Bedded by the Italian Playboy (10 page)

A
half hour later and several discussions including a completely fake story
Rachel made up about an escaped pig, and they were already eating their
starters, asparagus served with little knobs of butter and a tart white wine.
Rachel drank very little of it, wanting instead all her wits about her. When
Dominic asked what her plans were for the weekend Rachel had to flip through
her pre-planned lies quickly to give him an answer.

“Tomorrow
I am planning to see the palace,” she told him. She wasn’t but it would seem a
bit weird, considering her story, if she didn’t actually go and do something.

“Interesting,”
he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done
London
as a tourist in all the years I’ve lived here.”

“I
might fit Parliament and the Eye in too,” she added. “I’ve only got so much
time to get it all done. I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Are
you planning to go on the tube?”

“Yes.
I’m going to get a day card. I thought I would use the camera on the Blackberry
to take a bunch of pictures and then maybe I could email them to myself before
I leave and give it back to you.”

Dominic
let out a little chuckle and topped her wine glass up. “The phone was a gift.”

Rachel
shook her head, the soft flower petals caressing her temple as she did so.
“It’s too expensive, Dominic. I don’t plan to keep it. I don’t plan to keep any
of it.”

“But
you will. I insist.”

“Why?”

“How
else will I be able to contact you in the future?”

Rachel
gaped, not sure she’d heard him right. “The future?”

“This,”
he said, waving a hand between them, his voice abruptly serious, “will not be
over by Monday, surely you realize that. Which brings me to something I wanted
to suggest to you tonight.”

Her
head was reeling and Rachel took a look gulp of wine in an effort to steady it.
This? As in the two of them? As in the attraction?
Dear God
. Sobriety be damned. “Go on.”

“I
want you to stay in
London
for two weeks.”

She
gaped again. Sure, he’d suggested it before, but the sincerity in his eyes was clear.
He wanted her around, and not just for a few days. He was talking weeks,
talking about the future. Was it possible that she really had tied him knots?
That he was interested in her as more than just a quick fuck? “You’re serious?”

“I
want you here, Rachel,” he said and then he reached out and took her hand. Heat
enveloped her from head to toe. “Stay and let me show you how much.”

Chapter Twelve

The
shock on Rachel’s face made him smile. She hadn’t expected him to suggest they
spend more time together. Likely she’d probably thought he would simply enter
full seduction mode and try and fuck her before the night was out, but he’d
spent the entire afternoon thinking it through and he knew now more than ever
that what he had to do was give her time. A week wooing and a week fucking. It
made perfect sense.

“I
understand that this is all new to you and I will not rush you,” Dominic
continued. “I find myself very surprised that you have yet to submit to a man,
but equally I am intrigued. I want you. I will not deny it. Badly, but I am
willing to wait. I will wait as long as it takes.”

“That
could be a while.”

He
doubted it, not once he really got started, but did not say as much. “Then so
be it. In the meantime, stay the two weeks with me. Let us get to know one
another.

“I
don’t know….”

“Give
me a chance,
Cara.
Let me convince
you of my intentions.”

She
frowned, pulled her hands from his, and speared some asparagus with her fork.
“And what are your intentions, Dominic?”

He
shrugged. “I want you. I want you in my bed, but also I want to get to know you
better. For us to spend time together. I do not see this as a quick fuck,
Rachel. I would not disrespect you in such a way.”

She
frowned some more. “Are you suggesting a relationship? Because my understanding
is that is not your style.”

His style
. His frown
matched hers. How would she know anything about him? About what his style was?
A nasty suspicion reared in his mind and he clenched his fists. “And how would
you know that?”

She
bit down on her lip and shot him a look that was part defiant, part ashamed. “I
Googled you on the Blackberry you gave me. I figured, if you own a hotel, you
must be on there and you were. The stories said all sorts of things about you
but mostly they were just focused on one thing.”

Relief
filled him and the suspicion faded away. How could he have thought she was a
gold digger? A setup? Rachel? The thought was ridiculous. “And what was that?”
he asked.

“There
were lots of women. They look like me,” she said. “Blonde and curvy. You seem
to have lots of women.”

“I
have none in my life right now,” he said. “You are the only one.”

“I
find that hard to believe.”

He
shook his head. “I expect exclusivity from the woman I am with. Why would I not
afford her the same? If a woman disinterests me, then I simply find another. I
do not go looking whilst I am with her. What’s the point?”

“I
see.”

“My
last ‘woman’ as you call them was several weeks ago. We ended our association
amicably and I did not expect to begin a new one any time soon.”

“So
why—” she began but Dominic interrupted, knowing what she was going to ask and
feeling it was important that she understand him on this point.

 
“Because you are special. Because you intrigue
me. Because I am not a man who passes up something like that when it comes into
his reach. I never have been. Make no mistake, Rachel, I want you, and I
generally get the things I want.”

“That
sounds quite threatening, Dominic.”

“No,
Fiore
. It’s a promise.”

Silence
settled across them, and Rachel shifted on her seat as she munched some
asparagus. He wondered fleetingly if he had gone too far, scared her off, but
he didn’t see how it could be helped. She had to know that he was going to have
her. Had to. It must all be clear between them.

“So
you want to spend time with me,” she said eventually. “That’s your intention?”

“Yes,”
he agreed. “And with you, Rachel, I can promise it would be no hardship at all
to lavish all my attention on you and that is what I want to do. Let me tour
London
with you over the
next week. We’ll play tourist together. See all the sights. I’ll buy you ice
creams and souvenirs, and we’ll eat chips and burgers on the
Thames
.”

