Phantom Marriage

by Penny Jordan

  But she wouldn’t say anything until she had to. Hopefully, he wouldn’t take it badly, or as a blow to his ego, which was considerable.

  Veronica picked up her wine glass and took a deep swallow.

  ‘You are meant to savour this type of red wine,’ Leonardo chided. ‘Not drink it like water.’

  ‘Ooh. Pardon me for breathing. I did tell you that I prefer white wine but you insisted on my trying one of the reds. Is this better?’ she asked, lifting the glass to her lips and taking a delicate sip.

  ‘Much better. I apologise if I sound snobbish. It’s just that this particular wine is one of the best ever bottled and needs to be sipped to be appreciated.’

  ‘It is nicer when sipped. Okay, I forgive you.’

  ‘Grazie,’ he said, and smiled over at her.

  Her heart lurched anew, warning bells going off in her head.

  Veronica searched her mind for the best subject to quell any growing emotional involvement with this man.

  ‘Tell me, Leonardo,’ she said. ‘On the night we first met, all those years ago, if I’d said yes would you have really enjoyed a threesome with me and that blonde bimbo?’

  His dark eyes glittered. ‘But of course. Though my mind would have been on you all the time. I wanted you like crazy.’

  Veronica’s fingers tightened around her wine glass. Why, oh, why had he had to add that last bit? ‘Were you in the habit of having threesomes?’ she asked stiffly.

  ‘No. Like I told you, I was very drunk that night.’

  ‘Your friends didn’t seem shocked by your suggestion.’

  ‘My friends were also pretty drunk. And stoned, some of them.’

  ‘Yes, I noticed that.’

  Leonardo sighed. ‘It was a common thing in the circles I moved in.’

  ‘And what about now? Do you take drugs now?’

  ‘I never took drugs back then. I didn’t like them.’

  ‘I see…’ Did she believe him? She supposed she had to, since he would have admitted it if he had taken them. He wouldn’t see any reason to hide his actions.

  ‘And what about you, Veronica? You went to university which, I am told, is rife with drugs. Did you ever indulge?’

  ‘Never. I hate drugs.’

  ‘That is a good thing. They ruin people’s lives.’

  ‘They certainly do,’ she said.

  They both fell silent for a few moments, Leonardo being the first to speak again.

  ‘We are getting too serious. After we’ve finished our wine, we shall go back to bed.’

  For a split second his presumption—and his arrogance—annoyed her. But the thought of the pleasure that awaited her in bed with Leonardo trumped any sense of feminine outrage.

  Whilst she sipped the rest of her wine, her mind was already there, naked in bed with him. The only concession she made to her pride was that, this time, she would be the one making love to him. First with her mouth, then with her whole body. She would be the one on top, with him at her mercy. She would thrill to his moans and wallow in his arousal. She would do to him what he’d done to her. She would not stop until he begged her to.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ‘I HAVE TO GO.’

  Veronica looked up from where she was loading the dishwasher to see Leonardo standing there, showered and dressed with his overnight bag in his hand. She herself was still naked underneath her bathrobe.

  ‘But you haven’t even had breakfast yet,’ she said on straightening.

  Leonardo dropped the bag and come forward to take her into his arms. ‘I know,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘But it’s almost eleven. The hotel guests will have left and Mamma will be expecting me for Sunday lunch. After that, I have to return to Milan. I have an important meeting in the morning which I must attend. Still, it’s best I go whilst you still have some reputation left. I will claim I slept in the guest room but I doubt anyone will believe me.’

  She pulled back and lifted cool eyes to his. ‘You told me I shouldn’t care what other people think.’

  ‘Mamma and Papa are not other people. They are my parents. Now, don’t make a fuss. I will return. Though, not next weekend I’m afraid. I have things on.’

  ‘What things?’

  ‘A charity ball on the Saturday night which my company sponsors every year.’

  ‘Oh. And I suppose you’ll be going with some glamorous model on your arm?’

  ‘No. I told you, I have no girlfriend in my life at the moment, other than you. If I asked you, would you come with me?’

  Her heart fluttered at his invitation. She was seriously tempted, until she remembered her decision last night to end their affair today. It was a painful decision but a necessary one. ‘I came here to find out about my father, Leonardo, not go flitting all over Italy to attend fancy dos. And I am not your girlfriend,’ Veronica pointed out a little tartly.

  ‘You could be. All you have to do is stay here in this villa and I will make Capri my second home.’

  Exasperation joined temptation with this particular offer. Because it was a typically selfish suggestion on his part. He didn’t want her on a for ever basis. He just hadn’t had enough of what she’d given him last night. And, brother, she’d given him a lot!

  ‘I don’t think that would work, Leonardo,’ she said archly. ‘I’m not cut out to be mistress material.’

  His dark eyes glittered. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that.’

  ‘I would. Besides, what would your parents think? Not about me but about you. They would finally have to face up to the fact that you’re an incorrigible playboy with no intention of getting married.’

  ‘Maybe you could change my mind on that score.’

  She laughed. ‘Please don’t insult my intelligence.’

  His frown contained frustration. ‘Why do you persist in thinking so badly of me?’

