‘In that case my proposition is even more tenable,’ he said softly.
Chapter Six
‘WHAT do you mean?’ Libby gave a sudden shiver, her skin quickly cooling now that she was no longer in Raul’s arms. ‘What proposition?’
He saw the tremor that ran through her and frowned. ‘You’re cold. Here—put this on.’ He shrugged out of his jacket, draped it around her shoulders and caught hold of her hand to lead her firmly across the lawn. ‘We’ll continue this discussion inside.’
Libby would have preferred not to hold a post-mortem on the shockingly wanton way she had responded to him, but Raul’s fingers were gripping hers like a vice and she had no option but to hurry alongside him. She burrowed into the jacket, which was still warm from his body and carried the faint scent of his cologne. She had forgotten to collect her shoes, but when they reached the drive and she picked her way cautiously over the gravel he scooped her into his arms and carried her up to the house.
He strode across the hall and into his study, and set her down on her feet before crossing the room and taking a bottle from the drinks cabinet. ‘Would you like a whisky? It will warm you up.’
When she shook her head he poured himself a drink and swallowed the amber liquid down in one gulp. She sensed his fierce tension and stared at him in confusion. ‘What proposition?’ she asked again.
Raul swung round to face her, his dark eyes unfathomable. Ever since the idea of marrying Libby as a way to claim full control of CC had stolen into his mind he had thought of little else. The arguments for and against such a monumental decision had given him a sleepless night and had tormented him all day, so that he had barely been able to concentrate on the crucial board meeting.
He did not want to marry again. Once had been enough, he thought grimly, remembering his bitter divorce from his first wife. He valued his freedom, and was reluctant to sacrifice it, but he valued Carducci Cosmetics above anything—and there would be compensations to taking Libby as his bride, he acknowledged, as he slid his eyes down from her face to her pale shoulders and then lower still to the soft swell of her breasts revealed by the plunging neckline of her dress. She was so very lovely. Just looking at her evoked a dull ache in his gut, and he realised that he no longer cared that she had been Pietro’s mistress; the chemistry between them was too strong to be denied.
And there was another important reason to marry her. Gino needed a father. Libby had stated that she would not bring him up with a succession of ‘uncles’, but it was unrealistic to expect that she would not have a relationship until the baby was older—and Raul found that he hated the prospect of watching from the sidelines while the little boy called another man Papa.
Libby’s big blue-green eyes were locked on him, and he knew she was waiting for him to speak. ‘I think we should get married,’ he said abruptly.
‘What?’
She must have misheard him, Libby told herself dazedly. Either that or this was his idea of a stupid joke. Perhaps it was wishful thinking? taunted a little voice in her head. Why had her heart leapt with excitement for the nano-second when she had thought he meant that he wanted to marry her? She wasn’t in love with him, she wasn’t even sure she liked him very much, and she could not understand why she felt drawn to him.
‘I don’t understand,’ she faltered.
‘I want to bring Gino up as my son.’ The quiet intensity of his tone told her that this was no joke and that he was deadly serious. ‘Let me explain,’ he said when she gaped at him. ‘When Pietro and Eleanora Carducci adopted me they gave me a life that I could never have imagined when I lived in the orphanage—not just wealth and education, but love, and the stability that comes from growing up with two parents. Gino will never know his real father, but if we marry and I adopt him he will grow up with a mother and father, and hopefully siblings,’ he added, his eyes gleaming with a sensual heat that sent a tremor through Libby. ‘Make no mistake: what I am suggesting is a real marriage,’ he told her. ‘I will love Gino as my son—just as Pietro loved me—but I have no blood relatives that I am aware of, and I would like to have children of my own.’
‘Then surely it would be better to wait until you fall in love, marry a woman you care for, and then have children?’ Libby argued. ‘Heaven knows, enough couples who marry for love still end up in the divorce courts. What chance would a marriage between us stand when we don’t even particularly like each other?’
Raul stared at her speculatively. ‘I thought we had agreed to become friends for Gino’s sake? And I have to say that tonight I thought we succeeded rather well,’ he drawled, watching her face flood with colour when she remembered the feverish passion they had shared down by the lake. ‘It is precisely the fact that we are not in love, and therefore have no expectations about our relationship, that makes me believe our marriage would work.’
He gave a bitter laugh. ‘I have tried a conventional marriage, and paid heavily for my mistake. Three years ago I mistook the sexual attraction I felt for my PA for love. Dana assured me that she shared my desire for a family, and we had a great circus of a wedding. But once we were married she continually found reasons why we should put off trying for a child. She preferred to live in our apartment in Manhattan and party every night, and she complained that she hated the villa and found life here boring.’
Raul’s jaw tightened as he recalled how his marriage had imploded.
