The Sicilian's Defiant Virgin

by Susan Stephens

  ‘I didn’t need anyone’s help,’ she protested.

  ‘I think you still blame yourself for your sister’s death.’

  ‘What?’ She could feel the blood draining out of her face.

  ‘You can’t deny it,’ he insisted. ‘When the judge ruled in your favour, it was supposed to be for ever—that’s what you believed. You and Lyddie would live happily ever after—’

  ‘Stop it!’ she begged, but he wouldn’t stop.

  ‘When we were sharing things, you told me how hard you fought to keep the two of you together when your parents died. You must have felt that your world had come to an end when your sister was killed too.’

  She was sobbing openly now.

  ‘You were left with a gaping hole you thought you’d never fill—’

  ‘You don’t know anything about my feelings,’ Jen exclaimed, wheeling away to hide the emotion swamping her.

  ‘It was an accident, Jen,’ Luca insisted. Taking hold of her shoulders, he turned her to face him. ‘Your sister’s death was a tragic accident. You can’t hold yourself responsible for that.’

  He stopped as Jen made a defensive gesture as if she couldn’t bear to hear any more.

  ‘Is avoiding the truth the legacy your sister would have wanted to leave?’ he asked after a few tense seconds had passed. ‘You knew her better than anyone.’

  ‘Yes, I did,’ Jen returned fiercely. ‘So I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your theories to yourself.’

  ‘Would she want you to ignore what your heart’s telling you?’

  ‘And what is that, exactly?’ she demanded tensely.

  ‘That you love me, and I love you, which means we have to be honest with each other.’

  ‘I am being honest with you,’ she exclaimed in a tone hoarse with emotion.

  ‘Are you? Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin the first time we made love?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Didn’t you think I’d know?’ Luca shook his head. ‘I’m not proud of what I did, because I suspected all along, and then I knew for sure, but it still didn’t stop me.’

  ‘I didn’t want you to stop.’

  ‘I won’t use that as an excuse. I’m trying to show you that, whatever you think of me, I only have your best interests at heart. There are things I can’t tell you,’ he admitted, ‘not until I understand Raoul’s intentions. I get that you’re still suffering the loss of your sister. These things only ease with the passage of time, and two years isn’t that long. I get that you don’t know who to trust, or what to believe, but please—’

  Her bitter laugh cut him off. ‘Are you asking me to trust you?’

  ‘Yes. If you’re having my baby, of course I am.’ Catching hold of her, he brought her in front of him. ‘Nothing is as important to me as that, but I do have to get my brother’s will sorted out, and anything you can tell me might just help. Can’t you see how important you are to me? You’re everything, Jen.’

  He meant every word. If Jen was expecting his child—his child—she was the centre of his universe.

  The future flashed in front of Jen’s eyes. For all the fierce pride reflected on Luca’s face at the possibility that he might be about to become a father, he was still suspicious, or why was he continuing to ask her so many questions? If she reacted angrily now, and pushed him away, there would be constant battles ahead of them. If she were pregnant, those battles would impact on their child.

  He made things easier when he drew her close, and, in a voice of infinite tenderness, breathed against her hair, ‘I’m sorry, Jen. You must think I’m always challenging you, but there’s so much I don’t understand about my brother’s life, and you’re the only one who can fill in those gaps.’

  ‘I’m sorry too,’ Jen said honestly. ‘I’m sorry it’s come to this, with us fighting each other. I’m sure it’s the last thing Raoul would have wanted.’

  ‘If you’re pregnant you can blame your hormones,’ Luca said, holding her so he could stare wryly into her face, ‘but I have no excuse.’

  ‘Apart from your love for your brother,’ she said. ‘It’s hard to forgive you for not trusting me,’ Jen said honestly. ‘And I can’t pretend I’m not shocked by Raoul’s last wishes, but you have to believe me when I say I had absolutely no idea he was going to do this—’

  As emotion overwhelmed her, she swayed, and Luca caught her.

  ‘Forget it,’ he said. ‘You’ve had enough stress for one day.’ Bringing her close, he kissed the top of her head. ‘I promise you this...if I have to spend the rest of my life making up for what you’ve been through, I will. You’re far too important to me to let anything get in the way.’

