Phantom Marriage

Leonardo bounced up onto the terrace and was about to press the front doorbell

when the sliding glass door opened and there stood Veronica, looking even more beautiful than she had earlier that day. Gone were the jeans and simple striped top and in their place a sexy lilac sundress which left her shoulders bare, the halter neckline hinting at just enough cleavage.

Across her right forearm lay a black lacy cardigan.

‘I won’t need to bring a bag, will I?’ she asked, looking up at him with sparkling eyes, their violet colour darker than they had been in the sunshine. Dark and sexier.

‘Not on my account,’ he replied with a smile. Dio, but she was delicious. Her hair was still up. Not severely but softly, with dark curls kissing her pale cheeks and throat. Her mouth was glossed in a plum colour, her eyes shadowed in a silvery grey which matched the moonlight. He couldn’t wait to bring her home after dinner and take her to bed. She wouldn’t say no. He could already feel the heat sizzling from her skin. Could feel his own as well, his hot Italian blood charging through his veins.

Thank God he was wearing loosely tailored slacks. They stopped his erection from being obvious. Leonardo didn’t like being obvious.

She smiled back at him. ‘I’ll just lock up and put the key in that ridiculously obvious pot. I hope this building and its contents are insured,’ she added as she did just that.

‘They are,’ he assured her, amused by her concern over security.

‘Did you have a good look at everything?’ he asked her as he took her elbow and guided her from the terrace.

‘Yes. It’s a lovely house. I had a look at some photos of Laurence as well. I do take after him, don’t I?’

‘You do. In looks. But you’re much nicer.’

She halted at the top of the stone steps. ‘What do you mean? Wasn’t my father a nice person?’

Leonardo instantly regretted his tactless words. ‘He was a very nice person,’ he said, regrouping quickly. ‘But you’re even nicer.’

‘Oh…’ Her cheeks coloured a little, her eyes blinking with the most charming embarrassment. ‘How can you say that? You don’t really know me.’

‘I am a quick judge of people. And a good judge, I believe.’

‘You weren’t with that girl in Rome,’ she shot back, startling him into laughter.

‘True. There are times when my hormones lead me astray.’

‘I think your hormones lead you astray a lot,’ she said drily, making him wonder if perhaps she would say no to him tonight. He hoped not, because he wanted this girl more and more with each passing moment.

‘Come,’ he said, and closed his fingers more tightly around her elbow. ‘Mamma is champing at the bit to feed you.’

* * *

‘I don’t think I could eat another bite,’ Veronica whispered to Leonardo a couple of hours later.

‘Try,’ he whispered back.

‘I hope you don’t think it rude of me, Veronica,’ Sophia said rather loudly from where she was sitting at the end of the table furthest from them. ‘But I must ask you—your mother…why she not just get married if she wanted a bambino?’

‘Mamma,’ Leonardo chided with a wry shake of his handsome head. ‘That is a rather rude question.’

‘No, no,’ Veronica said straight away, not wanting to offend Sophia, who was really a lovely person. Veronica already liked her enormously. She liked all of Leonardo’s family. And there were twelve of them sitting at the table under the pergola that evening. Alberto and Sophia had three children, Veronica had learned when introduced properly. Elena was the oldest, followed by Carmelina and then Leonardo. Elena was married to Franco, the taxi driver, and they had three children. Marco was eleven, Bianca was nine with the youngest, Bruno, a precocious seven. Carmelina was the only shy one of the family. She was married to Alfonso, who worked at the Hotel Fabrizzi as a handyman-cum-gardener. They had a son, Luca, who was ten and a daughter, Daniele, who was eight.

‘It is a fair question,’ Veronica went on. She presumed Leonardo had explained how Laurence had come to be a sperm donor, but even he didn’t know the reasons behind her mother’s decision to have a baby that way. ‘My mother actually was married when she was younger. But her husband was not a good man. He gambled away all their money, treated her badly then left her to run away with another woman. A rich widow. She had a nervous breakdown and lost her job. In the end she had nothing and could only get work as a housekeeper. She was very bitter about men and vowed never to trust one ever again. But as she got older she desperately wanted a baby.

‘Around this time she was employed by Laurence. He was in Australia doing research at the Sydney University. His job came with a large house in nearby Glebe, along with a live-in housekeeper. That was Mum. She liked Laurence, said he was a decent man. They became friendly and one day she confided in him her plan to have a baby by artificial insemination.’

‘And that was when Laurence offered his sperm instead of some stranger’s,’ Leonardo intervened. ‘He didn’t want to risk the baby having a bad gene, like Ruth apparently had. That was the reason Ruth didn’t have children, by the way. She was worried they would inherit her bad gene. But Laurence knew his genes were fine.’

‘Better than fine,’ Leonardo’s father said with a big smile on his face, his accent much stronger than Leonardo’s. He waved his arms around a lot. ‘Just look at the beautiful girl he produced. He would have been so proud of you, Veronica. You are molto bella. Your mamma must be very happy that she listened to Laurence.’

Other members of the family chimed in with their compliments as well.