Dark Angel

by Lynne Graham

  ‘Will this keep you awake long enough for me to have my wicked way with you?’

  Dredged from her last uncomfortable thought back to the present, Kerry blinked and muttered, ‘Sorry?’

  With a husky laugh, Luciano lifted her hand so that the sunlight drew a rainbow glitter from the sapphire and diamond bracelet he had clasped round her wrist while she lay drowsing by his side.

  Kerry’s eyes widened to their fullest extent and she sat up. ‘Oh, my goodness…it’s…it’s amazing!’ She watched the jewels flash and catch the light. ‘Are they real?’

  ‘Of course they are!’ Luciano was insulted.

  The gift made her feel uneasy. ‘You shouldn’t have bought me something so expensive—’

  ‘Why not? I can afford it.’

  Registering from the flare in his brilliant eyes that she had offended, Kerry forced a smile. ‘I suppose you can now that you’re rid of the responsibility of Ballybawn.’

  He quirked a brow. ‘But I’m not rid of it.’

  That was the moment when Kerry grasped the worst drawback of avoiding the discussion of sensitive issues with both him and her sisters. ‘But I just assumed that you would accept my sisters’ bid for the castle—’

  ‘Why would I allow them to dictate what I do?’ Luciano demanded. ‘You have more right to Ballybawn than they have. But for your efforts, your grandparents would have lost their home years ago.’

  Kerry was taken aback by his attitude. ‘That’s not how I feel. If you let my sisters buy Ballybawn, it will still be in the family. That’s all that matters and I just want peace. I can’t believe that you’re being so stubborn—’

  ‘Believe it, mia carina,’ Luciano urged as he pulled her close to his lean, sun-warmed length. ‘I never liked being bullied. Stop worrying about me. I can look after myself.’

  ‘You’re very obstinate.’ Kerry met slumberous golden eyes full of amusement. ‘I gather that nobody has yet tried to put you out of business.’

  ‘Not so far. Dio mio, I want you all the time.’ Tasting her lush mouth, dipping his tongue into the moist, tender interior to make her shiver, Luciano slowly tugged her back down to the rug and came over her. She could feel him, hot and hard and hungrily aroused against her stomach. In answer tiny tremors of desire quivered through her and damp heat burned at the heart of her.

  It was not the most timely moment for a mobile phone to start ringing from the Toyota Landcruiser parked only a few feet away.

  ‘Don’t answer it. I wish you’d switch it off,’ Luciano commanded as he angled back from her. ‘If I can leave mine off, so can you—’

  ‘But it might be Freddy, and with the time difference between Europe and Quamar it’s so hard for her to reach me at a reasonable hour—’

  ‘Misty sent you a mobile that works abroad so that you could be reached twenty-four hours a day. Do you know why? Not one of your sisters can bear to wait five minutes for anything!’ Luciano breathed with an amount of derision that shook her. ‘You are the latest toy in your sisters’ lives. Some day soon, I will smash that phone—’

  ‘Look…the call might be something important.’ Endeavouring to ignore his annoyance, Kerry got into the car to reach for the phone she had left lying there. It was Ione, ringing to ask whether or not Kerry would be attending the party Ione and Alexio were holding to celebrate their wedding anniversary the following month.

  Conscious of Luciano’s brooding scrutiny as he stood by the driver’s door, Kerry reddened and lowered her head, her fingers plucking nervously at the pocket of her skirt. ‘I’m not sure yet how I’m going to be fixed that week.’

  ‘That’s what you said the last time I asked. Can’t you make a move without Luciano?’ Ione groaned ruefully.

  Kerry flushed. She was uneasily conscious of Luciano’s proximity, for he had settled into the driver’s seat beside her. ‘How many moves do you make without Alexio?’

  Without the smallest warning, Luciano lifted her phone from her hand and slotted it into the handset on the dashboard so that the call would be broadcast over the car speakers.

  In the tense silence, Ione’s voice emerged as clear as a bell. ‘I’m married. You’re still single and free to do as you like. If the date doesn’t suit Luciano, come to the party on your own!’ Her sister laughed. ‘Do I have to bribe you by promising to line up some hot Greek guy for you?’

