The Italian Billionaire’s Scandalous Marriage: An Italian Billionaire Romance (Italian Billionaire Christmas Brides Book 2)

by Mollie Mathews

‘Remember you know nothing about my mother and stepfather. You have never met them before.’

  She nodded. Why was he stating the obvious? She didn’t even know their names! And why was his tone so serious?

  Well, she summoned her muse. For today she would be Audrey Hepburn. She would play her part and she would clean up the Academies, the Bafta, and the Golden Globe for her sterling performance. ‘If that’s the part I am to play then I expect you to do yours, Vitali.

  His eyes mocked any necessity to be reminded.

  ‘And you can start by pretending you and I, my groom…’ the words tasted like dark chocolate and berries…‘are very much in love. So smile.’

  His lips curved stiffly.

  ‘Not bad, but not convincing either,’ she said as he retook control and linked her arm with his in a possessive fashion. ‘A bit more warmth and sparkle would be more convincing.’

  ‘Don’t you think I’ve given you quite enough sparkle already,’ he retorted. ‘But if it’s more you want then I can promise you one thing for sure mia cara…tonight you’ll know what it’s like to be my wife. All I have to do is think of our night of wedded passion and no one will be in any doubt as to my feelings.’

  A tidal wave of heat surged through Alex as his eyes blazed through her with furnace-explosive intent. He was going to reduce her to just another female in the arena of their married life, even if he could never achieve intimacy in any other way. It was not so much sexual desire as a blistering need to dominate her in the age-old primal way of male control and possession. And while Alex recognized all this, and part of her mind rallied against it, the rest of her was exquisitely excited by the prospect of being conquered.

  A triumphant amusement glittered in his eyes as he observed the high color of her cheeks. He even smiled as he stroked her burning skin with a light finger-touch. ‘Is this the warmth you said was missing, mia cara?’ he purred, then moved his finger to the lift button to reopen the doors.

  ‘Just look at the gold and diamonds for the sparkle you desire, but think ahead to tonight when you and I are alone, for then the spark shall become fire.’ He grinned broadly as though taking pleasure in his game of words, and Alex’s intense discomfort.

  She plastered on a matching smile, vowing as she did so that she would out-glitter, out spark, out fox him—even if it killed her.

  As they emerged from the lift and walked towards the archway that led into the lounge-room, Alex painted on a smile that outshone all the jewelry he clearly thought would harness her to him for a lifetime of servitude. However, she wasn’t prepared for the shock that hit her when they entered the room, and the couple waiting for them rose from the far side of the sofa.

  It took all of Alex’s considerable self-discipline, and a performance worthy of an Academy Award, to keep the smile from shattering.

  It was her! The woman in the painting.

  Alex’s hand flew self-consciously to her face. She brushed her cheek with her fingers, reliving momentarily the pitted crevices that although now healed still left deep scars. Would Vitali reject her if he knew she was less than perfect, a miracle not of nature but technological intervention?

  ‘And needless to say, since we’re agreed on this route to settle the issue between us, I don’t want my mother to know you’re Ted Carr’s daughter,’ Vitali stated coldly. You are Alexandra Spencer from New York, America, daughter of Elizabeth and Charles Spencer—and we leave the pain of the past in the past. Forever. If that’s not understood, I’m paying too much…and you will have done too little for your share.’

  So, there must have been pain on both sides, Alex thought. Not only on her father’s. But also on his mother’s. And as much as she was dying to know what, when, why and how—and hundreds of other unanswered questions—right now it wasn’t important.

  ‘As you said last night, I’m not a fool,’ she reminded him, ‘and I do have integrity. I intend to fulfil my duties and comply with the terms of our agreement. Don’t worry. I won’t renege.’

  Cold green eyes searched her assessingly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought so,’ he said coolly. ‘But there certainly will be a time when we are going to find out.’

  ‘Yes, we will,’ she said with conviction.

  There was no point in telling him that she never intended hurting anyone. If she ever showed any weakness or vulnerability—or warmth of any kind—he would walk right over her.

  Satisfaction took the chill out of his eyes.

  ‘I have another request.’

  Alex braced herself for another unreasonable demand.

