by Lynne Graham
‘But you said you weren’t going to marry me—’
Beautiful dark golden eyes sought and held hers. ‘I was wrong. I want to marry you—’
Kerry was starting to tremble, almost afraid to believe, for she could see how much her answer meant to him in the depths of his clear gaze and it was a look she had believed he might never give her again. ‘I know you’re saying that but—’
‘As soon as possible. I’d like to get married here in Italy and I won’t wait a day longer than necessary…we’ve already lost out on too many years.’
The gruffness in his accented drawl made her own throat ache. She pushed forward into his lithe, lean, powerful frame and he crushed her so close that she could hardly breathe.
‘Yes…I think I’m going to cry,’ she mumbled shakily.
Luciano looked down at her, a slashing grin curving his wide, sensual mouth. ‘Over me? Can I watch?’
‘Pervert…’ Kerry laughed, for he had successfully banished all threat of tears.
Just when Luciano was in the act of backing her towards the bed, dark golden eyes smouldering, she looked up at him in sudden appeal. ‘Would you mind…would you mind if I just rang Misty?’
Disconcerted by that particular request, Luciano tensed.
‘I can’t wait to tell her our news. I know she’ll be so happy for us. I’ll only be two minutes, I swear…’
CHAPTER NINE
FOUR tall, dark men, all remarkably handsome and wearing elegant morning suits with natty grey-striped waistcoats and white cravats, stood in the vestry of the church of St Augustine.
‘Kerry told you she would only be two minutes on the phone and you believed her?’ Misty’s husband, Leone Andracchi, gave Luciano a highly amused scrutiny. ‘You’ve a lot to learn, and now that there’s four of them it will only get worse from here on in—’
‘You’re not kidding.’ Ione’s husband, Alexio Christoulakis, grimaced. ‘I once threw Ione’s phone in the bath to stop it ringing—’
‘I bet you were popular.’ Leone laughed. ‘I chucked one out the window.’
Freddy’s husband, Crown Prince Jaspar al-Husayn, smiled with a certain amount of oneupmanship. ‘I used the excuse of health concerns and banned mobile and digital phones from our private apartments.’
‘Nice one, Jaspar,’ Leone murmured with frank appreciation. ‘In the near future I suspect I’m about to become very much more health-scare aware.’
Engaged in wondering if the bridal limo was on the way down to the village, Luciano was too tense to be amused. It was his wedding day and he was just grateful it had finally arrived. Ten days had passed since his marriage proposal, and for nine of those days Luciano had got no closer to Kerry than a phone call! The very evening of the day that Kerry had agreed to marry him, two of her sisters and their husbands had flown in to make his acquaintance. While that meeting had gone off very much better than he might have expected, Misty had insisted on organising the entire wedding and Ione had whisked Kerry off to Paris to buy her bridal trousseau. What Luciano had dimly imagined would be a small, intimate occasion had turned into a three-ring circus and Kerry had not got the chance to return to Tuscany before the wedding took place.
From the imposing porch of the Villa Contarini, Kerry watched her grandmother, her three sisters and those of her nephews and nieces playing an active role in the ceremony board the waiting line of cars. When the cars had driven off, she did a slow, wondering spin in front of a glittering Venetian glass mirror: the dream that she had begun dreaming almost the very first time she laid eyes on Luciano da Valenza was at last coming true.
Her gown was a bias-cut column of white duchesse satin with a crystal-beaded neckline. The classic style contrived to make her look taller, and the exquisite diamond tiara which Freddy had loaned her only added to that flattering impression. Freddy had also given her a very pretty seed-pearl and lace garter. Misty had presented her kid sister with an eye-poppingly sexy set of lingerie and Ione had given her a truly amazing pair of designer shoes that were studded with diamonds.
‘I fell for them but Alexio has got this weird hang-up about me wearing shoes with jewels on them, so I bought them for you instead,’ Ione had confided. ‘Trust me, you’ll feel a million dollars in them!’
