The Temporary Mrs Marchetti
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Alice dragged her gaze upwards and collided with his. He knew. Damn it, he knew how much sensual power he had over her. She could see it in the knowing glint in his pitch-black eyes. She felt it when he sent his gaze over her body as if he too were remembering what it had felt like to hold her in his arms as she splintered into a thousand pieces of shivering, quivering ecstasy.
He lifted a hand to his jacket pocket and took out a business card and placed it on the desk next to the copy of his grandmother’s will. ‘My contact details should you change your mind. I’ll be in London for the next week while I sort out some business affairs.’
Alice wilfully ignored the card. ‘I’m not going to change my mind, Cristiano.’
I’m not. I’m not. I’m not.
A cynical smile lifted one side of his mouth. ‘We’ll see.’
We’ll see?
What did he mean, ‘We’ll see’? Alice didn’t get the chance to ask him for he turned and left her office, leaving her with the lingering fragrance of his aftershave, the lemon and lime with a base note of leather that made her nostrils tingle...not to mention the rest of her body.
Meghan was bug-eyed when she came back. ‘Oh, my God! You didn’t tell me you knew Cristiano Marchetti. I didn’t recognise him at first. He’s much more gorgeous in the flesh than he is in photographs in the press. I nearly fainted when he walked past me just then and smiled at me. What did he want? Is he going to come here for treatments? Please let me do him. Can I do him? Please, please, please?’
Alice wasn’t going to explain her past relationship with her employee even if Meghan was turning out to be one of the best she’d ever had. And as for Meghan ‘doing him’, if anyone was going to ‘do him’ it was going to be her. She would like nothing better than to get a pot of hot wax and strip that supercilious smile off his too-handsome face. ‘He’s not a client. I met him a few years ago. He just dropped in to say hi.’
‘Met him as in met him and dated him?’
Alice didn’t respond other than to purse her mouth. Meghan blushed and bit her lower lip. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. I know you insist on absolute confidentiality with celebrity clients. It’s just he’s so handsome and you never seem to date anyone and I wondered if it was because—’
‘Can you get my treatment room ready for my next client?’ Alice said. ‘I have some urgent paperwork to see to.’
Alice blew out a breath once Meghan scuttled away. For seven years she had told herself she’d made the right decision. She had chosen her career over commitment. Freedom over having a family. She had stood firm on her decision, not once wavering on it. Now, within her grasp was a way to finally achieve the success and financial security she had thus far only dreamt about.
Six months of marriage.
In name only.
She glanced at his business card. It seemed to taunt her with its presence.
Do it. Do it. Do it.
Alice snatched it up and tore it into as many pieces as she could and tossed them in the bin. It was kind of weird how they floated down just like a handful of confetti.
She hoped to God it wasn’t an omen.
* * *
Cristiano would have had a stiff drink if he’d been a drinking man, but the death of his parents and his older brother to a drunk driver when he was eleven made him wary of using alcohol other than in strict moderation. Seeing Alice Piper again was like having his guts slashed wide open. And stomped on. The mere sight of her reopened the wound of his bitterness until he wondered how he had stood there without showing it.
He’d felt it, though. God in heaven, how he’d felt it. The blood rush. The pulse race. The adrenalin surge. The kick and punch of lust.
He had stood there and drunk in her features like a dehydrated man standing in front of a long cool glass of water. Her indifferent poise, her cornflower-blue gaze that could freeze mercury, the way she looked down her aristocratic nose at him as if he had crept in from a primeval swamp with his knuckles dragging. Her body was as lissom and gorgeous as ever—perhaps even more so. Her unusual silver-blonde hair with her naturally dark eyebrows and the creamy, ageless perfection of her skin gave her a striking appearance that never failed to snatch his breath.
Her rejection of him stung and burned and churned even after all this time. He had thought what they’d had was for ever. A once in a lifetime love. Their passionate affair had been unlike anything he’d experienced before. He’d wanted to build a future with her. A family. He’d believed it to be like the love his parents had had for each other. Like the love his grandparents had before his grandfather died. The death of his grandfather a couple of months before he met Alice had made him acutely aware of how important family was. It had been all he had thought about—having a family to replace the one he had lost so young. He’d felt ready. More than ready. He’d been twenty-seven and well established in the hotel business he had inherited from his parents. He was ready for the next phase of his life.