  ‘Let’s not argue, Leonardo. I’ve had a lovely time this weekend and I want to remember it fondly.’

  ‘How long are you actually staying?’

  ‘My return flight is in three weeks’ time. I leave on a Sunday.’

  ‘Then you’ll still be here the weekend after next.’

  ‘Yes…’

  ‘What say you meet me in Rome that weekend? By then you will have found out everything you can about Laurence. I will show you the city and we’ll have another great time together. My uncle has a lovely townhouse he’ll let us use. Or I can book us into a hotel.’

  Don’t say yes! came the savage warning from deep inside her. You’ll regret it.

  At least she didn’t say yes straight away. There again, she didn’t say no, either.

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ was what she said.

  He smiled, looking supremely confident in her saying yes in the end.

  ‘I will ring you tonight.’

  ‘Please don’t.’

  ‘I will ring you tonight,’ he repeated, giving her a brief peck before picking up his bag and striding away, not glancing back over his shoulder even once.

  She stared after him, her heart thudding fast in her chest, her head in a whirl. Because she was already looking forward to his call tonight.

  Oh, Veronica. You should have told him no straight away. You should have put an end to this once and for all. Tell him tonight. Be strong. Be firm. Now, ring the airline and make an earlier booking. You need to go home ASAP. Before it’s too late.

  * * *

  She didn’t ring the airline, of course. She procrastinated, spending the next couple of hours going through the drawers in her father’s desk, looking for Lord knew what. She didn’t find anything enlightening, only the typical stuff you found in household drawers. Papers of every kind, copies of old bills, receipts for things bought over the years, pamphlets and brochures. There wasn’t anything about her, or his will. After that, she tried to
open his computer but it had shut down again, and she needed his password, which she didn’t have. She hadn’t thought to ask Leonardo to write it down but she would tonight, if and when he rang.

  She wasn’t so sure that he would ring. Out of sight was possibly out of mind where Leonardo was concerned. Not so in her own case. He was constantly in her mind, her thoughts troubling her. For they were no longer thoughts of lust but…dared she think it?…thoughts of love…?

  Her memory recalled several times during the night when their love-making had taken on a highly emotional edge. At least for her it had, especially when she’d followed through with her idea to be the one in control. That was a laugh. She had never been in control. Not once, either of her body or her soul. It seemed it was impossible for her to be that intimate with this man and not have her heart join the proceedings.

  Leonardo himself made it extremely difficult for her to remain the sexual sophisticate she’d vowed to be. His passion was her undoing, plus his tenderness, especially after she was recovering after yet another explosive climax. He would always hold her close and murmur sweet nothings in her ear. He didn’t tell her he loved her, instead using other euphemisms which any foolish female would swoon to. Sometimes he talked to her in Italian, possibly saying dirty things. She had no way of knowing. But the words didn’t sound dirty. They sounded…romantic. No matter how much Veronica tried to tell herself this was just lust between them, she no longer believed it. Not on her side, anyway.

  Leonardo, of course, was a different story. He was an accomplished seducer. And lover. A playboy, let her never forget. He operated in the bedroom on autopilot, knowing exactly what to say and do. Yes, he wanted to see her again. Why not when the chemistry between them was so good? Clearly, he hadn’t had his fill yet.

  Veronica knew that to spend another weekend with him, this time in Rome being wined, dined and romanced, would be very silly indeed. At the same time, how could she resist it?

  Oh, Lord…

  Sighing, Veronica rose from her father’s desk and went in search of further distraction. She found some in a pile of photo albums she discovered on the top shelf of the linen press. They were numbered from one to five, tracing Laurence’s life from when he’d been a baby. Veronica soon became engrossed in them, marvelling at how much they’d looked alike as infants before their different sexes had too much of an influence. It was also a shock to see a mirror image of herself in his mother. Clearly, the maternal genes had been the dominant ones, Laurence’s father being a very ordinary-looking man with pale eyes and hair.

  Each album showed her father at a different stage in his life. She went through them slowly, enjoying the glimpses into Laurence’s life at various stages. His school years, then his days at university, where it seemed he must have been quite good at athletics. There were several photos of him running in races, a few of him crossing the line in first place. Veronica had been quite a good runner herself at school, though she preferred skiing.

  Album number three was totally devoted to his wedding to Ruth and their honeymoon, which had obviously been spent in Italy. They’d toured most of the major cities, as well as visits to Sicily and Capri. Possibly this was where their love affair with the island had started. Album four covered the middle years of their marriage, with lots of pictures of Laurence at work and Ruth in her garden. Veronica gasped when she saw a group shot taken at a party, with her mother in the background serving drinks. What surprised her most was that she was smiling. It made Veronica wonder if this was after she’d fallen pregnant. Nora had always claimed that the day she’d found out she was expecting was the happiest day of her life. Laurence wasn’t in the same photograph, but Ruth was, smiling her usual warm smile at the camera.

  Album five followed the later years of their marriage, including snaps of various holidays, plus lots of the renovations they’d made to this villa. It had been a bit of a wreck when they’d bought it, though the view had always been great. This last album wasn’t full, ending abruptly with a photo of Ruth looking very fragile, and Laurence hovering protectively behind her chair, his violet eyes worried.

