Читать онлайн книгу «The Wedding Charade» автора MELANIE MILBURNE

The Wedding Charade
MELANIE MILBURNE
Her trust fund is dwindling. If Jade Sommerville is to continue living in the manner she’s become accustomed to she has only one option…make the notorious Nic Sabbatini marry her! The youngest of the Sabbatini brothers, Nic doesn’t suffer fools, or respond well to ultimatums – especially those in his grandfather’s will!But when the stunning, wilful Jade breezes into his office and announces their upcoming nuptials to the world’s media, Nic might have finally met his match. He’s turned Jade down once before. But this time?THE SABBATINI BROTHERS Three powerful playboys from the richest dynasty in Europe! Ruthless, irresistible…impossible to tame?




THE SABBATINI BROTHERS
Three powerful playboys from the richest dynasty in Europe! Ruthless, irresistible … impossible to tame?
Luca, Giorgio and Nicoló have Italian fire and passion coursing through their blood. And now they are looking for the one thing that money can’t buy …the love of a good woman!
This month Nic Sabbatini is getting married!
‘But I want that money. It was left to me and I will get it—no one can stop me.’
Nic smiled a lazy smile. ‘As far as I see it, cara, I am the one who can stop you.’
She strode back to where he was sitting and, standing in between the intimate bracket of his open thighs, her warm vanilla-scented breath
breezing over his face, she jabbed him in the chest with a French-manicured finger. Nic had never felt so turned on in his life.
‘You. Will. Marry. Me, Nic Sabbatini.’ She bit out each word as if she was spitting bullets.
He curled a lip as he held the green lightning of her gaze. ‘Or else?’ he said.

About the Author
MELANIE MILBURNE says: ‘I am married to a surgeon, Steve, and have two gorgeous sons, Paul and Phil. I live in Hobart, Tasmania, where I enjoy an active life as a long-distance runner and a nationally ranked top ten Master’s swimmer. I also have a Master’s Degree in Education, but my children totally turned me off the idea of teaching! When not running or swimming I write, and when I’m not doing all of the above I’m reading. And if someone could invent a way for me to read during a four-kilometre swim I’d be even happier!’
Recent titles by the same author:
SHOCK: ONE-NIGHT HEIR*
SCANDAL: UNCLAIMED LOVE-CHILD*
*The Sabbatini Brothers
Did you know that Melanie also writes for Mills & Boon® Medical™ Romance?
Look out for
THE MAN WITH THE LOCKED AWAY HEART Coming in March 2011 from Medical™ Romance

THE WEDDING
CHARADE
MELANIE MILBURNE





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Georgina (Georgie) Brooks: a friend,
a fan and a fabulous young woman.
This one is for you! XX

CHAPTER ONE
‘THERE’S a Jade Sommerville here to see you, Signor Sabbatini,’ Nic’s secretary, Gina, informed him as she brought in his morning coffee. ‘She said she’s not going to leave the building until you agree to speak to her.’
Nic continued to look through the prime real estate properties listed on his computer screen. ‘Tell her to make an appointment like everyone else,’ he said, smiling to himself as he thought of Jade pacing the floor in Reception. It was just the sort of thing she would do: fly in to Rome on an impulse, demand her way no matter what, throwing her light weight around as if she had an inborn right to everything she wanted right when she wanted it.
‘I think she really means it,’ Gina said. ‘In fact, I think—’
The door opened with a thud as it banged against the wall. ‘Please leave us, Gina,’ Jade said with a plastic-looking smile. ‘Nic and I have some private business to discuss.’
Gina looked worriedly at Nic. ‘It’s all right, Gina,’ he said. ‘This won’t take long. Hold my calls and make sure we are not interrupted under any circumstances.’
‘Sì, Signor Sabbatini,’ Gina said and left, closing the door with a soft click behind her.
Nic leaned back in his chair and surveyed the black-haired virago in front of him. Her green eyes were flashing with sparks of fury, the normally alabaster skin of her cheeks cherry-red. Her small hands were clenched into tight fists by her sides and her breasts—which he had secretly admired ever since she was sixteen—were heaving with every enraged breath she took. ‘So, what brings you to my neck of the woods, Jade?’ he asked with an indolent smile.
Her cat’s eyes narrowed. ‘You bastard!’ she spat. ‘I bet you put him up to it, didn’t you? It’s just the sort of underhand thing you would do.’
Nic raised a brow. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about. Put whom up to what?’
She came over to stand in front of his desk, her hands slamming down on the leather top as she eyeballed him. ‘My father is stopping my allowance,’ she said. ‘He’s dissolved my trust fund. He’s not giving me another penny. And it’s all your fault.’
Nic allowed himself the luxury of the delectable view for a moment. Jade’s creamy cleavage was about as close as it had ever been, apart from the night of her sixteenth birthday party. His nostrils flared as he caught a waft of the exotic fragrance she was wearing. It was an intriguing combination of jasmine and orange blossom and something else he couldn’t put a name to, but it definitely suited her. He brought his gaze back to the fireworks show in hers. ‘I might be guilty of many sins, Jade, but that is not one you can pin on me,’ he said. ‘I haven’t spoken to your father in years.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ she said, straightening from the desk.
She folded her arms across her body but if anything it gave him an even better view of those gorgeous breasts. He felt a stirring in his groin, the same rush of blood he always felt when around her. It annoyed him more than anything. He wasn’t opposed to the odd one-night stand, but something about Jade made him wary of bedding her even for the short time it would take to do the deed. She oozed sensuality, but then she was known for her sleep-around ways. Only recently there had been a report in the press about her scandalous behaviour. She had allegedly lured a married man away from his wife and young family. Nic wondered how many men had enjoyed the experience of possessing her—or had she possessed them? She was a witch, after all: a little she-devil who liked nothing more than a full-on scene.
‘Well?’ she said, unfolding her arms and planting them on her slim hips in a combative manner. ‘Aren’t you going to say something?’
Nic picked up a gold pen off his desk and clicked it a couple of times. ‘What do you want me to say?’
She blew out a breath of fury. ‘Are you deliberately being obtuse? You know what we have to do. You’ve known it for months and months. Now we’ve only got one month to make up our minds, otherwise the money will be lost.’
Nic felt an all too familiar spanner of anger tighten each vertebrae of his spine at the way his late grandfather had written his will. He had spent the last few months looking for a way out of it. He had consulted legal experts but to no avail. The old man’s will was iron-clad. If Nic didn’t marry Jade Sommerville by May the first, a third of the Sabbatini assets would be gone for ever. But a month was a month and he wasn’t going to allow Jade to manipulate him into doing things her way. If he had to marry her—and it was very likely he would—he would do so on his terms and his terms only.
‘SO,’ he said, drawling the word out as he swung his chair from side to side, his pen still clicking on-off, on-off. ‘You want me to be your husband, do you, Jade?’
She glared at him like a wildcat. ‘Technically, no,’ she said. ‘But I want that money. It was left to me and I don’t care if I have to jump through hoops to get it, and no one can stop me.’