But Alice hadn’t loved him. She had never said the words but he’d fooled himself into thinking she’d been showing it instead. How gullible he had been. How stupid to be so naively romantic when all she’d wanted was a quick fling with a foreigner to boast about with her friends.
What had his nonna been thinking? She had only met Alice a couple of times. Why bequeath her a share in a property worth millions and with such odd conditions attached? Six months of marriage? What sort of nonsense was this?
He hoped to God it wasn’t some sneaky matchmaking ploy from the grave. His grandmother knew he had changed his mind about settling down. He had laughed off the suggestion every time she asked him when he was going to provide her with a great-grandchild. Nonna had expressed her disapproval of his playboy lifestyle on numerous occasions but he had always dismissed her concerns because no one was going to tell him how to run his life.
No one.
His grandmother had been disappointed when his relationship with Alice broke down. Terribly disappointed. But he had refused to talk about it. He’d had enough trouble managing his own disappointment without having to handle his grandmother’s. Over the years she had stopped mentioning Alice’s name knowing it would get zero response from him. Why then had she done this? Forced him back into Alice’s life when it was the last thing he wanted?
The way the will was written meant if he didn’t convince Alice to marry him then he would lose valuable shares in the family company to a cousin he had no time for. He wasn’t going to hand over those shares only to have his cousin Rocco sell them to another party when he ran a little low on cash after playing the tables in a casino. Cristiano would rather marry his worst enemy before seeing that day dawn. He blamed himself for not telling his grandmother of Rocco’s disturbing spending habits of late. But he hadn’t wanted to burden her in the last months of her terminal illness.
Now it was too late.
The will had been written and now he had to convince Alice Piper to marry him.
Not that Alice was an enemy in the true sense of the word. She was a mistake he had made. A failure he wasn’t particularly fond of being reminded about. He had wiped her from his memory. Every time a thought of her would enter his mind he would ruthlessly erase it like someone cleaning a whiteboard. He had lived his life since as if she had never been a part of it. As if he had never had such amazing sex with her it had made his body tingle for hours afterwards. As if he had never kissed that sensually supple mouth. As if he had never felt that mouth around him while she blew the top of his head off.
Cristiano wasn’t going to let Alice think he was anything but delighted with the way his grandmother had orchestrated things. It suited him to let Alice think he was eager to put that ring on her finger and tie her to him for six months. Besides, maybe avoidance wasn’t the way to handle the lingering sting of her rejection. Maybe some immersion therapy would finally end his torment.
Alice might have given him that haughty look and said no as if it were her last word on it, but this time he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
CHAPTER TWO
ALICE NEITHER HEARD nor saw anything of Cristiano for the next couple of days. She had been expecting him to show up at work again, knowing him to be implacably determined when he set his mind to something. She had received a call from the lawyer handling the execution of the will, who explained some of the finer points. There was a time limit on accepting the terms. If she didn’t marry Cristiano by the end of a month-long engagement the villa would be sold outside the Marchetti family. Alice wondered what Cristiano would think about that—his childhood home sold to strangers. Was that why he was pushing for this marriage? Or was it purely revenge?
On the third day without sight or sound of Cristiano, Alice got a call from her salon building’s landlord, Ray Gormley. ‘I know this will come as a bit of a surprise, Alice, but I’ve sold the building,’ he said. ‘The new owner is taking possession immediately. You have a few months left on your current three-year lease so it shouldn’t disrupt—’
‘Sold?’ Alice gasped. ‘I didn’t even realise you had it on the market.’
‘I didn’t, but I got an offer I’d be a fool to refuse,’ he said. ‘I’m consolidating some of my interests. This guy’s bought the building next door as well. Says he’s going to make them both into a luxury hotel.’
Suspicion made every hair on the back of Alice’s neck stand up and fizz at the roots. ‘A...a hotel?’
