Part 2 (1/2)

'I'm not a t-'

Ol y closed his hand round her forearm. 'Time to go home, Ava. I'l drive you.'

Ava's head swivel ed, her furious eyes pinned to Vito's Ava's head swivel ed, her furious eyes pinned to Vito's shut ered face in condemnation. 'How dare you cal me a tease?' she launched at him as a sense of humiliation engulfed her, for she had made her last desperate move and he was stil rebu ng her, resolutely refusing to acknowledge the sense of connection between them.

For the very rst time in the immediate aftermath of that encounter Ava worried that her feelings were entirely one-sided. Was it possible that a man could be at racted to a woman without actual y wanting to act on it? The same way people could admire a painting in a museum without needing to own it? That humiliating realisation came cras.h.i.+ng down on Ava like a big black storm cloud. Her last recol ection of that evening was of rus.h.i.+ng down the steps of the castle in oods of tears with Ol y chasing after her, urging her to calm down.

The image that came next in her memory was waking up in hospital with a mind that was a terrifying blank, the events of the previous evening only returning slowly over the fol owing days in jagged bits and pieces. But she had never been able to ful y recal that car journey or the crash. Her defence had made much of the yawning gaps in her memory during her trial.

But ignorance had not protected her even from her own painful questions. How could she have got behind a steering wheel in the state she had been in? She had never been able to answer that question to her own satisfaction. Even more saliently, the car had belonged to Ol y and he had been sober so why on earth had he Ol y and he had been sober so why on earth had he al owed her to drive when she wasn't insured to drive his car?

Shoulders bowing beneath the stress of recal ing her stupid sel shness that evening, Ava focused her swimming eyes on the Christmas list and resolved to get on with the task at hand. Revisiting the past, she decided, was a very bad idea when her mistakes had resulted in indefensible behaviour and tragic consequences.

CHAPTER THREE.

'COMPLETE junk!' Karen Harper p.r.o.nounced triumphantly, laying a cus.h.i.+on woven with an image of a dog down on Vito's desk. 'Ava has made a complete pig's ear of the Christmas list and bought ridiculous gifts!

She'l have to return the stuf and someone else wil have to take charge of the list.'

An expression of exasperation crossed Vito's face for he did not appreciate having his busy morning interrupted by inconsequential dramas. He had only given Ava the list to get her out of the o ce and was in no mood for fal out from that decision. He swept up the phone. 'Ask Ava Fitzgerald to join us,' he told his PA.

Ava was sheltering in the cloakroom, cheeks stil burning after a mortifyingly public scene with the dissatis ed o ce manager. Having done what she had been asked to the best of her ability, Ava had been furious when Karen Harper looked over her careful y chosen purchases and label ed her 'an idiot' in front of her co-workers. She accepted that she was just a junior but felt that even a junior employee deserved a certain modic.u.m of respect and consideration. Her pale heart-shaped face tight, she nished renewing her lip gloss and moved away from the mirror.

'Mr Barbieri wants to speak to you,' Vito's PA, a glamorous blonde in her early thirties, informed Ava in the corridor.

the corridor.

Ava walked stoical y back into Vito's o ce. Twenty-four hours had pa.s.sed since their last encounter and after the restless night she had su ered while she fret ed over what could not be changed she wished it had been longer. Get ing out of bed to face another day had been a chal enge. Having to deal with a man who despised her was salt in an already open wound. That he was the same guy she had once loved hammered her pride to smithereens.

Vito, a devastatingly elegant gure in a charcoal grey suit expertly tailored to his tal , powerful physique, viewed her with cool precision, the sooty lashes that ringed his remarkable eyes visible even at a distance. He indicated the cus.h.i.+on. 'Ava ... care to explain this?'

'Mat Aiken and his wife breed Labradors and show them at Crufts. I thought the cus.h.i.+ons were the perfect gift.'

'What about that ugly pot ery vase?' Karen Harper broke in.

'Made by a charity in Mumbai that supports homeless widows,' Ava explained. 'Ruhina Dut a is very forthright about the needs of minorities in India. I thought she would appreciate the vase and a charitable donation more than she would appreciate perfume,' Ava continued level y, encountering an unreadable look from Vito that made her even tenser. She could not tel whether he approved of her outlook or not, but that whether he approved of her outlook or not, but that lingering scrutiny sent high-wire energy shooting through her like lightning rods.

'And that sil y chain from Ti any's?' Karen was in no mood to back down. 'It doesn't even have a proper catch -''Because it's a spectacles chain. Mrs Fox complained in a recent interview that she is always mislaying her gla.s.ses.'

Vito released a short laugh, his impatience with the subject unconcealed. Ava went pink, noting that he was now avoiding looking directly at her and feeling ignored even though she told herself that it was stupid to feel that way. Surely she no longer wanted his at ention? And if he wanted to treat her like the o ce junior she was supposed to be, she would have to get used to receiving as much at ention as the paint on the wal .

'What about al that animal-orientated stu you've bought?' Karen demanded sharply. 'It's unacceptable for you to only buy gifts from your favourite charity.'

