by Lynne Graham
She tensed. ”What sort of surprises’?’
‘she would appear to be living with your stepfather-Dennis.’
‘oh, my word-have they got back together again? That’s wonderful…she’ll be over the moon! ‘ Lydia declared with satisfaction.
Cristiano reached for her hand.
‘l can’t let you walk into this unprepared-‘ ”Unprepared for what’?’
‘l believe that you’ve been the victim of some very cruel scams. I’ve checked out certain facts. That nightclub in which you invested did not go bust to the tune of anything like the amount of money you lost. 1 think your stepfather used the club venture to strip you of your savings.’
Lydia studied him in horror.
‘Were you serious? You honestly believe Dennis is a crook’?’
‘He’s a conman with a criminal record for petty theft.’
‘But he’s an accountant-‘ ‘He has no professional qualifications. I’m afraid so. I also suspect that Dennis did not work alone. 1 know you don’t want to hear this,’
Cristiano imparted grimly.
‘But all the evidence that I’ve seen indicates that your mother was fully involved at every level-‘
‘stop it-you’re right, 1 don’t want to hear it! ‘
Lydia told him, more in dismay than anger.
”You’re a terribly cynical person, Cristiano. I’m willing to believe that Dennis is dishonest, but not my mother too.’
The limo had come to a halt while a member of
Cristiano’s security team spoke into the intercom beside a tall wooden gate. Beyond it she could see the roofline of a substantial villa.
‘But this can’t be where they’re living,’
she reasoned when the gate opened and the car moved forward again.
”The police had got hold of some mad rumour about a big house in France as well. 1 think we’re on a wild-goose chase.’
‘lt wasn’t a rumour. Dennis and Virginia had to disappear to enjoy their ill-gotten gains,’
Cristiano advanced harshly.
‘They go by the names of Janette and Brian Carson here. Your stepfather has set up as a property developer.’
”This can’t possibly be my mother’s home. It’s a case of mistaken identity…it’s got to be! If Virginia had this kind of money, why would she have taken the Happy Holidays funds? How could she have been in debt? Why would she have begged me to tell the police thatd took the missing cash’?’
‘Greed. A last little sting before they embarked on their new life as well-heeled ex-pats. You’d never have heard from them again.’
”You are wrong …’ Lydia almost fell out of the car in her haste to vacate it.
A middle-aged maid answered the door. Behind her, Lydia saw her mother, clad in a sunhat and a stylish shift dress.
‘Lydia’?’
Virginia studied her daughter in horror.
‘1 thought it was a furniture delivery! How did you get in? How did you find us’?’
LYDIA was trembling. She was afraid to look at her mother, and found it easier at that moment to appraise her surroundings instead. What she saw shattered her hope that there might be an acceptable explanation. This was definitely Virginia’s home. The paintings, sculptures and luxurious furniture were all recognizably in her parent’s theatrical decorative taste.
‘Did Dennis ever walk out on you? Or was that just part of the sob story you fed me’?’
Lydia enquired tightly.
”We’ve just reconciled,’ Virginia said shrilly.
Unimpressed by that claim, Lydia walked past the older woman into a spacious reception room. Her stepfather, wearing shorts that did not flatter his rotund dimensions, was watching football there, on a giant plasma screen.
When he saw his stepdaughter his jaw dropped.
”Where did you get the money for all this’?’
Lydia asked her mother painfully.
Cristiano appeared in the doorway.
‘Who on earth have you brought with you’?’
Virginia lit a cigarette with a bold flourish.
‘Never mind who he is. You told me you were in debt and broke, but that was obviously untrue,’
Lydia continued tightly.
‘For how long have you owned this villa’?’
‘We’re only minding this house,’ the older woman told her.
‘The villa is in your mother’s name. She bought it with cash a couple of years ago,’
Cristiano contradicted drily.
”You were a very generous daughter, but they wanted everything you had. They siphoned off thousands from your bank accounts.’
