The Rumours Collection

But she was leaving in four days...

Which was fine. Just fine. She had her plans. He had his. He wasn’t after anything serious. They’d had their fun. And it had been fun, much more fun than he’d realised a fling could be. She had taught him to loosen up. He had helped her confront her fears. She had revealed her past to him, which he hoped meant she was ready to move on from it. He wanted her to succeed. She had so much going for her. Her energy, passion and drive were wonderful qualities if channelled in the right direction.

Holly linked her arms around his neck. ‘What’s that big, old sober frown for?’

Julius forced a smile. ‘Was I frowning?’

She put her fingertip between his brows. ‘You get this deep ridge right here when you’re thinking.’

He captured her finger and trailed his tongue the length of it. ‘I’m thinking it might be good to go inside before we both get burned to a crisp.’

‘Good point,’ she said and walked up the steps of the pool.

Julius stood spellbound as she emerged from the water like a nymph. She draped her wet hair over one shoulder as she squeezed the water out, reminding him of a mermaid. Her creamy skin was lightly tanned in spite of the sunscreen he’d seen her using. Her body was fit and toned yet utterly, irresistibly feminine.

She stepped into her bikini bottoms and tied the strings before she went in search of her top. Her smooth brow suddenly creased. ‘Is that a car?’ she asked, hurriedly covering herself.

Julius had been too focussed on her delectable body even to register anything but how gorgeous she looked. But now he could hear the scrabble of tyres over the gravel of the driveway.

‘Are you expecting anyone?’ Holly asked.

He vaulted out of the pool and reached for his trousers, not even stopping to dry himself. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No one can get through the gates without the security code, unless it’s one of the gardeners coming back in after mowing out front.’

‘That doesn’t sound like a ride-on mower,’ she said, speaking Julius’s thoughts out loud.

He shrugged on his shirt and quickly buttoned it. Under normal circumstances he would have got Sophia to answer the door. But with his housekeeper still away with her sister he could hardly send Holly dressed in nothing but a bikini. ‘I’ll see who it is,’ he said. ‘You stay here.’

Julius’s heart sank when he saw the chauffeur-driven black limousine pull up in front of the villa. His mother. Dressed to the nines. There was no press entourage that he could see but he knew it wouldn’t be long. His mother didn’t go anywhere without the press documenting her every move.

‘I’m coming to stay, Julius,’ she said as her driver helped her alight from the car as if she were stepping out on the red carpet. ‘I had to get away. The press haven’t left me alone for a minute.’

‘Have they followed you here?’ he said.

‘Not that I know of,’ Elisabetta said. ‘Why are you frowning? Aren’t you pleased to see me? I cancelled the rest of my season on Broadway to spend time with you. This is the only place I’ll be left alone. I was going to stay with Jake but he’s always got some girl coming and going. And Miranda refuses to get involved. Not that I’d want to stay in her poky little flat.’

‘Look, now’s not a good time,’ Julius said.

Elisabetta pouted. ‘Don’t give me your stupid work excuse. Your work can wait for your mother, surely? Don’t you realise how desperate I am? Your father’s ruined everything.’ She paused long enough to narrow her gaze at him. ‘Why are you all wet? And your shirt is buttoned up the wrong way.’

Julius gave himself a mental kick. ‘I was having...er...a quick dip. You caught me by surprise.’

Elisabetta continued her tirade. ‘I’m so furious. Do you know the girl’s mother was a housemaid at the hotel he was staying in? A housemaid! How could he be so pathetic?’

Julius pushed back his wet hair with his hand. ‘I really don’t have time for this right now.’

‘You never have time,’ Elisabetta said, flouncing up the steps. ‘All you have time for is work.’

‘Mother, you can’t stay,’ Julius said. ‘It’s not...convenient. My housekeeper’s away for a few days and I’m not prepared for visitors.’

Elisabetta turned with a theatrical swish of her designer skirt. ‘Why do you always push me away? Can’t you see I need you to support me right now?’

‘I understand things are awful for you just now but you can’t just dump yourself here without giving me notice,’ Julius said. ‘You could’ve at least called or texted first.’

Elisabetta’s gaze narrowed again. ‘Have you got someone with you? A lover? Who is it? You’re such a dark horse. You never tell me anything. Even the press never knows what you’re up to—unlike your brother.’

