The Italian's Mistress (HQR Presents) Read online

  She had no answer for that and she was sure he knew it.

  He sat on one of the sofas and placed his feet on the coffee table opposite, his arms going behind his head in a Lord-of-all-he-surveys manner.

  ‘Are you having last minute thoughts about our arrangement?’ he asked.

  ‘It all seems so horribly cold-blooded,’ she said. ‘You will be using me out of hate.’

  ‘And why should I not hate you?’ he asked.

  She avoided his pointed look. ‘No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s part of being human.’

  ‘Some mistakes incur a price,’ he said. ‘And you are the one I’ve selected to pay it.’

  ‘What about your brother?’ She turned on him. ‘What price has he had to pay?’

  His jaw tightened as he held her heated look. ‘Carlo has paid the price of not even knowing he has a son. I cannot think of a worse punishment than that.’

  She felt the breath leak out of her chest like wind out of a sail.

  ‘So, whatever way you look at it, it’s all my fault.’

  ‘Yes.’ He swung his long legs off the coffee table and stood up, his height instantly shrinking the spacious room. ‘It is your fault. You were promised to me and you betrayed that promise.’

  ‘I didn’t do it alone!’ She felt close to tears, frustrated at how little she remembered of that fateful night.

  ‘Carlo is a normal red-blooded man,’ he said. ‘You offered him a temptation too hard to resist. He apologised to me for what he’d inadvertently done.’

  ‘Inadvertently?’ She gave him an incredulous look. ‘He plied me with champagne and you call it inadvertent?’

  His mouth thinned as he looked down at her. ‘You didn’t have to drink it.’

  ‘And he didn’t have to…to…’ tears sprouted in her eyes and she brushed at them with a furious hand.

  A tiny nerve pulsed at the edge of his hard mouth.

  ‘As you said previously, what is done is done and cannot be changed. We have to move forward to what is here and now.’

  ‘What is here and now is blackmail and bribery!’

  ‘So?’ He gave a shrug of one shoulder as if it couldn’t mean less to him. ‘This is what we now have and out of it shall the wrongs of the past be righted.’

  ‘You’re making it sound so positively feudal! This is the modern world, Lucio. We don’t do an eye for an eye any more.’

  ‘I will not be happy until I feel you have paid for what you did to me.’

  ‘I have paid!’ She felt like screaming the words at him. ‘I have paid more than you’ll ever know.’

  ‘Not according to my account.’

  She clenched her fists at her sides in frustration and anger. ‘All right, then.’ She glowered at him challengingly, ‘Get it over with. Do what you have to do and be done with it.’

  He stood immobile, his expression mask-like, his dark eyes hooded.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ She kicked off her shoes and reached for the buttons on her blouse. ‘Isn’t this what you wanted, Lucio?’ She tossed her blouse to the floor and reached for the waistband of her faded jeans. ‘Why don’t we get it over with right here and right now so I can stop agonising over when you’re finally going to pounce.’ She stepped out of her jeans, standing before him in just her underwear.

  Still he didn’t move.

  ‘What’s wrong, Lucio?’ she goaded him recklessly. ‘Isn’t my tired old underwear to your taste? Why don’t you rip it from my body and have your wicked way with me? What’s stopping you? Are you gutless, after all? Don’t tell me your brother has more fire in his belly than—’

  He moved so quickly she didn’t have time to finish her sentence, the force of his body colliding with hers sending her backwards to the wall behind her, her gasp of surprise swallowed by the descent of his mouth. It was a kiss of hatred.

  He wanted revenge and a part of her accepted her fate with resignation. She felt she needed to be punished for what she had done to his pride, but another part of her still wished things were different between them.

  She wanted to feel his mouth on hers in love, not retribution. She wanted to feel his arms around her in adoration, not control and subjugation. She wanted to feel his body pressed to hers in desire, not revenge.

