THE ITALIAN DUKE’S WIFE Page 13

for male possession, but for the right to take her own

  pleasure in whatever way she wished? And why

  should he stop her? Why should he not let her take

  her pleasure where she wished and in whatever way

  she wished?

  He looked down at her, to where he could see outlined

  by her strappy top the stiff thrust of her nipples,

  and his male instincts surged in feral need. He cupped

  her face and took her mouth with his own, driving

  into it with the slow rhythmic thrust of his tongue as

  he tugged down her top with his free hand until her

  breasts spilled over the fabric, creamily fleshed, with

  warm brown nipples already swollen hard with desire.

  Jodie didn’t even hear herself moan with hot

  delight at the feel of Lorenzo’s naked flesh against

  her own. She was lost in her own arousal. His silky

  dark body hair sensitised her already eager nipples

  while the stroke of his tongue in the hollow behind

  her ear brought her arching compulsively into him,

  into him and against him, grinding her hips against

  his body in a frenzy of eager longing.

  Jodie could see their twinned images in the bedroom

  mirrors, and she watched passion-bound as

  Lorenzo cupped her breast and readied the dark peak

  of her nipple for the downward descent of his head

  and the deliberately erotic caress of his tongue.

  This time as she arched her body up to his, willingly

  sacrificing it to her growing pleasure, Jodie did

  hear herself cry out in female longing. But the sound

  of her own desire only increased the fevered beat of

  her blood as it surged through her veins, heating her

  belly and spreading through it an ache that weakened

  her muscles and softened her flesh into warm, wet

  compliance.

  When Lorenzo picked her up bodily, she wrapped

  her arms around him and gasped in pleasure to feel

  him suckling on the taut peak of her nipple whilst he

  tugged off the rest of her clothes.

  By the time he placed her on the bed they were

  both naked, and he was leaning over her whilst he

  trailed slow kisses over her openly eager body. Jodie

  could see how the thick strength of his erection rose

  stiffly toward his belly, and she yearned to reach out

  and touch it.

  The sensation of Lorenzo circling her navel with

  his tongue-tip as his hand stroked slowly up the inside

  of her thigh was melting away whatever desire she

  might have had to conjure up some kind of resistance.

  Her rapt gaze was fixed unashamedly and avidly on

  his erection.

  Lorenzo lifted his head to watch her as she reached

  out half hesitantly and took him in her hand, her eyes

  widening as she absorbed the texture and heat. A soft

  slow burn of excited colour warmed her skin when

  she registered the pulse that flooded his darkly engorged

  thickness. She stroked him with fervent female

  appreciation and approval, and Lorenzo closed

  his eyes and exhaled, unable to withstand his body"s

  longing to enjoy her wondering exploration.

  How powerful it made her feel to touch Lorenzo

  like this, and how eternally female, in a way that

  somehow connected her with the whole of her sex

  from the dawn of time. It was woman who aroused

  this maleness in a man, woman who controlled and

  commanded it, drawing from it her own pleasure as

  well as allowing man to take his. Her fingers explored

  and stroked, and her lips parted and her breath caught

  on a small whisper of soft wanton pleasure as she felt

  the response Lorenzo couldn’t quite control. He felt

  so rigid, and yet at the same time so malleable. Silky

  desire flushed her, tempted her to bend her head

  and…

  "No!"

  The harshness of Lorenzo’s refusal sent a shock

  through her. Confusion and disappointment darkened

  her gaze as it met his, and then returned to cling to

  his now openly pulsing stiffness.

  If he let her place her lips against him now, he

  wouldn’t be able to control himself, Lorenzo knew.

  She had already aroused him well beyond his own

  personal safety limit. If he let her caress him so intimately,

  he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from

  taking her.

  "Why not?" Jodie protested.

  "We can’t have full sex," he answered her curtly.

  With her own arousal an unsatisfied ache that physically

  hurt, Jodie persisted doggedly, "Why not?"

  "I Don’t have any condoms, and there’s no way I

  intend to fall into the trap of fathering a child I Don’t

  want and which ultimately I would have to pay for,"

  he told her harshly.

  "wouldn’t it have been better to have thought of

  that earlier?" Jodie asked him pointedly as she moved

  away from him and got off the bed, retrieving her

  clothes and redressing with clumsy haste.

  No way was she going to let him guess how much

  his rejection of her reminded her of John’s, or how

  much it and he had hurt her. And she certainly didn’t

  want him to know how shamingly and how very, very

  much she was aching deep inside herself for what he

  was not going to give her.

  How foolish she had been to think that she was in

  control of his desire. In this relationship she wasn’t

  in control of anything, she decided bitterly, as she

  almost ran for the door, desperate for the sanctuary

  of her own bedroom.