Nic smiled lazily. ‘As far as I see it, cara, I am the one who can stop you.’
She strode back to the desk but, instead of standing in front of it, she came behind to where he was sitting. She grasped the top of the chair next to his left shoulder and swung him round to face her. She stood in between the intimate bracket of his open thighs, her warm vanilla-scented breath breezing over his face as she jabbed him in the chest with a French-manicured finger. Nic had never felt so turned on in his life.
‘You. Will. Marry. Me. Nic Sabbatini.’ She bit out each word as if she were spitting bullets.
He curled a lip as he held the green lightning of her gaze. ‘Or else?’ he said.
Her eyes flared, the thick black heavily mascara-coated lashes almost reaching her finely arched brows. She licked her mouth, making it glisten and shimmer, the action of her tongue sending a rocket-fuelled charge of blood to his pelvis.
Nic grabbed her hand before she could move away, wrapping his fingers around her wrist until they overlapped. ‘You’re going about this all wrong, Jade,’ he said, pulling her farther in between his thighs. ‘Why not use some of that sensual charm you’re known for instead of coming at me like a cornered cat? Who knows what you might be able to talk me into doing, hmm?’
She flattened her mouth, her eyes full of disdain as they tussled with his. ‘Let go of me,’ she said through clenched teeth.
Nic elevated his eyebrow again. ‘That’s not what you were saying when you were sixteen.’
Her cheeks were like twin pools of crushed raspberries, which seemed strangely at odds with her cutting retort. ‘You missed your chance, Italian boy. Your best friend took home the prize. He wasn’t the best I’ve had but at least he was the first.’
Nic worked on controlling his breathing, dousing his blistering anger with the ice-cold water of common sense. She was deliberately goading him. It was what she did best. She had been doing it for as long as he had known her. She was a tart who used sex to get what she wanted.
He had done the honourable thing all those years ago, rejecting her advances, seeing them for what they were: a young, immature girl’s grab for attention. He had lectured her about her behaviour but she had ignored his warning, deliberately seducing one of his closest friends to drive home her petulant point. It had destroyed his friendship with his mate and it had destroyed any respect he’d had for Jade. He had been prepared to give her a chance, but it seemed she was on the same path of destruction as her socialite mother had been before her death when Jade was a young child. ‘You blame me for your father’s withdrawal of your allowance, but don’t you think it might have something to do with your recent affair with Richard McCormack?’ he asked.
She tugged her wrist out of his hold and rubbed at it pointedly. ‘That was just a stitch-up in the press,’ she said. ‘He made a move on me but I wasn’t interested.’
Nic gave a snort. ‘It seems to me you’re always interested. You’re every man’s fantasy. The wild-child party girl who will do anything to be the centre of attention.’
She gave him an arch look in return. ‘You’re a fine one calling me out for being a black kettle when your pot’s been stirred by more women than any other man I know.’
Nic smiled at her imperiously because he knew it would inflame her. ‘Yes, I know it’s hypocritical of me, but there you have it. The double standard—even in spite of enlightened times—still exists. No man wants a tart for a wife.’
She frowned at him. ‘So you’re going to turn your back on your inheritance? ‘
He gave an indifferent shrug. ‘It’s just money.’
Her eyes widened again. ‘But it’s a fortune!’
‘I’m already rich,’ he said, enjoying the play of emotions on her face she was clearly struggling to disguise. ‘I can earn double that in a couple of years if I put my mind to it.’
Her frown deepened. ‘But what about your brothers? Won’t Giorgio and Luca’s shares in the Corporation be put in jeopardy if yours are given to an unknown third party?’
Nic schooled his features into a blank mask. ‘If it happens, it happens. It’s not what I would have wished but I can’t compromise my standards to fit in with an old man’s whimsical fantasy.’
This time she didn’t bother trying to hide her outrage. ‘But this is not just about you! It’s about me as well. I need that money.’
Nic leaned back in his chair again and crossed his ankles. ‘So go out and get a job,’ he said. ‘That’s what other people who haven’t been born into money do. You might even enjoy it. It will certainly make a change from having your nails and hair done.’
Her gaze seared his. ‘I don’t want a job,’ she said. ‘I want that money because your grandfather—my godfather—gave it to me. He wanted me to have it. He told me before he died that he would always be there for me.’
‘I agree he wanted you to have the money,’ Nic said. ‘He had a rather soft spot for you. God knows why, given your track record of appalling behaviour, but he did. But he also wanted to manipulate me into doing things his way and that I will not stand for.’
She pressed her lips together as she swung away to pace the carpeted floor. Nic watched her from his chair. She was agitated and rightly so. Without her father’s generous allowance, she was penniless. He knew for a fact she had no savings to speak of. She lived on credit and expected her father to clear it month by month. She had never had a job in her life. She hadn’t even finished school. She had been expelled from three prestigious British fee-paying schools and then dropped out altogether a week after enrolment at the fourth. She was trouble with a capital T.
She turned back and came to stand in front of him again, her big green eyes taking on a soulful beseeching look. ‘Please, Nic,’ she said in a whisper-soft voice. ‘Please do this one thing for me. I beg you.’
Nic drew in a long, slightly unsteady breath. She was bewitching and dangerous in this mood. He could feel the tentacles of temptation reaching out to ensnare him. He could feel the way his resolve was melting like wax under a blast of heat.
A year of marriage.
Twelve months of living together as husband and wife in order to secure a fortune. Thank God the press so far knew nothing about the terms of the will and Nic was determined to keep it that way. That would be the ultimate in public shame if word got out that he had been led to the altar with a noose around his neck, put there by his late grandfather.
But Jade was right. It was a fortune, and while he had every confidence he could earn it in his own right, given enough time, he was deeply worried about a third party shareholder. His brothers had been good about it so far. They had not put him under any undue pressure, but Nic knew Giorgio, as the financial controller, was concerned given the ongoing economic instability across Europe.
Nic knew this was a chance to show his family and the press he was not the fool-around playboy everyone painted him as. He could make this one sacrifice to secure the Corporation’s wealth and once the year was over he could get back to doing what he did best: being free from emotional entanglements. Being free to travel the world and take risks that others couldn’t or wouldn’t take. He thrived on it—the adrenalin and the surge of euphoric energy when a multimillion dollar deal was sealed.
He would agree to fulfil the terms of his grandfather’s will but not because Jade told him to.
No one but no one told him what to do.
Nic pushed back the chair as he rose from it. ‘I will have to get back to you on this,’ he said. ‘I have to go to Venice to check out a villa that’s come on the market. I’ll be away for a couple of days. I’ll give you a call when I get back.’
She blinked up at him in bewilderment, as if he had given the opposite answer to what she had been expecting. But then her beautiful face quickly reassembled itself into an expression of indignation. ‘You’re making me wait for your answer?’ she asked.
Nic gave her a mocking smile. ‘It’s called delaying gratification, cara,’ he said. ‘Hasn’t anyone told you if you wait a long time for something, when you finally get it the pleasure is a thousandfold?’
