Rinaldo’s Inherited Bride

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘NEVER mind Gino,’ she said desperately. ‘I don’t own him, and he’d be the first to say so.’

‘Is that why I see the two of you fooling around together all the time?’ He spoke ironically, and there was a touch of the old edge in his voice as he added, ‘I wonder what you’ll tell your fiancé.’

‘I shan’t mention it at all. There’s no need.’

‘What a very cool race the English must be. If you were my woman I’d want to know that you’d been flirting with another man.’

If I were your woman I wouldn’t be flirting with another man.

The thought flashed across her mind before she could stop it. Then it was gone, whispering away into the shadows.

‘I wonder if you really would want to know,’ she said.

‘Yes, because then I could do something about it.’

She understood his meaning perfectly. She should stop him here. But she didn’t want to.

‘I doubt if you could,’ she dared him.

The next moment his arm was across her chest, preventing her going any further, urging her gently but firmly back against the wall.

‘Listen to me,’ he said softly, his hot breath flickering against her skin. ‘I will not be played games with, do you understand? Don’t try to tease me. I’m not some callow boy to come begging.’

‘How dare you accuse me of teasing you?’ she demanded in a shaking voice.

‘You’re up to something. I’m not a fool, Circe.’

‘And neither am I. You set Gino on to me, remember? How stupid do you think I am? Now, will you let me go?’ She tried to push his arm away but it was like steel across her chest, not pressing her, but implacable.

‘Not yet. We have things to talk about,’ he said, speaking in the same low voice that sent warmth scurrying across her skin.

‘I can’t think what.’ She tried to keep calm but the powerful body holding her still was communicating its heat to her, and that was mingling with the rising excitement inside herself.

‘You did very well tonight,’ he murmured.

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Yes, you do. You were subtle, very subtle. Nothing obvious. Just be nice to the brute and watch him melt. And you came close, until you over reached yourself.’

There was a sudden fierce note in his voice.

‘Every man has to want you, doesn’t he? Gino satisfies your vanity, the man in London satisfies your ambition. And me? What would I satisfy?’

His words were like hot lava pouring over her, illuminating the world, so that for a searing moment she knew the answer to his question. He would satisfy a deep, aching need that had been there, unacknowledged, in her loins, from the very start.

How long could she have gone on refusing to see it if he hadn’t forced it on her?

But hell would freeze over before she would let him suspect.

‘You flatter yourself,’ she snapped. ‘If you weren’t so conceited you’d remember I didn’t say a word to you that I couldn’t have said in front of Gino.’

‘I’ve already admitted that you were clever. Far too clever to be blatant. Circe weaves her spells and has a different face for all of us. Subtlety wouldn’t work with Gino, but it damned near worked with me.’

She didn’t answer. Words would no longer come. A warm languor pervaded her, making her limbs heavy and her senses vague. Yet she was burningly aware of the faint touch of his lips against the skin of her neck.

Pride made her turn her head away but there was no escaping him. Putting her hands on his shoulders she tried to push him off, with no success.

He didn’t try to kiss her mouth, merely rested his lips against her throat, then just beneath her ears, causing a storm inside her that was almost alarming in its violence.

He was warning her not to take him on, because if she did, this was what he could do to her. He could make her flesh defy her mind, defy her very self. He could make her want him when she was determined not to. He was daring her to risk it.

Either the heat of the night or her own feverish urgency was making her react in a way she didn’t recognise. It took all her strength not to yearn towards him, seeking new and more deeply intimate caresses.

She could not allow this to happen, but it was happening anyway. There was danger everywhere, but suddenly danger was her natural element. The hands she’d raised to push him away changed course and curved, almost touching him but not quite.

But then-yes-her fingers just brushed his neck of their own accord. There was no stopping them. And his lips were on her face, not kissing her mouth, kissing everywhere else, driving her wild with soft, teasing caresses that left her unsatisfied because she they made her want so much more.

They were no longer alone in the street. A laughing, singing crowd swirled by, but nobody took any notice of them. One more pair of lovers among so many!