‘That’s a dirty lie’
Her stepfather’s heavy face was brick-red.
Cristiano dealt him a look of derision.
”You left a paper trail of evidence any good accountant could follow. Moderate your tone and your attitude. Lydia has enough documentary proof to put both of you in prison for fraud for a good few years.’
‘But she won’t do it,’ Virginia declared, with a complacent smile of challenge.
‘l’m her mother, and what was hers is mine. Didn’t you often tell me that, Lydia’?’
Lydia found that she was both hurt and shamed by her mother’s behaviour. Clearly the older couple had been stealing from her for a very long time, but Virginia’s blue eyes, which were so eerily like her own, remained hard and defiant. There was no apology, no regret there.
‘Didn’t you care that 1 might go to prison for your crime’?’
Lydia could not help whispering.
The blonde woman made no answer.
Lydia could feel tears welling up, and she fought them with all her might. In that silence lay her answer. Gwenna had once called her the family cash cow, and now she saw the truth of that wounding label.
She had been valued only for the money she could bring home. Recalling how much
Virginia and Dennis had resented her decision to retire from modelling, she almost shuddered. When the cash cow had run dry they had had to devise new ways of stripping her of her savings.
With as much dignity as she could muster, Lydia walked straight-backed out of the villa and climbed into the limo. It moved off, and she stared out of the window with blank eyes. Fierce emotion was warring within her.
Then, without a word, she scrambled along the seat and flung herself into Cdstiano’s arms. He said nothing, which was fortunate, for she believed that words of sympathy would make her break down completely. Her eyes burned but she didn’t cry.
‘she never loved me…and deep down inside 1 always knew it too,’
she muttered shakily.
‘But 1 used to try so hard to please her’
‘1 won’t let her hurt you ever again, gioia mia.’
He held her close and she shut her eyes tight, loving him with so much force and passion she quivered. Desperate to offer something back, she said,
‘1’ll try getting on your yacht again…okay’?’
Above her head, Cristiano drew in a slow deep breath.
He smoothed her tumbled hair in a soothing gesture.
‘Maybe some time. It’s really not important.’
The helicopter flew over the vast roof that distinguished Cristiano’s country home in England. Welbrooke Park was a very beautiful country house, and as the helicopter landed Lydia was recalling her last fateful visit, which had concluded with her early-morning departure in Mort Stevens’s ridiculously small sports car. She smiled at that tragi-comic memory. The agony of pain and disillusionment she had suffered that weekend was far behind her now. In a couple of hours she would be greeting the guests invited to their engagement celebrations.
Cristiano, who had been in London on business for two days, strode out of the drawing room to greet her. ‘Come and meet some of my friends,’
he imparted, and then, half under his breath, thorny, ‘I had hoped to have you to myself for a while, but it’s not to be.’
; Preceding him into the room, she stiffened when she saw Philip Hazlett, but relaxed when she was introduced to his languid fiancee, Jodie.
‘A liite the miracle-worker, aren’t you’?’ Philip remarked under cover of the general conversation. ”You went from rank outsider to winner and took us all by surprise.’
‘l’m not sure 1 understand.’
The thickset banker vented a suggestive laugh.
”Who wouldn’t be impressed? A bimbo with a beautiful body has caught one of the world’s richest men. 1 can only assume that you’re a real goer in the bedroom! ‘
Lydia reddened, realising in dismay that her unease in Philip’s radius eighteen months earlier had been well founded. Some sixth sense had warned her that he was a creep even before she’d heard him discussing that infamous bet.
‘Don’t speak to me like that.’
‘lf I’d come along before Cristiano, you’d have been singing a very different tune,’ Philip asserted with unmistakable meaning.
‘No…never in this lifetime.’ Lydia could not hide her look of revulsion, and she saw angry resentment harden his florid face before she turned gratefully away.
