THE ITALIAN DUKE’S WIFE Read online

  to-be has a soft heart and digs deep into his

  pockets to help those in need. Did you meet him

  through his charitable work?"

  Jodie could feel her face starting to burn as she

  remembered her earlier accusatory comments to

  Lorenzo. And she couldn’t even allow herself the satisfaction

  of inwardly believing that Lorenzo had

  primed his lawyer to speak as he had. One look at

  Lorenzo’s grim expression was enough to make it

  plain that Alfredo’s unwitting revelations had not

  pleased him.

  "Jodie does not work in any capacity for any of the

  aid programmes, Alfredo." Lorenzo stopped him. "As

  it happens I met her some time ago, when I was in

  England. I had planned to bring her here to meet my

  grandmother, but unfortunately Nonna died before I

  could do so…which brings me to the matter of my

  late cousin’s widow, Caterina."

  "She can have no claim on the Castillo once you

  have complied with the terms of your grandmother’s

  will and are married," Alfredo assured Lorenzo immediately.

  "No claim on the Castillo, no, but it seems that

  Caterina feels she has the right to make a claim on

  me," Lorenzo told him cynically.

  Alfredo started to frown. "But that is impossible."

  "Indeed. But Caterina, as we both know, is somewhat

  prone to exaggeration. Ridiculously, she has

  even suggested that my grandmother wished me to

  marry her! Having run through Gino’s money, and

  dragged his name in the gutter, it seems she desires

  to do the same with mine."

  "There has been gossip about her," Alfredo agreed

  uncomfortably.

  "Indeed. And I do not wish there to be any about

  my marriage or my future wife, so perhaps a few

  words in the right ears to warn them to ignore anything

  Caterina might have to say?" Lorenzo suggested

  smoothly.

  "An excellent idea," Alfredo agreed, whilst Jodie

  listened and silently digested the suavely subtle, lethal

  way in which Lorenzo was dismantling Caterina’s

  power base. When it came to getting what he wanted,

  Lorenzo was obviously a ruthless opponent. A ruthless,

  arrogant, dangerous man — who voluntarily gave

  both his time and his wealth to help the young victims

  of far-off wars and disasters. That wasn’t just one

  man, it was two very different men inside the same

  skin — like Janus, the double-faced Roman god of beginnings

  and endings, from whom the month of

  January took its name. Lorenzo was an enigma of a

  man, and the polar differences within himself made

  him toxically dangerous. But not to her. No man

  would ever again be a danger to her.

  "I have brought with me all the various documents

  you will both need to sign in preparation for your

  marriage. The Cardinal was most helpful. He suggested

  the Church of the Madonna in Florence for the

  service, and he has undertaken to arrange for the

  banns to be read from this Sunday. Since the law is

  that they must be read on two consecutive Sundays

  before the marriage can be conducted, that means that

  you can be married just over two weeks from today."

  Banns? And a church service? Their marriage was

  to be just a temporary business arrangement: it didn’t

  need to be celebrated in church. A simple civil ceremony

  was all that was necessary. Jodie started to step

  forward, but somehow Lorenzo had managed to get

  between her and Alfredo. She could feel his fingers

  curling determinedly around her wrist, and she could

  see the warning in his eyes as he lifted her now tightly

  clenched palm towards his lips.

  "You have done well, Alfredo," he said approvingly,

  without shifting his gaze from Jodie. "Hasn’t

  he, cara?"

  His lips were caressing her knuckles, each individual

  one in turn, until, helplessly, she could feel her

  fingers uncurling from her palm, as though eager for

  more.

  "I have also prepared the necessary papers for you

  both to sign with regard to the financial agreement.

  There is one for you to sign, Jodie, renouncing any

  future financial claim you might have against Lorenzo

  in the event of a divorce, and the other which you

  asked me to draw up, Lorenzo, stating that in the

  event of the marriage breaking down within twelve

  months of the ceremony you will pay Jodie one mil-

  lion pounds sterling, plus a further million pounds for

  every year after that that you remain married."

  "I’ll sign the papers renouncing any future claim I

  might have against Lorenzo, but I Don’t want his

  money." The words were spoken before Jodie could

  stop herself. She could see that Alfredo looked both

  rueful and slightly embarrassed.

  "Of course it is unpleasant to have to talk about

  such things now, before you are even married, but—"

  "I Don’t want the money," Jodie repeated.

  "This is something we can discuss in private later,"

  Lorenzo informed her in a warning tone, before turning

  to smile at Alfredo and telling him, "You have a

  long journey back to Rome, so the sooner we get all

  the paperwork dealt with, the better."

  "Why do we have to have a church service instead of

  just a civil ceremony?"

