by Annie West
‘A little?’ He tilted a derisory brow. ‘More than a little. Besides, I’d have no guarantee you’d remain.’
‘You’d have my word. And a contract.’ She approached and his body stirred.
‘Contracts can be broken. So can promises.’ He put his glass down. He had to steel himself against the shudder of need that ripped through him as he looked down at her. Even now, when she tried to squeeze cash out of him, the hunger didn’t abate. What would it take to exorcise this woman?
‘But...this is important!’
‘I’ve no doubt you think so—’
‘It is. Really.’ Her fingers touched his sleeve, then she jerked her hand away as if she too felt the jag of electricity that sparked from the point of contact.
He’d never known such awareness.
‘It’s not for me.’ Her voice was urgent, her eyes pleading. She raised her clasped hands to her breasts and he felt a primitive surge of satisfaction at the picture she made. The beautiful woman poised as a suppliant.
He wondered how it would be to have her beg him, not for money, but for pleasure. For the release and ecstasy he could give her. Heat steamed off his skin as dangerous excitement scored his soul.
‘It’s for someone else.’ She paused and he watched her hands clench tight against her breast. ‘You don’t know about my sister—’
‘I do know. I made it my business to know.’ He watched her eyes widen. ‘Donna. Younger and with your colouring. Left school early. Recently married.’
Her eyes widened. Obviously she hadn’t expected him to be so well acquainted with her circumstances, despite the background check he’d ordered.
‘That’s right.’ She licked her lips with a delicate pink tongue and Dario almost groaned. Another blatant tactic, yet he wasn’t immune.
She baited him, deliberately torturing him in the hope he’d weaken. Her tactics were so obvious they should be amusing. Except they worked. His libido roared into rampant life as he watched her.
‘Well, it’s for Donna. She needs money, a lot of it.’
His raised palm stopped her. He’d been angry before. Now fury hummed through him. She dared use her sister as an excuse for her greed? Only someone like him, who no longer had a family, could appreciate the depths she’d sunk to with this despicable lie.
She didn’t appreciate what she had. She didn’t deserve it.
Dario recalled the private investigator’s report. Her precious sister had been found nightclubbing while under age, including the night of Alissa’s drug bust. Now this woman had the temerity to paint herself in the role of caring older sibling! She hadn’t been a decent role model when her teenage sister needed her. Any normal woman would have protected the girl, not led her astray.
‘What’s that to do with me?’
‘You have money. Plenty of it. And Donna needs this cash desperately.’ Her wide eyes looked so innocent even now he felt a tremor of response. Damn her.
‘I know all about her need for money,’ he said slowly, remembering the rest of the investigator’s report. The younger woman had married a cattle farmer in the middle of one of the worst recorded droughts. The bank held an enormous mortgage over their heads. But he knew there was no danger of foreclosure. The drought had broken while he was in Australia. The bank wouldn’t call in debts now there was every sign of a bumper year to come.
No, Alissa was using this as an excuse.
‘You do? You’ve known all this time?’ Eyes dark as the sea met his.
He nodded. ‘I’ve read a comprehensive dossier on you and your family, remember?’
She stared silently, her face curiously blank, as if from shock.
‘Well, then.’ Her voice trembled a fraction. She really was a talented actress. ‘You understand why I need to get hold of this money as soon as possible.’
‘Then by all means find a way to help her. But don’t expect me to give you a handout.’
* * *
Alissa gaped at the man before her. So powerful, so arrogant, so unfeeling. How could he look her in the eye and refuse her request? How could anyone be so inhuman?
He’d known about Donna’s need for cash all this time! She could barely believe it. Her mind reeled at the thought. Yet Dario’s calm face revealed a horrible truth: he’d known and he hadn’t cared. Any decent man in his position wouldn’t wait to be asked, he’d offer to help straight away.
Something inside withered at this appalling revelation about the man she’d almost convinced herself she cared for. She’d thought he was different. Thought she’d somehow been wrong about him. What a pathetic fool she’d been, letting herself fall prey to his powerful allure. She should have learned her lesson about heartless men years ago.