  Veronica suspected that Laurence’s will to live had died with his wife’s death. She wouldn’t mind betting that that was when he’d started drinking heavily. Sad, really. If only he’d reached out to her instead of killing himself slowly. They could have become friends. She could have given him a reason to live. Instead, he’d just withered on the vine, so to speak, not caring about his health or his long-lost daughter. Leonardo seemed to be the only person in the world he cared about. And that was possibly only surface caring.

  Or was it?

  Veronica’s anger at her father’s actions regarding herself was making her judge him harshly with others. Clearly, he’d been very fond of Leonardo. And very trusting of him as a man. You didn’t make a person executor of your will if you didn’t have good faith in their integrity and honesty.

  Honesty and integrity were not words she normally associated with playboys. Yet, strangely, they did seem to apply to Leonardo. Just because he wasn’t in a hurry to marry and have children didn’t mean he wasn’t a good person. He had remarked more than once that she had no reason to think so badly of him. Veronica vowed to be fairer in her assessment of his character in future. Though fairer did not mean stupider. It was still risky to keep on seeing him. She really didn’t want to fall for him any more deeply than she already had. At the moment, her heart was still relatively safe. Leaving Leonardo would hurt, but she would survive.

  As Veronica closed the last album and put it on top of the pile, something slipped out of the back pages and fluttered to the ground. It was a small photograph, she saw on picking it up. Of herself as a newborn baby. On the back was written her name, her date of birth and her birth weight. Nothing else.

  Had her mother sent it? Or had her father hired another detective agency all those years ago?

  Only one way to find out for sure, she supposed.

  Veronica carried the photograph into the bedroom where she’d left her phone. She tried to work out what time it was in Australia but she had no idea; her brain seemed to have gone on holiday. She’d just have to take a chance that her mother wasn’t asleep, because she simply couldn’t wait.

  Her mother answered fairly quickly, and without sounding fuzzy.

  ‘You’re still awake,’ Veronica said, guessing that it had to be close to midnight.

  ‘I never go to bed too early. You know that. What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing’s wrong. I just need to ask you something.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Did you send my father a photograph of me after I was born?’

  ‘What? Oh, yes, actually, I did. It was one of his conditions. But I wasn’t to send it to his house. It went to his place of work back in London. He was worried that his wife might find it by mistake.’

  ‘So he did care about me, then?’

  A heavy sigh wafted down the line. ‘I suppose so, love.’

  ‘Why do you doubt it?’

  ‘It was just something he said at the time, back when he found out I was pregnant. He seemed keen to see how much you were like him. He had this thing for passing on good genes, as you know. He lived and breathed his work.’

  Veronica pulled a face. ‘Sounds like I was just an experiment for him.’

  ‘No, no, I wouldn’t go that far. It was only natural that Laurence would be interested in seeing what you looked like. You have to understand…he probably would have liked to have a relationship with you. To love you like a real father. But he couldn’t. He was hamstrung by his love for his wife. He adored her. She came first with him.’

  ‘Then why didn’t he contact me after she died?’ Veronica snapped.

  ‘I don’t know, love. Oh, please don’t get all worked up about this. Life and relationships are complex things. And people don’t always do the right thing. I dare say Lau
rence regretted a lot of things in the end. Maybe he tried to make up for his absence in your life by leaving you that villa,’ her mother suggested. ‘You have to admit, it’s a very beautiful place.’

  Veronica opened her mouth to tell her mother he’d had her investigated recently, but then decided against it. She needed to think about her father’s reasons for doing what he had without her mother confusing her with endless speculations.

  ‘Maybe he didn’t expect you to sell it,’ Nora went on regardless. ‘Maybe he wanted you to live there.’

  ‘Maybe. I guess we’ll never know now, Mum,’ Veronica said, hoping to stop her mother from any further speculating. ‘Anyway, I can’t live here. Not permanently.’ She could not bear the thought of running into Leonardo whenever he came home, or being within a short plane trip of wherever he was.

  ‘Why not rent it out as a holiday place? You’d get a good rental. And then you could holiday there yourself occasionally.’

  ‘No, Mum. I need to come home,’ she said firmly.

  Her mother was always good at picking up her feelings. ‘It’s because of that man, isn’t it?’ she said sharply. ‘Leonardo Fabrizzi.’

  ‘Yes, Mum.’

  ‘You haven’t fallen for him, have you?’

  ‘I think I might have. A little.’ She gave a dry laugh. ‘Actually, more than a little. So I need to get out of here before it gets more serious. On my side, that is. Leonardo isn’t the kind of man to get serious over any woman.’

  ‘Oh, dear. It’s all my fault, telling you to get out there and have fun. I should have known you’d be extra vulnerable after all these years of having no man in your life.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, Mum. I’m just a fool. Anyway, I’m going to ring the airlines and move my flight forward a week. So expect me home on Friday week. There’s no risk before then. Leonardo can’t make it back here until that weekend, by which time I’ll be safely gone.’

  ‘Lord. You make it sound like you’re afraid of him.’

  ‘Not of him, Mum. Of my own silly self.’