How could he explain his relationship with Holly to his mother? How could he explain it to himself? Was it even a relationship? Wasn’t it just a fling? A temporary thing they both knew would come to an end at the end of the week? ‘I like to keep my private life out of the news,’ Julius said. ‘Which is why you coming here is such a problem for me. You’re a press magnet.’

‘I hope you’re not going to suddenly take your father’s side in this,’ Elisabetta said as if she hadn’t heard a word he’d said.

‘Why would I do that?’ Julius said. ‘What he did was unconscionable.’

‘I blame that tramp who seduced him,’ his mother said as she entered the front door of the villa. ‘She betrayed him by not having the abortion he paid for. At least he offered to sort things out for her but what did she do? Went ahead and had the brat. The decent thing would’ve been to get rid of the mistake. Pretend it never happened. But no. Those ghastly little gold-diggers are all the same.’

His mother’s logic—if he could call it that—had always been hard to follow. He was pretty certain Katherine Winwood would not like to be referred to as a ‘mistake’ or hear her deceased mother referred to as a ‘ghastly little gold-digger’.

‘If Kat’s mother was such a gold-digger why did she wait until she was on her death bed to reveal her daughter’s paternity?’ he asked. ‘Why not come forward years ago and line her pockets with silence money?’

Elisabetta threw him a fulminating look. ‘How can you defend her? She was a housemaid, for God’s sake.’

Just then Holly appeared dressed neatly in a skirt and blouse with her still-damp hair scraped back in a neat chignon. ‘Welcome, Ms Albertini,’ she said. ‘Would you like me to take your things upstairs to your room?’

Elisabetta gave Holly an assessing look before turning to Julius. ‘I thought you said your housekeeper was away?’

‘She is,’ he said. ‘Holly’s filling in for her.’

Elisabetta looked at Holly and then back at Julius, her expression tightening. ‘So that’s how it is, is it? You’re sleeping with the hired help. Just like your father.’

Julius clenched his jaw. ‘I won’t have you insult Holly.’

His mother glared at Holly. ‘I suppose you think you’ve got yourself a meal ticket by seducing my son.’

Holly hitched up her chin, her stance one of cool dignity. ‘Would you like a drink brought up to your room? A bite to eat? Some fresh fruit?’

Elisabetta flattened her mouth. ‘Did you hear what I said?’

‘Yes, Ms Albertini, but I chose to ignore it on account of you being travel weary and upset over recent events,’ Holly said. ‘Now, if you’d like a drink or some other refreshment, I’ll see to it, otherwise I’ll leave Julius to show you to your room.’

His mother’s brown eyes flashed as she turned to Julius. ‘Did you hear how she spoke to me? Get rid of her. Get her out of my sight. I won’t be patronised as if I’m a child!’

‘Then don’t act like one,’ Julius said. ‘Holly might be acting as my housekeeper but that doesn’t mean she isn’t entitled to respect.’

‘It’s fine, Julius,’ Holly chipped in. ‘I can handle snobs like your mother.’

Elisabetta bristled. Her lips were pursed, her eyes blazing, her hands clenched. ‘You disgusting little sow,’ she threw at Holly. ‘He can have anyone he wants. Why would he want you?’

‘I’m great in bed,’ Holly said. ‘Plus, I cook an awesome meal. Oh, and did I mention I give great—?’

‘That’s enough,’ Julius cut in quickly. ‘Mother, you need to leave. Find a hotel somewhere. This is not the place for you right now.’

Elisabetta narrowed her eyes to slits. ‘You’d choose her over your own mother? What sort of son are you? Anyone with eyes could see she’s nothing but trailer trash.’

‘Takes one to know one,’ Holly said, calmly inspecting her cuticles.

Elisabetta’s eyes bulged in outrage. ‘What did you say?’

‘Right. Time to go.’ Julius took his mother’s arm and led her back to the waiting car. His mother didn’t like being reminded of her poverty-stricken background. It was mostly a well-kept secret, how she had grown up on the back streets of Florence, child of a single mother who had turned tricks to put food on the table. Elisabetta had reinvented herself when she’d moved to London to find a modelling job, which had then led to acting. Julius had never met his grandmother even though she had died three years after he and Jake were born. Not because he had been told of his grandmother’s death. He had by chance come across the death certificate when he’d been a teenager sorting out things in the library down at Ravensdene. It was as if Elisabetta’s past hadn’t existed. It was erased from her memory.

