Mediterranean Men Bundle

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  Glenys met her daughter’s agonized look. ‘I’m so ashamed of what I did, but I was terribly upset. When I saw Kane I immediately thought of his mother and…and I wanted to get rid of both of them. I put Nero in the groove of one of the tractor tyre tracks on the lawn and went back into the house.’

  ‘Did anyone see you?’

  ‘No, but I told your father. I sometimes wish I hadn’t. He’s used it to keep me quiet about some of his…dealings. When Kane took over the company and Mercyfields I wanted to come clean but when he insisted on marrying you I thought better of it. I didn’t want anything to jeopardize your future together.’

  Bryony felt like screaming at her mother. The secrets and lies of the past had practically destroyed any chance of a happy future for herself and Kane. If only she had known! She cringed to think of how many times she’d accused him of killing that innocent dog! Would he ever forgive her for not believing in him?

  Glenys was openly sobbing now. ‘Kane must have known. Why else would he send me that puppy unless to show me he’d known all these years?’

  Bryony came across and knelt down in front of her mother, taking her trembling hands in hers, stroking them soothingly.

  ‘Mum? Listen to me. I know for a fact that Kane wouldn’t be so cruel as to do something like that to you. Anyway, he told me ages ago he thought Austin was responsible.’ She squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘Kane is the most caring person I know. I think I’ve always known deep down he couldn’t possibly have killed Nero even in a fit of rage. I know he likes people to think he’s ruthless and controlling but underneath he’s a gentle humane person.’

  Glenys lifted her head to look at her daughter through tear-washed eyes. ‘You love him, don’t you?’

  Bryony felt her own tears sprouting. ‘You have no idea how much.’

  ‘Does he?’ Glenys asked softly.

  Bryony held her mother’s questioning gaze. ‘I think it’s probably time I told him.’ She got to her feet and smiled. ‘Would you mind very much if I went back to town this evening?’

  Glenys gave her a watery smile. ‘Go, darling.’

  Bryony pulled into the driveway of Kane’s house three hours later, just as the puppy on the back seat started to whimper.

  ‘Hang on, sweetie, won’t be long now.’ She lifted him out of the carrier and cuddled him close, loving the feel of his silky fur and fervent tongue as it rasped over the back of her hand.

  She was bitterly disappointed to find that, although some lights were on, the house was empty. Her spirits plummeted at the thought of Kane out for the evening, her mind tortured with images of him escorting another woman on his arm, with the possible intention of bringing her back here to his house…

  She sprang to her feet when she heard the front door open close to eleven, her heart thumping, her ears straining for the sound of a female voice.

  She heard the firm tread of his footsteps approaching the sitting room and the door opening as his hand turned the knob.

  ‘Bryony?’ He came to a standstill and stared at her. ‘What are you doing back here?’

  Just then the puppy made a sound and waddled over towards him, stopping in the middle of the carpet to relieve itself.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Bryony scooped him up but only managed to spread the damage even further, including over the legs of her jeans.

  Kane handed her his handkerchief and took the puppy from her, holding it against his chest where it gave his large hand three licks before nestling into the crook of his arm and shutting its eyes.

  Bryony grimaced as she looked at the puddle seeping into the carpet.

  ‘I can’t believe he did that. I took him out half an hour ago.’

  ‘Women.’ Kane gave her a quick smile. ‘They make your life hell but you love them anyway.’ He stroked the top of the puppy’s silky head with one finger as he held her gaze. ‘I take it your mother wasn’t so keen on the idea of raising this little chap?’

  Bryony worried her lip with her teeth for a moment. ‘Would you mind very much if we were to keep him?’

  His dark eyes were steady on hers. ‘Aren’t you afraid I might inflict some sort of intolerable cruelty on him some time in the future?’

  ‘No, I’m not the least bit worried.’

  ‘I see.’ He placed the sleeping puppy on the sofa, tucking him behind the safety of a plump cushion. He turned back to face her, his expression still slightly guarded. ‘May I ask what brought about this change of heart?’

  ‘I know you didn’t kill Nero,’ she said. ‘I knew it even before my mother told me this afternoon that she was responsible.’

  A flicker of shock entered his dark gaze before he quickly covered it. ‘So we were both wrong.’

  ‘It wasn’t Austin and it wasn’t you,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, Kane, can you ever forgive me for misjudging you? I know it’s a lot to ask…I hate myself for being so blind for so long. I preferred you as the enemy because I thought I would be less vulnerable that way. I got it so wrong in so many ways.’

  He stood so still before her that she wondered if he had taken anything she’d said in. His expression was masklike—blank, almost, his dark mysterious eyes giving her no clue to what was going on in his head.

  ‘Kane?’ She approached him hesitantly. ‘You said yesterday that you married me to protect me. I’ve been thinking about that…wondering why you would be motivated to do so when I have done nothing but demonstrate my dislike of you. Why did you do it?’

  He had trouble holding her gaze, turning away to stare out of the window to the leafy street outside. His voice when he spoke seemed to be coming from deep inside him, ‘I’ve done some wrong things in my life. God knows I’d do differently if I had my time over, but I couldn’t allow someone to hurt you, not without doing everything within my power to stop it.’

