by Helen Brooks
From Back Cover…
The second Mrs. Bellini
Claire would make some man the perfect wife—everyone said so. But after being jilted by her fiancé, she wasn't sure she believed in love anymore. Until she saw her best friend reunited with the husband she thought she'd lost forever—and Claire's faith in romance was restored.
Staying with the happy couple, it seemed like fate when she met their closest friend, Romano Bellini. He was beautiful, and for a fleeting moment Claire wondered if…. But Romano had been married before and didn't want his life complicated by a second wife. Curious, then, that the subject of marriage just kept coming up!
Excerpt…
"I think it was a mistake, bringing you here tonight."
Romano continued. "It is not fair. I am not an easy man to be with. Since my wife died, I have preferred to keep my life simple, uncluttered. I like it that way."
"And having someone for dinner makes it cluttered and complicated?" she asked tightly. Claire's face was outwardly calm, but her mind was racing. She had told him she had no designs on him, hadn't she? How dare he presume she was interested in him and warn her off in that way?
He might be wealthy and powerful, with film-star good looks, but he was everything she despised in a man—a conceited egoist who thought he was God's gift to womankind!
She pitied his late wife, she really did….
Second Marriage
by
Helen Brooks
Sometimes the perfect marriage is worth waiting for!
CHAPTER ONE
'Oh, hold on a moment, Grace, she's just this minute walked in.' As her mother thrust the telephone at her Claire's fine eyebrows arched in enquiry, and in the next breath her mother whispered, 'It's Grace. She sounds… agitated.'
'Grace?' Claire almost snatched the receiver in her haste to talk to her friend, this friend who had endured so much in her twenty-five years of life but was now so happy—or had been the last time she had talked to her a week ago.
Don't let anything be wrong. Please, please don't let anything be wrong, she prayed quickly as she heard Grace speak her name. Let the baby be all right, let Grace be all right, let everyone be all right… Grace had lost a baby to cot death some years ago, when the child, a little boy named Paolo, was only six months old, and this was her first pregnancy since that terrible time.
'I'm sorry to hound you the moment you get in from work,' Grace said huskily, the strangeness in her voice emphasised by the miles separating them. 'It's just…I needed to speak to you.'
'What's wrong?' There was something wrong; she knew it now. 'You were going for your scan today, weren't you?'
'Yes, yes—and don't worry, there's nothing wrong with the baby,' the disembodied voice said quickly. 'It's just that it's babies. Plural,' she added as Claire didn't speak.
'Twins!'
'Twins.' Grace's voice was flat.
'But that's wonderful,' Claire responded enthusiastically, 'isn't it?'
'Yes, of course it is.' There was a little more animation in Grace's tone now. 'Donato's over the moon, and I'm pleased—I am, really—but I just feel a bit overwhelmed, I suppose.'
'But that's perfectly understandable,' Claire said softly, her big brown eyes darkening with a mixture of sympathy and concern.
Grace had been brought up in a children's home and had never known the support and unconditional love of a mother, and although she had been very close to her husband's mother, Liliana, almost from the first time she had met her, Liliana had died more than two and a half years ago. It was at times like this that it was reassuring to know that mothers, grandmothers, sisters were all at hand, but Grace had no immediate female family members to encourage her, Claire thought perceptively.
'Claire—' Grace stopped abruptly, and then, after Claire gave a gentle, 'Yes?', continued hesitantly, 'I don't suppose there's any chance you might consider coming out here, is there? To live, I mean?'
'To Italy?' Claire stared across the hall in blank amazement, much to her mother's irritation—she was hovering in the lounge doorway trying to make sense of Claire's end of the conversation.
'It doesn't have to be straight away,' Grace said quickly, 'and it can be for as long or as short a time as you want, but I'd just love to know you'd be around when the babies were born. Oh, I shouldn't have asked you,' she continued in a little rush. 'It's not fair. I told Donato it's not fair—'
'Hang on—hang on a minute,' Claire said slowly as she tried to feel her way in a conversation that had suddenly become extraordinary. 'Are you saying you want me to come out and stay with you on a semi-permanent basis? More than a holiday or a long break?'
'Yes.' The reply was immediate. 'For months, if you could. I'd love to have you here, I really would, and with you having trained as a nanny and everything—' This time the sudden halt was even more abrupt, and Grace's voice was hot with embarrassment when she went on, 'Oh, I'm sorry, Claire. I shouldn't have mentioned that.'
'Don't be silly,' Claire said evenly, 'I'm over all that now. But how would Donato feel about my coming to live with you?'
'It was his suggestion,' Grace said eagerly. 'When we found out it was twins he thought I might need some help in the first few months, and he remembered you saying in the summer you were thinking of changing your job but weren't sure what you wanted to do. He thought you could escape the worst of the English winter out here while you took the time to consider all your options, and we'd pay you for as long as you stayed so you'd have a little nest-egg behind you when you went back—'
'No way,' Claire interrupted firmly. 'If I came it would be as a friend helping out a friend. I had that wonderful holiday with you in the summer, and Donato wouldn't even let me pay for my airfare.'
