Page 54 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
Carys paused, digesting the curious inflection in his tone. It sounded almost like disapproval. Alessandro and his stepmother weren’t particularly close, but they had always seemed to get on.
‘Really?’
‘Yes.’ This time there was no mistaking the spark of anger in Alessandro’s eyes or the firming of his jaw. Had there been a falling out between him and Livia? Had he finally grown tired of her snobby, manipulative ways? It was too much to hope for. ‘She has commitments elsewhere.’
Carys would have to be blind and deaf not to notice the warning in his tone, but she refused to back off. She knew to her cost just how much damage Livia could do. She needed to understand what was happening.
‘You said she’d come to advise me on how to play the role of contessa.’ Carys was proud of the way she kept the bitterness from her voice. Of course she needed to learn, but the implication that she was so way below standard still hurt.
His gaze narrowed and he sat straighter, shoulders seeming to broaden before her eyes. ‘You’re not playing a role, Carys. You are the Contessa Mattani. Remember that.’
‘Oh, I’m hardly likely to forget.’ Surrounded by luxury acquired by the Mattani family over generations, Carys felt like an intruder, an impostor. She still couldn’t get used to having servants at her beck and call.
Sometimes as she walked past the family portraits in the upstairs gallery, she felt the accusing eyes of long dead Mattanis, as if they wondered how someone as ordinary as she came to be in their home.
Carys shook her head. She had to get out of this place. She was going stir crazy.
She hadn’t ventured out of the grounds in the weeks since the wedding, too busy ensuring Leo settled in to his new home. And with the memory of paparazzi surrounding the church on her wedding day, too nervous to face the press on her own. Alessandro hadn’t offered to take her out, but nor had she expected him to. She had no illusions about her place in his life.
‘Don’t worry, Livia will perform the responsibilities of the Contessa Mattani until you’re ready to take over.’ The steel in his eyes made her wonder if she’d have to pass some test to convince him she was ready. Obviously he doubted her ability to make the grade. ‘But I think it better if someone more compatible and…reliable is your mentor in the meantime.’
Reliable? It sounded as if dear Livia had blotted her copy book. Carys was human enough to feel a surge of satisfaction at the thought of the woman’s schemes coming undone just a little.
‘Who did you have in mind?’ For one electrifying moment she thought he was going to take on the role himself.
Then common sense returned. Even as his wife she wouldn’t merit that much claim on Alessandro’s time.
‘I thought perhaps Carlotta.’ He sat back, watching her reaction.
‘Carlotta?’ Carys felt relief sweep her. ‘I’d like that.’ After the initial stiffness they’d got on well. Carys was attracted to the other woman’s honesty and dry wit. She’d enjoy spending time with the princess. ‘As long as that’s OK with her,’ she added diffidently.
‘I’m sure it will be. She’s already mentioned the idea of coming to see you.’
Carys frowned. ‘But I haven’t heard from her.’
Alessandro leaned forward a fraction, elbows on thighs and hands between his knees. ‘No doubt she was allowing the newlywed couple time alone before making social calls.’
Carys looked dumbfounded at his words. As if the idea of a honeymoon period was a foreign concept.
Alessandro felt frustration rise again. No matter how hot and heavy their lovemaking, afterwards Carys somehow managed to put a distance between them. Just as she’d done since he’d arrived at the pool today.
Of course he didn’t want her hanging on his sleeve, pretending to dote on him, but the perpetual distance between them whenever they were out of the bedroom annoyed him.
He wanted…
He didn’t know quite what he wanted. But it was definitely not a wife who treated him like a polite stranger unless he was naked and inside her. Then she responded with all the enthusiasm he could wish for.
Fire ignited in his groin and spread, tightening thighs and buttocks, curling fingers into fists and drawing the tendons in his back and neck unbearably taut.
Just thinking about sex with Carys made him hard. While she sat there, cool as a cucumber, quizzing him about Livia!
He’d thought marriage would bring respite from the surge of hormones that made him crave Carys like a fire in his blood. Yet the more he had her, the more he wanted her. And not just in bed.
Even watching her pull her robe open to nestle their son against her breast as she dried him made Alessandro rigid with desire.
