Public Wife, Private Mistress

Back to the birthplace of her dreams. Back to the scene of perfect happiness. It would be the cruellest taunt he could have devised and for a moment she won­dered whether he'd planned it. Did he hate her so much that he'd knowingly cause her that much pain?

'I don't want to go to Sicily!' The words left her mouth before she could prevent them and she closed her eyes, cursing her own lack of control and that im­petuous streak in her nature that always caused her to reveal too much. If he'd intended to hurt her then she'd just given him the satisfaction of knowing he'd suc­ceeded.

'Why? Why don't you want to go to Sicily?' His tone was harsh and if he was feeling smug then he was cer­tainly displaying no outward signs of the fact. 'Con­science pricking you, Stasia? Remembering the begin­ning of our relationship? All those things you said and didn't mean? All those empty words of love?'

Empty?

She turned her head away from him, wondering how a man of his intelligence could be so blind.

The weeks they'd spent together in Sicily on their honeymoon had been the happiest time of their rela­tionship and she'd trusted Rico completely. Had opened her heart without holding back. Had given everything.

Only now could she see how foolish she'd been.

How naive and trusting.

Rico had never wanted what she'd wanted. Hadn't been capable of giving what she'd wanted him to give.

'Perhaps 1 should have kept you trapped on Sicily,' he said acidly. 'That way you wouldn't have had the opportunity to pursue your seemingly endless desire for variety.'

With a gasp of pain she turned towards him, her eyes flashing with contempt. 'I was never unfaithful to you.'

He flared up with such speed that she recoiled with shock. 'I find you with a naked man in your room and you expect me to believe that it was innocent?' He leaned towards her. his voice a primitive male growl, streaks of colour highlighting the arresting angle of his cheekbones. 'You were my wife. And you didn't even hang around to defend yourself. What does that make you, if not guilty?'

Anger smothered her ability to breathe normally. 'I saw the look in your eyes, Rico. You were beyond ra­tional conversation. But you should have known me well enough to know that I would never have betrayed you. You should not have believed it of me, Rico!'

He turned on her like a beast in pain. ‘Dio, I saw him kiss you. You were mine and I saw him kiss you.'

One glance and he'd assumed he had all the facts. He was so primitive and possessive that it hadn't oc­curred to him that there might be another explanation for the scene in front of him.

At the time she'd been so shocked and appalled her­self that she'd found herself without the means for de­fence. And part of her had felt that the innocent shouldn't need defence. She'd waited and waited for Chiara to tell the truth but the teenager had just given a small smile and slipped back to her room, leaving Stasia with an impossible decision to make.

Did she tell him the truth about his sister?

Confused, hurt and angry, in the end she'd just left, deciding that they both needed time to calm down. She'd walked out in the middle of the night, taking nothing with her but her passport.

But instead of seeing her departure as a cooling off period, he'd seen her exit as further confirmation of her guilt.

And when she'd cooled down enough to swallow her pride and call him, he'd blocked her calls.

And that had been that. In one bleak moment she'd been damned.

He hadn't been able to believe in her and she hadn't been able to forgive him for that; she had known she couldn't live with a man like him. It had been the final straw in a marriage that had already been under strain. The next communication she'd had with him had been through his lawyers.

Stasia reached for the seat belt, her hands shaking as she fumbled with the buckle.

He frowned sharply as he watched her. 'What the hell are you doing?'

'Getting away from you. I was wrong to come. I can't see how my presence can possibly help Chiara. I'm sure that the last thing she needs is tension and that's all she'll get if you and I are by her bed together.'

'You're not going anywhere.' Long, strong fingers closed over hers, preventing her attempts to free herself. 'We are landing shortly. Keep the belt on.'

'I want to go home. And until I can go home I intend to stay in the bathroom. I don't want to breathe the same air as you.' She tried to free her hands from his but he held her easily, his strength so much greater than hers that it was laughable.

'Dio, sit still’

'I want you to tell your pilot to turn this fancy toy of yours round and fly me home.' She still struggled but without any conviction that she could free herself. 'I'm not going anywhere with you.'

'You've already agreed to go to the hospital.' he re­minded her curtly and she rounded on him, hurt and pain making her voice shake.