Reunited By A Shock Pregnancy
Chantelle Shaw
Bedded for the Italian’s pleasure… Claimed for his baby! Sienna should not be secretly attending her ex-husband’s wedding, but she has to see the woman Nico De Conti has replaced her with. Until she realises Nico isn’t the groom… Mortified, she can’t escape the church fast enough! But when Nico follows her, their burning fire spectacularly reignites, leading to one last night in Nico’s bed… A night that leaves Sienna shockingly pregnant with the Italian’s child!
Bedded for the Italian’s pleasure...
Claimed for his baby!
Sienna should not be secretly attending her ex-husband’s wedding, but she has to see the woman Nico De Conti has replaced her with. Until she realizes Nico isn’t the groom... Mortified, she can’t escape the church fast enough! But when Nico follows her, their burning fire spectacularly reignites, leading to one last night in Nico’s bed... A night that leaves Sienna shockingly pregnant with the Italian’s child!
Get lost in this marriage-reunited romance!
CHANTELLE SHAW lives on the Kent coast and thinks up her stories while walking on the beach. She has been married for over thirty years and has six children. Her love affair with reading and writing Mills & Boon stories began as a teenager, and her first book was published in 2006. She likes strong-willed, slightly unusual characters. Chantelle also loves gardening, walking and wine!
Also by Chantelle Shaw (#u0d01dbe0-5845-52f5-afeb-69a308fc3bf9)
Acquired by Her Greek Boss
Hired for Romano’s Pleasure
Wed for His Secret Heir
The Virgin’s Sicilian Protector
The Howard Sisters miniseries
Sheikh’s Forbidden Conquest
A Bride Worth Millions
Bought by the Brazilian miniseries
Mistress of His Revenge
Master of Her Innocence
The Saunderson Legacy miniseries
The Secret He Must Claim
The Throne He Must Take
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Reunited by a Shock Pregnancy
Chantelle Shaw
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08763-6
REUNITED BY A SHOCK PREGNANCY
© 2019 Chantelle Shaw
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For my girls, Rosie and Lucy.
So proud of the strong, independent women
you have become. xxx
Contents
Cover (#u11dd3c06-8397-51a3-8b89-06e0de1a40ba)
Back Cover Text (#ue40a5211-f82d-5db5-9142-2d4867315f9e)
About the Author (#u11e560ad-73ca-5099-a4c4-33eecf9b2a61)
Booklist (#u8cd42db6-07bf-51a0-8fa5-fbd2faa9a6d2)
Title Page (#ud92069bd-3a9f-5ed6-ad2a-e1c2f078de12)
Copyright (#u0e2c0add-f5c9-5ecc-a5d1-ef6e178b06c7)
Dedication (#ub64cdc42-30bc-5824-b2fd-9dedd2097297)
CHAPTER ONE (#ucb05ab98-4e11-5af6-a97f-1debffe8b7d2)
CHAPTER TWO (#ub292ec52-849c-593f-9174-27f6e5654867)
CHAPTER THREE (#u4b75fa34-4fc0-5fc9-9c89-d0c5a19bc158)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u0d01dbe0-5845-52f5-afeb-69a308fc3bf9)
SHE SHOULDN’T BE HERE! Not at her ex-husband’s wedding.
Sienna Fisher glanced frantically around the packed church, wondering if she could escape without anyone noticing.
There was not a chance, she decided, her heart sinking. She was wedged into a pew filled with guests, and sitting next to her was the little girl she had found crying outside in the graveyard. Sienna’s maternal instincts had been aroused by the child’s distress and she’d taken hold of her hand and led her into the church via the vestry to find her grateful mother, who was sitting on the other side of her daughter.
The organist started playing and as the rousing notes of Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba soared to the rafters, a ripple of interest ran through the congregation. Every head turned towards the main door to catch a first glimpse of the bride. Only Sienna stared straight ahead at the broad shoulders of Domenico De Conti, the man she had married in this very church ten years ago.
Standing with Nico was his younger brother, Daniele. Both men were tall but Nico had the advantage of a good three inches over Danny. Despite a five-year age-gap the brothers had always been close, and it was no surprise to Sienna that Nico had chosen Danny to be his best man again—just as he had done for their wedding.
Her breath caught in her throat when Nico turned his head. She assumed he would look towards his bride but instead his gaze was focused directly on her, as if some sixth sense had alerted him to her presence. From across the nave, she sensed his shock. Evidently her wide-brimmed hat did not conceal her face as well as she had hoped it would, but she hadn’t planned to hang around long enough for Nico to notice her. She’d just wanted a glimpse of the man she had once been madly in love with before he had betrayed her and broken her heart.
Sienna hadn’t intended to enter the church, and, earlier, she had hidden behind a tombstone when she’d seen Nico and Danny arrive. Nico must still have a passion for fast cars and had driven himself to his wedding in a sleek silver sports car. She’d watched the two men chat to the vicar for a few minutes before they had walked into the church, and she’d been about to leave when she was alerted to the sound of a child sobbing.
It was purely by accident that she was part of the congregation. Her heart fluttered in panic. She was too far away from Nico to make out the colour of his eyes that burned into her like laser beams, but she knew they were the bright blue of the sky above the moors on a cloudless summer’s day. His eyes and incredible bone structure were the only features he had inherited from his English mother, but for the rest: his almost black hair that was swept back from his brow, the dark stubble shading his jaw and his olive-gold skin denoted his Italian heritage.
Ten years ago Nico had been a boyishly handsome bridegroom. Now he was in his mid-thirties, his features had honed and hardened to chiselled perfection. He was sinfully gorgeous, with a latent strength and power in his whipcord body that his elegant grey morning suit could not disguise.
Sienna snatched her gaze from Nico’s, shaken by the effect he had on her after all this time. They had been divorced for eight years and she had come to the church today to prove to herself that she was over him. Her heart thudded as she waited for him to denounce her. Surely he would stop the wedding and instruct an usher to escort her from the building.
She felt her cheeks grow warm at the prospect of being humiliated in front of the population of the Yorkshire village where she had grown up. Although she hadn’t recognised many locals in Much Matcham’s pretty church of St Augustine’s. She supposed that most of the guests at the high-society wedding were from London, or Verona where Nico’s hotel business, De Conti Leisure, was based.
Her eyes were drawn involuntarily back to his dangerously attractive face and a sizzle of heat seared her body, a hunger that only Nico had ever stirred in her. Even more confusing was the fierce possessiveness that swept through her. He was hers,cried a voice inside her. But in a few minutes he would promise himself to another woman. Tears, hot and unexpected, stung her eyes when he finally turned his head away and looked to the front of the church while he waited for his bride.
Sienna’s hands shook as she pretended to study the order of service sheet that an usher had given her. ‘We’re running a little late,’ the usher had told her, interrupting her attempt to explain that she wasn’t actually a wedding guest. ‘Are you a friend of the bride or groom?’
‘Groom, I suppose, but...’
‘Sit here, please.’ The usher had practically pushed her into a pew and now she was trapped and about to witness the marriage of her ex-husband to the vision of ethereal loveliness, wearing an exquisite wedding gown, who had joined Nico in front of the altar.
