by Penny Jordan
Gradually her body ceased to shake, control returning to her limbs and her mind. Harry had been right; it was time to stop running.
‘Why did you run away?’
She could feel the tension in his body and she knew that no matter what the outcome she had to tell him the truth.
Lifting her head so that she could look into his eyes, she said quietly, ‘Because I love you… because I was frightened…because…’
Dominic didn’t let her get any further, his eyes suddenly darkening with a mixture of emotions she found it hard to define.
‘You love me?’ Incredulity and anger seemed to be blended in his voice in equal parts, and for a moment she wished she had not told him, but it was too late for that now.
‘Yes…’
‘You love me and you let me think… You let me think it was just physical, just an eight-year-old ache that needed easing. Damn you, Kate…’ His voice thickened over the last few words and then she was hauled against him, his mouth punishingly fierce as it fastened over her own.
It took her several seconds to recognise his near-violence as passion and not anger, and then easily and joyously her mouth opened beneath his, her arms going round his neck. Without breaking the kiss, he shifted slightly so that she was balanced against his body, aware of its hard, exciting pulsing.
Tiny prickles of excitement burned her skin, her need to feel the life force of him deep inside her after believing that it was lost to her for ever overriding everything else. Her hand moved to the waistband of his jeans and slid down over his thigh.
‘No…’ Dominic’s hand clamped down over her own, turning her eyes brilliant with shock. ‘Not yet,’ he amended softly. ‘First we have to talk. Do you know what you’ve put me through?’ he demanded, almost shaking her. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I woke up and you’d gone!’
‘I couldn’t stay, knowing you only…only desired me,’ she mumbled, her tongue suddenly thick and cumbersome, tripping up the words.
‘Only desire you?’ He did shake her now, muffling a tiny sound of despair against her throat. ‘Kate, why on earth are you so blind?’ he asked throatily. ‘I do desire you…but I also love you. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you. Surely you realised that?’
He saw the incredulity and disbelief dawn in her eyes and then give way to shining joy, and laughed unsteadily.
‘You little fool! Why on earth did you think I was so savage with you? Why do you think I haven’t touched another woman in eight years? Why do you think I keep coming after you, letting you slap me down, letting you torment me until I’m way, way out of control? Not just because I desire you.’
‘I thought you hated me…despised me…’ Her voice was a dry rasp.
‘I despised myself,’ Dominic told her wryly. ‘Firstly for wanting another man’s wife to the point where I was on the verge of forgetting all the rules I’d lived my life by, to make love to her, and secondly for being stupid enough to fall crazily in love with an adolescent nymphomaniac… I told myself it made it easier to keep away from you, believing that you slept around, but it didn’t. It just drove me crazy, imagining all the men who were getting what I’d denied myself. When I found out Vera and Ian were moving into this area, I knew it was fate. I knew I’d see you again. When I discovered you were a widow, I told myself that now I would have a chance to get you out of my blood for all time…that if I made love to you, it would conquer this fever for you that had dominated me for so long. But long before I touched you, long before Sue told me the truth, I knew it wasn’t so… I knew then that I loved you. Do you believe me?’
As she looked into the topaz depths of his eyes Kate knew that she did.
‘Yes,’ she told him quietly, trembling as he raised her palm to his mouth, lacing his fingers with hers, his tongue brushing the delicate skin.
‘Let’s put the past behind us, Kate, and have a fresh start…as man and wife. And this time I promise you your marriage will be everything that a marriage should be… Well?’
His voice was soft, but there was no mistaking the tension holding his body, or the anxiety in his eyes.
He did love her. Impossibly against all the odds they had found one another, and he was right, it was time to forget the past. In order to face the future she had to take him on trust, in just the same way that he had to trust her. Kate recognised that now.
‘Yes…’ She said it quietly, and then more fiercely, pressing her body against the length of his and lifting her mouth for his kiss.
His breathing was thready…erratic.
