An Invitation to Sin(20)

       
           



       

For a moment she thought he was going to ignore it and then he let his  hand drop. Instantly she stepped backwards, creating distance, and he  gave her a mocking smile as he drew his phone out of his pocket and read  the message. Dark brows rose. ‘Apparently you do have a director.'

‘We do?' Taylor's heart was pounding in her chest. ‘He found someone? Who?'

‘Rafaele Beninato.'

Just hearing the name made her feel sick.

‘Are you sure?' It was her worst nightmare and the irony was that if she  hadn't been caught in the maze with Luca, it wouldn't have happened.  The first director would still be in place. But Rafaele had found a way  to infiltrate her life, as he always had.

‘His name is familiar. Didn't you and he have a thing once?'

‘I-yes. But it was a long time ago.' She'd been seventeen years old and  had been thrown out of the house by her mother. She'd been young,  vulnerable and desperately lonely. A perfect target for a calculating  opportunist like Rafaele. How had he got himself on the movie? He must  have been stalking Santo Corretti as well as her.

Whatever the reason, her relationship with trouble had stopped being long distance and was suddenly right up close.

Luca glanced up from his phone. ‘Bit old for you, isn't he?'

She was struggling to think. ‘Is this the part where we talk about our past relationships?'

He looked at her steadily and then slowly put his phone down. ‘I'll  assume from your defensive response he was one of the ones who let you  down. Is it going to be difficult to work with him?'

‘I'm a professional,' Taylor croaked. ‘I'll work with anyone I'm  expected to work with. No problem. I'm just pleased to have a new  director.'

‘Are you sure?' His tone was deceptively casual. ‘Because I can rough him up a little if you like. I'm your fiancé after all.'

She gave a choked laugh. Was it pathetic of her to wish, just for a  minute, that their engagement was real and for once in her life she had  someone who cared enough to offer support? ‘If you rough him up we'll be  minus a director again. And I want to act. I must do this film.' Not  just because the complexity of the role would finally earn her a  reputation as a serious actress, but also because she didn't want to  give Rafaele the slightest reason to use what he had against her.

Luca stared down at her for a long moment. ‘All right. But he'd better  not step out of line. I've met him a couple of times. The guy gives me  the creeps. They want you on set at eight tomorrow morning to start  filming the docklands scenes. He said he texted you but you switched  your phone off.'

She hadn't wanted to see another text from Rafaele. In the past she'd  blocked him and changed her phone but he always managed to find a way to  contact her.

‘I like to relax when I'm off set.' She didn't confess that she never  relaxed because lurking in the back of her mind was the knowledge that  her secrets could be revealed at any time.

Secrets that Rafaele knew.

And now he was back in her life.

Luca glanced at his watch. ‘I'll drop you on set with a large fuss and  dance and then pick you up later. And Randy Rafaele had better keep his  hands to himself.'

He was seriously proposing that they spend the night together? In the same room?

Suddenly she realised that she had more immediate problems than Rafaele and that problem was six foot two of insanely sexy man.

‘They have a trailer for me,' Taylor stammered. ‘I should stay there. It's usually pretty luxurious.'

‘There is no way I'm spending the night in a trailer for anyone, however  luxurious.' Luca's appalled expression was almost comical. ‘I'm  strictly a five-star guy.'

‘I wasn't inviting you to stay with me. I was suggesting we don't spend the night together.'

An incredulous dark eyebrow rose. ‘People are no doubt struggling to  believe I'm engaged. If we don't spend the night together the whole  thing is blown. We'll stay here and I'll drive you. That's much more  romantic. What's the film about anyway? I probably ought to know what my  beloved is spending her day doing.'

Her gaze skidded round the room. If he wouldn't sleep on the couch then  she would. There was no way she was sharing the bed with this man. No  way.

‘The heroine's husband was missing in Iraq, presumed killed. She goes to  bed with his friend, gets pregnant and then the husband turns up alive.  It's a film about forgiveness, I suppose. It's a very emotional role.'                       
       