Except that it wasn’t Nico. It was his brother standing next to the bride.
‘In the presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we have come together to witness the marriage of Daniele to Victoria,’ the vicar intoned.
It was Danny’s wedding! A riot of emotions stormed through Sienna. Her thoughts flew back to the previous weekend when she had visited her grandmother at the nursing home in York where ninety-year-old Rose Fisher had moved to eighteen months ago.
‘Much Matcham’s local newspaper is delivered to me every week and I was surprised to read that your husband is getting married again,’ Grandma Rose had commented over tea and scones.
Sienna’s stomach had swooped and she’d set her cup back on its saucer clumsily so that the delicate china rattled. ‘There’s no reason why my ex-husband shouldn’t remarry,’ she’d said coolly. But nothing fooled her grandmother and Rose had given her a sharp look. ‘I imagine he needs a wife to help him run Sethbury Hall, and...give him an heir.’ Pain had lanced through Sienna. Her inability to have a child was something she tried not to think about, just as she deliberately blocked out thoughts of the baby she had lost years ago.
‘Who is Nico marrying?’ She’d striven to sound uninterested as she’d taken the newspaper from Grandma Rose and skimmed down the births, deaths and marriages column to read the announcement of the wedding of Miss Victoria Harington and Mr Domenico De Conti, which would take place on the tenth of June at St Augustine’s church in Much Matcham. There had not been a picture of the couple, and now, as Sienna watched Danny turn his head and smile at his bride, she could only suppose that the paper had muddled the De Conti brothers’ names.
The rest of the wedding ceremony passed in a blur until the vicar finally pronounced that Daniele and Victoria were husband and wife. As the couple walked back down the aisle and the guests spilled from the pews to follow them out of the church, Sienna edged towards the vestry, hoping to slip away unnoticed.
‘Sienna? What are you doing here?’
She had almost made it to the vestry door when an achingly familiar voice made her freeze and simultaneously sent molten heat flooding through her veins. Nico’s husky accent had always made her weak at the knees. There was nothing she could do but try to brazen it out, and she squared her shoulders before she swung round to face him.
‘Hello, Nico.’ Was that breathless, sexy voice hers? Sienna cursed silently, flushing when she saw mockery in his piercing blue eyes. He skimmed his gaze over her in a proprietorial manner that was totally inappropriate considering their history. She felt a sharp, almost painful tingle in her nipples, and did not need to glance down to know that the betraying hard peaks were visible beneath her yellow silk dress.
She had deliberately worn a summery outfit: a white hat decorated with yellow flowers, champagne-coloured stilettos and matching handbag so that people would assume she was one of the wedding guests milling around outside the church before the ceremony. The predatory gleam in Nico’s eyes made her acutely conscious of how the close-fitting dress clung to her breasts and hips and the silky material felt sensuous against her skin.
Up close he was even more devastating. A shaft of sunlight filtering in through one of the high windows danced in his night-dark hair and emphasised the hard angles and planes of his face. He smelled divine. Sienna breathed in the spicy notes of his aftershave mixed with something else that was evocatively male and uniquely Nico. An unbidden memory filled her mind, of him sprawled on the tangled sheets after they had made love, sweat beading the dark hairs on his chest, his shaft already hardening again as he pulled her down on top of him.
In the early days of their marriage they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other and their passion had been explosive. But that was before she had lost the baby, and then sex had been dictated by fertility charts as her desire to fall pregnant again had become an obsession that had driven a wedge between her and Nico.
She was an idiot to have come here today, Sienna thought bleakly. It would have been better if she had never seen him again. Kinder to her foolish heart that still yearned for the relationship they had once had, even though her sensible head knew it had been a romantic fantasy she had built up in her imagination. But she wasn’t imagining the frank awareness in Nico’s eyes. She was overwhelmed by his raw sexual magnetism and dismayed by her reaction to him.
‘Sienna.’ The impatience in his voice pulled her mind back to the present and her embarrassing situation. ‘I didn’t see your name on the guest list.’ He frowned. ‘I’m certain Danny would have told me that he had invited you to his wedding.’
‘I...um...’ She could feel her face burning. ‘I saw in the local paper that Danny was getting married at St Augustine’s. Churches are open to the public and anyone has the right to attend a wedding taking place in a church. I wanted to give Danny and his new bride my best wishes.’
Nico’s eyes narrowed. ‘It’s odd that you knew it was my brother’s wedding. The local paper mixed up our names when they printed the forthcoming marriage announcement.’
‘My grandmother told me.’ Sienna crossed her fingers behind her back as she made the white lie. ‘Rose keeps in touch with your grandmother and when they spoke recently, Iris told her about Danny’s wedding.’
She lifted her chin and forced herself to meet Nico’s speculative gaze, hoping to project an image of cool composure she did not feel. Her insides were churning, her heart was racing and there was a dull ache low in her pelvis that made her press her thighs tightly together.
‘So you didn’t come because you hoped to see me?’ he drawled.
‘Of course not. What reason could I possibly have for wanting to see you again?’ She was defensive, mortified that he might guess the truth. ‘Our disaster of a marriage was over a long time ago.’
‘I wouldn’t call it a disaster,’ he murmured, taking her breath away with that mind-boggling statement. ‘There were good times.’ His voice lowered in a way that sent a shiver across Sienna’s skin. ‘Some very good times.’
‘When we were in bed, you mean?’ She had intended to sound sarcastic but the words emerged as a whisper. She licked her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. When had Nico moved closer so that his thigh was almost touching hers? ‘A marriage needs more to sustain it than dynamite sex.’
His lips twitched and she hated that he found her amusing, but when he spoke there was no mockery in his voice, nor in the fierce gleam in his eyes. ‘We were dynamite together, weren’t we, cara?’
‘Don’t,’ she said sharply, trying to ignore the leap her heart gave at his careless endearment. She stiffened when he lifted his hand and brushed his finger lightly down her cheek. The action was a blatant invasion of her personal space but she didn’t pull away, couldn’t. Her feet were glued to the floor and her gaze was trapped by his as she drowned in the cobalt-blue depths of his eyes. Everything faded and there were only the two of them standing in the church where they had once promised to love and honour each other, forsaking all others, for the rest of their lives.
Nico lowered his head so that his impossibly wicked mouth was inches from hers. ‘You are even more beautiful than my memory serves me, Si-enna.’ He rolled the syllables around his tongue, making her name sound like a caress. ‘It makes me wonder why I let you go.’
The spell shattered and she jerked away from him so forcefully that her hip bone collided with the end of a pew. ‘You were sleeping with your secretary.’ Hurt and humiliation, those two poisonous serpents that had haunted her for years, coiled inside her. ‘You didn’t let me go, I chose to leave,’ she snapped, her voice too loud, bouncing off the walls of the church.
‘Oh, Nico, there you are,’ came a softer voice. Looking past him, Sienna wished the floor would open up and swallow her when she saw Nico’s grandmother manoeuvring her wheelchair along the aisle towards them. But if Iris Mandeville had heard her angry outburst she made no comment. ‘Sienna, how delightful to see you.’ The elderly woman greeted her warmly. ‘How is your grandmother? I haven’t spoken to Rose for months.’
