Free Deserving of His Diamonds by ASUS Page B

turned to? How
    must she have felt to have her life ripped out from under her without
    warning? He didn‘t like thinking about it. She would have been feeling so
    shocked and frightened, so upset that she hadn‘t been able to get him to see
    reason. Even worse, anything could have happened to her that night. In her
    state of high emotional distress she could have come to some sort of harm
    and he had done nothing to protect her. He had cast her out of his life as if
    she had been nothing more than some

    trash he no longer had any use for.

    He had got it so horribly wrong.
    Emilio watched the soft flutter of her lips as she gave an inaudible murmur
    and the way one of her hands seemed to be searching for something on the
    bed next to her. Her face suddenly contorted as if she was having a terrible
    nightmare. She started to thrash about, her cries soft but heart-wrenching.
    ‗No … oh, no, please no …‘ ‗Gisele, shh, it‘s all right,‘ Emilio said softly as
    he perched beside her and captured her flailing hands. Her eyes sprang open
    and she jerked upright. She seemed momentarily disoriented but then her
    expression turned hostile. ‗What are you doing here?‘ she asked, pulling her
    hands away from his. ‗I hate to point out the obvious, but this is my villa and
    you are in one of my bedrooms,‘ Emilio said. She brushed her hair out of her
    eyes with an angry movement of her hand as she gave him a resentful scowl.
    ‗You shouldn‘t sneak up on people like that,‘ she said. ‗I didn‘t sneak up on
    you,‘ he said. ‗It looked like you were having a bad dream. You were crying
    out in your sleep so I came over to comfort you.‘ She bit down on her lower
    lip, a soft flush rising in her cheeks as she averted her gaze from his. Emilio
    turned her chin so she had to meet his eyes. ‗Do you often have bad dreams,
    cara?‘ he asked. A shadow passed over her blue eyes. ‗Not often …
    sometimes.‘

    He caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. ‗I wish I could wipe out
    the last two years,‘ he said. ‗I wish I could just reset the clock. I wish I could take back every horrible word I threw at you.‘ She didn‘t answer. She just
    kept looking at him with that grey-blue accusing gaze of hers. ‗What did you
    do the night I sent you away?‘ Emilio asked. ‗I found a hotel,‘ she said. ‗The
    press gave me a hard time but eventually I managed to shake them off. I
    caught a flight back to Sydney the next day.‘ ‗You never tried to contact
    me,‘ he said, still stroking her creamy cheek. ‗Not even once.‘ She gave him
    a brittle look. ‗You forbade me to, remember?‘ He studied her for a long
    moment before dropping his hand from her chin. ‗Dinner is in half an hour,‘
    he said as he rose from the bed. ‗I‘ll see you downstairs.‘

CHAPTER FIVE
    AFTER Gisele had a shower she dressed in a slim-fitting sheathlike taupe-
    coloured dress and a pair of heels. She dried her hair and scooped it up into a
    knot at the back of her head and put on a bare minimum of make-up. She
    looked down at the engagement ring on her finger. It was too loose for her
    now. The huge diamond kept slipping round the wrong way out of sight.
    Was that some sort of omen? she wondered. Emilio was in the salone when
    she came downstairs. He was sipping at an aperitif, looking out of the
    window to the gardens outside. He turned and looked at her, his gaze
    moving over her body like a warm caress. ‗You look beautiful,‘ he said.
    ‗Thank you.‘ Gisele fought for cool poise but a blush crept over her cheeks
    in spite of her best efforts. ‗What would you like to drink?‘ he asked. ‗Um
    … white wine if you have it.‘ He poured her a glass of wine and brought it
    over to her. She saw his nostrils flare as if he was taking in the fragrance of
    her perfume. She saw too the way his eyes darkened as they caught and held
    hers. ‗Do you feel a little more refreshed after your rest?‘ he asked. ‗Yes,‘
    she