‘Yes,’ Ray said. ‘You ever heard of Cristiano Marchetti? He has boutique hotels all over Europe.’
Alice’s jaw was so tight she felt the tension in her neck as if someone had a noose around it—which they did. Damn it.
‘So...let me get this straight... Marchetti approached you completely out of the blue?’
‘Yes,’ Ray said. ‘He’s been looking for suitable property in London. The UK is the only place he doesn’t have a hotel. This is stage one of his British expansion.’
Alice was still trying to get her heart out of her mouth and back in her chest where it belonged. Cristiano was her new landlord? What did he plan to do? Hike up her rent so she had no choice but to marry him? She had three months left on her three-year lease. It had always worried her having such a short-term lease, which was one of the reasons she wanted to buy her own property. But Ray had always assured her he wasn’t selling any time soon. His wife and three daughters were clients of hers. She had thought—stupidly thought—she was safe.
But what would happen once Cristiano took possession?
Alice ended the call and started pacing her office so hard she thought she’d go right through the floorboards to the subway below. This was absolutely outrageous. Cristiano was going to such devious lengths to bend her to his will. She wished now she hadn’t torn up his card. Not that she had forgotten his number—no matter how hard she tried to erase it, for some reason, it remained fixed in her brain. But he might well have changed it. After all, she had changed hers.
She sat back at her desk and dialled his number. She listened to it ringing and ringing, her courage just about deserting her when finally it was answered by a husky female voice. ‘Hello?’
Alice’s stomach dropped. ‘Erm... I’m not sure if I have the right number—’
‘Are you looking for Cristiano?’ the young woman said.
‘Erm...yes, but if he’s busy I can—’
‘He’s right here beside me,’ the woman said. ‘Who will I say is calling?’
Right here beside her doing what?
Alice clenched her teeth so hard she could have bitten through a pair of tweezers. It was the middle of the day, for pity’s sake. Why wasn’t he at work instead of in bed with some gorgeous nymphet?
‘It’s Alice Piper.’
She heard the sound of the phone being handed over and couldn’t stop an image forming of him lying amongst the rumpled bed linen of a hotel with a naked woman’s body draped over his. ‘I’ve been expecting you to call,’ Cristiano said. ‘Changed your mind yet?’
Alice gripped her phone so hard she thought her knuckles were going to burst through her skin. ‘No, I have not.’
‘That’s a pity.’ There was a note of casual amusement in his tone. ‘I didn’t want to have to play dirty but needs must.’
Alice’s spine tightened as if someone were turning a wrench on each and every vertebra. ‘I know what you’re trying to do but—’
‘Come to my hotel and we’ll discuss this over a drink.’
Alice wasn’t going anywhere near his hotel. A hotel room was way too intimate. If she and Cristiano were alone together with a bed nearby, who knew what might happen? It wasn’t him she didn’t trust. It was her. Her body remembered him like a language she thought she’d long forgotten. Even now it was responding to the deep gravelly cadence of his voice, making her senses reel as if she had ingested some sort of mind-altering drug. ‘I’d rather meet somewhere less...’
‘Dangerous?’
The silky tone of his voice loosened the bolts on her vertebrae.
Alice pressed her lips together, trying to garner her defences. He wasn’t the same man as seven years ago. He had changed. He was harder. More ruthless. More calculating and brutally tactical. She was going to have to be careful dealing with him. He wasn’t in love with her now. He hated her. He wanted revenge. ‘I’m not scared of you, Cristiano.’
‘Perhaps not, but you’re scared of how I make you feel. It’s always been that way between us, has it not?’
‘I felt lust for you back then. Nothing else.’
‘You still feel it, don’t you, cara mia?’ His voice was a teasing feather stroking over the nerve-sensitive base of her spine.
‘You’re mistaken,’ she said, injecting her voice with icy hauteur. ‘I feel nothing for you but contempt.’
‘That’s a strong word for someone who once shared their body with me.’
‘You know something? I didn’t break your heart,’ Alice said. ‘I bruised your ego. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? You hadn’t had a woman say no to you before. You weren’t in love with me. If you were you would have accepted and respected my decision not to get married.’