  It was over an hour since Alfredo had left, but

  Jodie’s system was still in full adrenalin-producing

  mode as she confronted Lorenzo across the width of

  his desk.

  "Why should we not? It is customary within my

  family, and will be expected."

  "You should have told me before. I thought we

  would just be having a civil wedding. Being married

  in church will make it seem so real…"

  Lorenzo was frowning now.

  "Our marriage will be real," he informed her. "That

  is the whole point of undertaking it. It has to be

  "real", as you put it, in order for me to fulfil the

  terms of my grandmother’s will. Or at least, "real"

  in the sense that it will be conducted as a real wedding.

  We shall not, of course, be consummating it."

  "No, we most certainly won’t," Jodie agreed vehemently.

  "I’m beginning to wish that I had never got

  involved in any of this."

  "It is too late for that now, and besides, you will

  be well remunerated."

  "I’ve already told you I Don’t want your money.

  All I want is for you to attend John and Louise’s

  wedding with me."

  "I could hardly have that put in the marriage contract.

  As it is, there is bound to be some degree of

  gossip and speculation about our relationship. You

  have Alfredo on your side, though. He was obviously

  afraid that your feelings had been hurt by the necessity

  of legalising the financial aspects of our marriage."

  "You could never hurt my feelings. You aren’t important

  enough to me, and I intend to make sure that

  no man ever is from now on."

  "Yo
u intend to die a virgin?"

  He was mocking her, Jodie knew.

  "And if I do? There are more important things in

  life than sex!"

  "How would you know? By your own admission,

  you have never truly experienced it."

  Jodie had had enough.

  "A woman does not need to have penetration in

  order to experience sexual pleasure. Nor does she

  need a man," she told him frankly.

  "Is that the only way you feel able to allow yourself

  to reach fulfilment? Either by your own hand or

  through the use of some battery-driven device that

  cannot—?"

  "No! I wasn’t talking about me. I just meant… I’m

  not listening to any more of this." Jodie could feel her

  face burning with self-conscious colour as she covered

  her ears with her hands.

  "I am simply making the point that you are rejecting

  something without having experienced it."

  "What about you? You’re rejecting marriage, aren’t

  you — at least a proper marriage? And you haven’t

  been married, have you?"

  "I haven’t been married myself, but I have witnessed

  the marriages of others and seen what a destructive

  sham the state of marriage is — how it is used

  to cover greed and selfishness, and how children born

  into it are left to deal with the fall-out from their

  parents" deceit."

  "That isn’t true of all marriages. Some Don’t work

  out, yes, but there are happy marriages. My cousin

  and his wife love one another very deeply, and my

  parents were happy together…"

  "Really? So how come this wonderful gene that has

  enabled them to achieve the rare state of bliss bypassed

  you?"

  "It’s all down to having the ability to pick the right

  partner. I realised with John that I Don’t have that

  ability, and that is why I never intend to let myself

  fall in love again. But that doesn’t mean I Don’t believe

  marriage can work or that some people — other

  people — have the ability to make the right partner

  choice and to share commitment."

  "Only a fool believes that sexual love can be permanent,"

  Lorenzo told her challengingly, as though

  he expected her to disagree with him. But Jodie was

  wary of getting involved in any more arguments that

  featured sex. Every time she did, a funny little sensation

  deep inside her sprang into life and pulsed in

  such an intimate and demanding way that she could

  barely concentrate on what she was saying because

  of it.

  "Oh, and by the way," Lorenzo continued, "Don’t

  think that I was taken in by that artful comment of

  yours about not wanting the million pounds. What are

  you hoping? That if you refuse it now then later,

  when we divorce, you will be in a much stronger

  position to claim far more? If that is the case, let me

  warn you—"

  Jodie had had enough. "No, let me warn you that

  the only reason I am marrying you is so that I can

  show John he isn’t the only man in the world, and so

  that I can hold my head up high at home, instead of

  being pitied. It’s my pride that’s motivating me, not

  any desire for money. I do not want your money! And

  I certainly Don’t want your…your sexual expertise,

  either!"

  "that’s just as well, because you aren’t going to be

  offered it," Lorenzo said unkindly. "It amazes me that

  still in this modern day the myth persists that adult,

  sexually mature men have a secret yearning for the

  untutored body of a virgin. Personally I can think of

  nothing more unenticing. Maybe that was why your

  ex-fiance. chose someone else over you. Have you

  thought of that?"

