Innocent in His Diamonds (17 page)

Her eyes widened. ‘She knew?'

He gave a grim nod. ‘She didn't go to Verbier with the intention of taking her own life. And she called my father within minutes of taking the pills. So there's really nothing to forgive you for. Sometimes in the midst of deep trauma you forget the important things. I forgot that for a long time she shielded me from my father's behaviour. I think that's why it didn't make sense that she would try and take her own life. I lost sight of that, but spending time with her reminded me. I think we've all paid enough, don't you?'

Her nod was shaky. Almost as shaky as he felt, standing there, so close to her, every nerve screeching at him to reach for her.

In the end he decided not to fight it.

‘I missed you,' he said simply. ‘Did you miss me?'

‘I— Yes!'

He gathered her close, kissed her. And everything fell away.

As conversation-stoppers went it was extremely effective. Ana fell into the kiss with the reckless abandon of a skydiver jumping out of a plane.

Except for her there was no parachute. But right at that moment she didn't care. She had Bastien in her arms, his fierce heart beating underneath her fingertips. The fall would come later. Without Bastien's love it would hurt. But for now she would glory in the flight.

By the time he'd carried her from the tower room down the stairs to his suite and kicked the door shut, Ana felt delirious with need. Frantically, she tore at his clothes.

‘Patience,
cherie
,' he husked in her ear, before nipping her earlobe.

A deep shudder raked through her. ‘I...I can't. I need you,' she gasped.

He stilled her frantic hands, kissing them before bringing them to her sides. ‘And you will have me,' he vowed heatedly. ‘But first let me undress you.'

His eyes on hers, he released the catch in her belt and dropped it. Then he sank onto his knees. His hands traced her hips, her delicate pelvic bones, squeezed her bottom. Ana moaned, reaching out to steady herself on his broad shoulders as his fingers explored the bare flesh of her thighs. Her whole body hid a morass of sensitive nerve-endings she'd never known existed.

Take the skin above the back of her knees, for instance. Who knew Bastien's hand lingering there could cause her to cry out in pleasure? Or the mid point between her calf and her ankle? He seemed to know her body better than she did.

By the time he eased her feet from her heels she could barely stand. Her dress came off in a rustle of silk. She stood before him in a thong and matching bra.

Eyes the colour of molten steel raked over her. ‘I was a fool to say I only wanted one night with you,' he rasped, one hand moving around her to snap the catch of her bra. It tumbled to the ground, unheeded.

‘Why?' she croaked.

‘Because one night would never be enough,
ma belle
Ana.' He rose and caught her in his arms, locking one hand in her hair to tilt her face to his. ‘Never enough.'

He rained kisses all over her face, his mouth almost worshipful. Nonetheless those kisses lit fires wherever they touched, making her senses whirl with desire and, yes, love. What had happened before she'd discovered her feelings had been sex.

This, for her, was making love.

She touched him, revelled in his growl of pleasure when she encountered bare skin. It took a moment for her to realise he was naked; that she was lying on top of him in his bed. The heavy throb of his erection against her belly sent a surge of need through her. She wanted him to fill her body, to fill her heart.

But first she wanted to explore him the way she'd never had the chance to before. Freeing herself from his kiss, Ana kissed along his jaw, nipped the tight flesh. His breath exploded from his lungs, his hands tightening on her back as she kissed her way down his throat, his deep chest. His flat, washboard stomach clenched as her lips and hands worshipped him.

Finally, heart thumping in her throat, Ana felt him against her cheek. She glanced up. Bastien's gaze seared her, an untamed desperation in its depths that caused her blood to surge faster through her veins. Unable to deny herself, she closed her hand over him. His whole body jerked as she stroked him, a deep groan rumbling through his chest and filling the room with arousing sound.

‘Ana...' Her name was part plea, part warning.

Daringly, and because she knew the alpha male in Bastien wouldn't let her have this freedom for long, she closed her mouth over him. Ana wasn't sure whether the moan was hers or his. But the feel of him in her mouth, on her tongue, sent her to another level of pleasure so intense she felt her clitoris throb with renewed force.

His gaze broke from hers, his head rearing back as he sucked in a long, harsh breath. Blindly, he reached out and plucked a condom off the bedside table. Strong hands reached for her, pulled her up and flipped her underneath him. His mouth smashed down on hers, tinged with a desperation that bordered on cruel.

