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‘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?’