He drew back a few inches and stopped, breathing hard, his mouth close to hers. He could see her reaction, she thought desperately. There was no hiding the rise and fall of her breasts under the thin red silk, or the pulse beating in her throat. He must be able to feel her breath against his face, as heated as his own.

‘Get-away-from-me,’ she gasped in a voice that shook.

He did so, stepping back sharply. She saw his face, one instant before the shutters came down, and saw it ravaged, burningly intense.

And afraid. It was too late for him to lock her out and he knew it.

He turned and strode away toward the main street, leaving her leaning against the wall, trying to calm down. After a moment Alex followed him slowly.

When she had nearly reached the Piazza, Gino came flying to meet her, flowers in his hair, not entirely sober. He embraced her eagerly.

‘There you are, carissima. Why aren’t you with Rinaldo? Don’t tell me you two are fighting again?’

Alex never forgot the journey home, with Rinaldo driving the car and herself and Gino in the back. Gino was too sleepy to talk, which was a relief, but left her staring out into the darkness, accompanied by thoughts that she didn’t want to think.

As soon as they reached the house she bid the brothers a brief goodnight and went upstairs. She needed to be alone to control her feelings, and to understand exactly what those feelings were.

There was anger, partly at him and partly at herself for being caught off guard.

It had been there all the time. Desire. Basic, brutal, almost uncontrollable desire, not connected to any sympathy of mind. Uncivilised. Alien to her well-ordered world. The kind of feeling that she had never really believed existed, waiting to spring out and make a fool of her.

And what a fool! She could have screamed as she realised how evident her excitement must have been. He had made her want him, and he’d known it.

She closed her eyes, fiercely willing herself to hold onto the anger, so that it might defend her from the other feeling, the shattering awareness that tonight she had been alive in every part of herself, truly alive for the first time.

She didn’t want to feel like that about Rinaldo, and she would resist it with everything in her power. She pulled herself together. It would be over soon. This was an aberration, that would be forgotten when she returned to England and reality.

A freezing shower made her feel a little better. Then, as she wrapped a towel around her, she grew suddenly alert, wondering what had happened to her wits. The date of the carnival had always seemed familiar, and now she knew why. This was the day of the partners’ meeting, at which David would arrange for her to be offered a partnership.

It must have happened this afternoon. He’d probably been trying to get through to her ever since.

She could have laughed aloud at the way Italy had hypnotised her into forgetting something so important. She had even left her mobile phone behind to go to the festival. All she had to do was check her messages.

She did so, and stared at the result.

There were no messages from David.

But there were four from her secretary at her home number.

She thought of Jenny, a motherly woman and a tireless worker, of whom she was very fond. Why was she making such attempts to contact her when David was silent?

Perhaps the other partners had been awkward about accepting her, and even now David was arguing with them, defending her.

She dialled Jenny’s number quickly, and was answered at once.

‘Thank goodness you called,’ Jenny said in a relieved voice. ‘You’re not going to believe what I have to tell you. Are you sitting down?’

‘Sure. I’m sitting on the bed. Now, tell me.’

‘This afternoon David announced his engagement to Erica.’

In the first moment of shock Alex said the only words that came into her head.

‘Who the blue blazes is Erica?’

‘His secretary. It’s funny how nobody knows her name, but that’s what she’s like. Little brown mouse. Fades into the wallpaper.’

Now Alex remembered a pale, wispy girl she had sometimes seen in David’s office. And this little nonentity had ousted the glamorous, high-powered Alex Dacre?

‘There’s something else,’ Jenny said. ‘David has vetoed your partnership.’

Alex uttered a very rude word.

‘There was a meeting this afternoon. Everyone thought making you a partner was just a formality, but he wouldn’t consider it.’

‘What?’

‘He said they couldn’t rely on someone who stayed away so long-’

‘But he told me to stay as long as I needed!’

‘I know. We all know. Nobody believes it for a moment. It’s just an excuse. He says you can stay on as an employee-’

‘He knows I won’t do that,’ Alex snapped.

‘Right. He doesn’t want you around after the way he’s treated you. He can’t fire you, but he can make your life uncomfortable until you leave.’

‘What would he have done if I hadn’t obligingly come to Italy?’ Alex asked grimly.

