‘A week after you walked out, I was given the details of this place. Prior to that, I’d rejected the offer of several properties,’ Lucca confided coldly. ‘I knew the minute I saw the photos that Il Palazzetto was your fantasy house and fantasies don’t come on the market every week. I bought it because I sincerely believed that you would soon come to your senses and be living with me as my wife again.’
A hard lump had formed in Vivien’s throat, for she had been totally unprepared for an explanation that knocked her sideways. As he gazed back at her in hard male challenge, the warm colour in her cheeks ebbed. ‘If that’s true—’
His gorgeous golden eyes hardened. ‘Don’t doubt my word. You did that once with devastating consequences,’ he reminded her drily. ‘I would think you would have learned a lesson on that score.’
In the uneasy silence, an unsteady laugh fell from Vivien’s lips. ‘Yes, I have learned a lesson or two. I misjudged you but I would have been very willing to be persuaded into crediting the truth of your fidelity, had you ever given me the chance. You didn’t care enough about me to come after me and fight to get me back!’
His wide, sensual mouth firmed. ‘That’s a lie.’
‘You were too proud. I hurt your ego by not believing in you and you decided to punish me,’ Vivien told him with bitter pain in her voice.
‘That’s a very fanciful view of events.’
‘No, it’s very much you,’ Vivien contradicted tightly. ‘You were playing Russian roulette with our marriage. Now I know the whole story because you’ve told me it. You bought this house only because you were expecting me to come back and grovel.’
‘Your imagination is taking flight again,’ Lucca derided, assuming a maddeningly cool attitude of relaxation.
‘You were cruel to both of us. You were so angry with me for not grovelling that you let me go. But you can just stop right now blaming me for the breakdown of our marriage. I may not have been a perfect wife but you were an even worse husband. You made me miserable long before Jasmine Bailey got her poison pen out!’
A slight rise of dark blood demarcated Lucca’s hard angular cheekbones and his dark golden eyes flashed. ‘On what facts do you base that accusation?’
‘Our marriage fell apart because I never saw you. You put business first and, every excuse you got, you made me feel just how unimportant I was in your scheme of things. You didn’t really want to be married. You acted like you were still single—’
‘Per meraviglia! Is it my fault you were a doormat and took everything I dished out? What’s the point of complaining about how I treated you two years too late?’ Lucca suddenly raked across the room at her, full volume. ‘I was twenty-seven years old when we got married and not as mature as I thought I was. I didn’t really know how to be married.’
‘I didn’t realise you needed a rule book!’
His strong jaw line squared. ‘Maybe you didn’t, but I would have found one helpful. My own parents lived separate lives. My father had continual affairs and my mother had a long-term lover. They loathed each other,’ he admitted curtly. ‘It was quite astonishing that they died in the same plane crash because they rarely went anywhere together.’
Vivien was silenced, absolutely silenced by that explanation. His parents had died before she’d even met him and it had never once occurred to her that his family background might have been unhappy. ‘Serafina never even hinted…’
‘Serafina was still a child when they died and I saw no reason to disillusion her.’
‘But you should have told me.’
His arrogant dark head lifted high, beautiful dark golden eyes gleaming with stubborn disagreement. ‘Why? It has no bearing on what happened between us. I only pointed out that my parents’ marriage didn’t give me a constructive blueprint for the kind of cosy blanket domesticity you wanted.’
Big words from a guy who had been revelling in cosy blanket domesticity all week long! But thanks to what he had finally got angry enough to reveal, she was now able to view the extent of his wary cynicism and reserve when they were first married in a very different light. With his history, she marvelled that he had ever proposed to her. She lifted her chin. ‘Did you really buy this house for me?’
Lucca slung her a stony glance.
All of a sudden, Vivien was starting to feel very much more confident. ‘Yeah, you really did buy it for me,’ she answered for herself, relishing that ego-boosting truth. ‘Rustic is not exactly you, is it?’
A flare of gold highlighted the long-lashed brilliance of his eyes. ‘There are some rural pleasures I can appreciate, bella mia.’
Vivien had a startlingly vivid recollection of being tumbled down in long grass and possessed with a sexual fervour she still remembered three years after the event. Lucca strolled lazily forward with soundless grace. His gorgeous eyes never left hers once. He let her see his hunger.
Desire leapt into the atmosphere and she felt hot and tight and needy. She trembled, a wicked frisson of instant excitement quivering through her. Her mouth running dry, she kicked off her shoes. He looked surprised and then he backed to the door to force it shut. He strode back. ‘I used to imagine you here in this room.’
Satisfaction assailed her in a heady burst. She felt irresistible. Unfastening the zip on her dress, she hauled it off in one feverish motion.
‘Keep going…’ Lucca instructed thickly.
She unhooked her bra. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She arched her spine and let the scrap of lace fall.
‘Don’t stop there…’ Lucca urged huskily.
She stepped out of her last garment. Her face was hot with self-consciousness and a nervous giggle escaped her as she arranged herself on the big wide bed. ‘So come here,’ she told him, half under her breath.