Marchese's Forgotten Bride

t few days with Pandora?

Did she really want to know?

The car moved off with the smoothness of a thoroughbred. As they drove in front of the BarTec building, she remembered what Ella had told her just before Sandro had arrived to interrupt.

‘You’ve terminated my employment, haven’t you?’ The question left her husky and taut.

‘What makes you think that?’

Turning to look at him, she saw genuine curiosity glinting in his eyes and he even portrayed that sexily. Definitely at war with herself now, Cassie relayed what Ella had said about her shadow taking over her duties.

‘So you’ve decided I did this to pile the pressure on you?’

‘Well, didn’t you?’

He frowned with impatience. ‘You cannot commute to London from Florence, cara, and a more trusting woman would have worked that out for herself. But in answer to your accusation…no, I have not terminated your employment. You are merely on a few months’ leave in which to get married and resettle in another country. When you are ready—if you decide you want to continue to work—then we will find you a position in one of my organisations that work out of Florence.’ He waved a long-fingered hand. ‘It is a decision I will leave to you.’

Not even slightly mollified by that perfectly reasonable speech, ‘Gosh, my one small concession in a battery of your pre-decided edicts. Thank you!’ she said.

‘It was not a concession,’ he denied. ‘If you knew me better you would know I don’t make them…I actually believe you have a right of choice whether or not you want to continue to work after we marry.’

‘If I marry you.’ Cassie still couldn’t seem to stop hedging on that subject. It was as if some itchy instinct was obstinately stopping her from giving in to him. ‘And you can say what you like, Sandro, but the truth is that you want me cornered, isolated and helpless so I’ll stop arguing with you.’

He heaved out a heavy sigh. ‘If I was being that ruthless then it didn’t work! Believe it or not, I thought that we had the marriage issue tied up!’

‘If you believed that then why didn’t you call me to warn me that my shadow was there to learn my job?’

‘Because…’ He stopped, his lips coming together with a grim, hard snap. He frowned and looked away from her, only to immediately look back again, frustration playing games with the set of his face. ‘I was busy, OK?’ he said finally. ‘I had…things to do that put me out of range of a satellite link. And will you please desist from perching on the edge of the seat emulating a stern school headmistress?’ he bit out suddenly, waving a long-fingered hand at her tense attitude. Then he really shocked her with a sudden, totally unexpected eruption of anger. ‘And fasten your damn seatbelt!’

She was startled enough to jerk in surprise, the lightningquick way he snaked across the gap between them and physically pressed her back into the seat stunning Cassie into uttering a sharp cry.

‘You fool,’ he muttered, dragging the seatbelt around her and pushing it firmly into its lock. ‘Trust me, cara, you do not want to know what it feels like to hit something at speed without this in place!’

Flung by the taut words and his roughened manner into visualising what it was he was talking about, ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I just didn’t think.’

‘Been there, done that.’ His mouth wore a ring of tension around it. As he went to move away from her, Cassie reached up to touch his cheek. He looked at her, glinting eyes still frowning and fierce.

‘Sorry,’ she repeated.

His answering sigh turned into a grimace. ‘I overreacted, didn’t I?’

‘No,’ she denied. ‘I deserved to be physically manhandled and shocked out of my skin.’ Her fingertips stroked the tension etched into his lean cheekbone. ‘We haven’t really discussed what happened to you in the accident but—’

‘We are not going to discuss it.’

As abruptly as he’d moved across the seat he shifted back again, the subject cut off as severely as he severed Cassie’s breath in her throat. Her eyelashes flickered as she studied his lean profile. He looked stern suddenly.

‘Sandro—’

‘I was going to take you to lunch, but I’ve changed my mind,’ he cut right over her. ‘We will go shopping instead.’

‘Shopping for what?’ she demanded blankly.

‘Wedding rings. Betrothal rings. A bridal gown that will knock my eyes out,’ he enlightened casually. ‘Perhaps a treat or two for the twins.’

Being met by a wall of silence in response to that, Sandro was forced to turn his head. His beautiful bride was sitting there in her neat grey business suit with her long legs crossed decorously in front of her and her face showing him a stubborn profile that completely wiped out the few moments of softness which had preceded it.

The air left his lungs on an impatient hiss. Every time he showed her vulnerability she showed him softness. Every time he tried to move things forward for them she showed him stubborn ice.