‘I don’t like the atmosphere being lightened at my expense.’
‘Nor do I.’ Riccardo watched her flustered face over the rim of his cup. Had she really thought that he would be able to turn off the media attention the way he could turn off a tap? He felt himself puff up like a horny teenager being given a sideways glance by the hot girl in the class. ‘Spare a thought for me,’ he continued, and was amused to see from her expression that the last thing she felt inclined to do was spare a thought for him. ‘My reputation has been put through the wringer.’
‘Riccardo, you didn’t have a reputation. Well, you did—a reputation for being successful in your field and going out with empty-headed blondes like the one I met.’
‘Now if you came here to insult me…’
‘I didn’t,’ Charlotte said hurriedly. She sighed. ‘Okay. You’re more used to this sort of thing. How long can I expect it to last? It’s wearing me down.’
This will be someone’s fish-and-chip wrapping by the end of the week, Riccardo thought. ‘Who can predict the appetite of gossip mongers? And who knows how far they’ll dig?’#p#分页标题#e#
‘How far they’ll dig?’ Charlotte said weakly.
‘Look…’ Riccardo leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and thoughtfully rubbing his thumbs together. ‘It’s always ugly when the press get hold of someone’s personal life. There’s a reason they’re called mud-rakers. Now, it really doesn’t affect me, but, yes, I am concerned for Gina. She’s distraught, as you have told me.’
Charlotte uneasily wondered whether that little exaggeration had been such a good idea. ‘Well…perhaps “distraught” is a bit overblown.’
‘Okay, then. Distressed.’
‘Yes, well…’
‘I know you might not care for this alternative…’ Riccardo lowered his voice, a man giving great thought and consideration to a delicate issue. ‘But I can protect Gina more if she’s with me.’
‘No!’
‘Hear me out, Charlie!’ The lazy voice was suddenly as sharp as the crack of a whip, and Charlotte sat up, momentarily lost for speech. ‘The reporters that swarm around you wouldn’t dare do the same with me. I have people who fend my calls, and when my line is temporarily redirected, as it is now, they simply siphon off the unwelcomed calls. If someone I know needs to talk to me, they have my mobile number. I also have bodyguards. You wouldn’t have noticed them. They’re very discreet, and of course will disappear if I ask them to.’
‘You have bodyguards? What kind of world do you live in?’
‘The kind of world where the wealthy are possible targets. You forget, I am Italian. My country has its own past history of kidnappings. If Gina were with me, I could ensure that at least some of the inconveniences of what she is experiencing now could be dealt with.’
‘No way!’ Charlotte was still recovering from the shock of knowing that Riccardo had bodyguards. Where had they been lurking when he had been staying with her? Behind the bushes in the back garden? Under the mat at the front door? She worried at the idea now put into her head that, with all the publicity going on like a whirlpool around them—from which she was emerging in a pretty poor light through no fault of her own—Riccardo would stand a fair chance of persuading a court of law that, decent and honourable man that he was, he might be more suitable as a full-time carer. Even though he had given no hint that he might have that trick up his sleeve. Even though logic and reason told her that judge would probably file in favour of the mother. But doubts, even unreasonable doubts, had a nasty habit of creeping under the skin like a deadly virus.
‘Why no way?’ Riccardo asked in a long-suffering voice. ‘We both want what’s best for her, don’t we?’
‘Yes, well, she’s coping all right at the moment.’
‘I thought you said that she wasn’t.’
‘It’s a nuisance.’
‘And you came here to put the blame firmly at my door,’ Riccardo said dryly.
‘No!’ Charlotte flushed uncomfortably.
‘You saw a couple of reporters and blew a fuse. Look, there’s another solution to this problem, and maybe this time you’ll give it a bit more thought. Neither of us wants to be in the glaring limelight. You have a job to do, as do I, and Gina has to go to school without her life being disrupted. We continue as we are and who knows how long we’ll be a scandalous affair.’#p#分页标题#e#