They were pledging their lives together. Whatever the circumstances that had brought them together, their vows would be real and he wanted them to feel real to her too.
This beautiful room, with its seventeenth-century tapestry, gold-framed mirrors and brocade-covered chairs, had a far greater elegance and richness than an ordinary civil wedding venue. It gave their wedding the gravitas it needed.
He felt Beth stiffen at his side as she took in the number of people who’d already filed into the room. Every single one was a Palvetti. Beth didn’t have one person from her side to wish her well.
Her parents were dead but what about the rest of her family? He’d asked during dinner on her first night here if she wanted to invite anyone but she’d shaken her head and then excused herself to check on Dom.
Only now, seeing the lop-sidedness of the guest list, did he wish he’d asked her again.
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. ‘Don’t worry,’ he whispered in an undertone. ‘They don’t bite.’
He felt the slightest squeeze back.
Through the crowd of Palvettis craning their necks to get a good look at the bride, to his delight he spotted his father and uncle in the front row. It had been touch and go if they would make it back from the Caribbean in time for the ceremony.
His father caught his eye and winked at him,
But there was no time for introductions. Not yet.
Beth found herself struggling to breathe.
She hadn’t imagined so many people would be there. And they were all Palvettis. She hadn’t realised just how large his family was.
She had no one.
She felt as alone as she had in that first awful year after her parents had died, before Caroline had come into her life and brought some sunshine into it.
As the years had passed, the pain of their loss had lessened by degrees, but today she felt their absence like a physical ache and wished with all her heart that her mum and dad could have been there.
What would they have felt to see their daughter marry a Palvetti? She wished she knew but all she had were the memories formed as a child which, though she had tried desperately to remember them, had faded through the years.
The burn of Palvetti stares scorched her skin and she held tightly to Alessio’s huge hand as they approached the desk with the waiting officiant.
Forcing an image of Dom into her mind, she finally managed to get air into her lungs.
Dom was the reason she was taking this step. If she ran out now, she would be cut from his life.
Under a gleaming chandelier they exchanged their vows, Alessio’s voice strong, hers not much above a whisper, and signed the document that legally bound her to his side for the rest of her life.
Silence filled the great room.
The officiant had not said the immortal words but she could taste the anticipation of the many witnesses and knew they were waiting for the kiss that would seal the deal.
And then she met Alessio’s gaze and her heart skipped.
Dressed in a black dinner jacket and bow-tie, he was more devilishly handsome than ever.
That gleam she was coming to know so well shone from the emeralds and contained more brilliance than any polished chandelier.
Her veins heated.
Hands cupped her flaming cheeks.
The handsome face that had hovered in her mind for so long inched closer to hers. The sensuous mouth her lips had tingled with such fervour to kiss...
Her trembling lips tingled now.
She struggled to breathe again but this felt different from the closed lungs of fear that had accompanied her down the aisle, more of a tight quickening.
His dark, sweeping lashes flashed before her and then the mouth she had dreamed about covered hers and his scent filled her.
Heat rushed through her every crevice and suddenly she was taken back to her dream of them together, in her bed...
He’d been making love to her.
The sticky heat flowing through her now was the heat she’d woken up with then.
The chaste kiss could only have lasted a few seconds but in that heady moment time came to a standstill.
And then he broke away and moved his hands from her face to lace them in her fingers.
She stared at him, dazed, not so much at the kiss but at the maelstrom of feelings that had erupted from it.
It felt as if there were something beating within her heart thrashing to escape.
* * *
Beth stepped into what was already her old bedroom. All her stuff had been taken out. It was as if she had never been there.
The nursery, however, was exactly as she had left it that morning.
She crept to the cot. The tooth that had caused Dom such pain had come through that morning and now he slept peacefully.
Miranda was in her adjoining room, the television playing low.
Beth brushed Dom’s forehead lightly with her fingers and blew him a goodnight kiss.
Treading slowly up the corridor, her stomach twisting with nerves, she reached Alessio’s room.
She sent a silent prayer for courage then knocked.
‘Come in.’
Another quick prayer and then she opened it.
Even with all the turmoil knotting so tightly within her, she experienced a moment of pure princess’s delight to see the interior of his room.
A vast marble floor reflected the colours of the deep maroon of the walls and heavy curtains, with flecks of gold mirroring off the gold pillars encircling the room and gold architrave, and the large crystal and gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A gold and dark brown leather bed even larger than the one she’d been sleeping in stood at the far end of the room atop a sumptuous, obviously expensive thick rug.
But it was to the man standing at the dresser below one of the windows, casually removing his cufflinks, that her gaze was drawn.
The soft lighting in the room seemed to magnify him.
He stared at her. ‘There is no need to knock, bella. This is your bedroom now. Make yourself at home. Drink?’