‘That is an argument for another time,’ he said with a thread of steel entering his tone. ‘I want to see you tonight to discuss the rent on your salon going forward.’
Alice stiffened. It was all right for him with the millions he’d inherited when his parents were killed. She didn’t have any rich relatives to hand her an empire or to give her a financial leg up when things turned ugly. Everything she had worked for had been out of her own blood, sweat and tears—and occasional tantrum. If he turned the financial screws on her now, everything she’d worked for could be compromised. Or—God forbid—even lost. ‘Sometimes I wonder how you speak so fluently with all those silver spoons hanging out of your mouth.’
A pulsing silence passed.
Alice wondered if this was going to turn into one of their massive arguments. With hindsight she could see a large part of their relationship had been a power struggle. They had constantly bickered over things without anything being resolved other than in bed. Neither of them had wanted to compromise or back down from a stance. Making love had diffused the battle temporarily, but it hadn’t solved the underlying issue.
He had wanted control of her and she wouldn’t give it.
Cristiano released a long breath. ‘I would give each and every one of those silver spoons back if I could have my parents and brother back for a day, let alone for the last twenty-three years.’
Alice suddenly felt ashamed of herself. He couldn’t help his background any more than she could help hers. It was a cheap shot, similar to the ones she’d tossed at him in the past. Their verbal sparring had been a sort of foreplay. The battle of two strong wills, combined with a fierce lust for each other, had created some combustible arguments on occasion. Too many occasions. When had they ever sat down and had a discussion without one or both of them flying off in a temper? Had either of them actually listened to what the other said? Or were they too busy trying to think of a cutting comeback? ‘I’m sorry. That was...unfair of me.’
‘I have to go. Natalia is waiting for me.’
A dagger went to Alice’s belly. She’d forgotten all about his gorgeous little bed buddy lying right beside him while he spoke to her on the phone. Jealousy rose in her like a beast that had been woken too abruptly. Giant paws of jealousy clawing at her insides, making her feel strangely hollow. Why was she feeling like this? She had no right to feel this way. She had ended their affair. She’d been the one to walk away, not him. She didn’t have any rights over him now. He was a free agent to sleep with whomever he pleased. There should be no reason why the thought of him talking to her on the phone while a woman was in bed beside him should...hurt her so much.
‘I’m sorry to force you to talk business in the middle of pleasure,’ she said. ‘Maybe next time turn your phone to silent so you don’t get interrupted during one of your marathon sex sessions.’
There was another little silence.
Alice wished she hadn’t spoken with such crisp venom. Every word she had spoken sounded as if it were painted bright green. What was wrong with her? It was crazy to give him ammunition he could use against her. If he thought for a picosecond she was jealous he would exploit it every opportunity he could.
‘I’ll pick you up for dinner at seven,’ Cristiano said as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘What’s your address?’
‘I’m not having dinner with—’
‘You will have dinner with me or I’ll cancel your lease as of now.’
Alice’s heart banged against her breastbone. ‘You can’t do that!’
‘Can’t I?’
She swallowed a rush of panic. She had to get control of her tongue. It wouldn’t help her cause to challenge him all the time. It would only make him all the harder to manage. She could handle dinner. Sure she could. It would be a test for her. It would be proof she could spend an hour or two in his company without wanting to tear his clothes off his hot body.
Yikes. Do not even think about that body.
It was probably still naked and sweaty from bed-wrecking sex. ‘Won’t Natalia mind you taking out another woman for dinner?’
‘No.’
Alice was frustrated by his one-word answer so went digging for more. ‘She must have a very laid-back attitude to relationships to allow you to entertain other women while she’s involved with you.’
‘Natalia knows her place.’
‘Are you going to marry her?’
‘She’s already married.’
Shock rendered Alice speechless for a moment. What had happened to Cristiano’s conservative old-fashioned values? The Cristiano of the past would never have slept with a married woman. He’d had no time for men and women who betrayed their marital vows. He’d spoken at length about the commitment his parents had made and how he admired and respected them for staying true to it until their untimely deaths. Until death do us part had been something he had believed in to the letter.
