Mistress for a Month

by Miranda Lee

  Renée broke off once she saw Rico, with the child immediately protesting. Rico swept a wailing Gina up from her chair and sat down with the child placed firmly in his lap.

  ‘If you don’t shut up, Gina,’ he warned with deep authority in his voice, ‘you won’t hear the rest of the story.’

  It was the right thing to say. Gina shut up immediately.

  ‘Do go on,’ he encouraged Renée. ‘This is one of my favourites.’

  ‘I imagine you like all stories that star big bad wolves,’ she quipped drily before continuing.

  Rico laughed, then listened. What a natural storyteller she was! He was impressed.

  Unfortunately so was Gina, who wanted another one as soon as Little Red Riding Hood was finished. Renée launched into The Three Little Pigs without batting an eyelid, clearly knowing that story equally well. Fortunately, this time, Gina began to droop during the telling, and was sound asleep shortly after the last I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.

  Renée immediately stopped and Rico protested. ‘I’ve come this far. I want to hear the end.’

  She gave him a droll look. ‘You mean the bit where the big bad wolf gets his comeuppance?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘Mmm. What a pity real life doesn’t echo fairy stories. I know a big bad wolf who could do with falling into a pot of boiling water. Scald his ego a bit.’

  ‘Ouch. But seriously, though, Renée, how come you know these stories so well? You didn’t miss a beat.’

  ‘That’s because I spent a good chunk of my teenage years reading those stories to my much younger cousins every single night.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘How come? I was brought up by my aunt and uncle from the age of twelve.’

  ‘How come?’

  She sighed. ‘You ask a lot of questions.’

  ‘I’m interested.’

  ‘I know exactly what you’re interested in where I’m concerned, Rico Mandretti. But I suppose you can’t indulge that appetite here so you want to feed your curiosity instead. Very well, if you must know. When I was twelve, I became an orphan. My parents were killed in a head-on collision, along with my younger sister. I was luckily—or unluckily, depending on your point of view—staying with my aunt and uncle that day. They took me in afterwards and I lived with them till I left school and came to Sydney to find work.’

  ‘You weren’t happy with them, though, were you?’ Rico said, reading between the lines.

  Renée shrugged. ‘They did their best for me, I suppose. I mean…I wasn’t their daughter, just a niece. But my aunt was not a motherly woman. Lord knows why she had baby after baby. I do know she liked having a ready-made baby-sitter in me. I looked after those babies from sun-up to sun-down some days. Not that I minded all that much. Her kids loved me, even if she didn’t. And I needed someone to love me back then.’

  Rico was shocked, both by her tragic story and the fact that till that moment he hadn’t given a serious thought to Renée’s family or her upbringing. Yet he claimed he loved her. Maybe he was as selfish as her other Italian lover. Or maybe all men were selfish. Whatever, it was high time he started thinking about her, instead of himself.

  ‘You haven’t mentioned your uncle. You didn’t have any trouble with him, I hope.’

  She looked startled. ‘What do you mean? Oh…oh, no, not at all. Why do people always think awful things like that?’

  Rico shrugged. ‘It’s just that you must have been a very good-looking girl, even at twelve.’

  ‘Actually no, I wasn’t. I never was the cute and pretty type, with baby-blue eyes and curls et cetera. I was always very thin and bony, with straight, mousy-brown hair, skin that didn’t tan and these big pale green eyes. My nickname at school was Froggie. Then, around fourteen, I shot up far too quickly and became terribly awkward and gangly. All legs and no bust to speak of. I wasn’t the kind of young girl that men look at and lust over. By the time I was eighteen I’d improved somewhat, but I still had no style or poise. I used to go round with my shoulders hunched and looking down at the ground all the time.’

  ‘I find that hard to believe. You walk so beautifully now. So proudly.’

  ‘Thanks to a deportment and grooming course I was lucky enough to win after I came to Sydney. It was a prize in a raffle the women were running at work for charity. I was the mail girl at a plastics factory at the time. Anyway, the people running the course said I had the right look for a model and recommended me to an agency. I never expected to be taken on but I was, and in no time I was on the catwalk and doing fashion layouts. I never reached supermodel status—I’m not quite tall enough for that—but I did very well for myself.’