He put his cufflinks on the dresser and reached for a bottle of Scotch at the back of it.
‘You drink in your bedroom?’
White teeth flashed briefly. ‘Not as a rule but I thought you would be in need of it. I know today has not been easy for you.’
She leant against the wall, touched at this small display of empathy.
He’d surprised her with little touches of it throughout the day.
The Palvettis had come to the villa after the ceremony for a champagne reception and, as she’d been introduced to them, she’d understood why Domenico had loathed them so much. Some actually seemed quite nice but a hard-core group’s verbal welcomes had been matched with cold eyes, their welcoming kisses to her cheeks perfunctory. If Alessio hadn’t stuck to her side like glue she would probably have hidden in the nursery.
They were so assured and sophisticated. Beside their glossy polish she’d felt drab and inadequate. She could only hope the apathy she sensed from them was her imagination working overtime.
Alessio’s father and much of the older generation of Palvettis had been wonderful, though. She’d been amazed at his father’s friendliness and the way he’d fussed over Dom. Bruno and his brother, who she’d learned was the infamous divorcé Giuseppe, had been the last to leave. They’d consumed more champagne than everyone else put together and had staggered out of the villa in high spirits.
‘Your father’s really nice.’
‘You are surprised?’ He poured them both a large measure.
‘I suppose I am,’ she admitted.
He carried the glasses over and held one out to her. ‘Because of what my brother told you about us?’
She took the glass from him. Tingles ran through her finge
rs when he brushed his against hers. ‘I’m beginning to accept that some of the things he told me were...’ She didn’t want to say ‘downright lies’.
‘Variations and degrees of truth?’ he supplied.
She nodded with a grimace. Beth had taken everything Domenico had said at face value, but now she needed to judge the Palvettis for herself, and that meant doing as Alessio had asked last night and giving him—and by extension his family—the benefit of the doubt.
‘In my experience, it is a person’s actions that count, not their words.’ He took a large drink of his Scotch, his emerald gaze staying on hers. ‘But I don’t want to talk about my brother. This is our wedding night.’
Her heart thudded as he took the one step needed to gently cup her cheek.
‘You take my breath away, bella.’ Then he brought his face to hers and captured her mouth in a kiss that was even more fleeting than the one he’d given her to seal their marriage.
But it stole her breath even more than that first one had.
‘I’m going to take a shower,’ he murmured into her ear. ‘You have your own bathroom—it’s through the door behind you. The door inside it opens to your dressing room.’
He traced his finger down her cheek then stepped back, downed his Scotch and strolled to the door on the other side of the vast bedroom, placing his empty glass on the bureau as he went.
Beth caught a glimpse of a palatial bathroom before the door closed behind him.
She blew out the lungful of air she’d hardly been aware she was holding then tipped the rest of her drink into her mouth. It was such a large swallow the fiery liquid almost choked her.
Her eyes were still watering when she walked into her own bathroom.
She blinked rapidly as she took in the sumptuousness of it.
From the glimpse she’d seen of Alessio’s private bathroom, hers matched it in all ways.
Beth had hosted events in five-star hotels before. This bathroom made those ones feel like two stars.
Her dressing room was similarly sized. All the clothes and accessories she’d bought on her shopping trip had been neatly put away and filled barely a tenth of the available space.
Her hands shook as she selected a nightshirt to wear and shook even harder to know it wouldn’t stay on her for any length of time.
She needed to tell him.
She dragged her shower out as long as she could but it seemed no time had passed before she stood in front of the mirror, nightshirt and fresh knickers on, teeth and hair brushed.
She stared at her reflection and prayed for courage.
So many emotions were skittling through her, she could hardly differentiate between them. Fear, excitement, nausea, all there churning inside her.
Her head pounded. Her heart did too. She had to tell him.
It took another minute before she could get her feet to walk to the door. She held her breath as she unlocked it and pushed it open an inch. The gap wasn’t wide enough for her to see the bed. She pushed it a little more and put her eye to the crack.
Alessio was sat upright in the bed.
Her toes ground to the floor and she rocked on her heels while trying to lower the rate of her accelerating heartbeat.
The last time she’d been this scared was when she thought he’d stolen Dom from her.
But this was a different kind of fear. Huge butterflies of anticipation were laced with it too.
She counted to ten, took a deep breath, then pushed the door open.
CHAPTER EIGHT
BETH’S INTENTION TO blurt out her virgin state dissolved when she took the first step into the bedroom and looked at Alessio.
While she’d been in the bathroom he’d turned off all the lights except for the one above the bed. It cast him in a golden halo, magnifying him so he was the only defined thing in the room.
Legs trembling, she forced her feet towards him. Heat flushed her cheeks, the blush sliding its way down her body and into her veins as he became clearer in her vision.
