CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NINA decided against using the airport at Naples and hailed a cab to take her to Rome instead. She took the first available flight, arriving in Sydney bleary-eyed and broken-hearted. She stayed with Elizabeth for a week, hardly coming out of her room, her eyes red from bouts of weeping, her slim build visibly shrinking as each day passed.
Elizabeth sat on the end of her bed on the seventh day and frowned in concern. ‘Come on, Nina. Don’t take this lying down. Go and see him and tell him how you feel. Yesterday’s paper said he’s back in town now.’
‘I can’t,’ Nina sobbed.
‘Yes, you can,’ her friend insisted. ‘You love him and you love Georgia. He needs to know.’
‘He hates me.’
‘How do you know that? Things might have changed by now. Who knows? A full dose of Nadia might have set him straight.’
Nina rolled on to her back and scrubbed at her eyes. ‘It’s my fault for not telling him the truth from the start. He has every right to be angry. He married the wrong woman.’
‘What rubbish!’ Elizabeth said. ‘He married the right one, if you ask me. You are everything he needs. You are loyal and faithful and would rather suffer yourself than hurt someone else. What more could a man ask for?’
Nina’s chin wobbled. ‘I just wish I could tell him how I feel.’
Elizabeth got to her feet. ‘Do it.’ She handed her the phone from the bedside table. ‘Call him now and ask to see him.’
Nina stared at the phone for a long moment.
‘Go on,’ she urged. ‘What’s his number and I’ll dial it for you.’
Nina took the phone with an unsteady hand. ‘No…no, I’ll call him.’
‘Good girl.’ Elizabeth gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ She went to the door and turned back to add, ‘Good luck.’
Nina gave her a tremulous smile and, although she’d only said she’d call Marc to get her friend off her back, she looked down at the phone in her hands, surprised to see she had pressed more than half the numbers in already. She took a shaky breath and pressed the last three.
‘Nina?’ Lucia answered on the second ring. ‘Dio! Where are you? We have been so worried! Georgia is not sleeping and Marc is—’
‘Is she all right?’ Nina gasped.
‘She is missing her mother,’ Lucia said.
‘Where is Nadia?’
Lucia made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat. ‘Not that mother—you. Your sister took the money and left.’
‘What money?’
‘The money she asked for in exchange for Georgia,’ Lucia informed her.
Nina closed her eyes. ‘And…Marc? How…how is he?’
‘He is angry.’
‘I know.’ Nina bit her lip. ‘I don’t blame him.’
‘Where are you?’ Lucia asked. ‘He will want to see you.’
‘He told me he never wanted to see me again.’
‘That was then, this is now. Come around tonight. I will take Georgia home with me so you can have the evening together to sort things out.’
‘I don’t know if it can be sorted out.’
‘Just come home, Nina. This is where you belong.’
Nina was sitting on the edge of the sofa in Marc’s house when she heard his car come up the drive. She’d spent an hour with Georgia before Lucia had taken her with her, the baby settling as if by magic as soon as Nina tucked her into the baby seat in the back of the housekeeper’s car.
She heard Marc swear as he entered the house, the rough expletive cutting through the air like a knife. She rose to her feet as the lounge room door was pushed open, her hands in a tight knot in front of her body, her eyes hesitantly searching for his.
He came to a complete halt as his eyes met hers, his colour draining away as if he’d just been given the shock of his life.
‘Nina?’ He stepped towards her, then stopped. ‘It is you?’
‘Yes, it’s me.’
‘I was not sure…’ He pushed a hand through his hair, making it even more untidy than it already was. ‘I was expecting your sister. She called today, asking for more money.’
‘What did you say to her?’
He gave her a quick glance before looking away. ‘There is not much I can say until the adoption papers are processed.’
‘She’s letting you adopt Georgia?’
‘Yes, for a price, of course.’
‘Of course.’
He met her eyes once more, his expression guarded. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I wanted to see Georgia.’
He held her gaze for an interminable second or two. ‘Is that all?’
‘No.’ She took another breath and added softly, ‘I wanted to see you.’
‘Why?’ His one word held a note of accusation as if he thought she too was after his money.
‘I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for what I did. I thought I was doing the best thing for Georgia but…I can see now how terribly wrong it was. I thought you would take her away from me but I know you are not the hard man you pretend to be. You are…’ She tripped over a little sob. ‘You are the most wonderful man I have ever met.’