Sienna flushed when Nico gave her a hard stare. Clearly he was wondering how she could have known it was Danny’s wedding if Iris had not told Grandma Rose.
‘I am unable to visit Rose so often now that she lives in York and I have to use this wretched contraption.’ Iris tapped the arm of her wheelchair. ‘Rheumatoid arthritis has left me rather immobile,’ she answered Sienna’s unspoken question before turning her attention to her grandson.
‘Domenico, you are wanted for the photographs. I can’t get my wheelchair down the church steps but there is disabled access through the vestry. Sienna, my dear, would you be so kind to help me out to the car? Hobbs is bringing it round to the side of the church. Jacqueline was supposed to help me, but of course she wants to be included in the photographs.’
Sienna had noticed Nico and Danny’s mother during the ceremony. Jacqueline Mandeville loved being the centre of attention and her extravagant hat festooned with ostrich feathers had made her impossible to miss. When Sienna had married Nico, her mother-in-law had worn a dramatic ivory-coloured outfit, which had outshone her store-bought wedding dress. She had been so young and unsure of herself, she remembered ruefully. Her voluminous dress had hidden her baby bump, but everyone in the church, everyone in the village, had known that she was pregnant.
She jerked her mind from the past and forced a smile for Nico’s grandmother. ‘Yes, of course I’ll push your wheelchair out to the car.’
Footsteps sounded on the stone floor behind her. ‘Nico, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,’ a voice said tersely. ‘The photographer wants to take group pictures and Victoria is going into meltdown because you’d disappeared and one of the bridesmaids says she feels sick.’ Daniele De Conti stopped dead and stared. ‘Sienna? Wow! You look amazing.’
‘Hello, Danny,’ she murmured, taken aback by the undisguised male interest in Nico’s brother’s eyes. He had only been married for five minutes! But she remembered that he had always been an incorrigible flirt. Danny was a year older than her and when they were teenagers he’d asked her out a couple of times. But it had been nothing serious, and the minute she’d met Nico she’d only had eyes for him.
Against her will, her gaze was drawn to Nico, and her heart collided with her ribs when she recognised a glint of possessiveness in his eyes as well as something hotter, hungrier that sent a tremor through her. She was barely aware that Danny was speaking again.
‘I must say you are the last person I expected to be here today, Sienna.’
‘I just came to the church...’ she began awkwardly, feeling herself blush. She tensed when Nico slid his arm around her waist.
‘Sienna is here because I invited her,’ he told his brother smoothly. ‘I didn’t reveal the name of my plus-one guest as there was a chance that Sienna wouldn’t be free to travel to Yorkshire this weekend. But luckily for me she was able to come to the wedding.’
What the devil was he playing at? She was conscious that Danny and Iris were both looking at her curiously but her gaze was riveted on Nico, on his mouth as he lowered his head towards her.
He was going to kiss her! She read the message in his brilliant blue eyes and her heart did a somersault. Her common sense told her to step away from him, run, scream—maybe all three, but she had never been sensible around this man. She opened her mouth to tell Danny that she wasn’t Nico’s plus-one guest, no way.
‘Actually that’s not...’ The rest of her words were smothered by Nico’s mouth as he crushed her lips beneath his in a fierce kiss that made her head spin. His arm felt like a band of steel around her waist and there was blatant possession in the way he clamped his hand on her hip.
Her brain told her to pull away from him and demand to know what he was doing. But her body reacted instinctively to the heat emanating from him and the bold demands of his mouth on hers. The years fell away and she was eighteen again, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, standing on a windswept moor and overwhelmed by the wild passion that Nico stirred in her. A tremor ran through her as she opened her mouth beneath his and kissed him back. Her body recognised his touch and desire swept fierce and hot through her veins as he deepened the kiss and her lips clung to his.
And then, as suddenly and unexpectedly as it had begun, it was over. He lifted his head and she saw a hard glitter in his eyes that sent a ripple of unease through her when she reflected on how easily, how shamelessly she had capitulated to him. Would she never learn that he was dangerous to her peace of mind? Their break-up had almost destroyed her but eventually she had grown up, moved on and established a good life for herself. She could not let a kiss from a skilled seducer who knew how to press all her buttons turn her into the doormat she had been when she was Nico De Conti’s teenage bride.
He withdrew his arm from her waist and she felt as if part of her had been severed. Get a grip, she ordered herself angrily. Nico had taken an outrageous liberty when he’d kissed her and she should slap his face. At the very least, she should ask him why he had lied to his brother and grandmother about inviting her to the wedding. She was about to challenge him but he swung round and started walking towards the main door of the church.
‘Photographs,’ he reminded a startled-looking Danny. ‘Sienna, if you wouldn’t mind helping Nonnato the car? I’ll see you back at the hall for the reception.’
Like hell you will. She clenched her hands by her sides as she watched him stride away. His arrogance made her seethe, but out of respect for his grandmother she swallowed her furious retort.
‘Domenico is so commanding, just like his grandfather was,’ Iris murmured when Sienna pushed her wheelchair into the vestry and down the ramp that led out of the church. Fortunately the chauffeur was on hand to assist the elderly lady into the car, and Sienna’s muttered uncomplimentary remark about her ex-husband’s bossiness went unheard.
‘I’m not coming to the reception,’ she told Iris. ‘I don’t know why Nico said he had invited me to Danny’s wedding. Perhaps his plus-one guest couldn’t make it.’ She disliked the idea that he had decided she could stand in for his current girlfriend, whoever that might be. Nico had a high sex drive and it was inconceivable that he did not have a woman in his life.
Thankfully Iris did not refer to that kiss, but Sienna unconsciously ran her tongue over her stinging lips. The taste of Nico was still in her mouth. ‘I have to drive back to London this afternoon and spend the rest of the weekend preparing for an important business meeting on Monday,’ she made the excuse as she stepped back from the car.
Iris nodded. ‘Rose told me that your organic skincare company is hugely successful and you have won awards for your products. She is very proud of you.’
Sienna felt a pang of guilt thinking that she should visit her grandmother more often. She tried to get up to Yorkshire once a month, but running her own business left her little leisure time. She frowned, trying to remember when she had last met up with her friends for a drink. And as for dating, it was over a year since she had accepted a dinner invitation from a man.
Why had she allowed her social life to dwindle to practically nothing? she asked herself. She was only just twenty-nine and she had a sudden sense that life was passing her by. She loved her career and the independence it gave her but she was aware that something was missing. Love,companionship, sex. Where had that thought come from? Her lack of a sex life had never bothered her before today, but when Nico had kissed her it had felt as if a floodgate had opened and need had throbbed between her legs.
She was jolted from her thoughts when she realised that Iris seemed to be struggling to breathe. The elderly lady clutched her chest.
‘What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?’ Sienna asked urgently.
‘I’m having an angina attack,’ Iris gasped. ‘I thought I had put my medication in my handbag. It’s a pump spray that I use under my tongue. But it’s not here.’ She closed her handbag that she had been rifling through. ‘I must have left it in my bedroom.’
