Mediterranean Men Bundle

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  Getting the job done was his modus operandi and she could live with that, she decided meltingly as he told her, ‘On second thoughts, cara mia—and provided you agree—we will not tell Nonna of our marriage plans until she is perfectly well and strong again.’ He pulled on a pair of light grey chinos and fastened the button at his lean waist, imparting, ‘Knowing my stubborn grandmother and her joy to see me marrying at last, she will immediately start planning the service, the reception, the guest list, the flowers and your wardrobe. An earthquake wouldn’t stop her. And in her present state of health it would prove to be too much. Do you understand what I mean?’

  ‘Of course!’ Milly’s eyes sparkled with love at his consideration. And what did it matter if the wedding announcement was delayed for a couple of weeks?

  ‘Grazie—thank you!’ His smile dazzled her. He fastened the buttons of a black silk shirt. ‘Besides, I will be overseas—a business trip that, alas, I cannot cancel—it will keep me away for several weeks. When I return we will share our news. And, as for Nonna and what she will think when you tell her who you are, do not trouble yourself, mi amore. She already knows.’

  ‘She does!’ At that shattering information Milly sat bolt upright, her eyes very wide.

  ‘Indeed.’ He was tying a silver-coloured silk tie. ‘I told her before we came here and about your sister’s theft. She was not surprised. In fact, when I explained that I was bringing you to the Saracino Palace to finally bring things out in the open she begged me not to give you a hard time! She insisted that you must have had good reason because you were too gentle and loving to have harboured a bad one.’

  Four determined strides brought him to the bedside. His dark gaze glittering, he reached for her hands and drew her to her feet. ‘You have not a single thing to worry about on that score. Now—’ he dealt her backside a gentle slap— ‘get dressed.’

  Cesare had made his excuses and headed for the room set aside for his high-tech office as soon as they returned to the villa, closely followed by the arrival of his PA, a brisk young man, bristling with the efficiency his boss demanded.

  Despite Cesare’s assurances Milly had been full of trepidation as she’d taken herself to Filomena’s room. Her deception had to be unforgiveable, didn’t it? She felt slightly nauseous at her own uncharacteristic devious behaviour.

  But the old lady’s delight in seeing her, the warmth of her welcome, laid her anxieties to rest, as did Filomena’s immediate and regally imperious demand to sit out on the terrace for a while so that they could enjoy the air and have the talk she’d been itching for ever since Cesare had informed her that she was Milly, her companion’s twin sister.

  An operation that was treated as a military manoeuvre, everyone from Stefano to the youngest housemaid being enlisted to move the wooden table and benches from the rose-shaded arbour at one side of the terrace to make room for a cushion-piled armchair, Rosa herself bringing up the rear with a tray loaded with chilled orange juice and little almond cakes.

  ‘I was a little puzzled,’ Filomena admitted with her beautiful smile as she sat like a queen on her throne as her staff melted away, ‘as to how my companion had so changed in character! If I had had my wits about me I would have suspected something. Brittleness all gone, replaced with warmth and gentleness. More thoughtfulness. Your choice of reading matter too; Dickens as opposed to the sex and shopping sagas your sister was so fond of. Please—I’m not saying her company wasn’t good for me. At that time it was. I had become bored with myself and being old! Cesare had become convinced I had a death wish! Jilly took me out of it with her amusing chatter, her liveliness and those flashes of charm that were most in evidence when my grandson was around. Sometimes, in my room at night, I could hear her laughing with him on the path outside my windows, and I thought—no matter. Yes—’ she brought herself back to what she had been saying ‘—such charm. It could make you forgive almost anything.’

  ‘Even theft?’ Milly had to ask, feeling deep shame on her twin’s behalf.

  ‘Even that. She must have been desperate and I have much wealth. But,’ she added with a flash of asperity, ‘I wouldn’t condone it as a career choice. Now—we talk of brighter things.’

  Over dinner, the first meal Filomena hadn’t taken from a tray since her accident, Milly, feeling cold inside because although Cesare had finally joined them he had barely acknowledged her presence, broached the subject of her friend’s wedding.

