The Rumours Collection

‘We’re friends as well as lovers,’ Miranda said.

‘What’s going to happen when he breaks it off?’ Jaz said. ‘Will you still be friends?’

‘Of course,’ Miranda said. ‘Why wouldn’t we be?’

‘What if you want more?’

Miranda had already starting day-dreaming them as a couple—as a permanent couple. Becoming engaged. Getting married. Going through life as a team, building a future together. Having children and raising them in a household with love and security—all the things he had missed out on.

But then there was her promise to Mark to consider. She would have to tell Mark’s parents she was ready to move on with her life. She would have to stop feeling guilty for being alive when Mark was not. She would have to confront the fact that maybe she hadn’t loved Mark the way she had thought. That they hadn’t been soul mates but just two teenagers who had dated. ‘I don’t want more.’

‘What if Leandro does?’ Jaz asked.

‘He doesn’t,’ she said. ‘He’s not the commitment type.’

‘That could change.’

‘It won’t,’ she said. ‘He only ever dates a woman for a month or two.’

‘So you’re his Miss October.’

Miranda didn’t care for her friend’s blunt summation of the situation. But that was Jaz. She didn’t sugar-coat anything—she doused it in bitter aloes. ‘Stop worrying about me,’ Miranda said. ‘I know what I’m doing. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t let it slip to my brothers, okay?’

‘Fine,’ Jaz said. ‘I only ever speak to one of your brothers, in any case. But are you going to tell Mark’s parents?’

Miranda bit down on her lip as she thought about that poignant ICU bedside scene seven years ago. Her promise to Mark had comforted his parents. They still got comfort from having her call on them, spending time with them on Mark’s birthday and the anniversary of his death. How could she tell them she was falling in love with someone else? It would shatter them all over again. It would be better to let this short phase in her life come and go without comment. She couldn’t bear to hurt them when they had been so loving and kind towards her. They needed her. She saw the way their faces lit up every time she called in. She lifted their spirits. She gave them a break from the depressing emptiness of their life without their son. ‘Why would I tell them?’ Miranda said.

‘What if someone sees you with Leandro?’ Jaz said. ‘He’s been photographed in the press before. He’s one of London’s most eligible bachelors. You and him being linked would be big news, especially right now, with your dad’s stuff doing the rounds. Everyone wants to know what the scandalous Ravensdales are up to.’

Miranda groaned. ‘Did you have to remind me?’

‘Sorry, but you guys are seriously hot property just now,’ Jaz said. ‘Even I’m being targeted on account of being an adjunct to the family.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. I’m thinking I might meet up with this Kat chick,’ Jaz said. ‘She sounds kind of cool.’

‘Why do you think that?’ Miranda said, feeling a sharp sting of betrayal deep in her gut.

‘I like her ballsy attitude,’ Jaz said. ‘She’s not going to be told what to do no matter how much money your family’s hot-shot lawyer, Flynn Carlyon, waves under her nose.’

Miranda couldn’t bear the thought of Jaz kicking goals for the opposition. Jaz was an honorary family member. She was the sister she had always longed for. Ever since Jaz’s mother had dropped her off for an access visit at Ravensdene and never returned, Miranda and Jaz had been a solid team. When the mean girls had bullied Miranda at boarding school, Jaz had stepped up and dealt with them. Jaz had been there for her when Mark had got sick and had been there for her when he died. Jaz had been everything and more that a blood sister would be. The prospect of her becoming friendly with Miranda’s father’s love child was unthinkable. Unpalatable. Unbearable. ‘Well, I don’t want to meet her,’ she said. ‘I can’t think of anything worse.’

‘I can,’ Jaz said. ‘Leandro lost his little sister and here you are pushing away what you’ve always wanted. It doesn’t make sense. The least you could do is make the first move. Be the bigger person and all that.’

Miranda frowned. ‘I don’t need a sister. Why would I? I have you.’

‘But we’re not blood sisters,’ Jaz said. ‘You shouldn’t turn your back on blood. Only crazy people do that.’