‘If I kiss you now, the way I want to, I won’t be able to stop until I’ve made love to you. God, Kate…’ He groaned in protest as she moved her hips wantonly against his. Beads of sweat stood out on his skin, his arousal hard and hot against her, reluctant laughter breaking through the passion darkening his eyes as she stroked her fingers suggestively over the tight fabric of his jeans.
‘Kate…’ Dominic’s voice held a warning, but she ignored it, excitement trembling through her as he said her name again on a rougher note and then bent to pick her up.
At the top of the stairs he paused and looked down into her face to say rawly, ‘I love you, Kate, and I’m never, ever going to let you forget it. Do you hear that?’
She heard, and best of all she believed. She had come through pain and fear to be at this point in her life with this man. She looked at him with her heart in her eyes and said softly, ‘I hear.’
* * * * *
Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of USA Today bestselling author
Carol Marinelli’s next book,
BOUND BY THE SULTAN’S BABY
The second in her Billionaires & One-Night Heirs trilogy!
Sultan Alim spent one forbidden night with Gabi—when he encounters her again, she refuses to name her child’s father. Alim will seduce the truth out of Gabi, even if he has to lure her under false pretenses. Alim knows he craves her, but does he desire her as his mistress or bride?
Read on to get a glimpse of
BOUND BY THE SULTAN’S BABY
CHAPTER ONE
GABI DERAMO HAD never been a bridesmaid, let alone a bride.
However, weddings were her life and she thought about them during most of the minutes of her day.
From way back she had lived and breathed weddings.
Gabi was a dreamer.
As a little girl, her dolls would regularly be lined up in a bridal procession. Once, to her mother’s fury, Gabi had poured two whole bags of sugar and one of flour over them to create a winter wedding effect.
‘Essere nerre nuvole,’ her mother, Carmel, had scolded, telling her that she lived in the clouds.
What Gabi didn’t tell her was that at each wedding she made with her dolls, she pretended it was her mother. As if somehow she could conjure her father’s presence and make it so that he had not left a pregnant Carmel to struggle alone.
And while Gabi had never been so much as kissed, as an assistant wedding planner she had played her part in many a romantic escape.
She dreamt of the same most nights.
And she dreamt of Alim.
Now Gabi sat, flicking through the to-do list on her tablet and curling her long black hair around her finger, trying to work out how on earth she could possibly organise, from scratch, an extremely rushed but very exclusive winter wedding in Rome.
Mona, the bride-to-be, stepped out of the changing area on her third attempt at trying on a gown not of Gabi’s choice.
It didn’t suit Mona in the least—the antique lace made her olive skin look sallow and the heavy fabric did nothing to accentuate her delicate frame.
‘What do you think?’ Mona asked Gabi as she turned around to look in the mirror and examined herself from behind.
Gabi knew from experience how to deal with a bride who stood in completely the wrong choice of gown. ‘What do you think, Mona?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mona sighed. ‘I quite like it.’
&nb
sp; ‘Then it isn’t the gown for you,’ Gabi said. ‘Because you have to love it.’
Mona had resisted the boutique owner’s guidance and had completely dismissed Gabi’s suggestion for a bright, white, column gown with subtle embroidery. In fact, Mona hadn’t even tried it on.
Gabi’s suggestions were dismissed rather a lot.
She was curvy and dressed in the severe, shapeless dark suit that her boss, Bernadetta, insisted she wear, so brides-to-be tended to assume that Gabi had no clue where fashion was concerned.
Oh, but she did.
Not for herself, of course, but Gabi could pick out the right wedding gown for a bride at fifty paces.
And they needed this to be sorted today!
Bernadetta was on leave and so it had fallen to Gabi to sort.
It always did.
The bigger the budget, the trickier the brief, the more likely it was to have been put into the ‘Too Hard’ basket and left for Gabi to pick up.
They were in the lull between Christmas and New Year. The wedding boutique was, in fact, closed today, but Gabi had many contacts and had called in a favour from Rosa, the owner, who had opened up just for them.
