Chapter Ten
CASSIE’s breath caught in her throat and her heart started rapidly accelerating as she stared at her sister-in-law, feeling as if she’d been caught out in some guilty secret. ‘You dare to ask me whether I’m pregnant?’ she whispered in disbelief. ‘That’s a very personal remark to make!’
‘Which doesn’t answer my question.’
‘But I don’t have to answer it. Anyway, lots of women don’t drink alcohol,’ said Cassie as Gabriella raised her glass to her lips.
‘So they don’t. But then, lots of women don’t marry much older Italian billionaires either.’
‘He’s…’ Cassie swallowed. ‘Giancarlo’s only fourteen years older than me!’
‘Only? My dear—that’s practically a different generation.’
‘You know, I don’t have to sit here and be insulted by you,’ said Cassie quietly.
‘I wasn’t intending to insult you. I was just being honest with you—that’s what family are for.
Have you met any of his other friends? No?
How come that doesn’t surprise me? Well, I can assure you that I am only voicing what they will all be thinking.
You see, you are not what I expected. Not at all.
Giancarlo is an experienced and highly educated man of the world, while you…
Well, I can understand that your gauche freshness might appeal to an older man’s rather jaded palate—but when that fades, then what? ’
Cassie’s fingers tightened around her glass; she felt as if the blood were draining from her veins. ‘Please,’ she said weakly.
‘I just think you should be aware of all the facts, Cassandra.’ Gabriella’s eyes glittered. ‘You know that he was once in love with me? Wanted to marry me? Had his heart broken when I chose his brother instead?’
‘Yes, he told me,’ said Cassie woodenly.
‘Oh, did he?’ Gabriella drank another mouthful of wine.
‘And the exquisite irony is that I made the wrong choice. Totally the wrong choice. For a long time now, I’ve been toying with the idea of ending the marriage—and giving Giancarlo the chance to pick up where he left off.
What do you think he’d say if he knew that such an opportunity was here for the taking? ’
Cassie didn’t know what he’d say—all she did know was that if she didn’t get away from there soon she would do something irrevocable. Like faint. Or hurl a glass of wine all over Gabriella’s insulting face.
But through her anger and indignation that her hostess should have been so unforgivably rude came a terrible twisting of pain in her heart.
Because what if Gabriella was speaking the truth?
What if this was a terrible case of bad timing—with both Giancarlo and Gabriella having married the wrong people?
Raised voices heralded the return of the two men and Cassie lifted her head to look at them. Giancarlo’s expression was a shuttered mask which gave nothing away—but she thought that Raul looked curiously at peace. As if some sort of weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Giancarlo looked across the room at her and his eyes narrowed. ‘Are you okay?’
From somewhere, Cassie summoned up a smile. ‘Yes, fine—just a bit tired. I’d quite like to go back, if you don’t mind.’
‘Oh, stay!’ said Gabriella brightly. ‘There are plenty of beds.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but we have a car waiting,’ said Giancarlo, and turned to his brother. ‘I meant what I said. Come and see me in London. Any time.’
‘Grazie, Carlo.’ Raul nodded. ‘I will.’
Cassie was aware of the suspicion in Gabriella’s eyes as they said their goodbyes and it wasn’t until they were back in the car and headed out on the road to Rome that Giancarlo spoke.
‘Well, that was an enlightening experience.’
Cassie hesitated, thinking how shadowed his face looked. ‘In what way?’
He shook his head as he pulled a pulsating cell-phone from his pocket and began to read the screen. ‘Just let me deal with this first.’
Cassie swallowed. Don’t get irate. Don’t tell him how rude he can be. It must have been a weird evening for him and she needed to be understanding. She waited until he had finished before clearing her throat. ‘I thought Allegra was lovely.’
‘She is. The one good thing to come out of that marriage.’ Sliding the phone back into his pocket, he looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Did Gabriella treat you properly?’
‘She…well, actually, she guessed I was pregnant.’
He glanced down at her belly. ‘That’s not something we’re going to be able to keep secret for much longer. But apart from that?’
She wondered whether to burden him with a word-for-word transcript of Gabriella’s bitchiness but some instinct stopped her.
