‘How did you find out where I lived?’
‘I have my ways. Nice place.’ He started heading towards the kitchen and she quickly forestalled him. The fridge was a riot of childish drawings and bits of paper announcing various school happenings. A danger zone, in other words.
‘If you want to go into the sitting room, Riccardo, but I can’t be long. I’m…I’m on my way out.’
‘Clutching a can of furniture polish?’
Charlotte had forgotten about that. ‘After I do a bit of dusting, naturally. And change. I do all my housework on a Saturday.’
‘I’m surprised your fiancé doesn’t help out there. Seems the kind of guy to enjoy a spot of dusting. Where is he anyway?’
‘What do you want, Riccardo? Why have you come here?’
‘Because you’ve been on my mind.’ Their eyes met, and Charlotte felt a sickening lurch somewhere in her stomach. God, his voice could still do things to her! And looking at him now…He was casually dressed. On most other men, the dark grey trousers and grey jumper would frankly have looked insipid. Riccardo looked devastating. He had a body that was fashioned for those immaculately tailored Italian clothes he wore. Tall, broad shouldered, lean hipped. Charlotte swallowed and told herself to focus.
‘Oh yes?’
‘Oh yes,’ he mimicked her gravely as he sat on one of the sofas and crossed his legs.
Around him the little room, which she had taken so much time and effort to decorate with honey, cream and oatmeal colours, looked average and uninspired. She didn’t sit down, preferring to remain hovering by the doorway significantly, even though she felt a mess in her dungarees and thick, padded socks. She had to do something with the hair, though. She needed the comfort of feeling it around her face, providing cover, so she yanked off the Alice band and continued to look at him blandly.
‘That was a pretty annoying stunt you pulled the other night,’ Riccardo said. ‘Letting Lucinda believe that there was more to our liaison than there was.’
‘I don’t happen to think it’s fair the way you treat women. I could tell that she wants more from you than a hop in the sack, and if you can’t provide that “more” then you should be upfront.’
‘And, just in case I wasn’t, you were prepared to jump in and be upfront on my behalf. Or at least land me in as much bother as you could. Payback for bumping into you accidentally after eight years.’
‘Okay. If you’ve come here looking for an apology, then I apologise. Satisfied?’
‘No.’ Riccardo stretched out his long legs and settled back into the sofa. ‘I told you. You’ve been on my mind.’
Charlotte went across to the chair facing him and flopped bonelessly into it. Standing by the door, trying to be a woman in control, was difficult when your legs felt like jelly. ‘I’m not interested, Riccardo.’
‘Aren’t you? Is that why you’re shaking like a leaf? Because you’re so indifferent to me?’ Riccardo watched her nervously sweep her fingers through her hair. He could almost hear the cranking of the gears in her head as she tried to formulate a verbal deterrent. Really and truly, he hadn’t known what he was going to say to her once he arrived on her doorstep. Yes, he’d been annoyed at her interference with Lucinda, but that had not been anything he hadn’t been able to deal with.#p#分页标题#e#
More complex was his reaction to Charlotte. Ever since he had bumped into her, he had been behaving out of character, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why. He just knew that he had resurrected an old relationship with Lucinda to prove to himself that the blonde who had surfaced after eight years meant nothing to him. It hadn’t worked, and he couldn’t figure out how a man like him, a man who could have any woman he wanted, would find himself going crazy with thoughts of a woman who wanted nothing to do with him.
Bumping into them, seeing her with her fiancé, had clarified at least one piece of the puzzle.
He wanted her. Whether he liked the fact or not. Hence sitting here now, on her sofa, watching her seethe in impotent frustration at his presence in her house.
‘Why don’t you just tell me what you want, Riccardo? I’ve apologised over the Lucinda thing, and I meant it. What you do is no business of mine.’ But watching him squirm had been worth its weight in gold!
‘And what you do shouldn’t be any business of mine, but I find that it is.’
Charlotte felt faint. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the hands of her watch ticking. Time was creeping by and Riccardo was showing no signs of leaving.