  Dark colour had fired over the fierce slant of Luciano’s cheekbones and shimmering outrage blazed in his incredulous golden eyes. ‘Kerry is not free to do as she likes!’ he interrupted her sister with raw emphasis, speaking so that the microphone above the driver’s door would pick him up. ‘Nor should I need to state the obvious…a hot Greek guy would be superfluous to your sister’s needs.’

  An aghast silence buzzed at Ione’s end of the line before her sister exclaimed, ‘Is that Luciano I’m speaking to?’

  ‘Yes, and I can tell you right now, Kerry won’t be attending your party!’

  ‘Luciano, stop it…’ Kerry hissed in embarrassment.

  ‘Do you make a habit of listening to my sister’s calls?’ Ione asked worriedly.

  ‘From here on in, I’ll be listening to all of them!’ Luciano ground out without any hesitation whatsoever. ‘I won’t let you interfere in our relationship.’

  ‘But I wasn’t trying to interfere between you,’ Ione contradicted in audible dismay.

  With an angry stab of one lean brown hand, Luciano cut off her sister’s call.

  Kerry did not know who she was most annoyed with: Luciano for eavesdropping or Ione for her provocative sense of humour. In silence, Luciano swept up the rug and the picnic hamper and pitched them into the Land-cruiser with a violence that spoke louder than any words could have done.

  Indeed, Luciano was so enraged that he did not trust himself to speak. His worst suspicions had been proven true. He was now convinced that all Kerry’s sisters were working against him and pouring spiteful poison into her innocent ears in an effort to cause trouble.

  But that was not the least of it. Some hot Greek guy? Luciano seethed at that basest of all insults. How could Ione Christoulakis offer to set Kerry up with another man? That was downright immoral and disgusting! The very idea of it made Luciano feel sick to the stomach. He wanted to tell Kerry that she was never under any circumstances to accept a call from one of her sisters again. After hearing Ione in full flow, he knew he would be equally unhappy about allowing Kerry to even visit her siblings’ homes. It would be like sending a little child into a den of iniquity.

  ‘You know…Ione was only joking about lining up a Greek guy,’ Kerry muttered in the smouldering silence.

  Like hell had Ione been joking! Bold profile rigid, Luciano sent the four-wheel-drive raking up the dirt track towards the road. He was incredibly grateful that the revealing look of guilty embarrassment on Kerry’s face had made him break in on that phone call. Forewarned was forearmed!

  Evidently there were no depths to which her sisters would not sink in their determination to oust him from Kerry’s life. Even if it meant tempting her into infidelity. It was not that he didn’t trust Kerry…he trusted her totally. But she was very naive, always doubting herself, a prime target for unscrupulous manipulative tactics. Hadn’t he occasionally used those same tactics on her himself? And very successfully? Suppose they got her drunk? Who could tell what lies her sisters might be prepared to tell about him? Hadn’t she once listened to Rochelle’s lies and swallowed them whole?

  Just when had the balance of power changed in their relationship? Luciano asked himself angrily. When had the casual affair he had initially planned fallen by the wayside? Why had he made her his mistress but treated her as his lover? Just when too had he become so possessive of Kerry that even her sisters’ antagonism towards him could make him feel threatened? He had always been possessive of her, he acknowledged grudgingly. But then Kerry was essentially his in a way no other woman had ever been…

  On their first night in Tuscany, she had
asked him when he planned to stop punishing her. But by that stage, Luciano recognised, he had already moved on beyond that need. The discovery that there had been no other man in her life or her bed while he had been in prison had gone a long way to easing his bitter sense of betrayal. Seeing what a hard, cold, miserable slog she had endured at Ballybawn during those same years had helped as well. He had also relished the belief that he was in control of their relationship. However, her sisters had destroyed his complacency…

  Now he knew what he was up against. Misty, Freddy and Ione would be waiting to pounce on his every mistake and magnify it into a hanging offence for Kerry’s benefit. Sexy, eligible guys of Greek, Sicilian and Quamari extraction would be trailed in front of her like seductive bait at every opportunity. Every time he had to go away on business or even work late, her sisters would see it as an opportunity to undermine their relationship. As long as they were plotting and scheming in the background, he would never know a moment’s peace. Her siblings would not be happy until their kid sister was as respectably married as they were themselves. He could spike their guns by marrying Kerry himself…husbands were a lot harder to exclude and destroy!

