The Heat Of Passion

by Lynne Graham

  'You saw us together the other night,' Sunny murmured with faintly patronising amusement. 'Didn't that bother you at all?'

  With a not quite steady hand, Jessica lifted a silver-backed brush that belonged to Carlo from the dressing-table and ran it through her hair slowly. 'I saw nothing that bothered me,' she lied.

  'You're in love with him too, aren't you? Poor Jessica. I can imagine what he's told you. I can also imagine just

  how much you wanted to believe him '

  Jessica took a deep breath. 'If you don't mind, I'd like to finish getting ready,’

  'If you don't mind...you're so polite!’ Sunny scanned her with wide, wondering eyes. 'He won't have told you the truth. The truth is that neither of us matters a damn to him right now. Carlo's one priority is keeping his darling daddy happy.’

  'Why shouldn't it be?' Jessica said defensively. 'He hasn't got much time left with him.'

  'And his inheritance is conditional on his marriage ... did you know that?' Sunny prompted gently.

  'Right now, Carlo has to play you along and keep you happy. He needs a bride and it seems he's found one, dumb enough to shut her eyes to reality.'

  The floor rocked under Jessica's feet. She turned pale. ‘I don't believe you,’ she said shakily.

  'You are naive... and you haven't a clue how the men in this family operate.' Sunny's exquisite face twisted with derisive amusement. 'I understand Carlo. You don't understand him at all. Carlo wants me and he fully intends to have me... but he won't put a foot wrong while his father is still alive. All that keeps Carlo from me now is Lukas... and of course, the money...'

  As the door shut on Sunny's exit Jessica closed her eyes tightly in anguish. She felt physically sick. Carlo had lied to her. He was not marrying her purely to please his father. He was marrying her for entirely mercenary motives. And yet be had fooled her brilliantly into believing everything he had told her!

  In a wild passion of despair and turmoil, Jessica hauled her cases out of a closet in the dressing-room and began dragging her clothes out and packing them. She refused to be used like that... she absolutely refused!

  'What the hell are you doing?'

  On her knees beside the cases, Jessica glanced up. Carlo was a big dark silhouette filling the doorway. Hooded ebony eyes dug into her like aggressive question marks as he stared down at her in disbelief.

  'I'm not going through with the wedding!' she gasped.

  CHAPTER NINE

  CARLO scanned the wildness in her amethyst eyes for a fulminating ten seconds, a muscle jerking tight at his hard jawline. 'I don't know what the hell you think you're playing at but the wedding goes ahead tomorrow... even if I have to drag you through it by

  the hair!'

  'No. Sunny told me why you had to get married!' Jessica slung rawly. 'And I refuse to be part of it!'

  'Why do I have to get married?' Carlo invited very softly. 'I really would like to know.'

  'You lied to me,' Jessica condemned fiercely. 'Every

  thing you told me was a lie... you played on my sym

  pathy when all the time you were just using me '

  'Do you ever get to the punchline?'

  'You have to be married to inherit your father's

  money!'

  After a staggered pause, Carlo threw back his dark imperious head and laughed uproariously, utterly incredulous at the charge.

  It was not the reaction Jessica had expected. Her

  mouth fell open.

  'Dio... is that the best she could do?' His amusement spent, Carlo studied Jessica with narrowed eyes, his hard mouth compressing. 'And you believed her, didn't you?'

  Suddenly less sure, Jessica said, 'I '

  Carlo cut across her. 'I have been my father's heir since the day I was born because his blood runs in my veins. And no matter what bitterness or resentment lay

  between us that has never changed. Why would he demand that I marry?'

  'Because he wants you to settle down,' Jessica suggested tremulously.

  'Lukas Philippides wants me to do what he never did himself?' Carlo elevated a sardonic winged brow. 'Settle down? He didn't settle down through four marriages and countless mistresses... why should he seek to interfere in my private life?'

  Jessica was not prepared to cede the point without a fight. 'Well, then, you tell me why both your father and your sister are so damned glad that you're getting married?' she demanded, shooting what she knew to be the last bolt in her argument.

