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‘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—’
‘Bridegroom’s prerogative…’ Luciano paused to haul her to him and claim a passionate kiss that went on and on and on.
Emerging from what could not have been termed an ordeal, her head swimming, Kerry did not protest when he swept her off her feet and carried her out into the sunlight. A rosy blush lit her face when an unexpected crowd of guests whooped and showered them with confetti.
Luciano almost groaned out loud. Her family were waiting to exchange a last word with her and his arms tightened possessively round her slender figure. He just could not bring himself to put her down and share her again. Only giving her time to wave and exchange fleeting goodbyes, he forged a determined path for the helicopter awaiting them. He had done the wedding with the five-hundred-odd guests, the socialising, the speechmaking, the whole polite thing, and now all he cared about was having his bride all to himself.
Costanza was the last to come forward. ‘Be gentle with him,’ she urged Kerry with a teasing grin.
Their final destination proved to be a tiny private island off the coast of Sicily. From the air, it looked to be a lush green wooded paradise and Kerry was no less enchanted when Luciano lifted her out of the helicopter and she first saw the long, low, contemporary house that sat above the smooth golden beach washed by the waves.
‘I don’t think that I’ll ever forget that you brought me somewhere so beautiful for our honeymoon,’ Kerry confided.
‘Hopefully this won’t be our only visit. This place is ours—’
‘Ours?’ Kerry gasped, wide-eyed.
‘It is only a small island,’ Luciano pointed out.
‘But it’s enchanting.’ Kicking off her shoes and hitching up her skirt to peel off her lace-topped stockings beneath his startled and appreciative gaze, Kerry hurried onto the beach. She curled her toes in the soft, silky sand, lifted her gown to her knees and proceeded without a shade of inhibition to paddle through the whispering surf like a small child.
With a helpless grin, Luciano bent down to hook long, lean fingers into the shoes worth a small fortune that his bride had just discarded within feet of the tide coming in and watched her enjoy herself. She was so unspoilt, for she suffered neither from vanity nor the desire to impress others. She was also very kind. In every way she was different from all the other women he had ever known and he had been very proud of her at their wedding.
Their guests had hailed from all walks of life but they had all felt comfortable with Kerry. Her abundance of natural warmth attracted people, and as she gained in confidence her special qualities became all the more obvious. Just looking at Kerry, sunlight glinting off her fiery curls, bright blue eyes sparkling with enjoyment, Luciano felt very much like a guy who had made an absolute killing on the stockmarket. He had captured her and made her his and got that ring on her finger just in the nick of time!
Why had he made such a fuss about that lying, thieving little weasel, Miles? Cunning and clever as Miles had once been, Luciano could now concede that the younger man was no longer a threat to him. As for punishment? Punishment was in hand for all the Linwoods and gathering a deadlier pace with every day that the Salut chain traded. But Luciano believed that Miles might well be destroying his own life even faster.