He surged inside her with one long stroke, his arm under her hip to hold her still for his complete possession.

Tears gathered behind her closed lids as pleasure rode higher and higher.

When the gathering force of her climax drew closer Ana opened her eyes. Bastien stared down at her, his eyes darker than they'd ever been. Emotion swirled through them, but none she could fathom through the sensational rollercoaster she rode.

It gripped her, surged higher, until Ana knew she couldn't hold back.

‘I love you.' She gave up the words that screamed through her soul.

Blank shock covered his face before he closed his eyes and breathed deep. Then, leaning down, he claimed her mouth in another searing kiss, moments before bliss overtook them both. As they slowly returned to reality he gathered her close and breathed strangled, unfathomable words in her ear.

Long after Bastien fell asleep Ana lay awake, desperately trying to stem the fear that she'd just let herself in for a whole load of heartbreak by admitting her feelings.

Deep inside she knew they'd come a long way from sixteen years ago.

What terrified her was that Bastien would never take that last step into love.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘
B
ASTIEN
, I'
M
NOT
SURE
what's going on here.'

‘What's going on is that I want you. You want me too. Stay with me.'

Ana replayed their simple yet life-changing morning-after conversation as she rose from the bed and walked towards the log fire in the luxurious log cabin Bastien had brought her to in Chamonix.

She had been like a prisoner granted a last-minute stay of execution, and her ecstatic, ‘Yes!' had been lost beneath the onslaught of his hungry kisses.

He'd flown them here by helicopter and that ‘yes' had echoed throughout the passing days. They spent the mornings skiing and doing her lessons. More than once his patience and gentle attention had brought tears to her eyes. The afternoons, evenings and long nights were spent making love in front of the roaring fire.

A deep blush stung her cheeks as she recalled Bastien asking if she now had a favourite position. She'd felt decidedly wanton as she'd demonstrated which position brought her the most pleasure.

‘I can see your blush from here.'

He stood in the bathroom doorway, naked except for the towel he was using on his wet hair.

‘It's the fire,' she responded, unable to stop her eyes devouring his perfect male form. He dropped the towel and strode towards her. His teasing grin stopped her heart moments before it began to thunder when he captured her mouth in a slow, devastating kiss.

‘Yes, it must be. Because you're all hot and bothered.' His smile deepened.

‘I'm not bothered,' she answered feebly as his hands closed over her breasts. His thumbs played over her nipples. Ana swayed towards him, helpless against the drowning rush of love.

But that love was tainted with a niggle of fear that wouldn't go away, a fear that her love would never be fully returned. Sure, he worshipped her body with an intensity that took her breath away, but her confession of love had never been returned. And she'd begun to notice his shuttered expression each time she confessed it.

The need to ask him hovered on her lips as he took her in his arms. Gathering her courage, she leaned back and looked into his eyes.

‘Bastien...'

He rested his forehead against hers. ‘Unless we want to be trapped here for the next few days we really must leave now.'

Heavy snow had been forecast, and while the thought of being snowed in with Bastien for the foreseeable future held intense appeal, the spectre of her trial loomed.

They hadn't talked about it, but it was there at the back of her mind, growing larger with each passing day.

‘Hey, you're biting your lip again. What's wrong?'

‘It's nothing.' She tried to step away from him, but he held on to her.

Tender fingers brushed her cheek. ‘It's not nothing. Tell me.'

Deciding to shelve the matter troubling her heart for now, in favour of the matter in her mind, she murmured, ‘It's the trial. I'm scared.'

He pulled her closer and sealed her lips with a gentle kiss. ‘I didn't want to jump the gun until I was absolutely sure, but I heard from my investigators a couple of days ago.'

Alarm spiked through her. ‘And?'

‘It's not your mother,' he replied.

A burden she hadn't even known she carried was lifted off her shoulders as relief swamped her. The tears that seemed to hover close to the surface of her emotions nowadays prickled her eyes.

‘Thank you for telling me.' She gave a small laugh. ‘You must think I'm hugely irrational when it comes to Lily. But she's been texting me the last few days.' She'd received many texts from her mother, the last one with a request to see Ana when she returned to London. ‘If we can salvage something from our messy relationship...'

‘I don't think you're irrational. It's difficult to believe the worst of a parent. And I think we both know what can be salvaged from messy relationships,' he replied.