What had changed him?
You changed him.
The thought was an uncomfortable weight in the pit of her stomach. Had she been the one to destroy his faith in relationships? But she hadn’t been ready to settle down back then. Rejecting a proposal wasn’t a crime, was it? Surely she’d had the right to decide whether she wanted to be married or not. It wasn’t the Dark Ages, for God’s sake. But the thought continued to niggle at her. Had she turned him into a casual-living playboy who had no time for commitment? These days he used women to suit his needs. He was in and out of relationships faster than a racing driver changed gears. Was he really no longer a man who longed for a wife and family of his own? And why should that make her feel so...so sad? ‘Well then, I’d better get off the phone so you can get back to your grubby little affair, hadn’t I?’
‘I’ll see you tonight,’ he said and before she could think of a comeback, or tell him she wasn’t going, he ended the call.
* * *
Alice dressed for dinner as if she were dressing for combat. Each layer of clothing was like putting on a suit of armour. The armour of sophistication she had been so sadly lacking seven years ago.
She sometimes wondered what Cristiano had seen in her back then. She had been twenty-one years old and newly qualified as a beauty therapist. It had been her first trip abroad without friends accompanying her. She had been on a shoestring budget while she backpacked around Europe but she’d only got as far as Italy when she’d met him in a crowded street in Milan when a sharp catch on her backpack had become caught on his clothing, as she’d brushed past.
They’d stood in the middle of the street, comically locked together by their clothes. He’d made a comment about it bringing a whole new meaning to ‘hooking up with someone’ and she’d laughed. Once he had untangled himself he’d insisted on buying her a coffee.
One coffee had turned into two coffees and then dinner. Instead of going back to the backpackers’ centre she’d found herself accepting his offer of accommodation for the night or two she’d planned to spend in his home city. At no time had she felt any pressure to sleep with him. She was not unaware of his interest in her and she hadn’t been all that good at hiding hers in him. But his respectful handling of her had impressed her. Not many healthy and virile young men of twenty-seven, as he was at that time, would have asked a woman back to his place and not expected something in return.
In the end it had been Alice who made the first move. She still remembered their first kiss. Sometimes when she closed her eyes she could still feel those firm lips moving with such urgency against hers, making every cell in her body vibrate. One kiss hadn’t been enough. Next minute she was tearing his clothes off him and all but throwing herself at him.
Her mind drifted... The drugging kisses. The phenomenal foreplay. The earth-rocking sex. The mind-bending orgasms. The electric tingling of her flesh for hours afterwards.
How had she gone so long without it?
Alice sighed and picked up her lipstick. She had never found anyone else who made her feel desire quite like that, as if she would literally die if she didn’t have him. Which meant she would have to be super careful around him now. She didn’t want to betray herself, to give him any hint she hadn’t managed to move on with her life. Of course she had moved on with her life. She was a successful businesswoman with money in the bank...most of it borrowed, but still.
What else did she need?
The doorbell sounded and she put her lipstick in her purse and picked up her evening wrap and went to the door. Even though she was in four-inch heels Cristiano towered over her. ‘You’re late,’ she said. ‘I thought you said seven. It’s half-past.’
He gave a shrug of one broad shoulder as if punctuality and common politeness were no longer of any interest to him. ‘I knew you’d wait for me.’
The way he said it made it sound as if she had spent the last seven years doing exactly that. She raised her chin and sent him a look that would have soured long-life milk. ‘How did you find out where I lived?’
‘Your very helpful previous landlord.’
The slight emphasis on the word ‘previous’ made Alice’s nerves jangle.
She wound her wrap around her shoulders, wishing she could wind it around Cristiano’s neck instead. ‘Where are we going to dinner?’
‘Aren’t you going to show me around your house first?’
Alice pinched her lips together. ‘My home is hardly on a league with yours.’
He glanced around her foyer with an appraising eye. ‘Nice. How long have you lived here?’
‘Two years.’
‘Alone?’
Alice forced herself to hold that piercing gaze even though it made every atom in her body protest. ‘At the moment.’