Читать книгу Modern Romance Collection: December Books 5 - 8 - Дженнифер Хейворд, Julia James - Страница 21

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘TRUST ME,’ LUCA said as he took her slow and deep. They had been making love on the soft cushions in the gazebo for what felt like hours. ‘Trust me,’ he said again as he soothed her down.

‘Shouldn’t you get back to the ball?’ she asked. She was snuggled up tightly against Luca, whose protective arms wrapped securely around her.

‘If you’re ready, we’ll go back,’ he murmured as he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

‘Bathe in the lake first?’ she suggested.

They swam, then dried off together, and Callie dressed quickly, thanking her lucky stars she had short hair that didn’t take long to dry in the warm night air. Slipping her simple dress on, she took hold of Luca’s hand and they walked back to the boat; back to reality, she thought, but if he could carry this off—their absence would have been noted—then so could she.

* * *

‘My lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make...’

Silence fell the instant Luca’s deep and distinctive voice was heard through the hidden speakers in the ballroom. ‘I realise the clock is about to strike midnight, so I won’t keep you long.’

A ripple of laughter greeted this remark.

‘I’m taking this opportunity to introduce you to the woman I intend to marry.’

Not the woman he loved, Callie thought, cursing herself for being such a doubter. Luca had to wait a moment until the exclamations of surprise had died down.

‘Signorina Callista Smith is an exceptional woman, whom I am lucky to have found.’

As he beckoned Callie forward and she joined him in the centre of the ballroom, the surprise of the sophisticated onlookers gradually turned to muted applause. They were shocked to the heels of their highly polished footwear, she thought as Luca lifted his hands for a silence that had already fallen deep and long.

‘It goes without saying,’ he added, ‘that all of you will receive an invitation to our wedding.’ He gave a fierce, encouraging smile into Callie’s eyes, before turning back to address his riveted audience. ‘I invite you all to enjoy the rest of your evening, while I continue to celebrate with my beautiful fiancée.’

As if by magic the orchestra struck up a romantic Viennese waltz, which allowed Luca to prove that not only could he sweep Callie off her feet, but he could provide the prompt necessary to shake everyone out of their stupefied trance, and soon the dance floor was ablaze with colour and the flash of precious jewels.

Callie told herself that everything would work out. Yes, there would be problems, but they’d get through them. Luca was right. This was the best solution. It was only when the clock struck midnight, and he was briefly distracted by one of the many ambassadors present, that everything changed.

She’d seen pictures of Max in various magazines back home. In the flesh, he was even more striking. As tall as Luca, he looked quite different, which was only to be expected when they weren’t related by blood. Where Luca’s features were rugged and sexy, Max’s face was thin and hard, and, quite unlike Luca, Max’s manner was unpleasantly autocratic.

Dressed entirely in black, his blood-red sash of office the only bright thing about him, Max was the haughtiest man in the room by far. And he was heading her way surrounded by cronies, all of whom were viewing Callie with what she could only describe as amused contempt. There was a beautiful woman on Max’s arm, who was also dressed in black, with the addition of half a hundredweight of diamonds. Her tiara alone could have settled most countries’ debts, Callie guessed. Knowing she was the target of the advancing party, she stood her ground and lifted her chin, then shrank inwardly when Max stopped directly in front of her.

‘Well, my dear,’ he said, keeping his stare fixed on Callie as he turned to address his obviously heavily pregnant companion, ‘this is the little snip my brother intends to put on our throne.’

‘Surely not?’ his elegantly dressed companion protested as she stared disapprovingly at Callie. ‘Who is she, anyway? And where did she get that dress?’

Callie ground her jaw, refusing to demean herself by responding. Max’s friends could laugh all they liked. They wouldn’t drive her away.

‘Goodness knows, my dear,’ Max replied, still staring at Callie through mocking eyes. ‘Perhaps she got it from the same thrift store that sold her the dye for that ridiculous hair colour.’

As everyone laughed Callie reached up instinctively to touch her hair, and regretted the lapse immediately. She hated letting them see they’d upset her. ‘Well, at least I don’t have a cruel tongue,’ she said mildly.

‘Oh, she speaks,’ Max exclaimed, turning to look at his friends. ‘I imagine she learned that skill in the pub back home.’ He made each vowel sound grotesque and ugly.

As Max and his friends roared with laughter, Callie made sure to remain impassive.

‘He only keeps her around because she’s pregnant,’ Max drawled, quirking a brow in an attempt, Callie thought, to elicit some sort of response from her. ‘He’s desperate for an heir, and when you’re as desperate as Luca I suppose it’s a case of any port in a storm. Seeing you pregnant,’ he added to the woman at his side, ‘must really have disturbed him. That’s the only reason he’s chosen this girl. He’s trying to compete with me—imagine that?’

‘He’s quite obviously failed,’ one of Max’s cronies derided.