Emerging from that recollection with a helpless smile, for Ione was so rich that she had little concept of how other people lived, Kerry raised her gown a couple of inches to watch her shoes sparkle in the sunlight, and Ione was right, those shoes did make her feel fantastic. It was time for her and her grandfather to head for the church. She would be precisely three minutes late.
‘I don’t think you’ll get the chance to read anything during the church service, Grandpa.’ With a grin, Kerry removed the book that Hunt O’Brien was reaching for before he could get lost between its pages again and set it aside.
‘You look very lovely, my dear,’ the old man said fondly. ‘At a time in life when there are usually few surprises left, your grandmother and I feel very blessed. Your late mother has left us a wonderful legacy in her daughters and their children.’
Her throat tight with tears, Kerry gave her grandfather a hug for recognising what was most important: Carrie had given Kerry and her siblings the gift of life. Only in getting to know and love her sisters had Kerry finally overcome the sad sense of aloneness which had nagged at her since she was a child.
Seated in the limousine that would take her to the church, Kerry thought about the nine incredibly busy days that had just passed. While she had very much enjoyed spending time with her sisters and their respective families, she had missed Luciano almost more than she could bear. When she had contacted her father to tell him about her marriage plans, Harold Linwood had told her that she was making a fool of herself and had turned down her wedding invitation. She had not expected much from the older man but his contemptuous dismissal had hurt.
Miles’s warm and accepting response to the same announcement had been very welcome. She was really looking forward to seeing her stepbrother at the reception but was a little anxious as to how Luciano would react to the younger man’s presence. Ought she to have mentioned that Miles was on the guest list beforehand?
By the time Kerry walked down the aisle of the flower-bedecked church with Freddy acting as matron of honour and her twin sisters as her bridesmaids, all such superfluous concerns had left her. Luciano broke with tradition to watch her approach, and the wondering appreciation in his steady gaze made her feel like the most beautiful bride in the world. With simple dignity and warmth, Hunt O’Brien read the Bible readings for the ceremony, first in Irish and then in English. Kerry’s heart was soon full to overflowing, and afterwards she could never recall posing for the flurry of photos taken as they all emerged from the picturesque stone church.
‘You’ve got glitter on your shoes,’ Luciano told her helpfully as he assisted her into the limo that would ferry them back to the villa for the reception.
‘That’s not glitter. Those are genuine jewels,’ Kerry confided with a helpless giggle. ‘Ione’s gift. I think they’ll have to go in a special display box afterwards.’
‘Dio mio…’ Luciano was astonished but his proud dark head lifted and he frowned as something outside the church stole his attention from his bride’s amazing footwear.
‘What is it?’
Luciano tore his incredulous gaze from Miles Linwood’s smug, smiling face in the crowd and focused back on his bride. ‘What the hell is your stepbrother doing here?’
His harsh intonation made Kerry pale. ‘I invited him—’
‘You should have discussed that with me,’ Luciano cut in grimly. ‘No Linwood ought to be at my wedding!’
Kerry lifted her chin. ‘Luciano…you just married a Linwood.’
‘I don’t think of you as one of them. If I did, I couldn’t have married you.’ Lean, strong face set in hard, uncompromising lines, Luciano surveyed her with chilling golden eyes. ‘It was Linwoods who banded together, stitch
ed me up and put me in prison for five years. Think hard about where your loyalties lie, mia carina.’
Shock had claimed Kerry, for she had been quite unprepared for the level of his hostility towards her stepbrother. ‘It’s not a matter of that—’
‘It is—’
‘I’m very fond of Miles and I have been since we were children—’
‘He’s not a blood relative—’
‘Nevertheless, I’ve always thought of him as my brother. I know that you and he never got on but it meant a lot to me that he was willing to come to our wedding and leave behind all the unpleasantness of the past,’ Kerry confided with conviction.
Luciano vented a harsh, unamused laugh. ‘Per meraviglia! Unpleasantness? How can you dare to call five stinking years in a prison cell…mere unpleasantness?’
