The Couple who Fooled the World (9 page)

“Do you?”

“You’re the kind of woman who knows how to go out and get what she wants. A billionaire before age twenty-one, a leader in the technology industry. An amazing feat for your age. Nearly unheard of for your gender. I think you’re in much more control than you give yourself credit for.”

Julia looked down into her champagne, and back up at Ferro. He was impeccably dressed, the lines of the custom suit skimming his physique, a physique she’d seen quite a lot of this morning. Ferro did a good impression of a man who was civilized, and yet, she knew he wasn’t. Not really.

She’d seen beneath the suit this morning. And she was more than a little intrigued.

And he thought she had more control than she gave herself credit for. What would happen if she tried to seduce Ferro? If she went for what she wanted?

He wanted her, too. Well, maybe he did. He had kissed her like he was drowning and she was air back in California, and he’d said that those who didn’t see why she was special were stupid. Which meant he had to think she was.

That was even beside the point. She didn’t need for him to think she was special, she just needed him to want her.

She was ridiculous. A twenty-five-year-old virgin letting so many fears and insecurities hold her back. He was right. Her armor was total bull. She was still just living in fear, living to protect. She wasn’t fortified by her image. She was hiding behind it.

But if she was with Ferro…she could break through the wall. This one big wall of fear that surrounded her. And he would make it crumble. Because Ferro Calvaresi was a master of the game. The kind of man who made women lose their minds for a chance to have his body.

There was a thought.

If you wanted to learn about a subject, you learned from a master. That was just common sense. So if she wanted to learn about sex…

She took a drink of her champagne. Fortification. Much needed. Then she took a step toward him and put her hand on his arm. “And do you like women who are in control?” she asked, going for a sultry tone, though she was pretty sure she sounded a little raspy.

Something in his eyes changed. Darkened. “No.”

“Oh.”

“I like to be in control.”

Something about the way he said it, his voice smooth and rich, melting through her like warm chocolate, made her
shiver. Opened up a craving in her that shocked her with its strength.

“Well, that’s…that’s too bad since…since you think I’m in control. But you like to be.” She was botching the seduction. She should have known she would be lame at seduction.

And it sucked because she really did want him. Right now, she wanted him so bad that she ached with it. It was a new and terrifying experience. But it seemed…it seemed like she could do it, too.

With Ferro there would be no feelings, but there would be no games, either. There would be no demands, no force. He wouldn’t trust her, he wouldn’t ask her to trust him. They Could give each other pleasure and then…and then go back to how things were.

“Could you…” She hesitated and then took a breath, plunging on. “Could you come out onto the balcony with me?”

“Looking for a repeat performance of our balcony visit in California?”

“If I was?”

“Are there reporters?”

“Probably.”

He held his arm up and she curved hers around it, allowing him to lead her through the room and out onto the wooden terrace. Lanterns hung low in even intervals, casting glowing orbs out onto the lake below.

She took a breath and released it, watching as it lingered in the air, her eyes on the stars. So many stars. More than she’d ever seen before. This place was different. Wild. And she felt different and wild in it.

She turned to Ferro and put her hand on his face, searching his expression for clues. There was nothing there. He was stone. Unreadable, unknowable.

But she wasn’t going to wait for his cue. She was going
to give her own. And exercise that control thing he seemed to think she had.

She put her other hand on the back of his neck, lacing her fingers through his hair. And then she closed her eyes, because looking at him didn’t help, he was too handsome to be real, and leaned in, pressing her lips to his.

They were warm, firm. Immobile. So she changed the angle of her head, touched the seam of his mouth with the tip of her tongue.

And then he moved, his arm sliding slowly around her waist, drawing her in tight, crushing her breasts to his chest. He held her there, letting her kiss him, not returning it, not denying it.

“Kiss me,” she said, her lips still pressed to his.

And for a moment, a blinding, blistering moment, he obeyed. His mouth moved over hers, so expert, so incredibly skilled. A shiver went through her body, arousal skating over her skin. The damp slide of his tongue creating an answering wetness between her thighs.