  His tongue made its way through the barrier of her tightly compressed lips and her last resistance was gone. The seduction of her senses was her final undoing; she had no way of fighting now.

  Need clamoured inside her searching for a way out. Her breasts swelled under the tight onslaught of his hands as he shaped her, the buds of her nipples like twin points of pain until his thumb found them and moved over them repeatedly, instantly soothing their ache.

  She felt her bra fall from her body and the warmth of his hands on her bare flesh, the aching need between her thighs rising to unmanageable proportions as he nudged between them with a strongly muscled leg.

  He reached down and tore her panties away from her, leaving them to fall around her ankles as he unleashed his maleness.

  She felt the heat of his satin skin against her as he sought her liquid warmth, pushing through her tender folds with an urgency that both shocked and thrilled her.

  He groaned above her mouth as he went deeper, the strong glide of his body drawing an involuntary breathless gasp from her lips.

  Lucio increased his pace and she was caught up in a maelstrom of sensation, unable to stop the feelings of delight rushing through her.

  He filled her completely, stretching her to accommodate his strong length. He was relentless in his pursuit of pleasure, driven in his need for completion, ruthless in his pinning of her to the wall with every deep thrust into her moist tenderness.

  ‘It’s me you want.’ He accompanied the words with another deep nudge of his body within hers. ‘And it’s me you will have, time and time again until I have had enough of you.’

  She gasped at the strength of his movements, her body not used to the urgency after years of celibacy. His body caught at her, dragging against her in a mixture of both pleasure and pain.

  She flinched just the once and he stilled his movements momentarily, his eyes raking hers. ‘What’s wrong, Anna? Am I not measuring up to Carlo? Is that it?’

  ‘No…’

  ‘What is it?’ He thrust again, but more gently this time. ‘Are you thinking about him?’

  ‘No…’ Her fingers dug into his shoulders.

  ‘I cannot bear that you would think of him when I am inside you,’ he growled. ‘I want to fill you with me so you cannot have room for anyone else.’

  She wanted to tell him there had never been room for anyone else but how could she be sure it was true? She’d apparently gone quite willingly to his brother’s bed, stayed the whole night and conceived a child as a result. How could she trust her feelings after that?

  ‘I want you to scream my name.’ He surged again. ‘I want you to beg for me to complete you.’

  She bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from crying out, her pride refusing to allow him the satisfaction of knowing his effect on her senses.

  ‘Don’t fight me,’ he breathed against the soft skin of her neck. ‘Let yourself go.’

  ‘No. I hate you.’

  ‘But you want me all the same.’

  She gasped as he reached down between them to touch her intimately. Lucio smiled as he stroked the tiny pearl of her need with expert fingers.

  ‘I…I…’

  ‘Come for me,’ he commanded gently. ‘Shudder and shiver against me like you used to do.’

  ‘I don’t want to…oh…oh…oh!’

  ‘Yes, cara.’ He held her shaking form against him. ‘You do want to.’

  She did and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Great waves of feeling swept over her, leaving her totally limbless in his arms, her body like a rag doll as the last wave cast her ashore, spent with mindless pleasure.

  ‘Now it is my turn.’ He moved within her again, reawaken
ing her senses as if he’d turned a switch. ‘I have waited for this so long.’

  She felt his building tension, his tightly held control slipping further and further out of his reach as with one last deep thrust he spilled himself into her silken depths with a deep shuddering groan of release.

  He withdrew from her in a single movement, leaving her unguarded, ashamed and terrifyingly vulnerable.

  She hitched up her panties with as much dignity as she could and searched the floor for her bra.

  She heard the rasp of his zip as he repositioned his clothing, his unhurried action speaking of his ease with the situation even while she silently cringed at her own wantonness.

  ‘I trust Rosa has shown where you will be sleeping?’ he said over one shoulder as he went to pour himself a drink.

  She stared at him for a speechless moment. ‘Yes…’

  ‘Good.’ He turned around and toasted her with his glass. ‘To our union. May there be many in the days and nights to come.’