So that, she thought with an inner shudder, was what she had sensed in Philip Hazlett. He had been attracted to her, and seeing her with Cristiano would’ve annoyed him-for Philip cherished a high opinion of himself. He was charm personified with women he accepted as his equals, but an ignorant swine with those he considered to be socially beneath him. What a shame that he should be such a close friend of Cristiano’s, she reflected uncomfortably. She wasn’t planning to tell tales. But Philip would have to get over his need to put her down.
Cristiano strode into the bedroom when she was fresh out of the shower. His dark golden eyes glittered and her tummy flipped, because she knew what that shouldering look meant.
‘You smell wonderful,’ he breathed, pulling her back against him with single-minded purpose.
‘Soap.’
Laughing huskily, he brushed her glorious hair out of his path and pressed his sensual mouth to her neck. A little gasp broke from her lips and she trembled. After forty-eight hours without him, sudden contact made her feel shamelessly wanton.
‘My hair and my make-up still have to be done,’
she muttered, more than willing to be over-ruled.
‘l know…and 1 won’t make you late tonight, cara mia. ‘
Cristiano set her back from him with a distinct air of self-denial.
‘Maybe 1‘11 drag you into a dark corner around midnight. 1 don’t think 1 can restrain myself much longer than that. 1 missed you so much.’
Later, Gwenna came to keep Lydia company.
‘So, tell me, what do you think of Cristiano’?’
Lydia asked almost shyly.
Gwenna pulled a comical face.
‘He’s a good sport. When 1 cornered him in his office, he kept his cool.’
”You like him’?’
”What woman wouldn’t like him? He spent fifteen minutes talking to me downstairs. 1 felt really important.
‘He’s a total babe Gwenna’ Lydia laughed.
”With that amount of charisma, he’s definitely a catch.’
‘His friend Philip would certainly agree with that. Unfortunately he sees me as a bimbo, who used sex to trap his mate into marriage,’
Lydia confided with a grimace.
‘surely the dreadful man didn’t dare to say that to our face’?’
Lydia told her story, her wounded feelings soothed by Gwenna’s annoyance on her behalf. Predictably, Gwenna thought she should tell Cristiano, but Lydia grimaced at the idea. She knew she was probably being silly, but she was scared that if she repeated Philip’s comments Cristiano might start wondering whether there were any grains of truth in his friend’s derisive opinion of his approaching nuptials.
When men talked with other men about such things they could really be quite obnoxious, she thought worriedly, her memory dwelling on that ghastly betting business. Even Cristiano had not been proof against the masculine need to seem ultra-cool and callous. Did some sort of pack instinct come out in guys when they got together? An hour later Lydia, stunning in a magnificent pale green ball gown that bared her shoulders, descended the wonderful Georgian staircase. Diamonds sparkled like white tire at her ears, throat and wrist. The society photographer waiting to record her appearance took several shots and Cristiano, the very epitome of sleek male fashion, in a cutting-edge designer suit and open-necked black shirt, joined her for another few.
Philip Hazlett was in the crowd of guests watching the photo session, and she glimpsed his sour expression before hurriedly looking away, determined not to let anything spoil her engagement party.
Cristiano whirled her round the ballroom.
”You’re on edge, and it’s not like you.’
Lydia rested her brow against his shoulder. She was getting really annoyed with herself. It was a wonderful party, and their guests were having a terrific time. Only Philip had been rude. Why was she letting that bother her so much?
Was she getting precious? Did she expect everyone to like and approve of her? But she knew what was the matter with her, didn’t she? Being reminded that all she had to offer Cristiano was her body had been painful. He wasn’t in love with her, and that made her feel insecure and vulnerable. Love was like a glue that could keep people together through rain and shine. Cristiano, however, was perfectly happy to settle for amazing sex. He had discovered that he wanted a child, and she had been in the right place at the right time when he decided that he would like to try settling down. That was why she had a dazzling diamond on her engagement finger.
But with such a foundation wasn’t he likely to get bored with her? And, when he did, what would they use for glue? Her love?