'A lot of people on that list have pets. You told me to save money if I could.'

'I certainly didn't tel you to buy junk!' Karen Harper snapped.

'Some of the proposed gifts on the list were incredibly expensive and at a time when so many people are cut ing back, those suggestions struck me as OTT,' Ava admit ed in a rueful undertone. 'But, of course, anything admit ed in a rueful undertone. 'But, of course, anything I've bought can be changed if required.'

'That won't be necessary. Finish the job-you've obviously done your homework on the recipients,' Vito conceded, his strong jaw line squaring as he skimmed a detached glance at Ava and extended the cus.h.i.+on to her.

'But I don't like to waste my time on trivia. Please remove this dif erence of opinion from my of ice.'

The o ce manager sti ened. 'Of course, Mr Barbieri.

I'm sorry I interrupted you.'

The other woman insisted on checking the remainder of the list with Ava before she went out shopping again.

Ava was embarra.s.sed when a couple of co-workers chose that same moment to return Marge's catalogue with orders and cash at ached.

'You're here to work, not to sel stu for your pet charity,' Karen said icily. 'When you get back this afternoon I have several jobs for you to take care of, so be as quick as you can.'

When Ava returned, footsore and laden with carrier bags, Karen took her straight down to the ling cabinets in the bas.e.m.e.nt and gave her enough work to keep her busy into at least the middle of the fol owing week. Ava knew it was a punishment for stepping out of line and accepted it as such without resentment. True the bas.e.m.e.nt was lonely, dul and l ed with arti cial light but it was a relief to know that she need no longer fear running into Vito. Earlier he had behaved unnervingly running into Vito. Earlier he had behaved unnervingly like a stranger and she didn't know why that should have surprised her or left her feeling ridiculously resentful.

After al , he was the last man in the world from whom she could expect special treatment.

A week later, Vito was studying his companion over lunch in a famous restaurant. By any standards Laura was beautiful with her long blonde fal of hair and almond-shaped brown eyes. She didn't ring his bel s though: he thought her mouth was too thin, her voice too sharp and she was painful y fond of b.i.t.c.hing about the models she worked with. Was he simply bored? There had to be some reason why his mind constantly wandered, why it had suddenly become a chal enge for him to sit stil even long enough to eat a meal. The unease that had been nibbling bites out of his self-discipline for days returned in ful force.

His day had had an unfortunate start with a cal from his estate manager, Damien Keel. Damien, keen to get his festive calendar organised, had asked him if there would be a Christmas party this year at the castle. Ironical y it was the rst time that Vito had been asked that question since his brother's death but Damien, a relatively new employee, had never been part of that loop. The rst year, n.o.body had asked or expected a party and since then Vito had just quietly ignored that custom. Now, suddenly, he felt guilty about that break with tradition.

His sta deserved the treat. Three years was long enough His sta deserved the treat. Three years was long enough to make a public display of grief. He decided there and then that it was past time he reinstated normality. He glanced at Laura, happily engaged in a very long drawn-out story about yet another rival in the model ing world, and he suppressed his growing impatience. He knew he would be moving on from Laura as wel .

Striding back into AeroCarlton, he glanced at Reception. There was no sign of Ava in the general o ce either. For a gopher she was keeping an exceptional y low pro le. It was not that he wanted to see her, more that he was steeling himself to accept her presence. But it was a week since he had last laid eyes on her and he was get ing curious.

'Is Ava Fitzgerald stil working here?' he asked his PA.

'I don't know, sir ...'

'Find out,' he instructed.

Ava was in the bas.e.m.e.nt, the layout of which she now knew like the back of her hand. She had led away entire boxes of doc.u.ments, and when she had completed that task Karen had introduced her to her s.h.i.+ny new and endishly complex ling system and put her to work on it. In the distance she heard the lift clanging as the doors opened and she did not have long to wait for her visitor.

'Since you won't go out to lunch, I've brought lunch to you,' a familiar voice announced.

Suppressing a groan, Ava spun round from the cabinet of les she was reorganising and smoothed down her of les she was reorganising and smoothed down her skirt in a movement that came as natural y as breathing to her in Pete Langford's radius. Of medium height and lanky build, Pete looked over her slender gure in a way that made her feel vaguely unclean. It was a few days since he had made his rst cal down to the bas.e.m.e.nt to chat to her and even her display of indi erence had failed to daunt him. Now he extended a panini and a soft drink to her while he lounged back against the bare table in the centre of the room.

'Take a break,' he urged, set ing the items down on the table.

'You shouldn't have bought those.' Her stomach growled because her tiny budget didn't run to lunches.

'Give them to someone else-I have some shopping to do.''Do it after work. I'm here now,' he pointed out as if she ought to drop everything to give him some at ention.

Ava hated being railroaded and valued her freedom of choice. She didn't fancy an impromptu lunch with Pete in the solitude of the bas.e.m.e.nt and had no desire to drift into a situation where she would have to ght him o .

He was the sort of guy who thought he was G.o.d's gift and who believed persistence would pay o . One of her co-workers had already warned her that he went after al the new girls. 'I'm going to take a break upstairs,' she told him.