LITMIR.BIZ

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castigation. What are you thinking?

      Yet the warmth of his touch as he’d cradled her close in the limousine had stirred something deep inside, reminding her too vividly of everything they’d shared … and never would again.

      So get over it.

      ‘Nicki is a beautiful child,’ Marcello opined quietly. ‘Obedient and unspoilt. You’ve done well with her.’

      She looked at him carefully. ‘A compliment, Marcello?’

      ‘Is it so difficult to accept I might offer you one?’

      He was close, within touching distance, and she stilled the almost irresistible urge to move away.

      ‘In the circumstances, yes,’ she stated coolly, and heard a faint drawling quality enter his voice.

      ‘Perhaps it is wise to ignore circumstances.’ His pause held a weight of meaning she chose not to explore. ‘And attempt to move on.’

      ‘I was doing fine,’ Shannay offered sweetly. ‘Until you dragged me here under threat.’ With that, she used breaststroke to glide effortlessly away and did her best to ignore him.

      Difficult, when Nicki sought his attention at every turn, laughing with delight as he splashed her, then allowed her to catch him.

      He was good with her. Kind, playful and clearly her idol.

      Daddy peppered her conversation with tremendous regularity, and she squealed as he lifted her onto his shoulders and ascended the tiled steps leading out from the pool.

      Maria served tea in the sala, together with a nutritious evening meal for Nicki, whose bedtime was gradually being extended to conform with local custom.

      Where Shannay predicted difficulties, none appeared to exist. Nicki had slipped happily into her new lifestyle, accepting the changes with surprising ease.

      Instead she was the one having problems as ambivalent emotions invaded her being, causing increasing turmoil with every passing day.

      ‘Mummy’s turn tonight,’ Nicki declared as Shannay tucked her into bed and picked up a book of fairy tales, aware Marcello had taken a chair close by.

      It was hard to shut him out as she endeavoured to focus on reading the story of the princess and the pea.

      He was there, a physical entity impossible to ignore, and she was conscious of his hooded gaze, the sheer dynamic presence of the man.

      Nicki listened with rapt attention, valiantly fighting sleep until her eyelids drifted down and her breathing settled into a slow even rhythm.

      Shannay carefully closed the book, checked the bedcovers, the monitor and night-light, then she paused in the doorway before closing the door softly behind her.

      Marcello followed, and she turned at the same time he did and brushed against him.

      An automatic apology fell from her lips, and she moved quickly to widen the distance between them as they both traversed the gallery leading to the staircase.

      ‘Nicki is fortunate to have you as a mother.’

      A flippant response rose in her throat, and didn’t find voice. Instead she uttered a quiet, ‘I can’t imagine my life without her.’

      Dark eyes swept her features as they began descending the stairs. ‘There is a solution.’

      Something took hold of her emotions and turned them upside down. ‘Such as?’ She paused as they reached the spacious foyer.

      ‘Stay.’

      Shannay closed her eyes, then opened them again. ‘With you? I don’t think so.’

      ‘It’s a large house. You would have an enviable lifestyle. And never need to be parted from Nicki,’ he added.

      Shannay was suddenly icily calm. ‘Define enviable?’

      ‘An unlimited expense account. Jewellery. Any vehicle you care to name. A personal bodyguard. Everything the wife of a very wealthy man can provide.’

      She wanted to hit him. ‘You think I care about a collection of designer gowns, the Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos, jewellery?’ She paused for breath. ‘Attending the opera, the theatre, charity fundraisers in all their various guises, glittering first nights, that parties are my ultimate choice in entertainment?’ She was filled with pent-up anger, and unable to prevent it from spilling over. ‘Live in this mansion, give my time to charity committees and become the exemplary wife in and out of the bedroom? You think any of that is important to me?’

      Marcello regarded her with a degree of amusement. ‘Not even the bedroom?’

      ‘No.’ And knew she lied.

      His voice became dangerously soft. ‘Then, perhaps you’d care to elaborate?’

      She tilted her chin a little and seared his dark eyes with her own. If only it were possible to turn back the clock, to recapture the love they’d once shared. Except that didn’t form part of any equation she could envisage.

      ‘You think you can buy whatever you want. Everything has a price. Even me. You’re so wrong!’ Her eyes assumed a molten hue.

      ‘As to your suggestion …’ She was almost beyond words. ‘Forget it!’

      She took a deep breath to help control her rising disbelief. ‘Not even for Nicki’s sake will I be trapped in a loveless marriage,’ she added with pent-up vehemence.

      An eyebrow rose in mocking silence at her lack of hesitation.

      ‘You broke my heart once.’ Any hope it had healed went out the window the moment she heard his voice and saw his image on video camera as he stood in the entrance bay of her apartment building just a few weeks ago. ‘No way will I give you the chance to do it again.’

      ‘I see I didn’t make myself clear,’ Marcello drawled. ‘We not only share the same roof, we occupy the same room, the same bed.’

      ‘Let me get this right. You’re offering sex as a bonus?’

      A muscle bunched at the edge of his jaw. ‘A normal marriage. The possibility of adding to our family.’

      ‘Forgive me.’ She was on a roll, and like a runaway train she couldn’t stop. ‘I’ve experienced your version of normal, and I hated the way it worked out.’

      ‘And nothing I say will convince you otherwise?’

      Shannay drew herself up to her full height and glared at him with a look that would have seared a lesser man to a crisp. ‘No.’ With that she turned on her heel and began retracing her steps.

      The thought of sitting opposite him calmly forking food into her mouth didn’t appeal. Besides, she wasn’t hungry.

      Instead, she’d retrieve a book, go settle somewhere and read.

      It would have been a good plan if she’d been able to concentrate on the written word.

      After a while she tossed the book aside and turned on the television, only to channel-hop in a bid to find something of interest.

      A cooking programme looked good, although it only served to remind her that she’d deliberately missed dinner.

      OK, so admit you’re mad at him.

      To think of agreeing to his so-called proposal is an insult.

      It hadn’t been his wealth and position that had attracted her to him in the first place. Dammit, she hadn’t even known who he was!

      The next few weeks couldn’t pass quickly enough, then she’d return home with Nicki and resume an ordinary life.

      She must have slept, for she came sharply awake at the sound of a child’s cry, followed by a heart-wrenching sobbing.

      Ohmigod

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