  His hard features perceptibly darkened, his mouth

  tightening as though she had drawn blood. Glittering

  golden eyes rested on her coldly. 'OK, I'll tell you. Ten

  years ago, my father went to bed with the woman I had

  asked to marry me '

  'He what1?' Jessica mumbled in shock, certain she could not have heard him correctly.

  "Thus a decade of mutual silence,' Carlo pointed out grimly.

  'But how... I mean, whyV she whispered.

  'Lukas invited me to visit him. I brought my fiancee

  with me,' Carlo murmured in a flat, unemotional tone.

  'You see Lukas now, a shadow of the man he was then.

  In those days he was still virile and attractive to women.

  He wanted me to work for him. That was why the red

  carpet came out. My half-brother was a drunk, useless

  in business. Lukas wanted me back to take his place. I

  refused. I knew it wouldn't work. He was furious and

  Bella was furious too. She loved the lifestyle he was of-

  fering... the constant parties, the bottomless well of

  money. I wasn't one quarter as wealthy then as I

  am now ‘

  xtu

  'But still ' Jessica found herself still arguing her

  own disbelief, she was so shattered by the very idea of what he was telling her.

  ‘Lukas made a play for Bella. She was flattered and

  he took her to bed '

  Jessica was appalled. Dear God, he had been twenty-three years old! How could any father have done that to his own son and how could any woman sink that low?

  '1 found them together,' Carlo volunteered in the

  dragging silence. 'And I was devastated. I knew he

  couldn't be trusted with any beautiful woman but I had

  assumed that I could trust her '

  'How could they do that to you?' Jessica felt physically sick.

  'Lukas can't help competing and he doesn't always think ahead. He was settling old scores, showing the young dog that the old dog still had a trick or two up his sleeve. Bella?' Carlo's mouth compressed. 'One of the wealthiest men in the world told her he wanted her and she was knocked sideways by the idea. She was dumb enough to think he would marry her but he dumped her a couple of weeks later. He knew he'd gone too

  far '

  'But how could you ever forgive him?' 'Because he doesn't know any better. like a bull in a china shop, he creates havoc and lets other people pay the price, but ultimately, he's still my father.' Carlo surveyed her pale, troubled face. 'Now you know why my father and my sister are so damned glad I'm getting married,' he derided harshly. 'It buries that tacky little episode with Bella,’

  Jessica was still in shock, stricken by an awareness of the pain that must have been inflicted by a cheap little gold-digger who had her eye on a richer quarry. Carlo was so proud and at that age he must have been far more vulnerable.

  'You were so quick to accept the word of a most unreliable character witness... incredibly quick,' Carlo condemned her now with contempt. 'Sunny is jealous and will do just about anything to cause trouble between us. Didn't that occur to you?'

  She hadn't taken time to think. She had acted on impulse. Now her loss of faith in him seemed heinous. Her cheeks flamed. 'I'm sorry...'

  ‘I really believed I was getting somewhere with you,' Carlo breathed harshly. 'And I was wrong. I open my heart to you and you still kick me in t
he teeth. You have no faith, no trust to give. As far as you're concerned, I'm still the bastard you decided I was six years ago and as far as I'm concerned I might as well be from now on!'

  Her throat was convulsing. There was a pain in his

  dark, clenched features that she had never seen before.

  It cut her up inside. 'I said I was sorry! It's this

  situation ‘

  Carlo swung on his heel, .unmoved by her unhidden

  distress. 'Your father's waiting downstairs for

  you '

  'My father?' she echoed weakly.

  'I picked him up on the way through London. I thought you would want him here.'

  She swallowed hard. ‘I '

  'You'd better tidy yourself up before dinner,' Carlo cut her off with bite.