Around midnight, she noticed that Gwenna was still dancing with the same man and she smiled. Feeling warm, and wondering where Cristiano was, she walked through the house to the suite of offices he used. She was already deciding what she was going to say if she found him there working when he shouldn’t be. The rooms, however, were in darkness. Beyond the windows the gardens had been transformed with glimmering fibre-optic lights. She was thinking how beautiful it looked, and grinning at the sight of the young man being chased by not one but two giggling girls across the lawn, when she heard a noise behind her.
‘1 thought I’d never get you on your own.’
Lydia spun round, her oval face taut.
Philip Hazlett was leering at her from the doorway.
”What will Cristiano think if he finds you’ve been down here with me? We’ve been friends all our lives. He trusts me like a brother. Who do you think he’ll believe if 1 say you were flirting like mad and gagging for it’?’
Cold apprehension clutched at Lydia. She could feel his menace. She could feel him savouring her fear. If she screamed it was unlikely anyone would hear her above the music emanating from the party. Philip was blocking the only exit, and he was built like a concrete cube of muscle.
‘l’m meeting Cristiano here.’
Philip advanced.
‘Don’t waste your breath. He’s in the main hall, talking business over a brandy’ Lydia took a sidewise step, staying out of reach, her heart thumping so hard inside her chest that she felt sick.
‘Stay away from me-‘
‘You’ll be too scared to tell him I’ve had you. You have too much to lose,’ he asserted smugly. It’ll be our little secret for evermore…’
Lydia jerked as she saw movement behind Philip.
Someone flipped him round and hit him so fast and hard that he crashed down like a felled tree. Trembling, she just stood there gaping as Philip leapt back up only to be flattened a second time with an even harder punch.
”You filthy bastard! ‘ Cristiano growled, only backing off to extend a strong supportive arm round Lydia, whose state of shock was patent.
‘lf you had laid one finger on her I’d have killed you for it! But you f
rightened her, and that’s bad enough. I’m calling the police-‘
‘No-no police,’ Lydia mumbled unevenly.
‘He didn’t touch me. Don’t let him spoil the party. Just get him out of here! ‘
Arnaldo gave her an approving nod and anchored a hand like a giant meat hook in Philip’s jacket, to remove him from the scene.
Lydia was shaking like a leaf.
‘How did you know twas here’?’
‘Arnaldo was keeping an eye on you and on Philip all evening. 1 suspected Philip had said something to you when you arrived. You went all quiet, and 1 noticed the freaky way he was watching you. It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed his interest in you.’ His strongjawline squared.
‘He always wanted you, bella mia.’
”You knew that’?’
Cristiano gave her a rueful look as he shepherded her out into the corridor.
‘Look in the mirror. All my friends wanted you. couldn’t make it a hanging offence. 1 didn’t think anything of it eighteen months ago. But this time around, with Philip engaged to Jodie, 1 found it offensive and rather disturbing.’
‘1 thought he was your best friend.’
‘Did he tell you that? I’ve tolerated him because 1 do a lot of business with his father, who is everything the son is not. 1 have nothing in common with Philip now. What friendship we had left withered over that crass bet. Tonight… ‘
Cristiano paused, his dark golden gaze gleaming over her pallor and hardening to cold steel.
‘Tonight 1 could have killed him.’
‘1 was really scared-‘
‘Blame me for that. 1 had no idea that he might have an assault in mind,’
Cristiano breathed with fierce regret.
‘1 thought he might be pestering you and making a nuisance of himself. I intended to put a stop to it. But you were never in any danger. Arnaldo would have intervened had I not arrived.’
‘l suppose we should go back to our guests.’
But Cristiano directed her up a flight of service stairs.
”They don’t need us present to party. You’ve had an unpleasant experience and you need time to recover from that. If that bastard had managed to touch you-‘ ‘But he didn ‘t…’ Stretching up on tiptoe on the landing, Lydia rested a placating finger against his parted lips.