‘Should I call an ambulance?’
‘There’s no need. I’ll be fine once I have my medication. Will you come in the car with me back to the house? You can run inside and find the pump spray.’
‘I’ll go and fetch Nico.’
‘No,’ Iris said sharply. ‘I don’t want to cause a fuss and spoil the wedding.’
There was no time to waste arguing and Sienna ran round to the other side of the car and jumped in. The journey through the village only took a few minutes. When the chauffeur turned onto the driveway of Sethbury Hall she felt a familiar sense of awe as she stared at the imposing manor house where she had once lived with Nico. She had always felt like an imposter. The daughter of the village publican who had married above her station, some of the villagers had whispered. Cinderella had found her prince, but the fairy tale had ended in a bitter divorce.
The car came to a halt and Iris said faintly, ‘You remember where my room is, Sienna? The pump spray should be on my bedside table. Please hurry.’
CHAPTER TWO (#u0d01dbe0-5845-52f5-afeb-69a308fc3bf9)
NICO LOCATED HIS grandmother in the orangery but Sienna wasn’t with her. He strolled across to the open glass doors and scanned the terrace where most of the guests had congregated, but there was no sign of a yellow dress.
His jaw tightened. Inexplicably he was disappointed that his ex-wife hadn’t accompanied Iris to Sethbury Hall. Frankly it was something of a surprise that Sienna had disobeyed him. When they’d been married she had always been eager to please him, especially in bed. Sometimes her puppy-like devotion had irritated him but she had been very young; a teenage bride, sweetly shy and biddable.
He frowned, remembering her accusation on the day she had walked out of their marriage that he had taken her for granted. With hindsight perhaps he had, he thought uncomfortably. Dio,but he had been young himself, with a weight of duty and responsibility on his shoulders. Sienna had been another of his responsibilities. Pregnant with his child and terrified of her abusive father. Nico had done the only thing he could do and offered to marry her.
He cursed beneath his breath. The last thing he wanted was a trip down memory lane. When he’d spotted Sienna in the church earlier he had thought at first that he must have imagined her. Standing in front of the altar with his brother had evoked memories of his own wedding ten years earlier, when Danny had been his best man.
Nico remembered the sense of panic he’d felt on his wedding day, of being trapped. He’d looked over his shoulder towards the door, wondering if he could make a run for it. But at that moment Sienna had walked into the church. She had looked exquisite in her bridal gown, with her long hair streaming down her back. She’d held a bouquet of cream roses over her stomach and looked as nervous as he felt.
He’d accepted that he couldn’t abandon her and his baby, and as he’d watched her walk towards him, he had been impatient for their wedding day to be over so that he could take her to bed. Their passion was white-hot and when he was buried deep inside her he did not care that he was marrying her out of duty. She was his exclusively and she was carrying his child. At least that was what he had believed then.
Nico jerked his mind away from the past and declined the glass of sherry a waiter offered him. He could do with a drink but his preferred poison was oak-barrel-aged cognac. As he strode up the sweeping staircase to his private suite of rooms, he told himself that he could take a short break from his best-man duties. Danny and his elegant bride were mingling with their guests while canapés were served on the terrace.
Entering his sitting room, he went straight to the bar and poured himself a drink. The cognac was smooth and mellow with a pleasant heat at the back of his throat. He looked across the room, puzzled that his bedroom door was open. He was sure it had been shut when he’d left the suite earlier. His heart kicked in his chest when he saw a white hat decorated with yellow flowers on the bed.
‘I’m intrigued, cara,’ he murmured, strolling into the bedroom just as Sienna emerged from the en-suite bathroom. ‘First you were at the church and now I find you in my bedroom. Not that I am complaining,’ he assured her. Far from it. Lust as hot as molten lava rushed through his veins when she ran her fingers through her hair. Was the gesture a deliberate ploy to make him notice the glossy waves that had been hidden beneath her hat in the church?
Her hair was the same shade of dark red as a vintage burgundy wine and he knew the colour was entirely natural. When she was younger her hair had been waist-length, but now it fell to just past her shoulders with layers framing her face and drawing attention to her peaches-and-cream skin and wide grey eyes.
‘Your bedroom?’ Sienna frowned. ‘I thought your grandparents occupied the master suite?’
‘They did when my grandfather was alive. But my grandmother has become less mobile in the last few years and when she moved into the new annexe on the ground floor I had these rooms refurbished.’
‘That would explain why I can’t find her medicine. Iris gave me the impression that she still used the same rooms as she did when I lived at Sethbury Hall. I expect she was confused. She asked me to fetch her angina pump spray, but I couldn’t find it on the bedside table and I’ve been looking for it in the bathroom cupboards.’
‘I don’t understand why Nonna asked you.’
‘She was having an angina attack.’ Impatience flashed in Sienna’s eyes. ‘Don’t just stand there. Your grandmother looked in a bad way and she needs her medication. How do I get to the annexe?’ She went to step past him and stiffened when he caught hold of her arm.
‘I meant why did she send you to get her medicine rather than one of the household staff who know where her rooms are?’ Nico’s eyes narrowed. ‘Iris seemed perfectly well when I saw her a few minutes ago. She does suffer from angina but she takes tablets to control it. As far as I am aware she hasn’t had an attack since she was diagnosed with the condition and she carries a pump spray merely as a precaution.’
‘Well, maybe she forgot to take her tablet and that’s why she had an angina attack.’ Sienna threw her hands in the air. ‘Don’t you believe me? Why would I make something like that up?’
‘To give you an excuse to visit my bedroom?’ Nico had no idea what was going on but when he flicked his gaze to the four-poster bed, his libido didn’t give a damn why his incredibly sexy ex-wife was in his room.
She whirled away from him and he noted how her silky dress clung to the rounded curves of her pert derriere. Fire licked through his veins and burned even hotter when she faced him and put her hands on her hips, causing her dress to pull tight across her breasts. Despite her slender build, Sienna had always been full up top, and Nico was definitely a breast man.
‘That’s right.’ Her sarcastic tone forced his gaze up to her face and he was fascinated by the gleam of temper in her eyes. The girl he’d married had been timid and amenable and would not have dreamed of disagreeing with him, let alone glare at him as if she was itching for a fight. ‘I was desperate to be alone with you so I invented the story that your grandmother had sent me to find her medication.’ Sienna gave him a withering look. ‘Your ego must be enormous if you think I was so blown away when you kissed me in the church that I want you to do it again.’
His ego wasn’t the only thing that was enormous, Nico silently derided himself, conscious that his arousal was uncomfortably hard beneath his suit trousers. As for that kiss. Of course it shouldn’t have happened. But he had seen the lascivious look in his brother’s eyes when Danny had stared at Sienna, and he’d been overwhelmed by a fierce possessiveness, a need to claim her in front of Danny. Especially Danny.
That wasn’t the only reason he had kissed her though. There had been something deeply primitive about his compelling need to put his mouth on Sienna’s. It had been the same the first time he’d met her ten years ago. He had taken one look at her and known that he had to have her. He’d kissed her within the hour and slept with her three days later.