‘He’d have thought of something. His kind always do. But you made it easy for him. All your accounts have been assigned to other people now. Officially it’s “during your absence”, but-’

‘But I’ll never get them back. Damn him! Half those accounts only came to the firm because I went out and fought for them.’

‘I know, and he hates that. You’ve become too strong. You’ve become competition, and David’s a very vain man.’

‘Thanks for putting me in the picture Jenny,’ Alex said, breathing hard.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to plan my revenge in the dark.’

‘What?’ Jenny gave a gasp of shock.

‘I’m part Italian, don’t forget. We plot in the night and we keep our stilettos shining. Perhaps you should tell him that. It might give him a sleepless moment or two.’

‘Oh, Alex, I know you must be terribly hurt, but is he really worth it?’

‘No. I’ll call again later.’

When she’d hung up Alex was still for a long time.

In truth, she wasn’t hurt at all. She’d agreed David wasn’t worth it and it was true. She’d blinded herself to his true nature, but at heart she’d always known the kind of man he was, cool, self-centred, ruthless where his own interests were concerned.

It hadn’t mattered because she had believed herself to be the same.

But she knew better now.

She could have laughed aloud at the thought of mourning the loss of David.

Here was the true reason why he’d been so understanding about her prolonged absence. It had exactly suited him. He must have been planning to oust her from the firm even before she left.

She would waste no time in grieving, but swallowing the insult was another matter.

She noticed a small clay figurine by the side of the bed. The next moment the room shuddered under the impact as it hit the far wall and smashed.

She regarded the damage, feeling a great deal better.

‘Alex! Are you all right?’

Gino was knocking on her door, calling her.

‘I’m fine,’ she called out, hurriedly putting on a light dressing gown.

She opened the door. Rinaldo was there too, in the background, but it was Gino who stormed in, grasping her hands, and saying, ‘What was the noise? Did something fall? Are you hurt?’

She freed herself and picked up some of the pieces.

‘It was only this,’ she said.

Rinaldo came in and examined the dent in the wall.

‘Impressive,’ he said. ‘You must have thrown it with some force. Remind me to duck.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not aiming anything at you.’

‘No, you wouldn’t have missed me, would you?’

‘Stop trying to provoke me,’ Alex said, feeling strangely calm now that she’d gotten it out of her system. ‘I’m sorry for the damage to your wall.’

‘Was there any special reason for the violence?’ Rinaldo asked, ‘or did you just feel that way?’

She looked at him, her eyes kindling.

‘I just felt that way.’

Nothing on earth would have persuaded her to tell him the truth at that moment.

Gino was alone in the kitchen, tucking into a hearty breakfast when she went down next morning. Alex regarded him sardonically, amused to see that he could hardly meet her eye.

‘“I shall dance only with you, amor mia’,” she tossed his words lightly back at him. “‘And you must dance only with me.”’

‘I know, I know,’ he said shamefacedly. ‘It was festival. I got carried away-’

‘Yes, I saw you being carried away-by three of them. Naturally you couldn’t resist.’

He eyed her suspiciously.

‘Are you being very nice, or should I prepare for boiling oil to drop on my head?’

‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ she teased.

He seized her hand and kissed it. ‘I adore you.’

‘No you don’t. You adore your three companions of last night. At least, there were three that I saw, but I wouldn’t be surprised if-’

‘Yes, well never mind that,’ he said hastily. ‘Truly, carissima, it meant nothing. That’s how festival is, all those demons and goats-’

‘And the wine,’ she said, smiling at him fondly.

‘Well, the wine plays its part, but it’s mostly the atmosphere-the feeling that anything could happen, and you’re going to let it happen, and who knows how the evening will end?’

Alex was silent. Gino’s words struck home in way he could never imagine. Last night’s feeling of heated sexuality had pervaded her too, giving everything a sharper edge, making her feel things it might have been better not to feel, and even rejoice in them.

But now it was the clear light of day.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, seeing her face and misreading it. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘Why not? I do understand. It was festival. You never stick with the person you came with. Otherwise it’s no fun.’

‘Bless you for a sweet, forgiving darling.’

