Page 41 of ‘I Do’ for Revenge
Flora folded her arms across her chest. ‘You don’t want your...loverto be seen doing menial work. Is that it?’
Vito forced himself to sound unconcerned when the need to know everything she did suddenly seemed more compelling than anything else. ‘I’m not a snob. I’m just curious. Indulge me.’
She threw her hands up. ‘Because I was bored and I’m not used to sitting around doing nothing and I don’t want to go shopping or to a spa. I want to be of use.’
Vito’s hands itched to show her exactly how she could be of use.
She said, ‘I did try to tell you, yesterday evening, but all those people wanted to talk to you at the event, and then you were on the phone when we got back and then... I fell asleep...and you didn’t wake me.’ Now she avoided his eye.
Vito didn’t like the reminder of how he’d been overcome with duelling desires, to wake her and to walk away. She was fast becoming an obsession, if she wasn’t already.
‘I didn’t want to disturb you,’ he said now. A little voice mocked him.Liar.
Suddenly Flora looked shy and she said, ‘I got something for you. Wait here.’
Vito watched her leave the room. Benji came over and sniffed around his feet but before he could cock his leg and mark his territory on Vito, he lifted him up and went to put him outside. The dog licked his face and Vito felt a little glow in his chest. He put him down on the terrace and pretended that the dog wasn’t getting to him.
Vito went back inside and Flora was there, holding out a small black box. For some reason Vito had an almost superstitious reluctance to take it. No woman had ever bought him anything. Not since his mother had died.
But he couldn’t ignore it. He took it and opened it to see silver cufflinks in the shape of eagles’ heads, beautifully engraved.
Flora was saying, ‘I saw them in the window of an antiques shop. They made me think of you, like an eagle, soaring above everything and biding your time until you could swoop down and take your vengeance for your father, and mother.’
It was uncanny but Vito had always had a fascination with birds of prey since he was a small child. He’d watched endless nature documentaries, much to his parents’ bemusement because they lived in a city. But Vito had known that birds of prey stalked cities as much as out in the wild. He’d seen birds of prey high in the sky over Manhattan. The line between civilisation and nature was very thin.
The fact that Flora had picked these out made him feel acutely exposed, a sensation that was becoming far too familiar. He snapped the box shut. ‘Thank you, but you really shouldn’t have gone to the trouble.’
‘It was no trouble.’ Flora looked a little dejected but Vito was too full of conflicting emotions. Then she said quickly, ‘I paid for them out of my own money,’ and the emotions in Vito’s chest and gut intensified.
He shook his head. ‘You don’t need to pay me back for anything, Flora.’
He was realising the full extent of just how far over and beyond the boundaries this situation had gone. Flora was like no other woman he’d ever been with. She was breaking all the rules and making up new ones. And through it all his blood was hotter for her than ever. The thought of this ending made him feel desperate. She wasn’t out of his system yet. Surely it wasn’t too late to restore some of those boundaries...
He handed back the box, even as bile rose from his gullet at what he was doing. ‘You should return them and get your money back. I don’t need anything.’
Flora’s face became expressionless. Vito felt a cold finger trace down his spine. He had an urge to say,No, wait, stop, I’m overreacting,but Flora was already taking the box and putting it in her pocket. ‘They were meant as a gift, not payment, but I should have realised that you’d be used to something a little more...sophisticated.’
She was turning away and Vito reached out and caught her arm. She turned back but avoided his eye. He tipped up her chin with his finger. Her eyes were guarded. He said, ‘I don’t mean to be ungrateful. It was a really thoughtful thing to do. Thank you.’
That sense of desperation was back but now it was because he wanted her to stop looking like a stranger. Unreadable. He took his hand down and said, ‘How would you like to go to a show this evening? I don’t have any engagements lined up.’
Flora shrugged minutely. ‘Sure, that sounds nice.’
‘Any show in particular?’
She smiled but Vito could see it was forced. The bile was almost choking him now. Flora said, ‘Surprise me.’
So Vito did what he would normally do in a situation with a woman he was sleeping with—he went for the show that was the most in demand and the hardest to get tickets for. And even though that put him on ground that felt a little firmer, he knew that Flora was the one woman he couldn’t impress so easily.
Flora was finding it hard to get swept away by the exuberant show on the stage, just feet from where they were sitting in a VIP box. She was still incredibly hurt after Vito handed back the present she’d got for him. She’d seen him look at the cufflinks with an arrested expression. But then his face had shuttered and he’d handed them back, and she’d felt like the biggest fool.
He’d proven that you really couldn’t buy anything for the man who had everything. And he’d handed them back because he had obviously wanted to send her a message—don’t cross the line. He’d managed to put her back in her placeandremind her that her finances were paltry.
She should have taken the hint from the fact that she’d barely seen him for the last few days, clearly demonstrating his focus was on work and not on her.
And she shouldn’t be hurt because if he had the ability to hurt her, it meant that he’d got a lot closer than she’d realised.
Who are you fooling?jeered a voice.