He knew every gorgeous dip and curve of her body; the little mole on her inner thigh that he’d always kissed before spreading her legs wide so that he could flick his tongue over the tight nub of her femininity until she writhed and begged him to possess her. Not that he’d needed any persuasion. Sex with Sienna had been wilder and hotter than with any other woman—a theory Nico had put to the test many times since his divorce.
He’d told himself that it couldn’t have been as good as he remembered. But when he had kissed her in the church a little while ago, their chemistry had been combustible. The soft gasp she’d made as she’d parted her lips beneath his had decimated his self-control and for a few moments he had forgotten that they had an audience of his brother and grandmother.
Now though they were alone, and as he watched Sienna’s tongue dart out and slide over her slightly swollen lower lip a carnal hunger tore through Nico. ‘Of course you want me to kiss you again, cara,’ he drawled. ‘I can read the signs.’ He lifted his hand to the front of her dress and traced the outline of one pointed nipple, wildfire coursing through him when she drew an audible breath. But she made no attempt to move away and her pupils had dilated so that her eyes were inky pools edged with silvery grey.
‘This is crazy,’ she whispered. ‘I did not have an ulterior motive for coming to your room. I wasn’t even aware that this is your room.’ She lifted her chin and said in a firmer voice, ‘I don’t care what you think, Nico. I’m not the besotted teenage bride who was in awe of you. I’ve changed.’
‘But this hasn’t changed,’ he said roughly, threading his fingers into her hair so that he could tug her even closer and angling her head. Her breasts rose and fell jerkily and her lips parted in readiness for him to claim her mouth. The sexual chemistry between them was tangible and his nostrils flared as he dragged oxygen into his lungs. But as he lowered his face to hers, she put her hand on his chest to stop him.
‘What about your grandmother?’ Sienna drew a shuddering breath, as if she was struggling for control as much as he was. ‘She needs her angina medicine.’
‘Like I said, I saw Iris just before I came upstairs. She was on her second glass of sherry and regaling the new vicar with lurid tales of her youth.’ Nico exhaled heavily, aware of the dull throb of unfulfilled lust in his groin. ‘But regrettably this will have to wait until later. We need to get down to the marquee in the garden for the wedding dinner, and I have various duties to perform as best man.’
He dropped his hands down to his sides but could not bring himself to move away from her. His senses were inflamed by her perfume and the sharp, sweet scent of desire—hers, his—was thick in the air.
She shook her head and walked over to the bed to pick up her hat. ‘There won’t be a “later”, Nico. If I hadn’t gone to the church we would never have met again.’ She flashed him a cool smile, but something like sadness chased across her face and her grey eyes were as haunting and mysterious as the mist that sometimes came down over the moors. ‘We have led separate lives for eight years. We’re strangers, and I’m not going to sit through your brother’s wedding reception and pretend that we are friends.’
Sienna disappeared through the door with a swirl of yellow silk, leaving Nico faintly stunned when he realised that she was leaving him—again.
A memory flashed into his mind of when he had watched her walk out of the gates of Sethbury Hall eight years ago. She had carried a small suitcase containing the few chain-store clothes that were all she’d owned when she had married him. He had found all the designer dresses that he’d bought her hanging in the wardrobe, and she had also left behind the jewellery he’d given her, including her wedding ring.
As he’d watched her slender figure march down the driveway, her back ramrod straight, he had told himself he was glad she was leaving. Lying bitch. Her accusation that he had been unfaithful was all the more galling because he knew the truth about her. She was the cheat, the one who had kept secrets. Dio, he had trusted her, but after what his brother had told him, Nico had vowed that he would never again believe a word Sienna said.
His jaw clenched. He had never revealed to Sienna that he knew she had slept with his brother first, before him. Danny had admitted it when Nico had confided two years after his wedding that the marriage was in trouble. When Sienna had suffered a late miscarriage she had been advised to wait a few months before trying to conceive again. Nico hadn’t told Danny or anyone else that after he and Sienna had tried unsuccessfully for a year to have another baby, he had done a home test, which showed he had a low sperm count.
Danny’s confession had eaten away at Nico, and the suspicion that Sienna had been pregnant with his brother’s child when he’d married her had festered like something rank and rotten in his soul. Sienna’s accusation that he was having an affair with his PA had been the final straw. Her hypocrisy had infuriated him and divorce had been a way out of a marriage based on lies. He had set her free so that she could meet someone else who would give her a child—which he was unable to do.
He pulled his mind away from the past when he heard the click of her heels on the marble stairs and pictured her in her sexy, yellow silk dress. Ten years ago she had been a pretty teenage bride with no idea of her potential to be a stunning beauty in the future. The grown-up Sienna had exceeded all his expectations, he brooded. She was a ravishing, sensual siren and ever since he had caught sight of her in the church, desire had pulsed hot and urgent in his blood.
The sensible thing to do would be to let her walk out of his life as he had done once before. But he had never been able to forget her, and seeing her again had evoked an unexpected sense of regret that he had lost her. At the very least, he was curious to know why she had turned up in Much Matcham having read in the paper that he was getting married. Her excuse that Iris had told her grandmother Rose it was Danny’s wedding was patently another lie.
Immediately after the divorce he had hated her, but now he was merely indifferent to Sienna’s wiles, Nico assured himself. He grimaced as the ache in his groin reminded him that his body was not as uninvolved as he’d like. But he wasn’t a young man at the mercy of his hormones any more. He was older, hopefully wiser, and he had learned not to mistake lust for a deeper emotion. Undoubtedly he could handle his inconvenient attraction to his ex-wife.
‘Nonna will be disappointed if you leave,’ he called after her as he strode onto the landing and leaned over the banister rail. ‘Especially as she clearly went to some lengths to make sure you came back to the house for the reception.’
Sienna paused on her way down the stairs and looked up at him. ‘Emotional blackmail won’t work with me. You allowed Iris to think there is something going on between us but you’ll have to tell her the truth.’
‘Oh, I’m all for the truth, cara,’ he murmured, walking swiftly down the stairs to join her on the half-landing. ‘And the truth is we both still feel the wildfire attraction that burned between us a decade ago.’ He felt a tremor run through her and saw hunger in her eyes before her lashes swept down and concealed her thoughts. Triumph surged through Nico, threatening the self-control he had been so confident would not waver.
‘I had only left school a month before we met. What chance did I stand?’ she demanded in a bitter voice. ‘You were six years older than me and already worldly and experienced. In contrast I was painfully innocent but you soon changed that, didn’t you, Nico? You were used to having whatever you wanted and it was my misfortune that you decided you wanted me.’
Misfortune? He had married her, hadn’t he? He gritted his teeth. ‘I don’t remember hearing you complain, cara. But I do remember the moans you made when I kissed your breasts. Please, Nico, take me now,’ he mocked, his satisfaction mixed with a stab of shame when fiery colour winged along her high cheekbones and hurt flashed in her eyes.