  Hope exploded inside her, making her breathless and unsteady as if a powerful drug had been released into her system.

  ‘Why?’ she asked, her voice scratchy with emotion. ‘Why did you want to protect me so much?’

  His gravity was unsettling but she had come this far she couldn’t bear to go on any longer without answers. She placed her hand on his arm, turning him to face her. She slid her hand down to curl around his stiff fingers, stroking them into life.

  She drew in a breath as his fingers curled around hers, enclosing them in the warmth of his palm, his body moving closer so they were touching chest to thigh.

  Kane touched her face with his other hand, tracing the soft curve of her cheek before running his thumb pad over her bottom lip in a gentle caress that released a host of feathery sensations up and down her spine.

  ‘You can ask that?’ His voice was strangely husky. ‘You mean you haven’t already guessed?’

  ‘Guessed what?’ she asked, a tentative smile hovering about her mouth. ‘You’re like a closed book most of the time. How can I possibly guess what you’re thinking?’

  ‘I suppose you’re right.’ He gave a short rueful sigh. ‘For most of my life I’ve had to pretend to be invulnerable. One sign of weakness and others take advantage of it. I’ve learned that the hard way.’

  Bryony was sure he was referring to her father and brother. She bit her lip, her expression clouding with guilt and shame.

  He smiled down at her, his dark eyes warm as they rested on her up-tilted face. ‘What’s with the long face? I’m about to tell you I love you, so an encouraging smile would be really good right now.’

  She stared at him in wonder, her stomach somersaulting, her heart tight with its own burden of love just waiting to be shared. A slow smile gradually spread across her face, her eyes becoming luminous with joy.

  ‘That’s better.’ He gently tapped the end of her nose in approval. ‘Now listen up because I’ve never said this to a woman before, unless you count my mother, but I guess that’s different.’ He paused, taking in her shining eyes and jubilant smile. ‘Bryony, I love you. I think I’ve always loved you, although I’ve probably don
e far too good a job of hiding it. I love the way you care for your mother, I love the way you’re so loyal to your brother’s memory, I love the way you smile and laugh, I love the way you respond to me and I love the fact that you stand up to me, which makes me realise your father hasn’t totally crushed your spirit.’

  ‘Oh, Kane…’ She breathed at last. ‘I’ve been hiding something from you too. I love you. I don’t know when I started to love you…I think it was when you kissed me at the lake, although you’d never think it by the way I reacted…’ She gave him a strained look, her eyes going to his scar. ‘How can you love me? How can you be so forgiving when my family caused you so much suffering?’

  ‘Do you think it wasn’t worth it to have you here with me now?’ he asked. ‘I would do it all again, even do double the time to hold you in my arms.’

  ‘I never dreamed you felt anything for me but hate. You seemed so intent on revenge, insisting I give up work to run your house. You didn’t mean a word of it, did you?’

  He gave her a sheepish look. ‘As much as I like the idea of you pregnant and barefoot in my kitchen, I can assure you I was only needling you to stop you guessing what I really felt. I had my pride to maintain.’

  She gave herself up to his firm hug, burying her head into his neck, breathing in his scent, marvelling at the way life had turned ten years of bitterness into love.

  ‘I don’t deserve you,’ she said. ‘I’ll never be able to make it up to you.’

  He held her from him to smile down at her. ‘Then perhaps we need to instigate some sort of instalment plan to even the score a bit.’

  ‘What do you suggest?’ She looped her arms around his neck, her eyes alight with adoration.

  ‘I think it might be best to show you what I want.’ He scooped her up in his arms and began to carry her towards the door, but just as he went to shoulder it open there was a whimper from behind the cushion on the sofa.

  ‘Damn!’ he swore softly.

  Bryony giggled. ‘I think our baby needs us. Can you wait until I do what needs to be done?’

  He gave her a quick hard kiss and growled playfully, ‘Whose idea was it to start a family so soon?’

  ‘Not mine but I’m delighted, aren’t you?’

  He set her back down on her feet, holding her in the circle of his arms as if he found the task of letting her go impossible.

  ‘I love you, Bryony,’ he said. ‘Do you have any idea how much?’

  ‘No, but I’m hoping you might show me in a few minutes.’

  He stepped away from her and picked up the puppy, addressing it in an affectionate but firm voice. ‘Listen, kid, your mother and I need some time together so be a good baby and go back to sleep so I can show her how much she means to me.’

  The puppy blinked at him engagingly before giving his knuckle another enthusiastic lick.

  ‘Did you see that, Bryony?’ Kane asked, turning to her. ‘He loves me already.’

  Bryony slid her arms around his waist and tilted her head to look up at him, her face radiant with love.

  ‘I wonder what took him so long?’

  Diana Hamilton

  THE ITALIAN’S PRICE

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS

  TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

  AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

  STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

  PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  INSTRUCTING THE TAXI driver to wait, Cesare Saracino swung his long legs to the wet pavement and headed towards the small, old-fashioned butcher’s shop at the end of the largely deserted narrow high street, his dark eyes grim with determination.

