Page 56 of Awakened in Her Enemy's Palazzo

‘None of this did. You really don’t trust me, do you, Theo? Or maybe you’re just looking for a back door to escape through because you’re too gutless to commit to anything. Yes, you had a tough break as a child, but so do lots of people. That doesn’t make them emotional cowards! Is this is what you wanted to talk about?’ she yelled, bashing the heel of her hand on the papers.

‘Oh, no. I wanted to apologise.’ The irony of his need to clear his conscience drew a bitter laugh from his throat. ‘I felt guilty. Because the guy I asked to collate this information on you went off-piste and leaked the story.’

If she had been pale before, now she was snow-white, her eyes deep blue pools of accusing hurt as she stared up at him.

‘You leaked the story to that—?You?’

‘I did not authorise it, but, yes. Essentially, the man was working for me.’

‘And you let me think—? I was so worried I’d embarrassed you! Well, you came here to confess, and funnily enough so did I. No, not to this,’ she added, screwing up the clipping in her fingers and throwing it on the floor. ‘I wanted to confess that I love you. I was fed up with pretending.’

Without waiting for him to react to this revelation, Grace pushed grimly on.

‘The Quants—Mr Quant was a lovely man...’

His family had been too, and they had been so complimentary about her work—until a necklace and some money had gone missing. She had been accused for about five minutes—until their grandson had been blue-lighted to Accident and Emergency with an overdose, and the missing money that hadn’t already gone to his dealer had been found in his flat and the necklace hidden in a teapot.

‘So you know what I’m talking about?’ demanded Theo. ‘This happened?’

She looked at his face and read the eager condemnation there, and suddenly she went cold. It was as if her entire body had been immersed in ice water.

‘Yes, there was an accusation about five years ago...my second job.’ Amazingly her voice was calm and steady, despite the sensation that the walls of the room closing in on her.

‘Am I permitted to know the details?’

She searched his face and felt like a total and complete idiot for allowing herself to believe that she meant anything to him beyond good sex on tap.

‘What would you like? Eye witnesses who can vouch for me? Some CCTV footage of the real culprit? Or will a sworn statement signed in blood do?’

She’d heard it said that hearing was the last faculty to be lost when a person was dying... Well, it turned out that sarcasm was the last thing to go when your heart was breaking. Who knew?

She knew now. Because hers was.

She could imagine it lying in a million shards at her feet, and a lump of ice in the empty space left by the vital organ.

‘You’re being ridiculous—and childish,’ he snapped back, feeling sweat break out on his brow as something close to panic beat a tattoo in his blood, pounding at his temples.

He only knew about neat, passionless endings to liaisons. This was not neat, and this was not passionless! And they hadn’t had a liaison... They had had—or so he’d thought—a relationship! And the irony was he had wanted more.

Grace was looking at him as though he were the biggest disappointment in her life. She was looking at him as though she hated him.

‘I have to tell you that this sort of reaction does not suggest someone as innocent as the driven snow,’ he said.

‘Thanks to you, I’m not innocent any more,’ she retorted. ‘Sorry, that was wrong. I don’t regret sleeping with you. Just falling in love with you!’ she bellowed.

‘Just stop the drama and tell me what happened, and then we can go back to the way we were,’ he snapped out, frustrated.

She took a deep breath and willed herself to stop shaking, unable to believe he thought it was that simple.

‘The way we were?’ she echoed. ‘What if I don’t want to go back to “the way we were”? What if I wantmore? But you can’t give more, can you? Well, being your sex on tap is not my idea of a fulfilling future—it’s the sort of thing you can pay for!’

‘Why don’t you just give me an explanation and cut the drama?’

‘I could explain what happened...and you could believe me or allow yourself to be convinced. But what then?’

She would never forget that look of doubt in his eyes. The shadow of it would always be between them.

‘This is rubbish!’ he charged. ‘You’re overreacting. If I am to protect you, I need to know the facts.’

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