‘You always were an arrogant bastard.’ She pushed her hair back over her shoulders and he inhaled the scent of vanilla. Her foot was poised over the lower stair. ‘This is a pointless conversation. No good ever comes from digging up the past. Goodbye, Nico.’
‘Stay.’ The word burst from him, harsher than he’d intended, but then he hadn’t intended to plead with her. She stared at him, looking as shocked as he felt. She was so beautiful. He could look at her for ever and never grow tired of her delicate features. That sexy mouth of hers was a little too wide and all the more perfect for it, and her eyes were the colour of storm clouds. ‘Please,’ he said roughly.
She swallowed and the convulsive movement of her throat betrayed emotions that he sensed she was desperate to hide. ‘I...’ She did that flippy thing with her hair again, running her fingers through the layers and making him want to touch the silken strands of rich burgundy. ‘Why do you want me to stay for the reception?’ she asked huskily.
He shrugged to hide the fact that he was asking himself the same question. ‘You said you’ve changed in the years since we were divorced and so have I. We are not the people we were then, but the attraction we both feel is as strong as when we first met.’
Her tongue darted across her lips. ‘I don’t know what you want,’ she said in a low tone.
What he wanted was to whisk her back to his bedroom so that they could spend the rest of the afternoon in bed. And if she carried on looking at him with eyes that had turned smoky and held a gleam of sensual promise, he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. ‘I’d like to get to know the grown-up Sienna Fisher,’ Nico told her, startled to discover it was the truth.
* * *
Sienna looked around the huge marquee, which was decorated with extravagant floral displays, and sighed when Nico’s grandmother gave her a friendly wave from across the room.
‘My angina pump spray was in my handbag all the time. I don’t know how I missed it,’ she’d explained when Sienna had asked before they sat down to dinner if she was feeling better. ‘I’m glad you decided to stay for the reception after all. It’s good to see you and Nico getting on so well,’ Iris had added pointedly.
She must be mad to have agreed to stay, Sienna thought. If Iris told Grandma Rose that she had returned to Sethbury Hall as Nico’s guest, she would have some explaining to do. Nico had said that four hundred guests had been invited to the wedding. There was no top table and everyone, including the bride and groom, had sat at individual tables when the five-course meal was served by an army of white-jacketed waiters.
The food had looked exquisite but she’d been so conscious of Nico sitting beside her that she had barely tasted what she was eating. Now that the meal was over and the toasts and speeches were finished, the band had started playing and people were already on the dance floor.
Nico was talking to one of his relatives sitting on the other side of him and Sienna studied him covertly from beneath her lashes while she sipped her champagne. It was unfair that he was so indecently sexy, she brooded. His mother had been regarded as one of the great beauties of her generation. Like his grandfather before him, Nico’s patrician features were an indication of an aristocratic lineage that could be traced back centuries to when English knights and barons had forced King John to sign the Magna Carta.
Jacqueline Mandeville’s marriage to a handsome Italian playboy Franco De Conti, whose family’s enormous fortune had derived from their exclusive hotel chain, had produced an heir and a spare, Danny had once joked to Sienna. They had been at Sethbury Hall where Nico had organised a tennis tournament with a group of friends. Sienna had been startled by the bitterness in Danny’s voice. She’d told herself she must have imagined that he was jealous of his older sibling. But now, as she looked across the table and saw Danny staring at Nico with an odd expression on his face, she remembered that day all those years ago.
Nico had beaten Danny in a tennis match and Danny had stormed off the court. Later, he’d laughed and told her it was just brotherly rivalry. ‘Nico wins everything, including my girlfriend,’ he’d said. It wasn’t strictly true. She had gone out with Danny a couple of times, but when he had tried to kiss her she’d explained that she just wanted them to be friends. Nico had arrived at Sethbury soon after and she had fallen instantly in love with him.
Sienna’s mind jolted back to the present when Danny leaned across the table. ‘When did you get back with my brother? I’m surprised Nico didn’t mention that he was seeing you again.’
It was on the tip of her tongue to explain that she hadn’t had any contact with Nico since their divorce. But there had been faint suspicion in Danny’s voice, and bizarrely she wanted to protect Nico from embarrassment so she said lightly, ‘Oh, we bumped into each other in London recently and he invited me to the wedding. Nico knew that you and I had been friends, and I was pleased to have the chance to wish you and your new bride a happy marriage.’
‘Come and dance with me for old times’ sake.’ Danny stood up and walked around the table.
Sienna hesitated, unable to explain to herself why she felt reluctant to take his hand. ‘I expect you want to dance with your wife.’
‘Victoria is dancing with her father.’ Danny tugged her out of her chair and led her over to the dance floor. He kept hold of her hand and slid his other arm around her waist. ‘We were good friends when we were younger, weren’t we? Do you remember when a group of us hired a river boat for the day in York and you fell in?’
‘You pushed me in.’
‘Ah, but I jumped in and rescued you, didn’t I?’ Danny went on to recount other stories from their youth, and Sienna was soon laughing at the memories. She had got to know Danny when he had been a regular at her father’s pub where she’d served behind the bar most evenings and weekends, saving up to go to university. Not that her father had paid her much for all the hours she’d worked, but at least while he was being obnoxious to her he had left her mother alone.
Danny De Conti and his public school friends had seemed glamorous and exciting compared to the local boys from the village.
‘Danny’s not bad looking, but his older brother is drop-dead gorgeous,’ the other barmaid, Becky, had told Sienna. ‘Domenico spends much of his time in Italy, but my mum is a cook up at the hall and she heard that he’s coming home next week. By the way, Lady Mandeville is looking for a part-time cleaner and Mum says she’ll put your name forward if you like.’
Which was how, ten years ago, Sienna had been mopping the kitchen floor at Sethbury Hall when Nico had walked in, his riding boots leaving footprints where she had just cleaned. ‘Mi dispiace,’ he’d murmured with barely a glance at her. But then he’d stopped and turned to stare at her, the faint frown between his eyebrows not marring the masculine beauty of his face. ‘Who are you?’
She had been struck dumb; dazzled by the handsome, bronzed god who had materialised in front of her and could not possibly be real. She’d blinked but he had still been there, tall and strong-looking, his exotic appearance emphasised by his golden skin and unexpected brilliant blue eyes. As she’d stared back at him, a slow smile had lifted the corners of his gorgeous mouth and her heart had raced.
‘Perhaps you are not real and that’s why you don’t have a name,’ he’d teased. ‘But if you are real your feet must be wet.’
Confused, she’d glanced down and discovered that the mop was dripping water over her trainers. ‘I’m Sienna,’ she’d blurted out, mortified when he’d run his eyes over her faded jeans and tee shirt. All her clothes had been years old but she hadn’t had money to buy new, fashionable stuff like the other girls she’d known at school. Her tee shirt had been too tight, and because it had been a hot day she hadn’t bothered to wear a bra.
To her horror she had felt her nipples harden, but when she’d hurriedly crossed her arms in front of her she had seen a gleam in Nico’s eyes that had sent a delicious shiver through her. It had been the first time in her life that she’d felt desire, and in that instant she had become aware of her femininity.
‘My name is Domenico, but my friends call me Nico,’ he’d told her.