He planted a swift kiss on her mouth, and Alex let him. It wasn’t unpleasant. It wasn’t anything.

‘You know I adore you more than life, don’t you?’ he asked. ‘You’re the one I dream of-’

‘Except during a festival,’ she couldn’t resist saying.

‘Can we put that behind us?’ he asked, harassed.

‘I’m sorry, Gino dear, but I can’t help laughing. You’re such a ham.’

‘I bare my heart to you and you laugh,’ he said plaintively. ‘Ah, well!’ He struck his breast theatrically. ‘Ridi, pagliacco, ridi! Laugh, clown, laugh, though your heart is breaking.’

‘Clown is right,’ Alex said severely.

Then, with a quick change of mood that was one of his characteristics, Gino said, ‘Don’t go back to England, Alex.’

‘Gino-’

‘You’ve changed since coming here. I’ll bet you don’t even recognise yourself any more.’

It was true. Gino’s perceptions could be disconcerting, but she wasn’t ready to trust him with the truth any more than Rinaldo.

‘You can’t return to that other life,’ Gino urged. ‘You don’t belong there any more.’

To throw him off the scent she quickly resumed her bantering tone.

‘You stop that. I told you, I see through your little schemes.’

‘Please, cara-’ he begged in comical dismay.

‘You’re as bad as Rinaldo. The two of you set it all up before I arrived. I wouldn’t put it past you to have tossed a coin for me.’

It was a passing remark but Gino’s alarmed gulp told her everything.

‘You did!’ she accused.

‘Yes-no-it wasn’t like that.’

‘I’ll bet it was exactly like that. You cheeky pair!’

‘You’re not annoyed?’

‘I ought to be, but oh, what the heck! I suppose I should just be glad you won.’

Emboldened by her matter-of-fact attitude Gino grinned and said, ‘Actually I didn’t.’

‘What?’

‘Rinaldo won, but he didn’t take it seriously. He claimed he thought I’d been using my two-headed coin or he wouldn’t have played. Anyway, he said he wasn’t interested and I could have you.’

‘Oh, really!’ she asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

‘But aren’t you glad you got me instead? Come on, admit it. You like me better than Rinaldo.’

‘I like anybody better than Rinaldo.’

‘I behaved badly, leaving you with him last night, didn’t I? I’m sorry if he offended you.’

‘I may have offended him,’ she said vaguely.

‘I wonder if that’s why he’s gone.’

‘What?’

‘Yes, he left early this morning. Something about checking out some second-hand farm machinery, but I didn’t know we needed any. He just upped and went.’

She should have been glad of the breathing space. Instead she felt as though she’d been dealt a blow.

They had unfinished business. Rinaldo knew that as well as she did. And he’d simply gone off and left her stranded in limbo. For a moment she looked around for something else to throw.

Then she forced herself to calm down and conceal the storm inside. That must remain her secret until she understood herself better.

She took a horse and rode for miles, noticing how the corn had grown since she first saw it, how the olives and grapes were flourishing in the sun.

How she loved the sun! It was as though she had only discovered it in Italy. There was sun in London, but it beat down in fierce strips of ugly road, baking pavements, suffocating. Here sunshine was fresh air and freedom, and a new awakening.

Her options were simple. She could return to England and fight, or she could stay here and fight. It was fighting either way, no question.

The prizes were uneven. A cold, soulless place in the firm, or another firm. There were plenty who would be glad to have her.

Or she could abandon London and everything she had worked for. All those years of striving for the best, the best clients, the best apartment, the best clothes, the best invitations-all gone to nothing.

In exchange she would have a life here, in a country that had seized her heart, in daily contact with a man who was rude, hostile, unrelenting, a man who’d rejected her out of hand without even seeing her, but who also troubled her heart and her restless body.

‘Nonsense!’ she said aloud. ‘I’m damned if I’m going to fall in love with him! Who the hell does he think he is?’

After a while she made up her mind. It felt less like taking a decision than facing the inevitable. Mounting her horse she galloped back to the farm and began to pack. The following morning, in the teeth of Gino’s protests, she drove herself to the airport.

There she handed the car in at the local branch of the rental company. An hour later she was in the air, on her way to England.

