‘I did not bully you.’ Raul paused as the implication of her words sank in. He had completely forgotten that his aunt had a copy of the will. ‘Why on earth did Carmina show you the will?’
‘Because she hates me,’ Libby told him flatly. ‘She was in love with Pietro, and she still believes that I was his mistress. She must have guessed I didn’t know about the clause stating that control of Gino’s shares would pass to you if I were to marry.’
Panic churned inside her as she realised that Raul’s aunt must have also guessed that she was in love with him. If she was that transparent, could Raul have guessed too? she wondered, feeling sick with humiliation.
She stared at him, and her heart splintered when she noted the faintly uncomfortable expression in his eyes. ‘Can you deny that the reason you asked me to marry you was so that you would be able to claim full control of CC?’
‘I don’t deny that that was one of the reasons,’ he said quietly. He gave a harsh laugh when she paled. ‘What did you think, Libby? That I had fallen in love with you?’
‘No! Of course not,’ she denied instantly, colour storming into her cheeks. ‘But I thought you loved Gino. You told me you wanted to adopt him.’
‘Both those things are true.’
‘Are they?’ Now it was her turn give a mocking laugh. ‘Maybe you just pretended to care for him because you knew how much I wanted him to grow up in a family and have a father, as I longed for when I was a child?’ Her temper soared once more. ‘I know I was wrong to pretend that I was Gino’s mother, and I believe that I deserved your anger when you discovered the truth. But all the time you were furious with me for deceiving you, you knew—you knew.’ Her voice rose shrilly. ‘You were guilty of a far more cruel deception. You cold-bloodedly used my love for Gino to steal his shares.’
‘I have not stolen his shares,’ Raul said sharply. ‘I admit I wanted full control of CC until Gino was eighteen, but only so that I could take the company forward and ensure that there is a company for him to inherit in the future.’ He sighed. ‘I don’t wish to be disloyal about my father but he had allowed the company to stagnate. I knew we were in danger of losing our position as a world leader in the cosmetics market if we did not expand our product range and diversify into new areas of growth such as the perfume range we’re about to launch, and I believed I needed to have full control of CC to implement my plans.
‘Dio, Libby,’ he growled savagely when she said nothing, just looked at him with angry accusation in her eyes. ‘Can you blame me for wanting to protect the interests of the company I had expected to inherit? I was shocked beyond words when I learned that I would have to discuss every business plan with a woman who at that time I believed was my father’s lap-dancer mistress. You were prepared to do anything to keep Gino, including deliberately fooling me into believing you were his mother. By the same token, when I realised you had not read that clause in Pietro’s will, I seized the opportunity to claim Gino’s shares.’
He paused, and felt as though his heart was being squeezed in a vice when he saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. ‘Like I said, gaining control of the company was not the only reason I married you. Gino was certainly an important factor—I love him as much as if he was my own child, and my greatest wish is to adopt him.’
‘So you say,’ Libby muttered scathingly. ‘How can I ever believe you or trust you now?’ She jerked backwards when he took a step towards her, closing her eyes in despair when the familiar musky scent of his cologne drifted around her. ‘Stay where you are. I can’t bear to be near you.’
Raul’s jaw tightened. ‘We both know that’s not true. The sexual attraction between us was white-hot from the start. We’ve never been able to keep our hands off each other. Even when I thought I had good reason to despise you, I wanted you with a hunger I have never felt for any other woman. The prospect of having you share my bed every night was another very good reason for marrying you.’
He had married her for sex. Well, she’d known that, Libby reminded herself. So why did hearing him say it feel as if he had stabbed her through the heart? She stared at him wordlessly when he shrugged out of his paint-spattered jacket and dropped it on the floor, panic coiling inside her as he began to undo his shirt buttons.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded shakily. Was he intending to prove that the sexual alchemy between them was as fierce as ever? However much she told herself that she hated him, her traitorous body was pathetically weak, and she was terrified she would be unable to resist him. ‘As far as I’m concerned our marriage is over,’ she flung at him bitterly. ‘I won’t be sharing your bed this night or any other.’
His trousers hit the floor, and she moved her eyes helplessly over his broad, muscular chest, covered in a mass of dark hair that arrowed down over his abdomen and disappeared below the waistband of his boxers.
His eyes narrowed on her flushed face. ‘I could very easily make you eat your words, cara,’ he drawled, but then to her surprise—and, although she despised herself for admitting it, her disappointment—he turned back to the door.
‘Where…where are you going?’
‘To have a shower. I can’t walk through the house dripping paint everywhere. We will finish this conversation downstairs in ten minutes. Don’t make me have to come and get you, Libby,’ he warned her in a deceptively soft tone that made her realise his anger was tightly controlled.
