A Night in the Palace Read online

  ‘As the man who was interrupted in the middle of making love to you on this table last night when you received Danny’s telephone call, I think my curiosity is understandable,’ he shot back.

  ‘Would you keep your voice down?’ Lily seethed across the table at him, very aware of the fact that there were two other men in the room, and that at least one of them understood English. ‘I think the important word in that statement is “interrupted”,’ she continued with hushed fierceness. ‘And it doesn’t give you the right to question me about any of my friends!’

  Dmitri dearly wished he had never begun this conversation. He had no idea why he had done so—except that he’d been annoyed, coming down the stairs a few minutes ago, to hear the sound of Lily’s laughter mingled with the two workmen’s. A light and flirtatious laugh that she had never been at ease enough to share with him.

  His eyes narrowed. ‘Then what does it give me the right to do?’

  ‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing,’ she repeated firmly, angry colour high in her cheeks. ‘Now perhaps we could change the subject and you could tell me whether or not you’ve managed to make any progress with your telephone calls?’

  He recognised her method of averting the argument by changing the subject back to Claudia and Felix. Sensible, perhaps; it had been a senseless argument in any case—one he had allowed himself to be provoked into inciting because of his curiosity about the man who had telephoned Lily so inconveniently the night before. If they had not been interrupted then Dmitri knew that he would have taken Lily on top of this table without a second thought. Without a first one, in fact.

  Which perhaps explained why he was now taking his physical frustration out on her...

  Perhaps. But it was not the cool, logical behaviour he usually expected of himself...

  ‘Dmitri?’

  His attention returned to Lily where she sat across the table, looking at him curiously. ‘I managed to find out that Claudia hired a car at Milano airport. After that nothing has been seen of either her or your brother,’ he added grimly.

  Lily sighed as she slowly leant back in her chair. ‘Which means they could still be in Milan.’

  ‘Or not.’

  Or not...

  Lily was going to personally throttle her little brother when they finally caught up with him! If Dmitri didn’t beat her to it...

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘I CAN’T possibly afford to stay here!’ Lily squeaked, looking up, aghast, at the obviously exclusive and hideously expensive building outside where Dmitri had parked his sleek black sports car.

  The hotel was only a mile or so from his home, but the journey had been long enough to show her that he drove like all the other Italians she had observed—basically without any sense or regard for traffic signals or other drivers, let alone the dozens of people who risked life and limb by travelling about on bikes and motorcycles!

  Nevertheless, it was finding herself seated beside him in his expensive-smelling car, outside a hotel where she could see a doorman and several porters dealing with the luggage of chicly dressed guests going in and out of the glass front doors, which now caused the nauseous churning in her stomach—forget butterflies, they had been replaced by giant bats!

  ‘You don’t need to be able to afford to stay here,’ Dmitri assured her coolly as he opened his door and got out of the car before coming round to Lily’s side and opening the passenger door for her. ‘Obviously you will be staying here as my guest,’ he said as she made no move to get out of the car.

  ‘There’s no “obviously” about it.’ She gave a stubborn shake of her head. ‘Because I’m not staying here or anywhere else as the guest of Count Scarletti. I pay my own way, thank you very much.’

  Dmitri felt some of his irritation drain out of him as he looked down at her stubbornly rebellious face. He was almost tempted to smile at her obvious indignation—if he had not known that any amusement at her expense would only make her more stubborn! ‘At least come inside and look at the room, Lily,’ he cajoled.

  ‘There’s no point in doing that when I’m not staying.’ She gave another firm shake of her head as she continued to stare at the elegant façade of the hotel. ‘Good Lord, Dmitri, when you said you would drive me to a hotel I didn’t mean for you to take me to Rome’s version of the Ritz!’ She glared up at him.

  This time Dmitri was unable to stop himself laughing. Lily looked so much like an indignant little bantam hen at this moment that it was impossible for him not to smile. ‘Let me do this for you, Lily.’ He went down on his haunches beside the open door to take one of her hands in his. ‘As an apology for my boorish behaviour to date,’ he explained.