‘It’s not a handout! It’s only what I’m entitled to. What I’m due to inherit.’
‘After we’ve lived as man and wife for six months.’
Alissa jammed her fists on her hips and glared at him, impotent fury igniting. ‘You’re something else, Dario Parisi. You’re a callous, selfish bastard.’ Pain tore at her, clogging her throat so the words emerged thickly.
She’d been a naïve innocent. Despite the harsh realities of life with her grandfather she had little experience of dealing with men and none of dealing with anyone like Dario. She’d let his surface charm, those glimpses of a warmer, caring man, lull her into believing she’d somehow been mistaken in her initial estimate of him.
Under the spell of his potent sexual allure she’d forgotten the one thing that counted above all else—his hatred of her family.
So what if he was pleasant and polite to the elderly people at tonight’s reception? If his staff liked him? That he had a soft spot for children? Maria and Anna were his people, living on his estate.
Alissa was an outsider. Worse, she was a Mangano, member of a family he abhorred. She knew first-hand about the tight-knit bonds of Sicilian families and their feuds. How could she have forgotten when it was obviously part of what made Dario tick?
She caught her breath on a stifled sob. She’d been ready to believe the best of him too because, despite his fury the day he rescued her, he hadn’t resorted to violence as an outlet for his anger. How pathetic could she get?
Her first assessment of him had been right. He was a callous manipulator, more interested in property and ownership than people. Only tonight he’d been accused of causing the death of a rival.
‘How do you sleep at night?’ she whispered, anguish choking her.
Glittering eyes stared at her from a face pared to stark lines. ‘This really matters so much?’
‘Of course it matters!’ What sort of unnatural sister did he think her?
‘You’d do whatever is necessary to help her?’
A tide of hope rose. He was human after all. He’d find a way to help them. He had to.
‘Of course.’
His lips curled in a dangerous smile. It sent a discordant jangle of premonition through her. ‘Then I have a solution to your sister’s problem.’
Relief surged and Alissa realised her hands were clamped together so tightly they were numb. Carefully she unknotted her fingers and wiped her clammy palms on her skirt. Dario followed the movement and a frisson of unease shivered through her. His gaze was like a hot caress, as real as the touch of a hand.
‘Thank you.’
‘You haven’t heard my solution.’
‘As long as there is a solution.’ Her voice shook.
‘Oh, there is.’ Her nape prickled at his tone, a soft, predatory growl. ‘It occurs to me we’re not fulfilling the terms of your grandfather’s will.’
‘What do you mean?’ One moment they were talking about Donna and now the will. ‘We’re married, living together.’
‘But not as husband and wife.’
Alissa’s pulse slowed to a dull thud as she looked up into a face devoid of expression, but for the hint of satisfaction that curled the corners of his mouth.
‘We’re living under the same roof
—’
‘But not as husband and wife.’
His words sank into her bemused brain. At last she understood that masculine smirk. She froze.
‘You want sex!’ Her voice was strident with shock.
‘Don’t sound so surprised. It’s what husbands and wives do.’
‘But not us! We’re not—’
‘Married? Ah, but we are, cara.’ His eyes glittered and that devilish smile widened. ‘Here’s my proposition. Live with me as a proper wife, in every sense, for the rest of our six months and I’ll advance half your share of the money now. The rest you get at the end of our marriage. I need a guarantee you’ll stay.’
Alissa opened her mouth to object. No sound emerged.
‘I’ll see my lawyers and organise the transfer of funds tomorrow...’ his voice was a rumble of sensual anticipation ‘...if you start by satisfying me right now.’
‘You’re out of your head!’ Shock and outrage glued Alissa to the spot. ‘You don’t even like me.’
Slowly he shook his head, his ice-bright eyes never leaving hers. ‘Don’t pretend to be so innocent, cara.’ He stroked her cheek in a caress that detonated explosions of exquisite sensation. ‘What’s between us has nothing to do with liking.’
