The Vengeful Husband (The Husband Hunters 2)

'It's pretty embarrassing waking up for the first time in a strange man's bed,' Darcy said bluntly. 'I felt like a real tart—'

'You don't know the first thing about being a tart, so don't use that word,' Luca censured with frowning reproof.

But a split second later he was smiling that utterly char¬ismatic smile of his, sending her heartbeat bumpety bumpety-bump as he asked all sorts of questions about Zia, demonstrating a degree of interest that was encyclopaedic in its detail. At the end of that session, he murmured with considerable assurance, 'Well...there'll be no divorce now, cara mia,'

Even though that development was what Darcy had hoped for from the instant she knew that she loved Luca, she didn't like the background against which he had formed that instant arrogant supposition. She tugged her hand free of his, her face frozen. 'Why? Do you know something I don't?'

Luca dealt her a startled, questioning look. 'We have a child. She needs both of us. I simply assumed—'

'I don't think you should be assuming anything in that line!' Darcy told him roundly. 'It may be important that Zia has a father, but I'm concerned about what I need too.'

'You need me,' Luca breathed a shade harshly, all re¬laxation now wiped from his taut features and not a hint of a smile left either.

Darcy flew upright. 'Don't look at me like that!'

'In what way am I looking at you?' Luca enquired for¬biddingly.

'Like I'm a bad debtor or something, and you're...you're trying to work out my Achilles' heel!' Suddenly frightened by the awareness that she was heading for an argument with him and that she didn't want that, didn't trust her own over¬wrought and confused emotions, or her too often danger¬ously blunt tongue, she said tightly, 'Look, I'm very tired. I'm going up to bed.'

From the foot of the stairs she glanced back into the library. Luca was standing by the window, ferocious ten¬sion screaming from his stillness. Her heart sank at the sight. Everything had gone wrong from the moment she questioned his conviction that they should now view their marriage as a real marriage.

And why the heck had she done that? Why, when she herself longed for that stupid agreement they had made to be set aside and totally wiped from both their memories? Why had she refused the offer of her own most heartfelt wish?

And she saw into herself then, was forced to confront her own insecurity. She feared that Luca only wanted their marriage to continue for Zia's benefit. Hadn't she felt threatened and excluded by his unashamed absorption and delight in Zia? How foolish and selfish that had been, on the very night he first learned that he was a father!

Feeling considerably less bolshie, Darcy made up her bed with fresh sheets. She took the dogs down the service stairs to-sleep in the kitchen. Then she donned a strappy oyster-coloured satin nightie and slid between the sheets to wait for Luca.

But an hour later, when she heard footsteps in the cor¬ridor and tensed with a fast-beating heart, Luca passed by her room. In the silence of the old house she listened to him enter the room Richard had briefly occupied earlier and close the door.

She fell back against the pillows then, shaken, hurt and scared...utterly out of her depth with this Luca who was not even tempted to make love to her after an absence of three weeks.

'Fabulous apartment,' Karen sighed when she arrived for lunch, scanning the fantastic view of London from the pent¬house. 'And Luca...he is the perfect man; I am totally con¬vinced of that. The guy that clears off without a murmur so that you can have lunch with your best friend is special, and when he takes the toddler with him, he zooms up the scale of perfection and hits the bell at the top!'

'He's a very committed father.'

'I wouldn't say he was a slow starter in the husband stakes either. In one month, he has transformed your life. He even brings you flowers and cute little gifts... Richard's not into flowers, but he gave me a sweater covered with embroidered horseshoes for my birthday. It is the most gross garment you have ever seen, but he phones me about five times a day, and he's so scared I'm going to dump him, it's unbelievable,' Karen shared with a rather dreamy smile.

'I'm glad you're happy.'

'Well, you don't look glad enough to satisfy me,' Karen responded drily. 'I hope you're not turning into one of those spoilt little rich madams who can't appreciate what she's got!'

Darcy managed to laugh. 'Can you see the day?'

'No, but I know by your expression that there's some¬thing badly wrong, and that was an easy way to open the subject!'

Darcy thought back over the last four weeks. The Folly estate was now employing a full quota of staff, not to men¬tion giving added employment to all the local firms engaged in the repairs and improvements which Luca had insisted the house required without further delay. While that work was going on they had set up temporary home in London at Luca's apartment, and when the summer was over they were shifting to Venice, where they would make their per¬manent home.