She
giggled. and tightness he hadn’t even realized was in his chest eased. It felt
almost like…relief.

 
“I find it hard to imagine you doing that,
playing tourist, I mean.”

“But
I will. For you. Let’s see where this goes,” he said. “See if this is what I
think it is.”

A
pause and then, “And what is it you think?”

He
shrugged because, truth be told, he did not know. Beyond wanting her with a
fierceness that worried him, he only knew that he could not simply let her walk
out of his life. While she was seated there in a dress that showed off every
single fucking curve, it was all he could do not to reach across the table and
impale her on his cock. And the fact that she’d wrapped herself in a pink
shawl, because the dress probably didn’t fit her idea of appropriate…well, he
loved it. Simply loved it.

“I
don’t know,” he said. “But we’re going to find out.”

Chapter Thirteen

“I
cannot believe you refused to go on the Eye,” Dominic said, ruffling her hair.
“You’ve been going on about it for days, and the moment we get here you wimp
out!”

Rachel
laughed and smoothed her hair down. “It’s huge. Much bigger than I thought it
would be. In principle it sounded like a great idea. In reality not so much.
I’d probably have been sick when we got up there. You wouldn’t be laughing
then, not with vomit all over your shoes.”

“I’d
have simply wiped you clean and carried you off. And besides, it is all part of
the tourist experience you said.”

“There
are other touristy things to do,” she insisted. “Let’s walk along the
Thames
. I want to get as close to the Houses of
Parliament as we can.”

Dominic
smiled and took her hand, just as he had for the last few days. At first it had
felt weird, but now it just seemed natural. And she had to admit she didn’t
mind receiving the envious looks sent her way by other women as they walked.
Part of her felt proud, like she’d bagged the best looking guy around. The other
part seemed to be laughing from a distance, knowing that wasn’t really true.

She
was ignoring that part.

They’d
already done bits of
London
, and Dominic, true
to his word, had eaten chips with her in Hyde Park and bought her a little
Tower
of
London
and a black hackney cab. The days
had gone by so quickly and Rachel was enjoying herself so much. It almost had a
dreamlike quality to it, and it felt, at times, like she could forget what she
was really supposed to be doing. And every night he dropped her off at her room
with an intense kiss and then nothing more.

He
was wooing her, she realized, and it was working.

 
“If you had warned me in advance that we were
coming to Parliament,” she heard him say, “I would have arranged a tour.”

“You
can do that?”

“I
have a few friends.”

Rachel
pulled a face. “That’s weird. I wouldn’t want to do that.”

“Why
on earth not?”

“It
would feel odd. Like we weren’t tourists.”

“You
can be a little strange at times,” Dominic said. “You know that, right?”

Rachel
shrugged. “I just like to be normal. All this makes me feel odd at times. The
fancy hotel and all the people waiting on us. Your driver, what’s his name?
Ryan? He’s always around shadowing us and then you can get the best tables in
restaurants and stuff. It’s strange.”

“It’s
part of my life. This is who I am.” A pause and then, “You do not like it?”

“No,”
she said quickly, “I don’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It just doesn’t
feel like me.”

“That’s
because you are a normal girl, Rachel. I like that about you. A lot. It’s
refreshing for me. I take no pleasure in having a bodyguard.” He nodded at the
surprised look on her face. “Yes, that is what Ryan is. Truth be told, it
annoys me intensely and yet I have no choice right now. There have been various
threats lately. More than usual anyway and Ryan is there just in case.”

“That’s
horrible.”

He
shrugged. “Well, there a criminals everywhere. People trying to make money off
the success of others. Parasites the lot of them.”

His
words sent a chill through her and Rachel stepped a little closer to him to
dispel it.
Criminals
. The words rung
through her and, though she told herself constantly that she and her sisters
were no such thing, she knew in reality that they were. And not just in terms
of what they were doing now. In the past it had been necessary for Penny to
pick quite a few safes and locks in order to get the things they needed, and
she and Lyra had held watch, even helped, more than once. Then there had been
all the times when they were very young teenagers that Rachel had tube-glided,
picking pockets of tourists as they made their way from landmark to landmark.
That money had kept them fed and clothed and it was simply necessary.

They
were
criminals. But in the end they
were doing it for the right reasons, to help those that needed it, and she held
onto that thought to keep herself from feeling bad, something she seemed to be
feeling a lot lately. It was the time she was spending with him. Dominic. Her
mark. Her man.

He
was just so charming and it was so unexpected. For all his money and words
about traditional roles and such, he treated her very much as an equal,
engaging her in discussions on national affairs, asking her opinions on
politics, keeping her amused with witty stories. And he wanted to know everything
about her. Favorite foods, favorite colors, what exams she had sat, where she’d
travelled. It was non-stop. It felt like a courtship and he was so sweet. Yet
Rachel knew that the moment she robbed him and made good her escape that the
sweetness would evaporate. He would be livid.

Not
that the opportunity had even presented itself yet. She’d picked his pockets
several times throughout the last few days but come up with nothing more than a
wallet and a phone. She’d placed them back where she’d gotten them from, all
the while wondering where the hell the key for the safe was and why it wasn’t
on him as her sisters had insisted it would be. And yet wasn’t there a part of
her that was almost…glad? Because the moment she got that key, their time
together would be over.