  He studied his feet, then lifted his head. ‘Would it…do you…’ he avoided meeting her gaze, ‘Do you think you could pretend to be in love with me?’

  His rare show of awkward vulnerability threw Alex momentarily.

  ‘Me—in love with you?’ She said the words as if loving him was the last thing she would ever feel, but her gut leapt exultantly as if confirming a truth she didn’t dare admit.

  ‘It would break my mother’s heart if she knew the marriage wasn’t going to last.’

  Forget about your mother’s heart, what about mine, Alex thought as her own stomach plummeted with a thud at the words, “the marriage won’t last.”

  ‘No problem,’ she said cooly. She didn’t want to have a failure marriage like her mother. Once committed she would see this thing through. Till death did they part.

  ‘So long as you can return the pretense by posing for a few camera shots of wedding bliss for my mother?’ she countered mockingly. ‘I promise not to leak them to the paparazzi.’

  His eyebrows quirked. ‘Am I to believe she has no idea what you are up to?’

  ‘Just as your mother has no clue what you are up to either. On that point we are evenly matched,’ Alex retorted swiftly. Vitali’s dark brows arched. ‘So...we embark on a mammoth deception together.’ He gave his low throaty laugh. ‘At least it won’t be boring.’

  ‘Precisely,’ she returned, covering her inner exhilaration with a dry smile.

  Again his gaze dropped to her mouth, and fastened on her lips for several seconds. Alex fiercely hoped he would kiss her. He wanted to. She was sure of it. But he dropped his hand, picked up hers, and almost slapped the box he had been holding in his other hand on to her palm.

  ‘The earrings. You might as well put them on now.’ He left her holding them and walked over to one of the armchairs near the window. He sat down and waved a mocking invitation towards the mirror. ‘Go ahead. Aren’t you dying to see them sparkling on your ears?’

  ‘Not really, Vitali,’ she said quietly.

  His pupils hardened. ‘Wear them,’ he commanded. ‘I always intended to give them to my bride…’

  Alex moved over to the mirror without any further argument. She was chillingly aware of him watching as he opened the box. The tear-drop earrings glittered up at her, each an amber-gold diamond, surrounded by clusters of white diamonds. They were breathtakingly gorgeous. Her hands trembled as she fastened a large fortune to each earlobe.

  ‘You wear them well,’ he said sardonically.

  ‘I’m glad you’re satisfied, ‘Alex returned dispassionately.

  His eyes glittered with some dangerously strong emotion, but the moment was brief as he controlled it and nodded toward the bed. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

  ‘It’s a veil.’ She said, defensively. She knew it was a bit over the top, but together with the princess crown reminded her of Audrey Hepburn and she hadn’t been able to resist.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Her face was older, but her haunting beauty unchanged…her eyes guarded as though searching for someone…remembering someone…aching for someone. Someone that was forever lost. And now those same dark, melancholic eyes clung to Alex’s face as if they were seeing a specter that filled her soul with torment.

  An uncomfortable silence engulfed the room momentarily, until Vitali finally spoke. ‘Alexandra, this is my mother Lucrezia—’

  Alex hear
d the faint disquiet in his voice even as he tried to project a relaxed indulgence, ‘—and her husband, Simon Deloitte.’

  His mother’s dark haunting eyes clung to Alex’s face, bringing a tension to the room that no amount of faking indifference could dispel.

  Simon Deloitte thrust his hand towards to Alex hoping to distract attention from his wife’s distraught state of mind, but his wrist was clasped tightly by the woman standing rigidly at his side.

  ‘Mia Sacre Madre…’ Lucrezia whispered hoarsely, then spoke in slow, tortured little bursts. ‘There is no mistaking her. She has his blonde hair, his pale coloring—she is Ted’s daughter.’ she gasped as she collapsed into her husband’s chest. The sensuous beauty of Lucrezia Deloitte’s face tightened and twisted in unbearable distress. ‘When does the punishment stop?’ she cried. Her eyes filled with tears and she turned blindly to her husband for comfort.

  ‘Will it never end?’ As though drawing upon every ounce of her energy reserves, Lucrezia drew a ragged breath and turned to her son ‘You’ve deceived us. Deceived me.’ Despair bled from her words. ‘Why? Why now? Why her?’