‘I will make you pay for this, Nic Sabbatini,’ she snarled. She stalked over to where she had dropped her designer handbag earlier and, scooping it up, flung the strap over one of her slim shoulders and gave him one last gelid glare before she left. ‘You see if I don’t.’

CHAPTER TWO
JADE arrived at the hotel in Venice at five in the afternoon. A member of the paparazzi had told her Nic was staying there, right on the Grand Canal. She was quite pleased with her detective work. Her sources had told her Nic was in a meeting until eight this evening, and then he would be returning to the hotel for a massage before a late dinner; she hadn’t been able to find out if he was planning to dine alone or with one of his legion of female admirers.
Nic was the sort of man who had always had women swooning over him. She, to her eternal shame, had once been one of them. It still riled her that he had rejected her when she was sixteen and madly in love with him. Although she knew it was really her own fault for being so wilful, she couldn’t help partly blaming him for the horrid experience of her first sexual encounter, not that she had ever told anyone. Even the man who had taken her virginity had no idea of how dreadful an ordeal it had been for her. But then she was good at deception. Deception was her middle name—well, it would be if she could spell it, she thought wryly.
She smiled at the concierge at the reception desk, fluttering her lashes in the manner she had perfected over the years. ‘Scusi, signor. I am meeting my fiancé here, Signor Nicolò Sabbatini. It is to be a very big … I don’t know how to say it in Italian …a big surprise?’
The concierge smiled conspiratorially. ‘Sì, signorina, I understand—a sorpresa. But I did not know Signor Sabbatini was engaged. There has been nothing about it in the press, I am sure.’
There will be shortly, Jade thought with a mischievous private grin. ‘Sì, signor, it is all very hush-hush. You know how the Sabbatini brothers hate the intrusion of the press.’ She pulled out a photo of her and Nic that had been taken at his grandfather’s funeral. It wasn’t a particularly intimate one but it showed Nic with his head leaning towards her as he whispered something before the service. Luckily, the shot didn’t show her face for she had been scowling at him in fury at the time. Jade smiled at the concierge as she showed him the photograph. ‘As you can see, we are never left alone by the press. That is why I wanted this to be our special time together before the world gets to know. I am so appreciative of your cooperation.’
‘It is my pleasure, signorina,’ he said and, handing back the photo, passed her a regulation form to fill in. ‘If you would be so kind as to give your full name and address and country of residence for our records.’
Jade felt the familiar flutter of panic build in her chest. It was like a million micro bats’ wings flapping all at once. She took a steadying breath and summoned up another megawatt smile. ‘I am sorry, signor, but I have taken out my contact lenses for the flight,’ she said. ‘They are packed in my luggage somewhere. I am practically blind without them and I hate wearing glasses. So unfashionable, don’t you think? Would you be so kind as to just type my details straight into your computer? ‘
The concierge smiled. ‘But of course, signorina,’ he said, his fingers poised over the keys as she gave him her details.
‘You are so very kind,’ Jade said as he handed her a swipe key.
‘Signor Sabbatini is staying on the top floor in the penthouse suite. I will have your luggage taken to the room straight away.’
‘Grazie, signor. But there is one more thing,’ she said, leaning closer. ‘Would you mind contacting the masseuse who was coming at eight?’ She gave him a twinkling smile. ‘I will give my fiancé a massage instead. He will enjoy it so much more, sì?’
The concierge grinned. ‘Sì, signorina. I am sure he will.’
Jade made her way to the lift, smiling at her reflection in the brass-plated doors once they were closed. She had dressed in her best look-at-me clothes. A black and sinfully short tight-fitting dress with a daringly low neck and shoes with the sort of heels podiatrists the world over shook their heads in dismay at, and flashy jewellery that screeched inherited wealth and decadence.
Jade found the room without any trouble and immediately ordered champagne. A bit of Dutch courage wouldn’t go amiss right now. She would have to go carefully, however. She had to keep her wits about her in order to bring about what she wanted. Nic would be furious, but then that was his fault for being so stubborn about this. It was all right for him with his squillions, but what was she supposed to do without her trust fund? It wasn’t as if she could just ‘go out and get a job’ as he had so mockingly suggested. Who on earth would employ her?
She looked out of the window to the bustling tourists below. The serpentine network of the canal system and the colourful villas fringing it was exactly as the postcards portrayed it. Even the light was the same: the pastels in the sky as the sun lowered brought out the pinks and oranges and yellows of the centuries-old buildings. She wished she had time to paint it. Her little makeshift studio back in her London flat was full to bursting with her work. Not that anyone had ever seen any of her paintings. It was her private passion. Something no one could rubbish, something no one could say was trashy and uneducated and unsophisticated.
Jade wandered over to the huge bed and tested it for comfort by pressing a hand down on the mattress. She snatched her hand away as she thought of all the women Nic had bedded on his trips. He would have lost count by now, surely? At least she could count her partners on the fingers of half a hand in spite of what the press reported of her sexual proclivities. Quite frankly, she wondered what the fuss about sex was all about. It didn’t seem all that pleasurable to her to be pawed and sweated over. She could flirt and tease with the best of them and it got her what she wanted—well, most of the time.
The champagne arrived and Jade tipped the young man who brought it. She allowed herself one glass to settle her nerves. The time was dragging and she desperately wanted this to be over with so she could feel more secure. Nic had left her dangling, uncertain of whether he was going to cooperate or not. It was too risky to leave it all up to him. She had to force his hand, otherwise she would be destitute. She didn’t mind pretending to be a tart at times but there was no way she was going to become one because all her other options had been destroyed.
Marrying Nic would solve everything for her. All her troubles would be over if she did what Salvatore’s will stated. The lawyer had explained it all to her after the funeral last year. She had to marry Nic by the first of next month and stay married for a full year. Both partners had to remain faithful. Jade wasn’t sure why her godfather had put that condition in. She didn’t intend to sleep with Nic. He had spurned her in the past. What was to say he wouldn’t do it again? She would find it just as shattering as she had then.
Jade was sipping at her second glass of champagne when Nic came in. His hazel eyes narrowed as he saw her sitting with her legs crossed on the bed. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he said.
‘Celebrating our engagement,’ she said with a demure smile as she hoisted her glass.
He stiffened as if he had been snap frozen. ‘What did you say?’ The words came out slowly, menacingly.
Jade took a sip from her glass, looking at him from beneath her lashes. ‘The press already know about it,’ she said. ‘I gave them an exclusive. All they need now is a photo.’
Nic’s anger was palpable. It rolled off the walls towards her, keeping her rooted to the foot of his bed. Jade fought the instinct to flee. She had been hit before. Her father had backhanded her for insolence enough times for her to know how much it hurt, but her pride would not let her show it. Instead, she gave Nic a defiantly sassy look. ‘If you kick me out I will tell the press about the terms of your grandfather’s will. You don’t really want me to do that, do you, Nic?’
His top lip lifted in a snarl. ‘You trashy, deceitful cow,’ he said.
