But there wasn’t going to be a next time. Nicole’s deception had left deep scars, and nothing would persuade Leandro to be metaphorically manacled to a woman for the rest of his life. Memories of his parents’ volatile marriage and bitter divorce when he was seven reinforced his belief that commitment was a mug’s game. He wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship—which made the fact that Marnie had been his mistress for a year all the more shocking.
He couldn’t comprehend how their affair had lasted for so long without him noticing that she had stealthily infiltrated his life. It was certainly not what he’d intended when he had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to ask her to move in with him nearly a year ago. She had needed somewhere to live, and he had assumed he would grow bored with her in a matter of weeks and would find her another flat to move into.
He was unsettled by the realisation that he had not been tempted by another woman since he’d made Marnie his mistress.
A waiter offered him champagne and canapés. Leandro lifted a glass from the tray and took a long sip, needing the hit of alcohol in his bloodstream. His schedule in New York had been hellish, even by his standards, but he always pushed himself to his limits. He was proud of Vialli Entertainment, the business he had built without the support or help of his father. Work was central to his existence and gave him a sense of control that in the past few years had been missing from other areas of his life.
After his marriage had failed he had focused on being a good father, determined that Henry would not suffer from the divorce the way he had done when he was a kid and his own parents had split up. But since he’d received the devastating proof that Henry wasn’t his son he had been left with a void inside him where his heart had once been, and he had vowed never to lay himself open to that level of pain ever again.
His father had spent his life avoiding making emotional attachments, Leandro thought cynically. It was the only trait of Silvestro’s that he was determined to emulate. His mother, on the other hand, had fallen in love dozens of times, with men who had broken her heart, but she hadn’t loved the one person who had adored her—her son.
Leandro forced his thoughts back to the present and Marnie’s unexpected behaviour. What the hell had got into her? He hadn’t tried to stop her from leaving the party because he’d been concerned that she would create a scene in front of his staff. But that was shocking in itself, because generally she was mild natured and until recently had seemed content to take a backstage role in his life.
He frowned as he recalled that when he had phoned her from New York a couple of days ago she had sounded odd, unlike her usual cheerful self. He had almost been tempted to ask if something had upset her. But he hadn’t gone down that route, reminding himself that she was his mistress and he neither sought nor offered to share personal confidences with her.
It might be a good thing that she had demonstrated this volatile side to her character, he brooded. He was frankly stunned that he had allowed their affair to continue for a year, and if Marnie was going to start making emotional demands on him it was time to think about replacing her in his bed.
He was aware that several of his senior staff were trying to catch his attention and told himself to forget about Marnie and enjoy the party. But he had glimpsed the sparkle of tears in her eyes before she’d hurried away from him and his conscience was pricked.
He guessed she would take a cab back to his house in Chelsea because she had nowhere else to go. She had told him that her mother had died a few months before they’d met and her only other relatives lived in Norfolk.
Leandro gulped down the rest of his champagne and swore beneath his breath. Experience had taught him that women were nothing but trouble, and he did not know why he was surprised that Marnie was no different from all the rest. She wasn’t his responsibility, but she was upset, and he acknowledged that he was partly to blame.
He walked over to his deputy CEO and spoke to him briefly before he phoned his chauffeur and requested to be collected from the party.
* * *
Marnie emerged from the air-conditioned restaurant into what felt like a furnace. The summer heatwave had lasted for weeks, and London was sweltering in unusually high temperatures. Even at eight o’clock in the evening the sun was a burning golden disc in the sky, and she was conscious of her dress sticking to her as she walked dispiritedly towards the bus stop.
She couldn’t believe she had stormed out of the party like that. Leandro had looked shocked by her loss of temper and it was hardly surprising that he had not followed her after she had yelled at him like a fishwife.
More tears filled her eyes. What was wrong with her? She never cried.
Even when her brother Luke had been killed in a motorbike accident she had bottled up her grief, and maybe that was why she still felt his loss acutely, five years later. Growing up with her chronically depressed mother had made her fearful of allowing herself to feel deep emotions. She was scared that if she cried for Luke she might never be able to stop. Besides, she’d had to stay strong for her other brother, Jake, who had been devastated by his twin’s death. And she had done her best to take care of her mother, as she had done since she was eleven, when her father had left home.
She leaned against the bus shelter and gave a deep sigh. This past year that she had lived with Leandro had been the happiest time she’d known since she was a child, when her family had still been together. But even back then there had been problems in her parents’ marriage. Memories of her parents’ frequent rows, when her dad had accused her mum of smothering him with her possessiveness, had taught Marnie that she must give Leandro space.
She had certainly tried to do that. It occurred to her that she knew barely any more about him now than when they had first met. He had never introduced her to his friends or family, and the only pieces of personal information he had revealed were that his father lived in New York and his mother had been a famous musical theatre star who had died ten years ago.