Rinaldo was away for a week. Twice he called and left messages on the answerphone. Eventually the phone was answered by Teresa, who brought him up to date with events, including the fact that Alex had left and would not be returning.

The following evening Rinaldo arrived home.

He found Gino sitting at the desk in his office, frowning as he poured over account books.

‘You’ll never manage it,’ he said, grinning. ‘Give up.’

‘Rinaldo!’ Gino leapt to his feet and hugged his brother eagerly.

Rinaldo hugged him back, and for a moment the two brothers thumped each other on the back.

‘What’s been happening?’ Rinaldo asked.

‘Alex has gone,’ Gino said gloomily.

‘So I gather from Teresa.’

‘Is that all you’ve got to say?’ Gino demanded, outraged.

‘What do you want me to say? She was always bound to go back where she belongs.’

‘I felt she belonged here,’ Gino sighed.

‘That’s what she wanted you to think, to keep you off guard. Circe played her games, and we were nearly fooled. Forget her.’

‘You as good as told me to make love to her.’

‘Yes, and I should have known better. You’re no match for her. It’s lucky you didn’t fall for her seriously.’

‘Who says I didn’t?’

‘You forget how well I know you. Your most death-defying passion lasted a whole two days, I seem to recall.’

Gino shrugged despondently. ‘Yeah-well, she’s gone now.’

‘So forget her.’

‘Do you think she really loves him?’

‘I said forget her.’

‘Hey!’ Gino said, staring into Rinaldo’s tense face. ‘No need to get mad at me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rinaldo growled, rubbing his eyes. ‘I’ve had a long drive, and I’m not in the best of moods.’

‘You do look pretty done in,’ Gino said with his quick sympathy.

In fact, he thought, his brother looked as though he hadn’t slept for a week. Or if he had slept, he’d had nightmares.

Poor old fellow, Gino thought. The threat to the farm must be troubling him more than he let on.

‘Come and have something to eat,’ he said kindly. ‘And you can tell me about the machinery.’

‘Machinery?’

‘The stuff you went to buy.’

‘Oh, that. No, I didn’t find anything. Something to eat sounds a good idea.’

The maids had already gone to bed. Teresa served them in the kitchen, then retired.

Gino noticed that Rinaldo ate as though he barely knew what the food was.

‘So what have you been doing these last few days?’ he asked.

‘Oh-driving around.’

‘For a week?’

‘Am I accountable to you?’

‘If I vanished for a week I’d have some explaining to do.’

‘So you would. Now drop it and tell me the news. When did Alex leave?’

‘The day after you did. I keep waiting to hear from the lawyers, but nothing’s happened.’

‘We’ll hear when it suits her,’ Rinaldo observed. ‘She’s playing games.’

That was the mantra he’d repeated obsessively during the last few days. She was playing games, which meant he’d done the right thing to get the hell out.

From that first startling moment at his father’s funeral he’d known that he couldn’t afford to weaken where this woman was concerned. Hard on the heels of that thought had come fierce regret that he’d ‘given’ her to Gino. He’d said it casually, arrogantly, thinking life was that simple. In truth he’d expected a female dragon who would scare his volatile brother off.

Then he’d met her and known that this was a job for a man, not a boy.

Their antagonism was a relief, giving him a breathing space. But she’d been clever, offering sympathy like water in a desert to a man who’d spent too long being strong for others. The feeling was so good that he’d almost weakened, but he’d escaped in time.

So he’d won, as he made sure he always did. But now he found himself in a wilderness, his victory nothing but ashes.

‘I don’t think she was just playing games,’ Gino said quietly.

‘Then why is she back in England now, planning her wedding?’

Gino had no answer. Looking at the weariness in Rinaldo’s face made him realise how depressed were his own spirits. The house had been quiet since Alex left, life had lost its savour.

After that there seemed nothing to say. Rinaldo fetched a bottle of old malt whisky, and they sat in companionable silence, sipping slowly, until Gino roused himself to say in a diffident voice.

‘There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now.’

‘Go on.’

‘The day Poppa died-you were at the hospital first. By the time I arrived, it was too late. And I always wondered-what happened?’

