“Working in his study.” Katya put the tray on the small table in the corner of the room and left without saying another word, without even looking at her. Katya’s vibrations of hostility only reinforced the notion that there would be no help from the housekeeper in escaping this place, nor from any of Tommaso’s other employees. Whether they were brought into the secret or not, no one connected with any of the Espositos would dare tohelp her. Such was the loyalty the Espositos inspired that those brought into the secret would probably wish for the chance to put a knife in her themselves.
At least she wasn’t expected to starve.
Her empty stomach rumbling, Gabriella sat in the armchair by the table and looked at the small spread she’d been presented with. There was what looked like a spinach, mushroom and cherry tomato frittata and what looked and smelled like a slice of orange polenta cake. Accompanying it was a tall glass of iced water and a steaming mug of hot chocolate, which made her think of Siena again. In the two years Gabriella had lived with the Espositos, the two girls had always drunk hot chocolate before going to bed.
Unsure why she felt so down about eating alone when she should be thankful for the latest Tommaso respite, she nibbled at the frittata. The hunger pangs of only minutes ago had gone; her stomach now tight and knotted. The villa felt empty. Had the household staff now left? And what about Tommaso? Was he still working or had he left too?
Who cared, she told herself bullishly. Every minute spent without his odious company was a minute of bliss. If he’d gone to one of his nightclubs, then so much the better. Let him find another woman for his sexual demands.
Happy wedding day to her.
The little food she’d managed threatened to come back up.
Hating that she still couldn’t bear to imagine him with another woman, Gabriella brushed her teeth with extra vigour. Instead of falling into melancholy, she would catch up on the sleep she’d missed out on the night before. If Tommaso expected her to stay up for him, he should have told her, but he hadn’t, so as far as she was concerned, she could do what the hell she liked.
Except leave.
She almost jumped with shock when he strolled into the bathroom naked.
Flashing a sardonic smile, he stepped into the shower. “Wait in bed for me.”
Her heart accelerating at such speed it was frightening, she flippantly said, “Sure you can manage cleaning yourself?”
His wild black eyes glittered. “I didn’t know you were so keen to get your hands on me again.”
Her face and neck burning with the same speed as her cantering heart, she tightened her lips and took a step towards the door.
He reached for the shampoo and laughed. “Warm yourself up for me, rat. I won’t be long.”
She wasnotrelieved that he’d come back to the bedroom, Gabriella insisted to herself as she stalked to the bed. And as forwarmingherself up for him? She knew what he meant by that, and hell would freeze over to the current temperature of Tommaso’s arctic bedroom before she even entertained doing such a thing for him. Just because her body was pathetically revelling in all his sexual demands didn’t mean she had to titillate him when he wasn’t even in the bloody room. If he wanted to warm her up, then he could bloody well do it himself. And seeing as he wanted her nicely warmed up, she’d keep the robe on…which immediately sent a flush of heat coursing through her veins to imagine him peeling it apart.
With extremely bad grace, she threw the silk sheets over so she could climb between them, and stopped short.
The sheerness of the sheets was much, much thicker than before. And much heavier.
Sitting on the bed, she pulled the sheets onto her lap to examine them, just about comprehending that it was no longerblack sheets wrapping the bed. She shook her head in disbelief. How on earth had she not noticed that the silk sheets had been replaced by a thick duvet wrapped in a black silk duvet cover? But even as she asked herself the question, her cheeks burned afresh. She hadn’t noticed because every scrap of her attention had been on Tommaso.
Untying the robe’s sash, she pulled it off and dropped it on the floor, then burrowed herself beneath the duvet’s warmth with her heart thumping all over again. When he emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of his delicious scent, it thumped even harder.
“You’ve had the bedding changed,” she said with almost breathless wonder as he stalked towards her. She could not comprehend why he would do something so thoughtful for her benefit. Hehatedher; hated her so much that the thought of kissing her on the mouth made him want to vomit.
He climbed onto the bed with another of his sardonic grins. “I like to sleep undisturbed. If you fidget tonight, I’ll tie you up.” His eyes flashed as he settled himself between her legs. “I might just tie you up anyway.”
Tommaso lay facing the wall, unable to switch off his brain even though the woman sleeping with her back to him was as still as if hehadbound her.
So many snakes were revealing themselves. On paper, the Sicilians and the Russians were the biggest threats, but to his mind and his siblings’ minds, it was the rats from their own organisation that posed the greatest danger. Those rats were now being watched twenty-four-seven. Their phones, cars andhomes were bugged. Their shoes had trackers. None of those rats could breathe without an Esposito knowing it.
The rat sleeping in his bed was the most dangerous of them all. The other rats and snakes wanting to take territory and deals from them was business. For the rat in his bed, it was personal. The only thing she wanted was his family’s destruction. He must never let himself forget that or allow the feelings that had been mushrooming for her in recent times get a foothold in him again.
It was the snake that lived inside him that was the most threatened by her; the cobra that had wanted to strike his fury at her betrayal. Looking into her eyes was how a cobra must feel when the snake charmer plays his tune. He’d gazed into Gabriella’s eyes earlier while their bodies were still fused, and there had been a moment when his heart had clenched so tightly and then pulsed so rapidly that he’d tricked himself into forgetting exactly who she was and into believing they were real. Only when she’d closed the bathroom door had he pulled himself out of the trance-like state her hypnotising stare had pulled him into.
Gabriella was a traitor. She’d lived parallel lives, and none of them had suspected a thing. She’d deceived them all.
How long had she been working on her betrayal? Though the forensic examinations of her phone and other devices had revealed no evidence of an accomplice or evidence that she was in contact with the authorities, it gave no indication either of how long she’d been harbouring such hate in her heart.
He thought again of how his father had never brought her into the shadows with the rest of them.Hadhe suspected that she was working against them? But if so, why make her his right-hand woman? His father hadn’t been one for keeping his enemies close. The opposite. There was no room for emotions and sentimentality. Not in business.
And there would be no room for emotions or sentimentality in Tommaso’s marriage.