  Why had she listened to Sunny? In retrospect, it seemed very foolish of her to have placed credence in anything the other woman said. Sunny was not reliable. Sunny had set her sights on Carlo and she was jealous. Jessica covered her face with shaking hands. And she herself was inclined to be jealous of Sunny, she acknowledged. Had it been easier to latch on to the accusation about his inheritance than confront him with

  Sunny's confident belief that only filial loyalty prevented Carlo from admitting that he did want his father's wife? Sunny had been horribly convincing.

  But Carlo was right. She didn't trust him. No faith, no trust. Had Simon done that to her as well? She had trusted Simon from childhood and he had let her down badly by using her, uncaring of how much he might hurt her. He had been too weak to care and he had depended on her loyalty and her pride to keep her quiet and carry on the pretence of their marriage. Suddenly she knew that she owed Carlo that truth, no matter how distressing she found sharing it.

  In the bedroom, Carlo was halfway into a shirt, muscles flexed across his smooth brown back as he shrugged into it, and her mouth ran dry. 'Carlo.. .’ she whispered. 'I think I should tell you about my

  marriage '

  'You can keep him like some holy icon inside your heart.' He spun round and sent her a chilling glance of

  impassivity. 'I'm not competing with a ghost '

  'You wouldn't be competing '

  'You don't understand,' Carlo breathed with cold dark eyes that froze her out. 'Simon's the past and as irrelevant as yesterday's newspaper to me. What is important is trust and you haven't got any to give. You hadn't any six years ago either!'

  'Don't throw that up to me now. You said you'd never forgive me on the way over here,’ she reminded him shakily. "That does not create an atmosphere of trust.' 'I'll see you downstairs.' Carlo snatched up his dinner-jacket and strode to the door. 'You'd better wash your face. Your mascara's running.'

  Jessica smacked her coiled fist against the wall in frustration as the door slammed and then curved the injured member into her stomach, wincing with pain. Sometimes, Carlo was so hatefully superior that she

  wanted to hit him! Loving him didn't wipe out that temptation. And now he had brought her father over as if this were a normal wedding. Dazedly she shook her head.

  Gerald Amory was chatting animatedly to Marika when she entered the drawing-room and Jessica barely had time to kiss his cheek before Lukas arrived and her father was taken over. Throughout dinner, Carlo's father shot questions at her father, demanding his opinions on business practices and frequently censuring them. Gerald Amory stood up to the interrogation well, wry amusement in his gaze when he caught Jessica's anxious look.

  'Well, I wouldn't employ you,' Lukas grumbled over

  his coffee. 'I don't believe in feather-bedding my

  workers '

  "The EC rulings won't give you much choice,' Gerald Amory dared.

  After dinner, she was left alone with her father.

  'Am I to believe you've finally taken leave of your wits?' he teased. 'I never thought I'd see the day that you did anything at reckless speed and here you are rushing into marriage within weeks of meeting Carlo again!'

  Jessica tensed. 'What did he tell you?'

  'Oh he was very persuasive,' Gerald laughed. 'Never shut up about you the whole flight!'

  'Really?' Jessica encouraged.

  'Told me he fell in love with you at first sight six years

  ago and never recovered. Very impressive stuff, it was,'

  her father recalled with a fond smile. 'He did explain

  that his father's condition was pressing you both into a

  quick marriage but he stressed that he could have married

  you a couple of weeks ago just as happily!' he chuckled.

  Her strained smile glazed over. Dear heaven, Carlo had laid on the I-love-your-daughter routine with a trowel. Very impressive indeed.

  'Carlo's a rather more complex character than I ever appreciated,' Gerald admitted. 'I always thought of him as very cool and controlled. He is in business. But in love.. .he's all emotion and reaction. So, now you tell me how you feel.'

  Jessica took a deep breath. 'I'm crazy about him.'

  'And you're much more reserved than he is...did your mother and I do that to you?' he sighed regretfully.

  She went to bed about eleven. There was no sign of Carlo. She lay sleepless in the darkness waiting for him. . But he didn't come and she was hurt. Why was it that when she finally decided to open her heart, Carlo closed her out? It was impossible to believe that tomorrow was her wedding-day. But then it wasn't a real wedding-day, she reminded herself wretchedly.