Oh, yes, she wanted him. She wanted him to show her everything she’d been missing.

Then he pulled away suddenly and the air, hitting her where his body had been before, left her chilled.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. But that’s quite enough of a public display, don’t you think?” He was breathing hard, she noticed, something he had not done after their kiss in California. And his face looked slightly flushed, hard to tell in the dim light, but she was sure she could see a faint slash of crimson across his sharp cheekbones.

Two things were suddenly apparent to her: he was aroused now. And the first time they kissed he hadn’t been.

She wasn’t totally sure what to feel about either thing.

“I suppose so,” she said. Her own breathing was totally erratic, her heart pounding unevenly. And her legs were shaking.

He turned away from her and walked to the edge of the balcony, leaning down against the railing, his forearms resting on the rough-hewn wood.

She followed him, coming to stand next to him. “I want you,” she said, the words coming out in a rush.

He didn’t react, didn’t move or look at her or anything. He simply stared out at the water.

“Ferro…I—I’m not asking for anything outside of this deal we have. I just want you. In bed. Until all of this is over, and then you walk away with what you want, and I walk away with what I want.”

“A business transaction,” he said, his tone hard and flat.

“Yes. What’s wrong with that?” He straightened. “I find I have no taste for things like this.”

Hurt burned through her. Was it possible she’d misread him? That he didn’t want her at all? The humiliation was a lot worse than she’d imagined it would be. Yeah, a lot worse. She just felt small all of a sudden. The awkward girl she’d always been.

But of course, she had nothing material to offer Ferro outside of the agreement they already had. So why would he even humor her?

“I’m sorry you find me so distasteful,” she said crisply. And the hurt, anger, pent up from the past ten years of her life, and from her ridiculous encounter, earlier, with David Whatshisname and Ferro’s rejection, built up and boiled over, words spilling out hot and reckless. “Should I have offered you money? Is that an exchange you understand?”

He pushed off from the balcony and turned to face her, his expression anything but blank now, dark eyes blazing with fire. “Careful,
cara mia.”

“Forgive me, if I don’t find it a little insulting that you,
Ferro Calvaresi, who everyone knows seduced rich older women for their money and status, finds sleeping with
me
to be distasteful.”

He reached out and grabbed her arm, pulled her back up against him. For the first time, she saw him without any civility. The mask dropped completely. There was no more charm. No more easy smile. No more laughing, mocking playboy. This was the man from the street. The man who had put aside every ounce of morality in order to survive.

He said nothing, he only looked at her. Then he extended his hand and touched her cheekbone, traced a line down to her chin, his eyes never leaving hers. “So you want to talk about my past, do you? You think you understand it because you read a book? Did the details excite you? Stories of my exploits with past lovers? Did you like the part where they said I took a married woman back into the coatroom and had her against a wall while her husband was in the ballroom searching for her? That was my favorite.”

She shook her head, the sense she’d gone too far making her freeze inside. “Ferro…I don’t…”

“But you don’t know the details of it. That makes for a hell of a salacious story. A young stud that women find irresistible. A rogue with no conscience who got gifts based on sexual skill. But that’s sanitized, Julia. The clean version.”

“It can’t be…”

“Yes. It can be. I assume you know what a whore is.” She blinked, her chest suddenly tight. “Yes.”

“I was hardly the cheerful seducer of lonely women I’m made out to be. I was paid to be there. In their beds. In the coat closet. I was a whore, Julia. Paid for sex. I sold my body to the highest bidder and I did whatever was asked of me, whether I wanted to or not.”