  And the past that Vitali had wanted to keep suppressed was no longer dead. It was throbbing with jagged pain.…vibrantly alive in this room.

  Simon’s arms came around her, gently protective in his embrace. She leaned on him, an instinctive movement that had the familiarity of long practice…years of leaning…of needing and receiving support. And the huge, solid frame of the man who gave it stood firm. Whether it was compassion for his wife or a deep personal pain of his own, it was impossible to tell, but his face was also creased in suffering.

  ‘What are you doing, Vitali?’ Simon demanded quietly. His heavy-featured round face was set on a bull-neck, and his dark brows suggested that the wispy, thinning white hair had once been dark. But the soft brown eyes, hidden beneath black caterpillar brows had an intensely comforting appeal that contrasted sharply with the toughness of his exterior. Some people may have thought him ugly, but something about him communicated “protector.”

  ‘Che cavolo!’ Vitali thundered. ‘How can Mamma be so certain she is his daughter?’

  ‘Ted told Luci about his first marriage when they first became lovers,’ Simon said. ‘The daughter,he’d given up so that she could have a full-time father. And he confided in her what that had cost him in personal agony, how it weighed on his mind heavily. His child, the daughter he had wanted, the daughter who would never be his, the daughter he would never know. He talked a lot about Alexandra.’

  A gust of emotion roared through her heart, blocking the voices debating around her. Her father had wanted her. Her father had loved her, Alex thought dazedly. She hadn’t been wrong. The realization filled her with joy, even if she still didn’t know why he had never made contact. He must had done what he thought would be best.

  ‘We hoped it was just a coincidence,’ Simon said to Vitali. ‘That she would be a different Alexandra Spencer from New York…’ his tone was savagely rueful. ‘It was blindly desperate hope,’

  Lucrezia Deloitte’s sobs grew louder, smashing through the barrier of shock that for the last few minutes had held Alex’s body and mind rigid. ‘But that’s no reason for you to sacrifice yourself, Vitali,’ she wailed.

  Learning how her father had felt about her had been so unexpected, sweet and bitter at the same time. But the unspoken, unnamed, unresolved trauma that coiled around them all now, triggered by the truth of her identity, was so appalling, so horrific, so hurtful. And the realization that this was what Vitali had wanted to avoid…that he thought Alex had known that her father’s painting could have this terrible effect…was devastating.

  And worse, that his mother thought their marriage would be Vitali’s ruin. His mother thought she was out to destroy her son, that Alex’s sole motive was to make him pay. She had to reverse the damage she had so blithely and unwittingly done in her ignorance.

  ‘Mr Deloitte, I’m not after what your wife thinks…’ Alex forced her feet to break free of their paralysis and moved toward the woman who was still weeping on her husband’s shoulder. Alex took Lucrezia’s hand in hers and gently squeezed her trembling fingers.

  ‘Please don’t cry, Mrs Deloitte. Vitali hasn’t tried to deceive you on purpose. Nor have I. Neither of us knew anything about each other’s past. Neither of us wanted to upset you. Please believe me. We fell in love,’ she said without a second’s hesitation, instinctively knowing it was the only answer that would allay Lucrezia Deloitte’s fears.

  ‘We love each other.’ Alex smiled a soft reassurance, praying inwardly that Vitali would agree.

  Lucrezia Deloitte’s face blanched as she turned toward her son, tears streaming down her face as her eyes drowned with painful uncertainty. ‘Why are you marrying her, mia figlio?’

  Vitali's face remained unrelievedly grim.

  Alex held her breath and closed her eyes tightly, hoping that the truth of their marriage would not be laid bare.

  Lucrezia Deloitte shook her head in pained incredulity. ‘Vitali?’

  This was the point of no return and Alex fiercely willed him to continue with their charade. To continue on, despite what had just transpired was madness, but now that they had come this far she didn’t want to be rejected. She didn’t want to be abandoned. She didn’t want to feel once again that she didn’t belong—simply because she was Ted Carr’s daughter. Come Hades or high water, she was going to marry Vitali Rossi. If he’d still have her.

  As the silence hovered between them Alex sought desperately for something to say that would rescue her dreams. But it was up to Vitali. He had to be the one to confirm that he wanted their marriage. Pride demanded she would not drag him to the alter against his will.

