’She’s my mother and I’m her daughter but all my life I wondered if I was adopted. Like I told you up at Gold Ridge, out of the blue I find the man I thought was my father is…’ she chose her words carefully…‘an imposter who never wanted me. No wonder we never got along. At least she’s coming alone. But you know…deep down I’m glad. Maybe this place will work its magic on her too and finally we can let go of all our pain.’
Vitali drew her into a gentle embrace. A twinkle of amusement overlaid something else in his eyes. ‘How did a beautiful flower like you cover her true colors in Manhattan society?
‘It wasn’t easy,’ she replied, striving for levity to cover the rush of her pulse.
‘You must confess,’ he murmured, and kissed her with a slow sensuality that somehow imparted more tenderness than primal desire. When he lifted his head, his eyes held no amusement at all. They held a look that seemed both possessive and protective.
‘Don’t ever think of yourself as a mistake,’ he commanded, softly but firmly. ‘You’re no mistake, Alexi. Not to me or anyone on Gold Ridge Station. And this is your home. You keep that in mind…this is where you belong…’ his lips curved into a smile ‘… partner!’
The words, “I love you, Vitali” almost slid from her lips. She barely caught them. How would Vitali react? He had kissed her; but had he come to love her? She would never know. Even if he did feel love, admitting it would reveal a certain vulnerability. She knew better than most that it wasn’t easy to give your heart.
She resigned herself to being content with their relationship just the way it was. She had everything she wanted, and it was actions, not words, towards her that mattered most. She didn’t need four letters to define “love.” Her mother wouldn’t find any fault in Vitali's manner toward her daughter. They were friends and partners, and lovers. And she couldn’t think of anyone she knew that had all those things in their marriage.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The week leading up to her mother’s visit raced by. When the jet flew in on Monday afternoon, Alex and Vitali were at the airstrip in the Range Rover, ready to meet and transport their visitor to the big house.
At the homestead children were either sitting or dangling over the stockyard fence, eager to see “Miss Alex’s” mother from the American city of New York. Alex had pointed out where her mother was from on the huge wall-sized map of the world which Alex had sourced and pasted onto the wall in their classroom. She was pretty sure they were expecting the queen herself when her mother arrived and she didn’t’ disappoint.
Dressed toe nail to perfectly coiffured hair she emerged from the jet looking like royalty on safari in Uganda. She wore a stylish wide brimmed linen hat, tied elegantly beneath her chin with a flowing silk scarf in a black and tan leopard print, which in turn matched the shirt under her round necked jacket. Her face was beautifully made up, her nails perfectly manicured. She looked all class, right down to her black and white walking shoes. Alex glanced at her own dusty sandals and wished she had worn something more elegant.
The children instantly started waving to her mother and after a moment’s hesitation, and much to Alex’s relief, Elizabeth Spencer raised her hand and gave them her best royal wave. But her smile to Alex and Vitali looked stiff and a little uncertain as she came down the steps of the plane. The tension in her body eased ever so slightly when Alex gave her a hug and kissed her cheek.
They never hugged.
‘It’s lovely to see you, Mother,’ she said as warmly as she could, knowing how uncomfortable her mother was with public displays of affection. Alex then turned to Vitali and kissed him on the lips and proudly linked her arm around his. ‘And this, of course, is my husband, Vitaliano Rossi.’
‘Vitali’ he said, flashing a smile designed to charm and disarm. ‘Welcome to Gold Ridge Station, Mrs Spencer—mother.’
Elizabeth Spencer stared up at him for several long seconds, her face blanching, before she collected herself and took his outstretched hand.
‘Forgive me,’ she said, flushing in painful embarrassment at her lapse in manners. ‘You just reminded me so strongly of—of someone else. Not in looks but…Oh, my! I am making a hash of this.’ She swept her silk scarf away from her cheek. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Vitali. Gosh—a son-in-law. How wonderful. And do call me Lizzie,’ she finished in an awkward rush.