  Luca’s eyes had changed, darkened, and she had no strength left to fight him. She did feel faint. And she did feel hurt. She was still angry with him for not trusting her, but they’d both suffered so much grief, and neither of them had ever had the chance to express it before. If ever there was time for understanding, it was now. The only time she felt comforted was when she was in Luca’s arms. And he was so gentle with her now as he dipped his head to kiss her that she had to respond. He kept on kissing her and reassuring her with words that eventually made her smile, and then those words changed to whispered suggestions that made her body yearn for him. Feeling her soften, his hands moved from cupping her face to cupping her naked breasts beneath the towelling robe. He knew exactly what to do, and exactly what to say to add to her mounting arousal. And when her legs weakened and she exhaled on a shaking breath, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to bed.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  GENTLE LOVEMAKING COULD be as pleasurable as any other type of lovemaking, maybe even more so, Jen discovered. She and Luca had been fierce together, sleepy in bed, and had made love up against a wall. He had taken her over a sofa, in the shower and on the floor, but this steady rhythm, so smooth and slow, and yet so firm and dependable, was the most extreme build up to release she’d known yet. It was certainly the most emotional. Staring into each other’s eyes as the pleasure built required every bit of control she possessed. She wanted to move fiercely, and greedily claim her reward, but the look in Luca’s eyes told her to hold on just a little longer, and then a little longer still. She groaned and begged him shamelessly for release.

  ‘Not yet,’ he whispered, pinning her arms above her head so he could kiss her lips, her eyes, her brow, her neck, her breasts.

  ‘When?’ She opened her legs a little wider, as wide as she could for him, pressing her thighs apart to isolate the area of pleasure he was attending to so expertly. She felt so deliciously sensitive there, which made the torture of being forced to wait for release almost painfully extreme.

  She was as high as it got on a plateau of pleasure, waiting—longing to fall off—when Luca whispered, ‘Now...’

  She didn’t have to think about it. That one word was enough to send her rocketing into the wildest release yet. She bucked repeatedly, crying out with shocked delight as he held her in place to make sure she received every last, delicious pulse of pleasure. Before the waves of that release had a chance to subside, he was moving again, firmly and reliably to the same deliciously dependable rhythm.

  It was a long time after that, when they were lying together with their limbs entwined, and Luca’s arms were cradling her close to his chest, that she told him on an exhausted smile, ‘You’re amazing.’

  ‘And you’re beautiful.’

  She laughed at that, knowing it wasn’t true, but Luca’s gaze remained steady on her face. Brushing her mouth with his lips until she was groggy with love for him, he murmured, ‘And soon to be so fabulously wealthy as well.’

  Jen stiffened, her love-fogged brain clicking into gear. ‘Wealthy?’ she said. ‘Please—not that again.’

  ‘Raoul’s will...we have to talk about it some time.’

  ‘But not now,’ she said. Hurt obliterated the calm state of happiness she’d been basking in after making love. It was as if she had never rel
axed, and Luca had never made love to her, and she was right back to feeling as she had when he’d first mentioned the wretched will. ‘I think you’d better explain,’ she said angrily, putting as much distance between them as she could.

  ‘You really don’t know?’

  ‘I really don’t know,’ she confirmed tensely, dreading what might come next. Shuffling up in the bed, she wrapped the bedclothes around her.

  ‘I accept you don’t know about Raoul’s will—’

  ‘That’s very good of you.’ Smoothing her hair, she turned away as Luca rolled over and sat up at her side.

  ‘I was so sure Raoul must have confided in you.’

  ‘Confided what?’ she exclaimed. ‘We never discussed his will. Why would we? And what are we doing in bed together, if all you want to talk about is that?’ She stared at him accusingly. ‘I thought we’d settled this. I can’t believe I’ve fallen for it again.’

  ‘Fallen for what?’ he said as she leapt off the bed.

  ‘For you—and your lies,’ she shouted back at him as she stumbled her way to the bathroom with the sheet tangled around her feet.

  ‘Raoul was on the point of becoming very wealthy when he died—’

  Luca’s voice stopped her at the bathroom door.

