‘My God!’ Tina jumped to her feet. ‘The poor girl thinks you have been having an affair with me for years.’ Moving to sit on the sofa beside Solo, she reached for his hand, adding, ‘You better tell me everything from the beginning.’ And he did.
A long time later Tina looked at Solo. ‘Let me get this straight. The first time you met Penny you decided to marry her because she would make the perfect wife. She said she loved you and then you got the hump when she dumped you because she was scared. The second time around you bullied her into marrying you by threatening her with bankruptcy. Yet the sex is great. That strikes me as odd, and maybe the girl still does care about you. Do you love her?’
Solo reared back. ‘I don’t believe…’ He stopped and nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Have you told her?’
‘No.’
‘And you wonder why she does not answer the phone.’ Tina sighed. ‘Really, Solo, if you want your marriage to work, if you want to keep Penny, you are going to have to show her you love her, and I don’t mean with money or jewels, or even great sex. You have to open your heart, reveal your own pain and insecurities and trust her.’
‘It is too late, she has obviously left me to go heaven knows where.’ Solo sighed.
‘You can appear to be a very cold, intimidating man with your private collection of art as your only company. But a sculpture will not keep you warm in bed at night, and I know you’re capable of great love. Find Penny and tell her.’ Tina stood up. ‘One thing you are not is a defeatist. I’ll have the jet put on stand-by; get washed and get going. I can wrap up here.’
Solo stopped outside the vicarage and looked up at the house. There was still a light on. He didn’t care if it was after midnight; he had checked out Haversham Park, and the house was empty—this was his only hope. The vicar’s daughter was Penny’s best friend and she lived in London. Solo wanted the address and telephone number.
He hammered on the door, and waited. The vicar opened the door and Solo demanded to know where his wife, Brownie or any of his household was. The vicar insisted Solo have a drink, told him Brownie was on her annual holiday. As for Penny and James he had no idea, but refused to give him Jane’s phone number at this time of night. Late-night calls were frightening to young women living on their own.
Solo had to mask a cynical smile. The vicar obviously was not part of the mobile-phone and text-message generation. He only parted with the address when Solo gave him his solemn promise he would wait until the morning before driving to London.
Solo returned to the house and the bedroom he had shared with Penny, and spent the early morning hours preparing what he would say to her, and wondering what he would do if Jane didn’t know where Penny was and he never found her.
Penny heard the bell ringing, and rolled out of bed. She glanced at the sleeping James on his little camp-bed, and smiled. He thought leaving home was a great adventure, and today because it was Saturday they had planned with Jane to drive out to the zoo.
Slipping on a towelling robe, she tightened the belt and hurried past Jane’s bedroom, downstairs and across the hall. It was probably the postman, maybe a parcel as it was Jane’s birthday on Monday.
Penny opened the door. She closed her eyes, and opened them again, her heart hammering in her chest. Yes, it wasn’t a dream; it was Solo.
‘You.’ she exclaimed, surveying him with wide-eyed amazement. She noted the feverish glitter in his pale eyes that seemed sunken in their sockets, with deep dark circles around them. His black hair fell in rumpled curls over his brow, and he badly needed a shave. His sartorial elegance had deserted him, apparently along with his voice. A tee shirt advertising a certain South American beer hung over his well-worn black jeans.
‘What are you doing here?’ Penny swallowed hard.
‘I could ask you the same question,’ Solo replied, and, stepping forward, he reached around her waist, propelling her backwards into the hall, and shut the door behind him. His face expressionless, he looked around the shabby hall. ‘Not quite Haversham Park.’ Suddenly all his practised speeches deserted him and he was angry. ‘What do you think you are playing at? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for four days. Where is James?’
Penny pulled free of his restraining arm, and determinedly tightened the belt of her robe. She told herself he was bound to find her sometime. She would have preferred later, rather than sooner. But it did not change her decision one bit. ‘James is upstairs in bed, it is barely seven, and I’ve left you.’ She stuck her hands into her pockets, curling them into fists, and lifted her chin. ‘And I am not coming back—I want a divorce.’ Penny expected him to explode in rage, but he didn’t.