Alex shook her head in disbelief. Was she hearing things? Had the altitude affected her mother’s attitude? This over-friendliness was so unlike her mother’s usual polished and guarded composure. It was to prove to be one of many surprises.
Not one word of criticism about anything passed Elizabeth Spencer’s lips. The big house was “most impressive” she said; and the room Alex gave her “simply fetching”; Bob and Dara were the “nicest people.” It was all strange—but pleasantly welcome.
When Vitali casually informed her during the course of dinner that they were preparing for a shipment of Alpacas, the experimental breed that Alex had suggested, Elizabeth Spencer beamed proudly. And when she said, “My daughter is such a clever, enterprising girl,” Alex almost choked. She decided to stick to mineral water for the rest of the evening in case the alcohol pickled her brain and made it all seem even more surreal.
‘Well, you mustn’t let me take up any more of your time,’ her mother said after dinner. ‘Both of you go right ahead with whatever needs doing. I’m so fascinated by all that Alex wrote me about the life here that I’ll be very happy just pottering around.’
Vitali took her at her word, but Alex struggled.
However, the next day her mother went out of her way to make the acquaintance of everyone at the station, and not once did she emit the slightest hint of snobbishness or prejudice. She even found Rangi and Jack “charming boys”, and said she would certainly take up their offer to go riding with them. They promised to show her everything like they did with “the missus.”
‘You don’t have to babysit me, dear,’ her mother gently admonished. ‘You go along with Vitali. Dara said she’d look after me, and Bob’s going to explain how the working year is organized on a large station like Gold Ridge. It’s all rather fascinating. So you don’t have to worry about me at all.’
As astonished as Alex was by her mother’s attitude, she was also intensely gratified. It demonstrated the kind of acceptance that she had always wanted from her mother, and certainly created a very relaxed atmosphere that she had never enjoyed in her presence before.
For the first time in her life Alex wasn’t made to feel that something more was expected of her, that she wasn’t a disappointment, that all her life choices were wrong.
‘It must be you,’ she told Vitali that night. ‘She took one look at you and decided you were a man she’d better not tangle with.’
‘Unlike her daughter,’ he commented smugly, running a teasing caress along her thigh which was pleasurably entangled with his.
Alex laughed. ‘Has anyone told you you’re irresistibly sexy.’
‘Well, if all I am to you is a body—’
He rolled her onto his absurdly chiseled chest proceeded to use his hardened body in a way that obliterated any further thoughts about her mother.
The day before the Alpacas were to arrive, Vitali took them both on a tour of the gold mine. He presented Elizabeth with a magnificent natural gold nugget, promising to have it made into a bespoke piece of jewelry, of her own design by his Milanese atelier, if she wished. Alex was deeply touched when her mother’s eyes filled with tears.
‘Thank you, Vitali. That’s very generous. But I’d like to say that you’ve already given me the best gift. I’m thrilled to see Alex so happy. It means more to me than all the gold in your hills, and all the money in my husband’s Wall Street vaults. I was so afraid…’ She smiled at Alex through her misty eyes. ‘But it’s all right. I thought you’d never find what you were looking for. But I see you have. My daughter’s a keeper and she’s loyal—I know that she won’t let go.’ She turned a ruefu
l look back at Vitali. ‘She’s tenacious, you know—and exceedingly loyal.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Vitali answered drily, and moved to hug Alex close to him. He looked down at her as she snuggled under his arm. ‘This daughter of yours is utterly unrelenting, Lizzie. Once she gets her teeth into something, there’s no stopping her. She used me quite shamelessly to get what she wanted.’
Elizabeth laughed. ‘I haven’t seen you looking heart-broken about that, Vitali.’
‘She’s a sorcerer, Lizzie. She cast a spell on me. I was powerless,’ he laughed uproariously in his low, sultry Italian accent.
And instead of denying what he said, or even correcting him in any way, Alex laughed with her mother, rejoicing in her mother’s delight, marveling that underneath the disapproval of all those years there had been a very deep and constant vein of caring for her, a vein of gold she kept well-hidden but now at last it was seeing the light. It was only afterwards that Alex wondered if Vitali really did think she was using him to get what she wanted. The thought sat uncomfortably, like a nail in her shoe. No matter how she tried to ignore it, it pricked her confidence.
