Phantom Marriage

‘You are meant to savour this type of red wine,’ Leonardo chided. ‘Not drink it like water.’

‘Ooh. Pardon me for breathing. I did tell you that I prefer white wine but you insisted on my trying one of the reds. Is this better?’ she asked, lifting the glass to her lips and taking a delicate sip.

‘Much better. I apologise if I sound snobbish. It’s just that this particular wine is one of the best ever bottled and needs to be sipped to be appreciated.’

‘It is nicer when sipped. Okay, I forgive you.’

‘Grazie,’ he said, and smiled over at her.

Her heart lurched anew, warning bells going off in her head.

Veronica searched her mind for the best subject to quell any growing emotional involvement with this man.

‘Tell me, Leonardo,’ she said. ‘On the night we first met, all those years ago, if I’d said yes would you have really enjoyed a threesome with me and that blonde bimbo?’

His dark eyes glittered. ‘But of course. Though my mind would have been on you all the time. I wanted you like crazy.’

Veronica’s fingers tightened around her wine glass. Why, oh, why had he had to add that last bit? ‘Were you in the habit of having threesomes?’ she asked stiffly.

‘No. Like I told you, I was very drunk that night.’

‘Your friends didn’t seem shocked by your suggestion.’

‘My friends were also pretty drunk. And stoned, some of them.’

‘Yes, I noticed that.’

Leonardo sighed. ‘It was a common thing in the circles I moved in.’

‘And what about now? Do you take drugs now?’

‘I never took drugs back then. I didn’t like them.’

‘I see…’ Did she believe him? She supposed she had to, since he would have admitted it if he had taken them. He wouldn’t see any reason to hide his actions.

‘And what about you, Veronica? You went to university which, I am told, is rife with drugs. Did you ever indulge?’

‘Never. I hate drugs.’

‘That is a good thing. They ruin people’s lives.’

‘They certainly do,’ she said.

They both fell silent for a few moments, Leonardo being the first to speak again.

‘We are getting too serious. After we’ve finished our wine, we shall go back to bed.’

For a split second his presumption—and his arrogance—annoyed her. But the thought of the pleasure that awaited her in bed with Leonardo trumped any sense of feminine outrage.

Whilst she sipped the rest of her wine, her mind was already there, naked in bed with him. The only concession she made to her pride was that, this time, she would be the one making love to him. First with her mouth, then with her whole body. She would be the one on top, with him at her mercy. She would thrill to his moans and wallow in his arousal. She would do to him what he’d done to her. She would not stop until he begged her to.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

‘I HAVE TO GO.’

Veronica looked up from where she was loading the dishwasher to see Leonardo standing there, showered and dressed with his overnight bag in his hand. She herself was still naked underneath her bathrobe.

‘But you haven’t even had breakfast yet,’ she said on straightening.