LIA LAY HER head back against the sofa in exhaustion after the police had asked all their questions and finally left the hotel. But she wasn’t too tired to remember that she was supposed to be working today. ‘I need to contact Mike Harrington to tell him I won’t be in today.’
Gregorio’s brow rose at hearing Lia call the hotel manager Mike Harrington; he had only ever known the other man by the more formal Michael. ‘I have already spoken to him.’
‘Why am I not surprised?’ Lia muttered.
‘At the time I was unsure of what time you were going to wake this morning,’ he defended.
‘Fair enough.’ She sighed. ‘I’m just wondering whose life you ran before taking over mine?’
‘Lia—’
‘It’s okay.’ She held up a defeated hand. ‘I understand.’
‘Understand what, exactly?’
‘That the quicker this is resolved the sooner I’ll be out of this suite and your life.’ She stood. ‘I think I’ll take some more painkillers and then follow Sebastien’s example of taking a nap for a couple of hours.’
She left the sitting room.
Gregorio was so stunned by her first comment that he was barely aware of the second one.
Lia believed he wanted to hasten her departure—not just from this suite but from his life. What had he ever said or done to make her think that?
His only motivation in ending this situation with Richardson was to ensure that nothing like last night ever happened again. He also wanted to clear her father’s name. Again for Lia’s sake, more than anyone else’s.
Lia had been very defensive this morning. Spoiling for a fight. Earlier Gregorio had put it down to late reaction to the shock of Richardson’s attack last night. But what if it was for another reason entirely? Her barbs and sarcasm had been directed solely at him, Gregorio now realised. Much to Gregorio’s annoyance she had joked with Sebastien a couple of times this morning. Usually at Gregorio’s expense. And she had been calm and polite when she answered the questions put to her by the police.
He didn’t understand why. What had he and Sebastien been discussing shortly before Lia joined them in the kitchen earlier?
Damn it!
Sebastien had been teasing Gregorio about his responses to Lia, and he had reacted defensively to that teasing. Had denied that Lia had any importance in his life amongst other things. One of those things being stating his need to resolve the situation quickly and to agree that it was so that Lia could move back to her apartment.
He hadn’t meant that the way it had sounded—had only been fending off Sebastien’s too-personal comments.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have said it? Especially in a place where there had been a chance that Lia might overhear the comment.
Damn, damn, damn it.
* * *
Lia’s first thought on waking up was that there was something heavy lying across her. Then she realised it had to be the unwieldy plaster cast she had on her arm.
Except... This weight felt lower down than the plaster cast. Warmer too. More flexible.
She carefully lifted the duvet so she could see what it was.
An arm.
A bare and muscular male arm, lightly dusted with dark hair.
An arm she easily recognised as belonging to Gregorio.
Gregorio is in bed with me!
Lia was sure he hadn’t been there when she’d fallen asleep earlier, almost the instant her head had touched the pillow. She had been exhausted from talking with the police for over an hour, and then the painkillers had finally kicked in.
Gregorio must have come to her bedroom and got into the bed with her some time after that.
A part of her knew she should be annoyed, at the very least, at his having taken advantage of her sleeping. Another part of her just wanted to curl up in his arms and go back to sleep.
She also couldn’t help wondering if the rest of him was as naked as his arm...
She took care not to wake Gregorio as she scooted backwards until her bottom came into contact with his groin. She was more than a little disappointed to feel the brush of denim against her skin where her nightshirt had rucked up as she’d moved about in her sleep.
‘If you move back a little further you will discover that I am fully aroused.’
Lia instantly tensed at the unexpectedness of discovering that Gregorio was awake. Was it because she had woken him? Or had he already been awake when she’d been fidgeting about trying to discover what was curved about her waist? And in her careful—and obvious—efforts to discover if Gregorio was naked...?
She moistened her lips before speaking. ‘What are you doing in here?’
‘Until a few minutes ago I was sleeping.’
‘I meant—’
‘I know what you meant, Lia.’ Gregorio moved up to roll her gently onto her back so that he could look at her, careful not to jar her arm. Her face had more colour than earlier, thank goodness. Her eyes no longer had that haunted look, either. ‘I wanted to be here when you woke up.’
‘Why?’
‘Two reasons.’
‘Which are?’
‘Silvio contacted me shortly after you had gone to sleep. He and Raphael discovered Richardson was booked on a flight to Dubai.’
Her eyes widened. ‘He was fleeing the country?’