  ‘Cleo’s really keen for me to be her bridesmaid. I’d hate to disappoint her. And I do need to vacate the flat.’ She had given up all hope of Jilly ever bothering to try to contact home in the near future. While Cesare had been away she had phoned Cleo and her landlord and had given her contact number should her sister remember she had a family and try to get in touch. But so far nothing.

  Her face glowed with sudden unconcealed pleasure. She would have no need of the flat. She and Cesare were to be married! The thought had the power to rock her, even though the way he’d been as good as ignoring her up until now had made her feel invisible!

  ‘And when does this event take place?’ Cesare had joined them at the last minute and it was the first she had seen of him since he’d shut himself away in his office.

  She met the cool questioning of his eyes and a wave of intense disappointment surged through her. Last night those eyes had been filled with raw desire, sending her up in flames, now he was looking at her as if she were a menial asking for time off when it wasn’t due to her!

  ‘Around six weeks,’ she answered unsteadily. ‘But I’d need to go back to England a couple of weeks earlier. Dress fittings—that sort of thing. I’d come back the day after the wedding.’

  His impressively handsome profile was turned to her now. He wasn’t looking at her and Milly doubted that he had heard a word she’d said. It was left to Filomena to step into the breach.

  ‘Then of course we must spare you. And who knows, you might learn something of your sister’s whereabouts. From what you told me earlier, I know you worry about her complete disappearance. Cesare—’ her voice sharpened‘—you will arrange this?’

  ‘Nonna—’ He laid down his cutlery and leant back in his chair, an ebony brow elevated just slightly. ‘If you recall, I will not be here to arrange anything. However—’ he pushed back his chair and stood up in one fluid movement, the very image of cool Italian sophistication‘ —give Stefano the details and he will make the travel arrangements. Now, if you will excuse me, I still have work to do before I leave for Madrid in the morning.’

  How Milly got through the rest the meal and the ritual of helping Filomena get ready for bed while behaving as if she was perfectly happy she would never know.

  Cesare had as good as looked through her, she fretted as she reached the sanctuary of her own bedroom. Had not addressed her except to ask that clipped question. It hurt quite unbearably. She was hard put to reconcile his attitude over dinner with that of the man who had made glorious love to her, had asked her to be his wife.

  Deciding to get up extra early, run him to earth and demand a few answers before he left in the morning, she had a quick shower, brushed her teeth and climbed into bed wearing a baggy old T-shirt. She felt too emotional to creep through the silent house to his office and demand answers now. Right now. Her pride wouldn’t let her show him how insecure she felt.

  He hadn’t once said he loved her, she reminded herself on a flood of nervy anxiety. Then told herself to grow up and swiftly assured herself that no man in his right mind would ask a woman to marry him, share his life and bear his children if he didn’t love her and, anyway, he probably had a whole load of stuff on his mind to do with his up-and-coming extended business trip.

  Too much stuff to give much thought to his fiancée when he would, with man-like pragmatism, consider enough had been said on the subject of what he felt for her to make emotional scenes and the display of female insecurities plain annoying. Make him think that she would prove to be a demanding wife, whining and c
omplaining when he put business first, throwing a hissy-fit if he ever dared to be late home by as much as a single minute.

  Reaching that sensible conclusion, she flicked off the bedside light and closed her eyes only to open them again almost immediately as the door opened and Cesare, wearing a towelling robe, was illuminated by the light from the broad passage behind before the door closed again and he was at the bedside breathing, ‘Forgive me, mi amore!’

  He reached for her in the darkness, pulling her into the circle of his arms. ‘I ignored you!’ he confessed rawly. ‘I couldn’t look at you, talk to you, without aching to have you in my arms, to kiss you! I need you so much I would have given our secret away. Nonna may be old but she’s far from stupid!’ He breathed in very deep, his lips against the side of her neck. ‘Say you forgive me!’

