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"Who else could it be?'
Hurriedly he smoothed his hands down over her ruffled hair and silently left the room, disappearing for the rest of the afternoon until just before pre-dinner drinks were served when he went to find her alone, sitting on the terrace, her face unhappy.
He knew that the timing was wrong—but he also knew that this must be said now. He felt as you sometimes did when you walked through the sticky mud of a ploughed field after a rainstorm. It was the price he knew must be paid for his body's desire, and yet he was too heated up to question whether it was too high.
"Sorcha, will you be my wife? '
She stared at him. 'What did you say?' she whispered.
"Will you marry me? '
Rocked and reeling with pure astonishment that such a question should have come out of the blue, Sorcha heard only the reluctance in his voice, and saw the strained expression on his face.
"Why? ' She fed him the question like a stage stooge setting up the punch line, but he failed to deliver it.
'Need you ask? You are accomplished and very beautiful, and you are intelligent and make me laugh. And as well as your many obvious attributes you are a virgin, and that is a rare prize in the world in which we live. ’
'A rare prize?" she joked. That matters to you? '
'Of course it matters to me! ' His black eyes narrowed and his macho heritage came to the fore. 'I want to possess you totally, utterly, Sorcha—in a way that no other man ever has nor ever will. And I think we have what it takes to make a successful marriage. ’
He was talking about her as if she was something he could own or take over—like swallowing up a smaller company.
And it was the most damning answer he could have given. Sorcha was not yet nineteen and she hadn't even begun to live. She was at an age where love was far more important than talking cold-bloodedly about a marriage's chance of success. Yes, she had fallen in love with Cesare—but he had said nothing about loving her back. And how could she possibly marry him and give the rest of her life to him in those circumstances? And throw her hard-fought-for university education away into the bargain.
He would get over it—and so would she. Yes, it would hurt—but just imagine the pain of an inevitable failed marriage with a man who didn't love her? That damning phrase came back to echo round in her head.
A rare pr
ize.
She looked at him, masking her terrible hurt with an expression of pride.
'No, Cesare,' she said quietly. 'I can't marry you.'
CHAPTER THREE
The bridesmaids ’ limousine pulled up in front of Whittaker House, and Sorcha helped the little ones clamber down, forcing herself to concentrate on the present in the hope that it might take her mind away from that last painful night with Cesare and its aftermath.
She remembered the way he had looked at her after she had turned down his proposal of marriage—with bitterness in his brilliant black eyes. She had tried to explain that she wanted to do her university course and get some kind of career under her belt, and that had seemed to make him angrier still.
And she would never forget the things he had said to her. The things he had accused her of. That she was a tease and that some men would not have acted with his restraint—and that he should have taken her when she had offered herself to him so freely.
How could deep affection so quickly have been transmuted into something so dark and angry?
That day they had crossed the line from almost-lovers into a place where there could never be anything but mutual distrust and hatred on his part.
And on hers?
Well, she had vowed to forget him, and to a certain extent she had succeeded—but her recovery had been by no means total. For her, seeing him today was like someone who suffered from a dreadful craving being given a hit of their particular drug. And even though she could see contempt in his eyes, hear the silken scorn in his voice, that wasn't enough to eradicate the hunger she still felt for him.
But she could not afford the self-indulgence of allowing herself to wallow in the past because it was the present that mattered. And it was only a day—when she had an important role to fulfill and surely the necessary strength of character to withstand the
presence here of the man she had once loved.
Pinning a smile to her mouth, she swallowed down the dryness in her throat and looked around the grounds.
There was certainly a lot to take in. The gravel had been raked, the lawn had been mowed into perfect emerald stripes, and not a single weed peeped from any of the flowerbeds. She had never seen her home look so magnificent, but then for once cash had been no object.
