LITMIR.BIZ

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in fact, going to have to get married. Vieri suspected that Harper wouldn’t take the news well, as indeed he hadn’t, but there was no alternative. They were in too deep. This was going to have to happen and somehow they had to deal with it.

      But the plan had started to unravel very early on, triggered by seeing those predatory men’s hands all over Harper on the dance floor. And taking her out to the courtyard hadn’t helped, his control slipping dangerously when faced with the fierce temptation of her seductively sexy body. He had just about managed to keep a hold of himself and get her back to the apartment when they had started to argue, any ideas he had had of coaxing her into compliance replaced by bitter recriminations, macho chest-beating and veiled threats. It was not the way he had intended it to go. Especially when, on hearing himself telling her she could pack her bags and leave, the strangest sensation had crept over him. A sort of hollow emptiness, a panic almost, at the thought of losing her. It had come out of nowhere, that acute sense of loss, of abandonment. And the worst of it was, he knew it had nothing whatever to do with their ‘arrangement’ and everything to do with the way he was starting to feel about her. The way she had got to him.

      Something that had been all too evident when he had given in to the thundering in his head and started to kiss her. One minute he had been incensed by the totally unjustified way she’d been laying into him and the next that fiery defiance was turning him on like a tap on full pressure. Somehow her incredible sexiness had got to him, hot-wired his libido into life until all he’d been able to think about was taking her in his arms and making love to her. Making her sweet body his.

      And then she had mentioned Donatella. Vieri recalled her stunned expression when he had pushed her away, the hurt and pain that had been drawn across her face before she had collected herself, finally sweeping past him to the sanctuary of her room.

      A couple of whisky-soaked hours had passed since then, but the memory still made Vieri grind down hard on his jaw. She hadn’t deserved that, the cruelly dismissive way he had treated her. He shouldn’t have taken out his seething anger for Donatella on her.

      But maybe it was for the best. Throwing a handful of notes onto the bar, he rose unsteadily from the stool. For Harper’s sake they needed to keep their relationship professional, businesslike. Anything else, no matter how tempting, would just complicate matters, muddy the waters. He needed to protect her, against himself, because he couldn’t bear for her to get hurt. And that was what would happen if she tried to get close to him. Because he was emotionally sterile, he had nothing to give her. Donatella had seen to that.

      It occurred to him that in a funny sort of way she had done him a favour by turning up, interfering in Harper’s choice of dress. If she hadn’t, the evening might well have ended in a very different way; it had certainly been heading rapidly down that path. He could have been in bed with Harper now, making love to her, maybe even for the second or third time. Because Vieri already knew that once with Harper would never be enough. Yes, it was just as well they had parted when they did.

      Pushing open the door of the bar, he stumbled out, the cold air hitting his face, sobering him up. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers he set off in search of a taxi to take him home. The fact was, Harper McDonald was too good for him. He gave a gruff laugh into the night air. And that was something he had never imagined saying about any woman, ever.

      * * *

      ‘Harper? Is that you?’ Harper had never, ever been so glad to hear her sister’s sleep-muffled voice.

      ‘Yes, Leah, it’s me.’

      Awake for most of the night, Harper had been waiting for the hours to slowly drag by before she could finally call home. She had held her breath as the phone rang, willing her sister to answer it, terrified that she wasn’t there, that somehow she had gone missing again.

      ‘What time is it?’ Leah whispered groggily.

      ‘It’s nearly seven a.m. in Sicily.’

      ‘Sicily?’ This cut through the fog of sleep.

      ‘Yes, that’s where I am, Leah. In Sicily.’

      ‘What on earth are you doing there?’

      ‘What on earth do you think I’m doing here?’ Somewhere in amongst the massive relief that Leah was safe, Harper felt a surge of anger. ‘I’m clearing up your mess, of course.’ She gripped her phone tightly to her ear. ‘How could you do it, Leah? How could you disappear with thirty thousand dollars of Vieri Romano’s money?’

      ‘Oh.’ Harper could perfectly picture her sister’s guilty face. ‘You know about that?’

      ‘Of course I know about that. That’s why I’m here, repaying your debt.’

      ‘But how? I mean, I don’t understand.’

      ‘When you disappeared without a trace, thanks for that by the way, I had to go looking for you. I went to Spectrum...’

      ‘You flew to New York?’

      ‘No, I swam. Of course I bloody flew to New York.’ Harper took in a breath. ‘I was manhandled by Vieri’s henchmen because they thought I was you, then delivered to the great man himself, only to be told, once he’d established who I was, that you had scarpered with his money.’

      ‘Oh, God, Harper. I’m so sorry.’

      ‘So you should be. But frankly sorry isn’t going to cut it. So come on, then, I’m waiting. Why the hell did you do it?’

      There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

      ‘It’s a bit of a long story.’

      ‘I thought it might be.’

      ‘I met this guy, Max Rodriguez.’ Leah started tentatively. ‘He was a bar manager at Spectrum but he was also a professional gambler. He said if I gave him the thirty thousand he could double it, maybe even triple it, in just one night.’

      ‘And you believed him?’

      ‘He was really convincing, Harper.’

      ‘And it didn’t occur to you to wonder why, if he was such a whizz at the gaming tables, he still needed to work in the bar of a nightclub?’

      ‘Not really.’

      ‘Honestly, Leah!’

      ‘It’s all very well for you to scoff now, with the benefit of hindsight. But at the time it seemed like an excellent plan. I thought I could repay Vieri, then send the rest of the money back home, take some of the pressure off you and Dad.’

      ‘How very kind.’ Harper kept the sarcasm in her voice but she could feel her anger starting to melt. This was typical of Leah, to get involved in a stupid, crazy scheme that brought nothing but trouble for those all around her, especially herself, but only because she was trying to help. Generous to a fault, and she had plenty of those, Leah did all the wrong things for the right reasons. ‘So what went wrong with this brilliant plan?’

      ‘Max lost the money.’ She sounded genuinely crestfallen. ‘Every last cent. I’d gone with him, to this casino in Atlantic City. Obviously I wasn’t going to let him just take my money without me being there to make sure he didn’t just run off with it.’

      ‘Obviously.’

      ‘But after he’d lost the money he did a disappearing act. I ended up having to stay on at the casino, working in the kitchens to cover the drinks bill he’d run up, pay for the suite of rooms he’d booked, all using my money.’

      ‘Technically I think it was Vieri’s money.’

      ‘Well, yes.’

      ‘But you’re okay?’ Harper’s anxiety spiked. ‘I mean, they didn’t treat you badly?’

      ‘No. The staff at the casino were decent enough, given the circumstances. But owing Mr Romano thirty thousand dollars was bad enough in itself.’

      ‘Oh, Leah. Why didn’t you ring me?’

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