They were happy together—weren’t they?
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
They were both in particularly high spirits the next afternoon when the freight-plane from Matiu-Somes Island touched down at Gold Ridge Station. Everyone at the homestead was down near the airstrip to see the Alpacas arrive.
The stockmen were there on their horses, ready to direct the small herd into a nearby stockyard. Here they would be fed and watered and allowed to settle down after their long trip. Alex and Vitali were standing by the Land Rover, eagerly awaiting first sight of their investment.
A ramp was fitted up against the plane and finally the door was opened. One by one the alpacas came streaming out, jumping and kicking playfully with the excitement of being released from close confinement. As Alex looked at their woolly, umber coats she thought they looked like giant toy bears.
Vitali smiled at them as though he was thinking the same thing, and her heart swelled effervescent bubbles of happiness. Alex clambered over a fence to get a better look at them. As she walked across the open paddock a massive wild bull emerged from the thick native scrub to the left of the airfield.
Whether the scent of the Alpacas had evoked his territorial instinct Alex didn’t know. All she knew was his gaze was fixed on her with purposeful fury.
Her body froze in terror at the sight of 2000 pounds of dangerous sinewy muscle, menacing horns and a temper to match. The black beast glared at her. Then he lowered his solid neck and powerful shoulders. He pawed the ground with his sharp cloven hoof.
Everything happened so fast. Vitali yelled her name.
He leapt in front of Alex and shouting at her to run, grabbing at the bull’s horns with Herculean strength.
Enraged the bull thrust his head and tossed him in the air. Alex screamed as Vitali fell to the ground. He rolled and try to scramble away.
The bull pursued him trampling over him with furious hooves. Then turning, he scooped Vitali’s limp body in his horns, and charged at a low stone wall. She heard the chilling crunch as the bull crushed him against the stones.
The men rushed to Vitali’s aid. Rangi hung onto his tail while Jack ripped off his red checked shirt and distracted the bull with a blaze of color. Finally, a carefully aimed rifle shot ripped through the air, ending the beast’s horrific rampage.
Bob dragged Vitali by his feet to safety.
Alex broke free of the arms that had restrained her. 'Vitali! Vitali! Vitali!’
He lay lifeless, the only movement, blood streaming from the deep gash in his face.
She felt the faint whisper of his gurgled breath on her face. Thank God. He was alive.
He lay motionless, his eyes flickering in and out of consciousness.
‘Oh my darling, I’m so sorry, so, so, so sorry. It’s all my fault’
Fear and guilt washed in her gut. If anything happened to him…’ she pushed her anxiety firmly aside. She sat on the dirt beside him and gently dabbed her shirt at the gaping gash on his face. ‘You’ll be ok. You’ll be ok,’ she whispered, projecting her voice with confidence, desperately willing him to live.
Then Dara was kneeling beside her, and applied pressure to stem the bleeding. Alex squeezed Vitali's hand and gently stroked his hair. She didn’t know how long they’d been there when his fingers slowly flexed under hers.
‘Alex…’ It was the tiniest of whispers. He didn’t open his eyes, but a line creased between his brows as if he was struggling towards consciousness.
‘I’m here, my darling. I’m here,’ she cried.
‘Don’t…’ he whispered breathlessly.
She bent closer to his lips to catch whatever he was trying to say.
‘I’m badly hurt…if I die…’
‘Don’t! Don’t say that. You’re not going anywhere. Not without me. I need you, Vitali,’ she insisted passionately. The words she had wanted to say for so long now poured forth in a tidal wave of emotion.
‘I love you.’
He barely registered the words.
Why the hell hadn’t she said them before?
