The Heat Of Passion

'Told me he fell in love with you at first sight six years

ago and never recovered. Very impressive stuff, it was,'

her father recalled with a fond smile. 'He did explain

that his father's condition was pressing you both into a

quick marriage but he stressed that he could have married

you a couple of weeks ago just as happily!' he chuckled.

Her strained smile glazed over. Dear heaven, Carlo had laid on the I-love-your-daughter routine with a trowel. Very impressive indeed.

'Carlo's a rather more complex character than I ever appreciated,' Gerald admitted. 'I always thought of him as very cool and controlled. He is in business. But in love.. .he's all emotion and reaction. So, now you tell me how you feel.'

Jessica took a deep breath. 'I'm crazy about him.'

'And you're much more reserved than he is...did your mother and I do that to you?' he sighed regretfully.

She went to bed about eleven. There was no sign of Carlo. She lay sleepless in the darkness waiting for him. . But he didn't come and she was hurt. Why was it that when she finally decided to open her heart, Carlo closed her out? It was impossible to believe that tomorrow was her wedding-day. But then it wasn't a real wedding-day, she reminded herself wretchedly.

The next morning she was served breakfast in bed. There was an air of strong excitement in the household and from dawn overhead the ceaseless racket of rotor blades as guests were flown in for the festivities.

It was to be a very small wedding, Marika had explained. Just relatives, her father's closest business associates and executive staff and of course Carlo's friends. It was rather sad that she listed not one single person as a friend of her father's. Like someone in a dream, Jessica let herself be fussed over and dressed. She was merely playing a part, she told herself repeatedly, just going through the expected motions to please everybody.

'If s time,' Marika said from the door with a misty smile.

"Their idea of a small do wouldn't be ours,' her father shared out of the corner of his mouth on their passage down the huge main staircase. All the staff were in the main hall to see her.

And a minute later, as the music sounded up and she had a startled glimpse of the hundreds of people packed into the vast ballroom with standing room only at the back, she understood what he meant. Every head seemed to turn, a rippling sigh of comment accompanying their passing. Her pallor was banished by colour as Carlo swung round impatiently to unsmilingly watch her approach. Like the condemned man, she thought furiously, on the brink of being forced to walk the plank!

The ceremony seemed endless and it was conducted in both Greek and English. Carlo slotted the ring on her finger with a cool, steady hand. And it was done. He was not invited to kiss the bride and, although the opportunity came as she turned to face him, he took no advantage of it. His darkly handsome features were starkly set.

Her throat tightening, she glanced away and caught a no more cheering view of Lukas beaming with satisfaction and Sunny beside him, her stunning face wearing a set smile.

'Well, I'm glad that farce is over,' Jessica hissed before they made their exit.

Carlo swung her round like a doll and brought his mouth crashing down on hers in punishment, his powerful hands biting painfully into her wrists. She knew he was furious. She knew she wasn't supposed to enjoy it. But her body had other ideas. It went into instant meltdown like he had thrown a self-destruct button.

'No farce,' Carlo murmured softly, nastily as he lifted his dark head again and smiled for the assembled audience. ‘You are my wife now, legally, morally and in every other way.'

There were no speeches over the banquet which followed. Lukas, she was informed by her father, didn't like speeches. Many toasts were offered and made. Jessica began to notice that Ca

rlo's attention was fre-

quently directed at Sunny. He did it cleverly, covertly, but he did all the same, she noted painfully.

Sunny, ravishing in silver and gold, her bright hair an eyecatching beacon every time she moved her head. 'Titian hair.. .my besetting sin,' Carlo had once confided. Jessica's stomach clenched. Why did she have to remember that now? An hour ago, Sunny had looked frozen, but now she was effervescent and glowing like

a blazing torch.

After the meal, Carlo whirled her on to the empty floor while everybody sat back and watched. Jessica was desperately self-conscious. She had never danced with him before and was suddenly tortured by the lack of such small experiences in their relationship. They had never had a courtship, never dated and yet she loved him with a passion that burned and flamed more with every increasingly insecure moment.

'When are you going to start talking to me again?' she whispered.

'Have I stopped? You mean I might actually have something to say that you might want to hear?'

‘I said I was sorry... what do you want me to do? Crawl?'