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As they closed the meeting, Emma walked round the table to Cristiano and Lucas could hear her asking after his wife and children. He clenched his jaw as the Sicilian businessman withdrew his phone and showed Emma a series of photographs.
It was typical of Emma to know everything about everyone, he thought. It was what made her such an excellent PA. Nothing escaped her. She forgot nothing. She knew names, faces—hell, she knew whole family trees.
Angry with himself, Lucas rose to his feet. ‘If we’re finished then we need to move on.’ He shot Cristiano a pointed look. ‘You and I have a string of media interviews to get through today.’
Work, he thought. The answer was to bury himself in work as he’d always done in the past and hope that the dress Emma had chosen to wear tonight was less provocative than last night’s choice.
He could only hope that her sudden interest in navy would extend to evening wear.
CHAPTER EIGHT
EMMA stayed in her room until the last minute, rehearsing her expression in the mirror. Cool. Composed. Not bothered.
True to her word, Avery had arranged for both a hairdresser and a make-up artist to come to the suite so she’d been pampered and spoiled while Lucas had been tied up giving interviews to the media. She hoped that his mood would have improved. During the meeting he’d looked ready to explode.
A brisk knock on the door made her jump. ‘Emma?’ Lucas’s voice came through the door. ‘A security team has just delivered a necklace for you. Are you ready?’
Yes, she was ready. Or as ready as she’d ever be.
Pride, she reminded herself, thinking of Avery.
Breathing deeply, she opened the door. The white dinner jacket was a shock. She’d expected black and the dramatic contrast between the white and that raven hair made her hold her breath and not release it for a long moment. He was effortlessly elegant, everything masculine and altogether unobtainable. Despite all her best intentions, her stomach tied itself in a knot and of course he had to see her reaction because he was a man who saw everything. To calm herself, she focused her attention on the box in his hand. ‘I hope it’s nothing over the top. Avery arranged it. She thought the dress needed something.’
His gaze scanned her in a single sure sweep. No doubt he’d done the same to countless women far more beautiful than her but still she couldn’t look away from him, this man who had been told he was nothing and had made himself something.
She’d expected at least a polite smile, but he wasn’t smiling. Instead his expression was deadly serious and when he lifted those dangerous blue eyes to hers she felt suddenly dizzy.
The situation called for a light, jokey response but there was nothing like that in her head so Emma simply held out her hand for the dark blue velvet box. ‘Can I see?’
When he didn’t hand it over, she reached and took the box from him, knowing that if she wanted to keep her job she had to prove to him that she could do this. That she could be every bit as detached as he was.
He probably thought she was dressing for him.
She had to prove she was dressing for herself.
‘I feel uncomfortable wearing anything valuable.’ She discovered it was possible to speak as long as the subject wasn’t personal. Flipping open the box, she gave a gasp. ‘Oh it’s gorgeous.’ It was a sapphire pendant and her heart gave a little skip as she imagined how it might have felt to be given such a gift by a man who loved her.
Killing those thoughts fast, she was about to lift it from the case when Lucas did it for her.
‘Turn around,’ he said roughly and she turned without thinking and then heard his sharply indrawn breath and remembered that the dress swooped low on her back.
Would he say something?
There was a pause. A moment when she held her breath and willed that admirable restraint of his to splinter. She closed her eyes and waited, wanting desperately for him to just grasp her and take control as he had that night in the turret bedroom. She wanted all of that urgency, all of that wild passion, and then felt guilty because she knew that urgency and passion had been fed by raw emotion and a situation so painful that no one would want to repeat it.
And then she did feel his hands on her skin, cool and steady as he fastened the necklace. The touch was minimal, but even that was enough to set her alight. Even with her back to him the attraction was so fierce that it took her breath away and she was relieved he couldn’t see her face because she was sure everything she felt would be visible. No make-up, however clever, could conceal feelings so powerful. And now she had to pretend that their relationship hadn’t changed even though it had changed beyond recognition.
