Bought: Destitute Yet Defiant (7 page)

Jessie lay curled up on the floor only centimetres away from the top of the slide, her slender body swamped by the huge
throw from the bed, her arm flung protectively over the shoebox.

Silvio stared down at her in silence, a thousand emotions rushing through his head.

What terror inhabited her mind that she’d rather sleep in the bottom of a cupboard than in his comfortable bed? His apartment was protected by the most sophisticated security in existence, but Jessie hadn’t trusted it.

He saw the faint smudge of make-up under her eyes and realised that she’d been crying.

The fact that she’d waited for privacy before she’d allowed herself to cry created more strain on his conscience.

She hadn’t wanted to break down in front of him and he should be grateful for that, shouldn’t he? He knew nothing about offering comfort to a woman and all he’d ever done to Jessie was hurt her.

Lifting her easily, he carried her back to the bed and her eyes opened. Her lids were heavy, her eyes glazed with sleep.

‘Silvio—’

‘Go back to sleep.’ The taste of regret made his voice gruff and he lowered her to the mattress and tucked the throw around her. Was she going to beg him to put her back in the escape chute?

But she didn’t.

Instead, her hand slid into his and Silvio tensed because it was so unlike Jessie to show weakness and he had no idea how he was supposed to respond. Ordinarily he was the last man to whom she would turn for comfort and the fact that she had reached for his hand told him that she must be desperate.

Without breathing, he looked down at their joined hands—saw the fragility of her pale, delicate fingers placed trustingly in his strong palm. After a moment’s hesitation he closed his fingers over hers and Jessie sighed softly.

‘I’m glad you’re home,’ she said sleepily, a smile hovering around her mouth as her eyes drifted shut again. ‘Are you going out again?’

Knowing that if she’d been fully awake she would have consigned him to hell, Silvio found it difficult to speak. ‘No,’ he said finally, his voice rough around the edges, ‘no, I’m not going anywhere,
tesoro
. You can sleep now.’

And she did. With the smile still on her face and her hand locked in his.

Trapped there, Silvio found himself forced to confront issues he didn’t want to confront.

Like the dangerous chemistry that drew them together.

And the fact that because of him, she’d lost the most important thing in her life.

Silvio stared down at her pale face and narrow shoulders and at the battered shoebox that she was gripping like a lifeline.

He wanted to open it to see what it was that she refused to be parted from, but he didn’t want to risk waking her. Neither did he want to intrude on her privacy because he knew how much that mattered to her.

The resolve hardened inside him.

He couldn’t undo what had been done. He couldn’t bring back her brother.

But he could take her away from the life she’d fallen into.

He could take her away from this hell that was all she thought she deserved, and give her something different.

He owed her that
.

‘Y
OU
don’t have to take me shopping.’ It was another blow to her badly damaged pride that he’d suggested it. ‘It’s a luxury I can’t afford.’

‘You need clothes,’ Silvio said smoothly. ‘It isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.’

Unable to argue with that, Jessie shrank lower in the passenger seat of his Ferrari, averting her eyes from the stares. She felt as though everyone was a witness to her humiliation. ‘Just a couple of things, then. Maybe another pair of jeans. Do you have to drive this car? Everyone is looking.’

But she knew that the driver was every bit as conspicuous as his car. With his Mediterranean good looks and spectacular physique, Silvio drew covetous glances wherever he went.

‘You would have preferred a chauffeur-driven limousine?’ He pulled the car up on a double yellow line outside the most exclusive store in Knightsbridge and a uniformed man immediately sprang forward.

‘Mr Brianza.’ His voice oozed awe and respect and Silvio tossed him the keys and said something that Jessie didn’t catch.

‘I don’t think they sell my sort of clothes here.’ Stepping cautiously onto the pavement, she glanced around her fur
tively, daunted by the throng of beautifully groomed women who strode past her in tailored skirts and vertiginous heels, all of them brimming with confidence. Gazing at one woman’s perfect straight hair, she fingered her tumbled dark curls self-consciously and then stiffened as Silvio took her arm.

‘Try not to look as though you’re expecting someone to assault you,’ he said mildly, guiding her towards the glass doors with a purposeful stride. ‘You’re with me now. No one is going to touch you.’

He
was touching her, and the feel of his hand on her arm and the brush of his body against hers created a lethal assault on her senses that was as unwelcome as her disturbingly clear memories of nestling against him while she’d slept.

Instead of pushing him away and telling him she didn’t need him, she’d clung to his hand as a drowning man might have clung to a floating object in a raging river.

He hadn’t mentioned what had happened, but she’d thought about nothing else. Although she’d been alone in the bed when she’d woken up, she knew he’d stayed beside her for the rest of the night.

Something else she was supposed to feel grateful for
, Jessie thought moodily, staring in disbelief at the perfect arch of a woman’s eyebrows as she hurried past on her way to somewhere important. Her image of him as a cold-hearted monster was becoming uncomfortably distorted.