Jade let the words roll off her. ‘Sticks and stones,’ she said in a sing-song voice as she took another sip of champagne.
Nic strode over and snatched the glass out of her hand, spilling champagne over her lap in the process. She glared at him as she jumped up to wipe off the spillage. ‘You bastard!’ she said. ‘This dress is brand new and now you’ve ruined it.’
His nostrils flared like those of an angry bull. ‘Get out,’ he said through tight lips. He pointed to the door with a rigid arm. ‘Get out before I throw you out.’
Jade tossed her head and put her hand behind her back to unzip her damp dress. ‘You put one finger on me and I’ll tell even more Sabbatini secrets to the press.’
His mouth flattened to a thin line of fury. ‘Do you have no principles at all?’
‘Plenty,’ she said, wriggling out of her dress.
His dark brows snapped together. ‘What do you think you are doing?’
Jade tossed the dress on the floor, raising her chin as she stood before him in black lace bra and knickers and her come-and-get-me heels. For a brief moment she wondered if she had stepped not just out of her dress but out of her depth as well. Nic’s gaze seemed to be seeing through much more than her lacy underwear. She could feel the heat of it all over her skin, inside and out. She could feel a faint stirring deep inside her, a fluttering little pulse that seemed to intensify with each throbbing second. ‘I’m going to have a bath,’ she said, summoning her courage and resolve. ‘Then, once I am freshened up, we are going out to publicly celebrate our engagement.’
He stood there, breathing heavily, his eyes hard on hers, hatred darkening them in a way she had never seen before. ‘I am not letting you get away with this, Jade,’ he warned. ‘You don’t get to screw around with me, do you hear?’
‘What a lovely choice of words,’ Jade said as she sashayed over to the bathroom. ‘But there will be no screwing, OK? That’s not part of the deal.’ She gave him a saucy little fingertip wave and closed the bathroom door, clicking the lock firmly in place.
Nic let out a breath that felt as if it had come out of a steam engine. He was beyond angry. He was livid. He was furious.
He was screwed.
Jade had set him up and he had no choice but to go along with it. He would look a hundred times a fool if the press got wind of his grandfather’s machinations. If he had to marry her, he would do it but he would make sure he didn’t look like a pawn being pushed around.
He clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to knock that bathroom door down and drag that little scheming witch out by her long black hair. He had not thought it possible to hate someone so much. Was that what his grandfather had wanted? For him to hate the very air Jade Sommerville breathed? What had he been thinking to tie them together in a mock marriage for a whole year, for God’s sake? It would be torture for him. Marriage to anyone would have been bad enough. He loathed the thought of being tied down to one person for any length of time, let alone the rest of his life.
Look what had happened to his father. He had not been able to remain faithful after the death of Nic’s baby sister, and it had nearly destroyed his mother. Nic had been too young to remember Chiara, but he remembered the years that followed. Both his parents had been absent emotionally, cut to the core over the death of their precious daughter. Nic had run wild for most of his childhood, trying to get the assurances he needed as a young boy that he was still a much loved member of the family. But after losing one child, his parents had lived in fear of losing another and so they had held themselves aloof. Giorgio and Luca had fared better, being that bit older, but Nic knew he had missed out on what so many children took for granted.
Being forced to marry Jade was the worst possible scenario. For one thing, there was no way she would ever stay faithful for the allotted time. No wonder she was proposing a no sex deal. He wouldn’t trust her as far as he could see her.
If he could guarantee she wouldn’t stray, his inheritance would be secured. But the only way to ensure that would be to sleep with her, to make the marriage a real one. To keep her so satisfied she wouldn’t be tempted to play around on him.
He rubbed at his jaw as he thought about it. Bedding Jade would certainly be an unforgettable experience. The blood was already fizzing in his veins from her brazen display of flesh. She had no shame, no limits at all on her behaviour. He smiled to himself as he thought about taking her in a rough tumble of lust. The sexual tension between them had crackled for as long as he could remember. It would certainly be no punishment for him to bury himself deep inside her, to make her scream his name instead of some nameless guy she had picked up in a nightclub.
Jade came out of the bathroom a long time later with her hair piled on top of her head and some damp tendrils hanging about her face. She was wearing one of the hotel’s fluffy white bathrobes. Without her make-up and high heels, she looked young and dainty, her cheeks pink-skinned from her bath. As she moved past him to access her suitcase, Nic noticed she barely came up to his shoulder in her bare feet. Her toenails were painted black. They looked stark against the porcelain white of her skin.
‘What happened to my massage appointment?’ he asked.
She tucked a strand of hair behind one of her small ears without looking up from her open bag. ‘I cancelled it.’
‘You had no right to do that,’ he said. ‘I was looking forward to it.’
She glanced at him as she moved with a bundle of clothes to the wardrobe. ‘I can give you one if you like,’ she said. She hung a skirt and top on the silk-padded hangers. ‘I’m told I’m very good.’
‘I am sure you are,’ Nic said, watching her move back to her bag.
She held up two dresses against her chest. ‘Which one do you think? ‘
Nic had to give himself a mental shake. She was doing it again: sideswiping him with her rapid change of demeanour. One minute the raging virago, the next a little girl playing at dress up. There would be another tantrum soon enough, he thought. ‘The red one,’ he said, striding over to the champagne sitting in the silver ice bucket. He poured himself a glass and sipped from it as he watched her dress.
She did it as if it were a strip show in reverse. She had slipped out of the bathrobe while he had been pouring his drink, but now she was stepping into a pair of black and red lacy French knickers that were gossamer-thin, so thin he could see the waxed clear feminine cleft of her body. His blood pounded all over again, making him uncomfortably stiff. He took another deep draught of champagne but he couldn’t bear to drag his eyes away from her. She picked up a matching push-up bra. Not that she needed any mechanical help in showcasing her breasts. They were beautifully shaped, full and yet pert with rosy-red nipples. She adjusted the creamy globes behind the lace and then shook her head so her hair cascaded down over her back and shoulders.
Nic was fit to explode and he hadn’t even touched her.
‘Aren’t you going to shower and change?’ she said as she moved past him with her make-up bag.
He caught her arm on the way past, his fingers fizzing with the stun-gun effect of her warm flesh under his. He locked his eyes on her sea-glass green ones. ‘How about that massage you promised?’ he said.
She gave him a sultry look from beneath her lashes. ‘Later,’ she said. ‘Dinner first. If you’re a good boy I might give you a rub down when we get home.’
He tightened his hold when she made to pull away. ‘Is this how you get every man to do what you want? To make them beg like starving dogs for your favours? ‘
She tossed her head again, making her hair swing back over her shoulders. ‘You won’t have to beg, Nic, because there will be no favours,’ she said. ‘This is going to be a paper marriage.’
Nic laughed out loud. ‘Oh, come on, Jade. How long do you think that’s going to last? You are a born sybarite.’
She glared at him as she tugged at his hold. ‘I am not going to sleep with you.’
‘Then what was the little tease routine for?’ he asked.