Because what if everything her sister-in-law had said was true?
Suppose she was holding Giancarlo back from what he had always really wanted?
Wouldn’t that force the subject out into the open?
And then what? Questions like that required answers she might not want to hear.
‘She was okay,’ she said, with a shrug. ‘Not really a woman’s woman, I guess. But what about Raul? He…well, he looked much older than I expected. I could hardly believe he was the same age as you. Was everything all right with him?’
Was everything all right with Raul? Giancarlo’s mouth tightened with irony as he recalled the demons which had flown from his twin brother’s lips during their talk in the library, and he shook his head.
‘No, things are anything but all right with Raul,’ he said slowly, turning his head a little to watch the dark Tuscan landscape speeding by.
From here he could see the indistinct outline of the countryside where he’d played as a boy.
Played with his twin brother before ambition and money and a woman had driven a wedge between them.
‘The marriage is on the rocks,’ he continued. ‘It has been for some time, apparently. I told him it was clearly damaging to Allegra as well as to each other—and if it can’t be made better, then he should get out of it.’
‘Oh. Oh, I see.’ So he knew anyway. Raul had told him.
A terrible fear began to prickle at Cassie’s skin.
Did Giancarlo see what Gabriella saw—an opportunity for him to step in and take what should have always been his?
And was he, like his sister-in-law, kicking himself because the timing was all wrong?
That he had married his pregnant mistress at precisely the wrong moment. ‘That’s a pity.’
‘Yes.’ But he heard the odd catch in her voice and he looked at her more closely. ‘You’re trembling, Cassandra,’ he said softly. ‘Are you cold?’
Couldn’t he see how his words now hung like the sword of Damocles over her head?
She was nothing like Gabriella—and yet Gabriella had been the woman that he’d loved.
Had he looked at the two of them tonight and compared them?
One so sleek and dark and sophisticated—and the other a young, pale foreigner who could never compete, not on any level. ‘A…little.’
‘Then let’s get you back.’ Leaning forward, he rapped sharply at the glass partition which separated them from the driver. ‘Piu velocemente!’ he ordered, his voice suddenly urgent.
The car drew up as close as it could get to their hotel, and they walked a little way in the crisp night air, back to their penthouse suite which overlooked the city’s famous Spanish Steps.
In the mirrored confines of the elevator Cassie could see Giancarlo’s gaze raking over her assessingly and she wondered if he was thinking about the beautiful brunette they had just left.
But then he placed his arm about her shoulder and drew her close to his powerful frame.
‘Tired?’ he questioned.
She shook her head. Her head was spinning from all that she’d seen and heard during dinner and the thought of sleep seemed impossible. ‘No. Actually, I’m wide awake.’
‘Me, too.’ He thought how clear her skin looked and how bright her violet eyes. He thought of the pain and the bitterness on his twin brother’s face as he had poured his heart out—and suddenly he wanted to blot it all out with Cassandra’s sweet kiss.
‘You know, you are really very beautiful,’ he said softly.
‘Sei molto bella,’ he repeated in Italian and began to kiss her—her stifled little cry of surprise sounding on his lips.
For a split second she seemed to hesitate—as if the chemistry which had once burned between them were no more.
And then she melted against him, opened her mouth beneath his as naturally as breathing and gave a little moan.
He slid his arms around her waist and then brought her even closer, revelling in the sensation of her soft curves and the silken spill of her hair.
How long had it been? he wondered hungrily—as his body gave a sudden urgent jerk of desire.
Not since the night before she’d left London at Christmas…
‘Giancarlo—’ she said breathlessly.
‘I want to make love to you, bella. I want to make love to you so badly.’
Why now? she wondered desperately. Why now? She opened her mouth to ask him but once again his powerful kiss silenced her.
Flagrantly, he rubbed his arousal against her belly—leaving her in no doubt about how much he wanted her.
The loud ping of the elevator did nothing but temporarily interrupt his deepening passion as, with a low growl, he led her into their suite.
Kicking shut the door behind them, he pushed her coat impatiently from her shoulders, let it slither to the floor before lifting her up in his arms and carrying her along the corridor towards the vast master bedroom.
‘Put me down,’ she protested. ‘I’m too heavy.’