by Lynne Graham
‘You’ve got me for the rest of my life…I’ll keep another five minutes,’ he teased with his wicked grin.
I’ll see about that, was her last conscious thought. She slid exploring fingers beneath his boxers, found him sleek and hard and amazingly responsive. Surprise mingled with even fiercer hunger in his scorching golden eyes. She pushed him flat. She bent over him and pleasured him with her mouth and her tongue. He shuddered, groaned, laced his hands into her hair, muttered in Italian. When he could stand it no more he pulled her under him without ceremony and drove into her, hard and fast. What followed was the most exquisite fulfilment she had ever experienced.
‘You’re amazing, bella mia,’ Luciano told her afterwards. ‘I’m never going to let you go.’
The following morning they returned to Ballybawn.
While they had been away in Italy, most of the work on the castle had been completed. Luciano was full of plans. He thought they should spend summer weekends at the castle but autumn and the whole of the winter in Tuscany, where the climate would be kinder to her grandmother’s arthritis. She knew without his even telling her that when the grapes were harvested they would be at the Villa Contarini.
In the old kitchen, which had been abandoned for a much smarter new one that was a lot more convenient to the dining room, Kerry checked the calendar on which she had kept a note of her monthly cycle. She was shaken to realise that it had been over two months since she had had a period. It had not seemed anything like that long to her. But she started smiling and found that she couldn’t stop. Was it possible that she was already pregnant? She thought of the dizzy spells and the way her appetite had faded and her hopes rose high. It would be a long drive to the nearest shop where she would be able to buy a pregnancy-testing kit but Kerry was undaunted. She had just located her grandfather’s car keys when she was called to the phone.
She was surprised to realise that her caller was Rochelle and for once her stepsister had nothing smart to say, but what she did have to say was shocking enough. ‘Miles has been arrested…’
‘You’re not serious,’ Kerry breathed after a staggered pause.
‘He told his solicitor that he wants to see you and that it’s urgent,’ Rochelle said tautly. ‘He’s got out on bail but he’s in really bad trouble…it’s a drugs offence—’
‘Drugs?’ Kerry was aghast.
‘He’s been using cocaine for a long time…’ Rochelle was crying now, making no attempt to hide the fact either. ‘I feel so guilty that I didn’t do anything for him!’
The first thing Kerry did after that call was book a flight back to London late that afternoon. She was in shock at what she had learned. Miles on drugs? Why had she never noticed anything amiss? But she tensed when she recalled his behaviour at her wedding. His life-and-soul-of-the-party act that day had been over-the-top. He was thinner than he had once been, more moody and irritable as well, but she had put those changes down to stress and too many late nights. That he might have a problem with drugs had not once crossed her mind.
Luciano was inspecting the new plumbing arrangements in the mediaeval tower. Communicating doors had been knocked through to the once derelict wing where Kerry’s great-uncle Ivor had lived, and bathrooms rejoicing in every luxury had been installed there.
‘Can I interest you in a tour of my power shower, cara?’ Luciano enquired lazily when Kerry found him there.
Kerry bit her lip and winced. ‘I’ve got to go straight back over to London,’ she told him in a rush. ‘I know you’re not going to be pleased about this but I just can’t not go when Miles needs me.’
His dark golden eyes narrowed, grew watchful, wary. ‘Why would Miles need you?’
‘Rochelle called to tell me that he’s been arrested…drugs,’ Kerry extended shamefacedly. ‘Presumably he’s been caught in possession of them.’
‘About time too.’ A sardonic smile curved Luciano’s expressive mouth.
Kerry was appalled. ‘How can you smile?’
‘I don’t like him. I hate drugs as well. Take your pick,’ Luciano advised curtly. ‘I don’t want you getting involved in Miles’s sleazy life—’
‘I’m afraid that that isn’t something that I have a choice about—’
‘There’s always a choice—’
‘He wants to see me; he’s asked for me. I can’t ignore that—’
Without warning, Luciano vented a derisive laugh. ‘I was in prison for five years…you ignored me. But Miles only has to get arrested and you’re ready to drop everything and run!’