She gave him a haughty look. ‘You can look but you can’t touch,’ she said. ‘That’s the deal.’
Nic dropped her arm. ‘There is something you need to learn about me, Jade,’ he said. ‘I choose my own sexual partners. I do the chasing. And I do not beg. Ever.’
She turned away and sat at the dressing table, opening various pots as she applied moisturiser and make-up. ‘We’ll see,’ she said, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
Nic clenched his teeth and strode into the bathroom. We’ll see, indeed, he thought as he turned on the shower full blast.
When Nic came out, Jade was sipping more champagne. She had her face on—the face he was used to seeing: heavy smoky eye-shadow and eyeliner, scarlet lipstick and a brush stroke of bronzing powder to highlight her model-like cheekbones. She was back in another pair of heels, even higher than the previous ones, and she had dangling earrings on that sparkled now and again behind the dark screen of her loose hair. She had a sulky look about her mouth, however, which warned him there might be another scene on its way.
He had thought through his options in the shower.
He would marry her because he didn’t really have a choice, but he would dictate the terms. She thought she had manipulated him into agreeing to it but he wasn’t doing it for her, but for his family.
‘Before we go to dinner I want to lay down some ground rules,’ he said as he reached for a fresh shirt.
She crossed her legs and swung one high-heeled foot up and down in a bored schoolgirl manner. ‘Go on then, tell me what they are and I’ll tell you whether I’ll agree to them or not.’
Nic whipped out a tie from the wardrobe. ‘You will agree to it or I won’t marry you. You’re the one who needs the money more than me, don’t forget.’
She set her mouth in a mulish line, her eyes hardening as she held his. ‘So what are your stupid little rules, then?’
‘I insist that at all times and in all places you will behave with the decorum your position as a Sabbatini wife requires of you,’ he said. ‘You have met both of my sisters-in-law, sì?’
‘Yes, they are very nice,’ she said. ‘I met Bronte briefly at your grandfather’s funeral. I met Maya, Giorgio’s wife, in London. She had taken the time to call on me to show me the baby since I was unable to attend the christening. Matteo is adorable.’
‘Yes, he is,’ Nic said. ‘So why didn’t you come to the christening? ‘
Her eyes stayed determinedly away from his, her tone dismissive. ‘I had another engagement.’
‘And what about Luca and Bronte’s son Marco’s christening?’ he asked. ‘It was only a month later. Did you have another engagement that day too?’
This time she looked at him directly. ‘I always keep myself busy. My social calendar is booked for months ahead.’
Nic felt his top lip curl. He could imagine her shoe-horning in party after party, nightclub after nightclub, and shallow date after shallow date. ‘It was good of you to come to my grandfather’s funeral,’ he said with no intention of it being a compliment. She had obviously known she was going to be included in the will, for why else would she have made the effort? He knew her well enough to know she didn’t do anything for anyone unless she got something out of it for herself. ‘You also came to see him before he died, didn’t you?’
She nodded. ‘It was the least I could do. He had always been so good to me. I was just his godchild. No one takes that role all that seriously these days, but he always looked out for me.’
‘Apart from the will, of course,’ Nic pointed out.
‘Yes, well, he must have had his reasons.’
‘Why do you think he did it?’ Nic asked. ‘To us, I mean. It’s not as if we’ve been the best of friends over the years.’
She gave a little shrug of her slim shoulders. ‘Who knows? Maybe he thought it would be a way of bringing the two dynasties together: the Sommervilles and the Sabbatinis. It has quite a ring to it. My father no longer has a male heir so this is the next best thing. I expect they cooked it up together.’
Nic studied her for a moment. ‘You were supposed to be with your brother on that skiing holiday, weren’t you?’
Her eyes shifted away from his. ‘I missed the flight.’ She gave a little shrug, as if it was just one of those things. ‘I overslept after a night out.’
‘Have you ever thought of how you could have both died if you had gone on that trip?’ Nic asked. ‘You would have been on the slopes with him when the avalanche hit.’
She gave him a glittering glare. ‘Do you mind if we get back to your stupid little rules?’
‘You don’t like talking about Jonathan, do you?’
‘You lost your baby sister,’ she said. ‘Do you like discussing it?’
‘I don’t even remember it,’ he said. ‘I was only eighteen months old. But Jonathan was twenty, almost twenty-one, and you were just weeks off turning eighteen. It must be very clear in your memory.’
‘It is and it’s off-limits,’ she said, looking him in the eye. ‘You might think you have certain privileges as my husband-to-be but that is not one of them.’
Nic pulled his tie up to his neck and straightened it, his eyes still following every nuance on her beautiful, now ice-maiden face. She could change so quickly it was amazing. ‘The second rule is I will not tolerate you playing around,’ he said. ‘I am prepared to give and take a little, but I am not going to be cuckolded.’
‘I won’t play around on you,’ she said, looking at him with a cat-that-got-the-cream-and-the-canary smile. ‘I’ll be too busy counting my money.’
‘If you don’t behave yourself, there will be consequences,’ Nic said. ‘One false move and you will be out without a penny. It’s written in the will. We both have to remain faithful, otherwise we automatically nullify the terms set down by my grandfather.’
‘You will have to be very discreet then, won’t you?’ she asked with an arch look.
‘You don’t think I can do it, do you?’
She pulled her long black hair over one of her shoulders in a mermaid-like arrangement. ‘Do what?’ she said. ‘Stay celibate? No, quite frankly, I don’t. Who is your latest lover, by the way? Is it still the Brazilian heiress, or have you got someone else by now?’
His lips jammed together for a moment as if he was biting back a retort. ‘A year without sex is a long time, Jade, for both of us. I can’t see why we can’t have our cake and eat it too.’
Jade rolled her eyes at his play on words. ‘I want the money, not you, Nic. I thought I had made that perfectly clear.’
‘You say it with your mouth but not with your eyes,’ he said. ‘I give it a month at the most before you have them in sync. It’s all part of the game, isn’t it? It’s what you do to every man: make them want you so badly they forget about promises and principles.’
‘I can see you think you know me inside out,’ she said. ‘At least there won’t be any nasty surprises once we are married.’
‘I am afraid we will have to have a full-on wedding with all the regalia,’ he said after a short tense pause. ‘I hope that is not going to be a problem for you. It’s just that my family will expect it and so will the public.’
‘Fine,’ Jade said. ‘But I am not going to wear white or a veil.’
He tilted his head at her, a smile teasing the edges of his mouth upwards. ‘You’re not thinking of wearing black, are you? ‘
Jade held his look with defiance. ‘I’m not a virgin, Nic. I am not going to pretend to be something I am not.’
He frowned as if he found her statement somewhat bewildering. ‘I don’t recall saying that was a requirement of this arrangement. When it comes down to it, I am no angel myself. I probably should be ashamed to say this but I have lost count of the lovers I have had. You can probably still do a reasonably accurate tally.’
‘Nope,’ she lied, inspecting her nails. ‘I’ve lost count too. Ages ago.’