But now, having got to know a little about Holly’s desolate background, he wondered if his mother had had good reason to distance herself from it. Perhaps the memories, like Holly’s, were too painful. Perhaps it wasn’t a matter of pride and arrogance on his mother’s part but shame. Was that why Elisabetta found it hard to be a mother herself? She hadn’t been nurtured in the way most loving mothers nurtured their children. Elisabetta had pushed her children away unless she’d needed them to do something for her.

Like now, for instance. His mother would never come to visit him unless she’d wanted the visit to be all about her. She had never shown any interest in his work. He suspected she barely knew anything about his career. She had certainly never asked. He had always felt resentful towards her for her lack of interest but he wondered now if that was just the way life had shaped her.

Elisabetta got back in the car with a haughty flick of her Hermes scarf. ‘I wouldn’t demean myself by staying under the same roof as someone as common as that little tart. She’ll bring you nothing but trouble. You mark my words.’

Julius closed the door and stepped back. ‘I’ll call you in a couple of days. Take care of yourself.’

His mother tightened her mouth as she looked straight ahead. ‘Drive me back to the airport,’ she told the driver. ‘It seems I’m not welcome here.’

Holly came down the steps to join him as he watched his mother’s car disappear down the driveway. ‘I might’ve overstepped the mark...just a little,’ she said.

Julius put an arm around her shoulders and brought her close to him, kissing the top of her head. ‘Only a little.’

She clasped his hand around her shoulder as she watched the dust stirred up by the car finally settle. ‘Why did you defend me like that, anyway?’

He turned her in his arms to look at her. ‘Why wouldn’t I defend you? She was being rude and disrespectful.’

Holly’s mouth twisted. ‘No one’s ever done that for me, or at least, not for a long time.’

Julius squeezed the tops of her shoulders. ‘Then it’s about time somebody did.’

Her eyes flicked away from his. ‘It’s nice of you and all that, but I’d hate for you to be estranged from your mother just because of me. It’s not like I’m even going to be here much longer.’

Julius hated being reminded of the timeline. It was getting closer and closer to the end, and he knew he had to face it, but it was like facing a yawning chasm. Once Holly left, his life would go back to normal. Normal and ordered and...empty. ‘What if you stayed a little longer?’

Her gaze was suddenly wary. Guarded. ‘Why would I want to do that?’

Why indeed? he thought with a stab of disappointment. Clearly he was the one with the larger emotional investment in their relationship. Emotional investment? What the hell did that even mean? He wasn’t in love with her. Was he? No. Of course he wasn’t. He just had feelings for her. Feelings that were about care and concern for her welfare. Affection. She was a sweet girl underneath that façade. He’d come to respect her. To admire her. He’d come to enjoy their relationship.

Why was he persisting in calling it a relationship? It was a fling...wasn’t it? Why had he been so convinced she was developing feelings for him? He’d fooled himself their love-making had made her fall in love with him. But sex was just sex for her. Hadn’t she told him that repeatedly? The ironic thing was he’d said the same thing to women he’d dated in the past.

Julius shrugged. ‘Just thought you might like to come out to the desert with me.’

Her brow wrinkled like crushed silk. ‘The...desert?’

‘I’m going on a trip to check on the software in the Atacama Desert,’ he said. ‘It’s the highest and driest desert on the planet—that’s why we do the infrared astronomy there, because of the absence of water vapour. I thought you might like to come with me.’

She pulled half of her bottom lip inside her mouth before releasing it. ‘Look, it’s a really nice offer, but I’ve already booked my air fare and I don’t want to be charged a rebooking fee.’

‘Don’t worry about the money. I can help you with that.’

Her eyes met his with the kind of implacability and pride he had come to associate with her. And admire. ‘It’s not about the money. I’ve made up my mind, Julius. I’m leaving at the end of the week. I’ve waited years for this. You can’t ask me to change my plans just because you want to have another week or two of sex.’

‘It’s not about the sex, damn it,’ Julius said.

Her chin came up. ‘Then what is it about?’

He framed her face in his hands. He felt as if he was stepping into mid-air off a vertiginous cliff. His stomach was pitching. Her eyes were giving nothing away but he could see a tiny muscle near her mouth moving like a pulse. ‘It’s about you. About wanting to be with you. Not because of the sex, although that’s great. The best, in fact. But because I like you.’