  Lily eyed him frustratedly. It wasn’t fair that he should look so appealing boyish as he gazed at her with those warm green eyes and smiled at her so wistfully. As for that tingling sensation in her fingers and up her arm from the touch of his hands on hers...

  ‘A verbal apology would have sufficed,’ she muttered.

  ‘This is my apology,’ he insisted.

  ‘It’s rather an expensive one.’

  ‘Just take a look inside, hmm?’

  Could any woman resist this man when he looked so appealing? Not her, that was for certain!

  She pulled her hand free of his as he stood up and stepped back to allow her to get out of the car. ‘Looking doesn’t mean I’m staying,’ she warned as he moved to take her suitcase from the boot of the car. ‘I just know I wouldn’t be comfortable here.’

  ‘Comfort is what this particular hotel is known for,’ he assured her as he allowed the porter to take her suitcase from him before disappearing inside the hotel with it, thereby allowing Dmitri to take a firm grasp of her arm.

  Lily didn’t doubt that for a moment as she entered the hotel lobby at Dmitri’s side. The marble floors and pillars were very much like those at the Palazzo Scarletti, and there was that same feeling of disembodiment from the rush and bustle of the city of Rome they had left outside.

  There were a dozen or so people in the lobby—some at the discreet reception desk, others sitting in comfortable armchairs reading newspapers or looking at maps—but all turned to look as Dmitri strode through their midst, wickedly handsome, very tall for an Italian, and with his air of arrogance—

  No, Lily realised slowly as she glanced up at him. Arrogance was, and always had been, the wrong word to use in association with Dmitri; arrogance implied conceit and a scorn for others that she had discovered this past day or so he simply did not possess. He was powerful, yes, and with an air of self-confidence in his own capabilities, but he wasn’t in the least arrogant. Even his aloofness, his holding himself apart from others, no longer seemed to apply in regard to her...

  She was becoming far too personally interested in what did and did not make Dmitri Scarletti tick, Lily realised with a feeling of dismay.

  Interested enough to resent the covetous glances he was receiving from the half dozen or so women in the lobby—old as well as young.

  Far, far too interested!

  He was as beyond Lily’s reach as the moon, and if she had been disappointed in Danny when he’d chosen his mother over her then it was going to be nothing compared to how she was going to feel once this man had walked out of her life. Which, as they reached the reception desk, Lily knew was going to happen much sooner than she might have wished.

  Beyond the, ‘Buongiorno, signor!’ with which the brightly smiling—and very beautiful—receptionist greeted Dmitri, Lily understood none of the conversation that followed, instead turning away to allow her attention to wander around the lobby.

  There was the familiar nativity scene in one corner of the spacious area—Lily had seen several others during their drive from the palazzo—and an eight foot tall Christmas tree in another. Its gold-and-silver decorations and harsh white lights, and several gifts neatly wrapped in silver foil beneath, made Lily long wistfully for the trees she remembered from her own and Felix’s childhood.

  They had usually
been misshapen trees that had begun to shed their needles within days of being brought into the house by their father, with twinkling lights of different colours, and most of the decorations made during Lily and Felix’s childhood, and of sentimental value only, along with the gingerbread angels and stars that they baked with their mother. The presents beneath had been wrapped untidily in gaudy paper depicting Father Christmases and snowmen, but all had somehow given the trees a much more homely appearance than the cold perfection of the tree that adorned this hotel lobby.

  To Lily’s consternation she felt the sharp prick of tears in her eyes just at the thought of those past Christmases with her family. Christmases so at odds with the one she was to spend alone in this impersonal hotel.

  Dmitri was scowling slightly as he turned from booking Lily in and acquiring the key card to her room, knowing it was because he was very displeased with the amount of male attention she had attracted as they entered the hotel together. Even when she was dressed casually in jeans, and with a thick jacket over her sweater, her delicate blond-haired beauty was a beacon to every appreciative male gaze.