The silence pulsed for a beat or two.
She looked up to find him watching her with a brooding expression. ‘Is there anything else?’ she asked. ‘Any more tedious little rules I have to abide by?’
‘NO,’ he said, snatching up his jacket and shrugging himself into it. ‘That will be all for now. Just leave the press to me. I will handle the questions.’
Jade uncrossed her legs and got to her feet. ‘Yes, Master,’ she said and flicked the fine chain strap of her evening purse over her shoulder as she walked with swaying hips over to the door.
‘Careful, Jade,’ he warned. ‘One step out of line and the deal’s off. And don’t think I wouldn’t do it.’
Jade refused to let him see how unnerved she was by his threat. He might be calling her bluff but how could she know for sure? Of course she needed the money much more than he did. He had plenty of his own while she had nothing. But a year was going to change all that. She would finally be independent of her father. She would no longer need anyone’s largesse to survive. She schooled her features into meekness. ‘I will be a good girl, Nic, you just watch me.’

CHAPTER THREE
THEY had barely stepped outside the hotel on the Grand Canal when the paparazzi swarmed upon them. A journalist pushed a microphone towards Nic and asked, ‘Signor Sabbatini, the news of your engagement and impending marriage to Ms Sommerville has taken everyone by surprise. You must have been conducting a very secret liaison. Do you have any comment to make about your romance? ‘
Nic smiled charmingly but Jade could tell he was grinding his teeth behind it. ‘Ms Sommerville and I have been family friends for years. We finally decided to become more than friends. We are very much looking forward to our wedding next month. Now, if you’ll allow us to celebrate our engagement in private, please move on.’
One of the older journalists pushed forward a microphone in Jade’s direction before Nic could do anything to block it. ‘Ms Sommerville, you were involved some months ago with Richard McCormack, the husband of one of your best friends. Do you think the news of your engagement to Nic Sabbatini will finally repair your relationship with Julianne McCormack?’
Jade felt the subtle tightening of Nic’s fingers around hers. ‘I have no comment to make on any issue to do with my private life, apart from being very happy about my engagement to Nic. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I am so—’
‘Excuse us.’ Nic took command and led her through the crowd of tourists who had gathered.
‘I thought I told you to leave the questions to me,’ he said in an undertone as they weaved through the knot of people.
‘Everyone will think it strange if I don’t say something,’ Jade argued. ‘This is a momentous occasion, after all.’
He gave her a quelling look before heading for a restaurant on one of the canals.
They were led to a table in a lavishly appointed private room. Crystal chandeliers twinkled from the ceiling, plush velvet covered the chairs and hung from the windows in thick curtains in a rich shade of scarlet. There were Venetian masks on the wall, each one a work of art. The atmosphere was one of intimacy and privacy, and again Jade wondered how many women Nic had entertained here, wining and dining them before taking them back to his penthouse apartment to pleasure them. Strangely, she felt a jagged spike of jealousy poke at her and she shifted in her chair. Why would she be jealous? There would always be other women with Nic. It was the way he was made. He was not cut out for commitment and continuity in his love life. He was a playboy with a PhD in seductive charm. He could have anyone he wanted. He had had anyone he wanted.
The menus were placed in front of them and within minutes a bottle of champagne arrived in a silver ice bucket. Jade looked at it with wariness. She had already had one more glass than usual. Being with Nic had the same effect as alcohol. It had made her head spin to see him dressed in nothing but his black underwear back there at the hotel. She had set out to be as brazen as she could—getting dressed in front of him to show him she was just as the press reported her—but it was completely different when he had done the same to her. She had tried not to look at his carved to perfection body. She had seen plenty of male bodies on the beach or at the gym, and some of them had been downright gorgeous. But something about Nic’s always made her heart race and her senses tingle in a way they never did with anyone else. It made her feel deeply unsettled. She was the one who played the cat and mouse game with men, not the other way around. She didn’t like the thought of Nic having that much power over her, in fact any power over her.
The attentive waiter filled both of their glasses before moving away to leave them in privacy.
Nic picked up his glass and raised it to hers. ‘Let’s drink to our first year of marriage.’
Jade gave him an ironic glance. ‘Don’t you mean the only year of our marriage? Don’t the terms of the will state we have to be married by the first of next month and stay married for exactly a year?’
He drank from his glass before he answered. ‘Yes, but what if we enjoy being married to each other? What if it turns out to be more convenient than we first thought? We could make it last as long as we like.’
Jade sat back in her seat as if he had pushed her backwards with one of his strong hands against her chest. ‘You can’t mean that!’ she gasped.
He gave her one of his white-toothed smiles. ‘Only teasing,’ he said, his hazel eyes twinkling. ‘Once the year is up next May, we can both take the money and run.’
Jade worked hard at squashing her sense of pique. She knew his motive for marrying her was only to get the money he felt entitled to; after all, she was doing it for the very same reason. She could hardly blame him for going ahead with his grandfather’s stipulations. His two older brothers had had no such conditions placed upon them, but then Giorgio and Luca were both happily married with children. Giorgio and Maya had separated for a time, but had reconciled just before the old man’s death. It had been Salvatore’s desire to see all of his three grandsons settled before he died, but when he became ill so suddenly he had obviously decided to take matters into his own hands and make sure Nic bowed to pressure to settle down instead of playing the field for too much longer. Why Salvatore had chosen her as Nic’s bride was a mystery. He could not have been unaware of the enmity between them. For the last decade they had snarled and sniped at each other when they had to be together at Sabbatini or Sommerville functions.
Jade knew a lot about the history of the Sabbatinis, having been a part of their circle for so many years. Her Australian-born father had befriended Salvatore when he was just starting out as an accountant and, with his Italian friend’s help, his small accounting firm had become one of the most prestigious in Europe.
Like Nic and his brothers, Jade had grown up brushing shoulders with the rich and famous. Celebrities were not idols from afar; they were friends and acquaintances who regularly attended the same parties and social gatherings.
Jade’s mother, Harriet, had been a London socialite herself until her untimely death from an overdose when Jade was five. Whether it had been suicide, a cry for help or an accident was something Jade and her brother Jonathan had never been told. There had always been speculation regarding Jade’s parents’ marriage. Throughout their childhood, it had been a case of don’t-mention-your-mother-in-your-father’s-presence by all the nannies and au pairs that had come and gone. Whether it would upset their father because of unresolved grief or anger was another mystery that had never been solved.
Jade looked at the menu and chewed her bottom lip in concentration. She hated eating out; it was something she usually avoided, but not for the reasons everyone assumed. It had been splashed all over the papers enough times—how she had been admitted to a special clinic when she was fifteen and then again at eighteen when she had skirted with death as her weight had dropped to a dangerously low level during the months following Jonathan’s death. She was well and truly over all that now, but eating out still threw up the problem of how to choose when she had no idea what was written on the menu.
She felt Nic’s gaze on her now, the weight of it like a stone. She looked up and closed the menu. ‘What are you thinking of having?’ she asked.