  Kerry stole a troubled glance at Luciano’s brooding profile. Her own tension was increased by the fact that there had been a certain amount of unwelcome truth in Ione’s contention that she ought to make up her own mind about the party. Kerry knew that she needed to make her own plans rather than just drift from day to day in what was essentially Luciano’s world. Two days earlier, her grandparents had flown to London to stay with Misty and her husband, Leone, and were to remain there until the castle was ready for their occupation again. Within another couple of weeks at most, she would have to go home to Ballybawn…yet Luciano was already talking as though he would be making a pretty much permanent return to Italy. Where did that leave her?

  As they entered the palazzo, the housekeeper hurried up to speak to Luciano.

  ‘I believe we have visitors.’ An arm lightly curving to Kerry’s spine, Luciano walked her straight into the drawing room with him.

  Two women, one young and exceptionally pretty, the other an older version of the first, rose to greet them. Kerry’s recognition of Paola Massone was instantaneous. The sight of the Italian beauty who had talked in her magazine interview as though she was only waiting for Luciano to name the date for their wedding, made Kerry tense in surprise and dismay. Luciano introduced her to Paola and the brunette’s frosty-faced mother, neither of whom paid Kerry the slightest attention. Kerry felt at a horrible disadvantage with her hair tossed, her face bare of make-up and her mouth swollen from his kisses.

  Paola had chocolate-brown eyes and silky black hair and her trendy caramel suit was the last word in fashion. A determined smile on her face, Kerry endeavoured to conceal the grass stains on her skirt. Luciano tried to include Kerry in the conversation but Paola and her parent would only speak Italian. As Kerry began to appreciate the extent to which she was being ignored and treated as though her very presence was an affront, her cheeks began to burn with mortified colour.

  Finally, Kerry stood up and without a word went upstairs to their bedroom. She had been made to feel about an inch high. Did Paola and her mother regard her as Luciano’s mistress, just some silly little foreigner sharing his bed for a while and unworthy of any further interest? Did it matter? Their treatment had cut her to the bone.

  Why had she never questioned Luciano about Paola? Well, she had not believed what she had read in Paola’s magazine interview, for it had not made sense. Why would Luciano be pursuing his former fiancée if he had plans to marry some other woman? The very fact that Rochelle had drawn Paola’s existence to Kerry’s attention had also ensured that Kerry was even less impressed by Paola’s dramatic claims. But Paola here on the spot, making a confident visit with her mother in tow, was a very different matter. It was proof that Luciano and Paola did have an ongoing relationship, and if that was true, what else might be true as well?

  It was time for her to leave the Villa Contarini, Kerry told herself fiercely, fighting the shell-shocked feeling of loss already tearing at her. She had to take hold of her own life again. What was it about Luciano that prevented her from holding back, being sensible and protecting herself in their relationship? Love was not an excuse for her to lose her wits and make a fool of herself. Somehow just being with Luciano again had stripped her of her independent shell and strength. She was very happy with him and happiness was seductive. She could not conceive a day without him, never mind a lifetime, but she would have to learn how to do so.

  From the dressing room, Kerry lifted the overnight bag with which she had originally arrived. She changed into the trouser suit in which she had flown out to Italy. It felt hot and scratchy. She almost laughed at herself. Was she being ludicrously petty? What odds would it make to him that she was leaving behind the fancy wardrobe which he had bought for her? She was removing the sapphire and diamond bracelet when Luciano appeared in the bedroom doorway.

  ‘I apologise for my visitors’ bad manners,’ Luciano drawled, his keen gaze noting her rigidity and scanning the overnight bag at her feet. ‘Going somewhere?’

  Blue eyes hollow, Kerry gave him a jerky nod. ‘It’s time for me to leave.’

  The cool, relaxed pose fell from Luciano as he moved deeper into the room. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  Her spine tightened. ‘That I’m…leaving?’

  ‘Like hell you are!’ Luciano slung back at her. ‘You’re not using the Massones as an excuse to walk out on me!’

