Free Deserving of His Diamonds by ASUS Page A

see you at dinner.‘ Gisele felt unsettled and disoriented
    when he stepped away from her. It was a feeling almost like being cast
    adrift. She felt strangely empty without his hands holding her against him.
    That too-brief kiss had made her feel hungry for more. She swept the tip of
    her tongue over the tingling surface of her lips, the tantalising taste of him
    making her insides clench with longing. She didn‘t realise she was still
    standing there in a zombie-like daze until she heard the soft click of the
    study door, signalling Emilio had left. Walking back into Emilio‘s bedroom
    suite was something Gisele had been silently dreading for all the memories
    being there would stir up, but when she pushed open the door she was
    surprised to see everything had changed. The decor was completely
    different, even the bed ensemble and the light fittings and soft furnishings.
    She wondered if he had done it deliberately, somehow purging his room of
    her presence after he had sent her from his life. The master suite now had a
    Venetian theme to it with the boldest of gold and black in the fabric of the
    curtains and bed linen. Crystal lamps encrusted with onyx and gold

    were stationed either side of the massive bed, and the priceless thick carpet
    on the floor continued the theme. The en suite bathroom was fitted out in
    highly polished black marble with gold tap wear and golden-framed mirrors.
    There was a large shower with two showerheads and a deep marble-
    surrounded bath and a heated towel rack with several snowy-white towels
    with a black-andgold trim neatly folded there. It was decadent and rich and
    luxurious, the perfect setting for seduction, Gisele thought as she came back
    to the windows that led out onto a balcony that overlooked the gardens. She
    opened the French windows and went out to breathe in the warm spring air,
    the clovelike scent of roses drifting towards her from below. The rear
    gardens were much the same as before, lots of clipped hedges and
    herbaceous borders and roses everywhere. A lavender pathway led to
    another fountain, larger than the one at the front. The sound of the water
    splashing had always had a soporific effect on her. She had spent many
    nights lying in Emilio‘s arms listening to that wonderfully relaxing sound as
    she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of their future together … She stepped out
    of her reverie by leaving the balcony and closing the doors, turning the key
    as a reminder to herself that the past was no longer accessible. She found
    another room farther down the hall. It was decorated in tones of milky coffee
    and white, with large windows overlooking the gardens. Once she unpacked
    her things from her suitcase and stored them in the wardrobe, she found a
    drawer to put Lily‘s blanket and photos in and gently closed it.

    The aching tiredness she felt was suddenly so overwhelming she was barely
    aware of kicking off her shoes before she curled up like a comma on the
    feathersoft bed and closed her eyes … Emilio searched through several
    bedrooms before he found Gisele lying sound asleep on the bed in the room
    furthest from his. Her silver-blonde hair was spread out over the pillow, her
    slim body barely making an indentation on the mattress. She looked like an
    angel lying there, a sleeping angel with features so perfect and yet so pale
    she didn‘t seem quite real. How was he to get through the wall of her anger?
    He had to dismantle it brick by brick, getting her to slowly warm to him
    again. Looking back now, he could see how truly devastated she had been
    when he had cast her from his life. At the time he had read her body
    language as a greedy little gold-digger whose plans to wed a rich man had
    been thwarted at the last minute, but now he could see her shattered
    expression for what it was: a young woman who had loved and loved
    deeply, who by a quirk of fate had suddenly found her life in ruins through
    no fault of her own. Where had she gone? Who had she