‘The crab fettuccine to start with and maybe the veal Marsala for mains,’ he said. ‘What about you?’
Jade ran her tongue over her sand-dry lips. ‘Why don’t you choose for me?’ she said, pushing the menu to one side. ‘You seem to know the place pretty well. I’m not fussy.’
He cocked one of his eyebrows at her. ‘No?’
‘I’ve dealt with a lot of stuff over the years, Nic,’ she said, giving him a hard look. ‘I’m not going to embarrass you by dispensing with my meal in the bathroom as soon as your back is turned.’
A frown appeared between his brows. ‘I wasn’t suggesting any such thing,’ he said. ‘It was a tough time for you growing up, losing your mother so young and then your brother like that.’
Jade had perfected her back-off look over the years and yet, as she used it now, it was with shaky confidence that it would work. ‘I’d rather not talk about it. They died. Life goes on.’
The waiter arrived to take their order, and when he left Nic shifted his mouth in a musing pose and continued to study her. She began to feel like a specimen under a powerful microscope. Nic always made her feel like that. He saw things that other people didn’t see. His eyes were too all-seeing, too penetrating. It made her feel vulnerable and exposed—something she avoided strenuously at all times and in all places.
‘Do you see much of your father?’ Nic asked.
She toyed with the stem of her champagne flute, her eyes averted from his. ‘Before this latest blow up, yes. He called in occasionally with his latest girlfriend,’ she said tonelessly. ‘The last one is only a year or two older than me. I think they might eventually marry. He wants a son—to replace Jonathan. He’s been talking about it for years.’
Nic heard the pain behind the coolly delivered statement. ‘You’ve never been close to him, have you? ‘
She shook her head, still not meeting his eyes. ‘I think I remind him too much of my mother.’
‘Do you remember her?’ he asked.
Her jade-green eyes met his, instantly lighting up as if he had pressed a switch. ‘She was so beautiful,’ she said in a dreamy tone. She picked up her glass and twirled it gently, the bubbles rising in a series of vertical lines, each one delicately exploding on the surface. ‘She was so glamorous and always smelt so divine—like honeysuckle and jasmine after a long hot day in the sun.’
She put the glass down, and ran her finger around the rim, around and around as she spoke. ‘She was affectionate. She couldn’t walk past Jon or me without encompassing one or both of us in a crushing hug. She used to read to me. I loved that. I could listen to her voice for hours … ‘
A little silence settled like dust motes in the space between them.
She gave a little sigh and picked up her glass again, twirling it before she took a tentative sip. She put it back down, her mouth pursing as if the taste of the very expensive champagne had not been to her taste. ‘She loved us. She really loved us. I never doubted it. Not for a moment.’
Nic knew a little of the rumours surrounding Harriet Sommerville’s death. There was some talk of an illicit affair that had gone wrong and Harriet had decided to end it all when the other man involved refused to leave his wife. Other rumours suggested Jade’s father had not been the best husband and father he could have been at the time, but it was hard to know what was true and what had been fiction.
The press had a way of working it to their advantage: the bigger the scandal, the better the sale of the papers. Nic had experienced it himself, along with his brothers. But there was something about Jade that intrigued him. At regular intervals over the years she appeared at all the right functions, dressed to the nines, playing to the cameras, flirting with the paparazzi, but still he wondered if anyone really knew who the real Jade Sommerville was. Not the slim, beautiful and elegantly dressed and perfectly made-up young woman who sat before him now, twirling her champagne flute without drinking any more than a sip or two, who refused to speak of her dead brother, who spoke of her father with thinly disguised disgust.
Who was she?
Who was she really?
Was she the woman who had broken up the marriage of her best friend, as the papers had reported?
Or was she someone else entirely?
‘Losing a parent is a big deal,’ Nic said to fill the cavernous silence. ‘I was knocked sideways by my father’s accident. Seeing him like that … ‘ he winced as he recalled it ‘ …one minute so vitally alive, the next in a coma.’ He raked his fingers through his hair. ‘It was a relief when he died. No one wanted to say it but it was true. He would have hated being left with brain damage.’
She looked up at him with empathy in her eyes. ‘You are a lot like him,’ she said gently. ‘I suppose lots of people have said that to you before. He hated being tied down.’
Nic smiled wryly as he picked up his glass. ‘My parents’ marriage was an arranged one. Not a lot of people know that. My mother loved him from the start but he was not so keen on being shackled to one woman. They muddled along as best they could until Chiara came along. My father loved having a daughter. He had three sons but his daughter was everything to him.’
He put his glass down with a clunk on the table, his eyes moving away from hers. ‘Losing her was like the bottom of his world falling out from under him. He felt he was being punished by God for not loving his wife and sons enough. He went through a tumultuous time. As young as you were, I am sure you heard of it: numerous affairs with shallow gold-diggers until he finally realised the only woman he could love was the mother of his still living children who had loved him the whole time.’
‘Everyone reacts to grief in their own way,’ she said softly.
Nic picked up his glass but not with any intention of drinking from it, more for something to do with his hands. ‘I am like my father in that I do not like to be told what to do,’ he said. ‘He always had issues with my grandfather over that. I guess that is why Salvatore’s will was written the way it was.’
‘But you are doing what he wanted now and that is all that matters,’ she said in the same emotionless voice. ‘In a year you will be free. You will have your inheritance and you can be with whoever you want.’
‘So what about you?’ Nic asked, raising his glass to his lips. ‘What will you do once the year is up?’
She looked down at her hardly touched champagne. ‘I haven’t thought that far ahead.’ She looked back at him and gave him a forced-looking smile. ‘I guess we will divorce amicably and get on with our lives.’
Nic wondered who she would want to spend her life with or if she wanted to settle down at all. If it hadn’t been for his grandfather’s machinations, at some stage she would have had to marry and to marry well. She had never worked a day in her life. She was a full-time socialite, born to it like others were born to poverty and neglect.
Until the withdrawal of her father’s support, she certainly hadn’t given Nic any indication that she was going to abide by the stipulations set down in the will. Nic had wanted to talk to her about it at length after the funeral, but when he had mentioned it during the service she had glared at him and then later slipped out before he could corner her. He certainly didn’t see himself as qualifying for husband of the year or anything, but as long as she behaved herself he would put up with the twelve months of matrimony to secure his inheritance and thus keep his brothers’ interests in the Sabbatini Corporation secure.
There were certain compensations in marrying Jade, of course. She was certainly a pleasure to look at. She had the most beautiful piercing green eyes, large and almond-shaped and darkly lashed, as thick as the silky, wavy hair that cascaded halfway down her back. With cheekbones you could ski off and a mouth that promised sensuality in every plump curve, she could have modelled if she’d put her mind to it, but for some reason had rejected an offer from a top agency when she was nineteen. Apparently she had been more than content to continue to live off her father’s fortune, no doubt expecting it all to land in her lap on his demise some time in the future.
