Silently Leandro acknowledged that their marriage was more likely to succeed if Marnie remained in ignorance of the accusations he had thrown at her before he’d had proof that she was carrying his child.
He sought to reassure her. ‘Of course our marriage will work, cara.’
Her doubtful expression warned him that it would take more than words to convince her. He was also aware that if her memory returned at any time after they were married there was a chance she would leave him and try to take their child.
Although he would be in a stronger legal position with regard to winning a custody battle, he had no wish to put his child through the trauma of a divorce—he remembered what it had been like when his parents had split up. He wanted his child to grow up with a loving, attentive mother—as Marnie had vowed she would be. Therefore he needed their marriage to work...which meant he must make Marnie believe that he was in love with her.
He led the way down the hall and into the master bedroom. He noted the soft colour that flared on her cheeks as her eyes darted towards the bed.
‘I admit your engagement ring is extravagant. It’s a male thing,’ he said with wry amusement. ‘Size matters to a man when he chooses a ring that he hopes will demonstrate the depth of his feelings for the woman who has agreed to be his wife. But I should have known that you would prefer a ring with less bling.’
He remembered that when she had been his mistress she had never shown any interest in designer clothes or expensive jewellery. Her tastes had been for simpler things, such as the daffodils he had picked from the garden in the spring and given to her.
‘You chose a beautiful ring for me,’ she said huskily. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.’
‘You could never do that, cara.’
Leandro’s words were designed to reassure her, but silently he assured himself that Marnie could not hurt him because he felt nothing for her. Although that was not quite true. He felt desire. Hot, hungry desire that burned in his gut and made him ache more than he had ached for any other woman.
He was glad to see that she was no longer deathly pale, and the bruising on her temple had almost disappeared. While she had been a patient at the private London hospital, where he had arranged for her to be transferred from Scotland, his focus had been on making sure she received good medical care. But now he noticed the glossy sheen of her honey-blonde hair and the soft pink colour on her cheeks before he moved his eyes down to her round, ripe breasts.
He had always appreciated her hourglass figure, and the fuller curves that were a sign of her advancing pregnancy had a predictable effect on his body. The silky material of her dress was stretched across her tummy, and he longed to place his hand on the proud swell where his child lay. He imagined pulling her dress down and stroking his hands over her abundant breasts, and desire ripped through him.
He smoothed her hair back from her face. ‘You have had a busy day...it would be a good idea for you to lie down on the bed for an hour or so before dinner,’ he murmured.
‘I’m not tired. I’m feeling much better now my headache has finally gone,’ she assured him.
‘In that case I think we should both lie down, cara.’
‘Oh...’ Marnie caught her breath when she saw the glint in Leandro’s eyes and his meaning became clear.
Relief mingled with the delicious tingle of excitement that swept through her. While she had been in hospital following her accident he had been kind and caring, but he had seemed more brotherly than lover-like, and his gentle affection when he’d kissed her cheek had made her wonder if he still desired her.
He bent his head and captured her mouth in a sensual kiss that turned to something deeper and darker and left her in no doubt that he wanted her as desperately as she wanted him. She lifted her hands and touched his face, tracing her fingertips over the hard ridges of his cheekbones and the firm line of his jaw. The rough stubble that shaded his jaw felt wonderfully familiar, and her heart lifted as she realised that she knew him, had touched him like this before. The evocative scent of his aftershave teased her memory and his kiss stole her heart.
‘We are not strangers, mia bella. Your body recognises mine and remembers the passion that blazed between us from the first time we met.’
Leandro pulled her into the hard strength of his powerful body and Marnie stopped worrying that she could not remember the past and focused entirely on the present. Her breasts felt heavy, and she sighed with pleasure when Leandro freed them from her too-tight dress. It occurred to her that soon she would have to buy some maternity clothes for her expanding figure—but then Leandro took off her bra and stroked his thumb pads over her ultrasensitive nipples and her thoughts scattered as sensation arrowed down from her breasts to her hot, molten core.
Her worry that he might find her pregnant shape unattractive dissolved when he tugged her dress over her hips and slid her knickers down.
‘Bellissima,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I have missed you so much, mia amata.’
He kissed her again with a fierce hunger that thrilled her, but his words niggled in her mind.
‘Why did you miss me? I thought we had been living together before I had my accident.’
She wondered if she imagined the sudden tension in him.
‘I missed you when you were in hospital,’ he murmured.
And before she could say anything else he captured her mouth again in a sizzling kiss that made her forget everything but what he was doing with his hands as he roamed them over her body. He sank onto his knees in front of her and traced his lips over the gentle curve of her belly.
‘I felt the baby move again this morning. It’s just a little flutter inside me, but as the baby grows bigger you might be able to feel him or her kick when you place your hand on my stomach...if you want to, that is.’
Leandro had said he was pleased about the baby, but he’d admitted that her pregnancy was not planned and she didn’t really know how he felt.
‘I want to be involved in every stage of your pregnancy.’ Leandro’s voice was husky with desire and a tenderness that he had never felt before. He stood up, and his expression was suddenly serious. ‘Do you feel well enough for me to make love to you? If you are at all worried about the baby...’