Cringing at the memory of how frightened she’d been once he’d left the flat, Jessie scolded herself silently. She was pathetic. She just hoped his fancy apartment didn’t have CCTV or he’d be treated to some embarrassing footage of her checking under the bed and inside the wardrobes before finally allowing herself to sleep.

As Silvio guided her into a lift Jessie stared in front of her,
determined not to look at the mirrored walls. She knew what she’d see. A woman who wasn’t supposed to be there.

‘I’ve been thinking about this suggestion of yours.’

‘The one where you get to stay alive?’ His gaze flickered to hers, his dark eyes so compelling that it was impossible to look away.

‘It isn’t that simple.’ With effort she averted her gaze and sucked in some air. ‘I need to pay back the rest of the money Johnny owed them or this is never going to end. You said you’d give me a job, which is great, but I’m still not going to earn it fast enough.’ She had to force the words through the tiny chink in her pride. ‘I know you have contacts—I wondered if you knew anyone I could go to for a loan. I think it would be safer to owe money to a stranger.’

‘You don’t owe money to anyone.’ Silvio pressed a button on the lift. ‘I’ve repaid the debt.’

‘You paid them?’ Shocked, Jessie turned to look at him. ‘When?’

‘Last night.’

Last night, when he’d left her alone
. Stunned, it took her a moment to respond. ‘I didn’t want you to do that. I was paying them myself—’

‘Piece by piece,’ he drawled contemptuously, his disparaging glance surprisingly hurtful.

It was obvious that she couldn’t sink any lower in his opinion, and Jessie wondered why that should matter to her.

She wasn’t supposed to care what he thought, was she?

Feeling the humiliating sting of tears behind her eyes, Jessie lifted her chin. ‘I will pay you back.’

‘I’ll speak to my finance department and they can work something out.’ Silvio dismissed the subject as if it were nothing and she stood stiffly, slowly digesting the fact that the debt was finally paid.

All those years of worry. Years of slog, terror and sheer bone-numbing exhaustion.

She felt as though a heavy object had finally been lifted away from her.

She just wished that he hadn’t been the one who had lifted it.

Why had he done that?

‘Thank you,’ she said huskily, finally managing to say the words.
She’d never thought she’d be thanking him for anything
. ‘I—I don’t understand why you bothered bringing me here in that case. You don’t have to go to all this trouble.’ The lift doors opened and she reached out to press the button for the ground floor.

‘
Maledezione
, what are you doing?’ His hand closed over hers and he intercepted her movement.

‘You said you’d paid off the debt.’ This close to his body it was hard to breathe and Jessica’s face flamed as she felt the now embarrassingly familiar burn low in her pelvis. ‘It’s over.’

‘It isn’t over,’ he growled. ‘Come on, Jess. You’re not that naïve. The money was only part of what they wanted from you and you know it.’

She did know it.

And the knowledge had terrified her. The thought of stepping out there again had terrified her. Every night she’d wondered whether this was going to be the night they won.

‘You’re right, of course.’ Her voice was calmer than it should have been. ‘I’d like my knife back.’

‘I have no intention of giving you the knife. If they’d found that they would have used it on you. The only way to stop them claiming what they want is for them to think you’re with me. At the moment they do think that. As long as we don’t give them any reason to doubt it, you’ll be safe.’

Feeling intensely vulnerable, Jessica stared at the centre of his chest. ‘So basically the choice is that I take my chances with them, or I take my chances with you.’

‘I’m not dangerous. ’

It was such a manifestly false statement that Jessica laughed, but it was a hysterical laugh, devoid of humour. ‘Make up your mind. Last night you told me you were dangerous too.’

‘All right, let me put that another way.’ A sardonic smile touched his beautiful mouth. ‘I’m not dangerous to you.’

Oh, but he was
.

She knew that this one man had the power to do her more damage than every gang prowling the streets of London.

And he knew it.

He’d always known how she felt about him.

Jessie drew in a shuddering breath, reminding herself that everything was different now. He wasn’t her hero any more. He was strong, yes. And powerful. But he wasn’t the saint she’d once thought he was.

Her eyes were open wide and her heart was safely shut away.

He couldn’t hurt her any more than he already had, could he?

And it would be crazy to refuse his protection. She’d lived her life on the edge for long enough to know that when help offered itself, you took it. ‘I don’t think it will work,’ she said huskily. ‘They’re going to know I’m not the sort of woman who is usually in your life. I don’t go to film premieres and celebrity parties. I don’t know how to walk down a red carpet.’

‘You put one leg in front of the other,’ Silvio drawled. ‘And celebrity parties and film premieres are going to seem like a holiday after the life you’ve been leading. It isn’t something you need to practise.’

The lift doors opened but Jessie didn’t move, daunted by
the acres of glass and the sheer elegance of the building. ‘I don’t know how to shop in places like this.’

‘That’s easy too.’ His hand closed over her wrist and he urged her forwards. ‘You just find something you like and you buy it. It’s not rocket science.’

‘I don’t like spending your money.’

‘Now, that’s something no woman has said to me before.’ His smile was shockingly appealing. ‘You’re missing an opportunity for revenge, Jess. This is your chance to fleece me.’ With his usual cool confidence, he walked towards a woman who was waiting. ‘Alternatively you could consider it a necessary investment on the part of your employer. You’re singing at the most important society wedding of the decade. You need to look the part.’