His eyes flickered partially open. Pain glazed his eyes…excruciating pain. ‘I can’t move my legs.’ His eyes clamped shut. His head rolled back in despair. ‘I can’t live like—’
Her gut twisted with the knowledge of what he meant. He would rather surrender the will to live than be left a cripple, caged in a body that couldn’t pleasure her or do what he wanted.
‘Let me go. Let me die,’ he implored. His breath rasped as though his lungs pooled with blood.
‘No…’ she moaned. ‘No…’
‘Get on with your life. This place…it’s yours.’
‘It means nothing. Not without you.’
Bob kneeled at Vitali’s side and inserted a hypodermic syringe into his arm. Then another. Shooting him full with emergency morphine.
‘I will not let you die,’ Alex said fiercely. She must summon the strength for the both of them. For the three of them, she corrected, pressing her palm upon her belly.
‘I’m carrying your child,’ she blurted, ‘Vitali, I’m pregnant—we conceived a child on our wedding night. You can’t die, do you hear me? You can’t die. I won’t let you.’
There seemed to be a slight flicker of recognition in his dulling eyes.
‘Our baby must know their father,’ she said with desperate vehemence. ‘You’ve got to live.’
His lids dropped shut as if they were too heavy to hold open. Alex didn’t know if he had heard. She had held back from telling him until she’d passed the twelve-week mark and was absolutely sure the baby was safe. Now she regretted her decision. She should have told him. He should have known. At only ten weeks pregnant she never thought she’d be praying both her unborn child and the man she loved would live.
‘Our baby needs you,’ she called after him as strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her to her feet as the man who had come to mean more to her than life itself, was loaded onto a make-shift stretcher.
He remained locked in a slumbering drug-induced unconscious silence.
Everything happened so fast and morphed into a foggy blur: The Lear Jet screaming in from the mine and taxiing to a halt; Bob yelling instructions as the men carried Vitali on board; her mother accompanying her as she followed the stretcher on which Vitali lay so still and lifeless. They had to get him to a hospital, and as quickly as possible. Christchurch, Bob said was 484 km away.
Did she mean anything to Vitali? Would he fight to live?
Had he heard her tell him about their child? Surely, knowing he was going to be a father would give him the will to survive? It had to mean something to him—his very own kin and blood. A mini-him. Or her. A son or a daughter who needed a father. It had to make living count, even if— she paused as the tragic reality pressed down on her—even if he wasn’t the man he was before.
Vitali
had told her he would never fight for her. Yet when the moment had come, he had risked his life to save her. Did he love her? Did he still believe that she only wanted his body and the wealth he could give to her?
Maybe it wasn’t only his despair at being left caged, and confined to a wheelchair, his body no longer able to do his bidding? What if he couldn’t be what he thought she wanted any more. Sexy.Irresistible. Better than any other man she’d ever bedded.
The memories ripped across her mind like storm clouds…the night he had made her tell him he was better than any other man. What she’d taken as flippant remarks might have held his innermost beliefs, she thought as the Lear jet soared into the sky. In just over one-hour help would be at hand.
‘One hour. Live for one hour, Vitali. Please, my love. Live for us,’ she said, clutching his hand.
Alex’s painful whirlpool of thoughts churned relentlessly as they flew north towards Christchurch. Nothing was certain yet, she consoled herself. Don’t imagine the worst. After they got to a hospital, and the doctors had examined him thoroughly, when the options were made clear—then panic.
But she also saw Vitali's angst. Even if they could put him back together again he would be scarred. She knew what it was like to live with disfigurement. She knew better than anyone else, even if, or when, the facial scars healed, what it was like to still feel fatally flawed.
Of course, she found him compellingly handsome, but that wasn’t why she loved him. Superficial attraction didn’t flame the fires of her heart-felt passion. She couldn’t remember if she’d told Vitali that or not, but if he lived, she had to make him believe the truth.
He would have to undergo a trial of strength, just as she had endured all those years ago. And she would help him as best she could, aided by her own experience.
The Italian Billionaire’s Scandalous Marriage: An Italian Billionaire Romance (Italian Billionaire Christmas Brides Book 2) Page 21