Rosa would not push them out, but they had to meet Marianna, the functions co-ordinator, at the Grande Lucia at four.
‘Why don’t you try Gabi’s suggestion?’ Fleur, the mother of the groom, said.
It was a little odd.
Usually this trip would be taken with the mother of the bride or her sister or friends, but it would seem that it was Fleur who had first and last say in things.
Fleur was also English, which meant that, in order to be polite, Gabi and Mona did not speak in Italian.
Yes, it was proving to be a long, tiring day.
And they would be back tomorrow with the bridesmaids!
Reluctantly, very reluctantly, Mona agreed to try on Gabi’s suggestion and then disappeared with the dresser.
As Rosa hung up the failed gown she saw that Gabi was looking at another dress.
Silver-grey, it was elegant and simple and in a larger size, and when Gabi held it up she saw the luxurious fall of the fabric. Rosa was a talented seamstress indeed.
‘It would fit you,’ Rosa said.
‘I doubt it.’ Gabi sighed wistfully. ‘It’s beautiful, though.’
‘The order was cancelled,’ Rosa said. ‘Why don’t you go and try it on? It would look stunning, I am sure.’
‘Not while I’m working.’ Gabi shook her head. ‘Anyway, even if it did fit, when would I get a chance to wear it?’ Her question went unanswered as the curtains parted and a smiling Mona walked out.
‘Oh, Mona!’ Gabi breathed.
The dress was perfect.
It showed off Mona’s slender figure, and the bright white was indeed the perfect shade against her olive skin.
‘If only she had listened to you in the first place,’ Fleur muttered. ‘We are going to be late for the hotel.’
‘It’s all taken care of,’ Gabi assured her, checking her list on her tablet. ‘We’re right on schedule.’
Ahead of it, in fact, because now that the dress had been chosen, everything else, Gabi knew, would fall more easily into place.
Measurements had already been taken but fitting dates could not yet be made. Gabi assured Rosa she would call her just as soon as they had finalised the wedding date.
They climbed back into the car and were driven through the wet streets of Rome towards the Grande Lucia but, again, Mona wasn’t happy. ‘I went to a wedding at the Grande Lucia a few years ago and it was so…’ Mona faltered for a moment as she struggled with a word to describe it. ‘Tired-looking.’
‘Not now it isn’t.’ Gabi shook her head. ‘It’s under new management, well, Alim has been…’ It was Gabi who now faltered but she quickly recovered. ‘Alim has been the owner for a couple of years and there have been considerable renovations; the hotel is looking magnificent.’
Even saying his name made her stumble a little and blush.
Gabi saw Alim only occasionally but she thought about him a lot.
Their paths rarely crossed but if Gabi was organising a wedding at the Grande Lucia and Alim happened to be in residence at the time then her heart would get a rare treat, and she was secretly hoping for one today.
‘Let’s just see how you feel once you’ve actually seen the Grande Lucia for yourself.’ Gabi suggested. ‘Remember, though, that it’s terribly hard to get a booking there, especially at such short notice.’
‘Fleur doesn’t seem to think it will be a problem,’ Mona said with a distinct edge to her voice, and Gabi watched as she shot a look towards the mother of the groom. From all Gabi had gleaned, Fleur had agreed to finance the wedding on the condition that it was held there.
‘It won’t be,’ Fleur responded.
Gabi wasn’t so sure.
Marianna, the co-ordinator, was rather inflexible at the best of times and they wanted this wedding to be held in just over two weeks!
They made good time as the streets were comparatively empty. The rush of Christmas was over and even the Colosseum was closed to visitors.
Gabi stifled a yawn, wishing that she could put up her own Do not disturb sign to the world for a while.
She had hoped to spend the Christmas break going over the plans for starting her own business. Instead, she had again been called in to work through her leave. She was tired.
