Serena felt cold. She turned back to the front, staring unseeingly out of the window, knowing it was futile to say anything. She’d protested her innocence till she was blue in the face, but Luca was right—his association with her had made things worse for him.
They were turning into a vast tree-lined driveway now, which led up to a glittering colonial-style building. When Luca pulled up, and a valet parker waited for him to get out, Serena took several deep breaths to calm her frayed nerves.
Luca surprised her by not getting out straight away.
He turned to her. ‘I’m not interested in the past any more, Serena. I’m interested in the here and now.’
Serena swallowed. Something fragile seemed to shimmer between them...tantalising. And then he got out of the car and she sucked in another shaky breath.
He came around and opened her door, extended a hand to help her out. She took it, and when his gaze tracked down her body and lingered on her breasts a pulse throbbed between her legs.
He tucked her arm into his as they moved forward and joined similarly dressed couples entering a glittering doorway lit by hundreds of small lights. It was a scene Serena had seen a million times before, but never heightened like this. Never romantic.
She asked herself as Luca led her inside, greeting someone in Portuguese, if they really could let the past go. Or was that just what Luca was willing to say so that he could bed her and then walk away, with all that resentment still simmering under the surface?
‘Do you think you could crack a smile and not look as if you’re about to be subjected to torture?’
Serena glanced at Luca, who had a fixed social smile on his face. She sent up silent thanks that he couldn’t read her thoughts and said sweetly. ‘But this is torture.’
Something flared in his eyes—surprise?—and then he said, ‘Torture it may well be, but a few hours of social torture is worth it if it means that a favela gets a new free school staffed by qualified teachers.’
Serena felt immediately chastened. ‘Is that what this evening’s ball is in aid of?’
Luca looked at her assessingly. ‘Among some other causes. The global communities charity too.’
Serena thought of that sweet little girl in the village—a million miles away from here...and yet not.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said huskily. ‘You’re right—it is worth it.’
Serena missed Luca’s speculative look because a waiter was interrupting them with a tray of champagne. Luca took a glass and looked at her when she didn’t.
She shook her head quickly and said to the waiter, ‘Do you have some sparkling water, please?’
The waiter rushed off and Luca frowned slightly. ‘You really don’t drink any more?’
Serena’s belly clenched. ‘No, I really don’t.’ She made a face. ‘I never liked the taste of alcohol anyway. It was more for the effect it had on me.’
‘What was that?’
She looked at him. ‘Numbing.’
The moment stretched between them...taut. And then the attentive waiter returned with a glass of water on a tray for Serena. She took it gratefully. Luca was getting too close to that dark place inside her.
To her relief someone came up then, and took his attention, but just as Serena felt hopeful that he might forget about her she felt her heart sink and jump in equal measure when she felt him reach for her hand and tug her with him, introducing her to the man.
* * *
Luca was finding it hard to concentrate on the conversation around him when he usually had no problem. Even if he was with a woman. He was aware of every tiny movement Serena made in that dress, and acutely aware of the attention she was attracting.
He was also aware that she seemed ill at ease. He’d expected her to come back into this kind of environment and take to it like the proverbial duck to water, but when they’d first come in she’d looked pained. It was just like in the jungle, when she’d proved him resoundingly wrong in his expectations of her.
Now her head was bent towards one of the executive team who managed his charities abroad, and they were engaged in an earnest conversation when Luca would have fully expected Serena to look bored out of her brains.
At that moment her head tipped back and she laughed at something the other woman had said. Luca couldn’t breathe, and the conversation stopped around them as she unwittingly drew everyone’s eye. She literally...sparkled, her face transformed by her wide smile. She was undeniably beautiful...and Luca realised he’d never seen true beauty till that moment.
His chest felt tight as he had a vision of what he’d subjected her to: dragging her into the jungle on a forced trek. She’d endured one of the most painful insect bites in the world. She’d stayed in a rustic village in the depths of the Amazon without blinking. She’d endeared herself to the tribespeople without even trying. It had taken him years to be accepted and respected.
And the miners—some of the hardest men in Brazil—weathered and rough as they came—they’d practically been doffing their caps when Serena had appeared with him, as if she was royalty.
Luca could see the crowd moving towards the ballroom and took Serena’s hand in his. She looked at him with that smile still playing about her mouth and a sense of yearning stronger than anything he’d ever felt kicked him in the solar plexus. A yearning to be the cause of such a smile.
As if she was reading his mind her smile faded on cue.
‘Come on—let’s dance,’ Luca growled, feeling unconstructed. Raw.
He tugged Serena in his wake before he remembered that he didn’t even like dancing, but right now he needed to feel her body pressed against his or he might go crazy.
When they reached the edge of the dimly lit dance floor Luca turned and pulled her with him, facing her. The light highlighted her stunning bone structure. That effortlessly classic beauty.
Unbidden, he heard himself articulate the question resounding in his head. ‘Who are you?’
She swallowed. ‘You know who I am.’
‘Do I really?’ he asked, almost angry now. ‘Or is this all some grand charade for the benefit of your family, so you can go back to doing what you love best—being a wild society princess?’
Serena went pale and pulled free of Luca’s embrace, saying angrily, ‘I’ve told you about me but you still don’t have the first clue, Luca. And as for what I love best? You’ll never know.’
She turned and was walking away, disappearing into the vast lobby, before Luca realised that he was struck dumb and immobile because no woman had ever walked away from him before.
Cursing under his breath, he followed her, but when he got to the lobby there was no sign of a distinctive red dress or a white-blonde head. The way she’d stood out in the crowd mocked him now. His gut clenched with panic.
He got to the open doors, where people were still arriving. He spotted the valet who had taken his car and accosted him, asking curtly, ‘The woman I came with—have you seen her?’
The valet gulped, visibly intimidated by Luca. ‘Yes. Sir. I just saw her into a taxi that had dropped off some guests.’
Luca swore so volubly that the valet’s ears went red. He stammered, ‘Do—do you want your car?’
Luca just looked at him expressively and the young man scurried off.
They