by Lynne Graham
‘I wouldn’t have. Had you stayed, your innocence would never have been in doubt. Why?’ Luca emphasised, intent, dark golden eyes holding her more evasive gaze. ‘Why did you run away?’
‘It’s pretty embarrassing waking up for the first time in a strange man’s bed,’ Darcy said bluntly. ‘I felt like a real tart—’
‘You don’t know the first thing about being a tart, so don’t use that word,’ Luca censured with frowning reproof.
But a split second later he was smiling that utterly charismatic smile of his, sending her heartbeat bumpety-bumpety-bump as he asked all sorts of questions about Zia, demonstrating a degree of interest that was encyclopaedic in its detail. At the end of that session, he murmured with considerable assurance, ‘Well...there’ll be no divorce now, cara mia.’
Even though that development was what Darcy had hoped for from the instant she knew that she loved Luca, she didn’t like the background against which he had formed that instant arrogant supposition. She tugged her hand free of his, her face frozen. ‘Why? Do you know something I don’t?’
Luca dealt her a startled, questioning look. ‘We have a child. She needs both of us. I simply assumed—’
‘I don’t think you should be assuming anything in that line!’ Darcy told him roundly. ‘It may be important that Zia has a father, but I’m concerned about what I need too.’
‘You need me,’ Luca breathed a shade harshly, all relaxation now wiped from his taut features and not a hint of a smile left either.
Darcy flew upright. ‘Don’t look at me like that!’
‘In what way am I looking at you?’ Luca enquired forbiddingly.
‘Like I’m a bad debtor or something, and you’re...you’re trying to work out my Achilles’ heel!’ Suddenly frightened by the awareness that she was heading for an argument with him and that she didn’t want that, didn’t trust her own overwrought and confused emotions, or her too often dangerously blunt tongue, she said tightly, ‘Look, I’m very tired. I’m going up to bed.’
From the foot of the stairs she glanced back into the library. Luca was standing by the window, ferocious tension screaming from his stillness. Her heart sank at the sight. Everything had gone wrong from the moment she questioned his conviction that they should now view their marriage as a real marriage. And why the heck had she done that? Why, when she herself longed for that stupid agreement they had made to be set aside and totally wiped from both their memories? Why had she refused the offer of her own most heartfelt wish?
And she saw into herself then, was forced to confront her own insecurity. She feared that Luca only wanted their marriage to continue for Zia’s benefit. Hadn’t she felt threatened and excluded by his unashamed absorption and delight in Zia? How foolish and selfish that had been, on the very night he first learned that he was a father!
Feeling considerably less bolshie, Darcy made up her bed with fresh sheets. She took the dogs down the service stairs to sleep in the kitchen. Then she donned a strappy oystercoloured satin nightie and slid between the sheets to wait for Luca.
But an hour later, when she heard footsteps in the corridor and tensed with a fast-beating heart, Luca passed by her room. In the silence of the old house she listened to him enter the room Richard had briefly occupied earlier and close the door.
She fell back against the pillows then, shaken, hurt and scared...utterly out of her depth with this Luca who was not even tempted to make love to her after an absence of three weeks.
‘Fabulous apartment,’ Karen sighed when she arrived for lunch, scanning the fantastic view of London from the penthouse. ‘And Luca...he is the perfect man; I am totally convinced of that. The guy that clears off without a murmur so that you can have lunch with your best friend is special, and when he takes the toddler with him, he zooms up the scale of perfection and hits the bell at the top!’
‘He’s a very committed father.’
‘I wouldn’t say he was a slow starter in the husband stakes either. In one month, he has transformed your life. He even brings you flowers and cute little gifts... Richard’s not into flowers, but he gave me a sweater covered with embroidered horseshoes for my birthday. It is the most gross garment you have ever seen, but he phones me about five times a day, and he’s so scared I’m going to dump him, it’s unbelievable,’ Karen shared with a rather dreamy smile.
‘I’m glad you’re happy.’
‘Well, you don’t look glad enough to satisfy me,’ Karen responded drily. ‘I hope you’re not turning into one of those spoilt little rich madams who can’t appreciate what she’s got!’
Darcy managed to laugh. ‘Can you see the day?’
‘No, but I know by your expression that there’s something badly wrong, and that was an easy way to open the subject!’
Darcy thought back over the last four weeks. The Folly estate was now employing a full quota of staff, not to mention giving added employment to all the local firms engaged in the repairs and improvements which Luca had insisted the house required without further delay. While that work was going on they had set up temporary home in London at Luca’s apartment, and when the summer was over they were shifting to Venice, where they would make their permanent home.
‘Has he got another woman?’
‘Of course he hasn’t!’ Darcy said, aghast.
‘He’s not violent or alcoholic or anything like that, is he?’
‘Karen!’ Darcy took a deep breath. ‘He just doesn’t love me.’
‘This is the problem that has you moping about like a wet weekend?’ Karen breathed incredulously. ‘Luca arranges to fly me up here in a helicopter to have lunch with you as a surprise...he hangs on your every word, watches your every move...I mean, the guy’s so besotted he’s practically turning somersaults to impress!’