Kerry was disconcerted at the comparison he was making. ‘I didn’t ignore you. How can you say that? I thought you didn’t want me—’
Eyes that had no shade of gold and were hard as black diamonds stayed steady and cold on her pale face. ‘You turned your back on me. You didn’t come and ask whether or not I wanted to see you. You wouldn’t give me five minutes of your time and yet you think I’m about to stand back and watch you race out of here to offer Miles support?’ he raked at her, his temper igniting with volatile suddenness. ‘No, no way will I accept that!’
‘I’ve said I’ll go and I don’t go back on my word. If I had known five years ago what I know now, I would have come to see you in prison. In fact, you’d have seen so much of me that you’d have ended up sick of the sight of me!’ Kerry asserted chokily, tears of painful regret convulsing her throat. ‘But it didn’t happen that way for us. You didn’t ask for me. You were too damned proud and too strong. And I’m grateful that you’re proud and strong because it meant you got through an ordeal that would have broken someone weaker—’
‘Thank you for the compliment. But I still don’t want you charging to Miles’s rescue. That’s the bottom line and, for a change, what I want is what should matter most to you. I may have buried the past, I may have forgiven you for a lot,’ Luciano bit out rawly, golden eyes glittering with raw anger, ‘but the forgiveness wasn’t unconditional. If you go to Miles now, I’m finished with you!’
Kerry studied him in shaken reproach. ‘Don’t say something like that…you don’t mean it.’
‘You’re not listening to what I’m saying yet I’ve been saying it ever since I came back into your life.’ His strong jawline clenched. ‘You can’t have both Miles and me. You needn’t ask me for compassion where he’s concerned either, as I have none to give—’
‘This is an emergency…be reasonable,’ Kerry pleaded. ‘I can’t cope with a big fight with you at the same time!’
‘Santo cielo! I am out of patience with you. This is not some stupid fight. Don’t try to trivialise what I feel just because you believe that you somehow know better!’ Luciano condemned with growing fury. ‘Look back to our not-so-recent past when you were equally sure of your own judgement. Who was right and who was wrong then?’
Hit hard by that tough, uncompromising reminder, Kerry lost colour. ‘I think that we both made mistakes but I accept that mine were the worst,’ she muttered unhappily. ‘But this is a very different situation—’
‘No, it’s not. When it comes to important issues I expect my wife to respect my feelings and wishes. I don’t want you communicating in any way with Miles Bailey. I’ve already made that clear but you haven’t listened.’
Angry rebellion stirred inside Kerry and killed her innate urge to soothe and placate for the sake of peace. ‘Maybe I’m not going to agree with you on every important issue in life but that doesn’t mean that I’m automatically in the wrong!’
‘This is a non-negotiable issue. This is our marriage on the line—’
‘I won’t be threatened with losing you over something that has no relevance to our relationship!’ Kerry argued vehemently, her temper only getting hotter at the fear that his intimidating assurances roused in her. ‘You don’t like Miles and you resent me giving him any attention—’
Outraged dark golden eyes rested on her. ‘I hope I’m not that immature. Don’t underestimate what I’m trying to spell out to you. My objections to Miles rest o
n much more than personal animosity. I don’t want you to go anywhere near him, and if you do go I will see it as a betrayal of my trust—’
‘When did you get so domineering that I can’t disagree with you without being told that I’m disloyal?’
Dark colour accentuated his bold cheekbones. ‘If you have so little respect for my intelligence that you can believe that, you shouldn’t be with me.’
Kerry snatched in a sustaining breath but she was only becoming angrier with him. He was telling her what to do as if she were some little Victorian wife, content to believe that her husband was a superior being who always knew best. But she had her own opinions and a strong conviction of what was right and what was wrong, and she would not change her mind unless he could give her a good reason for doing so. That Miles’s current problems should relate to drugs and his breaking of the law was very regrettable but it was unthinkable to her that she should ignore his cry for support on that basis alone.