  Had she thought of it? There had been endless

  nights and days when she had thought of nothing else

  in those early weeks. Nights when she had lain in bed,

  feverishly wondering how she might suddenly transform

  herself from a virgin into an alluringly experienced

  woman who could seduce him away from

  Louise just as Louise had seduced John away from

  her. But that had been in the maddening furnace of

  new rejection, and those fires, with their dangerous,

  damaging compulsion to prove herself as a woman,

  had now cooled. And they certainly weren’t going to

  be re-ignited by a man like Lorenzo — a man who

  looked and behaved as though he knew everything

  there was to know about a woman"s sensuality and a

  man"s ability to rouse and enjoy it.

  The pulsing inside her body suddenly became

  sharply intense. Not just a pulse now, but a deep-

  seated ache as well.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  "THERE is something I want to say to you."

  Caterina stood in front of Jodie, blocking her exit

  from the pretty garden she had left her room to explore.

  "Alfredo was here earlier. Why?"

  "isn’t that something you should be asking

  Lorenzo, not me?" Jodie tried to head her off.

  "He doesn’t want to marry you really. It’s me he

  wants. he’s always wanted me and he always will.

  Always and for ever. I was his first woman and I shall

  be his last. But, because I chose to marry his cousin,

  Lorenzo feels he has to punish me, and to show me

  that he no longer cares. But he does. He still wants

  me, and I can prove it any time I like."

  Jodie could feel herself wanting to reject the intimacy

  of the information being forced on her, along

  with the shockingly graphic images that were already

  forming inside her head. She was no voyeur, she told

  herself angrily, and the last thing she wanted to imagine

  was Lorenzo making love to Caterina.

  "Whatever he may have told you, the only reason

  he’s marrying you is because his own stubborn pride

  makes him believe that he has to resist his feelings

  for me to prove how strong he is. The truth is that

  Lorenzo is afraid of his need for me," Caterina

  boasted, adding mockingly, "When he beds you it will

  be me he is imagining he is holding, and me he secretly

  wishes he were holding." She gave Jodie a con

  temptuous look, the same kind of look that Louise

  had given her. Her heart seemed to miss a beat, and

  she could feel what must surely only be an echo of

  remembered pain and rejection stealing away her self-

  confidence and hard-won self-belief.

  "You and Lorenzo may once have been lovers—"

  she began bravely.

  "May? There is no ""may"" about it. We were."

  Caterina stopped her. "He adored me, worshipped me.

  He could not resist me."

  Jodie’s stomach rolled queasily. Inside her head she

  could hear Louise saying triumphantly to her, "John

  can’t resist me."

  "There was a quarrel — a misunderstanding. Lorenzo

  was young and hot-headed. I could not allow him to

  treat me thus, so to teach him a lesson I left him."

  Jodie could well imagine how Lorenzo must have

&nb
sp; reacted to that kind of treatment. His pride would certainly

  have been outraged. But surely true love was

  stronger than pride?

  "He is only marrying you because he does not have

  any feelings for you. Lorenzo is afraid of his feelings

  for me and that makes him fight against them. But he

  will not fight them for ever. He cannot. His desire for

  me is too strong."

  "that’s ridiculous," Jodie forced herself to protest.

  "After all, there is nothing to stop him marrying you

  if he wanted to do so."

  "It is his mother who is to blame for his ridiculous

  refusal to marry me," Caterina insisted angrily. "It is

  because of her that he fears to publicly acknowledge

  his love for me. Because of her he tries to deny and

  reject it. But I can still make him want me."

  "isn’t his mother dead?" Jodie pointed out.

  "Lorenzo has never forgiven his mother for betraying

  his father and leaving them both when she went

  off with her lover." Caterina gave a small, almost contemptuous

  shrug. "Such a fuss about nothing. He was

  a child of seven, with a father rich enough to provide

  him with all the care he needed. But, no, that was not

  good enough for Lorenzo. He wanted his mother to

  come back…he even pleaded with her to come back.

  Gino told me. He adored her. They both did—

  Lorenzo and his father. She could do no wrong. To

  them she was a madonna. I have told Lorenzo many

  times that it is crazy for him to still brood now on

  what happened when he was a child. Women leave

  their husbands and their children all the time, and

  Lorenzo will leave your bed for mine if you are fool

  enough to marry him," she warned Jodie. "I shall

  make sure of it. And I promise you, when I do, he

  will not be able to resist me."

  Just as John had not been able to resist Louise.

  What was it about women like Louise and Caterina

  that made men so vulnerable to them and so impervious

  to their selfishness?

  For a woman who professed to love Lorenzo as

  much as Caterina was doing, Jodie reflected, she

  didn’t seem to have very much sympathy with him.

  For a seven-year-old boy to lose the mother he loved

  as intensely as Caterina had said Lorenzo did must

  have had a deeply psychological effect on him. And

  if he had actually loved Caterina, her marriage to his

  cousin must surely have intensified his belief that

  women were not to be trusted, and that they were