  ‘Alexi can’t be blamed, mamma,’ his eyes were glinting blades of fire. ‘What happened in the past was not her fault.’

  There was no commitment in his words, nothing to allay Alex’s nor his mother’s concerns. She didn’t have to look at him to feel the raging tension bristling around him, suggestive of a blaze of thoughts that he fought to suppress.

  Why did she have to turn up now and ruin everyone’s peace?

  But then he stepped forward and wrapped a strong muscled arm around her and pulled her to his side in a show of protective support. ‘We didn’t plan to fall in love. It just happened, didn’t it mia cara?’

  Alex nodded and fell into his embrace, grateful to be able to rely on his strength. Her heart fizzed into merry little bubbles. He was keeping his promise. He was going to marry her!

  ‘It’s true. I didn’t know who Alexandra was.’ Vitali continued, ‘The name Spencer meant nothing.’

  ‘I didn’t know who Vitali was either,’ Alex said swiftly, settling into an acute state of alertness, keeping up her end of the deception. ‘It sounds corny, but we met as strangers standing at opposite ends of a room, who looked across at each other and fell in love.’

  ‘The connection was instant. Spontaneous. Irrevocable,’ Vitali declared with such formidable conviction that Alex was almost fooled.

  ‘Let the memory of what passed fade into the distance. Don’t see Alexandra as Ted’s daughter. See her for the beautiful woman she is…the woman I’ve been waiting a lifetime for…the woman I want to make my wife.’ He dug his fingers into her arm.

  Alex glanced up at him on cue, flashing a radiant smile to meet the adoring look he was reigning on her. It was an Oscar worthy performance. His smile held a burning intensity that made Alex’s heart catch and flutter. For the first time she saw Vitali's mouth soften into what could only be called a lovingly indulgent smile. If only it was true, she mused ruefully as he turned his gaze back to his mother.

  If only he really did love her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ‘What happened between Ted and the two of you has nothing to do with us. The past is the past. Alexandra is my present. She is my future. If you can’t accept it, then I’m sorry. But whether you like it or hate the idea we are g
oing to be together ’

  A painful silence swelled between them.

  Lucrezia Deloitte’s face grew pale. She buried her face in her husband’s chest, as though trying to suffocate memories that still caused her great distress. Alex had no way of knowing what had happened to cause such angst, and there was no way to ask. Not now, perhaps never. Her father…Lucrezia….Vitali's father…. could there have been a love triangle? And why did no one speak of Vitali's father? But she couldn’t dwell on that now.

  She breathed deeply summoning every emotional force at her disposal to support Vitali's act. ‘I’m truly sorry you have been so deeply hurt. We wanted…we thought…’ Alex’s eyes lifted imploringly to Simon Deloitte’s sympathetic gaze. ‘Is it so wrong for Vitali and I to get married?’

  ‘No. No of course it isn’t. Perhaps finally one good thing will come out of this terrible saga.’ Simon heaved a satisfied sigh and nodded approvingly. ‘If someone had tried to arrange the marriage—no one would ever have dared hope—that it should happen naturally is fantastic!’

  ‘Simon.’ Lucrezia reproached hoarsely. ‘Have you forgotten what is at stake? You can’t honestly believe that Vitali should now be made to suffer!’

  Simon Deloitte’s eyes combed over Alex. ‘Vitali won’t suffer. Can’t you see how they love each other.’

  His mother search her son’s face. Vitali shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

  ‘I’ve never forgiven myself for letting Ted walk away,’ Simon said, drawing a ragged breath. ‘I’ve told myself again and again it was his choice, but I know I should have done more. I should have gone after him, made him take what he had every right to take.’

  So Simon had been part of it too. Three men…a beautiful woman…a boy and a gold mine. Alex brushed the thoughts away. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. Not now. In this moment only Vitali mattered.

  Simon Deloitte drew another deep breath then turned his wife around to face him, his hands gently caressing her arms as his eyes begged her to listen. ‘Lucrezia…we’ve come so far. Let the past go now…let it go. This is another time…another generation. Don’t visit the sins of the parents upon the children. Alexandra should not be punished.’