'Well, we'd see.' Grace clearly wasn't going to put any obstacles in the way of her coming at this early stage of the proceedings. 'But do you think you might consider it, then? You could stay in the main house or with us—whichever you like—and Lorenzo would love to have you around for a while. He did miss you when you went home in September.'
'I missed him.' Claire smiled as she thought of Donato's younger brother, who had just turned thirteen and was an enchanting mix of child and young man, with an infectious sense of fun that matched her own. 'He's a smashing kid.'
'I'd love you to come, Claire,' Grace said again, with a wistful note in her voice that was meant to charm. 'I've lots of friends out here, good friends, but you're different. I've always felt we should have been sisters.'
'I know what you mean,' said Claire. And she did. The two women had only known each other for a few years, but almost from the first time they had met, when Grace had been estranged from Donato and living in England, the two of them had hit it off in a way that only happened once in a lifetime. Claire had five big, strapping brothers, but no sister, and Grace had filled a void in her life that she hadn't even realised was there.
'You'll think about it, then? Look, here's Donato. He wants a word with you too…'
All that had been eight weeks ago, and now it was the end of January, with the chaos of Christmas long forgotten. She had really left the raw winter chill of England far behind her, Claire thought happily as she emerged from Customs and looked around for Donato who was meeting her.
Her old job as receptionist in a doctors' surgery, the bedlam of a home shared with her parents and the three remaining unmarried brothers, the memories of that awful time before she had met Grace—suddenly it all fell away, and she lifted her face to the mild sunlight streaming in through the plate glass windows of the airport terminal, its golden rays turning her sleek chestnut hair to glowing red silk.
'Miss Wilson?' The voice was cold, as was the face of the tall, dark man starin
g down at her, despite the polite smile that twisted the finely chiselled lips in a semblance of welcome. 'Miss Claire Wilson?'
'Yes?' She wasn't aware that the dreamy expression of delight had been wiped away, or that her velvety brown eyes were revealing her alarm and vulnerability, but the big man watching her so closely was aware of both, and it caused the chillingly handsome face to harden still further.
'I am Romano Bellini—Donato's brother-in-law?' the heavily accented voice said smoothly. 'He was called away unavoidably on a matter of great urgency this morning, and as he did not want Grace to drive in her condition he asked that I would meet you.'
'He did?' Her voice was a squeak, and she heard it with a burst of self-disgust, but somehow the overpoweringly masculine figure in front of her had robbed her of coherent thought. She had seen a picture of Donato's brother-in-law and best friend, of course, taken some time before his young wife, Donato's only sister, had died, but somehow the dormant image captured on film in no way resembled the flesh-and-blood man standing before her.
'You would perhaps like proof of my identity?' Romano asked quietly as she frantically struggled for words. 'Or you would care to make the phone call to Grace?'
'No, no, it's all right,' she managed at last, her voice breathless. 'I've…I've seen a photo of you. I…I know who you are.'
'This is good.' He smiled the arctic smile again, but for the life of her she couldn't respond in kind—her face, like her thought processes, frozen. 'Then there is no problem, sì? I, too, have seen the photograph of you, taken with Grace in the summer? I understand you had an enjoyable time in Italy?'
'Yes, yes it was lovely.' Say something, talk back, make conversation, she told herself distractedly as he bent and lifted her two heavy suitcases—which she hadn't been able to manage without a baggage trolley and obliging porters—as though they weighed nothing at all. 'I… Grace is all right? There's nothing wrong?'
'Grace is very well,' he replied smoothly, before inclining his head towards the exit doors and saying, 'Shall we?'
'Oh, yes, of course.' She found herself scuttling along at the side of him as though she were an errant child, and the simile annoyed her.
It wasn't just the austere way he had with him that was so intimidating, she told herself weakly as she glanced up at his handsome profile before stepping out into the mild air beyond the airport building, it was everything. His height, the broadness of the hard, masculine shoulders beneath the light jacket he was wearing, the dark, cold, enigmatic good looks, the almost tangible air of ruthlessness that permeated his aura like a black shadow. He was… He was frightening.
Frightening? Immediately her mind acknowledged the word she kicked against it with a force that tightened her soft mouth and tilted her chin. How ridiculous could she be? Frightening indeed! He was Donato's best friend, and a good friend to Grace too, from all she had said in the summer, and he had lost his wife in tragic circumstances two and a half years ago. He was probably still devastated by her death; she had been very beautiful. No, he wasn't frightening. Reserved, perhaps? Withdrawn?
She followed him over to the car, a regal, top-of-the-range BMW that swallowed her huge suitcases with consummate ease, and once inside glanced round at the soft grey velvety upholstery as he walked round to the driver's seat after shutting her door.
Donato's wealth and power had overawed her at first during the previous summer, and it looked as though Romano was of the same ilk, she thought warily as he slid into the car beside her. His clothes certainly weren't the off-the-peg variety, his shoes were hand-made and the gold Rolex on his tanned wrist told its own story.
Talk about born with silver spoons in their mouths, she thought wryly. It was more like diamond-encrusted ones in this part of Italy. What a protected, privileged little world it was—unreal by normal standards.
'Is something wrong?'