She did not know why it suddenly mattered that Leandro kept so much of his private life secret from her. She’d been prone to odd mood swings lately, and maybe that explained why she felt so hurt by his cavalier treatment of her. But her forgiving nature was quick to point out that he was a millionaire business tycoon who had a high-octane lifestyle and he couldn’t make her his top priority all the time.
She had been looking forward to his return from New York because she was excited about telling him her amazing news. It was still hard to believe that not only had she gained a first-class honours degree in astrophysics, but had earned the highest exam marks in the country. Leandro would certainly be surprised. She chewed on her lip. Maybe she should have told him before now that for the past year she had worked only one day a week as a waitress in the cocktail bar, and on the other days had studied astronomy, space science and astrophysics at a top London university.
Marnie heard her mother’s voice in her mind. ‘Why do you want to study astronomy? What’s the use in looking at stars and planets? You need to train for a proper job instead of setting your sights on an impossible dream.’
The teachers at the rough comprehensive school she’d attended had been similarly dismissive of her chances of becoming an astronomer, but she had worked hard at school and ignored the bullies who had called her a geek because she’d enjoyed science lessons. Even though she had been accepted at a top university back then she had lacked confidence in her abilities, and she’d decided to wait to see if she passed her final exams before she told Leandro about her dream of becoming an astronomer.
Now that dream was a step closer to being fulfilled. She had been offered a place on an internship programme to study towards a doctoral degree at NASA’s research academy in California. It would necessitate her moving to the States temporarily, and she hoped Leandro would understand that they would have to have a long-distance relationship for nine m
onths while she was studying in America.
Marnie glanced along the road, hoping to see a bus approaching. Her heart lurched when a black saloon car with dark-tinted windows drew up against the pavement and the rear door opened. Leandro’s face was shadowed in the dim interior of the car, but his steel-grey eyes gleamed with hard brilliance.
‘Get in the car, Marnie.’
She almost sagged with relief that he had come after her. But the rebellious streak that seemed to be intent on causing trouble argued that she could not allow him to continue to walk all over her, that she should stand up for herself a bit more because she did not want to be his ‘dirty little secret’.
While she hesitated, Leandro drawled, ‘I will only ask you once, cara.’
CHAPTER TWO
MARNIE DID NOT look at Leandro as she slid onto the back seat of the car beside him and shut the door. He instructed the chauffeur to drive on before he closed the privacy glass. The tension between them was almost tangible, and she knotted her fingers together in her lap, determined that she was not going to be the first to speak.
‘What the hell was that about?’ He did not try to hide his irritation. ‘I didn’t invite you to the staff party because I had planned to show my face for an hour at most before I rushed home to you.’
It was partially true, and Leandro realised he had to smooth over an awkward situation. His eyes were drawn to the jerky rise and fall of Marnie’s breasts, which appeared to be in imminent danger of escaping from the plunging neckline of her dress. Her skin was peaches and cream and her honey-blonde hair rippled halfway down her back. A shaft of unadulterated lust swept through him as he imagined undressing her and cupping her ripe curves in his hands.
‘Really?’
She sounded uncertain, and Leandro stifled his impatience to push her back against the leather seat and cover her mouth with his.
‘We could have spent time together at the party,’ Marnie muttered. She had felt really hurt by Leandro’s attitude and for once was determined not to allow him to brush her feelings aside as if they didn’t matter.
‘I spend a significant chunk of my life in the company of the people I work with and I won’t apologise for wanting to spend my leisure time exclusively with you.’
‘Oh.’ When he put it like that his decision not to invite her to the party sounded reasonable. Perhaps she had overreacted a bit.
Leandro closed his hand over hers, and as Marnie looked down at his tanned fingers wrapped around her paler ones she pictured his naked limbs entwined with hers, dark against pale, hard against soft.
She was intensely aware of his hard thigh muscles pressed up against her. He reached out and wrapped a lock of her long hair around his finger, and her breath became trapped in her throat when he gently tugged to make her turn her head towards him. The hard gleam in his eyes had been replaced with a sultry smokiness that turned her bones to liquid.
Leandro felt Marnie relax and was confident he had won her over. His hunger became more urgent as he tipped her chin up and plundered her soft, moist lips without mercy, wanting to punish her just a little and remind her that he called the shots in their affair.
Her eager response fanned the flames of his desire. He had taught her well, and she was no longer shy and inexperienced as she had been in the early days of their affair. When she pushed her tongue into his mouth his heart slammed against his ribs, his desire a potent force that strained against the zip of his trousers.
Lifting his head, Leandro was satisfied to see rosy colour on her cheeks, and saw that her blush continued down her throat and spread a warm stain over the upper slopes of her breasts. This was how he had pictured his mistress while he was away: flushed with desire and her brown eyes soft with sensual promise.
Leandro’s words had allayed some of Marnie’s concerns that their relationship did not mean as much to him as it did to her. She rested her hand on the bulge beneath his trousers and smiled when he groaned. ‘Did you miss me while you were away?’
‘Of course I missed you.’ He gave a rough laugh. ‘After two weeks without sex I am seriously frustrated, cara.’
