by Lynne Graham
‘That news was to have been our wedding present to both you and Edward.’ Davina tilted her chin, defying further comment.
Gianni loosed a sardonic laugh. ‘Why don’t you tell her the truth, Mrs Jennings? Benson got that promise before he even asked her to marry him!’
‘That’s a lie!’ Milly’s hands curled into tight fists by her sides as she gazed expectantly at the older woman, willing her to shoot Gianni’s humiliating aspersions down in flames.
Coins of colour now embellished Davina’s cheeks. ‘It was a simple business agreement, Mr D’Angelo. Edward is my husband’s natural successor.’
‘Free partnerships are not the norm in the business world, Mrs Jennings. And you should’ve warned Benson to keep the news from his mother. She’s ensured that half the town knows why her son is prepared to take on another man’s child. You made it well worth his while,’ Gianni countered very drily.
Tell me it wasn’t like that, Milly wanted to beg the older woman strickenly, but she bit back the plea and straightened her shoulders to walk to the door. Only Edward could tell her what it had been like. Only Edward could convince her that he hadn’t needed the bribe of a partnership in the firm to persuade him to propose.
‘Where on earth are you going?’ Davina demanded.
‘To see Edward,’ Milly looked at Gianni D’Angelo, and, try as she could, she could not suppress the sheer loathing raging through her. ‘You are a complete and utter bastard!’ she raked at him, heedless of the other woman’s shocked gasp. ‘And I don’t need a memory to tell me why I left you!’
CHAPTER FIVE
REFUSING to be turned from her purpose, Milly snatched her car keys from the hall table and drove over to Jennings Engineering. On the way, she thought back over the months since she had started seeing Edward.
Right from the start he had been attentive and caring. The dream boyfriend for an unwed mother? a more cynical voice enquired. Certainly her pseudo-parents had heavily encouraged the relationship, but why not? As a family friend and a trusted employee, Edward had naturally impressed them as being ideal.
But Milly had been more impressed by Edward’s apparent indifference to her amnesia. She had relaxed in his company. Other men she had dated had assumed that she was promiscuous just because she already had a child; Edward’s respectful attitude had come as a very welcome relief. It was hardly surprising that she had fallen in love with him.
So what if it was a different kind of love from that which she had once felt for Gianni D’Angelo? From what she recalled of those emotions she imagined a lowering form of enslavement, made all the more dangerous and destructive by the strength of her sexual craving for him. There, it was out at last, she acknowledged angrily. An admission of the physical weakness which had probably got her involved with Gianni in the first place.
Yet sex barely figured in her relationship with Edward. But then what she felt for Edward was a more mature and lasting love. So cymbals didn’t clash and fireworks didn’t go off when Edward kissed her. But where had the cymbals and the fireworks got her before? Down and out and pregnant by a male so frighteningly ruthless she could only admire herself for walking out on him three years earlier.
Milly parked the car outside the small office block beside the engineering plant. She was relieved that Robin Jennings was still at home. She had had enough of other people’s interference.
A nightmare mistake had been made, but she was OK, she told herself bracingly; she was coping. Gianni had tried to destroy everything, but as long as she still had Edward she would manage to come to terms with all the rest. She blocked out the little voice that warned that she was hanging by her fingernails onto her last shred of control.
Edward was in his office. Her unannounced entrance made him rise from behind his desk in surprise. Strain from their contentious meeting the night before showed in the stiffness of his greeting.
‘I was going to call you this afternoon,’ he told her rather defensively.
‘I needed to see you to talk. This morning I found out something that I wish you’d thought to share openly with me,’ Milly admitted tautly.
‘Unlike your life, mine is an open book,’ Edward retorted crisply. ‘I’ve kept nothing from you.’
‘What about the partnership you get the day you marry me?’ Milly enquired, wanting him to tell her that that was a very twisted version of the truth.
Edward stiffened. ‘Your parents told me they wanted that news to be a surprise. Naturally I didn’t discuss it with you.’