  She drew in a breath. ‘You’ve changed, Lucio…’

  His eyes glinted dangerously as he lifted the glass to his mouth once more.

  She watched the up and down movement of his lean throat and sucked in another ragged breath.

  ‘If I have changed you have only yourself to blame.’ His tone was bitter as he put his glass back down.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  He gave her a contemptuous look. ‘Sorry? What exactly is it you’re apologising for?’

  ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you…’

  ‘Didn’t you?’

  ‘Of course not.’ She wrung her hands in agitation. ‘I don’t even remember that night.’

  ‘You don’t have to remember it,’ he snarled at her. ‘Carlo had the foresight to document it for you.’

  She swallowed the restriction in her throat before asking, ‘Have you ever wondered why he did that?’

  He considered her question for a moment. ‘I have asked myself that from time to time but each time I get the same answer—the answer Carlo gave me. I would never have believed it of you without the evidence of those damning pictures. Your satiated smile has tortured me for four long years. No matter what I do I cannot remove the vision of you sprawled on that bed in the aftermath of slated lust.’

  She closed her eyes on the image his words evoked, nausea rising in her stomach.

  ‘Do you know how hard it is for me to even look at my brother without thinking of how you led him astray?’ he asked. ‘I have done all I can to repair the damage you did to our relationship but still there are scars.’

  What could she say? She was guilty as charged. He was right—the pictures told the complete story even if her memory of that night failed her.

  She dragged on her jeans and slipped on her blouse haphazardly. ‘I don’t know what to say…’

  ‘Don’t say anything,’ he snapped back. ‘Do you seriously think there is anything you could say that would erase the past?’

  She shook her head, lowering her gaze from the venomous hatred in his.

  ‘You are a cheap little—’

  ‘No!’

  He slashed the air with his hand. ‘You are a nothing but a temptress dressed up in angel’s clothing. I fell for it as did my brother, but now our relationship is on my terms and my terms only.’

  ‘Don’t call me names.’

  He lapsed into Italian and she flinched as each sharply bitten word flayed her.

  ‘Please, Lucio,’ she begged him. ‘I can’t take this…’

  ‘You will take everything I dish out to you,’ he said between clenched teeth. ‘You owe me that, now get out of my sight.’

  ‘Lucio…Please, I—’

  ‘Get out!’ he roared at her, slamming his fist on to the sideboard with wood-splintering force.

  ‘But I—’

  He moved towards her but she stood her ground.

  ‘I thought I told you to get out of my sight.’ The words came out like little knife flicks against her tender skin.

  ‘I know what you told me, but I refuse to be insulted by you.’

  His nostrils flared as he glared down at her defiant features. ‘If I want to insult you I will do so. What bigger insult could you have given me than—’

  ‘I don’t remember doing it!’ she cried. ‘I don’t remember a thing!’

  ‘How very convenient.’

  ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ Her expression folded in defeat. ‘You don’t believe me.’

  He gave a rough snort of derision as he reached for something in the drawer of the small desk next to the drinks cabinet and handed it to her.

  She stared at the A4 envelope in her hands with increasing dread.

  ‘You might have conveniently forgotten what happened that night,’ he said in a blood-chilling tone, ‘but perhaps these will remind you.’

  With nerveless fingers she opened the envelope and pulled the first photograph out…

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SHE felt the colour drain right out of her face as her eyes fell on the first picture, the bitter bile of nausea stinging her restricted throat at the sight of herself in such a compromising pose.

  ‘Now tell me you don’t remember,’ he bit out.

  Her head felt tight from trying to recall that night.

  She stared at the photograph but it was like looking at her double, not herself. She had absolutely no recollection of ever lying there with that vacant smile on her face, the cat-with-the-litre-of-cream smile…the hands reaching for someone who was just out of reach.

  She turned to the next photograph but it was more of the same. Her body was an open invitation, her hair spread out on the pillow in wanton disarray, her mouth open and still smiling, her eyes empty.