  His scowl faded to concern as he looked down at her profile and saw the tears balanced precariously on her long golden lashes. ‘Lily?’

  She turned to look at him. ‘Sorry.’ She sniffed and then prompted brightly, ‘All booked in?’

  Dmitri wasn’t fooled for a moment by her forced smile as he nodded and replaced his hand beneath her elbow to guide her across to the lifts. ‘I’m sure Claudia and Felix are perfectly safe wherever they might be,’ he reassured her softly as they stepped inside the mirrored lift together.

  ‘Oh, I’m not in the least worried about that.’ This time her smile was genuine.

  Dmitri looked down at her searchingly. ‘Then what are you worried about?’

  What was she worried about? Her own unhappiness at the thought of parting from him, for one thing.

  Oh, she was used to being on her own. Had been more or less on her own for the past eight years. She and Felix were close, and had usually got together once a week or so when he’d lived in London too, but nevertheless her brother had always lived his life separately from Lily, following his own star wherever it might lead him. As a consequence she had made her own life, with her own career and her own friends, and although she lived alone she had never felt lonely.

  Until now...

  Because of the man standing beside her. Because in a few minutes they would say goodbye and probably never meet again. Lily very much doubted that Dmitri would allow Felix or Lily anywhere near the Palazzo Scarletti again once his sister had been safely returned to him.

  She felt sad just thinking about it.

  Which was ridiculous, she instantly rebuked herself impatiently. Her initial opinion of Dmitri, as being an arrogant despot, might have mellowed over the past twenty-four hours, but he was still Count Scarletti—multimillionaire, and the escort of numerous beautiful and accomplished women. She very much doubted that he would give Lily Barton, a schoolteacher from England and the sister of the man he now despised, so much as a second thought once this was all over. He wouldn’t even have noticed her existence at all if not for the present awkward circumstances!

  ‘Nothing at all,’ Lily denied lightly as the lift came to a halt and they stepped out into the carpeted corridor.

  The place even smelt expensive, Lily acknowledged with an inner wince as her booted feet sank into the thick pile carpet and they passed several highly polished and ornate tables as they walked down the hallway. Most of them contained a vase of colourful flowers to perfume the air, and the paintings on the richly papered cream-coloured walls appeared to be originals.

  As for the room—correction, suite—that Dmitri ushered her into seconds later...

  Lily was overwhelmed by the rich elegance of the sitting room they entered, its furniture obviously antique. Several vases of yellow roses sat on tables and a large sideboard, and a bowl of assorted fruits was placed temptingly on the low coffee table in front of a leather sofa. A cut-glass chandelier hung from the ceiling, and several matching lamps were placed about the room for a more subdued lighting. And through a connecting door she could see a bedroom that was just as opulent.

  ‘As I said earlier, Dmitri, I simply can’t stay here!’ Lily protested.

  ‘Come out onto the balcony and look at the view.’ Dmitri encouraged her to cross the room with him before he threw open the doors and waited for her to precede him.

  Lily followed obediently, and gasped softly as she stepped out onto the balcony and found what seemed like the whole of Rome spread out before her, in all its historic and majestic beauty. And surely—surely that was St Peter’s Basilica she could see across the River Tiber?

  She turned to ask Dmitri if it was, only to find he had stepped back inside the suite and was even now tipping the porter who had arrived with her suitcase.

  Lily turned back to the view before her, enchanted by the architecture and the sights and sounds, knowing that in that moment she’d fallen slightly in love with this magnificent city. Just as she was also falling in love with—

  No! Definitely not! She would not allow herself to fall in love with the completely unattainable Dmitri Scarletti.

