Captive in His Castle(22)

The click of the door being closed made her swing round. Clutching the passport, she said helplessly, ‘I don’t understand. Why is my passport in your drawer?’

‘I removed it from your bag when you first arrived at the palazzo.’ Drago gave a laconic shrug. ‘It seemed the best way to ensure you stayed in Italy until I was ready for you to leave.’

‘But you know I’ve been worrying about how I can get a replacement.’ Jess’s temper ignited. ‘How dare you deceive me?’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘But why am I surprised? I should be used to men lying to me. You’re just the same as Seb—devious and controlling…’ Her voice cracked as the realisation of Drago’s lack of trust in her sank in. How stupid she had been to believe that they had become friends as well as lovers while she had been in Venice. To her horror, she felt a tear slide down her cheek. Angrily she dashed it away. Pride was all she had, and she lifted her chin and glared at him. ‘You have accused me unjustly and treated me unfairly. I know nothing about your cousin’s missing money—’

She broke off as Drago strode across the room towards her, his eyes blazing with an expression she could not define.

‘I know,’ he said roughly. ‘Angelo has regained his memory and he remembers everything. That’s why I was delayed at the hospital.’

It was one shock too many. Jess sank down weakly onto the bed. ‘You mean he remembers what he did with his inheritance fund? Why didn’t you say something earlier instead of avoiding me at the party?’ she demanded, unable to hide the tremor in her voice.

Drago exhaled slowly. He prided himself on his good judgement, and was rarely wrong, but he had been very wrong about Jess and had no idea how he was going to make amends for the way he had jumped to conclusions about her.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said roughly. ‘I did not know what to say to you. I have so many things to apologise for that I don’t know where to begin. ‘Angelo invested his money in a gold mine,’ he continued after a moment. ‘It sounds crazy, I know,’ he said when he saw the startled look on Jess’s face. ‘Apparently while he was at college in London he met some people who told him about an investment opportunity at a mine on the west coast of Australia. The owners had proof that there was a lot of gold underground, and were looking for investors to put up funds to start mining it. Angelo was convinced that the investment was sound, and was assured that once the mine was running he would triple his investment, so he went ahead without first discussing it with me.

‘A few months later he discovered that he had been duped. The whole thing turned out to be a scam run by confidence tricksters. Instead of asking for my help, Angelo was so ashamed that he’d been fooled that he felt he couldn’t come home. He was literally destitute, but thankfully you gave him a job and somewhere to live. He admits he dreaded telling me what he had done,’ Drago said heavily. ‘He says he felt I was too controlling, and he wanted to prove that he could succeed in business to impress me.’ He grimaced. ‘All these years I have taken care of him and tried to be a father figure to him. I had no idea he resented me.’

Jess heard the hurt in his voice and could not help but feel sympathetic. ‘I’m sure he doesn’t resent you,’ she said softly. ‘He just needs to find his own way in life.’

‘He doesn’t want a position in Cassa di Cassari. He wants to be a professional musician,’ Drago muttered. ‘I wish he’d told me about the investment scam. It would have saved a lot of trouble. When Aunt Dorotea revealed that she knew he had withdrawn all his money from the bank he panicked and told her he had lent it to an English friend—Jess Harper. Naturally my aunt was worried, and asked me to find out more about you.’

‘And when you learned that I had been found guilty of fraud you believed I had somehow conned the money from Angelo,’ Jess said dully. She stiffened as Drago sat down next to her on the bed. The musky scent of his aftershave teased her senses and she resented her fierce awareness of him. She felt ashamed that, even knowing he had a low opinion of her, she had fallen into his bed willingly.

Drago glanced at Jess’s white face and his gut clenched with guilt at the way he had treated her. ‘Eventually Angelo decided he had to own up to what he had done. But on his way here to see me he was involved in the car accident. I was instantly suspicious of you because I have had experience of being conned,’ he explained grimly. ‘When I was a similar age to Angelo I was thrust into the role of chairman of Cassa di Cassari, after my father and uncle died. I was young, and determined to prove myself a worthy successor to my father. I was impressed by an investment opportunity in Russia—although if I’m totally honest I was more impressed by the exotic and very beautiful Russian woman who persuaded me to put a huge amount of Cassa di Cassari’s money into her company,’ he admitted with wry self-derision. ‘Natalia must have found it very amusing to seduce me, but when she disappeared with several million pounds of the company’s money the board members were rather less than impressed.