He crowded closer and the air between them sizzled. ‘I don’t have to like you to bed you,’ he murmured, his voice dropping to a deep suede caress. ‘In fact, I’m beginning to think mutual dislike might add a little extra piquancy.’
‘You’re sick!’ she spat back. Yet it was all she could do not to lean closer, to narrow the tiny gap between them till their bodies touched. She turned her head to avoid his hand but he simply wrapped his fingers around the nape of her neck. Tendrils of fire slid through her veins.
‘No, not sick. Just a man.’ His gaze dropped to her breasts that seemed to swell and tighten under that heavy-lidded look. ‘With a man’s desires.’
Bemused, she stared into the face that had haunted her dreams. A face so beautiful yet bereft of tenderness. Bereft of everything except unvarnished, unapologetic lust.
Alissa wrenched herself away and strode across the room. Her chest heaved and her legs shook as she forced herself to stop and stare out at the long sweep of the bay, striving for calm. The silver-grey moonlight was chill and stark, like Dario’s eyes as he spoke of bedding her.
Her stomach squeezed against the roil of emotions. Disbelief, fear, worry over her sister. And...anticipation.
No! She couldn’t want Dario. She wrapped her arms round herself, trying to think clearly. It didn’t matter that he’d somehow inveigled his way beneath her defences these last few weeks. Surely she had more self-respect.
‘Is this how you get your kicks, Signor Parisi? Playing games with innocent women?’ She swung round to face him. Even from half a room away, the intensity of his stare turned her knees to jelly.
‘Innocent? The woman who deliberately connived to stop me retrieving what’s rightfully mine?’ He crossed his arms over his chest in a movement that emphasised the latent power in his big frame. ‘The woman whose supposed innocence led her to parties where sex as well as money was traded for designer drugs?’
‘I never—’
‘Enough!’ For the first time Dario raised his voice in a roar that silenced her instinctive protest. It echoed the thunderous beat of her pulse. His eyes meshed with hers, holding her immobile. ‘One more denial,’ he continued, his voice a lethally quiet whisper, ‘and I withdraw the offer.’
‘But...’
At the sight of his narrowing eyes and raised brows, Alissa’s words petered out. He was utterly implacable. Her stomach dived and her throat closed in a spasm of horror. The dull, metallic taste of fear seared her tongue. The truth didn’t matter, not now.
Frantically her mind whirred, but she found no way out. ‘You really are as bad as they say, aren’t you?’ A shudder rippled down her spine as she faced him. ‘Cold, clinical, calculating. Completely without remorse.’
Only the knot between his brows hinted at his displeasure. ‘I see my fame precedes me. But your views on my character are of no importance.’
Alissa shook her head. Had she hoped even now he’d deny it? ‘You’re some piece of work, Dario Parisi. I thought I knew all there was to know about unscrupulous men, but you’re something else.’
Dario frowned as if finally her words had punctured his self-absorption.
Despair wrapped around Alissa’s heart. There was no uncertainty in his eyes. Just hunger.
It hurt to draw breath. She reached for the back of a nearby sofa, needing its support as the world crashed into splinters around her. Her hand was a stiff claw sinking into the plush upholstery.
She thought she’d known powerlessness and humiliation. The night her grandfather had knocked her off balance and down the staircase when she’d refused to marry Dario. The night she’d had her fingerprints taken by the police.
But this...
This was the ultimate insult. The ultimate power play.
Grimly Alissa pushed herself straight, angling her chin higher. She wouldn’t give Dario the satisfaction of seeing her pain. Instead she’d remember Donna’s voice on the phone tonight, her brave attempt to hide her worry and despair. That would keep her strong.
‘If I agreed...’ She curled her fingers into her palm till the nails scored her skin and she found the nerve to continue. ‘If I sleep with you, you’ll pay half my share of the inheritance straight away with no arguments?’