  ‘Beautiful, is it not, cara?’ he murmured appreciatively as he stepped out onto the balcony, not completely sure whether he spoke of his beloved Roma or the woman standing with her back towards him as she leant against the balcony balustrade, the glow of the platinum-gold of her hair in the sunshine appearing almost like a halo about her head before cascading onto the slenderness of her shoulders.

  ‘Very beautiful,’ she confirmed huskily without turning.

  Dmitri stepped forward to rest his hands lightly on her shoulders, only to remove them again as he instantly felt her tense. ‘But you still do not wish to stay here?’ he guessed easily as he moved to stand beside her.

  She turned and looked at him guiltily. ‘Would that be very ungrateful of me?’

  Dmitri felt his displeasure evaporate as he saw the uncertainty in her expression. ‘Not at all,’ he assured her. ‘Except it would rob me of the pleasure of knowing that you are safe here, as well as comfortable.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘It would?’

  He looked down at her from beneath hooded lids. ‘Yes.’

  Lily’s breath seemed to have caught in her throat somewhere and it refused to be budged. The lack of oxygen was making her feel slightly light-headed as she continued to gaze up into Dmitri’s pale green eyes. In fact, she wasn’t sure she could have looked away if her very life had depended on it!

  Not good. So not good. Dangerous, in fact.

  Dmitri’s only reason for being concerned about her welfare had to be because Felix wasn’t here with her as originally planned. Didn’t it?

  ‘I have some work to do at my office this afternoon, before we close for the Christmas holiday,’ Dmitri continued before Lily could repeat her wish to leave. ‘But I should like to return here at seven o’clock, if you would care to have dinner with me this evening?’

  ‘What?’ Lily just stared at him now, dumbstruck by his invitation and the possibility it opened up for her not to have to say goodbye to him just yet after all.

  Dmitri smiled slightly. ‘I do not believe I have ever before had that reaction to a dinner invitation.’

  Probably not, Lily conceded dazedly, but she also doubted that any of the other women Dmitri had invited out to dinner were sisters of a man his own sister had eloped with!

  She shook her head. ‘You can’t really want to waste your evening having dinner with me.’

  ‘I would not consider it a waste of my evening.’ He frowned darkly.

  ‘I appreciate the offer, Dmitri—’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course I do,’ Lily repeated firmly, in the face of his obvious scepticism. ‘But I’m sure you must have family—other than Claudia, of course...’

  ‘Of course.’ His mouth had firmed. />
  Lily nodded as she hastened on. ‘Family, then—or possibly friends that you would rather spend Christmas Eve with?’

  Dmitri shrugged those incredibly wide shoulders. ‘I cannot think of any, no.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Lily, it is, as you said, Christmas Eve, and I see no reason why either of us should spend it alone.’ Dmitri was too irritated to attempt to hide his emotion. With both Lily and himself. Her for her hesitation in accepting his invitation. Himself for having made the invitation at all...

  It would have been so much easier to rid himself of all responsibility by leaving her at this hotel and going to spend several hours in his office, before returning home to continue his search and await news of Claudia and Felix.

  Easier but not, as it now turned out, what Dmitri wished to do at all.

  The covetous interest of those men downstairs in the hotel lobby earlier had seriously annoyed him. Men who would no doubt approach this beautiful woman with the stunning platinum coloured hair if she were to venture downstairs alone this evening. To invite her to join one of them for a drink, perhaps. Or maybe even dinner. Invitations that the now cautious Lily would no doubt refuse, but even so...

  Better by far that she have dinner with him, thereby saving her from the awkwardness of having to make those refusals.

  Better by far that Dmitri did not sit at home alone this evening tormenting himself with the image of her talking and laughing with any other man!

  He straightened. ‘Obviously if you would prefer to be alone—’

  ‘I didn’t say that,’ Lily cut in quickly, over her shock now, and certain she would prefer to spend the evening with Dmitri than anyone else. And it was Christmas Eve... ‘But I haven’t agreed to stay at this hotel yet,’ she reminded him teasingly.