Solo’s anger deserted him like a spent balloon. His worst fear was realised, and his heart ached as he looked at her. She was wearing a towelling robe, his robe, and it gave him a crumb of hope to know she had taken something of his with her. The over-large lapels were gaping open, revealing the soft swell of her firm breasts. Her magnificent hair was hanging in a tumbled mass down her back. She looked brave and beautiful and incredibly desirable.
His gaze fixed on her luscious mouth, he lifted a hand, and then, taking a deep breath, let it fall to his side. Hauling her into his arms and ravishing her mouth was not an option. She wanted to leave him again… He had taken the one perfect thing in his life and destroyed it, because of his stupid pride, his inability to show the slightest sign of weakness towards anyone.
‘Is there somewhere we can talk?’ Solo demanded. ‘We had an agreement and I deserve an explanation if nothing else,’ he said quietly.
Her green eyes narrowed on his. He looked serious, and maybe telling him the truth would be the quickest way to get rid of him. She could still feel the imprint of his hand on her waist and she did not trust herself to spend any length of time in his company without surrendering to his irresistible masculinity all over again.
‘Okay, this way,’ Penny said, taking charge and, turning, she led him into the little living room. ‘You wanted an explanation.’ She spun around to face him. ‘It is really quite simple. I kept to our agreement, but you did not.’ The picture of Tina in his arms, his kissing the other woman, was always there in her head to remind her, and gave her the strength to carry on. ‘I was prepared to try and make our marriage work, I gave it my best shot, but when I find my husband kissing his mistress in my own home, even I am not that much of a masochist—’
‘No, you’ve got it wrong,’ Solo cut in, reaching out for her and capturing her shoulders. ‘I’ve never been unfaithful. Tina and—’
‘No.’ Penny flattened her palms on his chest. ‘I am not going to listen to any more of your lies.’ Just hearing the woman’s name on his tongue made her feel sick with jealousy. ‘I can’t bear to live with a man who is unfaithful.’ She lifted glittering green eyes to his. ‘Is that clear enough for you?’ She tried to shrug free of his hold, but his fingers tightened on her shoulders.
‘You’re going to listen, damn it,’ Solo commanded. He was trying to be humble, but it wasn’t easy. ‘There is nothing between Tina and I, never has been.’
‘Oh, don’t give me that,’ Penny shot back, her own temper rising. ‘I saw you only the other morning on the telephone, and you were aroused simply talking to Tina.’
He stared at her as if she had gone mad; slowly, his mouth turning up in a smile, then a grin, then a chuckle, he shook his dark head. ‘Oh, Penny, have you never heard of early-morning arousal in a man; especially this man who happened to be looking at his very lovely wife half naked on the bed? It had nothing to do with Tina.’ He folded his arms around her, hauling her hard against his long body. ‘And everything to do with you, can’t you tell?’ His dark head bent and he pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck and shoulder.
Her stomach lurched, the heat of his arousal was hard against her belly, and she shoved at his chest. ‘So you say.’ She blushed scarlet. ‘But I’m not a fool, you are not getting me back with sex.’
Sol
o stiffened, his arms falling to his sides, and he stepped back, taking a deep, steadying breath. ‘No.’ His silver eyes captured hers. ‘I swore to myself if I found you I would not touch you until I had told you the truth, and the best place to start is probably with Tina.’ Penny scowled at the name she hated. ‘I promised Tina I would never tell anyone, but there can be no more secrets between us. Tina is my half-sister.’
‘Your sister!’ Penny exclaimed, her green eyes widening to their fullest extent on his handsome face.
‘Yes.’ He spoke stiltedly. ‘Apparently my mother had a child before me, a baby girl. She sold the child to an Italian-American couple, strictly illegally. Tina’s adoptive parents passed her off as their own. She only discovered the truth when she questioned them about the genetic family history when her and her husband discovered she could not have children, and they swore her to secrecy as they are pillars of the community in the small town where they live.’
