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 hefty donation towards “the preservation of Florence” was all it took to get the trial mysteriously dismissed. That money undoubtedly went to corrupt officials—one of whom was probably your father—but I was damned if I was going to hang for a crime I wasn’t even responsible for. But they wouldn’t clear me completely, so every time I fly to Europe now I come under the radar of Europe’s law enforcement agencies.’
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.’