  ‘He’d gone through one fortune, but only had six months to wait until his thirtieth birthday when he would have gained access to his trust.’

  ‘Six months,’ Jen repeated tensely.

  ‘That’s right. And then his problems would have been over.’

  ‘So in the same length of time you estimated my work here would take, Raoul’s trust would be released. To me,’ she added coldly. ‘That’s why you wanted me here, wasn’t it, Luca?’ she said, turning to face him. ‘Everything else was just a ruse. You had a few months to play with, and while I was here you expected to get a confession out of me—something to the effect that I had somehow persuaded your brother to make me the main beneficiary of his estate. Then you thought I’d accept a pay-off and disappear. Is that it, Luca?’ She shook her head. ‘You don’t even need to say a word. I can see the truth in your eyes.’ She drew a deep, shaking breath. ‘How could you?’ she demanded in a voice made harsh with anger and grief.

  ‘We didn’t know you then. Try to understand my concerns for my father—’

  ‘Your father?’ she exclaimed with outrage.

  ‘He was concerned about Raoul’s expectations—’

  ‘Raoul’s expectations?’ she interrupted as Luca continued to pull on his clothes. ‘Your brother’s problems went a lot deeper than money. And from what I’ve seen of his family, I think mine do too.’ She felt duped and betrayed, and was only holding onto her control by her fingertips. ‘Why didn’t you bring this up before I came to Sicily? You could have asked me straight out at the club.’

  ‘I didn’t know you as well as I do now.’

  ‘You didn’t trust me,’ she fired back.

  ‘I wasn’t sure of you,’ Luca conceded.

  ‘And now?’ The cold had returned to her veins, but now it was ice. ‘You made love to me, Luca. I could be having your baby. But all the time I was falling in love with you, you were keeping me here to suit your own ends. With less than six months to go before I inherited Raoul’s trust fund, you must have been under real pressure.’ Jen blenched as she thought about it. ‘But you were determined to use every one of those months, if you had to, weren’t you, to find out what I knew?’

  With a disgusted shake of her head, she snatched up her clothes as emotion threatened to overwhelm her. ‘You’ve been manipulating me all along. You said you loved me. You talked as if you knew how hard it was for me to express my feelings after Lyddie’s death. We’d both shared such a terrible loss, I thought we understood each other, but now I can see that you were just trying to win my trust so I’d open up to you. You must have been surprised when your skills as a security expert failed to unmask the villain in your brother’s life—’

  ‘Jen, wait—’ Luca’s arm snapped out to keep her with him.

  ‘I’ve done nothing wrong,’ she exclaimed angrily, shaking him off. ‘Let me go!’

  The moment Luca released her, Jen finished dressing with shaking hands. ‘I want you to leave now,’ she said, pointing at the door.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Luca assured her. In a couple of strides, he was at her side. ‘Your pregnancy—if there is a child—changes everything.’

  ‘Yes, it does,’ Jen agreed. ‘It allows me to see what a fool I’ve been. Just the possibility that I might be pregnant has woken me up faster than I would have believed possible, and the first thing it tells me is that I don’t want you involved—’

  ‘If you’re pregnant, I am involved,’ Luca assured her. ‘Even you can’t change that.’

  ‘I can keep you at a distance,’ Jen countered. ‘I’ll be qualified soon, and I’ve got a guaranteed job at the auction house where they’ll have to pay me more. I won’t need you, your money, or anything else to do with the Tebaldi family.’

  Luca ground his jaw, refusing to answer. ‘Who will look after your baby while you work?’

  ‘The company crèche,’ she said, blessing Smithers & Worseley for being on the ball where that was concerned. ‘I can continue to work after my mat’ leave with the reassurance of knowing my child is in the same building. So, you see, Luca, I really don’t need you at all.’

  ‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said coldly.

  ‘Really?’ Jen challenged tight-lipped. ‘Would you care to put that to the test? Let me tell you one thing, Luca—you and your father don’t frighten me.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘You said you would never take over from your father, but I don’t think I believe you now.’