His smile was grim, as if her words both pleased and angered him. ‘You’ll do more than sleep with me. I want satisfaction. I want to come deep inside you.’ His voice dropped to a pitch that resonated in her very bones. ‘I’ll have you, whenever I want, however I want, until we divorce.’
A cold trickle of despair slid down her back as his words fell between them. And yet...in the pit of her belly a tiny swirl of something hot and urgent coiled into life at the idea of Dario, deep inside her.
Dumbfounded, Alissa stared, not seeing his harsh, gorgeous face, but instead the pair of them tangled on his bed. It shamed her that a small, wayward part of her found the idea exciting.
She was losing her grip. She’d never been with a man. Never found the courage or the desire to trust a man so intimately with her body, her private self. Yet here, now, his words attracted as well as repelled. She fought self-loathing as well as desperate anxiety.
‘No bondage. Nothing rough.’ She winced as the words erupted from her mouth. They sounded like capitulation.
‘I don’t get my kicks that way.’ He looked haughty.
‘Some men do.’ Her voice was uneven but firm.
‘You have my word as a Parisi; there will be nothing like that. There are plenty of other ways we can find pleasure together.’
Alissa almost laughed at his certainty. His belief she’d find pleasure with him. She ignored the tiny, traitorous pulse beating at the juncture of her thighs.
‘And if I...agree, you’ll give me the money tomorrow?’ She couldn’t believe she was saying this.
‘I promise.’ He inclined his head.
It would almost be a pleasure to teach him one woman at least wouldn’t succumb to his magic touch. She swung round to face the window. By the time she saw the coast by daylight she’d have given herself to Dario.
Panic and disbelief petrified her. Her jaw ached and she realised she’d clenched her teeth so hard her head began to pound.
Could she do it? Her hands twisted as she groped for an alternative. Anything to avoid Dario’s cold-blooded proposition. But she’d been over her options so many times. There was no alternative.
Donna needed treatment sooner than they’d expected. This was the only way to get it. Her options had narrowed to this. Letting him...
Her shoulders slumped as she realised there was no other way. She couldn’t even refuse on the grounds that he wouldn’t keep his promise. Everything she’d learned about Dario indicated that, though he was merciless, he had
enough pride never to break his promise.
Which left her no escape. No alternative but to give herself to him.
CHAPTER NINE
DARIO STOOD, RIGID with anticipation, watching her.
What had got into him? Promising money for sex? He’d never stooped so low in his life.
Something had snapped as he listened to her try to gull him out of his money, appealing to his sympathy. He’d expected something of the sort, but when it came to the crunch, nothing had prepared him for the tidal wave of wrath and disappointment that washed over him when she lived down to his expectations. That she should use her own family as an excuse to get money! That, above all, rankled.
His self-control had shattered under the lethal combination of fury and frustrated desire.
He grimaced at the thought of his lawyers drawing up the contract. Yet not even burgeoning shame at his tactics doused the flare of expectancy as he waited for her answer. The keen blade of desire that ripped through his soul, his conscience, his belief in himself as an honourable man.
His first assessment of her had been right. Strange he felt no vindication at the knowledge. In this one thing he’d rather have been wrong.
His hands bunched in his pockets as she stood staring at the moonlit bay. Suspense gripped him in a vice.
Despite her protests, he’d read her responses. Her gaze followed him when she thought he wasn’t looking, her lips parted a fraction in unwitting invitation when he got close. This would be a mutual pleasure.
As long as she agreed. He scowled as still she kept her back turned. Anxiety juddered through his muscles. This show of reluctance wasn’t amusing.
She turned and he held his breath, trying to read her face. Her eyes avoided his. Not a promising start. Dario was stunned to discover he was nervous.
‘All right.’ Her voice was tight. ‘I’ll do it.’
* * *
Instantly his face relaxed, as if her words eased his tension. That was impossible—it would imply he’d worried she wouldn’t agree. Yet this was a game to him, an exercise in domination. He didn’t care for her. The knowledge chilled her to the marrow. She’d never be warm again.