  ‘I’m surprised you’ve kept these.’ She handed them back to him, not bothering to look through the rest. ‘It seems to border on the masochistic, if you ask me.’

  ‘I keep them to remind myself of how foolish I was to trust you,’ he said.

  ‘How often do you look at them?’ she asked.

  His eyes shifted away from hers and he stuffed the envelope back into the drawer and locked it, pocketing the key.

  ‘I look at them whenever I am tempted to let my guard down around a beautiful woman.’

  ‘Is that why you haven’t married?’

  He gave her a flinty look. ‘I have no desire to trap myself in a relationship of that sort.’

  ‘You don’t want children?’

  He looked away again. ‘Children are an encumbrance. I want no such ties in my life.’

  Anna could barely believe what she was hearing. Where was the devoted family man who had said how much he looked forward to having a son or daughter of his own?

  Had he changed so much?

  Had she done that to him?

  ‘As for what just happened between us—’ he cut across her agonised thoughts ‘—I am assuming you are using some reliable sort of contraception?’

  She was glad he wasn’t looking in her direction for she was sure he would see the guilty flush across her cheekbones.

  ‘Of course.’ It wasn’t quite a lie; she had a packet of low-dose pills she’d been using to control her monthly cycle but she hadn’t taken them as regularly as she should.

  There was a small silence broken only by the chink of his glass against the brandy bottle.

  Anna stood next to the sofa in a stance of complete uncertainty; she was desperate to escape his disturbing presence but unwilling to cross his path to exit the room.

  Lucio turned to look at her, his dark eyes unreadable as they took in her dishevelled appearance, shadowed blue eyes and swollen mouth.

  He watched in mesmerised concentration as her tongue came out to salve a tiny split in her bottom lip, a small movement she tried to hide from him.

  He stepped towards her, his gut clenching unexpectedly when she flinched as he lifted his hand towards her face.

  ‘Cara.’ His voice came out as a velvet whisper as he
gently traced the tiny injury. ‘Did I do that to you?’

  She averted her face and his hand fell away. ‘I’ve had worse.’

  ‘Not from me you haven’t.’

  ‘Haven’t I?’ She threw him a caustic glance.

  ‘Anna…I would never intentionally hurt you or indeed any woman.’

  ‘Then why am I here?’ she asked.

  He held her look for a four second heartbeat.

  ‘Does it hurt you to be with me, Anna?’

  ‘You know it does…’

  ‘Why?’

  His dark gaze was too intent for her to maintain contact. She lowered her eyes and stared at the floor at his feet.

  ‘Why does it hurt you so much to be with me?’ he asked again.

  She didn’t trust herself to answer.

  Instead she brushed past him, neatly avoiding his outflung hand as she rushed to the door, closing it behind her with exaggerated force.

  Lucio stood staring at the back of the door for a full minute.

  Then, in an uncharacteristic gesture of violence, he turned and threw his half-empty glass of brandy at the fireplace, shards of delicate crystal and amber fluid flying outwards to land on the cream carpet at his feet.

  ‘Merda!’ he swore. ‘Merda!’

  Anna slept the sleep of the emotionally exhausted, waking some time after eight a.m. to find Sammy sitting on the end of the bed with one of his new toys on his lap.

  ‘Are you awake now, Mummy?’ he asked, scrambling up the bed to snuggle closer.

  She smiled as she brushed her hair out of her eyes, making room for him beside her. ‘Why didn’t you wake me? Have you been sitting there for long?’

  ‘Daddy told me not to wake you,’ he said with an air of importance. ‘He said you were stremely tired and needed to sleep.’

  A funny sensation passed through her stomach at the thought of Lucio considering her needs, but she just as quickly squashed it, unwilling to allow herself to see him in anything other than a negative light.

  ‘Well, I’m awake now,’ she said and ruffled his dark hair. ‘Where’s Auntie Jenny?’