Her eyes took on a cynical sheen. ‘You like me.’ She didn’t frame it as a surprised question or a delighted statement. It sounded like she was mocking him for using such a trite word.

Julius brushed his thumbs over her creamy cheeks. ‘I like how you make me feel.’

‘How do I make you feel?’ Her voice was toneless. As if she didn’t really care how he answered.

‘You make me feel alive.’

‘Just...alive?’ Was that a hint of delight he was hearing in her voice? Was that a sparkle of hope shining in her toffee-brown eyes?

Julius stepped off the cliff. He could no longer deny what he felt. ‘I think I’m falling in love with you. No, strike that—I am in love with you. There’s no thinking required. I know.’

Her eyes widened to the size of billiard balls. ‘You’re joking.’

‘I’m not joking.’

‘You’re mad.’

‘Mad? No. Madly in love? Yes.’

She opened and closed her mouth. Swallowed. ‘But...but why?’

‘Why?’ Julius asked on the tail end of a laugh. ‘Because you’re the most fascinating, adorable, complicated and yet sweetest person I’ve ever met.’

Her forehead was lined again with worry. ‘But your mother hates me.’

He smoothed away her frown. ‘Only because she doesn’t know you yet. She’ll fall for you like I did once she gets to know how wonderful you are.’

She kept pulling at her lower lip with her teeth. ‘Look, I really like you, Julius, but love? I’m not sure I even know what that word means.’

Julius tried not to be put off by her lack of enthusiasm. He understood her caution. She was used to people letting her down, exploiting her. She would be the last person to speak her feelings first. She would have to feel totally secure, trust that her heart was not going to be destroyed by someone who wasn’t genuine. He could live with that. He loved her enough to be patient. He didn’t need the words. He needed the action. The evidence. ‘Love means wanting the best for someone,’ he said. ‘I want the best for you, querida. I want you to be happy. To feel safe and secure and loved.’

Her frown was back. ‘I can’t feel safe. Not here. Not in Argentina.’

‘Because of your stepfather?’

She held her arms against her body, visibly shrinking her frame, as if trying to contain every bit of herself into the smallest package possible. ‘You don’t know the power he has. The reach he has. If he knew we were involved it could get ugly. Really ugly.’

‘I can handle bullies like your stepfather,’ Julius said. ‘I survived English boarding school, after all!’

Her eyes showed her doubts in long, dark shadows that went all the way back to her childhood. Julius could see the fear. He could sense it. It was like a presence.

She suddenly unpeeled her arm from around her body and held it wrist-up. ‘This is what my stepfather did,’ she said. ‘He broke my arm in four places. He told me to lie to the doctors at the hospital or he would kill my mother or me or both.’

Julius looked at the white scar on her wrist, his gut boiling with rage at what she had suffered. ‘The man is a criminal,’ he said. ‘He needs to be charged. He needs to be locked up and the key thrown away.’

Holly laughed but it wasn’t with humour. It bordered on hysteria. ‘He has friends in such high places he could wriggle his way out of any charge. He’s done it numerous times. I know he’s out there waiting for a chance to hurt me. I’m surprised he hasn’t tracked me down yet. It’s unusually slow for him.’

He took her in his arms and held her close. ‘I won’t let him hurt you,’ he said. ‘I won’t let anyone hurt you.’

She pressed her cheek against his chest. ‘You’re the nicest man I’ve ever met.’ Her voice was so soft he had to strain his ears to hear her. ‘If I was going to fall in love it would be with someone like you.’

Julius rested his chin on top of her head, holding her in the circle of his arms. He swore he would do everything he could to make her feel safe. He would not settle until he had achieved that for her. Whatever it took, he would do.

Whatever it took.

CHAPTER TWELVE

HOLLY WOKE WELL before Julius the next morning. But then, she hadn’t really been asleep. Even though Julius had made love to her with exquisite tenderness and had made her feel treasured and cherished, she had lain awake most of the night with a gnawing sense of unease. Sophia was returning today after extending her break with her sister. But it wasn’t just about the housekeeper finding out about Holly’s relationship with Julius. It was a sense the world outside—the world she had been pretending didn’t exist—was coming for her. To seek her out. To make her pay the price for the bubble of happiness she had been in.

