‘Lunch?’ she parroted, because lunch, just the two of them, was not something they had done since getting married.
‘Unless you’ve travelled with sandwiches and a flask of hot coffee...? In your anxious attempts not to stand out...?’ He could have told her that she stood out just looking the way she did.
‘There’s a café just round the corner.’
‘Café?’
‘It’s not much but they make nice enough sandwiches and serve very big mugs of tea.’
‘I’ll give that one a miss. Any other suggestions?’
Lucy eyed him coolly and folded her arms. ‘You’re in my territory now, Dio.’
‘Your territory? Don’t make me laugh.’
‘I don’t care what you think but I feel I belong here a lot more than I belong in any of those soulless big houses, where I’ve had to make sure the fridges are stocked with champagne and caviar and the curtains are cleaned on a regular basis just in case...’
Dio’s lips thinned. ‘If you’re trying to annoy me, then congratulations, Lucy—you’re going about it the right way.’
‘I’m not trying to annoy you but I meant what I said. If you want to continue this conversation and ask whatever questions you want to ask, including questions about the divorce I’ve asked you for, then you can jolly well eat in the café Mark and I eat in whenever we’re here! I can’t believe you’re such a snob.’
‘I’m not a snob,’ Dio heard himself reply in an even, well-measured voice. ‘But maybe I’ve seen enough of those greasy spoon cafés to last a lifetime. Maybe I come from enough of a deprived background to know that getting out of it was the best thing I ever did. I certainly have no desire to pretend that it holds any charm for me now.’
Lucy’s mouth fell open.
This was the first time Dio had ever mentioned his background. She had known, of course, that he had made his own way up in the world, thanks to her father’s passing, derogatory remarks. But to hear him say anything, anything at all, was astounding.
Dio flushed darkly and turned away. ‘I’ll talk to you when you return home this evening.’
‘No!’ Seeing him begin walking towards the door galvanised Lucy into action and she placed a detaining hand on his arm.
Just like that, heat from his body seared through her, and she almost yanked her hand back as if it had been physically burnt.
‘We...we should talk now,’ she stammered, stepping back. ‘I know you must have been shocked at what I’ve asked and I never thought that you would...well, that you would see what I’ve been up to here...but, now that you have, well, I don’t mind having lunch with you somewhere a little smarter.’
Dio sighed and shook his head before fixing fabulous, silver eyes on her flushed face. ‘Take me to the café. It’s no big deal.’
She locked up behind her and they walked side by side to the café where she and Mark were regulars.
She was desperate to ask him about his past. Suddenly it was as though locked doors had been opened and curiosity was bursting out of her.
He’d grown up without money but had he been happy? As she knew only too well from personal experience, a moneyed background was no guarantee of happiness.
She sneaked a glance at his averted profile and concluded that he wasn’t in the mood for a soul-searching chit chat on his childhood experiences.
And it surprised her that she was so keen to hear all about them.
‘It’s not much,’ she reminded him as they pulled up in front of a café that was still relatively empty and smelled heavily of fried food.
‘Understatement of the year.’ Dio looked down at her and noticed the way the sun glinted off her blonde hair; noticed the thick lushness of her lashes and the earthy promise of her full lips. His breathing became a little shallower. ‘But I won’t forget the virtues of the brimming cups of tea and the big sandwiches...’
They knew her!
Dio was stunned. Two of the people working behind the counter had kids who had started drifting in to do maths lessons and there was a brief chat about progress.
‘And this...’ she turned to Dio and glanced away quickly ‘...is a friend. Someone thinking of investing in the building, really turning it into somewhere smarter and better equipped...’ She felt him bristle next to her. She’d always removed her wedding ring before coming here; it was just too priceless to take chances. She sneaked a sideways glance and caught the look of annoyance in his eyes and she returned that look of simmering annoyance with a special look of her own, one that was earnest and serious. ‘He’s very interested in helping the kids in this area really reach their full potential at school.’
‘Because...’ Dio said instantly, with the sort of charming smile that would knock anyone off balance, which it seemed to be doing to Anita, whose mouth had dropped open the second she had clocked him. ‘Because I happen to have grown up not a million miles from here,’ he said smoothly. ‘On an estate not unlike the one we passed and, take it from me, the only way to escape is through education.’
Anita was nodding vigorously. John was agreeing in a manly fashion. Lucy was feeling as though she had been cleverly outmanoeuvred.
‘This lovely young woman and I...are in discussions at the moment. It could all hinge on her acceptance of my proposal: no more rising damp, all the rooms brought up to the highest specification. Naturally, I would buy the building outright, and the cherry on the cake would be the equipment I would install. I find that computers are part and parcel of life nowadays. How else can children access vital information? Like I said, though, Lucy and I are in talks at the moment...’
As soon as they were seated, with mugs of steaming tea and two extra-large doorstop sandwiches filled to bursting in front of them, Lucy leaned forward, glaring.
‘Thanks for that, Dio!’
‘Any time. What else are friends and potential investors for? Why didn’t you introduce me as your husband?’
‘Because there would have been loads of questions to field,’ Lucy said defensively. ‘They would want to know who I really was...’
‘To have snagged me?’
‘You have a ridiculous ego.’ She sipped some tea and looked at him over the rim of the mug. ‘Were you lying when you said what you said?’
Dio knew exactly what she was talking about. Why had he suddenly imparted information about his past? He had always kept the details of his background to himself. Growing up on a tough estate, where the laws of the jungle were very different from the jungle laws of the business world, he had learnt the wisdom of silence. It was a habit that was deeply ingrained.
‘Be more specific,’ he drawled. ‘Nice sandwich, by the way.’
‘Did you grow up near here?’
‘We are breaking into new and unexplored territory, aren’t we?’ he murmured, his fabulous eyes roving over the stunning prettiness of her heart-shaped face. It amazed him that he had never seen that body. His success with women had started at a very young age and was legendary and yet, with her, his wife, he had yet to discover what lay underneath the tee-shirt and the jeans.
Bitterness refused to dampen the sudden thrust of his erection and it occurred to him that he had spent an awful lot of time fantasising about the untouchable ice-maiden who had conned him into marriage.
Not for much longer. That was a very satisfying thought.
‘Unexpected announcements, revelations all round, time together without high society peering over our shoulders... Where