‘I know, sir.’ She’d suddenly remembered her lowly position and his exalted one. One day he would inherit Sethbury Hall and the title of Viscount Mandeville when his grandfather died.
He had laughed. ‘I very much hope you will call me Nico, Si-enna.’ Even the way he’d said her name had been sexy. ‘You can’t have wet feet for the rest of the day. Take off your shoes and we’ll sit in the garden while they dry. You can tell me why a girl as beautiful as you is working here.’
She had been seduced by Nico’s easy charm and his self-assurance that even back then had sat lightly on his broad shoulders. He had kissed her for the first time that same afternoon while they were sitting in the shade of a lilac tree covered with heavenly scented purple spires. Later she had walked home on air and even her father’s drunken bad temper couldn’t burst her bubble. She’d been in love with a handsome prince who she’d been sure would make all her dreams come true.
Right now, Nico looked as dangerous as the wicked wolf beloved of so many fairy tales. Time shifted to the present and Sienna found herself looking into the glittering gaze of her ex-husband. He was moving purposefully across the dance floor towards her, accompanied by the new Mrs De Conti.
‘Let’s swap. I don’t want to be accused of monopolising your delightful bride,’ he said to Danny, skilfully executing the change of partners before Sienna had time to object.
He swept her across the dance floor so fast that her head spun and her feet barely touched the floor. When she tried to ease away from him, he clamped his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him so that her breasts were crushed against his chest.
‘What are you doing?’ she muttered, struggling to speak with her face pressed against his shirt front. She could see the shadow of his dark chest hairs beneath the fine white silk. The heat of his body was melting her insides.
‘I could ask you the same question,’ he said in a terse voice, and when she glanced up at his face she realised that he was furious. ‘Did you come to Danny’s wedding to cause trouble?’
She was mystified. ‘What do you mean by trouble? What have I done?’
‘Did you give any thought to Danny’s new bride while you were flirting with him in front of the wedding guests?’
‘I was not flirting...’
‘You were all over him like a rash. Dio, you’ve got every male in the marquee panting over you. Why embarrass Victoria like that? Was it to prove that you can have any man you want, including my ass of a brother?’
Sienna sucked in a sharp breath, her temper rising to meet Nico’s. ‘You asked me to come to the reception,’ she snapped. ‘It’s ridiculous to make me out as some sort of man-eater. No one here is interested in me.’
‘I don’t believe you are unaware of the effect you have on men.’
‘I only have an effect on you.’ The words spilled from her mouth before she realised what she had said.
Nico tensed and stared at her, and the hunger in his eyes both excited and appalled her. He was her ex-husband and whatever there had been between them had died a long time ago, she reminded herself. So why did he make her feel dizzy and disconnected from reality?
She was barely aware of the other people on the dance floor. There was just Nico filling her vision and swamping her senses. He was even more dangerously handsome and charismatic than her memory of him but she was determined not to fall under his spell again.
CHAPTER THREE (#u0d01dbe0-5845-52f5-afeb-69a308fc3bf9)
SIENNA ATTEMPTED TO wrench herself out of Nico’s arms and glared at him when he tightened his hold on her waist. ‘I don’t want to dance with you,’ she told him, her fury mixed with panic that she could not control her response to him. She was tempted to dig one of her stiletto heels into his foot. ‘You can’t make me.’
‘Do you want to put that to the test?’ He laughed softly at her fulminating look. ‘You did not have such a fiery temper when you were my wife.’
‘At eighteen I was too in awe of you to say boo to a goose. But I grew up and I’m no longer the girl who worshipped the ground you walked on.’
‘You’ve certainly changed. You are more confident and assertive, and very sexy, cara.’ The unholy gleam in his eyes was part teasing and part male admiration that sent another sizzle of heat through Sienna. Nico dropped his hands from her waist and perversely she wished he was still holding her.
They had reached the door of the marquee, and when she followed him outside she took a deep breath to steady her racing pulse. In midsummer the days were long, and although it was past nine o’clock, darkness was only just falling, turning the sky a soft purple hue. The air was warm and sultry, filled with the mingled scents of roses and lavender that grew in wide beds in the garden. In the distance there was an ominous rumble of thunder.
‘I should go.’ As she spoke, Sienna checked her watch. She would have to walk back to the village where she had left her car, and it would be completely dark when she drove across the moors to pick up the main road that led to the motorway.
‘Come up to the house for a drink.’ Nico’s voice was casual, but when she glanced at him, something about his intent expression made her heart miss a beat.
‘I can’t,’ she said quickly before she gave in to the temptation to spend another hour with him. It was unlikely she would ever see him again after tonight and she resented the little pang her heart gave. She was so over him, she reminded herself sternly. ‘I had a glass of champagne when we toasted the bride and groom and I’ll be over the limit to drive if I have any more alcohol. Besides, it’s a good five-hour trip back to London.’
He frowned. ‘You can’t make that long journey tonight. Why didn’t you book a hotel room?’
She shrugged, not wanting to admit that she’d made a spur-of-the-moment decision that morning to drive to Much Matcham because she’d mistakenly believed that he was getting married and she had been curious about his choice of bride. ‘No rooms were available at The George, or at any of the local B & Bs. I suppose they were all booked by the wedding guests. If I’m tired on the way home, I’ll stop at a motorway services hotel.’
‘You can spend the night here at Sethbury Hall.’ Nico gave her a speculative look when she stared at him. ‘Why not?’
‘I can think of several reasons why it would be a terrible idea for me to spend the night with you.’
‘As a matter of fact I was going to suggest that you sleep in one of the guest rooms,’ he drawled. The amusement in his voice caused a hot stain of embarrassment to flare on Sienna’s cheeks and she was furious with herself for jumping to the wrong conclusion. ‘To satisfy my curiosity, why would it be a terrible idea for us to sleep together? We are attracted to each other and we’re both consenting adults.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ She shook her head and tried to dismiss the erotic images in her mind of Nico making love to her on his huge four-poster bed.
The gleam in his eyes made her wonder if he could read her thoughts. ‘What are you afraid of?’ he asked softly.
That you will break my heart for a second time.
‘I’m not afraid of anything,’ she snapped. ‘I simply think it’s a bad idea.’ She hated that he tied her in knots and without another word she swung round and started to walk along the gravel path that wound around the side of the house. But she had only taken a few steps when a thunderclap shattered the still air. The noise was as loud as an explosion and Sienna jumped when a bolt of lightning zigzagged like a white scar through the sky that had turned black as the storm clouds mustered. And then the rain fell; big, hard raindrops that stung her bare shoulders and arms.
In seconds it was a deluge. Nico grabbed her hand. ‘Come on,’ he shouted above the crash of thunder. Half-blinded by the torrential rain, she clung to his hand as they raced up the stone steps and across the terrace. Nico opened the French doors and pulled her behind him into the drawing room. Sienna barely noticed her surroundings. She was soaked to the skin and her dress clung to her body. Following Nico’s gaze, she glanced down and saw that her nipples were jutting provocatively through the wet silk.