Her knees now unreliable supports, Milly dropped down on the arm of a chair. ‘Would you have asked me to marry you without that partnership, Edward?’ she asked tightly. ‘Please be honest.’
Edward’s fair complexion reddened. ‘That is a very unfair question.’
‘But you’re not denying that the partnership was put on the table before you decided to propose, are you?’
Edward studied her with unconcealed resentment. ‘I don’t see why you should have a problem with that. Your father’s generous offer meant that we could have a financially secure future together. Of course it made a difference.’
Nausea pooled in Milly’s stomach. ‘What about love?’
‘I’m very fond of you. But I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit that I was also very concerned about the risks of forming a lasting relationship with you.’
‘Risks?’
‘Do I have to spell it out? That bombshell you dropped on me last night wouldn’t have occurred in a normal relationship!’ he reminded her with derision. ‘Like any other man, I want to feel confident that I know everything there is to know about my wife’s past. You can’t give me that confidence.’
‘But the assurance of a financially secure future persuaded you to overlook those drawbacks,’ Milly gathered, struggling to keep her voice level. ‘Yet you said you loved me.’
‘For pity’s sake, you’re talking like a silly teenager-’
‘I think maybe I still am just a teenager inside, Edward. If I had had any idea how many reservations you had about me, I’d never have agreed to marry you.’ Tugging the solitaire from her finger, Milly stood up to place it on the edge of his desk.
Edward was outraged. ‘You asked me to be honest!’
But he had been cruelly belittling her from the minute she started speaking, Milly reflected painfully. ‘When you hear what your boss has to tell you, I think you’ll be relieved to have that ring back. I imagine he’ll offer you the partnership anyway. I do wish you well, Edward.’
Striding forward, he snapped bruising fingers round her slender wrist to prevent her departure. ‘Who do you think you are to talk to me like this?’ he demanded contemptuously.
Milly was shaken. ‘Let go of me…you’re hurting me—’
‘I found your attitude equally offensive last night,’ Edward snapped furiously. ‘It seems to me that the minute you discovered that Connor’s father was a rich man, you got too big for your boots! Now put that ring back on and we’ll say no more about this nonsense!’
Taken aback as she was by his aggression, Milly was relieved when a knock sounded on the door and his secretary interrupted them. Edward released her immediately. Milly hurried down the corridor, ignoring his call in his wake. And then, out at Reception, she hesitated and looked at the car keys still clutched in her hand. She left them with the receptionist for Robin Jennings to collect. Suddenly she wanted nothing that had belonged to Faith Jennings…
Edward had never loved her. Indeed, right from the start Edward had had serious reservations about a woman with a past she couldn’t remember. Without the partnership deal he would never have proposed. And why had she never noticed what a bad-tempered bully Edward could be if he was crossed? The answer was that until last night she had never crossed or challenged Edward. She had been a doormat, ashamed of her unwed mother status, thinking herself very fortunate to be the intended wife of a respectable professional man. And who had given her such low expectations and such a
poor self-image? Her fake parents, who had packaged her up with a lucrative partnership to persuade Edward to marry her.
There was a stiff breeze blowing and it was cold. Milly had left her jacket locked in the car, but she still hurried away from the engineering plant. When she found herself on the main road she just kept on walking, insensibly soothed by the noise of the anonymous traffic. All the shocks she had withstood over the past twenty-four hours were hitting her now full force. Edward had seemed like a safe and sturdy post to clutch in the storm, but the post had toppled when she had reached for its support. The oddest thing was that she couldn’t yet feel a single shard of grief. But then, she acknowledged dully, she wasn’t really feeling anything…
‘Where the hell is she?’ Gianni raked into the phone.
‘We’ve found her. She’s OK. She’s sitting on a bench by the lake in that park.’
‘Madre di Dio!’ Gianni launched, paling at that information. ‘I want two of you within six feet of her until I get there!’
After telling his driver to go as fast as the speed limit would allow, Gianni threw back a brandy to steady himself. He was furious with himself. He had known he had to go slowly with Milly. The psychologist had warned him to be careful. But from the first moment he had wildly overplayed his hand.