Darcy shrugged, unimpressed, gloom creeping over her again. They were sleeping in separate bedrooms. He hadn’t made the slightest move to change that. It was as if sex didn’t exist any more. And she couldn’t forget that he had once admitted that possibly his belief that she was a thief had been the most dangerous part of her attraction. And it was as if her sex appeal had vanished overnight. Yet, aside from that, loads of really positive things were happening in their relationship...
Although she wasn’t sure that being more hopelessly in love with Luca than ever was a positive thing. He was being caring, kind, supportive and considerate of her every need bar the one. He never lost his temper—no, not even when Zia had drawn all over a set of important business documents that had had to be replaced at supersonic speed before a big meeting. He took her out to dinner all the time. He took her to parties. He behaved as if he was very proud of her and paid her lots of compliments. He laughed, he smiled, he was a dirty great ray of constant sunshine, but when night fell he climbed into his own bed.
‘Have you mentioned that you love him yet? I don’t think it would be immediately obvious from your current demeanour,’ Karen opined rather drily. ‘Or maybe he’s just not very good with the words.’
An hour after Karen’s departure for home, Zia bounced into her mother’s bedroom to show off the latest pair of new frilly socks on display. They had three layers of handmade lace round the ankle. She was tickled pink with them. Zia was just one great big sunny smile these days. She had her mother, her adoring father and a devoted nanny, not to mention shelves groaning with toys. As she danced out again, a restive bundle of energy, Luca strolled in.
‘Did you enjoy seeing Karen?’ he enquired.
‘Yes, it was great...I should’ve invited her up myself, but I knew she wouldn’t want to be away for long, not with her romance with Richard hotting up the way it is.’
Just looking at him, she felt her mouth run dry and her pulses race. So she had learnt not to look at him directly. One quick, sneaky glance and then away again. If he didn’t find her attractive any more, then the very last thing she needed was for him to guess that she was suffering withdrawal symptoms of the severest, cruellest kind. But tha
t one sneaky glance she stole was enough to send her dizzy. Either Luca literally did get more gorgeous with every passing day, or she was more than usually susceptible.
In her mind’s eye, she summoned him up. Casual silvergrey suit, superbly fitted to his wide shoulders, lithe hips and long powerful legs, worn with a cashmere sweater the colour of charcoal. He radiated sex appeal in waves she could feel. In much the same way that secret radar could feel the impact of those stunning dark eyes of his watching her.
‘Darcy...I invited Karen here in the hope that you would relax with her,’ Luca imparted tautly. ‘But it doesn’t seem to have done much good.’
‘You can’t put a plaster on something that isn’t broken.’
‘Is that one of those strange English nursery sayings?’ Luca enquired.
Darcy didn’t even know why she had said it, except to fill the tense silence, so she wasn’t able to help him there. She twisted back to him but didn’t meet his eyes.
‘You know something, cara mia?’ Luca breathed in a dangerous tone. ‘I have decided that tact, patience and sensitivity do not work with you.’
‘Probably not,’ Darcy conceded, wondering why he had raised his voice slightly.
‘In fact any man foolish enough to devote himself to the hopeless task of winning your trust would probably hit his deathbed before he got there.’
‘Winning my trust?’ Darcy repeated.
‘What the hell do you think I’ve been doing for the past month?’ Luca suddenly splintered at her in raw frustration.
And the strands of pain in that intonation made her look straight at him. She saw the same lonely ache there that she saw in her own face every time she stared in the mirror, and she stilled in shock.
Luca spread his hands in a familiar gesture that tugged at her heart. ‘One minute you give me hope, the next you push me down,’ he groaned. ‘I don’t need you to tell me that I made an appalling hash of our relationship, but I’ve been trying really hard to make up for that...only you seem to be getting further and further away from me, and I can’t bear that when I love you so much!’
‘You...you love me?’ Darcy whispered shakily.
‘You told me that you fell for me, too, that night in Venice, and that gave me hope.’
‘If you love me why have you been sleeping in another room?’ Darcy demanded accusingly. ‘Why don’t you touch me any more?’
Luca gave her a sincerely pained appraisal. ‘I wanted you to appreciate that I really loved you.’
‘Bloody funny way of showing it,’ she mumbled helplessly, not knowing whether she was on her head or her heels. ‘I’ve been so miserable.’
In one stride, Luca closed the distance between them. ‘I was waiting for you to give me some sign that you still wanted me...I couldn’t afford to take anything for granted about this marriage!’
‘If you love me,’ Darcy breathed headily, ‘you can take me for granted all you like.’
With a muffled groan, Luca brought his mouth down hard on hers and set off a devastating chain reaction of lust through her entire quivering body. He crushed her so close she couldn’t breathe, backed up towards the door to turn the lock and then lifted his dark head again. ‘I’ve never been so frustrated in my life... I ache for you, cara mia.’