           



       

Luca shuddered. ‘Chick flick. Don't invite me to the premiere.'

‘No chance of that. Do you have another room I can use? I need to read  through the script if I'm filming first thing tomorrow. It's part of my  routine and I don't want to keep you awake.'

‘My routine is to have hot sex the night before a big meeting and I  definitely do want to keep you awake.' His smile was slow and lazy, his  gaze unapologetically sexual as he focused on her mouth.

She felt her limbs weaken. He was gorgeous. Too gorgeous. ‘You're winding me up.'

‘Maybe I'm not.' Dark eyes grazed hers from under long, sinfully thick  lashes. ‘Maybe I think you and I would be explosive together, Taylor  Carmichael. Maybe I think we might as well take advantage of this  situation.'

‘Yeah, right-and tomorrow you'd sell the story to the press.'

‘I'd never do that.' His voice was suddenly cold. ‘Anything the press printed wouldn't have come from me.'

She thought about Portia and realised he suffered from the same problem.  ‘Doesn't it upset you? When women talk to the press about you-doesn't  that make you mad?'

‘No, because I haven't the slightest interest in what the general public think of me.'

‘So what do you care about, Luca Corretti? There must be something.'

‘I care about living my life the way I want to live it. I'm not a people  pleaser-' his eyes mocked her gently ‘-except in bed. That's the one  place I'm willing to make an exception to my rule.'

‘Then go ahead. I'm not stopping you. If you can find a woman brainless  enough to have sex with you then call her. I'd rather sleep in the spare  room anyway.'

‘No, you wouldn't. Admit it, Carmichael-you're tempted.'

‘I'm so not tempted.'

‘Yes, you are. But you won't give in to it-' his hand cupped her face  and he stroked her cheek with his thumb ‘-because you're scared to death  of being yourself with anyone any more. You are so busy holding  yourself back you've almost forgotten how to live.'

Her heart was pounding.

He was supposed to be a shallow playboy so how did he manage to read her so well?

‘I know this will come as a shock to you, but the fact that I don't want  to rip your clothes is because I just don't find you attractive.' His  response to that was to laugh and she pulled away from him. ‘You are so  arrogant. You just can't imagine there is a woman who doesn't want you,  can you?'

‘I'm sure somewhere in the universe there may be a woman who doesn't  want me-it just doesn't happen to be you. But we'll see how long that  self-control of yours lasts when it's really tested, dolcezza. You can  sleep in the bed tonight. I'll take the sofa.'

And with that he walked into the bathroom leaving her fuming, confused  and more desperate for a man than she could ever remember feeling in her  life before.





CHAPTER SIX


THE SET WAS heaving with people when Luca dropped Taylor off the next morning.

He'd been intending to leave immediately, but he took one look at her white face and parked his car in a no-parking zone.

‘Are you going to be all right?'

She turned her head to look at him, her expression blank, the dark  shadows under her eyes telling him she'd lain awake for most of the  night. ‘Pardon?'

And Luca realised the reason she hadn't responded to a single word he'd  said during the journey was because she hadn't heard him.

And the cause of her distress lurked at the edge of the set like a lion  waiting for an injured impala to leave the safety of the herd and limp  into the open.

Rafaele.

Luca knew the director was going to take one look at her pale face and see a potential victim.

With a soft curse, he unclipped his seat belt and she looked at him in confusion.

‘What are you doing? You're going to be late for your meeting.'

Luca stroked her pale cheek with the backs of his fingers. ‘I hope the  make-up department on this film is good because you look like hell,  Carmichael. Shame you're not making a vampire movie.'

‘Make-up … ?' She gasped and scrabbled for her bag. ‘How could I have forgotten make-up?'

Because she'd been distracted. Scared.

Luca tapped his fingers on the wheel and thought quickly. ‘I suppose I should apologise.'