‘The baby will be fine,’ she said quickly. ‘Before I was discharged from hospital the doctor said that I should try to lead a normal life and that it is perfectly okay to have sex for as long as I want to.’ She unfastened his shirt buttons and ran her hands through the dark hair that grew on his chest. ‘I want you so much.’
‘I’ll be gentle, cara,’ he promised as he lifted her and laid her on the bed.
Marnie watched him strip off his jeans and boxers and the sight of his rock-hard erection caused molten heat to pool between her legs. She spread her legs wide as he positioned himself over her. But he made her wait, and made her desperate with need when he lowered his head and tormented one taut nipple and then the other with his tongue while he slipped his hand between her thighs and aroused her even more with his clever fingers.
Marnie arched her hips as drove her to the edge and held her there. ‘Please,’ she moaned. ‘I don’t want you to be gentle.’
He growled something in Italian as he pressed forward so that the tip of his erection pressed against her moist opening. Slowly, so slowly that she wanted to scream, he thrust into her, inch by inch, filling her, possessing her, and claiming her body, her heart and her soul.
She remembered this. As he withdrew almost fully and sank into her again, a little deeper, a little harder, she dug her fingers into the bunched muscles of his shoulders and urged him to move faster, faster, taking them both towards ecstasy.
Her heart said he was the love of her life, but something held her back from saying the words I love you out loud. Instead she whispered them against his throat as he thrust the d
eepest yet and they came simultaneously, panting and groaning in the pulsing pleasure of release.
Afterwards he smoothed her hair back from her face and kissed her lingeringly on her mouth. But he did not say the words she longed to hear, and when he moved away from her it felt as if the distance between them was much wider than a few inches of mattress.
Her eyes prickled and she turned her head away from him, but she was not quick enough to hide her overspilling emotions.
‘Tears, cara?’ His voice roughened. ‘Dio, did I hurt you?’
‘No.’ Marnie ignored the pain in her heart. ‘I just hate not being able to remember so many details of our relationship.’ She bit her lip. ‘If we were happy together why did I go to Scotland alone? I have no idea why I was at the train station in Glasgow.’
‘You were going to see your brother Jake,’ Leandro said after a moment. ‘He visited you in London before he went to Scotland to start a new job.’ He looked at her intently. ‘Do you remember anything about your brother’s visit to Eaton Square?’
‘Jake came to see me?’ More tears filled Marnie’s eyes. ‘Oh, I wish I could remember.’ She caught the glint of the diamond ring on her finger. ‘I suppose I went to Scotland to tell Jake that I’d got engaged. At least I will see him at our wedding. You have invited him to the wedding, haven’t you?’
‘We’d planned on a very small, intimate service, with just the two of us and a couple of friends as witnesses.’ Silently Leandro acknowledged his frustration that his security team had not managed to locate Jake Clarke or the missing jewellery.
Marnie frowned. ‘I’m sure I would have decided on a small wedding, but I would never have agreed to be married without inviting Aunt Susan and Uncle Brian and my cousin Gemma and her fiancé. Apart from Jake, they are the only family I have left, and my aunt will want to see me in my wedding dress.’ Marnie noticed a flicker of surprise on Leandro’s features. ‘You will have to help my memory. Have I already chosen a wedding dress? It would be odd if I haven’t, seeing as the wedding is in one month.’
‘You decided to wait and choose a dress nearer to the date of the wedding, because you didn’t know what size you would be,’ Leandro quickly fabricated a reason for the delay while he made a mental note to invite Marnie’s relatives to the hotel in London where he had booked a simple wedding service. It was important that Marnie believed he genuinely wanted to marry her—which he did, he assured himself.
His conscience stirred. When he had seen the CCTV footage of her inviting a man into the house in Eaton Square he’d suspected that she had opened the safe to allow the guy who was possibly her lover to steal the jewellery. But Marnie had insisted that she knew nothing about the theft, and he was starting to wonder if she might be innocent of the crime—just as she had told him the shoplifting charge soon after her brother’s death had been a mistake.
It also seemed likely that the man was her brother Jake and not her lover. He had DNA proof that the child she was carrying was his, Leandro brooded, and before he’d seen that film he had never had a reason to think she was unfaithful. But if he revealed that he had accused her of cheating and stealing she would very likely refuse to marry him.
He could see no alternative but to go ahead with the wedding he had arranged in England for next month and pray that Marnie never regained her memory of how he had treated her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘WHAT MADE YOU interested in restoring old theatres?’ Marnie asked Leandro one afternoon, a week or so after they had arrived in Florence. They were sitting in Piazzale Michelangelo, a famous square which offered panoramic views over the city. From the cafeteria where they were drinking latte they could see the iconic terracotta tiled roof of the Duomo.
Earlier in the day they had visited the Teatro Musicale, a beautiful eighteenth-century theatre that had become derelict until Leandro had bought it with the intention of restoring it to its former glory.
