The Heat Of Passion

'I'm not likely to put on much of an act withoutsowe

background information. You said that he was

dying ‘

'Heart disease,’ Carlo filled in flatly. 'He's in a wheel

chair '

Jessica felt suddenly very insensitive. 'Can nothing

be V

"The last operation failed. He is not strong enough for another,’

Jessica swallowed. 'Is his wife still alive?’

Unexpectedly, Carlo laughed, but the sound was curiously sardonic. 'Very much so. Sunny is considerably younger than my father.' His handsome mouth hardened, a tiny muscle pulling tight at the corner of his lips, adding a chilling gravity to his dark features. 'She is his fourth wife.'

'His fourth?9 she couldn't help echoing weakly. 'Do you have brothers and sisters?'

'One sister, much older than I, born of his first marriage. I did have a half-brother but he was drowned in a boating accident several years back,' Carlo proffered without emotion.

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. He was so much older, I barely knew him.’

Jessica was silenced. Carlo was describing an impossibly fragmented family tree quite alien to her.

'My sister, Marika, lived with my father. She has never married. They live on a tiny cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands.1

'Were you bora there?'

‘I was born in Greece. After my mother's death, I was sent to school in Italy.'

'Why so far away?'

'I didn't like my new stepmother any more than she liked me,' Carlo said drily.

A tall, rake-thin brunette with huge dark eyes and a ripe, sultry mouth stopped by their table. Ignoring

Jessica, she spoke to Carlo in Italian. His response, whatever it was, was not to the other woman's taste. Her cheeks flamed, her eyes widening. She sent Jessica a scorching look of loathing but her dark eyes were full of pain and jealousy before she shrugged and walked back to a table nearby.

'And who was that?' Jessica couldn't help asking. 'Nobody you need concern yourself with,' Carlo said dismissively.

Jessica could feel the brunette's eyes burning into her profile. Uncomfortable with the sensation, she concentrated on her meal.

She felt claustrophobic in the limousine. 'Who was that woman?' she heard herself ask again as they entered the apartment. Disturbingly, she found that she could think of nothing else.

'Jealous, caraV Carlo cast her a mocking, slanting smile.

Her slender frame taut with disbelief, Jessica very nearly choked. 'Jealous? Are you crazy?'

Before she could move away, Carlo linked his arms round her narrow shoulders and gazed down at her with eyes the colour of molten gold. 'You're the crazy one,' he murmured huskily. 'No woman has ever made me want her as I want you,’

Her breath snarled up in her throat. She was caught unprepared.

'Would you fight for me the way I would fight for you?' Carlo enquired in the same deep-pitched tone of intimacy. 'I should have kidnapped you six years ago...' 'S-stop it, Carlo!' Jessica relocated her voice clumsily, every bone in her body tensing under the perceived threat.