“The one and only. Can I get you ladies a drink? A bottle of champagne?” He didn’t even wait for an answer before making a signal to one of the passing waiters, who nodded and immediately bustled to the bar. “I will catch you ladies later,” Gino said, before meeting the redhead’s eye. “And if I don’t…” He raised a suggestive eyebrow. “I will be back in on Saturday.”
As they walked away, he murmured in Francesca’s ear, “You are doing an excellent job of looking like you want to kill me.”
“It isn’t hard,” she whispered.
She had no idea if he heard her because now she was being penned up another flight of stairs and into a cavernous, darkly lit space throbbing with pumping music. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust. In her imagination, she’d pictured the nightclub proper to be like the hotel ballroom her cousin Siena’s engagement party had been held in, with chairs and tables encircling a central dance floor. This place was a warren filled with hidden booths, people dancing wherever they wanted… She had to fight to stop her jaw from dropping at the hidden human-sized cages she spotted. Each had a semi-naked painted body in them – male in some, female in others – writhing to the music. She thought of them as bodies as they wore animal masks to hide their faces.
It was like she’d entered a different world. The whole place reeked of money and sensuality, but there was little time for her to properly take it all in, for another beautiful woman slinked over and kissed Gino proprietarily. Whatever he whispered in the woman’s ear, the music was too loud for Francesca to hear, but the woman laughed and groped his backside.
Francesca’s heart now like a block of ice, they were moving again, past the woman still gazing at Gino as if he were Adonis come to life, past swaying bodies, screams of laughter, shots and champagne being consumed in vast quantities, to a spacious booth with its own hidden dance floor off it.
No sooner had she been forced to sit between two of the bodyguards than a flute of champagne was thrust in her hand.
Two more women and a man joined him. He slid his arms around both the women’s waists, drawing them into close conversation. One of the women looked at her, and when Francesca cut her own stare away, she noticed lots ofother people were looking at her, naked curiosity in their stares. Probably wondering who the hell she was, she thought miserably. Or wondering if her presence meant Gino was taken for the night. She felt like telling the women staring at her not to worry, that from tomorrow, he would be free for them to all fight over.
Her wretchedness only deepened when one of the women Gino was talking to pulled her phone out of her clutch bag and clearly messaged her phone number to him. He swiped his phone to make sure it had been received with a knowing smile.
Francesca tried to drink her champagne. The bubbles stuck in her throat.
Chapter Fourteen
“So what did you think?”Gino asked casually as they set back off to his apartment in the same cavalcade they’d gone in. “Was it what you expected?”
Her gaze turned to the window, Francesca shrugged. She’d not spoken a word since he’d announced it was time to leave. He couldn’t remember her saying anything since their arrival.
He’d done the right thing taking her there, he told himself firmly. Done the right thing letting things develop in the club as they always did. His hostage had developed feelings for him, of that he was certain. He supposed he’d developed feelings of a sort for her, too, but nothing could come of them. They’d only formed because of the close proximity he’d forced them both into.
Much better for her to return home having witnessed the truth of who he was. If she’d held any hope he would change his mind about marrying her, seeing him in his natural habitat, so to speak, would have made her see the truth behind what he’d said about destroying her emotionally. Now she would return to her family without any lingering what-ifs. She could forget about him as he was bound to quickly forget about her, and deal with the marriage she didn’t want.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said into the silence.
She didn’t respond.
“I don’t doubt you’ll be able to convince your family why it’s in no one’s interest for you to marry Elio, but if they threaten to cut you off financially, message me, and I’ll send you money. I’ll give you my number before you leave.”
“No thank you,” she said in the stiffest voice he’d ever heard from her.
“It would be a gift from me.” A gift he would give gladly. Whatever she wanted or needed to build a future for herself that was free. “There is no time limit for you to accept it.”
“I said no.” Francesca would rather starve than take a penny from him. She couldn’t even look at him. There was a tempest of emotion raging inside her, and it was taking all she had to keep it contained.
She barely managed to contain it until they were safely away from prying eyes and listening ears in Gino’s bedroom.
They faced each other. His dark eyes were watchful, as if he could sense her emotions were about to spill over and was bracing himself for what came next.
As much as she ached to punch her fist into his hateful face, she couldn’t bring herself to strike him.
“You took me there deliberately, didn’t you?” she eventually choked. “To humiliate me.”
Not a flicker of emotion crossed his face. “No. There was no intention to humiliate you.”
“But that’s what you did. Flirting and groping those women. Letting them grope you. Taking their numbers.”
“I didn’t grope anyone. I was doing my job.”
“Flirting and letting women touch you up isdoing your job?” Her voice shook from the force of the fury smashing through her heart. “Arranging potential hook-ups isdoing your job?”
“Running nightclubs requires the personal touch.”
