AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She tilted up her chin slightly and said, with as much dignity as she could muster, ‘Very well.’
There was also the knowledge that he would hate every minute he was forced to endure her company. It was small comfort, but there nonetheless.
Nothing altered in Vicenzo’s expression. He stood back and held out an arm. ‘Then you have h
alf an hour.’
Cara had to hold back a bubble of near hysteria. It wouldn’t take her more than ten minutes to pack up her paltry belongings, but he didn’t have to know that. She forced herself to walk as nonchalantly as possible to her room, but he caught her by the arm as she was about to pass him. His touch burned her through her clothes. She held herself rigid and wouldn’t look at him.
‘Don’t think for a second that I won’t expect you to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. There will be a clause which will allow for DNA testing once the baby is born, to confirm it’s mine. And if it’s not, Cara…you will pay dearly for this deception.’
She looked up and focused on those dark cold eyes, even though it cost her. ‘The only deception I’m aware of was when you hid your real identity from me in London.’
As she pulled free from Vicenzo her words stung him, reminding him of his own rare moment of weakness, the carnal level of attraction that had led them here. As much as he blamed her, he had to take responsibility for his actions. He was taking responsibility for his actions. But God help her if she was lying.
CHAPTER SIX
VICENZO finally let out the breath he’d been holding in. He’d just done the one thing he’d never contemplated doing: told a woman he’d marry her. But, annoyingly, all he could think about was how Cara’s scent had tantalised him as she’d walked past. Making him remember things he wanted to forget—like how pale she was all over, the freckles that covered her skin from top to toe, the silky smoothness of that skin and how her secret inner muscles had gripped him so tightly… She’d been a virgin.
Inferno! He would not let her bewitch him again—and why was it that the disgust he felt for this attraction couldn’t dampen his libido? Everything in him rebelled at being forced into a situation he’d never wanted to deal with. Marriage and a baby. The very prospect of becoming a father had always been such anathema to him that he just hadn’t been able to envisage it. Seeing his father humiliated and broken, becoming a shadow of his former self, had made Vicenzo determined above all else not to put any child of his at risk of going through the same thing. His life was about taking pleasure with women who knew the score and didn’t make demands. If they did, they were gone.
The idea now of such domesticity, of the inherent sham of creating such a family unit, made his insides roil. An edge of panic made him exert ruthless control over his emotions. He could deal with this because his emotions weren’t invested. This was business, pure and simple. He would have an heir. He’d had to accept the possibility after Allegra’s death that he would have to deal with that issue sooner or later. It was happening far sooner than he liked or was comfortable with, and with a woman who would not have been of his choosing, but in the end, Cara wouldn’t be part of the equation—because he knew that with enough of an enticement she’d walk away… He simply could not imagine a different scenario and didn’t want to.
Vicenzo turned abruptly from glowering at the closed bedroom door and sat on the couch. He knew that Cara must believe she was in control of the situation, but something in her demeanour just now told him that he’d rattled her composure. The fact that that thought didn’t make him feel triumphant was disturbing. Sebastian Mortimer’s letter of blackmail caught his eye again and, making a split-second decision, he took out his mobile phone and made a call.
When Cara emerged back into the living room warily, Vicenzo was on the phone speaking in rapid Italian. Her belly constricted. She’d changed out of her job-hunting clothes into jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back severely. Everything felt unreal, surreal.
His eyes ran over her coldly, taking in her small suitcase, and then he terminated the conversation and put the phone back in his pocket before saying ominously, ‘That’s sorted.’
‘What do you mean, that’s sorted?’ Cara asked warily. She was sure she didn’t want to know. Vicenzo looked far too smug.
‘Within twenty-four hours that debt is going to be cleared by me on your behalf. And if Mortimer puts up a fight we have his letter as handy evidence.’
‘But…’ Cara struggled to try and make sense of what this meant. ‘That just means I’m going to owe you.’ The momentary relief of knowing Mortimer would have no more hold over her was rapidly diminishing in the face of a much more potent threat. She looked at Vicenzo. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘Because I have to admit that the thought of every penny you earn being owed to me for some considerable amount of time is quite enticing. And I could do without the potential scandal of my wife being connected to an account that hid the spoils of rogue trading.’
The full enormity of what he had just done sank in. It would take her years of double-jobbing to be able to pay off the interest on the debt, never mind the debt proper.
Suddenly, despite the fact that the debt and its potential to ruin her reputation was written off, the ordeal ahead looked like a holiday theme park in light of fact that Vicenzo Valentini’s revenge at this very moment was devastatingly absolute. No wonder he looked smug.
‘Let’s go.’ He picked up her suitcase and gestured for her to precede him out of the flat.
Everything in Cara wanted to resist his domineering, marauding manner, but she had to remind herself that she was the one who had invited him back into her life. And now she had to deal with the consequences. She would focus on the fact that she hated Vicenzo Valentini and try to forget that for a very brief moment she’d felt something altogether the opposite.
Vicenzo threw her suitcase into the boot of a sleek car and then gestured for her to get into the front passenger seat, holding the door open. Cara took a deep breath as he shut the door on her and came around the front. When he started the car and pulled out onto the road, a car coming in the opposite direction made Cara flinch back into her seat reflexively.
Vicenzo slowed down and shot her a look. ‘What is it?’
Cara shook her head, feeling clammy and shaky. ‘Noth… nothing. I just got a fright, that’s all.’ She stared straight ahead.
‘We weren’t even close.’
‘I know,’ Cara said quickly, horrified that she’d reacted so strongly. ‘It’s just…it’s my first time in the front of a car since…’
She couldn’t finish. Her reaction wasn’t even rational. She’d been sitting in the back of the car the night of the accident. She was dismayed that the crash was still so vivid in her mind, and sensed Vicenzo tense beside her. But he didn’t speak. No doubt she’d just reminded him of why he hated her so much. Miserable, Cara turned her head and looked unseeingly out of the window.
Vicenzo wasted no time getting her out of the country and onto his turf. They were airborne in a small private plane within the hour, and landing in Rome into the dark night just a few short hours later. Not a word was exchanged between them, and the journey to a sleek penthouse apartment in the centre of the city was over in what seemed like minutes.