‘I cursed myself for being a gullible fool and worked like a dog to regain the board’s support. I’d learned a valuable lesson and was more careful about who I trusted. I admit that discovering you had a criminal record made me suspicious of you. But when I met you at your flat—’ He broke off and shook his head at the memory of their first meeting. ‘You blew me away,’ he said thickly. ‘I took one look at you and was smitten. I felt violently jealous that you might be my cousin’s lover. It was easy to believe that Angelo had been conned by a beautiful woman, as had once happened to me. But within a very short time I began to wonder if I had misjudged you. You were so kind to Angelo, and spent hours at the hospital trying to jog his memory. Rather than seeming worried about what he might remember, you were adamant that he would exonerate you—which he did, completely, when I visited him tonight.’

Looking into Jess’s eyes, Drago said strongly, ‘I believe the Loxley guy set you up, and that you are innocent of the crime you were convicted of. Soon after I brought you to the palazzo I started to have doubts that you knew anything about Angelo’s missing money.’ Catching her doubtful expression, he grimaced. ‘I understand why you might not believe me.’

‘You hid my passport,’ she said sharply. ‘Why would you have done that if you trusted me?’

He looked away from her and said, in a strangely muted voice, ‘There was a reason why I wanted you to stay that had nothing to do with my cousin.’

Jess frowned; puzzled by his sudden tension evident in the rigid line of his jaw. ‘What reason?’

Drago had asked himself the same question numerous times and still did not have a clear answer. He did not understand what his feelings were for Jess. All he knew was that he had never felt this way about any of his previous mistresses. He had tried to convince himself that his fascination with her was simply because they had great sex, but deep down he knew it was something more than that. He was not ready to examine his emotions, but now his hand had been forced—and if he did not want Jess to catch the next flight to London he knew he would have to lower his barriers.

He looked into her green eyes and saw her confusion. ‘I didn’t want to lose you,’ he admitted quietly. ‘I still don’t.’

The huskiness in Drago’s voice made Jess’s heart flip. Was he saying that their relationship meant something to him? That she meant something to him?

She swallowed. ‘I don’t understand. Angelo’s memory has returned, and you know I had nothing to do with his missing money.’ She cast a rueful look at the passport in her hand. ‘Why shouldn’t I go home?’

‘You know why, cara. You feel it too.’

It was the one thing Drago was sure of. This inexplicable thing that was happening to him, that made him think about her at inconvenient times and made him want to be with her all the time—he was certain that Jess felt the same way. He had seen evidence of it in the way her face lit up whenever she saw him, and in her sleepy, sexy smile when she woke in his arms every morning. She was so beautiful. Simply looking at her made his insides ache. He knew that if he touched her he wouldn’t be able to stop, and his hand was unsteady as he threaded his fingers into her glorious autumn-gold hair and tilted her face to his.

‘I have never desired any woman the way I desire you, mia bella.’ He gently traced his thumb-pad over the curve of her lower lip. ‘I would like our relationship to continue.’

Jess’s heart was beating so fast that she was sure he must feel it when he placed his hand just below her breast. She was stunned by Drago’s revelation that he did not want their affair to end yet. He had not promised commitment of any kind, she reminded herself, but the voice of caution inside her head was drowned out by the thunderous beat of her heart. Drago wanted her, and she did not care for how long.

Reality poked its nose into her fairy tale. How could she continue this affair with him when she needed to return to London to run her decorating business? She was sure that Drago would soon tire of a long-distance relationship. What if he suggested that she move to Venice? She would be a fool to give up her business for the sake of an affair with him that doubtless would end after a few months—yet the thought of leaving him and never seeing him again ripped her apart.