Surprise lanced him, but he recovered quickly. ‘I thought you’d appreciate being prepared for a public event.’
Serena looked down and muttered, ‘You mean public humiliation.’
Something shifted in Luca’s chest. He tipped up her chin, more concerned than he liked to admit by her uneasiness. Colour stained her pale cheeks and Luca almost gave in to the beast inside him. Almost. With a supreme effort he willed it down. ‘What I said before...about exposing you to public scrutiny...that won’t happen, Serena. I won’t let it.’
Her eyes were wide. Wounded? Her mouth thinned. ‘Isn’t that part of the plan, though? A little revenge?’
Luca winced inwardly. What did this woman do to him? She called to his most base instincts and he could be as cruel as his father ever had been. Shame washed through him.
He shook his head, something fierce erupting inside him. ‘I’m taking you out because I want to be seen with you, Serena.’
As he said it he realised it was true. He genuinely wanted this. To have her on his arm. And it had very little to do with wanting to punish her. At the thought of adverse public reaction a protective instinct nearly bowled him over with its force.
Before he could lose his footing completely, he took her by the hand and said gruffly, ‘We should leave or we’ll be late.’
In the lift something caught his eye, and he looked down to see Serena’s other hand clutching a small bag which matched her dress. Her knuckles were white, and when his gaze travelled up he could see the tension in her body and jaw.
The lift jerked softly to a halt and almost against his will Luca found his hand going to the small of Serena’s back to touch her. The minute his hand came into contact with the bare, warm, silky skin left exposed by the backless design she tensed more.
He frowned as something had dawned on him. ‘Are you...nervous?’
Serena’s eyes flashed with some indefinable emotion and she quickly stepped out of the open doors of the elevator, away from his touch, avoiding his narrowed gaze.
‘Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just been a while since I’ve gone to anything like this, that’s all.’
Luca sensed that there was a lot more to it than that, but he gestured for her to precede him out of the building, realising too late what awaited them outside when a veritable explosion of light seemed to go off in their faces. Without even realising what he was doing he put his arm around Serena and curved her into his body, one hand up to cover her face, as they walked quickly to his car, where a security guard held the passenger door open.
In the car, Serena’s heart was pumping so hard she felt light-headed. The shock of that wall of paparazzi when she hadn’t seen it in so long was overwhelming. And she couldn’t help the fierce pain of betrayal. Everything Luca had just said was lies...and she hated that she wouldn’t have expected it of him.
She was a sap. Of course he was intent on—
Her hand was taken in a firm grip. She clenched her jaw and looked at Luca in the driver’s seat. His face was dark...with anger?
‘Serena, I had nothing to do with that. They must have been tipped off.’
He looked so grim and affronted that Serena felt something melt inside her. Felt a wish to believe him.
‘It won’t happen again.’
She took her hand from Luca’s and forced a smile. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
The imprint of Luca’s body where he’d held her so close was still making her treacherous skin tingle all over. The way he’d drawn her into him so protectively had unsettled her. She’d felt unprotected for so long that it was an alien sensation. Maybe he hadn’t planned it. She recalled him biting off a curse now, as if he’d been as surprised as her...
Once they’d left the paparazzi behind she pushed a button to lower her window, relishing the warm evening Rio breeze and the tang of the sea.
‘Are you okay?’
Serena nodded. ‘Fine—just needed some air.’
The setting sun was bathing the sky in a pink glow, and from somewhere distant Serena could hear cheers and clapping.
She looked at Luca. ‘What’s that?’
Luca’s mouth twitched. ‘Every evening sunset-worshippers applaud another stunning sunset from the beaches.’
Serena couldn’t take her eyes off the curve of Luca’s mouth. ‘I love that idea,’ she breathed. ‘I’d like to see the sunset.’
She quickly looked away again, in case that dark navy gaze met hers when she felt far too exposed. Her cheeks were still hot from that moment when she’d been captivated by the way he filled out his suit so effortlessly. The obviously bespoke material did little to disguise his sheer power, flowing lovingly over defined muscles.
‘Where do you live when you don’t stay at the apartment?’ Serena blurted out the first thing she could think of to try and take her mind off Luca’s physicality.
He glanced at her, his hands strong on the wheel of the car.
‘I have a house in Alto Gavea—it’s a district in the Tijuca Forest, north of the lake...’
She sneaked a look. ‘Is it your family home? Where you grew up?’
He shook his head abruptly, and when he answered his voice was tight. ‘No, we lived out in the suburbs. My parents wouldn’t have approved of living so near to the beaches and favelas.’
Serena thought of what he’d told her about his parents so far and asked, ‘You weren’t close to them?’
His mouth twisted. ‘No. They split up when we were six, and my mother moved back to her native Italy.’
Serena had forgotten about that Italian connection. ‘You said we... Do you have brothers and sisters?’
She could sense his reluctance to answer, but they weren’t going anywhere fast in the evening traffic. Luca sighed. ‘Yes, I have a twin brother.’
Serena’s eyes widened. ‘Wow—a twin? That’s pretty amazing.’ Her mind boggled slightly at the thought of two Lucas.
He slid her a mocking look and said, ‘We’re non-identical. He lives in Italy; he moved there with our mother after the divorce.’
Serena processed this and turned in her seat to face him. ‘Wait...you mean you were split up?’
The thought of anyone splitting her and Siena up at that young age made her go cold. Siena had been the only anchor in her crazy world.
Luca faced forward, his voice emotionless. ‘Yes, my parents decided that each would take one of us. My mother chose me to go to Italy with her, but when my brother got upset she swapped us and took him instead.’
Serena gasped as that scenario sank in. ‘But that’s...horrific. And your father just let her?’
Luca looked at her, face hard. ‘He didn’t care which son he got as long as he got one of us to be his heir.’
Serena knew what it was to grow up under a cruel tyrant, but this shocked even her. ‘And are you close now? You and your brother?’
Luca shrugged minutely. ‘Not particularly. But he was the one who bailed me out of jail, and he was the one who arranged for the best legal defence to get me out of Florence and back to Rio, avoiding a lengthy trial and jail time.’
His expression hardened to something infinitely cynical.
‘A