‘You are her mother in ways your sister could never be,’ he said, his voice suddenly rough with emotion. ‘I was wrong to speak to you the way I did. I was so angry at how you had deceived me. I never once stopped to think of what you had sacrificed in order to protect Georgia from Nadia.’
‘W-what do you mean?’
A shadow of a smile haunted his mouth. ‘You gave yourself to me. I had no idea what you were doing at the time. I simply assumed you had had a difficult birth with Georgia, never once suspecting that not only were you not her mother but that you were also a virgin.’
Colour seeped into her cheeks and she had to look away.
‘No.’ He stepped towards her, taking her by the shoulders in a gentle hold so she had no choice but to meet his eyes. ‘Do not hide the truth from me any longer. You gave yourself to me and I want to know why.’
‘I…’ Her eyes fell away from his. ‘I couldn’t help it. I had never felt that way before.’ She lifted her eyes back to his. ‘I think I fell in love with you that first day when you came to my flat. You picked up Georgia and you had tears in your eyes. I know you were grieving the loss of your brother but you still had room for her in your heart and were prepared to do anything to protect her. I had the very same feelings. It made me realise we were more alike than different. I couldn’t help falling in love with you.’
He swallowed convulsively as he reached for her, burying his head into her neck. ‘I have wronged you so abominably. How can you love me?’
She felt the moisture of his eyes against her skin and hugged him tightly. ‘I just do. No rhyme or reason. I just do.’
He pulled back from her, his expression tortured. ‘I cannot believe I am hearing this. You mean you forgive me for what I said to you?’
‘You were angry.’
‘Not just angry,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘I was so hurt. I imagined you laughing behind my back at how you had hoodwinked me.’
She gave him a quizzical look. ‘I thought you said you never allowed yourself to get hurt?’
He smiled. ‘You are not the only one who can tell lies, you know. Of course I was hurt. In spite of what I believed to be true of you, I had fallen in love with you. I wanted to believe you were not capable of the behaviour that had led to my brother’s death, but every now and again you would remind me of it by acting like your sister. I had no choice but to think you were one and the same.’
‘And yet you fell in love with me?’
He gathered her closer. ‘How could I not? You were always so loving towards Georgia and you responded to me so delightfully. I ached for you day and night and, while I hated myself for my weakness, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from touching you.’
She sighed against the solid warmth of his chest. ‘I can’t believe you love me
.’
He stroked a hand through her hair, pressing her to his heart. ‘You had better believe it. I have been out of my mind these last few days trying to find you. I have not slept or eaten in days.’
She smiled up at him. ‘Me neither. I missed you so much.’
He gave her a suddenly serious look. ‘I have lain awake at night agonising over the ways I have insulted you. Do you know how wretched I feel? You are the most beautiful person, your nature is gentle and loving and your natural shyness so endearing. I have been such a fool for not seeing it from the first. If I had been thinking clearly I would have, but I was torn apart by Andre’s death and my father’s demands to claim Georgia no matter what the cost. I knew he was dying, time was running out and I had to do whatever I could to fulfil his last wish.’
Nina stroked his jaw tenderly, her eyes shining with moisture. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. I was the one in the wrong. I should have told you right at the beginning when you came to my flat but I was frightened you’d take Georgia away. I didn’t think. I just acted on impulse and then it was too late to back out.’
‘I railroaded you, cara,’ he said with regret. ‘I can see that now. I was determined to show you for the money-hungry opportunist I believed you to be. I didn’t allow for any other explanation.’
‘But it’s over now,’ she said. ‘We have each other and we have Georgia.’
‘But you have been cheated out of so many things.’ His expression turned serious again. ‘A proper church wedding, for one thing, and a honeymoon. I do not know how I am going to even begin to make it up to you.’
She gave him a twinkling smile and nestled close. ‘I don’t mind so much about the wedding but I do mind about the honeymoon. How soon can we go on one?’
Marc smiled as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her towards the door. ‘How about now?’
ISBN: 978-1-55254-810-3
BOUGHT FOR THE MARRIAGE BED
First North American Publication 2007.
Copyright © 2006 by Melanie Milburne.
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Bought For The Marriage Bed (Bedded By Blackmail) Page 18
