Ava about what she had learned from Thomas Fitzgerald earlier that day, she conceded painful y. Apart from the embarra.s.sing reality that the older man stil worked for Vito, such a private and wounding revelation had no place in a casual relationship. That was not what she and Vito were about and she would adapt to the sordid discovery that she would never know who her birth father was without anyone"s help. But a shopping trip ...? Strange, she re ected wearily. She had always ...? Strange, she re ected wearily. She had always a.s.sumed that most men didn"t like shopping, but at least the pastime would provide a useful distraction from the burden of her unhappy thoughts.
Vito had requested that a personal shopper meet them at Harrods. He cast a questioning glance at Ava as the woman tried to engage her in a discussion about her likes and dislikes but Ava"s responses were few and her lack of interest patent. Determined to make the most of the occasion, Vito got involved, chose his favourite colours, nodded and shook his handsome head when out ts were displayed on hangers and freed from the threat of Ava"s interference, announced that everything was required. With al the animation of a shop window dummy, Ava tried on several garments. That achieved, the out ts began to pile up because Vito shopped as fast as he worked. The personal shopper cal ed in two co-workers to help while Ava continued to hover in an apparent world of her own. Vito sti ed his exasperation and decided that unlike most women she had lit le interest in what she wore. Handbags and shoes joined the pile, along with a beautiful green velvet designer gown, which Vito knew at a glance would be perfect for the party. In the lingerie department, determined to see the back of the gingham pyjamas, he looked to Ava to nal y take part in the proceedings because he could not credit that she would let him do the choosing, and he was stunned to see that silent tears were rol ing down her cheeks. She seemed total y unaware that she was her cheeks. She seemed total y unaware that she was crying in a public place ...
CHAPTER EIGHT.
AT Vito"s request they were shown into a room with seating and the concerned team a.s.sisting them promised to rustle up a cup of tea.
His hands on her slim shoulders, Vito set led Ava down into an armchair as if she were a sleepwalker. He lifted a handful of tissues from a box on the table and pushed them down into her tautly clenched hands. "Per l"amor di Dio ... what has happened?" he demanded, gazing down at her.
Ava pressed a tissue to her face to dab it dry and wiped her eyes. "Nothing," she said gruf ly. "I"m sorry-"
"No, I"m sorry I dragged you out when there"s obviously something very wrong. I should have seen that you were acting strangely," he ground out rawly. "This was supposed to be a treat, not an endurance test that distresses you, bel a mia-"
Ava stared woodenly down at her knot ed hands. "I"m real y sorry ... how embarra.s.sing for you to have me behaving like that in public. I"m surprised you didn"t walk of and leave me."
Vito crouched down in front of her and tilted up her chin so that he could bet er see her reddened blue eyes and the pink tip of her nose. "Am I that much of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d? I wil admit to a split second of very masculine panic but that"s al ."
panic but that"s al ."
Ava encountered beautiful dark golden eyes fever bright with frustration. He hated being out of the loop: she knew that much about him. "It"s not something I can talk about, I"m afraid. I"m al right now, though. The pressure inside me just built up too high and I didn"t even realise I was crying."
"Are you pregnant?" Vito demanded with staggering abruptness.
Ara was taken aback by the question, an involuntary laugh was dredged from her tight throat. Evidently that was his biggest fear. "Of course I"m not and as we"ve only been together a week, how could I possibly be pregnant?" she whispered just as a knock sounded on the door. "Or even know that I was?"
"It happens," Vito said darkly, thinking of Ol y, whom his father had sworn had been conceived after a single night. He vaulted upright to open the door and accept the cup of tea that had arrived, set ling it down on the table by her side.
"We"ve been too careful. That"s not the problem," Ava told him dul y as she sipped grateful y at the refreshing brew.
"But what is the problem?" Vito growled.
"It"s nothing to do with you or our relationship and I"m get ing over it already," Ava insisted staunchly, wiping her eyes with determination and blowing her nose, stil wincing at the embarra.s.sment of having lost control to wincing at the embarra.s.sment of having lost control to such an extent in front of him. "You see? I"m absolutely fine."
"You"re anything but ne," Vito contradicted without hesitation. "You"re not yourself at al . Let"s nish up and get out of here, but don"t think you"ve heard the last of this. I need to know what"s wrong."