Miranda knew there was a wealth of hurt in Jaz’s words. Jaz put on a brash don’t-mess-with-me front but deep down she was still that little bewildered eight-year-old girl who had been dropped off at the big mansion in Buckinghamshire and had watched as her mother drove away from her down the long driveway into a future that didn’t include her. Miranda had heard Jaz cry herself to sleep for weeks. It had been years before Jaz had told her some of the things her mother had subjected her to: being left in the care of strangers while her mother had turned tricks to feed her drug habit; being punished for things no child should ever be punished for. Jaz had suffered horrendous neglect because her mother had been too busy, or too manic, or off her face with drugs, to care about her welfare.

But Miranda didn’t want to meet the result of her father’s infidelity to her mother. If she met Katherine Winwood she would be betraying her mother. Elisabetta was devastated by Richard’s behaviour. How could she not be when at the time of his affair with Kat’s mother he had been reconciling with her?

Miranda had spent most of her life trying to please her mother, living up to the unreachable standards of her beautiful, talented and extroverted mother. This was one way to get the relationship with her mother she had yearned for. If she met with her father’s love child it would undo everything she had worked so hard to achieve.

Besides, Kat Winwood hadn’t expressed any desire to meet her half-siblings. She was apparently doing her level best to avoid all contact with the Ravensdales.

Long may it continue, Miranda thought.

Leandro had just finished talking on the phone to an estate agent when Miranda came into the study. ‘I think I’ve got a buyer for the villa,’ he said, putting his phone down on the desk. ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’

She came and perched on the edge of the walnut desk, kicking one of her slim ankles back and forth, her mouth pushed forward in a pout. ‘Jaz thinks I should meet Katherine Winwood. She thinks I should make the first move.’

He took her nearest hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb. ‘I think that would be a really good thing to do,’ he said.

‘But what about Mum?’ she said, frowning. ‘She’ll think I’m betraying her if I become best buddies with her husband’s love child. God, this is such a mess. Why can’t I have normal parents?’

‘Your mother will have to deal with it,’ Leandro said. ‘None of this is Kat’s fault, remember.’

Miranda let out a long breath. ‘I know, but I hate how Dad wants everything to be smoothed over as if he didn’t do anything wrong. He doesn’t just want his cake and eat it too, he wants to decorate it and hand out pieces to everyone as well.’

‘People do wrong stuff all the time,’ Leandro said. ‘There comes a time when you have to forgive them for it and move on. For everyone’s sake.’

She brought her gaze back to his. ‘Is that what you’re doing? Forgiving yourself as well as your father?’

Am I? Leandro thought. Was it time to accept some things were outside his control and always had been? He hadn’t been able to protect his sister. He hadn’t been able to save his parents’ marriage. He hadn’t been able to protect his father from self-destructing. He hadn’t come home in time to say goodbye to his father, but he was here now, surrounded by the things his father had treasured. Being here in the place where his father had spent so many lonely years had given Leandro a greater sense of who his father was. Vittorio Allegretti hadn’t planned to live alone. He hadn’t planned to drink himself into an early grave. He had once been a young man full of enthusiasm for life, and then life had thrown him things that had made him stumble and fall and he simply hadn’t been able to get back up again. ‘Maybe a little,’ Leandro said.

A little silence passed.

Miranda looked down at their joined hands. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I kind of told Jaz we’re seeing each other...’

Leandro frowned. ‘Kind of?’

She met his gaze, her cheeks a faint shade of pink. ‘It’s impossible to keep anything a secret from Jaz. She knows me too well. She put two and two together and...well... I confessed we’re having a thing.’

Is that what we’re having? he thought. A thing? Why did it feel much more than that? It didn’t feel like any other relationship he’d had in the past. It felt closer. More meaningful. More intimate. He felt like a different person when he was with her. He felt like a whole person, not someone who had compartmentalised himself into tidy little boxes that didn’t intersect.

Why did it make him feel empty inside at the thought of bringing their ‘thing’ to an end?

‘I don’t like calling it a fling,’ Miranda continued. ‘And given what my father did I absolutely loathe the word affair. It sounds so...so tawdry.’