  CHAPTER TEN

  JODIE tensed as she heard the sound she had been

  lying awake waiting for. The now familiar click of

  Lorenzo’s bedroom door being opened very quietly,

  and then closed again equally secretively.

  In two days" time they would be getting married,

  but on no less than four occasions now Jodie had been

  aware of Lorenzo leaving his bedroom late at night

  and not returning to it for at least an hour. And

  Caterina was still living at the Castillo, in Lorenzo’s

  late grandmother’s rooms. If Caterina had made good

  her threat to get Lorenzo back into her bed, then

  surely she had a right to know about it? Even though

  she was only going to be a temporary wife.

  Getting out of bed, Jodie pulled on her robe and

  slipped her feet into a pair of soft-soled shoes. She

  was determined to confront Lorenzo with her suspicions.

  Being a business arrangement wife was one

  thing, but being the unwanted wife of a man who had

  a mistress was very definitely another. And the kind

  of humiliating situation she had no intention of allowing

  Lorenzo to put her in.

  She hurried along the landing to the top of the

  stairs, and as she looked anxiously down them she

  saw Lorenzo’s shadow moving swiftly along the hallway

  below. Determinedly she hurried after him, wondering

  why he had not simply used the upper corridor

  that led to Caterina’s apartments.

  Several narrow passageways led off the hallway

  which linked t
he old part of the Castillo to this newer

  wing, which had been added in the seventeenth century.

  Which passage had Lorenzo taken? There was

  a light burning on the stairs that led down to a lower

  level. Exhaling nervously, Jodie turned down them.

  The stairs were directly under Caterina’s apartment,

  so perhaps—

  She gave a small shocked scream as suddenly, out

  of the shadows, a hand curled round her wrist.

  "What the hell do you think You’re doing?"

  "Lorenzo!"

  He must have realised that she was following him

  and waited to trap her.

  "I wanted to know where you were going. This is

  the fourth time I’ve heard you leave your room late

  at night," she told him boldly, lifting her chin.

  "You were spying on me?"

  The narrow-eyed look he was giving her was making

  her feel acutely uncomfortable, but she wasn’t

  going to let him see that.

  "If I’m going to marry you then I have a right to

  know if You’re having sex with Caterina."

  "What?"

  "I won’t marry you if you are," Jodie told him

  fiercely. "And I mean that."

  "You mean You’re snooping around following me

  because you thought you were going to find me in

  Caterina’s bed?"

  Put that way, he made it sound as though her behaviour

  was verging on the bunny-boiling, Jodie realised

  guiltily. How could she tell him that his rejection

  of her, so closely mirroring John’s lack of sexual interest

  in her, had not only heightened her own insecurities

  but had also led to her wondering if, like

  John, Lorenzo was actually finding sexual satisfaction

  with someone else?

  "You can’t deny that you and she have been lovers,"

  she told him stubbornly.

  "Have been, yes," he agreed tersely. "But that was

  nearly twenty years ago, when I was a boy."

  "She says you still want her."

  "She may choose to think that, but it is most certainly

  not true," Lorenzo told her firmly. His fingers

  were still clamped round her wrist, and suddenly he

  cursed beneath his breath, saying grimly, "You want

  to know where I go? Very well, then — come with

  me."

  He was walking so fast along the narrow, tunnellike

  corridor in front of them that Jodie almost had to

  run to keep up with him. She could smell damp, and

  see it too on the vaulted curve of the ancient stone

  walls. She gave a small shiver, and then a shocked

  gasp as they reached a heavy oak door and Lorenzo

  told her emotionlessly, "The corridor beyond here was

  once know as the via eternal, because it led to the

  Castillo’s dungeons and torture chambers."

  "The torture chambers?" Jodie could hear the horrified

  revulsion in her own voice.

  Lorenzo gave a dismissive shrug as he unlocked

  and then opened the heavy oak door. "They were considered

  a necessary part of warfare."

  "In medieval times, perhaps," Jodie acknowledged.

  "But—"

  "No, not merely in medieval times," Lorenzo interrupted,

  his voice and his expression both so savagely

  forbidding that she shivered.

  Beyond the door lay a large cavernous room with

  a low, vaulted ceiling. Wine racks leaned emptily

  against one wall, whilst moisture dripped onto the

  floor from the ceiling.

  "It’s all right," Lorenzo told her following her anxious

  upward glance. "The ceiling is quite safe, and the

  coldness of the air, although unpleasant, does have

  certain merits."

  "More torture for the prisoners?" Jodie suggested

  sharply.

  "My grandmother’s first husband was imprisoned

  down here for a time."

  The unexpectedness of Lorenzo’s low-voiced comment

  sent a shock through her.