‘I believe in the beginning, with your father dead, he thought he could weather the storm and his life here in England would go on as before, with no one any the wiser as to what he had done. But—’
‘But yesterday I alerted him to the fact that wasn’t going to happen.’ She winced. ‘I’m so sorry, Gregorio. I just wanted him to know I wasn’t as stupid as he thought I was, but all I did was give him the opportunity to leave England as soon as possible.’
‘Do not feel bad about that. Richardson’s response to your warning was damning in the extreme. Besides,’ he added with satisfaction, ‘he is now in police custody, after an anonymous phone call informing them he was booked onto the Dubai flight.’
She gave a shudder. ‘He’s a lawyer, Gregorio—do you think the charges against him will stick or will he manage to wriggle out of them?’
‘His attack on you will certainly stick. The FSA will also be very interested in Richardson’s behaviour. Especially as I have now given them all the information I have so far on his having embezzled money from Fairbanks Industries. It may take some time but, yes, I believe eventually Richardson will be made to answer for all his crimes.’
Lia gave a shaky sigh. ‘I can’t believe it’s over.’
‘In time it will be,’ Gregorio cautioned again.
Lia had no doubt that with the powerful Gregorio de la Cruz’s involvement that time would come sooner rather than later, and that David would one day end up in jail—as he fully deserved to.
‘You said there was a second reason you wanted to be here when I woke up?’ she reminded him softly.
Gregorio felt the frown lift from his brow. ‘I believe you are suffering under a misapprehension in regard to something you overheard me say earlier.’
Lia’s tension was immediate in the wariness of her expression. ‘Oh...?’
He nodded. ‘I am not...comfortable with emotions.’
She smiled ruefully. ‘I noticed.’
‘Let me finish, Lia,’ he reproved gently. ‘Sebastien was being his usual irritating younger brother self this morning.’
‘Obviously I can’t speak from personal experience, but I believe that’s part of a sibling’s job description.’
‘Perhaps,’ Gregorio allowed dryly. ‘Sebastien seems to think it is, at least.’ He sobered. ‘What I said to him, about resolving the situation with Richardson so that you could return to your apartment, was not meant as literally as I believe you have taken it.’
She frowned her puzzlement. ‘I don’t understand...’
‘Nor did I until I tried to find a reason why you were being so dismissive of me,’ he admitted. ‘Lia, you were the one who brought an end to our...relationship.’
‘Our going to bed together, you mean? Well... Yes.’ Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. ‘It was clouding the issue. Obviously, having known and liked my father, you feel some sort of responsibility towards me. But I assure you—’
‘I feel concern for you, not responsibility.’
‘Oh.’
He nodded. ‘I realise some of my actions and comments may have come across that way to you, but I assure you that responsibility is the last thing I feel when I look at you or touch you.’
‘Oh.’
‘Now you are worrying me,’ he drawled. ‘The Lia Fairbanks I know always has plenty to say on any subject,’ he explained as she frowned. ‘Lia, has it occurred to you that I could just as easily mistake your responses to me as gratitude?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You think I went to bed with you out of gratitude?’
He smiled slightly. ‘What I think is that we should start being honest with each other, so that in future we avoid these misunderstandings.’
The only words Lia heard were in future. That implied the two of them were going to have a future. Maybe not as anything more than friends, but even friendship was better than responsibility or gratitude.
‘I’m waiting for you to start being honest,’ she prompted after several long seconds of silence.
Gregorio chuckled at her guardedness. ‘I have been honest with you from the beginning. I told you when we met again last week that I’d wanted you from the first night I saw you in Mancini’s with your father and Richardson.’
‘And now you’ve had me.’
‘Yes.’
‘I... This is in the spirit of honesty, you understand?’
‘I understand.’
‘Well. I... You’re only the second man I’ve... Well, that I’ve...’
His brows rose. ‘I am only your second lover?’
‘Yes.’ Lia breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t actually have to say the words. ‘And in comparison the first one was awful,’ she said with feeling. ‘Not that I’m comparing you to David in any way,’ she added quickly. ‘I just want you to know that our lovemaking was spectacular. Wonderful. Special.’
‘In the spirit of honesty?’
She frowned up at him. ‘Are you mocking me?’
‘Not at all.’ Gregorio chuckled. ‘In the spirit of the same honesty, can I say that our lovemaking was—Lia...?’ He prompted against the fingertips she had placed over his lips.
‘I really don’t want to hear how I measured up to the legion of women you’ve had in your bed.’ She grimaced.
‘I seem to recall that a Roman legion comprised about five thousand soldiers, and while I have been sexually active for some years, I very much doubt the total of my bed partners comes anywhere near that number.’
‘You are mocking me!’