  His investigator had tracked down her widowed mother’s home address with no difficulty at all. Personally he couldn’t see Jilly Lee actually returning here, never mind living in a flat above a butcher’s in a small market town on the border of Wales where nothing much ever happened. She needed bright lights, the company of admiring free-spending males. Glitz and glamour.

  She wouldn’t be here but her mother would know where she had gone since her sneaky disappearance from the villa. Jilly Lee—a soft and silly name for a first class bitch—would be made to pay. He’d find her and haul her back to Tuscany, demand reparation, force her to put her hunt for a wealthy husband and her thieving activities on hold and do the job she’d been hired to do.

  His mouth tightened with pain. The way things were going, Jilly Lee wouldn’t be in harness for long. Nonna was visibly growing more frail, though it galled him to have to admit that since the arrival of the Lee woman she’d brightened considerably.

  ‘There are no signs of clinical disease,’ her specialist had informed him three months ago, early in the new year. ‘But your grandmother is well over eighty and has been a widow for how long?’

  ‘Thirty years.’

  ‘And one by one she will have seen most of her contemporaries pass away. The body gets increasingly frail and so the will to live dwindles, there is less and less to look forward to.’

  Hating the thought that Nonna was simply letting go, he’d kicked against it and suggested hiring a congenial companion.

  ‘Someone to read to me while I do my embroidery? And drone on in a tedious, elderly way about the misdeeds of modern day youngsters and bore me with interminable tales of her own long-gone youth?’ She’d patted his hand, her smile, as ever, kind and fond. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Someone to keep you company.’

  ‘Rosa can do that.’

  ‘Rosa has her hands full of housekeeping duties. She can’t spare the time to go around the garden with you while you snip things off!’

  A dry look. ‘There are plenty of gardeners to pick me up if I fall over while I’m deadheading—if that’s what worries you!’

  He’d taken both her frail hands in his. ‘I spend as much time here at the villa as I can but I’m often away. Of course I worry about you. You took me in when I was a stroppy twelve-year-old. You cared for me. Let me now care for you. And there’s no law that says a paid companion has to be in her dotage.’

  He’d drafted the advertisement himself, offered sky-high wages, sat in on the interviews and had noted the first spark of any real interest in the faded old eyes when Jilly Lee had been shown in.

  On first sight she’d seemed vaguely familiar. A face glimpsed at a nightclub in Florence when he’d been entertaining an American client who’d expressed an interest in unwinding in a hot spot? But then these out-on-the-prowl bimbos all looked alike. Flowing long blonde hair, pouty scarlet lips, skimpy dresses designed to show pneumatic bosoms and endless legs. Ten a penny. He’d been hit on by enough of them during his thirty-four years to know the type. No wonder Nonna called him cynical.

  He’d dismissed the impression. True, Ms Lee had long silky blonde hair but it had been neatly tied back with a black velvet band and the blue shift dress she’d been wearing, although doing nothing to detract from her blatant curves, was demure enough in the hemline stakes.

  As in the three previous interviews he’d simply observed, leaving Nonna to run the show, only inputting when he’d felt the need for clarification.

  On the face of it she had seemed ideal. Twenty-five years old, so definitely not the middle-aged bore Nonna had stated she wouldn’t countenance. English, but with very passable Italian. Excellent references from a famous London store. The time spent in the interim travelling in Italy, picking up the language, taking odd jobs to eke out her savings, moving on, never staying in one place for very long. Now she wanted to settle permanently i
n this beautiful country.

  Rarely sparing him a glance, she’d chatted away with ease, charming and outgoing, and when Nonna—already captivated—had asked her to withdraw for a moment, told him with the first flash of excitement he’d seen coming from her in months, ‘I like her. She’s young, lively and lovely to look at. Just what I need since you point blank refuse to marry and bring a young bride here to brighten my days and keep me on my toes! Plus, we can practice my English together. I once spoke it as well as you do, but now I am rusty. What do you think? Shall we hire her?’

  He hesitated, but only for a moment. She might seem ideal but something about this latest applicant struck a false note. An annoying niggle with nothing concrete to back it up.

  With a small impatient shrug he dismissed it. Nonna liked her, which was the main thing. She was showing real enthusiasm for the first time in ages, which meant that she wouldn’t just let go, give up the will to live.

  ‘If that’s what you want.’

  He would do anything for Nonna. He owed her so much. She had been the first person to give him any real affection. His parents hadn’t shown any, to him or each other. It had been a dynastic marriage gone wrong. His father, a workaholic, had rarely been home and his mother, to compensate, had spent money like water and taken a string of lovers.

  He could only suppose they had stayed married for the sake of appearances. In the circles they moved in appearances were everything.

  On their death in a light aircraft accident on one of the rare occasions when they’d been attending the same function together, he had become heir to the vast family-run business enterprise that ranged from the petrochemical industry through luxury hotels to dealing in fine art and precious gems.

  Nonna had helped him come to terms with everything. The business was to be run by his late father’s hand-picked executive managers until he reached his majority, of course, but she had hired a private tutor to help him learn all he could about his future inheritance, a project he had eagerly embraced.