‘Are you free this evening?’ he said. ‘I would like to bring you dinner.’
Alice could have done with a bit of that self-control right about now. She knew saying yes would be saying yes to other things besides dinner. How long would she be able to resist that mouth? Those hands? That body? So far he hadn’t kissed her. So far. But how long before he did? ‘Yes, I’m free.’ Sucker.
A smile lifted the edges of his mouth and he released her hand. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’
* * *
Cristiano walked back to his hotel after he left Alice at her salon. His mind ran back over their conversation. In the past she had told him a bit about her background but he hadn’t realised—or been astute enough back then—to read between the lines. He had been quietly envious of her having both parents still living so hadn’t been able to see how complicated her relationship was with both of her parents. Her mother sounded like a petulant child, and her father asking Alice for money now he was back in her life after years of no contact was nothing short of scandalous.
But one thing he did know was that kids—no matter how difficult they were—loved their parents. It was a fact of nature. Bonds were created in childhood and it took a lot to destroy them.
Alice had been adamant about not marrying. She had voiced her opinions on the subject volubly. Heatedly. Stridently. He had—naively, perhaps—thought she was only saying it because she hadn’t wanted to come across as a gold-digger. He was well aware of how his wealth made him an attractive prospect for a woman who was looking for security. That was another fact of nature. Women had good reason to want to connect with a man who could provide for her once it came time to have children.
But Alice insisted she didn’t want children. That was another thing he didn’t take all that seriously back then. What young woman of twenty-one wanted children at that stage of their lives? He’d been confident—too confident—she would change her mind once they were married.
Cristiano had been too proud to go after her when she’d rejected his proposal. Proud and angry. Bitterly, blindingly angry. He’d expected her to come crawling back. That was another thing he’d been far too confident about. He’d thought she’d go home and think about what she was throwing away and call him and say she’d changed her mind. But the only thing she’d changed was her phone number.
That was the nail that finally closed the lid on his hopes.
But now he wondered what was really behind Alice’s adamant stance on marriage. Lots of kids of divorced parents went on to have successful marriages themselves. Was it because she was a staunchly independent career woman? Having a career didn’t mean you had to give up everything else. Did she still hold those views or had she shifted some ground over the passage of time?
Her friendly little employee gave the impression Alice was a big fan of weddings. Word on the street was she was the go-to girl for bridal make-up. Did that mean she secretly dreamed of a white wedding with all the trimmings? But she hadn’t dated anyone seriously in years. That was another thing he’d found out from her loquacious little workmate. Alice virtually lived and breathed work. She had no social life to speak of and always made excuses when friends tried to hook her up with potential dates.
He didn’t want to admit how pleased he was about that. If he hadn’t been happy for the last seven years then why the hell should she be? But then, she was a tetchy little thing. Not many men would put up with her quick temper and acid tongue. But behind that prickly exterior was a warm-hearted person. Some of the time.
Funny, but her sharp tongue had been one of the things he’d most admired about her back then. The fact she didn’t kowtow to him because he was super rich. Losing his parents so young had made everyone—even his grandparents at times—tiptoe around him. No one ever said no to him or argued the point with him. He was so used to getting his own way he hadn’t factored in anyone else’s opinion on things until he’d met Alice. She never ran away from an argument or a difference of view. She didn’t cave in to please him. She stood her ground and wouldn’t budge if she believed she was in the right.
But what if she had changed? What if those rigidly held opinions on marriage and children had softened?
Too bad.
Cristiano wasn’t going down that road again. Family life was for people who could handle the risk of losing it in the blink of an eye. He had already lost one family. He wasn’t going to sign up for a second.
His grandmother’s machinations meant he had no choice but to jump through the hoops like an obedient circus dog, but that was as far as it would go. He had considered a register office ceremony but decided if he was going to get married then it would be the old-fashioned way. Besides, his nonna would come back to haunt him if he didn’t repeat those wedding vows in front of a priest.
But you don’t love Alice now.
Cristiano ignored the prod of his conscience. God would have to forgive him for borrowing His house of worship as a means to an end. Over the years he had downgraded his feelings. Told himself he hadn’t loved Alice at all. It was too confronting, too painful to admit he had loved her and lost her. Instead he filed it away as nothing but a lust fest. A mad, once-in-a-lifetime passion that had taken him over like a raging fever. Consuming rational thought. Sideswiping common sense.
He was no longer that idealistic young man blinded by lust. He was older, wiser, harder. He could control his passion. He could control his desire. He could control his emotions.
A quiet church wedding with limited guests was the only way to go. There would be no chance of Alice misreading his motivations if he kept things clean and simple. And less complicated when it came time to end it.
For end it he would.
CHAPTER FIVE
ALICE TOLD HERSELF there was no reason she should be cleaning her house like someone with a serious case of obsessive-compulsive disorder but she wasn’t going to have Cristiano counting the dust bunnies hiding under the sofa. She had never been able to justify employing someone to clean because she was hardly at home to make much of a mess.