‘Only a little,’ Gregorio acknowledged huskily. ‘And only because I am honoured to have been your second lover—especially as the first was such a failure.’ His voice lowered. ‘What I would really like above all things is to be your last lover too.’
‘Sorry?’ Lia’s mouth had gone dry. Did Gregorio mean...? Was he asking...?
No, of course he wasn’t. Gregorio didn’t do for ever. She must have misunderstood him.
‘Lia...’ His hands moved up to cradle each side of her face as he looked down at her intently. ‘Beautiful Lia. Our lovemaking was spectacular to me too. Wonderful. Most of all, special.’
‘It was?’ Lia wasn’t sure she was still breathing. She couldn’t possibly be awake.
‘It was,’ Gregorio confirmed gently. ‘I wanted you from the moment I saw you, but in just a few days I have also fallen in love with you.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You love me?’
‘So very much.’ Gregorio had only realised how much earlier, when he had contemplated the huge gap Lia would leave not only in his hotel suite but in his life, his heart, when the time came for her to leave and return to her own apartment.
Lia swallowed. ‘Really?’
‘Really,’ he confirmed. ‘Perhaps I always did. I have never believed in love at first sight, but...’ He leant over to pull open a drawer in the bedside cabinet and remove something from inside. ‘This is the handkerchief I used to wipe the blood from my cheek the day you slapped my face at the funeral.’
‘You keep it in your bedside drawer?’
‘Silvio gave it to me that day.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I placed it in this drawer when I returned home, and it has been here beside me every night since.’ He dropped the handkerchief back in the drawer. ‘I couldn’t bear to part with it.’
‘You love me?’
‘I do.’ He nodded. ‘More than life itself. Rather than wanting you to leave, as you believe, if I could I would keep you here with me for ever. But all of this is too soon for you.’ He sighed. ‘You lost your father such a short time ago. Your engagement ended badly. You need time to heal. To make a life for yourself. To prove to yourself that you can make a life for yourself.’
‘You can understand that?’
His smile became warmer. ‘You would not be the Lia I love if you did not feel that way.’
She looked up at him searchingly, noting the love and pride shining in his eyes as he steadily returned her gaze, leaving himself and his emotions wide open for her to see.
‘Gregorio.’ She reached up and touched his cheek. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you, too.’ She spoke clearly, firmly, wanting there to be no more misunderstandings between them. ‘I love you,’ she said. ‘So very much.’
Gregorio felt as if someone had punched him in the chest, stealing all the breath from his lungs and rendering him incapable of speech. Lia loved him?
‘How can you possibly...?’ He was finally able to force words past his shock. ‘You cannot possibly... You believed... You accused me of...’
‘Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes,’ Lia acknowledged emotionally. ‘I did, and I believed all of those things. And still I fell in love with you. Because you’re none of those things, Gregorio. You’re honourable. Truthful. Protective. You have been nothing but kind to me even in the face of my less than gracious behaviour towards you. How could I not fall in love with you?’
‘Dios mio...’ Gregorio continued speaking in Spanish as he buried his face against her throat.
‘I have no idea what you’re saying, but I don’t care because I’m sure it’s something beautiful.’ Lia laughed happily, her arm about his shoulders as she clung to him.
He lifted his head, his mouth now only inches away from Lia’s. ‘I said you are beautiful. My heart. My world.’
‘I love you, Gregorio. I love you so very much.’
She lifted her head and claimed his lips with her own.
* * *
‘I said you would be bossy in bed,’ Gregorio murmured indulgently a long time later, when the two of them were lying naked in bed together, Gregorio on his back, Lia nestled against his side with her head on his shoulder.
Their lovemaking had necessarily been gentle, because of the cast on Lia’s arm, but no less beautiful because of it. Perhaps more so, because they had taken the time to explore and appreciate every inch of each other. Not just in passion and pleasure, but in love.
‘Lia, when this is over there is a question I wish to ask you.’
Lia felt as if her heart had leapt into her throat. ‘Why can’t you ask me now?’
‘For all the reasons I stated earlier.’ He sighed. ‘I want you to be sure—very sure—when you give me your answer.’
She frowned. ‘And what happens in the meantime? Between us, I mean? Do we go our separate ways and meet up again in three months’ time, say, to see if we both still feel the same way?’
‘No!’ Gregorio’s arms tightened about her possessively. ‘Absolutely not. We will see each other every day. And we will share the same bed every night,’ he stated firmly.
Lia could barely hold back her smile of happiness.
Gregorio loved her. She loved him.
And whether Gregorio ever asked her that question or not was unimportant, because she had absolutely no doubt they would be spending the rest of their lives together.