‘The only thing that made Dana truly happy was spending money—although she resented the hours I spent working to make it. At first I was prepared to fund her hobby, but she was a compulsive shopper, and if I ever suggested that she might like to control her spending she would become hysterical and accuse me of being a tyrant who wanted to keep her barefoot and pregnant. Not that her falling pregnant was ever likely,’ he said flatly. ‘After a year of increasingly bitter rows it was clear that the marriage was a disaster, and during one of our many screaming matches Dana admitted she had lied about wanting children, and had only married me because I was wealthy enough to give her the extravagant lifestyle she craved. We agreed to divorce and I offered her a generous settlement, including the Manhattan apartment. But that wasn’t enough for my dear ex-wife. She wanted every last drop of blood she could squeeze out of me, and even made a claim on the Villa Giulietta.’
‘But I thought you said she hated the villa?’ Libby said faintly, stunned by the revelation that Raul had once been married. His past relationships were of no interest to her, she reminded herself, so why did she feel so stupidly jealous of his ex-wife?
‘Dana knew I would pay whatever she demanded in return for her agreement to relinquish her rights to the villa. Her divorce settlement made legal history in the American courts—and I learned a very expensive lesson,’ Raul said savagely. ‘I will never fall for the illusion of love again, but I want Gino to have two parents, as I did when the Carduccis adopted me. You said yourself you longed to have a proper family when you were a child,’ he reminded Libby when she stared at him in dumbstruck silence.
‘I said I wanted to believe in the fairytale of a happy ever after family, but I’m not sure it really exists.’
‘We can make it exist if it’s something we both want.’
As Raul spoke he was startled to realise that he no longer only wanted to persuade Libby to marry him so that he could claim full control of the company. Everything he had said to her was true; he wanted to repay his adoptive father for all he had done for him by adopting Pietro’s son, and he felt a fierce longing to hold his own child in his arms and finally have a blood link with another human being. Taking full control of CC until Gino was eighteen was important to him. But instead of divorcing Libby, as he had planned, he saw no reason why they should not have a successful marriage built on their mutual desire for a family—as well as their physical desire for each other.
Libby shook her head, trying to ignore the voice of her conscience which was whispering that Raul’s suggestion made a crazy kind of sense. He was offer
ing to be a father to Gino, and that alone demanded her serious consideration when she had spent her childhood wishing that she had a father.
If she married Raul she would no longer live in fear of him discovering that she was not Gino’s mother and banishing her from the villa. But he had said it would be a real marriage. Her eyes were drawn to his hard body, and a quiver ran through her when she remembered how his bold caresses had taken her to such a level of excitement that she had been desperate for him to make love to her properly. Would he be able to tell that not only had she had not given birth to Gino, but that she had never even had sex? Not if she pretended to be experienced, the voice in her head pointed out. But that would be another lie to add to all the others she had spun. Wouldn’t it be better to admit the truth about Gino’s parentage now?
She chewed on her lip, torn between her guilty conscience and her fear of losing Gino. Nothing had changed. If she revealed that she was Gino’s half-sister and had no legal rights to him Raul would still fight her for custody of the baby—and if he won he might go ahead and adopt Gino, and send her back to England.
‘It would never work,’ she said abruptly. ‘We’re too different. Once this chemistry, or attraction, or whatever it is between us died out we would have nothing in common.’
‘I’m not sure we are so different,’ Raul mused. ‘Our childhood experiences have made us appreciate the value of family life. We both think it would be best for Gino to grow up with two parents. Neither of us plans to marry anyone else, and yet we would both like to have children.’
Raul’s deep voice was so softly persuasive that Libby found she could not come up with a single argument against his list of reasons why they should marry, and instead she pictured a scene in the future where she was cradling a newborn baby in her arms while Gino, now a toddler, met his little brother or sister for the first time. She could not deny that she would love to have her own baby some day—a little companion for Gino. But marry Raul! She must be mad to actually be contemplating it—mustn’t she?
Wrapped up in her thoughts, she was unaware that he had moved closer to her until he lifted his hand and trailed his finger down from her collarbone to the vee between her breasts exposed by her low-cut dress. ‘I don’t think we need to worry about the chemistry fading, cara,’ he murmured, his voice suddenly as rich and sensuous as molten chocolate. ‘I’m so hungry for you that I’m unbearably tempted to push you down on the sofa and take you right now—and you would let me, Libby. Don’t even think of denying it,’ he warned her softly, placing his finger across her lips. Do you think I don’t see the way your pulse races whenever I am near you? The way your eyes darken with desire and your lips part in readiness for my kiss?’
His mouth was so close to hers that Libby could taste his warm breath. How could she deny her desire for him when she was trembling with her need for him to close the gap between them? His tongue explored the shape of her lips before probing between them, pushing insistently into her mouth. Libby strained towards him, her pride discarded in her eagerness for him to kiss her with all the pent-up passion she could sense simmering between them. Her lashes drifted down, her whole being focused on the pleasure of Raul’s wickedly inventive tongue.
But the sound of Gino’s stark cry jerked her back to reality. Her eyes flew open and she gasped as she whirled away from Raul and stared towards the door, expecting to see Silvana standing there with the baby.
There was no one there. She stared at Raul, eyes wide with panic. ‘I heard Gino cry.’
‘The baby monitor,’ he explained, nodding towards the device plugged into an electrical socket on the wall behind his desk. ‘I’ve had them installed in every room in the house so that we can always be sure to hear him.’