What reason did he have to be angry? she brooded bitterly when she made her way slowly down the tower staircase a few minutes after him. He was the one who had deceived her; he was the one who had broken her heart. But of course he did not know that, and somehow she must hide her hurt from him.
To her relief the bedroom was empty, but the sight of the huge bed where he had made love to her so passionately, and lately with such tenderness, brought more tears to her eyes. How could she remain married to him, loving him as she did, but knowing that she would never be anything more to him than a convenient sex partner?
She could not sleep in here tonight. She dared not face him again until she had regained some semblance of control over her emotions. Brushing her hand impatiently over her wet face, she spun round—but before she could reach the door Raul appeared, his dark hair still damp from his shower, his black robe belted loosely around him.
‘I’m going to sleep in one of the other bedrooms,’ she said stiffly, and then gave a startled gasp when he scooped her into his arms and strode towards the bed. ‘Put me down, Raul. Let me go.’ It was a cry from the heart, and the wobble in her voice tore at his insides.
‘I can’t, piccola.’ His refusal was heartbreakingly gentle, and her tenuous hold on her emotions cracked.
‘You have to,’ she wept, burying her face in her hands and rocking back and forth on the edge of the bed. ‘I can’t bear to be your wife any longer.’
Raul felt as though he had been kicked in the gut. Witnessing Libby’s distress was sheer torture, but he knew that if he followed his instinct to haul her into his arms and kiss away her tears she would fight him like a wildcat.
‘Listen to me,’ he said urgently, hunkering down beside her. ‘I need you to read something, and then, if you still feel the same way, I will—’ He broke off, feeling as though an arrow had pierced his heart as he contemplated the utter bleakness of his life without her. ‘I don’t know what I will do, cara mia,’ he admitted roughly.
Libby stared blindly at the document he had placed in her lap. ‘I don’t want to read it. I’ll probably miss something important anyway—I’m good at that,’ she said bitterly. ‘You read it to me.’
‘You don’t trust me,’ he said regretfully. ‘I need you to see it with your own eyes.’
He moved to stand by the balcony window, staring out at the moonlight dancing across the lake, his heart slamming in his chest. Libby picked up the document and forced herself to concentrate on the few brief paragraphs.
‘I don’t understand,’ she mumbled, after reading the page three times. ‘It says that e
‘Doesn’t it, cara?’ Raul’s voice sounded curiously constricted. ‘Can you really think of no reason why I might have revoked that damn clause? Look at the date at the top of the page.’
Libby stared at it uncomprehendingly. ‘But that was two weeks after our wedding.’ She stood up, her eyes locked on Raul’s hard profile, and she suddenly had the strangest feeling that he was deliberately avoiding meeting her gaze. ‘Why did you do it, Raul?’ she whispered. ‘You had full control of CC—the thing you wanted most in the world—so why give it up?’
‘Because I discovered that I wanted something infinitely more precious than control of the company.’ At last he turned to face her, and Libby caught her breath at the raw emotion blazing in his eyes. ‘I discovered that I wanted you to love me—as I love you, tesoro.’
Silence stretched between them, simmering with tension. At last Libby shook her head. ‘You don’t.’ There was no quaver of doubt in her voice. She could not allow herself to be swayed by the tenderness in his rueful smile, or the fierce urgency in his eyes as he strode towards her and caught hold of her hands. ‘You said love is an illusion, and that you would never fall in love after your bitter divorce from your first wife. You married me to claim control of CC—and maybe because you do really care for Gino,’ she acknowledged slowly.
‘I swear that I love him, cara, and I will care for him and protect him as his father—my father—would have done. You stole my heart from the first, Libby,’ he said roughly, his voice shaking with emotion. ‘I was drawn to you from the moment I laid eyes on you, but I hated myself for wanting my father’s mistress. Marriage seemed the ideal solution—it would give me control of the company and you in my bed—but even before our wedding day I knew it was more than that. You fill my world with colour and laughter and a joy that I had not known it was possible to feel. My life will be a grey and lonely place if you leave me.’
Could it be true? Could she believe him? Libby’s heart was pounding so hard that it hurt to breathe and her hand trembled as she reached up and touched his damp eyelashes. ‘Raul…?’
‘I was planning to tell you about the clause in the will, and that I had reversed it,’ he admitted gruffly. His throat ached, and it was hard to get the words out. ‘I want us to make decisions about CC together, and build a successful company for Gino. But every day I kept putting it off. I was afraid you would realise I had fallen in love with you once you learned that I had returned Gino’s shares to you, and I was scared you didn’t feel the same way.’
‘You? Scared?’ Libby shook her head wonderingly, hope and a tremulous joy unfurling inside her when he lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips against her knuckles.
‘Oh, yes, cara. Scared stiff—because I knew that the only reason you had married me was to give Gino a father.’
