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“Chiara. Get over here.”
She crossed the room slowly, her eyes never leaving his. When she reached him, he took her wrist, brought her close to his side. She was shaking like a young tree in a wind storm; her skin felt clammy under his fingers. He cursed, slid his arm around her waist and tucked her against him. She came willingly and his anger toward her gave way to compassion. Sure, this whole damned mess was her fault—he’d kissed her, but if she hadn’t pulled that stupid trick on the road, it never would have happened—but her father’s reaction, even for an old-line Sicilian, was way out of line.
“It’s okay,” he said softly.
She nodded. Still, he could hear her teeth chattering.
“It’s okay,” he said again. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
She looked up at him, eyes glittering with unshed tears, and shook her head. Her loosened hair drifted across one side of her face and he fought back the sudden crazy desire to tuck the strands back behind her ear.
“No,” she said, so softly that he could hardly hear her. “My father will give me to Giglio.”
Rafe felt his muscles tense. Give her away. As if she were Cordiano’s property.
“He won’t. I won’t let him.”
Her mouth trembled. She said something, so quietly he couldn’t hear it, and he cupped her face, lifted it to his.
“What did you say?”
She shook her head again.
“Chiara. Tell me what you said.”
She took a long, deep breath, so deep that he could see the lift of her breasts even within the shapeless black dress.
“I said he will do what he wishes, Signor Orsini, once you have gone.”
Was she right? Was this only a temporary respite from her father’s crazed insistence that the only way to restore the honor she had not lost was by marrying her off?
The sound of slow applause made him look up. Cordiano, smiling, was clapping his hands together.
“Bravo, Signor Orsini. Nicely done. I see that your father raised you properly. In fact, you are very much like him.”
Rafe shot a cold look at the other man. “I assure you, Cordiano, I am nothing like my father.”
“It was meant as a compliment, I assure you. You are quick. Strong. Fearless. As for your earlier refusal to admit that you wronged my daughter…” The don smiled. “That is behind us.”
Maybe he’d been mistaken. Maybe coming to Chiara’s rescue had been enough to set things straight. Rafe forced an answering smile.
“I’m happy to hear it.”
“Gossip can spread as swiftly as a sirocco in a town like this. And people do not forget things that steal one’s honor.”
Back to square one.
Rafe looked down at the woman who stood in the protective curve of his arm. She was calmer, though he could still feel her trembling. His arm tightened around her. What in hell was he going to do? Of course she was right; as soon as he drove away, the don would force her into a marriage, if not with the disgraced Pig Man then with someone else. Some hard-eyed, cold-faced butcher like the ones he’d seen lounging in the castle’s entry hall.
Chiara Cordiano would become the wife of a thief and a killer. She would lie beneath him in her marriage bed as he forced her knees apart, grunted and pushed deep inside her….
“All right,” Rafe said, the words loud in the stillness of the room.
Cordiano raised an eyebrow. “All right what, Signor Orsini?”
Rafe took a long, seemingly endless breath.
“All right,” he said roughly. “I’ll marry your daughter.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE private jet Rafe had rented flew swiftly through the dark night.
He’d arranged for the rental at the airport in Palermo. The alternative—a six-hour wait for a commercial flight home—had struck him as impossible.
He had no wish to spend a minute more than necessary on Sicilian soil.
The plane itself was very much like the luxuriously appointed one he and his brothers owned; the pilot and copilot were highly recommended, the cabin attendant pleasant and efficient. She’d made sure he was comfortable, that he had a glass of excellent Bordeaux on the table beside him, that filet mignon would be fine for dinner—not that he was in the mood for dinner—and then she’d faded from sight.
A night flight on a private jet was generally a great place to relax after a difficult day.
But not this time. A muscle in Rafe’s cheek ticked.
This time, he was not alone.
A woman was seated across the aisle. Nothing terribly unusual in that. Women had traveled with him before. His PA. His attorney. Clients. His sisters. An occasional mistress, accompanying him for a weekend in Hawaii or Paris.
