The Ranieri Bride

‘Yes,’ she agreed.

‘Vulnerable,’ he added.

Freya pulled in her bottom lip to stop herself from answering that, unsure where he was going to take it.

‘You are forever striving to make them see you in a better light.’

‘You paid his debts off.’

‘Yes.’

‘You gave him the money.’

‘Though I had no need to,’ he agreed. ‘Yet Luca could not resist turning up today for one last thrust of the knife. He wanted me to know that if he wanted to he could “come out” and my hold on him would be gone.’

But there was more to this than just Luca playing devil’s advocate. ‘You still believe his version about what happened three years ago,’ she whispered as her heart spun into a painful twist.

‘Are you crazy?’ he turned round to look at her at last. ‘Of course I don’t!’

‘Then why the big tear-jerking confession about the vulnerability of loving someone?’ she threw back.

‘Here—catch.’ He tossed something at her.

Freya had to drop the photograph to field what had arrived in her hands. It was a DVD case. She frowned at it.

‘Your wedding present,’ he explained—and she did not miss the point being made in the way it had been delivered. ‘I am a man who likes to cover all contingencies, cara. Getting Luca to give me a full and honest confession about what happened three years ago was a safeguard I recorded via my mobile then downloaded to DVD. I did think of going for the big matching gesture and having a printed version mounted and framed for you but I was afraid you might hang it in the hall where everyone could read it and see what a blind and vulnerable idiot I am.’

‘Vulnerable how?’ Her head came up.

He sent her one of those lazy, rueful smiles because she was not questioning the blind-idiot part.

‘Frightened,’ he expanded. ‘That here came another person I—cared about, who held me in contempt for feeling that way.’

‘You wanted to believe his version!’ Freya accused him.

‘I was as weak as a kitten,’ he continued. ‘Besotted; with your hair, your eyes and—’

‘You stay back there until we have finished this!’ she warned when he began to move.

‘—And scared because the marriage thing was hitting panic buttons inside my head even before I saw you with him.’

‘So you preferred to believe I could betray you because that let you off the commitment hook?’

He caught her, crushing sensual silk and lace to lift her right off the ground and bring their eyes level. Hers were sparking, his were just black…

Sexy black, contrite black…an I-know-where-I-am-going-with-this kind of arrogantly challenging black.

‘I love you like there is no tomorrow,’ he told her softly.

‘Well, that makes it all OK then, doesn’t it?’ Freya flashed back sarcastically even as the declaration sent her heart into a dizzy, dipping dive.

‘Why can’t you cut me a bit of slack?’ Enrico sighed out.

‘Because you’re aroused,’ she said in disgust.

‘You think you need to tell me that?’

‘And you’re crazy if you think I am going to—’