His voice was solemn, but Ana noticed it contained none of the hard edge of before.

‘As for the trial—my investigators will know who the culprit is very shortly. Don't worry about it. Whatever happens I'll protect you, Ana. I promise you.'

Her heart lurched at his words. She paused, then decided to come clean. ‘I'm not dead certain, but I think it's Simone.'

His mouth compressed and his arms tightened around her. ‘So do I. My people are tracking some video camera footage. We'll have an answer soon. I'm sorry.'

She'd refused to accept that Simone would stoop to such levels, but when she let herself really think about it something about her roommate's perpetual giddy state rang false.

She nodded, her heart sick with sadness. ‘I need to go back to London.'

‘We'll go together.'

Joy flared inside her, but she was too afraid to give it full flight. Despite the certainty that they'd put the past behind them, that all the old wounds had been cauterised, Ana couldn't get past the feeling that Bastien might never love her as she loved him. She'd still take being with him over losing him completely, but she needed some head space to get her heart to accept it.

‘I can do this on my own. You don't have to come with me.'

He trailed a hand down her cheek, then winked at her. ‘Did you forget that where you go, I go? After all, I still have to ensure you don't abscond the minute my back is turned.'

She quirked a brow and attempted a smile despite the lingering ache in her heart. ‘You left me for almost a week and I was there when you got back.'

He sobered. ‘
Oui
, you were. And I can't express how much that meant to me.'

She rose on tiptoe, helplessly pressing her lips against his.

With a groan he deepened the kiss, momentarily silencing her doubts.

Bastien's feeling were deep enough...

When he lifted his head, glanced at the clock and imperiously announced that they had some time after all, she let herself melt into him.

* * *

‘Wake up,
cherie
, we're here,' a deep voice murmured in her ear.

Ana prised herself away from where she'd fallen asleep on Bastien's shoulder on the way from the airport.

She straightened and glanced out of her window at a grey and gloomy London. After surrendering her heart to the Château D'Or, the two-bedroom maisonette she shared with Simone in South London looked dismal and almost alien. It would never be home to her again.

The driver pulled up on the kerb. Bastien started to open the door. She stayed him with a hand on his arm.

‘Do you mind if I do this on my own?'

His eyes held an admiration she allowed herself to bask in for a moment.

‘
Bien
. I'll go and make myself useful in the office for a while. Call me when you're done.'

She nodded. ‘I may be a while. Lily's coming over in an hour, then I need to pack warmer clothes.'

He smiled and reached out to caress her nape. ‘Keep those risqué jeans,
cherie
. I've grown quite fond of them.'

She laughed. ‘I'll consider it,' she replied, then leaned in to him for a deep kiss.

That niggling voice rose again, cautioning her against falling harder without hope of having her feelings returned. Feebly, she pushed it away.

When he pulled back his eyes were dark and his expression intense. ‘You have three hours, then I'm coming for you.' He thrust the door open and helped her out.

Stepping into the frigid air, she pulled her coat around her and held her smile till Bastien's limo was out of view. Dragging her suitcase behind her, she unlocked the front door, dread eating away at her stomach as she entered the flat.

Simone sat cross-legged on the sofa, with Ana's laptop—which she'd bought solely for working on her lessons—balanced on her legs. She was so engrossed in whatever she was doing that it took her a moment to notice Ana in the doorway.

Shock rounded her eyes. ‘Ana—I had no idea you were coming back today!'

Ana propped her case by the door and dropped her handbag on the coffee table in the small living room. ‘How do you know the password to my laptop?' she asked, her throat drying. The combination was the date she'd met Bastien, known only to her.

Simone shrugged. ‘You must have told me when I borrowed it before.'

Heart hammering, she stepped closer and noticed Simone's overbright eyes and agitated breathing. ‘No, I didn't. I'm sure of it.'

Her roommate laughed but the sound was skewed. ‘What are you saying? That I'm a liar?'

Ana clenched her fists and breathed deep. ‘I know, Simone.'

Simone's eyes narrowed. ‘Know what?' she demanded, shoving the laptop aside to stand up.

‘The drugs. I know it was you.'

Several expressions chased over Simone's face before it settled into pure malice. ‘You can't prove it.'