“I can’t…You couldn’t have been. That’s not…”

“You think I’m exaggerating, don’t you?” he asked. “I’m
not. I was taken from the streets at sixteen by a woman named Claudia. She was wealthy, older. Looking for a little bit of fun. It had been four days since I’d eaten. I was looking for work but I could hardly stand. The first thing she did was buy me a meal. And after that…how could I say no to whatever she asked? I was starving for food, for touch, for a bed that wasn’t dirt, so I went and I took her money gladly. But I was her pet, Julia. I learned to obey her every command, to be her fantasy lover. But that was never all she had in mind. She wanted to make money off me, too. And she had contacts, other women, women she knew would be willing to pay to have a young man in their bed who did everything they demanded. She taught me English. She taught me to dance. She taught me about art and culture and everything I would need to know to be a pleasing companion. Trained. Like an animal.”

Julia swallowed, her stomach tight, sick.

“You want me to stop, don’t you?” he asked.

She nodded. She did. She didn’t want to know. Because until a moment ago he’d been a fantasy. And now it was far too real. Just hearing about it made her feel like she was covered in dirt. How must he feel?

“It’s too bad, you baited me, now deal with the consequences. You want to talk about my past then you need to know what it really was. I took money for sex. I did whatever my lovers asked me to do and I did it well. I also listened when they talked. The wives of rich men know a lot about money. About investments. I figured out how to make the money I earned grow. It’s hard to leave a lifestyle like that. Where you make hundreds of dollars for an hour’s…work. But eventually it became clear to me that the cost was too high, and I don’t exchange myself anymore. I am not for sale. I am not your pet you can make demands of. I am a man, and I have demands of my own.”

She nodded slowly and backed away from him, breaking his hold on her. She turned and walked back into the ballroom, keeping her head down while she walked through the knot of people.

Her stomach felt like it had a brick in it. Her entire body shaking. How easy it had been to use the idea of his past to judge him. To make herself feel superior to him in some way. How easy it had been to use it against him. To make light of it.

Now she felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out. Felt like she’d been forced to look in on what he’d been through, with nothing to shield her from it.

Ferro was a proud man. And he’d had his pride stripped from him during that part of his life.

Had been forced to belong to other people.

It hurt her he’d been through it. And her vision of him changed. Not the worldly playboy, but the victimized boy. Sixteen and in desperate need of so many things. Of guidance and love, and shelter. And he’d been offered an empty version of those things and had latched onto them. But she saw him now, for what he was.

She’d imagined him as the smooth, suave womanizer. As the man who took gifts with a wink and left his lover sated and satisfied. She hadn’t realized…she’d never imagined that he’d sold himself. His body.

And yes, it disturbed her. But it also made her feel some sort of a strange connection with him. Because she’d had a taste of how dehumanizing, how frightening and horrifying it was to have someone try to take possession of your body when you didn’t want it.

Only he’d done it over and over again. Submitted to it. For survival. It made her ache.

It made her feel too exposed.

But he didn’t want her anyway. And now she didn’t blame him. She’d insulted him past the point of reason. She’d treated
him like a whore and, now, knowing his past, she knew he had every right to hate her for it.

She pushed the button for the elevator, about nine times more than she needed to, then stepped in and leaned her head back against the wall, letting it carry her up to her floor. Maybe she should quietly get another room. Put some distance between them.

But she couldn’t do that because if they got caught sleeping separately then the news of a split might come bite them in the butt and that was not what they needed before pitching to Barrows.

She was trapped. Still trapped in this hell of their own making.

She stepped off the elevator and stalked down the hall, sliding her card through the reader. It didn’t go. “Argh!” She slid it again, and was met with a red light. “Oh, you stupid, stupid, stupid thing!” She slid it again. And again. And kicked the door. Then she forked her fingers through her hair and turned around, leaning against the wall, fighting against tears. Against overwhelming misery.

The elevator next to the one she’d just arrived in, opened and Ferro stormed out. He strode toward her, dark eyes locked with hers. He tugged at the knot of his tie and jerked it off his neck, letting it fall to the floor.

He stopped right in front of her, his hand braced on the wall behind her. He leaned in, his lips a whisper from hers. “Don’t walk away from me.”

“Or what?” she asked.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. He lowered his hand from the wall and traced the outline of her lips with his thumb.