The Cost of Her Innocence

She listened with a sinking heart as Tony continued speaking. ‘With a fourteen-year age difference between us I’ve always been a bit in awe of him. Dante has it all—tall, good-looking, fit and incredibly wealthy. He doesn’t need to work so hard or even at all. I keep telling him, but he just ignores me. He’s far too cerebral for my mind, but he is a great guy when you get to know him, and all the women adore him. I’ll introduce you.’

‘No,’ Beth said abruptly. ‘You and your brother must have a lot to catch up on, and I need to feed Binkie.’

She tried to excuse herself but Tony’s hand tightened on her waist when she tried to move.

‘The cat can wait. Do me a favour, Beth, and play along with me. With a stunner like you on my arm, for once I will get one over on my big brother. He has played the field discreetly for years with a string of beautiful women. To be honest I’m surprised he’s decided to get married.... His fiancée looks lovely, but she’s not as nice as you.’

Beth

didn’t get a chance to refuse....

‘Good to see you, Tony,’ a deep, dark voice drawled, and Beth froze in Tony’s hold at the hauntingly familiar sound of the man’s voice.

‘And you, Dante. I’m surprised you could make it.’ Tony grinned and shook his brother’s hand. ‘And this must be the fiancée Mum told me about.’ Tony smiled at the woman at his brother’s side.

Dante Cannavaro smoothly made the introductions. ‘Ellen, this is my younger brother, Tony.’

‘Lovely to meet the woman who can tame Dante,’ Tony declared with a grin and, dropping his arm from Beth’s waist, he introduced her to the other woman.

Beth shook hands with Ellen and almost felt sorry for her as they exchanged the conventional greetings. She looked to be in her early thirties, her hair perfectly styled, her face perfectly made-up, and her casual trousers and top both designer label. She smiled, but there was condescension in the smile as her blue eyes took in Beth’s department-store apparel. Some of Beth’s sympathy for the woman faded.

‘Congratulations on your engagement. I wish you both a very long and happy marriage,’ Beth lied through her teeth. Personally, she hoped Cannavaro’s life was hell. ‘Have you chosen your dress yet?’ she asked enthusiastically. She was not in the least interested, but it delayed the moment when she would have to face the man she despised, and gave her time to control her wildly beating heart and the shock of seeing him again.

Cannavaro was the man responsible for sending Beth to prison, and she had nearly died the first week she had been there. A group of women had thought that because she was in prison on a drugs charge she had the contacts to supply them with drugs. When she had told them she was innocent and that she had no knowledge of drugs she had been dragged into the showers and stripped. Her hair had been cut off and she’d been told her throat would be next... Luckily Helen, a middle-aged woman and her cellmate of three days, had walked in and saved her.

It had been Helen who had convinced her to change her name to Beth Lazenby when she was released, and had made it possible for her to do so. Ironically, the women who had cut off her hair had helped too. Beth was naturally a redhead, but as a child she had been teased unmercifully from her first day at school, and as she had grown taller and bigger than most of her class the bullying had gotten worse.

Finally, when she had been fourteen and they had just moved from Bedford to Bristol for her father’s work, her mother had suggested that Beth dye her hair dark before she attended a new school and made new friends. Beth had quickly agreed and the bullying had stopped. Her life had been content for a number of years—until she had turned eighteen and had been in her first year at college.

Her parents, on their first holiday without her, had tragically died when the cruise liner they were on had sunk off the coast of Italy. This had been heartbreaking for Jane as the parents she had lost had been her adoptive parents, who had taken her in when she had been just a baby. Jane had no idea who her biological parents were, and had suddenly found herself all alone in the world.

So the day Jane Mason had walked out of jail after serving eighteen months of her sentence she’d been almost unrecognisable. Her hair had returned to its natural red colour and she’d been almost two stone lighter in weight. With Clive’s help she had legally changed her name by deed poll to Beth Lazenby.

Helen’s plan for Jane to change her name had made perfect sense; it was hard enough for an innocent young woman to make her way in the world without the totally unjustified tag of a prison sentence on her CV.

Beth owed it to the memory of her friend to show no weakness now.

CHAPTER TWO

DANTE CANNAVARO WAS not in a good mood. When he had called at Ellen’s apartment earlier, contemplating their reunion after a month apart, he had casually mentioned his brother’s barbecue and suggested they call in. Ellen had yet to meet Tony, and Dante was considering asking him to be his best man at their wedding. Ellen had hated both ideas. Barbecues were ‘not her style,’ and she was adamant that one of Dante’s lawyer friends or a business associate would be much more appropriate as best man.

Finally she had agreed to attend—but only if they went immediately, so that they would still have time to have dinner at their favourite restaurant. This was news to Dante, who hadn’t even known they had a favourite restaurant!

Ellen had carried on in the same vein for the hour it had taken to get here, and Dante had switched off and let her chatter. But when he had glanced across to where Mike had indicated his brother and seen the woman with him he’d immediately switched on again.

Now Dante studied the tall, striking redhead at Tony’s side. There was something about her that niggled at him. He had caught the name Beth, but he could not remember having met anyone called Beth before. Yet there was definitely something familiar about her. Then, as the sun’s rays caught her hair, turning it to flame, it came to him—she was the stunning woman he had noticed in the street a few days ago.

Dante barely heard the conversation that continued. His dark gaze roamed over her instead. He noticed the swell of her breasts beneath the lemon silk shirt she wore tucked into white jeans that moulded her slim hips and long legs, before his gaze slid back to trace the creamy skin over the high cheekbones of her face, framed by the red hair that was styled to fall sleekly to her shoulders. Finally his look rested on her big green eyes. He was intrigued as to who she was, and what she was to Tony.

‘Beth—my brother Dante.’

Tony made the introduction and Beth had no excuse but to finally look at Cannavaro.

Dante offered his hand. ‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Beth.’ Her eyes were cold, he noted, and the fingers that briefly touched his and swiftly withdrew were smooth and cool. But the heated sensation he felt at her merest touch surprised him—and her, it would seem. He recognised the flash of awareness in her green eyes though she fought to disguise it. Her lashes flickered down and her full lips tightened. He sensed her antagonism. She had not wanted to shake his hand. Only social niceties had demanded the slight contact.

Dante wasn’t a conceited man, but her reaction wasn’t the one he usually got from females. This woman had never met him but she was determined not to like him, and he had to wonder why.

‘Nice to meet you,’ Beth said, but she refused to use his name. Her fingers stung from the brief contact with his and she took a step back, shocked that he could affect her so intensely. His powerful physical presence provoked an instant reaction—a stomach-churning anger that she was barely able to control.