Ana sighed. ‘Yes, I can. You made sure you were out of sight of the nightclub's cameras when you put the drugs in my bag but you forgot that it was your birthday—everyone wanted a picture of you, whether you were aware of it or not.'

A flash of fear widened the other woman's eyes but the malice remained. ‘You're lying! I was careful...'

‘Not careful enough. What I want to know is why?'

Simone rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, get off your high horse! Everyone does drugs—but you're too good for the rest of us. You won't even take painkillers when you have a headache. Truthfully, I didn't want to do it. Top-class drugs like that are expensive. But I was warned there might be a raid and—' She froze. ‘Are you recording this?'

‘Excuse me?'

Simone bared her teeth and snapped her fingers. ‘Oh, yes—you wouldn't know how, would you? Because you can't
read
.'

Ice dredged Ana's insides and her gaze went to the laptop. Sure enough, the file holding her lessons was open, along with the phonetic program that went with it.

Anger overcoming the icy dread, she rushed to the sofa and snatched up the laptop. ‘How dare you—?'

‘Don't bother denying it, Ana.'

Ana stared at her. ‘Were you going to let me go to jail for something
you
did?'

Simone shrugged. ‘Why not? Everything comes so easy to you—the contracts, the private jets, the billionaire boyfriend. Does he know, by the way?'

That disturbing thread of doubt reared its head again. ‘Yes, he knows. He's okay with it.'

Surprise mingled with fear on Simone's face but she quickly regrouped. ‘Yeah, keep telling yourself that. I'm not owning up to the drugs thing. I'll tell everyone you were in on it. It'll be your word against mine. You think his company will survive another scandal? Especially if you remain his girlfriend?'

‘Forget it, Simone. I'm not going to jail for you,' Ana said, despite her heart thundering with a different kind of fear as Simone backed towards the door.

Her roommate ran out of the room. A few minutes later Ana heard the front door slam. She wasn't worried about Simone getting away. Bastien had told her that the police had been alerted and his own investigators were tracking her.

Bastien...

The knock on the door made her jump.

Her stomach twisted at the thought that it might be Bastien even as her heart thrilled at seeing him again. Swallowing, she opened the door.

Her mother was dressed from top to toe in white vintage Chanel, her face perfectly made-up and her hair twisted in an impeccable bun.

Mingled desolation and pain scythed through Ana. Stepping forward, she let her mother in. ‘Hello, Lily.'

Everything she'd thought she'd heard in her mother's voice recently was reflected in Lily's face, albeit warily.

‘You look distressed. What's wrong? Is it...? Do you want me to leave?'

Ana shook her head. ‘No, it's not you. I've just found out who planted the drugs.' She quickly summarised her conversation with Simone, then glanced at her mother as she accepted her halting commiserations. ‘What's going on, Lily? You seem...different.'

Her mother's laugh was strained as she followed Ana into the living room. ‘You mean less of the nightmare you grew up with?'

Ana shrugged. ‘Your words, not mine.'

For the first time in her life Lily seemed nervous. ‘I...I started a drug rehabilitation programme last month. One of the steps in the programme is making amends. I wish I could say that I didn't need a bullet point on a piece of paper to make me realise I've been the worst mother in the world to you. I just... Once I started down that destructive path I didn't know how to make things right.' She stopped and firmed her trembling mouth.

Ana closed her own gaping mouth and stared at her mother, hope spreading its wings again. ‘I...I don't know what to say.'

‘Please say you'll give me a chance? That you won't write me off completely?'

Ana's heart squeezed and she blinked back tears. ‘I won't write you off.'

Her mother's sigh of relief was audible. ‘I don't deserve it, but thank you.' She fidgeted, glanced around, then eyed the suitcase by the door. ‘Are you going away again?'

‘Yes, Bastien will be here in an hour. What?' Her insides jerked at the wary flicker in Lily's eyes.

‘I spoke to Philippe two days ago.'

‘Bastien's father?'

Lily nodded, her blue eyes darkening with pain. ‘Part of the making amends process... Couldn't be avoided. Ana, he told me about Bastien's visit.'

‘Yes, Bastien went to see them. I think we're all ready to put the past behind us—' She stopped when her mother shook her head.

‘I really hope for all our sakes that's true, but Philippe is worried about Bastien. He thinks he's carrying a lot of hurt from sixteen years ago. I'm sorry, I know you have feelings for him, but I want you to be careful.'