Deserving of His Diamonds?

Emilio carefully removed the wineglass from her stiff fingers and put it to one side. ‘I can understand your anger towards them but our relationship broke up because I didn’t trust you,’ he said. ‘If anyone is to blame it is me.’

Gisele met his gaze in the long silence that ensued. ‘You know what really upsets me?’ she asked.

‘Tell me,’ he said, still holding her gaze.

‘How did they choose?’ she asked.

‘You mean who got which twin?’ he asked.

Gisele blew out a hissing breath. ‘I can’t get it out of my mind,’ she said. ‘How did they do it? How could my mother, my biological mother, give me up? And how could my father ask it of her? And not only that, what was my adoptive mother thinking by agreeing to bring up her husband’s love child? Did she have no self-respect?’

Emilio bent his forearms on his thighs so he could reach Gisele’s tightly knotted hands. He took them both in one of his, stroking the tension away as best he could. ‘Have you asked her about it?’ he said.

She looked at him with flashing eyes. ‘Of course I’ve asked her,’ she said. ‘She said she did it to keep my father happy. She spent their whole married life trying to make him happy but it never worked.’

‘From what you told me, your family always seemed so perfect to me,’ Emilio said, still stroking her hands. ‘You never said anything about them being unhappy together.’

Gisele looked down at their joined hands and hastily pulled hers away. She sat straighter in her seat, ramrod straight, angry straight, keep-away-from-me straight. ‘I never liked admitting it to anyone but I always felt I wasn’t good enough for either of my parents,’ she said. ‘I tried my best but nothing I did or achieved seemed to please them. My mother wasn’t the maternal type. She never liked cuddling me or playing with me. She employed a nanny to do that. Now I understand why. I wasn’t her child.’ She drew in another painful-sounding breath and continued, ‘My father was just as bad. Deep down, I think he really wanted a son. My mother certainly couldn’t give him one, but then his mistress gave him two daughters so he chose one. But I’ve often wondered if he thought he’d chosen the wrong one or whether he wished he had just walked away from both of us. He was stuck in a loveless marriage until the day he died, out of guilt presumably. All of those long stonewalling silences between him and my mother over the years suddenly made a whole lot of sense.’

Emilio frowned. He had never heard Gisele talk so honestly about her childhood. He had thought she had come from a reasonably happy and stable home. He had envied her background, given the bleak misery of his. It made him realise how little he had known her, even though he’d been days off marrying her. He had been struck by her beauty but had given little thought to who she was, what she valued and how she wanted her life to run. He had swept her off her feet, dazzled her with his wealth and charm, and yet had not known for a moment how deeply insecure she really was. It was like looking at her for the first time. The same beauty was there but so too was a fragility that he had not seen the first time around. But then she had been devastatingly hurt and he, to his shame, had done that to her, even more so than her parents. He wasn’t sure how he could ever fix that terrible mistake but he was determined to try. ‘How is your sister dealing with this?’ he asked.

Gisele let her stiff shoulders drop. ‘She’s a lot more chilled about it than me,’ she said. ‘I guess growing up with a single mother who was known to be a bit of a tear-away has toughened her up rather a lot. It sounded like Sienna was the parent rather than the child most of the time. She told me there were always a lot of men coming and going in her mother’s life. It can’t have been an easy childhood but she just made the best of it.’

‘Is she disappointed she didn’t get to meet your father?’

‘Yes and no, I suppose,’ Gisele said, frowning a little. ‘I think she would’ve given him a serve for what he did. She’s a bit of a straight shooter. I think I could do with some lessons from her, actually. It’s about time I learned to speak up for myself.’

‘I think you’re doing rather a good job of it,’ Emilio said with a crooked smile. ‘Perhaps I am wrong after all. Maybe you have changed.’

Her eyes glittered as they held his. ‘You’d better believe it.’

Emilio allowed a little silence to pass before he spoke. ‘Did you give the keys and all the relevant paperwork for your shop to the driver?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘Your new assistant will hold the fort until you decide what course of action to take. I’ve already spoken to her about it.’

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

He held her look for a moment. ‘You might decide to stay on in Italy,’ he said. ‘It would be imprudent not to prepare for that possibility.’

She gave him a disdainful look. ‘You must get really exhausted carrying that monumental ego around. Do you really think I will step back into your life as if nothing has changed? You’re paying for a month and that’s all you’re going to get.’

Emilio fought back his temper. He was not used to her being so obstructive and defiant. In the past she had been so willing to fit in with his plans. Where was the sweet young woman he had chosen as his bride?

‘Would you like another drink?’ he asked after a tense pause.

‘No … Thank you.’ She pushed the glass away with another little frown pulling at her brow.

‘I thought we could have dinner in my suite,’ he said.

She looked at him with startled eyes. ‘Why not in a restaurant?’ she asked.

‘I thought it might be more private.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘You can quit it with the whole seduction routine, Emilio,’ she said. ‘It won’t work.’

Emilio felt his groin tighten as she threw the challenge down with her flashing gaze. ‘You think not?’ he asked.

‘I know not,’ she said with a lift of her chin.

He held her gaze, hot, hungry desire leaping like flames in his body. This new feisty Gisele was turning him on. There was something about her newfound defiance that thrilled him. It stirred his blood, making it surge through his system like rocket fuel. There was one thing he loved more than anything and that was a challenge. He had left his dirt-poor background behind with the same gritty determination to succeed no matter what it cost. He had put himself through school and then university, working day and night to cover the expense. He had made his fortune by rising to the demands of difficult clients and completing next to impossible projects. He had nearly lost it all after the scandal, but he had clawed his way back.

Gisele was another next to impossible project but, just like all the rest, he was determined to succeed.

Nothing and no one was going to stand in his way.

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