His deep olive skin was smooth and unblemished, the muscles of his chest and biceps more defined than she’d imagined. Fine dark hair nestled lightly between his pecs, a thin line of thicker hair running to his navel, where it thickened again...
The satin sheets covered what lay beneath that...
Her heart set into a canter. The heavy beats echoed through skin that suddenly felt tight and sticky.
If there was a word to describe rampant male sexuality that word was Alessio.
She did not think she had ever felt so scared. Or so...
Charged. It was as if she had an electric current running through the cells of her body and the charge from it terrified her as much as the expectations of the man waiting on the bed did.
When she reached the bed, she turned back the covers on her side, climbed in and lay on her back beside him.
He lowered himself down, propped his head on his hand and gazed at her.
The look in his eyes...
It was the look of hunger. And she was the food he intended to feast on.
She tried to breathe. She tried to speak. She could do neither. All she could do was stare into the swirling emerald, trapped in his gaze and trapped in a body paralysed with fear and anticipation.
His face came closer to hers. His warm breath whispered over her cheek.
He put a finger to her shoulder and gently brushed it over her collarbone to the top button of her nightshirt. He undid it.
His finger skimmed her skin before moving onto the next two buttons and suddenly she was filled with a new sensation, one that fought the fear, a furnace growing in her veins that melted into her bones.
Not a word was exchanged as he continued on his quest. Her heart beat so fast it was nothing but a heavy blur compressing in her.
And then he separated the nightshirt, first one side then the other, exposing her to him.
The dizzying sensations were abruptly driven away.
Alessio sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes to gather himself. But only for a moment. Beth was too exquisite to shut away from his vision.
He’d anticipated this moment from that first meeting between them all those weeks ago.
She’d strolled into that boardroom in London with that beautiful smile and he’d felt something move inside him. That something had been with him ever since, an itch he’d been unable to scratch...until tonight.
He pressed his nose to her hair and breathed in the scent that evoked thoughts of marshmallows, then moved his hand lower to stroke her belly. He’d never imagined skin could be so soft to the touch.
She was exquisite.
Her breasts were fuller than he’d imagined and a lighter tone than the rest of her. They rose and fell with the raggedness of her breaths.
Inching his face closer to hers, he circled a taut cherry-red nipple with his finger.
She inhaled sharply.
He drifted his gaze back up to meet her eyes. They were wide on his...
He brought his face down to capture the full lips with his own. Heat filled him at the pliant softness he found.
He felt another sharp inhalation before she responded with the utmost tentativeness.
The hands his body ached to feel on his skin stayed by her sides.
He shifted slightly, moving his mouth from hers and brushing it over her cheeks, then over her nose and eyes, light caresses from his lips while his hands explored, running over the plane of her stomach and down to the only part of her still covered.
When he threaded a finger beneath the band of her knickers, she jerked, clamped her thighs together and twisted her hips away from him.
He opened his eyes to see her hands were clenched into fists and her eyes squeezed shut.
It took a moment to register what he was seeing and, when it did, it was
like having a spray of cold water hosed over him.
His desire extinguished in an instant.
He moved abruptly off her, threw the covers back and climbed off the bed.
‘What game are you playing?’ Alessio’s deep voice cut through Beth’s ringing ears.
It took real effort to open her eyes.
He stood some distance from the bed, fully, unashamedly, terrifyingly naked.
She scrambled upright, drawing her nightshirt together to hide her own nakedness.
‘Is this a game?’ His brows drew together in confusion. ‘Or have I got everything wrong?’
She swallowed, trying to get her frozen throat to work, but failing miserably.
Beth had long been aware of her desire for Alessio but nothing could have prepared her for the sensations that had erupted. She’d been sinking into it, had been falling into a heady state where her mind had almost closed itself off...
But then he’d pulled her nightshirt apart.
His face contorted. ‘Do not play me for a fool. If you don’t want me, then have the guts to admit it, but do not just lie there as if my touch is something to be endured.’ And with that he paced to his bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
Beth sagged and clutched at her head, fighting for air.
Like everything else in this new life of hers, the feelings evoked by Alessio’s touch overwhelmed her.
She quickly fastened one of the buttons on her nightshirt with fumbling fingers.
No one had seen her breasts before let alone touched them.
It had felt...
God, it had felt wonderful. But it had been excruciating. She’d been painfully aware of the soft light above them shining on her, revealing all her imperfections.
Beth wasn’t polished and preened to within an inch of her life like his other lovers would have been, and when he had reached down to touch her in that most intimate place panic had taken control and now she’d ruined everything.
The bathroom door flew back open and Alessio reappeared with a pair of unbuttoned jeans on. Not looking at her, he strode to the bedroom door.
A different kind of panic filled her.
A Cinderella To Secure His Heir (Cinderella Seductions Book 1) Page 8