Leandro didn’t like the words either. He didn’t like using the word ‘affair’ or ‘fling’ to describe what he was experiencing with Miranda. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing tawdry or illicit about his involvement with her. He had always had a relationship with her—a friendship that was distant but polite. He had always cared about her because she was a sweet girl who was a part of the family he adored. Even her parents—for all their foibles—were very dear to him. Miranda’s brothers were his best mates. He didn’t want his involvement with her to jeopardise the long-standing mateship he valued so much.

But defining what he had with her now was complicated. The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted. Her gentle and compassionate nature was soothing to be around. But she deserved to have all the things girls her age wanted. He couldn’t commit to that sort of relationship. It wouldn’t be fair to her to allow her to think he could. He had been honest with her. Allowing their involvement to go on when they returned to England would be offering her false hope. Postponing the inevitable. It would make it harder to let go if he held on too long.

Once her family found out they were seeing each other, there would be pressure from them to take things to the next level. There would be pressure from the public because everyone loved a celebrity romance. The press had already taken an avid interest in Julius’s engagement to Holly. What would they do with the news of Leandro and Miranda’s involvement?

‘Miranda...’ He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘I know I’ve said this before, but you do realise we can’t continue this when we go back home, don’t you?’

She didn’t quite meet his gaze. ‘Are you worried what Julius and Jake will say?’

Leandro raised her chin so her eyes met his. ‘It’s not about what your brothers think. It’s about me. About what I can and can’t give.’

‘But you’d make a wonderful partner,’ she said with an earnest expression. ‘I know you would. You’re so caring and kind and considerate. How can you think you wouldn’t be happy in a long-term relationship?’

‘But you don’t want a long-term relationship,’ he said, watching her closely.

Her eyes went back to his chin as if that was the most fascinating part of his anatomy. ‘I wasn’t talking about me per se... It’s just I think you’d be a great person for someone to spend the rest of their life with. To have a family with and stuff.’

He let out a heavy sigh. ‘It’s not what I want.’

She pressed her lips together for a beat or two of silence. ‘I suppose you think I’ve fallen madly in love with you.’

‘Have you?’

Her eyes still didn’t quite make the full distance to his. ‘That would be rather fickle of me, given this time last week I was in love with Mark.’

Leandro brushed her cheek with his fingertip. ‘You’re twenty-three—still a baby. You’ll fall in love with dozens of men before you settle down.’ The thought of her with someone else made his chest ache. What if they didn’t treat her right? She was an incredibly sensitive person. She could so easily be taken advantage of. She was always over-adapting to accommodate other people’s needs and expectations. Even the fact that she’d settled for his ‘thing’ with her was evidence of how easily she could be exploited.

Not that he was exploiting her...or was he? He had been as honest as he could be. He hadn’t given her any promises he couldn’t keep. She had accepted the terms and yet... How could he know for sure what she had invested in their relationship? She acted like a woman in love, but then anyone looking in from the outside would think he was madly in love with her. Being physically intimate with someone blurred the boundaries. Was it lust or love that motivated her to be with him?

How could he tell the difference?

His own feelings he left in the file inside his head labelled ‘Do Not Open’. It served no purpose to think about the feelings he had for Miranda. He would have to let her go. He couldn’t hold her to him indefinitely. Over the years he had taught himself not to think of the things he wanted—the things most people wanted. He had almost convinced himself he was happy living the single-and-loving-it life. Almost.

Miranda slipped off the desk and smoothed her hands down her jeans. ‘I should leave you to get on with your work...’

Leandro captured her hand and brought her close to his body, watching as her pupils flared as his head came down. ‘Work can wait,’ he said and pressed his mouth to hers.

Desire rose hot and strong in him as her mouth flowered open beneath his. He stroked his tongue against hers, a shudder of pleasure rocketing through him when her tongue came back at him in shy little darts and dives. He spread his hands through her hair, cupping her head so he could deepen the kiss, savouring the sweet, hot passion of her.

Her small dainty frame was pressed tightly against him, her mouth clamped to his as her fingers stroked through his hair. Her touch sent hot wires of need through his body. The slightest movement of her fingers made the blood surge in his veins.

He wondered if he would ever forget her touch. He wondered if he would ever forget her taste. Or the way she felt in his arms, like she belonged there and nowhere else. He wondered how he would be able to make love to someone else without making comparisons. Right now he couldn’t envisage ever making love to anyone else. How could someone else’s touch make his flesh tingle all over? How could someone else’s kiss stoke a fire so consuming inside him he felt it in every cell of his body?

