‘How did I ever hit so lucky?’ he mused.
‘How long have you known her?’ Primo asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.
‘Only since today.’
‘Today?’ He was startled.
‘She sent me flying with her car. I haven’t picked myself up yet. Maybe I never will. That’s fine. When the moment happens, it happens.’
‘Are you telling me,’ Primo said in a carefully controlled voice, ‘that after less than a day-?’
‘Why not? Some women are so special that you know almost at once. Look at her. Isn’t that a lady who could slay you in the first moment?’
‘Don’t be melodramatic,’ Primo said harshly. His head was throbbing.
‘Sure. I forgot you’re the one man in the world who couldn’t understand love at first sight. Take my word, it’s the best.’
‘Yes,’ Primo murmured inaudibly. ‘It is.’
‘You knew her in England, didn’t you?’ Luke added. ‘What’s the story?’
‘There is no story,’ Primo said repressively.
‘Odd that. She won’t talk about you either.’
‘Then mind your own damned business,’ Primo said with soft venom.
‘Like that, is it? Why don’t you ask her to dance? It’s cool with me.’
This time the look his brother turned on him was murderous. But the music was ending and Primo marched swiftly over to Olympia and reached for her hand, saying, ‘Let’s dance.’
‘I think not,’ she said. ‘I’ve promised this one.’
She slid easily into the arms of an elderly uncle whose name she had forgotten but who beamed at his luck. Primo watched them, planning dire retribution on his innocent relative. It didn’t help when the uncle’s wife stood beside him, sighing happily. ‘Isn’t she a nice girl to be so kind to the old fool? It’s not often he has such fun.’
When the dance was over Primo took no chances.
‘The next one is with me,’ he said, taking firm hold of her hand.
‘I’d rather not, if you don’t mind,’ she said, trying to break free and failing.
The music was beginning. Primo’s arm was about her waist in an unbreakable hold and Olympia found that she had no choice but to dance with him.
Such forcefulness was new, coming from him, and it increased her anger. Yet that very anger also seemed part of the heady excitement that the drama of the situation was causing to stream through her.
‘Who the hell are you to be high-handed?’ she demanded furiously.
He gave her a wolfish grin.
‘I’m Primo Rinucci, a man I’ve heard you describe as ruthless and power-mad. A man to be hunted down by a determined woman and used for anything she can get out of him.’
‘I never said that.’
‘You said plenty that meant exactly that. So why should you be surprised if I act up to your picture of me?’
‘All right, enjoy yourself while you can. Tomorrow I’m on the first plane home.’
‘I think not. You have a contract with Leonate.’
‘I never signed any contract.’
‘You signed one with Curtis that has a year to run. Leonate own Curtis, which means that I own you for the next year.’
‘The hell you do.’
‘The hell I don’t! What happens to you now is up to me. Leave now and I’ll freeze you out of the entire industry, for good. You’ll be amazed at how far my tentacles stretch. How’s that for ruthless and power-mad?’
‘About what I’d have expected.’
‘Good, then we both know where we stand.’
‘Let me go right now.’
‘Not until you see sense,’ he said harshly. ‘I admit I behaved badly but I didn’t plan it. It was mostly accident-’
‘Oh, please,’ she scoffed.
‘It got out of hand, and when you’ve calmed down I’ll explain-’
‘You will not explain because I don’t want to hear.’
‘Olympia, please-’
‘I said let me go’
Luke was watching Olympia and his brother with mixed feelings. He’d only known her a few hours, but already she affected him strongly. He’d been looking forward to knowing her better, and then better still. Even his mother’s wild hopes hadn’t seemed totally fanciful.
And now this!
For he couldn’t kid himself. Primo’s arrival had changed something drastically. If Olympia’s face hadn’t told him that, Primo’s would have done. He’d seen emotions in his brother’s face that he wouldn’t have believed possible. He fixed brooding eyes on them and watched every detail.
When he saw Olympia wrench herself from Primo’s grasp he went to her quickly.
‘Why don’t we slip away by ourselves?’ he said. ‘Mamma will forgive us.’
Hope’s face confirmed it. When Luke signalled to her that he and Olympia were leaving she beamed and blew him a kiss, evidently convinced that the romance was proceeding perfectly.
‘Olympia!’ It was Primo, dark-faced with anger. ‘You can’t leave like this.’
‘According to whom?’ she demanded in outrage. ‘Are you daring to give me orders? Just because you’ve had me dancing to your tune recently you think that’s going to go on? Think again. It’s over. Your cover’s blown. Go on to the next victim and get out of my way.’
For a moment she thought he would refuse, he seemed so firmly set in her path. But then the tension seemed to go out of him and his eyes were suddenly bleak.
‘Get out, then,’ he said.
Taking Luke’s arm, she hurried past him. She was suddenly afraid of Primo.
In half an hour they were seated in a small fish restaurant near the shore. Luke ordered spaghetti with clams and refused to let her speak until she had taken the first few mouthfuls.
She sighed with pleasure. ‘Thank you. Now I feel so much better.’
‘I had an ulterior motive,’ he admitted. ‘I expect to be rewarded with the whole story. What did the bastardo do?’
It would have been superfluous to ask who the bastardo was.
When she didn’t reply, he said gently, ‘You did know him, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, we met in England.’
‘But he didn’t tell you he was Primo Rinucci?’
‘No, he said he was Jack Cayman.’
Luke gave a soft whistle.
‘The devil he did! Well, it was his father’s name.’
‘Yes, your mother told me. She says he’s Italian on his mother’s side.’
‘We’re never too sure how much of him is English and how much Italian, and I doubt if he knows either. He sometimes uses the name Cayman in business-’
‘This wasn’t business,’ she said in a tense voice.
He didn’t press her any further, but gradually she found it easier to talk. By the time they had finished the spaghetti and had passed on to the oven-baked mullet Luke had a hazy idea of what had happened. Not that she told him many details, but he was good at interpreting the silences.
He was astounded. Primo had done this? His brother, whose name was a byword for good sense, upright behaviour and totally boring probity, had not only lived a double life, but had managed to conduct a clandestine liaison with his own lover. For how else could it be described?
In fact Primo had behaved disgracefully.
Luke was proud of him!
‘All I want to do now is go back to England and never see or hear his name again,’ she said bitterly. ‘But I’ve signed a contract and he says he’ll hold me to it.’
‘But of course you’re not going home,’ Luke said at once. ‘You’re going to stay here and make him sorry.’
She looked at him, suddenly alert.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘That’s a much better way. Of course it is. I just couldn’t bear the thought that he’d been having a big laugh at my expense.’
‘But you had a laugh at his expense tonight. Did you see his face when he realised it was you? He looked as if he’d swallowed a hedgehog.’
‘Yes, he did,’ she mused as the moment came back to her, the details clearer now than they’d been at the time.
‘There are going to be other moments like that, plenty of them, because you’re going to get your revenge and I’m going to help you do it.’