Every scrap of colour drained from Kerry’s complexion when she realised how much she had offended. But even while she fully recognised her own clumsy lack of tact, she was dismayed by his attitude and could not help feeling that he was blaming the wrong people for his imprisonment. It was her personal belief that the shoddy police investigation allied with possible prejudice against Luciano being a foreigner had had a greater bearing on the guilty verdict reached at his original trial.
‘I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to make it sound as if I was belittling what you must’ve suffered,’ Kerry responded in an unhappy whisper.
‘This is the last time you will see Miles, so make the most of the occasion,’ Luciano advised, his beautiful, dark golden eyes severe.
He escorted her into the villa and stood by her side while the staff offered their good wishes. His polite social smile did not fool Kerry, who remained painfully aware that he was still furious with her. She had underestimated the extent of his bitterness and in her eagerness to bury the traumatic events that had once destroyed their relationship had badly misjudged the situation. But it shook her that Luciano should demand that she abandon her lifelong friendship with her stepbrother to prove her loyalty. How could he force her to make a cruel choice like that?
During the wedding breakfast that followed, Kerry had little opportunity for private conversation with her bridegroom. But she remained aware of his vibrant proximity with every fibre of her being. Before the dancing began, her grandfather gave a short, amusing speech and concluded by raising his glass to the bridal couple and toasting them in Irish, ‘Slainte agus saol agat…Health and life to you!’
In the ballroom, which was embellished with glorious garlands of flowers, Luciano wound her into his arms, his clear gaze full of regret. ‘You’re the most beautiful bride ever and I’m fighting with you. Let’s not talk again about our unwanted guest,’ he suggested. ‘This is our day and nothing should spoil it, cara mia.’
Much of Kerry’s unease evaporated and only the fear that Miles might approach her while she was with Luciano remained with her. Circling the floor in Luciano’s arms, she discovered that even his warm, virile scent could awaken both her senses and her body to the potency of his attraction. Dry-mouthed, she pressed herself closer to his big, powerful frame and succumbed to a helpless little shiver of pleasure. She felt starved of him and shamefully eager for the forceful possession which the ache between her thighs was already making her crave.
Embarrassed by the way in which she found herself clinging to him, Kerry flushed. ‘I don’t know myself like this…’
‘I do…but, as I can’t drag you upstairs and give you exactly what you want right at this moment, I suggest that we part and circulate rather than torture ourselves,’ Luciano groaned in acknowledgement.
Away from him, that tormenting knot of hungry desire soon began to unravel to a controllable level inside her. Delighted to find herself surrounded by so many family members, Kerry danced with Freddy’s eldest adopted son, Ben, as well as Prince Kareem, her sister’s alarmingly mature six-year-old. Freddy also had a daughter, Azima, and a third son, who was still a toddler, called Akil. She had said that her current pregnancy would be her last but Misty had whispered, ‘If you believe that, you’ll believe anything…she’s nuts about kids!’
Misty and Leone had three little boys, Connor, Niall and Evan, all very lively and full of mischief. Kerry could only smile at the sight of the cool, sophisticated Leone Andracchi crossing the dance floor at speed to recapture his tiny youngest son, who was making frantic efforts to follow his two older brothers even though he had only just learned to walk. Ione had four-year-old twins, Apollo and Diantha, who had immense charm, and a second son called Christan, who was always getting into fights.
When she began feeling a little dizzy, Kerry thought that she had expended too much energy on the dance floor and she went out on to the terrace in the hope that the fresh air would revive her. Approaching the shaded loggia, she was surprised to see all three of her sisters engaged in urgent conversation there.
‘I think she has the right to be told what we found out,’ Ione was saying.
Freddy looked anxious. ‘It’s a very difficult situation but Jaspar believes that it’s not our place to interfere between a man and his wife, particularly over a family matter—’
‘Leone says that that’s why we should just stay out of it too but I have a hideous suspicion that my husband approves of what’s being done.’ Misty groaned. ‘It’s just I feel guilty not telling her and I can’t help thinking she’s in for a heck of a shock—’
‘About what?’ Kerry had halted several feet away with a troubled frown dividing her brows.