She hadn't been aware of his eyes on her, but now, as she came out of her musing, she found the narrowed gaze was fixed on her face and flushed hotly. 'No, of course not,' she said quickly.
He continued to look at her as he turned more fully towards her, sliding his arm along the back of her seat as he twisted his body in the confines of the car. 'No?' he asked softly.
It took every ounce of will-power she possessed, and then some, not to start gabbling madly as the silence lengthened and stretched after she had shaken her head, his eyes holding hers in a way she had never experienced before.
'How old are you?' The fact that his words surprised him as much as her was apparent when he immediately followed them with, 'Scusi, I had no right to ask such an impertinent question.' He swung back into his seat and brought the slumbering engine to purring life, his face cold and withdrawn and his body language expressing the sort of outrage that might have suggested she was the one at fault.
'It's all right.' She addressed the stony profile cautiously, feeling as though she had inadvertently caught a tiger by the tail and very much out of her depth. 'I'm twenty-four, actually, although I know I don't look it.'
'No, you do not.' He didn't look at her as he spoke, negotiating the big car carefully onto the road, his black eyes narrowed against the sunlight which, although lacking in heat, was of a piercing brightness.
'It's genetic' She spoke brightly, although the flat comment had been if not exactly insulting then less than complimentary. 'My mother looks years younger than she is in spite of having had six children, so I'm resigned to being a teenager until I'm in my thirties,'
The thick black eyebrows arched in wry acknowledgement of her words but he said nothing, and again she felt as though she had somehow been slighted. What an unpleasant individual! She forced herself to look out of the window, keeping her expression blank, although she couldn't stop the warm colour staining her cheeks pink. What a very unpleasant individual.
She recalled the picture of his wife and felt herself shrink still further into her seat. The Italian woman had been beautiful—very beautiful—in a sensual, feline way that was both slinky and sexy and very, very grown-up. He obviously preferred his women voluptuous and sophisticated, she thought tightly, a description which most certainly didn't fit her slight, boyish figure and lack of make-up and adornment. Not that she wanted it to, she added instantly, not at all. Romano Bellini was the type of macho man she found positively distasteful—the sort who had to have something decorative hanging on his arm as a reflection of his own masculinity.
'I understand you worked with Grace when she lived in England?' His voice was polite but uninterested, and it was clear he was making the effort of conversation without having any desire to do so. 'As receptionist at a doctors' surgery, sì?'
'Yes.' The reply was a little too clipped in view of the long car journey in front of them, so she modified it with, 'Although we had both actually trained to work with children—a fact we discovered as we got to know each other better.'
'This is so?' He turned to her for one moment, and she felt the jolt of the glittering black gaze right down to her shoes before he concentrated on the road again. 'But you found it was not to your liking?' he asked softly.
'Not really.'
'You do not like children?' he persisted.
'Of course I like children.' She wished this conversation, which was proving difficult for her, were being conducted with some space between them. The close proximity of their bodies in the car was…disturbing, and the expensive, delicious smell of him combined with the overwhelming maleness of the man was making it impossible to think clearly. 'It's just…something happened which made it…awkward to continue,' she said carefully. Awkward? Impossible, more like. Terrifyingly impossible.
'I see.' The rapier-sharp gaze flashed her way again, but she had dropped her head a little, allowing the silky fall of her shoulder-length straight hair to hide her face. 'Well, perhaps when the twins are here and you have had some practice again you may feel like continuing your career,' he said quietly.
'Perhaps.'
The tone and the word were dismissive, and she meant them to be. There was no way she was going to discuss any of this with a stranger. She couldn't believe she had said as much as she had already, and she certainly wasn't going to elaborate further.
Five minutes crept by in a silence that could only be called taut, and she was just contemplating breaking the crackling tension with a mundane remark about the beautiful countryside when Romano spoke again, his voice cool and contained. 'I thought we would stop for lunch at a little restaurant I know along the coast. This is acceptable?'
'Lunch?'
If he had suggested something obscene she couldn't have sounded more horrified, and his voice acknowledged his awareness of her consternation as he said, 'You do eat, I take it?'
Yes, she ate—of course she ate, Claire thought weakly, but the thought of having lunch with him, of being with him like that, was alarming. They hadn't exactly hit it off—besides which, this invitation to lunch was clearly just part of the fulfilment of his duty to Donato and Grace as far as he was concerned. 'I…I was expecting to eat with Grace,' she managed after a few more painful seconds, 'and I'm not really hungry.'
'I, on the other hand, am starving.' His voice held a thread of something she couldn't quite place, slightly mocking, dry, with a darkness that made warmth trickle down her backbone, and as he spoke he shifted position slightly, bringing the material of his black trousers taut across his thighs.
Oh, help… She took a deep breath and forced her fluttering pulse to behave. What on earth was the matter with her? She'd been alone in a car with a man before, hadn't she?
Yes, but not this particular man, her mind answered weakly. In fact she'd never met a man like this one before. He was threatening. No, not threatening, frightening. Her first instinct had been right, she told herself helplessly. He was frightening, and dangerous. Too… male.
'So?'
As the cold voice spoke again she forced her eyes up and away from his body, and tried to bring her thought processes into working order.
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