  ‘Anything! I forgive you anything!’ Melting against him, Milly slid her hands beneath his robe, her fingers splaying against the hard, muscular planes of his chest, breathing in the aphrodisiacal scent of warm male and a slightly tangy aftershave, her head swimming dizzily on a wave of love and longing and annoyance with herself for feeling any insecurities whatsoever.

  Immeasurably flattered because he’d admitted he couldn’t look at her without betraying a primitive urge to make love to her, her brain reeling with the knowledge of her feminine power, she lifted her head and put her soft mouth against his lips, very gently, and teased softly, ‘Then I know what I must do to test your powers of endurance to the limit, don’t I?’

  ‘Strega! It is just as well I am to be away from the temptation of you while Nonna completes her recovery!’ And then he claimed her mouth with a passionate intensity that made her heart beat wildly and somehow his robe got lost in the vortex and her T-shirt went the same way as his tongue mated with hers with driven hunger until he reared away, flicking on the bedside light.

  ‘I need to look at you, amore mia. I need to feast my eyes,’ he announced raggedly. He laid her back on the bed. ‘I need to touch.’ His voice thickened. ‘Here—’ Reverent fingers brushed her tight nipples and her breath caught in roughened gasps as those same fingers stroked over the flat planes of her tummy, then lower. ‘And here—’

  As his hand brushed through the golden curls at the apex of her thighs and discovered the aching, molten heat, excitement had her writhing against him, her every enticing movement begging him to take the burning ache for him away. As if he understood her uncontrollable hunger, he kissed her with such sweet tenderness she thought she might die from it and murmured softly, ‘Slowly, mi amore. Tonight I will take you to Paradise many times, I promise you.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  IT WAS POURING with rain and the flat felt damp and chilly. Shorn of the curtains and rugs, the brightly coloured cushions she’d bought one cold winter day in an attempt to make their home look more cheerful, the place looked what it was, drab and dingy.

  Milly’s throat tightened at the thought that her mother, living in pleasant, leafy suburban comfort while her husband had been alive, had been reduced to this during her final years. And all because of Jilly’s wildly selfish schemes.

  Surveying the assembled packing cases, Milly felt a stab of deep sadness, they represented the sum total of her mother’s life.

  Pathetically little.

  She’d packed the remainder of Jilly’s possessions and had taken the more respectable items of hers and her mother’s clothing to a charity shop and even now removal men were taking the packing cases and furniture into storage because at some time in the future Jilly might need some of it if she returned to set up home in England and she felt bad about disposing of everything without consulting Jilly first.

  That was if her sister ever turned up!

  She didn’t know what she felt most, anger at her twin for her less than honest behaviour and her blithe disregard for her family, or deepening anxiety at her mysterious disappearance.

  Whatever— She turned from the window and the unprepossesing view of the rain-soaked high street and the top of the removal van parked outside the butcher’s shop and went to the poky apology for a kitchen to brew tea for the removal men. Fretting about her twin wouldn’t solve anything.

  At least yesterday, the day of Cleo’s wedding, had been warm and sunny. Her friend had looked beautiful and the groom proud enough to bust a gut, she recalled, determined to think of something cheerful.

  Besides, she would be returning to Italy tomorrow after overnighting at an airport hotel and soon now, very soon, she would be seeing Cesare again.

  Her spirits soared. She’d missed him so much, but soon the waiting would be over. After his departure, in the weeks before she’d returned to England, he’d phoned the villa twice a week to speak to his grandmother and ask after her state of health and on a couple of occasions she’d been able to speak to him herself and those conversations had been heartwarmingly precious.

  She poured tea into mugs and set them on a tray. Cesare had even gone to the trouble of setting up a credit account for her use, which was really generous of him because they weren’t yet married. She was merely his secret fiancée, though she’d been hard put to keep quiet, especially as Cleo had done a lot of probing over what she called the ‘blackmailing Italian guy.’

  She’d longed to state that he was completely wonderful and soon to be her husband. Only her promise to Cesare to keep their plans secret had kept her from confiding her wonderful news.