‘I wasn’t only talking about sex.’
But her tiny flicker of doubt wavered as he crushed her to him and sought her mouth again, kissing her with a possessive intent that thrilled her. Passion ignited into an inferno between them and she forgot everything but the need to feel his hands on her body.
He pushed her back against the leather seat and leaned over her. ‘Dio, I’ve wanted this so badly,’ he said thickly.
Marnie allowed herself to sink into the bliss of Leandro’s kiss. Too many nights without him had made her body extra-responsive, and she gave a low moan when he slipped his hand into the front of her dress and stroked her breasts through her sheer lace bra. When he rolled her nipples between his fingers she almost leapt off the seat as starbursts of pleasure arrowed down from her breasts to the hot, moist core of her femininity.
He gave a husky laugh. ‘This is what I missed. Your beautiful body, ready and eager for me. I’m impatient to get you home so that I can undress you.’ He traced the neckline of her dress with his forefinger. ‘Is this a new dress? Did you buy it for the party? When I walked into the restaurant I was blown away by how sexy you looked.’
She remembered how unsure of herself she had felt while she had waited for Leandro to arrive at the restaurant. If he felt proud of her, perhaps she would feel more his equal.
‘Leandro,’ she murmured, when he tore his mouth from hers to allow them to draw breath. ‘Do you wish I had a better job than waitressing?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with being a waitress,’ he said indistinctly, busy nibbling her earlobe before trailing his lips down her throat and moving purposefully towards her cleavage.
‘But wouldn’t you like me to have a high-flying career, like the women you employ at your company?’ she persisted.
‘I’ve dated career women, and to be frank it was a nightmare trying to align our schedules and arrange to meet when we happened to be on the same continent. I like knowing that you’re at home waiting for me when I get back from work.’
Marnie was disappointed by Leandro’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for her to have a career, but at the same time her foolish heart quivered because he’d said that he looked forward to coming home to her every evening. She drew an unsteady breath when he eased the stretchy neckline of her dress and her bra down and cupped her breasts in his palms, so that he could flick his tongue across one nipple and then the other. The sensation of him sucking each tender peak was electrifying.
Dazed with desire, she decided to wait and tell him about the opportunity she had been offered to study astronomy at NASA until later—after they had assuaged their hunger for each other that was now at fever pitch after their two-week separation.
Leandro pulled her onto his lap and thrust his hand beneath her skirt to stroke the strip of sensitive bare skin above the lace band of her stocking tops. Shivering with longing, she let her thighs fall open to allow him to move his hand higher, to the place where she longed for him to touch her.
‘You are hungry,’ he drawled, satisfaction thickening his voice as he eased his finger beneath her thong and discovered the slick wetness of her arousal.
A voice in the back of Marnie’s mind taunted her, telling her that her weakness for Leandro was shameful. She didn’t want to appear needy, but the truth was she did need him. Before she had met him she’d felt empty and alone.
He pushed another finger into her and moved his hand with rhythmical strokes, in and out, faster, deeper, taking her higher until she couldn’t think of anything but the beauty of what he was doing to her.
‘Leandro...’ She clung to his shoulders as she felt the first exquisite spasms of her orgasm.
‘That’s right, baby. Come for me,’ he said
thickly.
Overwhelmed with pleasure, she pressed her face into his neck and breathed in the spicy scent of his aftershave. Her heart clenched with emotion. She had missed him so much, and from the size of the rock-hard erection she could feel beneath her bottom he had missed her as badly.
Minutes later the car drew up in Eaton Square and Marnie quickly tugged her dress into place before the chauffeur opened the door. Leandro kept his arm around her waist, as if he knew that her legs felt unsteady, and they hurried up the steps of the house.
As they entered the hallway he kicked the front door shut and pulled her against his hard body, his hands roaming over her with feverish urgency. He curled his fingers into the soft mounds of her buttocks before running a hand up her spine and unzipping her dress. With his help the black velvet slipped down to expose her semi-sheer bra, through which her dusky nipples were clearly visible.
Leandro gave a growl that sent a shiver of anticipation through Marnie. She wanted him now—this minute.
He must have sensed her desperation, because he lifted her and sat her on the marble table in the hall, pushed her skirt up to her thighs.
‘I can’t wait long enough for us to get upstairs to the bedroom,’ he said hoarsely.
Her heart lurched when she saw the feral hunger in his eyes. But a familiar sound that she had grown to hate shattered the sizzling sexual tension.
‘Your damned phone!’ she muttered.
‘I’ll switch it off,’ he promised.
But as he pulled his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket he glanced at the screen and stiffened.
‘Cara, I’m sorry, but I have to take this.’
‘You can’t be serious...’ She almost wept with frustration, but her sense of hurt and abandonment was even worse than the unfulfilled ache between her legs as she watched him stride into his study and close the door behind him, shutting her out of his life—as usual, Marnie thought bitterly.
Trapped by Vialli's Vows Page 2