He had closed the glass doors and the noise of the thunderstorm outside was muted. But inside the room a different storm raged. The sexual tension sparked between them and Sienna’s skin prickled; every one of her nerve-endings acutely aware of him.
Nico took off his jacket and threw it carelessly over the back of a chair. He shoved a hand through his wet hair and prowled across the room towards her, as predatory as a sleek and very dangerous jungle cat. He stood in front of her, so close that the flames of desire in his eyes scorched her and she could not repress the shiver of anticipation that ran through her.
‘Are you cold?’ His eyes were fixed on her breasts and Sienna lost the battle with herself.
‘I’m burning up,’ she admitted in a husky voice she did not recognise as her own. Maybe she was crazy. All right, she was definitely crazy, but she could not make herself step away from Nico. She had wanted him from the moment she’d seen him in the church today. But she was no longer a shy eighteen-year-old, she was a confident woman who knew her own mind and was in every way his equal.
Although Sienna was wearing four-inch heels Nico towered over her. She watched his head descend and impatience swept through her. Pushing herself up onto her toes, she grabbed hold of his tie and pulled his mouth down onto hers. Just like when they had been in the church, the kiss exploded between them as their mouths fused together. He wrapped one arm around her waist and threaded the fingers of his other hand through her hair, cupping her nape and tugging her head back to allow him to plunder her lips with the mastery that was an integral part of Nico De Conti.
Sienna couldn’t resist him. She had never been able to, she acknowledged. He was a sorcerer and when she was in his arms she was enchanted by his sensual magic. His kiss stole her sanity as he increased the pressure of his lips on hers and pushed his tongue into her mouth to explore her with mind-blowing eroticism.
She had missed him so much. Memories she’d tried to suppress for years burst into her mind like fireworks, silver and gold, shimmering and incandescent. The past merged with the present as she pictured them naked, their limbs entwined, his hands sliding over her body just as they were doing now. He eased away from her a fraction so that he could spread his fingers over her breasts and caress them through the silk of her dress. The warmth of his palms was intoxicating but it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough.
His jacket had taken the brunt of the rain when they had been caught in the storm, but his shirt front was damp beneath Sienna’s hands as she ran them over his chest. She could feel the heat of his body through the fine material and she tugged at the buttons, eager to touch his bare skin. Pulling his shirt tails from the waistband of his trousers, she gave a soft sigh as she spread the edges of the shirt wide and skimmed her fingertips over his bronzed, satin skin overlaid with whorls of silky black hair.
His hands were busy too, sliding up to tug the straps of her dress down her arms. ‘There’s a zip,’ she muttered against his mouth when he broke the kiss so that they could both snatch a breath. He gave a grunt and claimed her lips again, hot and hungry, seeking a response she had no thought to deny him.
She lifted her hands to his shoulders and felt him slide her zip down the length of her spine. He peeled her dress from her breasts and made a rough sound in his throat when he discovered that she was braless. He dragged his thumb pads over her taut nipples, making her gasp and shudder as sensation arced down her body to meet the ache between her legs.
‘You are exquisite,’ Nico said hoarsely, a hard glitter in his eyes as he stared at her firm breasts, each adorned with a dusky pink nipple standing erect. ‘Perfetto.’ Dull colour streaked along his sharp cheekbones and his features hardened, giving him a feral appearance that sent another shiver through Sienna.
‘Let me warm you.’ His voice was like rough velvet. ‘Hold on tight, cara.’ He scooped her off her feet, one arm around her waist and the other beneath her knees. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her face against his throat, her tongue darting out to lick the faint saltiness of his skin. He tasted divine and, driven by an elemental need that only this man had ever evoked in her, she gently bit his neck.
‘Dio,’ he growled, his arms flexing around her as he strode out of the drawing room and across the hall. ‘Wait until we are upstairs and then you can bite me all you like. But be warned that I bite back.’
He carried her up the sweeping staircase as if she weighed nothing. On the landing, he paused and sought her gaze with his bright blue eyes that burned down to her soul. ‘My bedroom is along the corridor on the right, and to the left are the guest rooms. Your choice.’ His tone was as blank as the expression on his far too handsome face.
For a moment Sienna wished he had made the decision for her and simply carried her to his room. That way she could absolve herself of the guilt that she was shamefully weak where he was concerned. But she wasn’t the overawed girl who had married him, she reminded herself. Since their divorce she had taken control of her life and she was entirely capable of making her own decisions. She wanted everything that Nico could give her. For this one night only. A chance to come to terms with the past so that she could evict him from her mind and her heart once and for all.
‘Right,’ she said huskily, ignoring the voice in her head advising her to run as far and as fast from him as she could. He did not ask again, he simply turned and strode down the corridor, shouldered the door into his private suite and carried her through to his bedroom. Closing the door, he set her down on her feet and pulled her into his arms, his mouth seeking and finding hers in a kiss that was hotter and more urgent than anything that had gone before.
The top of her dress was bunched around her waist. Nico tugged the rain-soaked silk over her hips and the dress slithered to the floor, leaving her in just a pair of tiny knickers that were wet from her arousal. His hands were everywhere on her body, sliding down her back and shaping the curves of her bottom before he pushed one hand between her legs and cupped her sex through her damp panties.
She arched her hips towards him and he muttered something in Italian as he shoved her up against the door, his mouth still fused with hers. He kissed her until she was dizzy with desire, until nothing existed but Nico’s lips on her lips, her throat and then, at last, on her breasts as he sucked on one hard nipple and then the other.
Sienna gave a guttural cry; need pulsing through her as Nico tormented the sensitive peaks with his tongue. She skimmed her hands over his chest and flat abdomen, following the arrowing of dark hair that disappeared beneath his waistband. Hesitating for a second, she moved her hand lower and traced the hard outline of his erection straining beneath his trousers. His breath rasped in his throat, and when she lifted her eyes to his, the burning heat of his gaze added fuel to the fire inside her.
She fumbled with his zip, her knuckles scraping across his burgeoning arousal. Nico swore and pushed her hand away, yanking the zip down so that he could free himself from the constraint of his trousers and silk boxers.
Dear Lord, he was huge. Not that she had any personal experience of other men to compare him with, Sienna acknowledged. There had only ever been Nico. And it had been so long since she had felt him inside her. Molten heat pooled low in her pelvis at the thought of what she wanted him to do.
‘I need you now.’ She didn’t realise she had spoken aloud until he made a choked sound, halfway between a laugh and a groan.
‘It’s the same for me, cara. I can’t wait.’ He slid his hand down her body, pushed aside the scrap of lace between her legs and eased a finger into her wet heat. She almost went up in flames. The sensation of him swirling his finger inside her and gently stretching her, before he pushed a second digit into her opening, made her gasp and tense as the first ripples of an orgasm threatened to shatter the remnants of her control.
But she wanted more, and when she felt Nico’s rock-hard erection press between her thighs, her insides turned to liquid. He tugged her knickers down and she stepped out of them. ‘Wrap your legs around me,’ he muttered, his hands cupping her bottom cheeks as he lifted her off her feet. Sienna obeyed him mindlessly, compelled by a primal urge to take him inside her and let him possess her utterly.
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