Was this what sky divers felt as they were about to launch themselves out of a plane? Fear, excitement, and above all a desperate hope? Was she imagining the love blazing in Raul’s eyes?
‘Gino wasn’t the only reason,’ she admitted huskily. ‘I love you, Raul. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. Everything before I met you seems distant and colourless. I missed Mum so much…’ she swallowed hard ‘…but you made me feel alive again—even when you made me angry, and especially when you made love to me.’ Her voice cracked and the tears she had been trying so hard to hold back slipped down her face. ‘I never thought I could be this happy.’
‘Tesoro. Don’t cry. Ti amo.’
The words were wrenched from his soul. Love—something he had never expected to feel for any woman until Libby had turned his world upside down. He drew her against him, his whole body shaking as he claimed her mouth almost tentatively; a tidal wave of emotion stormed through him when he felt her sweet response.
‘You stole my heart, cara.’ The words were muffled against her throat as he kissed her feverishly—her hair, her brow, the tip of her nose—and tasted the salt of her tears when he pressed his lips to her eyelids. ‘Will you stay with me, my golden girl, the love of my life, my wife?’
‘Just try to send me away,’ Libby said softly. ‘Oh, Raul, I love you so much.’
‘And I love you—madly, my crazy little firecracker. You owe me a new suit, by the way,’ he said, grinning when she blushed scarlet.
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, thinking of his paint-spat-tered suit. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’
‘I love your unpredictability, and your fiery temper, and your generous heart, cara mia. You and Gino are my world, and I could not ask for anything more than for the three of us to be a family.’
Her beautiful smile stole his breath. ‘There’s a chance that three will be four before too long. I don’t know definitely yet, but I’m two weeks late,’ she admitted softly.
‘Cara…’ Raul’s throat worked convulsively as emotion overwhelmed him. For a moment he could not speak to tell her how much she meant to him, but when he claimed her mouth in a tender kiss he discovered that there was no need for words…
Epilogue
THE private art gallery was packed, the rooms buzzing with conversation as people crowded in front of the bold, brilliantly coloured paintings on display.
‘Elizabeth Carducci is certainly a gifted artist,’ an art critic from a national newspaper commented to the tall, handsome man who was standing at the back of the room. ‘This exhibition is one of the most exciting I’ve ever attended. And of course the Galleria Farnese is one of the most prestigious contemporary galleries in Rome. There are several top collectors here', and I’ve no doubt that Signora Carducci’s work will soon be attracting international acclaim.’
‘I am sure you are right,’ the tall man murmured. ‘And it is acclaim that is well deserved.’
The art critic glanced around the gallery. ‘I’ve never met Signora Carducci, but I’ve heard that she is exceptionally beautiful. Can you point her out to me?’
‘My wife is over there,’ Raul replied, in a tone that caused the art critic to give him a nervous smile. ‘In the green-and-orange dress,’ he added dryly. ‘As you can see, she is indeed beautiful.’
‘What did you say to Carlo Vitenze that made him shoot off like a frightened rabbit?’ Libby asked her husband when he strolled over to join her. ‘He’s a respected critic. I hope you haven’t upset him.’
‘I merely let him know that your husband is very possessive,’ Raul said lightly. ‘He seemed to get the message.’ He dropped a kiss on his wife’s soft mouth, his eyes gleaming when she immediately parted her lips. ‘It doesn’t surprise me that every man in this room cannot take his eyes off you. I can see I am going to have to lock you away in the highest tower of the Villa Giulietta.’
Libby gave him an impish smile. ‘I already have two very special men in my life—and they are so incredibly handsome why would I be interested in anyone else? Careful, Gino,’ she said gently as the energetic toddler rushed up to her. ‘Mind the pram; your sister is asleep.’
‘See Lissa,’ Gino demanded.
Raul lifted him up so that he could look into the pram where three-month-old Elisabetta Rose was sleeping peacefully. ‘There she is. You can give her a kiss when she wakes up,’ he told the little boy.
His eyes met Libby’s and his heart turned over when he saw the love that blazed in those blue-green depths. A love for him and their children which he returned a thousandfold.
‘There are two very special ladies in my life—and they are so beautiful that they have captured my heart for all eternity,’ he said softly. ‘I love you, Libby.’
Three simple words that meant everything to her, Libby thought, blinking back the tears that filled her eyes.
Raul frowned in concern. ‘Why are you crying, cara? The exhibition is wonderful.’
‘Everything is wonderful,’ she reassured him, wrapping her arms around his waist and smiling mistily up at him. ‘I’m crying because I am the happiest woman in the world. You make me happy, Raul, you and Gino and Lissa, and I love you with all my heart.’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2010
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
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© Chantelle Shaw 2010
ISBN: 978 0 263 87828 8
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