He should have kept quiet about Benson and the partnership. He had planned to hold that in reserve for a few days. Yet he, who had the reputation for being a brilliant tactician with a superb sense of timing, had ploughed in like a bull in a china shop. The prospect of reaping his own just deserts didn’t bother him. But he went into a cold sweat at the threat of Milly reaping them for him…
Milly knew she was being watched at the lake. The instant she recognised the dark-suited men trying not to draw attention to themselves and failing abysmally in their efforts to lurk behind winter-bare trees she almost smiled. Gianni’s employees. He must have had her followed. As long as they left her alone, it was almost comforting to think that somebody was looking out for her.
That sound of brisk footsteps made her lift her head. Gianni was bearing down on her, his hard, bronzed features set in grim lines which detracted not one iota from his devastating good looks, she conceded absently. A light grey cashmere overcoat protected him from the chilly breeze ruffling his luxuriant black hair.
‘This is a very dreary place.’ Both disapproval and impatience rang from every syllable. Gianni slung a deeply unappreciative glance over his surroundings. ‘And it’s freezing. Why haven’t you got a coat on?’
Even before he peeled off his overcoat and dropped it round her with the pronounced casualness of a male who didn’t want to make a production out of doing it, Milly’s sense of isolation lessened. Gianni was exasperated and he was letting her see the fact.
‘What the hell are you smiling at?’ Gianni demanded, thrown by that slight undeniable tilt to her formerly tense mouth.
Almost drowning in the heavy, enveloping folds of his overcoat, and curiously soothed by the warm scent of him that still clung to the silk-lined garment, Milly gazed up at him with rueful blue eyes. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Why did you leave your car behind at the engineering plant? Did it break down?’
‘It’s not my car. The Jenningses bought it when they still thought I was their daughter. I guess I’m not in a very practical mood,’ Milly conceded.
As she lifted her hand to prevent his overcoat lurching off her shoulder, Gianni muttered something raw in his own language and caught her fingers in his. Milly stiffened as he scrutinised the blue-black bruising encircling her wrist.
‘You damned well didn’t do that to yourself!’ Gianni bit out wrathfully.
Milly tugged her hand free and hurriedly curved it out of sight again.
‘Per meraviglia! The cowardly little bastard,’ he growled, well-nigh incredulous, it seemed, that anybody should have dared to lay a rough hand on her. ‘I’ll make him pay for hurting you!’
‘No, you won’t,’ Milly whispered flatly. ‘Those bruises came cheap at the price of what they taught me. Maybe I’m wronging Edward, but I suspect he would have lashed out in temper again once we were married. He really did feel that he was marrying beneath himself. He could never have accepted me as I am.’
Gianni glanced at her other hand, only now noticing the absence of the diamond engagement ring. Milly watched his eloquent dark eyes shimmer with unadulterated satisfaction. On the most basic level, she was beginning to understand Gianni. He was delighted that her engagement was broken. He wouldn’t waste his breath uttering empty conventional regrets.
‘I don’t have any close relatives, do I?’ Milly prompted abruptly.
Gianni frowned.
That frown was answer enough for Milly. She averted her head, determined not to betray that a foolish glimmer of hope had just been extinguished.
‘How did you work that out for yourself?’ It was the tone of a very clever male unaccustomed to being second-guessed.
‘If I’d had a genuine suffering close relation waiting somewhere for word of me, you’d have been sure to tell Robin and Davina so that they could feel even worse.’
A laugh of reluctant appreciation was torn from Gianni.
‘So, since everybody starts out with parents,’ Milly continued doggedly, ‘I presume mine are long gone.’
‘Your mother when you were eight, your father shortly before we met,’ Gianni confirmed unemotionally. ‘You were an only child. As far as I’m aware there were no other relatives.’
So, but for Connor, she really was alone.