  Her chin came up, eyes bright with bitter strain. ‘I wasn’t aware I needed an excuse—’

  His lean, strong face clenched hard. ‘You’re annoyed about Paola—’

  ‘Why would I be?’ Kerry demanded.

  ‘But all that’s between Paola and me is the business proposal that she asked me to consider a few months ago—’

  Kerry had meant to demonstrate no interest but that claim disconcerted her. ‘Business?’

  ‘Paola’s a distant cousin of mine. Her father, Armanno, inherited my father’s title but both Tessari’s entire estate and his money came to me. Armanno Massone is a famous wine-maker. Aware of my ambitions for the vineyard here, Paola suggested a very practical alliance between us all.’

  ‘Alliance?’ Kerry queried.

  His sensual mouth twisted. ‘If I agreed to marry her, her father would take charge of the Contarini vineyard. She also believed I would benefit from her family’s superior status in society. The Massones may not be wealthy but they’re very classy.’

  Kerry was hanging on his every word. ‘And what was Paola going to get out of this arrangement?’

  ‘A very rich husband. Being classy is a challenge on a budget.’

  Kerry’s lips parted, rounded and then closed again, her smooth brow still indented. ‘And what was your answer to this incredible proposal?’

  ‘Santo cielo! I said I’d think about it…and why not?’

  As Kerry fully grasped what Luciano was telling her, furious anger lanced up through her and a shaken laugh of disbelief fell from her taut lips. ‘No wonder you were so keen to let me know that marriage wouldn’t be on the cards! All the time you’ve been with me, you’ve been planning to marry Paola!’

  ‘Dio mio! That’s not how it was!’ Luciano was startled by that accusation. ‘I don’t have a relationship with Paola. What she offered me was a business deal and as such worthy of consideration. I won’t apologise for that—’

  ‘Oh, won’t you?’ Kerry gasped in fevered interruption.

  ‘No, I will not. At the time that offer was made, I was still in prison. I was in the mood to consider a practical marriage that had nothing to do with sentiment,’ Luciano launched back at her with hard golden eyes. ‘I was very bitter…I’d lost five years of my life, five years when I had expected to be married, setting up a home and starting a family. But I’d forgotten what the outside world and freedom would feel like!’

&
nbsp; ‘So you then decided to make the most of your freedom before you made the sacrifice of settling down with her!’ Kerry condemned, brushing past him in her eagerness to reach the door.

  ‘But I’m obviously not cut out for much in the way of freedom,’ Luciano murmured with wry self-mockery. ‘Within weeks of my release, I was back with the same woman I was with before I went into prison.’

  Only a couple of feet past him, Kerry stopped and tried to swallow the thickness of tears in her throat. ‘Yes, but—’

  Lean hands closed over her slight shoulders and gently imposed pressure to turn her back to him. ‘It’s also several weeks since I informed Paola that I wouldn’t be taking her up on her offer. But she’s persistent.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. All she’s done is force me to think about stuff I should’ve thought about sooner than this. When you said that what we once had was gone, I didn’t really listen because I didn’t want to believe that,’ Kerry admitted unevenly.

  His strong jawline clenched hard, golden eyes screened by his thick lashes as his wide, sensual mouth compressed. ‘And I didn’t want to believe that what we once had could still be there. Now I’m afraid that your sisters have managed to convince you that I’m bad news—’

  ‘No, they’re not like that—’

  Luciano snatched in a ragged breath. ‘But, bad news or not, I want to marry you, and if you say no I’m just going to lock you in here and deprive you of sleep until I wear you down into agreeing.’

  Engaged in fighting back the tears stinging behind her eyelids, Kerry could not persuade herself that he had truly said those words. Slowly she tipped her head back and looked up at him with questioning intensity.

  His brilliant gaze clung to her pale, taut face. ‘I feel like we’ve never been apart, only we’re closer than we used to be. I want you with me all the time, bella mia.’

  ‘Are you s-serious?’ Kerry stammered.

  ‘When I reach the stage where I’m worrying that your sisters will send in a hit squad to steal you away in the middle of the night, it’s time to bite the bullet like a man and head for the church…before I lose any claim to sanity that I ever had,’ Luciano mocked in a roughened undertone.