Penny’s head was reeling. The conversation she had heard under the window years ago suddenly made a different sense. Broad-minded about the unconventional family, and of course Solo would always love his half-sister, just as Penny would always love her half-brother. If only she had known! She kept her stunned gaze fixed on Solo’s serious face and listened.
‘Tina and her husband came to Naples looking for her birth mother, and found me. I was twenty-five at the time and agreed to keep the secret for the sake of her parents. But I can assure you she is very happily married, and enjoys her work.’
Solo lifted his hand and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. ‘I let you think we were lovers to make you jealous. That’s how desperate I was, Penny.’ His expression was bleak.
Penny cleared her throat. ‘Desperate for what?’ she made herself ask, the tiniest flame of hope igniting in her heart. Tina was his sister, not his lover. How much more had she got wrong? She owed it to herself to find out and this sombre man was like no Solo she recognised. She instinctively placed a hand on his chest to steady herself, her legs were shaking, and she could feel his erratic heartbeat beneath her palm.
‘For you,’ Solo said huskily. ‘I don’t want to lose you again, Penny.’
Penny stared up at him, her heart racing. The planes and angles of his face were taut with tension, he looked so hard, and yet so incredibly desirable to her foolish heart, and she despaired at her own weakness. ‘You mean you don’t want to lose the sex,’ she prompted bitterly.
‘That, too.’ His eyes sparked with a trace of his old arrogance. ‘But that is not what I meant. I am sick of all the pretence, all the time I have wasted,’ Solo said, and she watched in growing wonder as his expression softened, his firm lips quirked at the corners in a wry smile. ‘They say confession is good for the soul, and I promised Tina if I found you I would tell you the truth. Will you listen?’
Penny nodded and allowed him to lead her to the sofa. He sat down and pulled her down beside him. She was intrigued and made no objection when he slipped his arm along the back of the sofa, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder, and turned to face her. A vulnerable, unsure Solo was not something she had ever seen before.
‘This isn’t easy for me, Penny. I am not the sort of man to reveal my feelings to another person. In fact, until I met you I didn’t think I had any. I much prefer inanimate objects to people—they are easier to deal with.’
‘That is sad,’ Penny murmured and was rewarded with a dry smile.
‘No. To me it is…was normal. But—’ his great body tensed ‘—to start at the beginning. Your friend Patricia was right about Lisa Brunton in a way. It was in her apartment some months before I met you that I saw a picture in a magazine of Veronica’s wedding to your father. I recognised her because I had met her on a friend’s yacht—she was his girlfriend. But I also saw you.
‘Being a chauvinistic Neanderthal, or whatever you want to call it, I was intrigued by the difference. You looked so beautiful and innocent. You were my fantasy girl, everything a man could want in a perfect wife.’
A picture in a magazine! Penny was stunned, but realised sadly that was so like Solo—the inanimate object!
‘Six months later when I bumped into your father and Veronica, I had no interest in doing business with them, but I wanted to meet you. When I walked into your home and saw you standing with baby James in your arms, I decided then and there to marry you. In my arrogance the first time I kissed you I knew I could make you want me, and buying a piece of land off your father was a small price to pay for a wife.’
Penny glanced at him. ‘A bit medieval,’ she opined, and he had the grace to look embarrassed.
‘I asked your father’s permission to marry you the last Saturday before we parted, and quite happily gave him more money as I thought he was going to be my father-in-law. I had to leave in a hurry before I could ask you, as you know.’ He slanted her a wry glance. ‘Six days later when I returned I signed the deed for half the house your father insisted on giving me while I waited for you to return home.’
‘Oh, my God!’ Penny sighed. ‘I was so wrong. I came back that day after listening to Patricia’s gossip,’ she said honestly. ‘But I was still determined to believe in you, Solo.’ Penny did some confessing of her own. ‘But I heard you talking to Tina from beneath the window. I heard you say you wanted a malleable wife, and to refurbish the house, and finally you loved her. I ran straight back to the vicarage and let Simon get me out of the mess I was in.’
‘You overheard part of a conversation and judged me on that?’ Solo shook his head in disgust. ‘I didn’t stand a chance.’ He shot her an angry glance. ‘You didn’t trust me at all; no wonder you left me.’