‘Make love to me here,’ Miranda said, whisper-soft, against his mouth.

Leandro didn’t need a second invitation. He was fighting for control as it was. Every office fantasy he had ever had was coming to life in his arms. Miranda was working her way down his body, her hands shaping him through the fabric of his jeans, then unzipping him and going in search of him. The smooth, cool grasp of her fingers around his swollen heat made him stifle an animalistic groan. She read his body like a secret code-breaker, stroking him, caressing him, taking him to the brink, before pulling back so he could snatch in another breath. ‘Let’s even this up a bit,’ he said and started on her clothes.

She gave a soft little gasp as he uncovered her breasts. He brought his mouth to each tightly budded nipple, rolling his tongue around each one. He drew on each nipple with careful suction, delighting in the way she responded with breathless sounds of delight. He moved to the underside of her breast where he knew she was most sensitive. He trailed his tongue over the creamy perfection of her flesh, his groin hard with want as he felt her shudder with reaction.

Miranda wriggled her jeans down to her ankles but he didn’t give her time to step out of them. Leandro didn’t step out of his either. He eased her back against the desk, deftly sourcing a condom before he entered her with a deep, primal groan of satisfaction. Her tight little body gripped him, milking him with every thrusting movement he made within her. He had to force himself to slow down in case he hurt her or went off early. But she was with him all the way, urging him on with panting cries. He worked a hand between their hard-pressed bodies to give her the extra stimulation she needed. It didn’t take much. She was so wet and swollen he barely stroked her before she came hard around him, making it impossible for him to hold on any longer.

He shuddered, quaked, emptied. Then he held still while the afterglow passed through him like the gentle suck and hiss of a wave.

Miranda’s legs were still wrapped around him as she propped herself on her elbows to look at him, her features flushed pink with pleasure, a playful smile curving her lips. ‘Should I have told you first I was a desk virgin?’

He pressed a kiss to the exposed skin of her belly, letting his stubble lightly graze her flesh. ‘I would never have guessed.’

She shivered as he went lower. ‘I haven’t done it outdoors either.’

Leandro thought of the timeframe on their relationship with a jarring sense of panic. There wasn’t time to do all the things he wanted to do with her. In a matter of days they would go back to being friends. There would be no making love under the stars. No making love on a remote beach or in a private pool. No making love on a picnic rug under a shady tree in a secluded spot. He hadn’t done those things with anyone else for years. Some of those things he had never done. How had he let his life get so boring and mundane?

The sound of his phone ringing where it was lying on the desk confirmed how much he had hemmed himself in with work. It rang day and night. He had forty emails to sort through, ten text messages to respond to and fifteen calls to make before he missed the time zone differences.

Miranda reached for his phone to hand it to him and then blushed as she glanced at the screen. ‘It’s Jake,’ she said in a shocked whisper, as if her brother could hear without the phone even being answered.

Leandro took the phone off her, turned it to silent and put it back on the desk. ‘I’ll call him later.’

She slipped off the desk and pulled up her jeans. Her teeth were savaging her bottom lip, her eyes avoiding all contact with his as she went in search of her top and bra.

He pulled up his own jeans before he took her by the hand and drew her close. ‘There’s no need to feel ashamed of what we’re doing.’

Miranda glanced at him briefly before lowering her gaze to his chin. ‘I’m not... It’s just that... I don’t know...’ She slipped out of his hold and ran a hand through her hair like a wide-toothed comb. ‘What if he finds out?’

‘He won’t unless you tell him.’

She gave him a worried glance. ‘But what if Jaz tells him?’

Leandro gave her a wry look. ‘Jaz talking to Jake? You seriously think that’s going to happen any time soon?’

She chewed at her lip again, hugging her arms around her body. ‘Will you tell him or Julius?’

That was the other file inside Leandro’s head—the ‘Too Hard’ file. The conversation with her brothers about his thing with Miranda wasn’t something he was looking forward to. It would have to happen at some point. He couldn’t hope to keep it a secret for ever and nor would he want to in case they heard about it later via someone else. He suspected Jake and Julius would guess as soon as they saw him and Miranda together at a Ravensdale gathering.