The fact that Julius had told her he loved her should have made her feel the most blessed person in the world but instead it made her feel the opposite. It was like tempting fate. Whenever things were going well for her, something always happened to ruin it. It was the script of her life. She had no control over it. She didn’t dare to be happy. Happiness was for other people—for lucky people who didn’t have horrible backgrounds they couldn’t escape from.

Holly slipped out of bed and padded across the room, quietly opening the balcony doors and stepping outside. It still amazed her how Julius had helped her overcome her crippling fear. But he was right. She had allowed her stepfather to control her through fear. She stood on the balcony and breathed in the fresh morning air. The sun was just peeping over the horizon, the red and gold and crimson streaks heralding a warm day ahead.

Julius’s phone beeped on the bedside table, and Holly heard him grunt as he reached out to pick it up. She turned to look at him, all sexily tousled from a deep sleep after satisfying sex. He pushed his hair back off his forehead as he read the message. She saw his face blanch. Watched as his throat moved up and down in a convulsive swallow.

She stepped back into the room, pushing away the gauzy curtain that clung to her on the way past. ‘What’s wrong?’

He clicked off the phone but she noticed he didn’t put it back on the bedside table. He was gripping it in his hand so tightly, she was sure the screen would crack. Every knuckle on his hand was white with tension. ‘Nothing.’

Holly came over to him and sat on the edge of the bed beside him. ‘It can’t be nothing. You look like you just received horrible news. Is it your father? Your mother? One of your siblings?’

He pressed his mouth together so flatly his lips turned white. He swung his legs over the bed and stood, still gripping his phone. ‘There’s been a press leak.’ He let out a hissing breath. ‘About us.’

This time it was Holly’s turn to swallow. ‘What does it say?’

His expression was so rigid with anger, she could see every muscle outlined as if carved in stone. ‘It’s not so much what it says as what it shows.’

Her stomach dropped. ‘There are pictures? Of us?’

He scraped a hand through his hair. ‘Yes.’

‘Show me.’

‘No.’

Holly got off the bed and held out her hand for his phone. ‘Show me.’

He held the phone out of her reach, his face so tortured with anguish her heart squeezed. ‘No, Holly. Please. It’s best if you don’t. I’ll make it go away. I’ll get my lawyer onto it.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Your lawyer? Surely they can’t be that bad. How did anyone get photos of us? We haven’t been out together in public.’

Julius was looking so ashen Holly felt sick to her stomach. She took the phone from him. This time he didn’t fight her for it. It was like he was stunned. Shocked into inertia. She clicked on his most recent message. It was from his twin brother with a short message—WTF?—with a link to a press article with two pictures. They were erotic, almost pornographic shots of her and Julius making love in the pool.

Her mouth went dry. Dry as sandpaper. She couldn’t get her voice to work. All she could think was how horrible this was for Julius. How shaming. How mortifying. Someone had captured them in their most intimate moments and splashed it all over the world’s media. The media Julius did everything in his power to avoid. This was what she had brought to his life. She had done this to him. She knew exactly who was behind that long-range camera lens. This was how it was always going to be. She could never have a normal life. Not while her stepfather was alive. He would hunt her down. He would destroy her and anyone she dared to care about.

‘I can make it go away,’ Julius said into the canyon of silence.

Holly began collecting her things and stuffing them haphazardly into the backpack she had stored in his wardrobe.

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m leaving.’

‘You can’t leave.’

She slung the straps of her backpack over one shoulder. ‘I have to leave, Julius. I reckon I’ve caused enough trouble for you. I admit I wanted to when I first arrived, but even by my standards this is going too far.’

He frowned so hard his brows met over his eyes. ‘You don’t think I’m blaming you for this?’

‘It’s my fault,’ Holly said. ‘I’ve done this to you because I do this kind of stuff to the people I care about. I wreck their lives. I stuff up everything for them just by breathing.’

‘You care about me?’

Holly mentally bit her tongue. ‘I’m not in love with you, if that’s what you’re asking.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ he said. ‘You do love me. That’s why you’re running away like a spooked rabbit. You’re too frightened to let me handle this. You want to trust me to keep you safe when no one’s ever been able to do it before. But I can keep you safe, Holly. You have to trust me. I will not allow anyone to hurt you.’