‘Let’s go,’ Gianni reached down, closed his hand firmly over hers and tugged her upright to walk her back along the path. ‘Why did you come here anyway?’
‘I’ve spent a lot of happy times here with Connor…but today I felt lost,’ she admitted reluctantly.
‘Even the worst situations have at least one positive aspect. You’ve had an extraordinary experience,’ Gianni told her. ‘How many people get the chance to live more than one life?’
Disconcerted, Milly blinked. That reality hadn’t crossed her mind once.
‘Right now you’re between lives, but no way are you lost. You’ve got me,’ Gianni delivered with supreme cool.
‘You make it all sound so simple.’
‘It is. You don’t belong here. That’s why you feel strange. I know you care about the Jenningses, but they didn’t do you any favours. If they hadn’t claimed you, I’d have found you ages ago,’ Gianni reminded her grimly.
‘Did you list me as missing?’
‘Of course I did!’ Gianni growled, as if he was insulted by the idea that she could think otherwise.
‘I so wish you’d found me first…’ That thought had translated itself into charged admission before she could think better of it. She tensed. All the barriers she had tried to put up against Gianni had somehow tumbled down. It made her feel very vulnerable.
‘Luck wasn’t on my side. You walked out of the apartment of your own free will. There were no suspicious circumstances, so the police weren’t interested. Adults have the right to lose themselves if they want to,’ Gianni informed her wryly.
As they reached the park exit the limousine drew up, and Milly climbed in without protest.
Only a couple of hours ago she had hated Gianni D’Angelo like poison. He had been the destroyer. He had been the target of all her furious disbelief and bitter resentment. But now, as he used the car phone and talked in fluid Italian, she studied him with helpless intensity. The strong bone structure, the straight, arrogant nose, the firmly chiselled mouth. The dangerous dark eyes that knew too much, saw too much, and which he could turn on her like a weapon to express more than most people could say in five minutes. Those eyes were spectacular in the frame of that lean, dark face.
His gaze narrowed slumbrously, his arrogant dark head tilting back almost as if he was inviting her appraisal to continue. The elegant, sexily indolent sprawl of his long, lean, powerful body made her breath shor
ten in her throat, her heart thump against her breastbone. He really was so beautiful…
Colour ran up beneath her complexion and she tore her attention from him, dismay and embarrassment darting through her. How could she be thinking such thoughts now? And she could feel herself wanting to trust him, but how could she trust him when she couldn’t even trust herself? If she had learned anything over the past hours, it was that every single thing came at a price.
‘Did you say you wanted me back because of Connor?’ She got even redder as she spoke, knowing that she was being too blunt.
‘No,’ Gianni drawled, with all the cool she lacked. ‘I wouldn’t pretend even for the sake of my son. If you tried to deny me access to him, I would fight you through legal channels, but I believe you already accept that Connor has a right to get to know his father.’
‘Yes.’ Milly was impressed by that clear-minded reading of the situation. Succinct, realistic, fair.
On the drive through town, the limo pulled up on the main street. Gianni buzzed a window down. One of his security men passed in a large shallow box stamped with the logo of a newly opened pizza parlour. Seconds later, the limo rejoined the traffic.
Gianni settled the box on her lap without ceremony. ‘You’re crazy about pizza.’
‘Am I?’ Pizza wasn’t something that featured on the menu in the Jenningses’ home, and Edward despised all fast food.
‘You didn’t even have breakfast this morning. You need to eat something before we go and collect Connor.’ Gianni poured her a soft drink from the built-in bar. ‘Why are you staring at me?’
‘No reason…’ Possibly it was the combination of the vast, opulent limo, the humble pizza box and Gianni’s total lack of snobbery. Or possibly it was the regularity with which he seemed to act to ensure her well-being. And always without comment or fanfare, as if it was the most natural thing in the world that he should take care of her.
Touched by that comforting thought, after the lack of caring Edward had demonstrated when the chips were down, Milly opened the box. She lifted out a warm, flavoursome wedge and was surprised to feel her tastebuds water. ‘Aren’t you having any?’