  ‘I have to confess I only vaguely recall your name. But then, I wasn’t into dating models.’

  ‘Not enough boob for your taste?’

  ‘Very funny. No. I think my ego was too large to compete with successful women. I was content with girls who said I was wonderful all the time, not the other way around. Hopefully, I’ve grown up a bit since then. I know you think I go from one blonde bimbo to another but that’s not true. Not any more, anyway.’

  She threw him a thoughtful look. ‘You surprise me, Rico. It’s a sign of real maturity to be able to look back at things you’ve done and understand why you’ve done them. I’m really glad you’re not going to go back to dating girls like Jasmine. You deserve better.’ Is this me saying that? Well, I did say you were driving me insane.’

  Their eyes met and he wanted to kiss her again. Very badly. But, of course, he didn’t. Instead, he decided to press on with finding out more about her.

  ‘So how did your parents’ accident happen?’ he asked gently. ‘Under what circumstances?’

  Her eyes saddened with the memory. ‘Mum and Dad had to take my little sister, her name was Fay, to Sydney to see a specialist. She had scoliosis of the spine. We lived out in the country, on a farm, not far from Mudgee. Not many specialists out there. They’d driven down to Sydney early that morning, and been at the hospital all day. They stayed for a meal and didn’t start the drive back till it was quite late. They weren’t all that far from home when their car veered onto the wrong side of the road straight in front of a truck. They think Dad fell asleep at the wheel.’

  Rico’s heart went out to her. ‘That’s tough, Renée. Really tough. I’m so sorry.’

  Their eyes connected and he hoped she would see genuine sympathy in his.

  ‘You’re not really a big bad wolf, are you?’ she said with a frown.

  He smiled, happy that she could see beyond the playboy tag at last. ‘No. But I haven’t been at my best the last couple of days. I have to admit that.’

  ‘Wow, if that’s not your best then I’m in for a few treats during the next month.’

  Rico had to laugh. She had a wicked sense of humour. He was almost tempted to tell her right then and there that she didn’t fool him. He knew she wanted more from him than sex. She wanted him to love her. And to marry her.

  But it was neither the right time nor the right place for such a confrontation. He didn’t want to risk losing her altogether by being impatient. He would wait till the time was right, till she was ready to accept his love. Meanwhile, he would keep on carefully asking her about herself. She’d started to tell him things now. There was no reason for her to stop.

  ‘So what are they doing with your dad?’ she asked first. ‘He didn’t look too bad from what I saw. A bit pasty-faced but well able to live till that ninety he said you Mandretti men live to. Unless they’re murdered, of course. By jealous exes and vengeful mistresses, no doubt.’

  He grinned, and was proceeding to update her on what the doctor had said when Katrina made an appearance, looking both surprised and pleased when she saw her little girl was asleep.

  ‘I was getting worried,’ she said. ‘I see I didn’t have to be. Thank you so much, but I’d better take Gina home now,’ she went on, easing the child out of Rico’s arms into her own. �
�Papa’s resting comfortably. I’ll come and see him tomorrow. Nice to meet you, Renée. And thanks for minding Gina. I’m sorry you’re not Rico’s real fiancée. He could do with marrying someone nice for a change. Bye, Rico.’ She bent to kiss him, whispering, ‘You silly fool,’ as she did so.

  He grinned up at her as she straightened. Katrina had been like a second mother to him as he grew up and had spoiled and indulged him almost as much as she had Gina. For her to call him a silly fool was a very serious rebuke indeed. But it meant she approved of Renée as a potential sister-in-law.

  He liked that idea. A lot.

  ‘See you tomorrow, sis.’

  She rolled her eyes at him and left.

  ‘Are all your brothers and sisters as good-looking as you are?’ Renée asked as Katrina walked off.

  Rico thought about that for a second. ‘Almost,’ he said, and Renée punched him playfully on the upper arm. ‘You’re an arrogant sod.’