‘I’m appalled that you can say that our marriage is at risk if I don’t do what you want me to to.’ Kerry tilted her chin, blue eyes troubled but determined.
‘If you go to him, I won’t be here when you come back,’ Luciano ground out in a low, lethal undertone. ‘I’ll return to Italy and divorce you.’
Her shaken face blenched. He was taking intimidation to new and serious limits. Had she been so tolerant and easy-going that he now expected her to do exactly as he told her? She refused to credit that he could be serious in making such a threat when they were so happy together.
‘I promise that I won’t be away longer than twenty-four hours.’
The terrible silence hummed.
Kerry looked at Luciano, praying that he would show some understanding of the awful position he was putting her in. Lean, strong bone structure rigid, Luciano was pale beneath his bronzed skin. When she met the savage shimmer of his golden gaze she realised that he was not pale with stress so much as pale with absolute seething, sizzling rage. Was he jealous of her affection for Miles?
Uneasy at that suspicion, she turned away to pack an overnight bag, for she needed to head for the airport almost immediately. Miles was the closest thing to a best friend that she had ever had but she felt that that admission would be even less pleasing to Luciano. Five years ago, when her own life had fallen apart almost overnight with Rochelle’s revelations and Luciano’s subsequent arrest, Miles had made the effort to be there for Kerry. Nothing could have cured her heartache but his caring interest had warmed her at a time when she had been in despair.
Luciano could never recall feeling a more violent-centred anger. He was outraged at her lack of respect for his feelings. He was frustrated by the impossibility of telling her what Steven Linwood had confessed because that confession was virtually worthless until Steven got up the courage to make an official statement to the police. Her relationship with Miles had ensured that Luciano could not trust her with Steven’s revelations. But what embittered Luciano beyond belief was her unquestioning trust in Miles and her eagerness to offer the younger man support.
Deep in her own thoughts, Kerry was disconcerted when she lifted the bag she had hurriedly packed and discovered that she was alone in the bedroom. Her dismay increased when she realised that Luciano had driven off in his car, forestalling any hope of further dialogue before she left for the airport. But, although she was troubled, the belief that Luciano was being totally unreasonable stiffened her resolve…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KERRY had just got off her flight to London when Miles rang her to tell her that he was at Rochelle’s apartment and not his own.
‘For goodness’ sake, what have you been doing?’ Kerry gasped.
‘Look, we’ll talk when you get here. Don’t tell anyone where I am,’ Miles urged tautly.
When her stepbrother answered the door of his sister’s apartment, he peered out into the hallway with a furtive air and hurried Kerry inside as fast as he could. ‘Thanks for coming. This may be our last chance to talk for a long time and I wanted you to hear the whole story from me and not from anyone else.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve been taking drugs. You need professional help,’ Kerry began worriedly. ‘What have the police charged you with?’
‘Possessing and smuggling cocaine…’
‘Possessing and s-smuggling…?’ A look of shock stamped on her face, Kerry collapsed down on the sofa in the ultra-modern lounge. ‘Smuggling?’
‘I’ve got a very heavy habit to feed,’ Miles protested. ‘I needed the money—’
Her faith in him had been badly shaken. That Miles should have become addicted to drugs was one thing, that he should have sunk to the level of smuggling them was another thing entirely.
‘I first got into debt a long time ago,’ Miles confided with an uneasy laugh. ‘I borrowed funds from the wrong people. They threatened to break my legs if I didn’t pay them back, so I had to find money from another source. There isn’t any way to wrap this up nicely, Kerry. So I’ll just spit it out…I was the real thief at Linwoods five years ago!’
Kerry gaped at him. ‘No…don’t tell me that—’
‘I persuaded Steven to doctor the account books for me…our Steven is very talented with figures. Of course, he didn’t initially want to frame Luciano to save my sorry skin.’ Her stepbrother grimaced. ‘So I informed Steven that I’d tell his homophobic parents that he was gay and that I’d expose his double life…and he couldn’t do enough to help me after that!’