Yes, she was a gold-digger in her own way, Nic thought. She just did it a little more openly and shamelessly than most. It would be exciting having her in his bed. The more he thought of it, the more he longed to get down to it. She played it so cool but he could feel the heat of her passionate nature simmering underneath the surface. She was a born tease. She was deliberately ramping up his desire for her. She was a wildcat, a tigress that needed to be tamed and he would gladly be the one to do it and sooner rather than later, no matter what silly little hands-off-the-goods deals she insisted on making. He saw it for the ruse it was. She had wanted him since she was a hormone-charged sixteen-year-old and, because he had rejected her, she had played hard to get ever since.
‘You do realise we will have to live together in Rome for most of the year, don’t you?’ he said after a pause. ‘Apart from the times we travel.’
Her eyes flew to his. ‘Travel? You expect me to travel with you?’
‘That is what loving wives do, is it not?’ he asked.
Her neatly groomed brows moved close together. ‘But surely that’s not necessary in our case. You’re a busy man. You don’t need a wife hanging off your arm in every city you travel to. Besides, I have things of my own to do.’
He hooked one brow upwards. ‘Like what? Lime and vodka mornings and getting your hair and nails done?’
Her fingers tightened around her glass so hard Nic wondered if the fragile stem might crack. ‘It’s not that at all. I just like sleeping in my own bed.’
‘Not according to what I read in the papers a few months ago,’ he pointed out wryly. ‘You were in and out of Richard McCormack’s bed day in and day out while his wife’s back was turned.’
She gave him a hateful glare. ‘So you believe there is truth in everything written about you and your brothers in the papers, do you?’
He studied her for a moment. ‘Not everything, no, but you didn’t deny it. You could have slapped a defamation case on the paper if there was absolutely no truth in anything that was reported.’
‘I have no interest in suing anyone,’ she said. ‘It’s not worth the bother. They would just read it as defensive-ness which, in my opinion, reeks of guilt. I’ve always felt it better to ignore it all and hope it eventually dies down.’
‘It hopefully will now that we are about to be married,’ he said. ‘Have you a preference for a church wedding? ‘
She averted her gaze. ‘No preference at all.’
‘Then you won’t mind if we have the ceremony and honeymoon in Bellagio?’ he asked.
Her eyes came back to his. ‘That’s where your family has a villa, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’ He refilled their glasses before he added, ‘It’s also where my baby sister died all those years ago.’
Jade picked up her glass again. ‘Well, then, it seems rather fitting to conduct a dead marriage there, doesn’t it?’
His hazel eyes bored into hers for a tense moment. ‘Your tongue is razor-sharp this evening,’ he observed. ‘You are the one who insists the marriage is to be in name only.’
‘I don’t love you, Nic, and you don’t care a fig for me,’ she said. ‘We’re only marrying each other to access a rather large fortune. That’s about as dead as a marriage can be, is it not?’
‘It doesn’t have to be that way,’ he said. ‘We can work things to the advantage of both of us.’
She rolled her eyes at him. ‘I can see how your mind works, Nic. You’re already straining at the leash of imposed fidelity, aren’t you? I told you: have your affairs if you must but keep them private. I don’t want to be made a fool of in the press.’
‘Same goes,’ he said, leaning forward menacingly. ‘I am warning you, Jade. If I hear one whisper of a scandal of you with another man, money or no money, our marriage will be terminated immediately, irrespective of what’s written in the will. I am going to have it written into the prenuptial agreement.’
‘Don’t you mean our marriage will be annulled rather than terminated?’ she asked with an arch look.
His eyes held hers like high-beam searchlights for so long Jade felt her skin break out in tiny goosebumps of apprehension. There was a steely purpose to his expression. He was not a man to be pushed around. Somehow he had turned the tables on her. She was not the one calling the tune here now, he was, and he was not going to allow her forget it. He had made it clear he desired her but she couldn’t help feeling she was just going to be a convenient fill-in while he waited for his inheritance to be secure. Although she had tried her very best to disguise her response to him, it had clearly been to no avail. But then maybe he was like a lot of men even in these more enlightened times who still thought it their right to sleep with a woman who took their fancy: an expensive dinner, an even more expensive bottle of champagne and the transaction was settled.
Jade had determined she would not allow herself to be intimate with Nic. But somehow in the last couple of hours her resolve had been challenged in a way it had never been before. She saw the heat of desire in his eyes, the way his sexy mouth tilted in a lazy smile, as if he could already taste the victory of having her mouth plundered by his so very experienced one. She shifted uncomfortably on her chair, aware of her body in a way that made her feel distinctly uneasy about her ability to be immune to his sensual power. Her breasts felt full and tingly, her legs trembling and sensitive, as if they longed to be entwined with the length and strength of his in an erotic embrace.
He reached out and unpeeled her rigid fingers from around the stem of her glass. He brought those very same fingers up to his mouth, where suddenly they loosened and trembled, as if his breath contained a magic potion that unlocked every stiff joint, making them like putty in his hold. She sat transfixed, locked in a stasis that felt so strange to her and yet totally, inexplicably irresistible. She didn’t want to break the spell. His eyes were holding hers in a lockdown that was unbreakable. She couldn’t look away if she wanted to. Something was drawing her to him, like a silly little unsuspecting moth heading towards a bright hot light. She was going to get burned, but it was as if she didn’t care. She drew in an uneven little breath as his lips brushed against the tips of her fingers, a barely touching movement that made her instantly ache for more.
‘Why are you still fighting what has always been between us, Jade?’ he asked in a low husky tone.
‘I don’t want to complicate things, Nic,’ she said in a voice that sounded like someone else’s, breathy, excited, anticipatory and expectant.
‘You wanted me when you were sixteen,’ he reminded her, nibbling on her fingertips again, a feather-touch of temptation—a lighted taper to her simmering need.
‘I …I was young and you were—’
‘Lusting after you but old enough to realise you were far too young to know what you were doing,’ he said, smiling in a self-deprecating way. ‘Jailbait Jade. That’s what I nicknamed you. Did you know that? I daren’t touch you for years after that. Not even a kiss on the cheek at any of the family gatherings. I didn’t trust myself to take what had been on offer. I was seven years older than you. At twenty-three I had to be the adult, even though I wanted you like a raging fever in my blood.’
Jade pulled her hand away from his mouth, tucking it safely away in her lap. ‘I wish you would stop reminding me of how stupid I was back then,’ she said, her eyes downcast.
‘It’s still there, isn’t it, Jade?’ he said in a smouldering tone. ‘The hint of the forbidden, the lust, the longing, the need that won’t go away. I see it in your eyes; I feel it in your body. I feel it like a pulse in my flesh when you look at me. We won’t last the year without consummating this marriage and you damn well know it.’
She dared to look at him then, her heart giving a little pony kick in her chest. He meant it. He wanted her and he was going to do what he could to have her. She would have to be so strong, so very strong. Falling in love with Nic was the one thing she must not do. She had done it once before and look where that had taken her. It had set her life on a completely different course. She only had herself to blame, deep down she knew that. She had wilfully thrown away her innocence to get back at Nic and it had backfired on her terribly.

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