‘Nothing, he was unconscious.’

‘I know but-he didn’t come round?-even for a moment?’

‘If he had I’d have told you.’

‘It’s just so hard to think of him just lying there, still alive but not talking.’ Gino sighed ruefully. ‘You know what a talker he was.’

Rinaldo closed his eyes, and through his memory there passed the picture of his father, terribly still, swathed in bandages.

Like Gino he had felt it impossible that a man so full of life could lie still and silent. At any moment he would open his eyes, recognise his son and speak. There would be-there must be, some exchange between them before the end.

The picture swirled, blurred. He struggled to see clearly again but it was gone. As often before, he was tortured by the feeling of something there, just beyond the edge of memory.

Several times in the past he had come to the edge of this moment, but whatever it was always eluded him, driven away by the jangle in his head.

It had happened that day in the barn with Alex. Their brief moment of sympathy had caused a door of memory to start opening. But not far enough. And it would never happen again now. She had gone, and that was all for the best.

He would try to believe it.

‘I wish I had something to tell you,’ he said heavily. ‘I, too, find it hard that he just left us without a word of goodbye or explanation. But there’s nothing we can do but accept it. Now let’s get some sleep.’

They went upstairs to bed, and the house lay in silence for an hour. Then Gino awoke, uncertain why, but with a feeling that something was up.

Pulling on a robe he slipped into the corridor, where he found Rinaldo, dressed in shorts.

‘We have a burglar downstairs,’ Rinaldo said softly.

On bare feet they moved noiselessly along the corridor and down the stairs. Through the door they could make out part of the room illuminated by a bar of moonlight. The rest was in darkness, but they could hear the intruder moving about, then a crash, like a chair overturning.

‘Right,’ Rinaldo muttered.

He moved fast, not switching on the light but judging the position by sound alone, then launching himself forward, colliding with a body that reeled back, landing on the floor beneath him.

For a moment they fought in silence, gasping with effort and writhing madly together. Gino, coming into the room, heard a yell from Rinaldo as something caught him on the side of the head. Hurriedly Gino put the light on.

Then he froze at the sight that met his eyes.

Rinaldo drew in a sharp breath. ‘You!’ he said explosively.

From her position on the floor Alex glared up at him.

‘Get-off-me!’ she said emphatically.

Breathing hard, Rinaldo pulled back from her, and stood up. Alex rose stiffly, supporting herself on Gino’s outstretched hand.

‘What the devil are you doing here?’ Rinaldo demanded.

‘I live here. I went away, now I’ve come back.’

‘I knew you wouldn’t just leave us and forget,’ Gino breathed joyfully.

‘When I left I didn’t know what was going to happen,’ Alex said. ‘I had to see how the land lay. Now I know, and I’m here to stay.’

‘What does the English fiancé have to say about that?’ Rinaldo demanded, rubbing his face self-consciously. ‘Can we look forward to his descent on us? Shall I tell Teresa to prepare a room for him? Perhaps you mean to be married from this house?’

‘Oh, put a sock in it,’ Alex said firmly.

‘Excuse me? Sock?’

‘It’s an English expression,’ she explained. ‘It means don’t say any more. David’s out of the picture.’

‘You dumped him?’ Gino cried joyfully.

‘No, he dumped me. I found out on the night of the festival that he’d vetoed my partnership and got engaged to his mousy secretary. I went back to England to have the satisfaction of telling him a few home truths, face to face.’

‘I’ll wager you did it in great style,’ Rinaldo observed.

‘Oh, I did. In front of everyone. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that. My lawyer will go after the firm for a settlement. I’ve put my apartment on the market, and after that there was nothing left to do but come back here.’

‘You couldn’t have notified us that you were arriving, in a sensible, civilised manner?’ Rinaldo observed.

‘Where’s the fun in that? Actually, I didn’t mean to be so late, but I had to pick up the car I’ve bought on the way and that delayed me.

‘I didn’t mean to awaken you, so I arrived as quietly as I could. I didn’t slam the door when I got out, and I climbed in by that window over there, the one that doesn’t close properly.

‘So here I am. This is my home too now. Get used to me, gentlemen, because I’ve come to stay.’