Not relevant? She stared at him in disbelief. ‘But you own the bank! Your name is in the first column of the European Rich List. You can trace your family tree back to royalty.’
‘Well, you can see why I don’t shout it from the rooftops, can’t you? You tell people you are a banker and they begin to yawn straight away.’
‘This is not a joke, Francesco. Things are going too fast.’
‘Then let us be serious for a moment. I do not own a bankmy family, and specifically my father, does. Money is a byproduct of what I do, but it is not intrinsically important to me.’
‘But it’s not just the money. You have a family, Francesco. Do they even know about me?’
‘My family will love you, cara,’ he purred in his sinfully sexy voice.
She felt her anger slip away as he tangled his fingers into the mesh of her hair, massaging his fingers into her scalp. He tilted her head back and kissed her.
A long, tremulous sigh left her lips when his head lifted.
‘My parents are staying with my sister in Australia. I have contacted them and told them about our marriage. They are ringing this evening to speak to you. They can’t wait to meet you. They would have flown back but my mother had an accident—nothing serious, but she cannot make the trip.
‘They have had some sad times recently. You will bring some joy into their lives. As you have brought joy into mine,’ he said, holding her face in his hands and staring down at her with an expression that made her traitorous heart skip a beat.
‘But shouldn’t we wait until they get back? I don’t understand the hurry.’
‘I really can’t wait that long, tesoro mio, to make you my wife. Afterwards,’ he promised with a shrug, ‘they can arrange anything they wish, but you will be mine.’
Valentina’s hand on her arm cut through Erin’s brooding recollections.
As she walked through the door Valentina stopped and turned to face Erin. ‘Look, Erin, I know what this seems like,’ she began urgently.
Erin shook her head in total bewilderment. ‘What seems like?’
‘I’m really sorry.’ ‘Sorry about what?’
Valentina shook her head, her gaze trained on a point in the room beyond Erin. Erin automatically turned.
She literally felt the blood drain from her face.
Her body responded to the sight of the tall, supremely elegant figure who stepped forward, impeccable in his light grey suit and open-necked white shirt, exactly the same way it would have to a couple of thousand volts of neat electricity.
For a split second every nerve cell in her body fired off then shut down.
She stared at him, her throat aching with the emotions locked there. An irrational part of her visualised flinging herself into his arms and she really had to fight against her genetic predisposition to do so. It would mean heartbreak all over again.
She would not let history repeat itself. One woman in the family prepared to humiliate herself to keep a man was more than enough.
This can’t be happening now. I’m not ready to do this yet.
The same sexual awareness that she had always experienced in his presence hummed in her bloodstream; it made it impossible to think rationally. It always had—that was the problem.
He was standing only a couple of feet away from her at the most. If she had reached out she could have touched him, laid her hand on his chest and felt the warmth of his skin, the thud of his heartbeat.
A strange little laugh emerged from her lips. Losing composure scarily fast, she turned her head. Her gaze met that of Valentina, who grimaced at the silent reproach in her eyes.
The older woman shook her head and mouthed, I’m sorry.
‘You planned this.’ The sense of betrayal Erin felt was intense.
She had been genuinely touched that Francesco’s cousin had made an effort to cultivate friendship even after what had happened.
‘Francesco just wanted to talk to you and … we meant it for the best.’