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‘No,’ she said again. ‘I stay at Haversham Park with James, that was our agreement, and you do as you like,’ she reminded him with biting sarcasm. ‘Anyway, you have Tina to accompany you on your travels; three is a crowd.’
‘As you wish, my dear wife,’ Solo drawled sardonically. ‘But whatever you may imagine, Tina is not my lover, and be advised I will not tolerate anything except complete fidelity on your part, and I will accord you the same distinction as long as the marriage lasts. What you choose to think is your prerogative, but I will not be the subject of idle gossip, understand?’ he warned implacably.
He had surprised her by his declaration of married fidelity; whether to believe him or not, she was not sure. As for his distaste for gossip, he was a vastly wealthy, powerful man. A very influential force in the world’s money markets, governments listened to him, but as Penny was beginning to realise he had an exaggerated desire for privacy.
She recalled her surprise at first seeing the secluded villa that he called his home, and the amazing little wood cabin where they had spent the last few days. He obviously loved the place and yet he owned some of the most perfectly situated, luxurious hotels around the globe.
Recalling his confession about his mother, she could understand his fierce protection of his privacy, but in this day and age Penny did not believe it mattered. It certainly did not matter to her, and she opened her mouth to tell him so. But one glance at his grim expression was enough to make her close it again, and keep her mouth shut for the rest of the journey.
The difference was amazing. Brownie met them at the door, and insisted on showing them around all the ground-floor rooms. Everywhere had been painted and polished and scrubbed. ‘I can’t believe all this could happen in less than a week.’ Penny turned shining eyes to Brownie. ‘You must have worked like a slave.’
‘Not a bit of it.’ Brownie laughed. ‘Mr Maffeiano hired over twenty people. It was wonderful, all I did was order them around.’ Turning to Solo, Brownie added, ‘And the new bed arrived this morning. You and Penny pop on up and have a look, while I get the lunch.’
Solo took Penny’s hand. ‘Come on,’ he said curtly and led her upstairs.
‘What new bed?’ she murmured, her pulse racing at the warmth of his hand enfolding hers, and inexplicably she felt nervous. It was stupid, she knew, given how they had spent the last three days. But somehow knowing she loved him had made her more cautious, not less so. Solo had seemed to change as soon as they’d left Italy and he was once more the aloof, powerful businessman. Looking around her now, back in the house where she was born, she felt their sojourn in Italy was quickly becoming a distant fantasy.
In the master bedroom the garish colours had vanished, replaced by the colours she remembered from her childhood. The only difference was a large four-poster bed with elegant cream silk drapes tied back with twisted golden tassels. A thick, quilted cover in the same material and colour, with huge plump pillows, adorned the bed.
‘Incredible.’ Penny sighed. ‘How did…?’ She looked up. Solo was standing by one of the long windows, his back to her, and there was something about the set of his shoulders, a tension in his tall frame as he slowly turned around, that froze the rest of the words in her throat. As he walked towards her she was struck again by his superb animal magnetism, an intrinsic male dominance that fancifully reminded her of some lethal predator intent on devouring its prey.
‘So was it worth it, Penny?’ Solo asked, the words a barely concealed taunt.
‘Was what?’ She looked at him, mystified.
Solo saw the puzzlement and the slight darkening of her glorious eyes as she watched him approach, unable to hide her sensual response. But that was all it was, he reminded himself. His anger at her rejection years ago had faded, lost in the passionate abandonment of their love-making. But today her refusal to even consider travelling with him, and then walking into this house had brought back to him all too vividly the real reason she was his wife: money and the threat of pregnancy, and it angered the hell out of him.
A self-derogatory smile twisted his sensuous mouth.
He had deluded himself into thinking a few nights with Penny in his bed and he would get her out of his system. But the violent, primeval passion he felt whenever he looked at her, or touched her, he knew was the reaction of the primitive male animal in him that lurked beneath the thin veneer of civilised sophistication he presented to the world. She was his mate, only his, and he wanted to keep it that way.
It was not a realisation he was comfortable with. She had bewitched and beguiled him with her mixture of innocence and sensuality, so that he only had to look at her to feel like a randy teenager again. He stared down at her, and gestured with one elegant hand around the room. ‘All this,’ he drawled, and, closing his hand around her slender wrist, he added, ‘This house for my money.’ A cynical smile curled his beautiful mouth. ‘My body, my bed.’
Penny stared at him, genuinely shocked and then angry. ‘I could ask you the same. But I would not be so crude,’ she returned.
‘Ah, of course, you are a lady…’ Long, tanned fingers moved caressingly on the tender skin above her wrist. ‘But to answer the question you are too polite to ask,’ he said mockingly, ‘so far you are repaying my investment admirably.’ His ice-grey eyes flared, then narrowed on her angry face, and suddenly she sensed just below the calm surface was a violent rage waiting to escape. ‘The highest-paid whore in the world could not have done better,’ he opined in a deep, dark voice that slashed through her body like a knife.
A deep flush overlaid her pale skin. It had been insensitive of her to call a man with Solo’s background crude, but his response shamed and horrified her. Now she knew what Solo really thought of her, and she collapsed on the side of the bed, only dimly registering that her legs were shaking.
‘But I think it is time for another instalment,’ Solo suggested, and, roughly hauling her up hard against him, he took her mouth in a fierce, brutal kiss.
‘Don’t.’ She struggled against him. ‘Solo…’ He was frightening her.
‘Yes, say my name,’ he breathed, the violence in his eyes making her shake, and she pushed hard at his chest. ‘Remember who you belong to.’ He laughed, a harsh, cruel sound, and captured her mouth with his own as he tumbled her back on the bed.
The breath whooshed out of her body. ‘No, please, Solo,’ Penny cried and grabbed a handful of his hair to pull him away. ‘I didn’t…’ was as far as she got.
He lifted his head and the scorch of his laser-like gaze burned into hers as he claimed her mouth again with a low, agonised groan that seemed to reach right into her body and pluck out her heart.
She tried to struggle, striking out at his chest. ‘Wait.’ Fear, stark and debilitating, made her shudder as his eyes, hard as flint, clashed with hers. One strong hand caught the hem of her dress and dragged it up around her waist.
‘I don’t need to. I might be crude but you are bought and paid for,’ he snarled, and his lips came crashing down on hers again.
Penny battled to breathe, her fingers curved into his shoulder, her other hand pulled his hair, but slowly the heat, the hungry passion of his mouth got to her as only Solo could. His body, hard and taut with a need he could not hide, slid between her thighs, and the hand that pulled his hair turned to caress the silken locks.
‘Dio!’ Solo suddenly exclaimed, lifting his head. ‘What the hell am I doing?’
She saw a flicker of vulnerability in his hooded eyes and her heart squeezed. Solo was the most arrogant, indomitable male she had ever met and yet… Something made her slip her arms around his back and hug him as he would have moved off her.
