Charlotte felt a sharp pang at this imaginary woman and nodded.
‘I needn’t ask a similar condition of you,’ Riccardo said politely through gritted teeth. ‘As I know there already is a man in your life.’ Something felt as though it was being ripped out of him. ‘You never said…does Gina get along with him?’ God knew, the paragon of a boyfriend, who had been lurking in the background for the past couple of weeks, was probably a dab hand at entertaining eight-year-old children. But no longer could he lay down laws about her private life. She had no objection to Gina meeting a woman if he was in a committed relationship. He was obliged to return the favour. More so, considering Gina doubtless had an easy relationship with Ben.
‘Oh, most people get along with Ben,’ Charlotte said, skirting round the question. ‘I’m glad we sorted that one out, Riccardo, although I feel badly that you wasted all that money setting up stuff to work at home.’
‘We’ll sort out finances another day,’ Riccardo said brusquely. He looked at his watch. Gina would be getting back to the house at any minute. ‘And I suggest we both sit Gina down and break this to her.’
‘Of course.’ She hadn’t missed that quick glance at his watch. The conversation for him was now terminated. They would provide a united front when they spoke to Gina later, but as far as he was concerned he was through with playing house. He had probably been through with it long before his departure meal tonight. She just hadn’t been quick enough to spot it, but then love was good at blurring the focus.
She’d thought that she would be the one reassuring Gina that her dad would still be around even if he would no longer be living under the same roof as they were but, in the end, it was Riccardo who did all the talking. This was the tender side to him she had witnessed over the past weeks in his relationship with his daughter. There was no escaping his devotion, and Gina, instinctively, must have recognised that and believed him implicitly when he told her that he was going to see her as often as he possibly could, at least twice a week.#p#分页标题#e#
It was so hard to think that this was the same man who could be so cold and hostile when it suited him.
Later, with Gina in bed, the cold, hostile stranger returned. He would get his lawyer to clarify financial arrangements, he informed her, and he wanted guarantees that her volatile mood swings wouldn’t influence his agreed visiting rights.
She looked terrified, curled up on the chair while he towered above her, but it didn’t suit Riccardo to lessen the impact of his forceful personality. If anything, he wanted her to know that he would do whatever it took to assume his parental rights, just in case she got it into her head that he might disappear into the background at some convenient point in the future.
‘And just to warn you,’ he said, walking towards the bay window and perching. ‘Expect a little disruption in your life. Up until now, I’ve kept this situation to myself, but that’s over.’
‘Disruption?’ Charlotte asked, bewildered. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Reporters. For Gina’s sake, I’ll try and keep them off your back, but I’m high profile in the world of business. This unusual situation is bound to generate some interest. So…’ He walked towards the door and she followed his leisurely progress across the room warily. ‘No men. There’s a thin line between reporting and scandal.’
‘I thought you didn’t care about what other people thought of you, Riccardo!’ Charlotte said, stung by his implication that she couldn’t wait to jump into a relationship the minute he walked out of the front door.
‘I don’t.’ He paused, and in his next sentence he managed to tell her exactly what he thought of her. ‘But Gina might find it very confusing. And she is the important one in the equation, isn’t she?’
CHAPTER NINE
CHARLOTTE’S only brush with the press had been a year and a half ago in an article in the local newspaper about the estate agency’s expansion into the Midlands market. It had been tucked away on one of the middle pages, where space was given to heart-warming anecdotes and readers’ views, under the corny heading of: AND NOW ON A LIGHTER NOTE! The reporter in question had been a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed school leaver who had anxiously consulted her list of questions and written a flattering report about the dynamic young executive who still managed to be a super-mum. Instead of focusing on interest rates, difficult first-time buyer markets or the surge away from London to cheaper outlying districts, she had concentrated on the feminist angle of the woman who could have it all. Frankly, Charlotte had not recognised herself in the descriptions.