  The next morning she was served breakfast in bed. There was an air of strong excitement in the household and from dawn overhead the ceaseless racket of rotor blades as guests were flown in for the festivities.

  It was to be a very small wedding, Marika had explained. Just relatives, her father's closest business associates and executive staff and of course Carlo's friends. It was rather sad that she listed not one single person as a friend of her father's. Like someone in a dream, Jessica let herself be fussed over and dressed. She was merely playing a part, she told herself repeatedly, just going through the expected motions to please everybody.

  'If s time,' Marika said from the door with a misty smile.

  "Their idea of a small do wouldn't be ours,' her father shared out of the corner of his mouth on their passage down the huge main staircase. All the staff were in the main hall to see her.

  And a minute later, as the music sounded up and she had a startled glimpse of the hundreds of people packed into the vast ballroom with standing room only at the back, she understood what he meant. Every head seemed to turn, a rippling sigh of comment accompanying their passing. Her pallor was banished by colour as Carlo swung round impatiently to unsmilingly watch her approach. Like the condemned man, she thought furiously, on the brink of being forced to walk the plank!

  The ceremony seemed endless and it was conducted in both Greek and English. Carlo slotted the ring on her finger with a cool, steady hand. And it was done. He was not invited to kiss the bride and, although the opportunity came as she turned to face him, he took no advantage of it. His darkly handsome features were starkly set.

  Her throat tightening, she glanced away and caught a no more cheering view of Lukas beaming with satisfaction and Sunny beside him, her stunning face wearing a set smile.

  'Well, I'm glad that farce is over,' Jessica hissed before they made their exit.

  Carlo swung her round like a doll and brought his mouth crashing down on hers in punishment, his powerful hands biting painfully into her wrists. She knew he was furious. She knew she wasn't supposed to enjoy it. But her body had other ideas. It went into instant meltdown like he had thrown a self-destruct button.

  'No farce,' Carlo murmured softly, nastily as he lifted his dark head again and smiled for the assembled audience. ‘You are my wife now, legally, morally and in every other way.'

  There were no speeches over the banquet which followed. Lukas, she was informed by her father, didn't like speeches. Many toasts were offered and made. Jessica began to notice that Ca
rlo's attention was fre-

  quently directed at Sunny. He did it cleverly, covertly, but he did all the same, she noted painfully.

  Sunny, ravishing in silver and gold, her bright hair an eyecatching beacon every time she moved her head. 'Titian hair.. .my besetting sin,' Carlo had once confided. Jessica's stomach clenched. Why did she have to remember that now? An hour ago, Sunny had looked frozen, but now she was effervescent and glowing like

  a blazing torch.

  After the meal, Carlo whirled her on to the empty floor while everybody sat back and watched. Jessica was desperately self-conscious. She had never danced with him before and was suddenly tortured by the lack of such small experiences in their relationship. They had never had a courtship, never dated and yet she loved him with a passion that burned and flamed more with every increasingly insecure moment.

  'When are you going to start talking to me again?' she whispered.

  'Have I stopped? You mean I might actually have something to say that you might want to hear?'

  ‘I said I was sorry... what do you want me to do? Crawl?'

  ‘I think I might enjoy that,' Carlo admitted.

  'Well, I'm not about to do it... dream on!'

  As he bound her closer, she felt his breath on her cheek

  and clashed with smouldering golden eyes and an ex

  plicitly sexual scrutiny. 'If you want me in your bed to

  night, you'll have to do better than that '

  Her skin flamed scarlet and she trembled, cursing her innate and inescapable physical awareness of him. He could feel it. She knew that. 'I can do without you in

  my bed.' He laughed huskily. 'You're as much a slave to the

  passion as I am!'

  But I want more; I want it all, a little voice screamed inside her head.

  'I counted the hours I was away from you,' Carlo sud

  denly groaned above her head. 'And then I found you