Page 42 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
She drew in a deep breath and Alessandro wished he weren’t so aware of the soft inviting press of her breast against his chest. It was the most refined torment.
‘I can walk from here.’
‘But we’re almost there.’ He stepped forward again, this time towards her guest bedroom. Still he felt her tension. She was stiff as a board, rigid with…anxiety? Distress?
Concern twisted in his belly, a flare of regret for what had happened this afternoon.
‘I’m sorry you weren’t warned it would be Carlotta coming to discuss your wedding gown today.’ He said it slowly, unused to apologising. He’d always prided himself on behaving honourably. ‘I only just found out myself.’
It had been Livia’s little surprise to confront Carys with the woman she believed had been her rival.
Even now Alessandro found it hard to believe Livia had done anything so crass. He mightn’t trust Carys, might have been betrayed by her, but his behaviour and his family’s must always be above reproach.
From now on Alessandro would have his personal staff oversee all the wedding arrangements. His stepmother could attend and kiss the bride, but he no longer trusted her with anything more.
‘It’s all right,’ Carys said quickly. ‘We had a…useful discussion.’ For a moment her gaze clung to his, then she turned her head abruptly, as if dismissing him.
Clearly she didn’t accept his apology.
Alessandro registered a curious feeling of emptiness, as if something inside his chest shrivelled. An instant later he put the nonsensical notion from his mind. Resentment stirred at having his word doubted.
‘She will do an excellent job,’ he said tersely. ‘Carlotta is one of Italy’s most talented new designers.’
‘I’m sure she is,’ his bride-to-be said in a hollow voice. ‘Her ideas are very clever.’
She sounded as enthusiastic as a woman being measured for her shroud. The idea slashed at his pride.
And this the woman he’d wanted to take to his room and ravish! It shamed him that even now he craved her.
He pushed open her bedroom door and quickly lowered her to the bed, stepping back as if her very touch contaminated.
Separate rooms until after the wedding were preferable after all. Carys needed time to accustom herself to marriage. And he needed space to master these unwanted feelings.
‘I’ll leave you now to rest.’
Alessandro spun round without waiting for a response and strode from the room.
He didn’t see the longing or the anguish in her eyes as she watched him go.
CHAPTER TEN
CARYS drew a deep breath and paused before stepping into the church. The clamour of photographers and sightseers unsettled her, another reminder that she was marrying one of Italy’s richest, most eligible men.
Only the presence of Alessandro’s security staff kept the eager throng back.
She wished now she’d accepted Alessandro’s suggestion that one of his cousins escort her down the aisle.
Foolishly she’d kept alive the faint hope her father would come to give her away. It wasn’t a romantic match, but this marriage was for keeps. For Leo’s sake. And because once wed she knew Alessandro would never relinquish his wife.
This ceremony would change her life for ever.
Her lips tightened as she smoothed shaky fingers over rich silk skirts. Even after all these years the pain of her dad’s rebuff was as strong as ever.
All those missed school plays and speech days where her performances and athletic awards failed to measure up to parental expectations of academic brilliance. She should have realised he wouldn’t come, just as her siblings had perfectly sound reasons for not attending, even with Alessandro’s offer of free travel. They’d been too busy, promising to visit sometime in the future when life was less hectic.
‘Are you ready, signorina?’ Bruno’s familiar husky voice interrupted her reverie. ‘Is anything wrong?’
Everything!
She was marrying the man she’d once adored. Not for love, but in a bloodless marriage to keep her son. She had no friends here to support her. She was out of her depth, marrying into an aristocratic world she’d never fit into.
Worst of all, she suspected that despite all that had gone before, she might still…care for Alessandro.
Being with him had awoken so many memories.
More, Carlotta’s news that he’d never betrayed Carys, hadn’t been unfaithful, had opened the floodgates to emotions she thought she’d eradicated.
He might not love her, but he was essentially the same man she’d fallen for years ago. More impatient, more ruthless, yet just as charismatic and intriguing. And not the lying cheat she’d believed when she’d left him.