Almost too tired to keep alive the dream of one day owning her own business.
She had started working for Matrimoni di Bernadetta when she was eighteen and had hoped that it would provide the experience she needed to one day go it alone.
Six years later, at the age of twenty-four, that prospect seemed no brighter.
Bernadetta had made very sure of that—there was barely time to think, let alone act on her own dreams.
Still, she truly loved her job.
Gabi looked up as the gorgeous old building came into view and they soon pulled up at the entrance.
The car door was opened for them by the doorman, Ronaldo.
‘Ben tornato,’ Ronaldo said, and Gabi realised that it was Fleur and not she he was welcoming back.
Fleur must be a guest. And a favoured one too from the attention that Ronaldo gave her.
As Gabi got out there was a flutter of excitement at the thought that she might soon see Alim.
He was always polite, even if he was somewhat aloof. She didn’t take it personally. Alim was the same with everyone and maintained a certain distance. There was just an air of mystery to him that had Gabi entranced. An entire floor of the Grande Lucia served as Alim’s residence when he was in Rome, and so, through the hotel industry grapevine, Gabi knew more than a little of his reputation. He loved beautiful women and dated as many of them as he could—though one night with him was all they would ever get.
Breakfast was definitely not included in this particular package. In fact, according to Sophie, a friend of Gabi’s and a maid at the Grande Lucia, cold and callous were the most frequent words used to describe him by his lovers after they had been discarded.
That didn’t seem right to Gabi for she always felt warm in his gaze, and when it came to business, his professionalism was never in doubt.
Still, Sophie had told her, for all the tears there were perks for, rumour had it the reward for time spent in Alim’s arms came in the shape of a diamond.
It sounded crass.
Until you saw Alim.
He was completely out of her league, of course, and that was not her being self-effacing. He veered towards slender blondes of the supermodel kind, and women who definitely knew the ropes in the bedroom.
Apparently he had no inclination to teach.
Gabi didn’t mind in the least that Alim was utterly unattainable, for it made it safe for her to dream of him.
There was no sign that he was there when she walked through the brass revolving doors and into the magnificent foyer of the Grande Lucia.
&nb
sp; It was almost perfection.
Stunning crimson carpet and silk walls were elegant—even sensual, perhaps—and worked well against the dark wooden furnishings. The space was vast and the ceilings high, yet there was an intimate feel from the moment you walked in, alongside the lovely buzz of a busy hotel.
As a centrepiece, there was a huge, crimson floral display.
Yes, almost perfect.
Gabi had an eye for detail and this arrangement irked her. It never varied, or moved with the times. Instead, there was a perpetual display of deep red roses and carnations and it had become a slight bone of contention when Gabi had negotiated on behalf of her brides.
Marianna came to greet them and took the trio for coffee at one of several intimate lounges just off the foyer.
There they went through a few details and though Marianna was delighted to announce that there was an opening in just over two weeks, she was not going to make it easy for the bride.
‘I do need to verify dates with the owner,’ Marianna said. ‘We’re expecting some VIP guests at the hotel in January so security will be particularly tight. I’m not sure we’ll be able to accommodate you then. Alim has asked to be informed before any dates are locked in…’ She paused and looked up. ‘Oh, there he—’
Marianna halted, causing Gabi to glance up. Alim had just entered the foyer with the requisite stunning blonde.
Gabi guessed, and rightly so, that Alim did not like to be disturbed with minor details every time he made an appearance so Marianna did not alert Mona and Fleur to his presence.
Yet such was his charisma, both women looked over.
And while Marianna might be doing her best not to disrupt Alim’s day, Gabi’s had just been turned on its head.
In the nicest of ways.
He wore a slim dark coat and there was such an air of magnificence about him that he simply turned heads.
Not just for his dark looks—there was more to him than that—but they were rather wonderful to dwell on. His hair was black and glossy and swept back. He stood tall and his posture was so upright he always made Gabi want to pull back her own shoulders.
