Public Wife, Private Mistress

Rico had been away for a week in New York. She'd been asleep but noises had woken her...

It was gone midnight and she'd already been asleep for two hours. Judging from the giggling in the corridor outside her bedroom, Chiara had sneaked a man into the house again. And Rico had strictly forbidden her to date.

Stasia gave a groan and covered her face with her hands, her brain still foggy from sleep. What was she supposed to do? Chiara already loathed her. If she marched into the corridor and suddenly came on all heavy-handed then their relationship would be damaged even further. On the other hand, she owed it to Rico to at least try and make the girl understand his point of view.

'You're fifteen, and I don't want you seeing boys,'

Rico had told her bluntly only the week before. 'You concentrate on your studies. There'll be plenty of time for boys when you are older.'

'You can't tell me what to do!'

'I can. And you will show respect when you are liv­ing in my house.' Rico's voice was lethally soft and even Chiara gave a shiver, knowing better than to cross her brother when he was in this mood. 'If I hear that you have been seeing men I'll send you back to Sicily.'

Chiara's face had blanched. She loved Rome, al­though Stasia herself yearned for the peace and beauty of Sicily.

Lying there remembering Rico's threat, Stasia glanced towards her bedroom door, trying to decide on the best course of action. She was still deciding when the door opened and Chiara's boyfriend slid into the room, stark naked.

Without uttering a word, he joined her in the bed, covering her mouth with his hand when she would have screamed.

'Sorry about this,' he murmured. 'On the other hand, you are rather beautiful so perhaps I'm not really that sorry. I can see why big brother married you.'

Smelling alcohol on his breath, Stasia struggled fran­tically to free herself and then suddenly the lights came on and Rico was standing in the doorway, incandescent with rage, Chiara hovering behind him, a smug expres­sion on her face.

'Oh. Stasia—' Her voice held a convincing wobble. 'I tried to warn you—'

Rico's blazing eyes were fixed on the naked man. 'Get out of my house while you still can. You've got two minutes and then you'll be leaving in a body bag.' His voice was thickened and it was obvious to everyone watching that he was hanging on to his temper by a thread.

Chiara's boyfriend needed no encouragement to leave. With a nervous glance at Rico's furious features, he left the bed in a flash and raced down the corridor, still naked.

Rico's gaze was fixed on Stasia, who was lying in the bed shivering from shock.

How had that happened? One minute she'd been asleep and the next—

She never locked the door. Had never thought there was reason to. He must have wandered into her room by accident.

And then she remembered what he'd said about her being beautiful and realized that it had been no accident.

Her eyes slid to Chiara, who was standing behind her brother, and she knew exactly how it had happened.

Chiara knew that if Rico had discovered her with a man in the house she would have been banished to Sicily and that would have been a fate worse than death for the young teenager.

But surely even Chiara wouldn't stoop so low as to hide her boyfriend in another woman's bedroom?

Stasia struggled to sit upright, her eyes still on Chiara, waiting for her to tell the truth. To tell Rico what had really happened.

But she said nothing. And she even had the gall to put a sympathetic hand on her brother's shoulder. He shrugged it off with a growl of rage and left the bed­room with his sister following.

For a moment Stasia sat there, shivering and then her natural sense of justice reasserted itself. She had done nothing wrong! Nothing. And she refused to take the blame for his sister's wrongdoings.

She dressed quickly and found him downstairs in his study, a bottle of red wine half-empty beside him.

'If you've come to talk your way out of it then you're wasting your time.' He drained his glass and looked at her, his dark eyes glittering, although whether from drink or anger she couldn't be sure. 'I don't want to listen.'

'Not even to the truth?'

His long fingers tightened on the glass. 'The truth is that I found my wife naked in bed with another man. An explanation for that, other than the obvious, would need to be extremely creative in order to stand a chance of convincing me.'

Stasia stared at him helplessly.