Her sisters spun round. Freddy went pink, Ione gave Kerry a calm smile and Misty looked enquiring.
‘I mean…you are all talking about me…aren’t you?’ Kerry prompted, for those mysterious references to a man and his wife and a family matter had seemed to indicate a very probable close connection.
‘Actually, no,’ Misty asserted. ‘We’re discussing a mutual friend who is about to discover that her husband is not quite the pussycat he might seem.’
‘It’s always a big mistake to think that a guy is perfect…or that guys are like us,’ Ione continued ruefully. ‘Occasionally you come across one so ruthless that he makes King Herod look kind, and not only will he not be ashamed of it, he may also even be proud!’
After chatting to her sisters, Kerry went off in search of Miles and found him in the centre of an admiring group. He was telling a funny story with a great deal of panache. Dropping an arm round Kerry, he gave her shoulders an affectionate squeeze. When his punchline had everyone laughing, he plunged straight into another story.
As the minutes passed and Miles still made no attempt to engage her in a private conversation, Kerry was bewildered by his behaviour. Miles was talking fast and furiously but with a clarity that confirmed that too much alcohol was not the problem; her stepbrother seemed to be in an unusually excitable mood.
From across the ballroom, she saw Luciano watching her. The tension stamped in her bridegroom’s proud dark features was evident. Colouring, she tugged at Miles’s sleeve to gain his attention.
With decided reluctance, Miles finally walked her away from his audience. ‘Thanks for the invite. I’m having a fantastic time. You’ll never know how grateful I was for the excuse to escape work for a couple of days.’
‘Is Linwoods still having problems?’ Kerry pressed worriedly.
‘No way am I going to talk business on your wedding day,’ her stepbrother reproved. ‘Are you happy?’
‘Ecstatic,’ she muttered a little shyly.
‘Even though da Valenza is ripping that you’ve invited me?’
Kerry worried at her lower lip in discomfiture.
Miles gave her a fond appraisal. ‘I’m really not worth it, you know.’
‘To me you are—’
His bloodshot blue eyes softened. ‘I’m touched.’
‘For once, he was telling you the truth when he told you that he wasn’t worth the effort,’ Luciano derided.
The intrusion of her husband’s dark, deep drawl made
Kerry jerk round in dismay. Dulled coins of colour highlighting his hard cheekbones, Luciano was rigid and she was fearfully conscious of the violent tension holding his lithe, muscular frame taut. It seemed providential when another guest engaged Luciano in conversation. Kerry was weak with relief at the interruption. For an alarming instant, she had been genuinely afraid that Luciano might start a fight and she made no attempt to dissuade her stepbrother from fading back into the crush of guests.
Kerry was heading off to get changed for their departure when Luciano caught up with her in the hall. He tugged her round into the circle of his arms. ‘Don’t take the dress off. I want to carry you out of here just as you are, cara mia,’ he confided huskily.
When he looked at her with those smouldering golden eyes of his, Kerry could hardly get breath into her lungs and she simply nodded like a puppet.
‘No arguments even though I’ve been an absolute bastard all afternoon?’
Mesmerised by the sheer potency of the breathtaking smile with which he accompanied that admission, Kerry could have forgiven him for anything. ‘No arguments.’
‘You’re an angel…’
No, she knew she wasn’t. An angel would have had a deeper appreciation of the traumatic experiences Luciano had gone through over the past five years and of just how recent had been his regain of his freedom. She had expected too much too soon. Naturally, he was bitter, defensive, suspicious. Naturally, he needed to feel that she was one hundred per cent on his side. Didn’t he deserve her full attention? After all, blame him as she might for never once letting her know that he still cared about her, she could never, ever forget that he had endured his imprisonment without any support from her.
‘But I haven’t had the chance to say goodbye to anyone!’ Kerry gasped, for he had taken a very literal interpretation of her agreement and, having seized impatient hold of her hand, was already dragging her towards the villa’s rear entrance. ‘I don’t even know where we’re going—’