‘I’m sorry if you were upset,’ she murmured.
‘Upset didn’t begin to cover it. I was gutted and furiously angry. I became half-owner of a house I didn’t want and lost the girl I did,’ Solo drawled cynically. ‘My pride took a hell of a battering that day.’
‘But you didn’t love me,’ Penny said flatly, and that was the bottom line. He had never loved her.
‘No, at the time I did not believe in love,’ he told her with brutal candour. ‘But with hindsight I realise I do.’
‘What are you trying to say?’ Penny asked softly, holding her breath.
‘For a long time I did not…would not admit I loved you.’
Solo had said he loved her, and she couldn’t believe it. She studied his dark features, saw the strain in his silver eyes, and her heart swelled with love. ‘You mean you…’
‘Let me finish,’ Solo commanded. ‘I practised this all last night when I thought I might never see you again. If I don’t say it now I might never have the nerve again.’ His piercing gaze seemed to see right into her soul. ‘I was angry when you finished with me, and thought it was a trick by you and your father to con money out of me.’
‘Oh, no.’ Penny cut in. ‘I never knew anything about the money. I can’t believe my dad could be so greedy.’
‘Yes, well, to give your father his due he did get in touch with me, and offered to give back part of the cash, but he also said he thought you were too young for marriage, and I should try again when you finished university.’ His sensuous mouth tightened. ‘Deep down I agreed with your father. You were very young, so I told him to keep the money, and decided to do just that in three years’ time,’ he vouched, almost talking to himself.
Penny stirred restlessly. ‘So Dad wasn’t really being deceitful,’ she said softly.
‘No.’ Solo agreed. ‘But I was, I fluctuated between thinking of your family as no better than thieves, and denying I loved you while hoping to get you back. I knew when you finished university and I was preparing to return to England to see you and find out if you were still with Simon.’
That was the second time he had suggested he loved her, and Penny was beginning to believe him. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this when we met again?’ What she really wanted to ask was why didn’t he say he loved her, but she dared not. She had nev
er known Solo to talk so long and openly and she did not want to miss a word.
Solo’s hand tightened on her shoulder. ‘I had made a big enough fool of myself once over you and I wasn’t prepared to do it twice.’ The look he gave her was full of self-mockery. ‘When I heard of the death of Veronica and your father, I thought you must know I owned half the house—either your father would have told you or after the will was read. It gives me no pleasure to admit in a way I was glad. My ego had taken enough of a beating where you were concerned. Now I thought, Penelope Haversham will have to come to me,’ he declared with some of his old arrogance. ‘So I waited and waited for you to get in touch and, the longer I waited, the angrier I got.’
‘Oh, Solo.’ Penny was appalled by the bitterness in his tone.
But if he heard it he gave no sign. ‘Until your solicitor finally got in touch with me, and set up a meeting. Then, the night before, I walked into the hotel bar where I was staying and there you were… Dio, Penny, the shock of seeing you in the hotel in a red dress—the innocent vision I had cherished in my mind had transformed into a sexy woman with acres of flesh on display.’
‘I thought I felt someone watching me,’ Penny recalled. ‘But it wasn’t my dress—it was Jane’s and I was dying of embarrassment, and reeling with shock having just discovered your involvement in my home.’ Instinctively she placed her hand over Solo’s resting on his knee. ‘That is not my style at all, believe me.’
Solo looked into her green eyes and what he saw there gave him hope and the strength to admit what he had been skirting around ever since he’d arrived. ‘I know, Penny. Though you did look great, I felt sick.’ He paused. ‘Sick with love for you.’
‘You love me.’ Her voice trembled.
‘Dio mio, I thought that was blatantly obvious.’ He wrapped his arms around her, his silver eyes glittering down into hers. ‘I love you to the depths of my soul now and for ever.’ He bent his head, and gently rubbed his lips softly on hers before adding, ‘You are my life, my love, and for a man who has never trusted anyone in his life, I am placing my heart in your hands.’
Wife: Bought and Paid For Page 15