And that was another thing. It was all very well singing in Joe’s Bar, but another thing entirely to sing in front of a discerning audience.

Just the thought of it made her stomach cramp with nerves.

What would they want her to sing?

What if they hated her voice?

Guided into an elegantly furnished private room, Jessie sat on a low, comfortable sofa and watched as clothes were modelled for her by a series of haughty models with endless legs.

She sat stiffly, feeling horribly out of place and painfully conscious of what they must be thinking about her.

After ten minutes of smiling politely, she turned to Silvio. ‘I’m not sure what I’m doing here. Am I supposed to clap?’

‘You make a note of the ones you like.’ Preoccupied with answering emails, Silvio’s eyes were fixed on the screen of his BlackBerry. ‘Then you try them on. After that you take them home and wear them. Simple.’

He thought that was simple?

At the moment it felt like one of the hardest things she’d ever done.

Her confidence didn’t increase when she turned back to the private fashion show in time to see a model staring hungrily at Silvio. She was sleek, glamorous and confident and Jessie suddenly wondered what on earth had possessed him to think he could convincingly pass her off as his woman.

‘It doesn’t matter how you dress me,’ she mumbled, fiddling with the ends of her hair, ‘I’m not going to look like her. I don’t know why you’re bothering.’

Silvio lifted his gaze and frowned. ‘I wouldn’t want you to look like her,’ he murmured in an undertone. ‘She’s extremely bony.’

‘You’re kidding, right?’ Jessica’s eyes widened as she watched the girl disappear behind the curtain. ‘She’s beautiful. And confident.’

‘Confidence is an act.’ Silvio glanced at Jessie’s face, exasperation gleaming in his eyes. ‘Jess, what is the matter with you? You faced a bunch of thugs in an alleyway but here you are looking at a few fancy clothes and you’re scared?’

Jessie bristled defensively. ’I didn’t say I was scared,’ she said fiercely. ‘A bunch of posh clothes don’t worry me.’ But she was saying it to convince herself as much as him, and perhaps he realised that because his eyes narrowed.

‘I understood that choosing a new wardrobe was most women’s idea of paradise.’

‘The women you mix with, maybe.’

Women who were nothing like her
.

She tried to imagine what it must be like to have nothing more serious to worry about than what you were going to wear.

‘Maybe I haven’t got used to the idea that I can actually have any of this stuff.’ She shrugged awkwardly, reluctant to reveal how inadequate the whole thing made her feel, or how
intimidating she found the groomed perfection of the models. ‘Maybe it’s just seeing it modelled.’

‘That seemed to be the best way for you to see the clothes.’ He stretched out his legs and Jessie wished she could be even a fraction as relaxed as he was.

‘I can see how the clothes look on them, but not on me.’ Couldn’t he see the difference? ‘We’re not the same shape, for a start.’

‘So what do you want?’

Her face scarlet, Jessie gnawed her lip, wishing she could just melt into the sofa and disappear. ‘I don’t know. Can I just try them on myself—with no one watching?’

‘No, because I don’t want any repeats of the gold dress. But I’ll agree on a compromise. You can model them for me. I’ll decide.’ He gestured to the woman masterminding the fashion show and moments later the room was empty and they were alone. ‘The clothes are all on rails behind the curtains. Help yourself. If anything doesn’t fit, let me know and they’ll bring a different size.’

Her face burning from his derogatory comments about her gold dress, Jessie looked at the expensive cut of his trousers and decided that being hard up was probably nothing more than a distant memory for him.

‘What’s it like,’ she blurted out, ‘to be able to buy anything you want without thinking about how much it costs? Does it feel weird?’

‘You tell me,’ he drawled softly, and Jessie realised with a flash of disbelief that he was giving her free rein to buy anything she wanted.

For a moment she didn’t move, waiting for him to laugh and name a budget she had to work within, but his attention was back on his BlackBerry, his long fingers flying over the keys as he dealt with another email.

‘Right—I’ll just try something on…’ Relieved that he didn’t appear to be paying attention, Jessie stepped onto the stage, wincing as her cheap trainers squeaked.

Suddenly realising how ridiculous she must look, she giggled and turned to face him. ‘And here we have Jessie, modelling this season’s latest just-pulled-through-a-hedge look—’ she pushed her hand into her hair and pouted dramatically ‘—in last season’s jeans and jumper…’ Her eyes met his and his gaze was thoughtful.

‘It’s good to see you laughing again.’

Laughing?

Oh, God, she was laughing—for the first time in as long as she could remember. And with
him
.

What was the matter with her?

Buying these clothes was a life-saving necessity, not a frivolous spending spree. She was doing this because she had to, not because she wanted to.

She wasn’t supposed to be enjoying herself.

Jessie’s smile faded and she backed towards the curtain. ‘I—I’ll go and try on the rest of those clothes.’ Horrified with herself, she took refuge behind the curtains, her mouth dry and her heart pounding.