Once she’d sorted the house, she got working on herself. That saying about plumbers with leaky taps equally applied to beauticians. When was the last time she’d waxed her legs? And as for a bikini wax...? It was so overgrown her ‘lady land’ looked as if Sleeping Beauty had taken up residence.
Well, come to think of it, maybe she had.
It had been about a hundred years since there had been any activity down there.
Alice reached for her perfume and spritzed her wrists and neck. This was probably a good time to ask herself why she was going to all this trouble.
You are so going to sleep with him.
She slammed the door on the thought. No. Not going to happen. She could resist him. Sure she could. He wasn’t that irresistible.
Yikes. Yes, he was.
As long as he didn’t kiss her it would be okay. Kissing him would be dangerous. Dangerous because his mouth had the amazing power to make her senses spin out of control like bald tyres on an oil spill.
The doorbell sounded and Alice jumped up and smoothed her skinny jeans down her thighs. She’d figured tight jeans might work as a reminder to her self-control. Not so easy to slip out of sprayed-on denim.
Then why did you put on your best bra and knickers?
Alice was getting a little annoyed with her conscience. Nice underwear was standard. So what if she’d put on her most expensive set? Her girls deserved the best support, didn’t they? She opened the front door and tried not to swoon when she saw Cristiano standing there dressed in dark blue denim jeans and a crisp white casual shirt that was rolled up over his tanned forearms. His hair was still damp as if he had not long showered and his jaw was cleanly shaven. ‘At least you’re on time,’ she said.
His gaze travelled over her slowly, smoulderingly, until she wondered if her clothes were going to be singed right off her body and left in a smoking heap on the floor at his feet. ‘You look beautiful.’
Alice looked at his empty hands and then around him for any sign of the dinner he’d promised to bring. ‘I thought you said you were bringing dinner with you?’
‘It will be here soon.’
She stepped back and held the door open, breathing in a delectable whiff of his aftershave when he walked past. She closed the door and linked her hands in front of her body, more to keep them away from the temptation of touching him. ‘I got the money,’ she said. ‘I checked my bank account an hour ago.’
‘Good to know the lawyer is doing what he’s been paid to do.’
Alice unhooked her hands and used one to tuck a strand of her hair back behind her ear. ‘Any idea why your grandmother stipulated that clause? I mean, I could end our engagement right now and still be way out in front financially.’
‘You could. But you won’t.’
She frowned. ‘What makes you so sure?’
He was standing close. So close she could see every individual pinpoint of his recently shaven jaw. So close she could feel the magnetic draw of his body. ‘Because you’re not the sort of girl who’d take money from an old lady without fulfilling the rest of the wishes she expressed.’
‘But I hardly knew your grandmother. I only met her a couple of times. We chatted and all that but hardly long enough for her to want to include me in her last will and testament, I would’ve thought.’
‘Maybe, but she liked you and you liked her.’ He waited a beat. ‘She saw something in you. A quality she warmed to.’
‘Stubbornness?’
He gave a soft laugh. ‘That and...other things.’
What other things? Alice wanted to ask.
‘Would you like a drink? I have wine and soft drinks or—’
‘Later.’ He slipped a hand into the inside pocket of his dark blue blazer and took out a ring box from a designer jeweller. ‘For you.’ He flipped the box open and inside was a gorgeous diamond in a classic setting.
Alice took out the ring and watched as the light above their heads brought out the diamond’s brilliance. It was so simple and yet so elegant. She slipped it over her finger and it sat there as if it had been made for her. ‘It’s...’
‘If you say “nice” I will not be answerable for the consequences.’
Alice smiled and kept gazing at the ring. ‘Perfect. It’s perfect, that’s what it is. It’s exactly what I would have chosen.’
When she glanced up at him he was frowning. ‘Would you have preferred that?’ he asked. ‘To choose it yourself?’
Alice had never seen him look so uncertain before. ‘I guess if this was a normal situation then maybe I would have. But it’s fine since it’s not. Anyway, I’ll give this back once we’re done.’
‘I don’t want it back.’
‘But it’s—’
‘It’s yours, Alice. You can do what you want with it when we’re through.’ He released a short breath. ‘I’m sorry. I should have consulted you on what you’d like. I didn’t think. The old one was so...so inappropriate. I’m annoyed I didn’t see that before. It didn’t suit your hand at all.’
Alice shifted her lips from side to side. This was a new thing—Cristiano admitting to getting something wrong. ‘Just your luck to pick someone so independent she can’t even let a guy choose a ring for her.’
‘It wasn’t just the ring I got wrong, though, was it?’
Alice couldn’t hold the sudden intensity of his gaze. She looked at the new ring instead and angled her hand so the light caught the facets of the diamond. ‘Thing is, my mother has three rings, all of them ghastly. She pretended to love them when her partners gave them to her. I always wondered why she did that.’ She glanced at him again. ‘Surely if you’re going to marry someone and agree to spend the rest of your life with them you’d be honest with them from the get-go?’