  ‘Then, you’re wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘I am Don Tebaldi’s son, but that is a very different thing from being in business with my father, or taking over from him. My world and his are as different as could be, and if you’re suggesting that I would sink to his tactics you couldn’t be more wrong.’

  ‘So keeping me here in the hope I might confess to something is different? It’s not kidnap, or restraint. No,’ she declared hotly. ‘It’s something far cleverer than that. It’s subtle coercion, and not so subtle manipulation, and neither of those things is good in my book. Do you really think that after this I’d allow you to have any part in my life, or that of my child?’ She laughed bitterly. ‘You’ve tried to catch me out. I can see that now. But how am I supposed to confess to something when I don’t know what that something is?’ She shook him off when Luca attempted to soothe her. ‘What was your aim, Luca? Were your father’s instructions to stop at nothing until I signed a waiver relinquishing all claim on Raoul’s estate?’

  ‘I’ve told you before. I protect my father, but he doesn’t instruct me—’

  ‘Clearly not,’ she flashed. ‘Because you had a better solution: bring me to the island on any pretext, and then seduce me—win my trust and make me believe I can confide anything in you, because you love me.’ She spat out the word. ‘The Emperor’s Diamond and all that nonsense was just to keep me busy until you could solve the puzzle of your brother’s will.’

  ‘Try to see things from my point of view—’

  ‘Why should I?’ she demanded.

  ‘Because you cared for Raoul, and there had to be a very good reason why Raoul wrote his will in that particular way, and I’m trying to fathom out what that is. Don’t you want to know? Think about it, Jen—think back. What was Raoul trying to achieve when he drew up his will in your favour?’

  ‘Maybe I had time for him? Maybe Raoul thought I would use the money to help people like him—people with addictions. I don’t know,’ Jen admitted. Angry as she was, what Luca had said did bear thinking about. But then something else occurred to her. ‘I hope you’re not suggesting I was blackmailing your brother?’

  ‘No,’ he exclaimed with what she thought was genuine shock. ‘Of course not.
<
br />   ‘I can see that my father’s intolerance, coupled to my brother’s desperate need for his love and acceptance, could lead you to think Raoul might be the perfect target for blackmail by someone,’ he admitted, ‘but I would never believe that of you. Anyone could have told my father anything, and it wouldn’t have made one jot of difference to his contempt for us. He despised both his sons, especially Raoul. And, no, I don’t think you’ve been underhand in any way. You couldn’t possibly have predicted that Raoul would be killed in a street race. No one could.’

  A tense silence fell between them, but then, as they were both letting all the poison out, Jen voiced a fear she had so far kept to herself. ‘Raoul lived life on the edge. We both know it. Do you think he might have driven recklessly that night because he wanted to kill himself?’

  ‘What?’ Luca exclaimed softly.

  ‘I think Raoul was so desperate for love, and for support and understanding, he was at his wits’ end.’ Jen fell silent. She’d said enough. Luca’s face was a mask of shock. This time the silence went on and on, and in the end she had to say something. ‘I can’t say anything more,’ she explained, ‘without breaking my promise to Raoul.’

  ‘Your promise?’ Luca flared. ‘Always another secret with you, Jen!’ With an angry gesture, he exclaimed, ‘Your promise to a dead man doesn’t count.’

  ‘Don’t—’ Shocked by Luca’s outburst, she turned away.

  Jen’s reaction shamed him. He hadn’t exactly covered himself with glory. ‘I’m trying to understand,’ he explained, making one last desperate attempt to find out more. ‘I’m trying to understand my brother. I’m hungry for information. If I’ve shocked you I’m sorry. I just want to make sure my brother’s last wishes are honoured, and to do that I have to know what you know. Please. This is the last thing I can ever do for him.’

  Jen didn’t speak on her way to the door. She stood beside it, trembling with emotion as she waited for Luca to leave. ‘I’ll finish cataloguing the jewels,’ she said. ‘And I’ll arrange your exhibition. But then I’m going home. I’ll let you know if I’m pregnant as soon as I’ve seen a doctor. If I am expecting your child, we’ll have a meeting in England to decide where we go from there—where I go from there,’ she amended before he had chance to speak.