  ‘Yeah. It’s a problem we big bad wolves have in common. We’re arrogant. So, shall we go see what the old man is up to?’ He stood up and took her hand, pulling her to her feet.

  ‘Would you prefer for me to wait for you in the car?’

  ‘Absolutely not. Dad’s always had an eye for a pretty woman. Seeing you again will keep his ticker going.’

  ‘Flatterer.’

  ‘That’s another quality you can rely upon in a big bad wolf. We’re all flatterers.’

  ‘I already said you weren’t a big bad wolf.’

  ‘So you did. In that case, I’m not a flatterer. You must be really pretty, then.’

  She gave him one of her droll looks. ‘Lead on, Mr Mandretti.’

  ‘I’ll have to ask the nurse at the desk for directions first.’

  He asked the nurse, got directions, then set off for the ward they’d moved his father to. The directions were rather complicated, and they got lost a couple of times, wandering down empty and echoing corridors before finally reaching the wing, and the right room. Rico was pleased to see it was a private room with only one bed in it. His father looked very settled, and much better, with some colour in his face. He was also sound asleep, courtesy of an injection he’d been given, his mother told them.

  ‘There’s no need for you to stay,’ she told Rico. ‘Come and visit tomorrow.’

  ‘But what about you, Mum? You should get some sleep. I’ll drive you home.’

  ‘Thank you, Enrico, but no. They say I can stay. A nice nurse is going to bring in a stretcher bed. I sleep in here by your papa.’

  Rico frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that. It worried him. Why would the hospital let his mother do that? Unless it meant…

  ‘It’s fairly standard procedure these days in hospitals,’ Renée broke in softly. ‘Don’t worry.’

  He looked at her. ‘How did…?’ He shook his head. ‘Never mind.’ He liked to think she was sensitive to his needs, that they were already becoming attuned to each other, not just physically but emotionally. He gave his mother a goodbye hug and his father a kiss goodbye, just in case.

  ‘Don’t die on me, Dad,’ he whispered. ‘I love you.’

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ Renée said as they walked together back to his car, Renée leading the way. ‘He’s in good hands.’

  ‘I guess so.’

  ‘But you’ll worry all the same,’ she said as they reached the Ferrari, which was standing alone in the main car park under a lit telegraph pole. ‘You love your family a lot, don’t you?’

  ‘But of course. Family is everything, Renée.’

  Her eyes turned instantly bleak and he could have kicked himself. ‘Oh, God, I am a fool,’ he muttered, and pulled her into his arms.

  She went willingly, but with a sob. When she buried her face against his chest and wept, he just held her and stroked her hair. ‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ he said regretfully. ‘It was stupid of me.’

  ‘No,’ she choked out, shaking her head. ‘No, it was beautiful.’ And then she wept some more. Deeply. Despairingly.

  He let her cry herself out, knowing that there was nothing he could say to make her feel better. Before tonight, he would have had no concept of what it felt like to lose both your parents so tragically. Going through this scare with his father had given him some idea. But not entirely, he conceded. How could he possibly know how she’d felt as a twelve-year-old, being told that her whole family had been snuffed out? And then having to live with people who didn’t really want or love you?

  ‘I don’t know about you,’ he said when she finally stopped crying. ‘But I could do with something to eat. Do you think they might have kept our barramundi warm?’

  ‘Why don’t we go to my place instead?’ she offered, her eyes still looking lovely despite their red rims. ‘I have a whole heap of ready-made meals in my freezer that wouldn’t take long to heat up in the microwave. Not supermarket muck, either. Good food that I’ve cooked myself.’

  ‘Sounds great to me,’ he said, hiding his surprise that she bothered to cook at all.

  Her town-house was even more of a surprise. Country-style furniture and very comfy, where he’d envisaged either ultra-expensive antiques or that cold, minimalist stuff you saw in style magazines. In no time he was sitting on floral-cushioned wooden chairs and forking spicy Thai chicken and noodles into his eager mouth, washed down with some refreshing Chinese tea.

  ‘You’ve no idea how much I enjoy eating food other people have cooked,’ he said between mouthfuls.