  "He was against Mussolini and made the mistake

  of saying so; for that he was imprisoned and tortured

  in his own home. My grandmother never really got

  over it. Oh, she remarried after his death, but her heart

  wasn’t really in it. She often told me herself that,

  given a free choice, she would have preferred to retire

  to the contemplative life of a convent — but she had

  promised him that she would provide his house with

  an heir. Her marriage to my own grandfather was arranged

  by her first husband as he lay dying from the

  damage inflicted on his body by his torturers. They

  stole many works of art from the Castillo — and emptied

  the wine racks," he added grimly, nodding in the

  direction of the empty racks. "But there was one treasure

  they were not able to take."

  Jodie looked round the bleak, cold underground

  room in bewilderment.

  "Down here?"

  Lorenzo shook his head. "No. Come with me."

  He led her over to a small door that opened onto

  another set of stairs. "These lead up to the main salon

  of what used to be the state apartments."

  "Caterina’s rooms?" Jodie questioned him uncertainly.

  "She sleeps in what was my grandmother’s room,

  which forms part of the state apartments, yes — which

  is why I use these stairs to reach the salon instead of

  the main corridor stairs."

  They had reached the top of the stairs and another

  door.

  "Through here, in the main salon, concealed by the

  fabric which my grandmother’s first husband had specially

  applied to the walls, is a series of wall paintings

  by a pupil of Leonardo. Although, according to my

  grandmother, family legend insists that the Master

  himself had a hand in their execution."

  As he spoke he was ushering her into a large elegant

  room, its walls hung with green silk fabric. The

  room was shabby and slightly neglected, with dust

  motes hanging in the air along with the faint smell of

  roses.

  "The Duce was afraid that Mussolini’s men would

  lay claim to the Castillo because of the paintings, and

  so he had them covered up. It was his dream that one

  day they would be fully restored. Our family is a large

  one, and there are some members of it who feel that

  the Castillo should be sold and the proceeds shared.

  My grandmother wanted to leave the Castillo to me

  because she knew I would fulfil on her behalf the

  promise she made to her dying first husband."

  "So why did she make it condition of her will that

  you must marry?"

  "That was through Caterina’s interference. My

  grandmother was a gentle person who thought only

  good of others. Caterina seized her chance after Gino

  died and managed to convince Nonna that we were

  star-crossed lovers and I wanted to marry her. She is

  what one might term an adventuress, to whom marriage

  to my cousin Gino gave social standing. She

  had hoped to raise herself even higher by trapping me

  into marriage with her. Money and social position are

  all that matter to her."

  Jodie frow
ned. Her instincts were telling her that

  what he was saying was the truth, and that Caterina

  had lied to her.

  "Caterina knows how important the Castillo is to

  me," Lorenzo continued. "Gino had told her of my

  promise to our grandmother, and she thought she

  could use that to force my hand. Fortunately for me,

  my grandmother’s notary managed to conceal from

  Caterina the fact that he had omitted her name from

  the final signed copy of the will, so that it read merely

  that I had to marry, instead of stating that I had to

  marry Caterina. And, as if the situation weren’t complicated

  enough already, she has been encouraging

  some Russian syndicate to believe that the Castillo

  will be available to buy. They wish to convert it into

  a luxury hotel."

  "But why do you come here at night?"

  "Because I cannot do so during the day, when

  Caterina is here, and because I have a need to commune

  with the past, to assure the man who gave his

  life to preserve it that I will do my best to fulfil his

  dream." He gave a small shrug. "At the same time, I

  have dreams of my own. I would like to see the

  Castillo turned into a rehabilitation centre for the

  young victims of war — a place where they can recover

  physically and emotionally. I want it to be a

  centre for young artists and artisans, gifted craftspeople

  who will work on the restoration that is needed

  and train their young apprentices to follow in their

  footsteps. I want to banish from the Castillo, and from

  the lives of young victims of war, at least some of

  the shadows and dark places, and to fill them instead

  with light and the pleasure of living. The meetings I

  have been having in Florence are connected with my

  plans for the Castillo. As soon as we are married, and

  the Castillo is legally mine, my first and most important

  duty is to put in hand the restoration of the paintings."

  Jodie had to blink fiercely to disperse her foolish

  tears, her earlier antagonistic suspicions of him swept

  away by a sudden surge of admiration.

  "It sounds wonderful — a truly noble enterprise," she

  told him huskily, looking up at him, her admiration

  warming her eyes.

  Lorenzo looked back at her and Jodie caught her

  breath as he took a step towards her, quickly disentangling

  her gaze from his whilst her heart raced and

  thudded.

  "Caterina does not think so. She would far rather