Even in his study, Libby thought in amazement—which must mean that Raul would not mind being disturbed while he worked. ‘I see,’ she said slowly. ‘That was very thoughtful of you.’
Gino’s cries grew louder and he began to cough. Libby heard Silvana’s voice speaking gently to the baby, but a strong maternal instinct drove her towards the door.
‘I must go to him.’ She hesitated, her eyes fixed on Raul’s face.
‘I would be a good father to him,’ he said deeply. ‘I swear I will care for him and protect him, love him as Pietro loved me.’
‘Yes.’ She could see the determination blazing in his eyes, hear it in his voice. ‘I believe you would do that for Gino,’ she whispered, moved to tears at the depth of emotion in his fierce avowal.
As a little girl she had dreamed that her father would one day find her, and that he would be strong and brave and would fight the monsters that lived under her bed. Didn’t Gino need a father to fight his monsters?
But it was not necessary for her to marry Raul. Under the terms of Pietro’s will Gino’s future was secure, and he would one day inherit half of Carducci Cosmetics and the Villa Giulietta. But what about his emotional security? Didn’t she, better than anyone, understand how important it was for a child to have a father? And Gino would need a positive role model to guide him as he grew into adulthood and inherited his share of the Carducci fortune.
‘Marry me and allow me to take care of both of you, cara.’
Raul’s voice was achingly seductive. He could have no idea how beguiling the concept of being cared for sounded after a lifetime of looking after herself, she brooded. She had adored her mum, but Liz had been too young to cope with motherhood, meaning that Libby had had to learn to be independent from an early age. Now she was solely responsible for Gino. How much easier life would be if she could share that responsibility with someone else?
‘I don’t know what to do,’ she admitted helplessly, terrified of the enormity of the decision facing her.
‘Yes, you do,’ Raul insisted. ‘You must do what is best for Gino, and in your heart you know he needs me.’
He was so strong, so self-assured, and after months of worrying about Gino’s health and struggling to cope with her grief at Liz’s death, Libby felt so tired. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ she said numbly.
‘I am.’ Raul’s voice rang with conviction and a heady feeling of triumph swept through him. Libby need never know that his overriding reason for suggesting that they should marry was so that he could take full control of Carducci Cosmetics. He had not been lying when he had told her that he wanted to be Gino’s father, or that he wanted them to have children together. Once they were married he would do his best to ensure she quickly fell pregnant; that way she would be too busy caring for a toddler and preparing for the arrival of another baby to realise that she no longer had control of Gino’s shares in the company.
Raul could see the indecision in Libby’s eyes and sensed the battle waging inside her head. He was renowned in the boardroom as a brilliant tactician, and, sensing victory, he deliberately softened his voice. ‘It is in your power to give your son the stable family life you longed for when you were a child. Say yes for Gino’s sake, cara.’
She couldn’t do it. She could not marry a man who did not love her. Could she? Libby’s eyes snapped open, and after hours of tossing and turning in bed she finally acknowledged that she was never going to fall asleep while Raul’s astounding proposal was going round and round in her head.
She had fled from his study last night after telling him that she needed time to think, but in the pearly softness of dawn her emotions were still in turmoil. Wearily, she threw back the sheets and slipped out of bed, crossing to the window that overlooked the lake. The water was silvery-grey in the early-morning light, reflecting here and there the pink clouds above as the sunrise slowly stained the sky.
‘You must do what is best for Gino, and in your heart you know he needs me.’ Raul’s words haunted her, for she could not deny the truth of them. Gino needed a father. She believed Raul when he had said that he wanted to adopt the little boy and care for him as Pietro had cared for him. Did she have the right to deny Gino what she had wanted more than anything when she was a child:
a father, and the security of being part of a proper family, living in a proper home?
She had never felt secure when she and Liz had lived in the commune. When they had eventually moved back to England the other kids at school had been envious of her unconventional upbringing, but the reality was that she had never felt as though she belonged anywhere or to anyone. The adults at the commune had for the most part been absorbed in their own lives, and the children had been undisciplined and unruly, with the older ones frequently bullying the younger ones. Libby had learned to be tough to survive, but she did not want the same for Gino. Children needed rules and boundaries as well as love to help them feel safe, and the fact that Gino would one day inherit a fortune meant that it was vital he had people around him he could trust.
She did not need to marry Raul for him to be a father figure to Gino. But he had told her he would like children of his own. He was embittered by his divorce now, but if she turned him down it was conceivable that in the future he would marry someone else and draw Gino into his new family. The idea of Gino having a stepmother made her blanch. What if Raul and his wife wanted to take Gino away on holiday? And what would happen at Christmas? Would she spend it alone, while Gino celebrated the day with Raul and his family?
She hugged her arms around her, trying to marshal her thoughts. Wouldn’t it be better to agree to a loveless marriage and give Gino the stable family he deserved? When her mum had died she had vowed to devote herself to him and do what was best for him, and in a moment of calm clarity she accepted that marrying Raul and allowing him to be a father to Gino was indisputably the greatest gift she could give her orphaned baby brother.
Untouched Until Marriage Page 8