She let her hand travel up over one blunt cheekbone in a caress and framed his face, her eyes full of love. ‘Me too... I’ve been pretty stupid, putting my pride ahead of everything, closing you out when I needed you instead of showing it. I love you loads...and loads...and loads,’ she told him a little tearfully, because her emotions were running so high they were right up there with the clouds. ‘You should’ve been able to tell that a mile off!’
‘You wouldn’t even look at me any more!’
She gave him a flirtatious scrutiny from below curling lashes as he drew her hand down from his face and planted a kiss in the centre of her palm. ‘You’re a minx,’ he told her huskily.
‘I like the guy to do all the running. You see, the one time I did it the other way round, I ended up climbing out of a window with a burglar alarm screaming—and I also ended up pregnant,’ she pointed out in her own defence.
‘Zia’s so precious, she could never be a source of regret,’ Luca countered. ‘I really fell for you in a very big way that night three years ago.’
‘I find that so hard to believe—’
‘That’s because you don’t think enough of yourself,’ he scolded. ‘You knocked me for six. You were so different from every other woman I had ever met. I fell asleep that night with you in my arms, and I felt pretty damned smug and self-satisfied—’
‘And then it all went horribly wrong.’
‘And I spent three insanely frustrating years trying to track you down... Make no mistake, I was totally obsessed,’ Luca confided ruefully. ‘I never admitted to myself how I really felt about you, but I could hardly wait for our wedding... all I allowed myself to think about was getting you back into bed.’
‘I noticed that was a fairly big issue straight off.’
Luca flushed. ‘I just didn’t know what was going on inside my own head, but I was incredibly happy I had you back in my bed, under my roof, trapped... Then Ilaria confessed, and it was like being plunged into a big black loser’s hole.’
‘I know,’ she sighed, sympathetically.
‘And that was when I finally realised I loved you,’ he groaned. ‘I’d blown it every way possible. All I had to hang onto was that stupid agreement we’d made for a platonic marriage...what else did you need me for?’
‘Gosh, I never thought of that...’
‘So I decided you could comfortably do without being reminded of what a bastard I’d been for a couple of weeks. But it was hell without you,’ Luca confessed as he bent and swept her possessively up into his arms and carried her over to the bed. ‘And then Benito handed me that magazine interview to read’. I know you don’t truly think that I’m that wonderful, but by the time I’d read it about ten times...’
Darcy kicked off her shoes. ‘So that’s why you knew it by heart.’
Luca unzipped her dress, spread the edges back and planted his mouth almost reverently on a smooth bare shoulder. ‘I decided that if you really hated me, the odd sour note would’ve crept through. So, inspired by hope—’
‘And a certain amount of ego...’
‘I jumped straight on the jet,’ he completed, tugging her round in his arms to give her a reproachful look. ‘And when I realised that Zia was my child, I was ecstatic...it meant I had another hold on you.’
‘But you jumped the gun, saying that because of Zia we should stay married. Much as I love my daughter, I need to feel wanted for myself.’
‘I was clumsy. I pushed for too much too fast. I didn’t dare tell you I loved you that soon because you would never, ever have believed me,’ Luca informed her ruefully.
‘I might’ve done...I’m more credulous and trusting than you are,’ Darcy teased, her heart singing with love and happiness as she collided with his brilliant dark eyes and the open tenderness there.
From the inside pocket of his jacket, Luca withdrew a miniature gold box the shape of a casket. He snapped it open and removed the ornate gold ring within. The star-shaped ruby caught the light in its rich depths.
Darcy caught her breath and gasped, ‘This is it, isn’t it...that wretched ring you thought I’d nicked?’
With a wolfish grin, Luca lifted her hand and slid the medieval ring onto her wedding finger. ‘The Adorata...’
‘It really is gorgeous,’ Darcy whispered.
‘Tradition holds that the Adorata is given to a Raffacani wife on the birth of the son and heir,’. Luca shared huskily. ‘But this is the nineties, and I think it’s time it was awarded simply for the birth of the first child.’
‘Yes, I like that,’ Darcy told him appreciatively. ‘None of that sexist rubbish about sons being more important in our family.’
Luca pressed his lips tenderly to the corner o
f her smiling mouth. ‘I didn’t quite have the nerve to ask before now but...is there any chance you might be expecting another baby?’
‘Not unless you’ve come up with some very kinky way of ravishing me mentally... no, not this time, but maybe some other time,’ she conceded softly, tenderly, as she laced her fingers blissfully through his luxuriant black hair. ‘Gosh, I love having the right to mess up your hair...it’s so tidy all the rest of the time!’
‘I didn’t like it when you said bankers were boring,’ Luca confided. ‘And then in that interview you said I was the most passionate man you had ever met.’
‘You are... about me, about Zia. You’re so intense beneath that cool front.’ Darcy gave a little feeling wriggle to stress how much she liked that.
‘Has anybody ever told you how unbelievably sexy you look in wellington boots?’
She giggled, something she never did. ‘I really, really believe that you love me now!’
Reaching up to claim his sensual mouth for herself again, Darcy gave herself up to the promise of a future full of blissful contentment and joy.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5159-5
THE VENGEFUL HUSBAND
First North American Publication 1999.
Copyright © 1998 by Lynne Graham.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