‘You blackmailed Steven?’ A semi-hysterical laugh was dredged from Kerry, for she could not credit what she was hearing. ‘Are you drunk? Are you serious? You’re standing there telling me you did these monstrous, appalling things and you’re talking as if they were just understandable little mistakes?’
‘I wanted you to hear my side from me so that you would understand. I’m very fond of you. I want you to know that I didn’t plan to hurt anybody,’ Miles argued with disturbing vehemence. ‘I got deep in debt and everything got out of my control—’
‘People get into debt but they don’t all steal and blackmail to save their own skins!’ Kerry felt nauseous as she continued to look at him and she could not stop staring at his familiar features. It seemed all wrong that he should look just the same as usual with his thin, good-looking face tired, his eyes full of rueful appeal and his blond hair flopping on his forehead. But though he might look the same, there was an essential difference, she grasped painfully. He was not the guy she had thought he was and he never had been.
‘My mistake this time around was telling Steven that he had to tidy up a few loose ends from events five years back—’
‘You tried to involve him again?’ Kerry swallowed hard and looked away from him in disgust.
‘I had no choice! Luciano has had private detectives snooping everywhere and I had to be sure that there was no trail to lead back to Steven and me—’
‘Or did you hope that if there was a trail it would lead only to Steven?’ Kerry recalled how, weeks earlier, Miles had suggested to her that Steven might have been the thief.
‘Well, Steven was always a gutless wonder and I’m afraid he’s done for the both of us now!’ her stepbrother launched at her with festering resentment. ‘He couldn’t take the pressure and he panicked. A few days ago he came clean with his parents and then he made a full confession to the police. His stupid father just rang me to boast that now there’s another warrant out for my arrest!’
Good, she might have said could she have found her voice at that point, but she could not.
‘Knowing that the police will charge me with that too, I tried to leave the country. But they found the coke in my hand luggage. I only got bail by handing over my passport.’
‘Luciano never got bail at all…’ Her voice emerged all choked and squeezed and shaky. ‘And Rochelle was telling the truth, wasn’t she? You did get her to lie to me about Luciano so that I would break off our engagement—’
‘Kerry…can’
t you see how I was trying to protect you from the fall-out of his being done for theft and false accounting?’ Miles demanded with a troubled frown. ‘It was the only thing I could do for you. It set you free from the whole ghastly business!’
His flawed arguments only made Kerry feel worse than ever. She saw how weak and self-serving he was, how he had a twisted view of his own actions that enabled him to kid himself that he wasn’t as bad as his offences might suggest. But what shook her most of all was his total lack of remorse. He wasn’t one bit sorry for anything that he had done. Not the theft, the blackmail, not even the long imprisonment of an innocent man for the crimes he had committed. No, Miles had no regrets other than that he was about to be caught. Yet he had ruined Luciano’s life, her life and Steven’s life. And this was the man she had regarded in the light of a best friend and a brother?
Miles was a thief, a liar, a blackmailer and also, it seemed, not averse to smuggling drugs. In a stumbling movement Kerry rose from the sofa and fled past her stepbrother out to the hall, where she just managed to identify the location of the bathroom before being horribly unwell. Freshening up in the aftermath of her sickness, Kerry had to breathe in deep and slow several times to ward off her dizziness.
All the time that Luciano had been telling her that her family had stitched him up, she had believed that he was being paranoid. Yet people whom she had thought of as family members had conspired against him. Why had she not listened to him? How on earth could she have allowed Miles to come between her and Luciano?
‘Are you all right?’ Miles prompted when she emerged from the bathroom.
She compressed her lips ‘No…I’m not feeling too good. I’ll be glad to head home again—’
‘Don’t be like that with me,’ her stepbrother said resentfully. ‘I need a friend right now. Rochelle has already taken fright because she’s scared of getting involved, but I expected more from you.’
‘Sorry…’ Leaving the apartment and Miles to certain re-arrest, Kerry could not even bring herself to look at him.