  But Filomena was now as good as new. Or so the old lady had affirmed when Milly phoned her a couple of days ago. Already she was directing a major overhaul of the long herbaceous border and was anxious for Milly’s return and her horticultural input. So that meant there would be no further delay on Cesare divulging their wedding plans!

  Her stomach flipped with electrifying excitement. He was all she could ever want and then some. And he wanted to marry her!

  Leaning against the chipped enamel draining board, misty-eyed and moony at that world-shaking prospect, the tea forgotten, the shouts and grunts of the three men who were humping the ancient sofa down the narrow staircase receding, her imagination conjured up a blissful image of her wedding day, her fabulous dress—all white and floaty, or maybe satin and sleek—the clearest image of all that of Cesare looking stunningly fantastic, his dark head turned, his eyes drenched with love as she walked towards him up the aisle—

  ‘Milly!’

  She tensed, breath locked in her lungs, hazy romantic images dispelled by something so immediate and real it set her heart racing.

  Only one man made her plain ordinary name sound special. Only one man’s voice could send shivers of delight skittering down her spine.

  Cesare!

  Galvanised, she fled from the kitchen and hurtled down the wooden staircase, erupting into his open arms with a squeal of welcoming delight. The sound was stopped right there in her throat as he lowered his dark head and kissed her with a ravishing thoroughness that left her feeling helplessly dizzy.

  ‘I needed that, cara,’ he at last announced with husky conviction, holding her by her upper arms so that he could look at her properly.

  ‘Bella, bella. Perfection!’ Lushly veiled eyes drifted over the elegant pale lemon-coloured linen suit she had chosen to travel in with its waist clipping jacket and narrow knee-length skirt. ‘You choose well when not constrained by near poverty,’ he approved, his eyes homing in on the swell of her breasts hinted at by the classy cut of the jacket.

  Milly squirmed, her lovely face flushing uncomfortably. She so didn’t want him to think she was greedy, out for all she could get!

  But this suit had cost an arm and a leg and, dithering over it, severely tempted, Cleo had dealt the knockout blow. ‘You must have it. It’s perfect for you!’ And the amount of credit on the card Cesare had set up for her was mind boggling.

  ‘Cleo and I had a day in London before the wedding,’ she confessed. ‘I had my hair done.’ And that had cost a small fortune, she recalled, her blush reviving with a vengea
nce as she relived the guilt that had swamped her when she’d seen the size of the bill.

  In the past she had slipped out in her lunch hour and Marjorie in the salon just up the road had cut it for her for a minute fraction of the cost. But she had to admit that the London guy had done a much better job.

  ‘And I bought a few things. Not too many, I promise,’ she ended on an uncomfortable whisper.

  ‘Amore mia—’ He dropped a kiss on her luscious mouth. ‘What is mine is yours.’ He smiled into her wide emerald eyes. ‘As my wife you will have the best. I expect it. No, I demand it,’ he stated firmly, moving her aside as one of the removal men clattered down the stairs with the rolled up rug that had softened the bare boards of the tiny bedroom set aside for Jilly’s use.

  ‘We found the tea, luv!’ He gave her a broad wink and Cesare enquired, ‘How much longer?’

  ‘Just finishing, guv.’

  Cesare glanced at the slim gold watch that banded his flat wrist. ‘Five minutes, tops.’

  Receiving an assurance, he turned his attention to Milly. ‘Ready to leave?’

  ‘I’ve just got to fetch my case.’ A new one to hold the lovely things she’d bought. She felt her cheeks turn pink again and hurriedly informed herself that he seemed fine about her spending some of his money, so she really had nothing to feel guilty about. One day soon she was going to have to make him understand that his wealth meant nothing to her. She’d marry him if he was a pauper and she’d happily go out scrubbing floors to put bread on the table!

  Mounting the stairs at a rush, she wondered what the hurry meant. That he couldn’t wait to be alone with her? Her heart beat faster. In one of his recent phone calls to his grandmother he had probably heard that today she would be packing up and leaving the flat and had dropped everything to be with her.