‘Money,’ he said bluntly. He grinned at her surprised expression. ‘Forget any notion you might have that I save ancient buildings out of a romantic love of history. I’m a businessman, and I only restore theatres that I’m certain I can turn into profitable venues.’
She looked at him thoughtfully. ‘I’m not sure that’s entirely true. I watched you walk around that theatre that you are paying to be restored and it was obvious that you have a genuine love of old buildings.’
‘I certainly admire great architectural design.’ Leandro paused and then said ruefully, ‘I’ll admit that the Teatro Musicale has special meaning for me because it’s where my mother started out as an opera singer before she went on to become a world-famous star of musical theatre.’
‘What was your mother like? She was such a big star. I’ve seen the film versions of a couple of musicals she starred in and her voice was amazing.’
‘Giulietta was incredibly talented. She had a presence both on stage and off it, and she drew people to her. She had the ability to make people fall in love with her just by smiling at them—including me.’
He laughed, but Marnie heard pain in his voice when he spoke again.
‘I was fascinated by her, and when I was a boy I longed to be with her so that she would smile at me and make me feel like she loved me. But I’m not sure that my mother actually loved anyone other than herself.’
‘Children need to feel loved,’ Marnie said fiercely. ‘My mother suffered from a severe depression, which meant that she was unable to care for me and my brothers. Sometimes I used to think it was my fault that she was so unhappy. I was a very well-behaved child because I thought if I was good my mum might stop crying and my dad might come back to live with us again.’
She had spent her life trying to please other people, Marnie realised, and the result was that she lacked self-confidence.
‘I want our child to grow up feeling secure and knowing that we will love him or her unconditionally,’ she told Leandro.
‘That’s what I want too, cara.’
He gave her one of his heart-stopping smiles and the fleeting doubts that she sometimes felt about their relationship melted away.
As they strolled across the piazza Marnie was aware that Leandro attracted the attention of every female he passed. It wasn’t surprising when he looked like a film star, dressed in black jeans, a polo shirt and designer shades, she conceded. What did surprise her was why a gorgeous hunk like him had chosen to marry someone as unglamorous and ordinary as her.
‘Why are you frowning?’ he asked, catching sight of her expression. ‘Are you tired of sightseeing? Maybe we should go home so that you can lie down and rest.’
She giggled. ‘I spend a lot of time lying down, but not necessarily resting.’ Marnie caught her breath when he took off his sunglasses and she saw the wicked gleam in his eyes. ‘Can we go back to that market stall close to Ponte Vecchio which sells those adorable baby clothes?’
‘Of course—but, seriously, if you feel tired we’ll stop at a gelateria and you can have another ice cream.’
‘I’m going to be the size of a house if I keep eating so much,’ Marnie said ruefully.
‘Nonsense, mia bella, you look gorgeous. Pregnancy suits you.’
She darted a glance at him, sure he was teasing, and found him looking at her with an indefinable expression in his eyes. Time stood still and the noises of the crowded street faded.
‘I wish my memory would come back,’ she said, frustrated.
‘The future is what’s important, not the past,’ he murmured. ‘Let’s look forward to our life together as man and wife and as parents.’
A group of teenagers ran past them, talking loudly, and the spell was broken. What the hell had happened to him? Leandro asked himself as he guided Marnie through the market place. It wasn’t like him to talk about his feelings regarding his mother, but Marnie was a good listener and h
e had found himself opening up to her in a way he had never done with other women.
Her childhood sounded grim, and then she had suffered the tragedy of her brother’s death, but there was no bitterness in her. She was kind and compassionate and his conscience pricked. It was unfair to rush her into marriage when he had not been completely honest about his reason for wanting to make her his wife. But he would make her happy, he assured himself. She would never guess that he had married her just to claim his child.
They found the stall where Marnie had bought a few gorgeous baby outfits on a previous trip to the market. This time she bought a delicate knitted shawl—‘Because the baby will be born in the winter,’ she reminded Leandro.
They strolled along the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge that spanned the River Arno, and on the way back to where they had parked the car Marnie stopped to buy a bottle of water from a shop. She frowned as she counted the money in her purse.
‘The market seller on the stall where I bought the shawl gave me five euros too much change. I didn’t notice at the time. I’ll have to go back and return the money.’
‘It’s only five euros—which is probably the amount the stall owner overcharged you for the shawl. The prices are always higher for the tourists,’ Leandro said drily. ‘It’s too far for you to walk all the way back to the market, cara.’
But Marnie was already retracing her steps back to the bridge. ‘Five euros might not seem a lot to a millionaire,’ she told him, ‘but it’s not my money and I’m going to give it back. You don’t need to come too. Why don’t you wait in that café until I come back?’
Leandro slipped his arm around her waist. ‘Of course I’ll come with you. But after all this walking you and I are going to have a long siesta this afternoon,’ he promised.
As they walked back to the market he brooded on whether someone who was worried about repaying five euros was likely to be a thief. Everything pointed to Marnie being scrupulously honest, and it simply did not seem likely that she had stolen the jewellery. But had she been protecting her brother? Now, of course, her memory loss meant that Marnie was unaware of the jewellery theft.
Trapped by Vialli's Vows Page 10