Like at Julius and Holly’s wedding next month. He couldn’t get out of going as he was one of the groomsmen, along with Jake, who was best man. Miranda was one of the bridesmaids. Maybe he would have to decline all future invitations. But then that would only increase speculation. ‘They’ll have to know eventually,’ he said. ‘I’ve kept enough secrets from them as it is.’

Her brow was still puckered with a frown. ‘I know, but...’

Leandro rubbed his hands up and down her upper arms in a soothing motion. ‘But you’re worried what they’ll think? You don’t need to be. I reckon they’ll be happy you’re finally moving on with your life.’

The trouble was she would be moving on with her life with someone else, he thought with another sharp dart of pain in his gut. He would have to stand to one side as she walked up the aisle to some other guy. He would have to pretend it didn’t matter because it shouldn’t matter.

Miranda lifted her toffee-brown gaze to his. ‘But what about you?’ she said. ‘Will you move on with yours?’

Leandro gave her a crooked smile. ‘I already have. You’ve helped me with that.’

‘I have?’

‘Sure you have,’ he said. ‘You’ve helped me understand my father a little better.’

She touched a gentle hand to his face. ‘I’m sure he loved you. How could he not?’

Leandro captured her hand and pressed a kiss to the middle of her palm. ‘I’d better call your brother back. You want to hang around and say hi to him?’

Her eyes widened in alarm as she started to back away. ‘Not right now... I—I think I’ll have to take a bath.’

‘Leave some hot water for me, okay?’

She nodded and scampered out of the room.

Leandro let out a breath and pressed the call button on his phone. ‘Jake, sorry I was busy with something when you called.’

‘So, what’s this about you doing my little sister?’ Jake said.

Leandro felt a chill tighten his skin. ‘Where’d you hear that?’

‘Joke, man,’ Jake laughed.

‘Right...’

‘You okay?’

‘Sure,’ Leandro said. ‘Been busy sorting out my father’s stuff. Now, about this Braystone account—’

‘So have you introduced Miranda to any hot French or Italian guys over there?’ Jake said.

‘No,’ he said, trying not to clench his jaw. ‘Not yet.’

‘Not that it’d work,’ Jake said. ‘But it’s worth a try.’

‘I’m sure when she’s ready to date again she will,’ Leandro said. ‘You can’t force people into doing stuff until they’re ready emotionally. You and Julius shouldn’t be giving her such a hard time about it. It’s probably why she’s been pushing back for all this time. Give her the space to recognise what she needs and stop lecturing her. She’s not a fool.’

‘Whoa there, buddy,’ Jake said. ‘No need to take my head off.’

‘I’m just saying you need to back off a little, okay?’

‘Okey dokey,’ Jake said. ‘Point taken. Now, about this Braystone account. It’s a humdinger of a puzzle, isn’t it?’

Leandro mentally gave a deep sigh of relief. Work. Now that was something he was comfortable talking about.

CHAPTER NINE

THERE WERE ONLY two days left before Miranda was to fly back to London. How had the last few days gone so quickly? It seemed like yesterday when she had arrived and walked into the villa with Leandro to all the dusts and secrets inside. Now the villa was all but empty apart from the kitchen, the bedroom they’d been sharing and Rosie’s room. He hadn’t done anything about that yet and Miranda didn’t want to push him. She knew he would do it when he was ready. He had a couple more days here after she left before he flew on to Geneva for a meeting over the big account he was working on for Jake.

Miranda looked at the date on the flight itinerary on her phone with a sinking feeling. Forty-eight hours and it would all be over. She and Leandro would go back to being friends. Platonic friends. They would no longer touch. No longer kiss. No longer make love. They would move on with their lives as if nothing had happened. She would have to interact with him at Julius and Holly’s wedding, maybe even dance with him and pretend they were as they had been before—distant friends. How was she going to do it? Wouldn’t everyone see the chemistry they activated in each other? She didn’t think she would be able to hide her emotions or her response to his presence. She had no control over how he made her feel. He had only to look at her and she felt her body tremble with need.