His mouth lifted in a rueful smile. ‘That was another quality my grandmother liked in you. Honesty. You didn’t filter your opinions. You spoke your mind and to hell with anyone who didn’t agree with you.’
Alice couldn’t help a tiny cringe at how outspoken she had been back then. She had been very much ‘my way or the highway’ in her thinking. She’d held strong opinions on issues that, in hindsight, she had not researched well enough to warrant holding such strident views. How many people must she have offended, or even hurt, by expressing such unqualified and oftentimes ignorant opinions? Back then she had considered the notion of compromise or backing down as a weakness, a flaw. But now...now she wondered if being able to give and take, and listen rather than speak, was a more mature and balanced way to approach life.
‘I’m surprised your grandmother even remembered me. You and I were only together six weeks. There must’ve been a lot of women in your life since. I don’t suppose she’s left each of them—?’
‘No. Just you.’
Alice wanted to ask if he had fallen in love with any of them but knew it would make him think she was jealous. Which to her great annoyance she was. It didn’t seem fair that he’d moved on with his life so quickly when she had supposedly been his soul mate. What if she had changed her mind in the weeks after their breakup? Too bad, because he’d already partnered up with someone else.
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Cristiano said. ‘You’re thinking I didn’t take long to replace you, yes?’
Alice hadn’t realised her expression was so transparent. Or maybe he really could read her mind. Scary thought. ‘You made no secret of your love-life. It was splashed over every gossip magazine.’
His gaze was unwavering. ‘And that bothered you?’
Alice frowned. ‘Why wouldn’t it bother me? You bought me a frightfully expensive ring and told me I was the only woman in the world for you, and yet within a week or two of me ending our relationship, you’re off with someone else.’
‘Did you change your mind?’
‘No, of course not.’ Alice knew she had answered too quickly by the way one of his brows rose in an arc. ‘I was just annoyed you hadn’t...’
‘Hadn’t what?’
She let out a gusty little breath. ‘Missed me.’
He stepped closer and placed his hands on the tops of her shoulders. ‘You think I didn’t miss you?’
Alice couldn’t shift her gaze from his mouth. It was drawn there by a desire she could not override with self-discipline or common sense. The warmth of his hands was burning through her clothes, setting her skin on fire. Making her aware of his male body standing close—so close she could sense the stirring of his blood in tune with her own. She placed her hands flat against his chest, touching him, feeling the heat and strength of him.
Wanting him.
The deep thud-pitty-thud of his heart beneath her palm reverberated through her body, sounding an erotic echo deep in the centre of her being. She curled her fingers into the fabric of his shirt, not caring that it caused it to crumple and the tiny buttons to strain against the buttonholes. She closed the hair’s breadth distance between their bodies, an electric frisson coursing through her at the intimate contact.
What did it matter if she was the one to cave in first? It was what she wanted. What they both wanted. She had missed touching him.
Being held.
Being wanted.
Alice stepped up on tiptoe and pressed a barely touching kiss to the side of his mouth, her lips tingling from the contact with his newly shaven skin. Cristiano’s minty fresh breath mingled with hers but he didn’t take over the kiss. Was he trying to prove how strong he was compared to her? That he could resist her even if she couldn’t resist him? She smiled to herself. She knew just how to get him to weaken. She sent the tip of her tongue out and licked the surface of his bottom lip. A cat-like lick to remind him of how clever she was with her tongue. How she had made him collapse at the knees when she got to work on him.
His hands went from her shoulders to her hips, tugging her so close she could feel the hardened, pulsing ridge of him against her belly. ‘Haven’t you heard that sa
ying about playing with fire?’
Alice shamelessly stoked the fire by rubbing her pelvis in a circular motion against his. ‘You want me.’
‘I didn’t say I didn’t.’
‘But you said our marriage won’t be—’
‘So, that rankled, did it?’ A teasing glint danced in his eyes. ‘I thought it might.’
So he’d said that deliberately to get a rise out of her? Did he want her or not? Or was he just playing with her? Letting her dangle like a pathetic mouse being tortured by a mean-spirited cat. Alice pursed her lips and tried to pull back but his hands were clamped on her hips. ‘Let me go.’
‘Is that really what you want?’
‘Yes.’ She all but spat the word out. But inside her body was screaming. No-o-o-o!
‘Fine.’ He dropped his hands and stepped away, a knowing smile lifting the edges of his mouth. ‘No harm done, sì? But if you change your mind, you know where to find me.’
Alice ground her teeth so hard she thought her molars were going to crack. The only harm done was to her pride. Why had she allowed him to get the upper hand? He’d fooled her into thinking he had changed. He had even expressed his regret—albeit in veiled terms—about the ring he’d bought in the past. But at the heart of it all he wanted to prove was he had moved on from her—that he hadn’t got any lingering feelings where she was concerned. He hadn’t missed her one little bit. He’d soon found someone else to scratch his itch. He might still desire her, but that was all he wanted from her now. Sex.
The Temporary Mrs. Marchetti (Mills & Boon Modern) Page 7