  ‘You’ve no idea how much I enjoy seeing someone else eat my cooking,’ she countered. ‘It’s always just me.’

  He let that information sink in whilst he downed some more of the simply delicious food. There was so much he didn’t know about her.

  ‘Why did you marry a man so much older than yourself, Renée?’ he asked when both their plates were empty. ‘And please…don’t give me some bull-dust answer. I want the truth.’

  ‘The truth,’ she repeated slowly, then leant back in her chair, her face taking on a resigned expression. ‘You really are extra-curious tonight, aren’t you? All right. Perhaps it’s time you heard the truth, anyway. I married Jo because he loved me. And because he didn’t want children.’

  Rico could not have been more startled. Or more worried.

  ‘It had absolutely nothing to do with his money,’ she added wryly.

  ‘Fine.’ Rico nodded slowly. ‘OK. I believe you. But why didn’t you want children?’

  ‘I didn’t say that, Rico. I said Jo didn’t.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m confused.’ Utterly.

  ‘I am only telling you this because I have an awful feeling where all this is heading. The total truth is, Rico, I can’t have children.’

  Her baldly delivered statement struck him like a physical blow, obliterating in one fell swoop everything he had been planning. How could he marry her and make her the mother of his children if she couldn’t have any?

  Rico sat there with his mouth hanging open and his hope for their future together disintegrating on the spot.

  ‘How…how long have you known?’ he asked at last, when he could think again.

  ‘Since I was twenty-six. I had an ectopic pregnancy. Twins. One in each tube. There were complications, along with a severe bacterial infection. After the operation necessary to save my life, I was told the good news.’

  Rico didn’t know what to say. He knew her sarcasm hid a lot of pain. He could see it in her eyes. The surgeon must have had to give her a hysterectomy. Dear God, what devastating news for a woman in her twenties!

  But it explained so much. Her marriage to Joseph Selinsky. Her decision to never have a real relationship since becoming a widow. Her reluctance to talk, or even think of love.

  ‘Roberto was the father, wasn’t he?’ he said with further insight.

  ‘How did you guess?’

  ‘So what happened? He just dumped you after he found out you couldn’t have any more children, was that it?’

  ‘He
avens, no, Roberto was much more selfish than that. He pretended to be sympathetic. Told me it didn’t matter, that he still loved me madly and we would still get married. He continued to sleep with me. Naturally. But he began going overseas a lot. Modelling assignments, he told me. Around that time, I started up the modelling agency and soon found out through contacts that Roberto hadn’t been working in the business for ages. He was away when I discovered this piece of puzzling news. I rang him immediately and tackled him over what was going on. He confessed over the phone that he’d been spending all his time in Italy with his new wife, his new pregnant wife.’

  Rico sucked in sharply. The bastard went and got himself married!

  ‘She was from a very wealthy family,’ Renée continued, then smiled a travesty of a smile. ‘The funny thing is he could not understand why I was so upset. He said I couldn’t possibly expect him to really marry me. He said he still loved me and wanted me to continue being his lover. He said his father-in-law was in the shoe business and had given him a job in the export-sales division and that he would be coming to Australia regularly on business. He said it was a perfect arrangement and I was perfect mistress material, since I could not conceive and he wouldn’t even have to bother with condoms. He promised me he would only sleep with me and his wife so everything would be perfectly safe.’

  Rico could hardly believe what he was hearing. What kind of man did something like that? Or said such amazingly arrogant and incredibly insensitive things?

  ‘So…what did you do?’

  ‘What do you mean, what did I do?’ she flung back at him. ‘I told him to go screw himself and that if he ever came near me again I’d cut his balls off with a carving knife! What do you think I did?’ she said, jumping up, her voice having risen hysterically. ‘Do you think I just lay back and let him do what he liked when he liked? Give me credit for more pride than that. The only reason I’m telling you this is so that you won’t go getting any silly ideas about my marrying you. Which you have been thinking of tonight, haven’t you? You think you love me. You probably think I love you. And maybe I do. But whether I do or not is totally irrelevant, under the circumstances. You want children. I can’t give them to you. End of story. End of affair.’