‘That’s all this is,’ Max assured Callie, bringing his cruel face close. ‘Don’t think for one moment that you’ve bagged yourself a prince, let alone that this is a fairy tale. This is a cold-blooded transaction, my dear. Luca doesn’t want you. He doesn’t want anyone. The only thing Luca wants is an heir. That’s the only way he can hope to keep the throne of Fabrizio. It’s written into our constitution. Two years, one baby at least, or I take over.’ Coming even closer, he sneered. ‘You’re nothing more than a convenient womb. Shall we?’ he added to his gloating companions with an airy gesture. ‘I’ve had enough of this ball. The quality of guests at the palace has really gone down. The casino beckons. A few spins of the wheel holds far more appeal than these provincials can ever hope to provide me.’

* * *

‘She’s gone? What do you mean, she’s gone?’ Luca stared down at Michel in surprise. The elderly retainer seemed more than usually confused. ‘Take your time, Michel. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout at you.’

‘I saw her talking to Max,’ Michel told him in a worried tone.

‘What?’

‘You said you wouldn’t shout,’ Michel reminded him.

‘You’re right,’ he admitted, placing a reassuring hand on the older man’s shoulder. ‘But who invited Max?’

‘Does Max need an invitation to visit his family home?’

Luca ground his jaw. He should have known that Max would never keep to their agreement that he stay out of Fabrizio. ‘So, where the hell is she?’ he repeated as he raked his hair with tense fingers.

‘I saw her running out of that door not ten minutes ago,’ Michel informed him, staring across the ballroom towards the French doors leading onto the garden and then the lake. ‘And that was straight after talking to Max.’

‘Ten minutes?’ Luca exclaimed, frowning. ‘Did I leave her alone for that long?’

‘The ambassador can be garrulous and difficult to get away from,’ Michel said in an obvious attempt to placate him. ‘And His Excellency was more than usually talkative tonight.’

Luca could not be placated. His one concern was Callie. He should have told her long before now what she meant to him. The convenient plan that had fallen into place when he found out she was pregnant hadn’t figured in his thinking when he’d made the announcement that they would be married.

All right, so maybe it had, he conceded grimly as he made a visual search of the ballroom to make sure she’d gone. Would he stick around under similar circumstances? So, where could she be? In her room, or had she tried to return to the island? His heart banged in his chest at the thought that she might have taken the rowing boat. Navigation was easy for him in the dark. He’d been rowing on the lake for most of his life. So he knew about the clinging weeds and treacherous rocks. If Callie took the wrong route, she could be in serious trouble. He didn’t wait to consider his options. Cutting through the crowd, he hurried away.

He ran to the shore. The boat was gone. There was no sign of Callie. Everyone had been shocked by his announcement of their engagement, and now Max was causing trouble again. He had a stark choice to make. Callie, or the future of Fabrizio. There was no choice. Stripping off his clothes, he dived into the lake.

Relief surged through him when he spotted her pacing the shore. ‘Callie,’ he exclaimed, springing out of the water. Striding up to her, he seized hold of her and demanded she look at him. ‘What’s wrong? What happened back there?’

‘You happened,’ she said.

Her voice was faint, but the fire in her eyes was brighter than ever. She was hurt, bitterly hurt. He knew all the signs. Max had always been an expert when it came to wounding with words.

‘Thank you for telling me how badly you needed an heir,’ she said tensely, sarcastically.

‘Meaning?’ he demanded.

‘I’m told your constitution demands it, if you’re to keep the throne.’ There were tears of anger and distress in her eyes. ‘I would have been quicker off the mark getting pregnant, if you’d told me.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he flared. ‘What on earth has Max said to you?’

‘Only the truth, I believe.’

A muscle jerked in his jaw. He couldn’t even deny it, and had to listen to his brother’s poison flooding from Callie’s mouth.

‘Max said that making an heir is the only reason you had sex with me.’

‘I didn’t have sex with you,’ he insisted. ‘I made love to you.’

‘Maybe.’ She hesitated a little. ‘But how do I know that’s true, now I know you had a motive?’

‘Why can’t you believe in yourself, Callie? Why won’t you believe how much I need you?’

‘Because it’s convenient for you to have me,’ she exclaimed. ‘A convenient womb, Max called me. He says your primary concern is to build a dynasty.’

‘My primary concern is you,’ he argued fiercely.

‘It doesn’t feel that way to me, Luca. You made the announcement of our engagement without asking me first, without giving me chance to consider what I’m getting into. My late father used to tell me what I could and couldn’t do, and I swore that I would never fall into that trap again.’

‘This isn’t a trap. You’re not thinking straight, Callie.’

‘I’m thinking perfectly,’ she fired back. ‘It’s just a pity I haven’t been thinking perfectly from the start.’

‘That’s your hormones talking.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ she warned him. ‘What was your plan, Luca? We marry, I have the baby, and then your people organise a convenient divorce? You don’t have much time to play with, do you? Pregnancy sets a clock ticking, and so does the constitution of Fabrizio, Max tells me. Tonight was the perfect opportunity for you to announce our engagement. I imagine you’d have had us married by the end of the month, so that everything would be finalised before my pregnancy becomes obvious.’

He couldn’t argue. So much of what she said was true, but his feelings when he’d discovered Callie was pregnant had been real and strong. A baby. A child. A family. Everything he’d always dreamed of had been suddenly within his reach. For a man used to subduing or ignoring his emotions, he’d been overwhelmed, and not just because Callie would provide him with the longed-for heir. She was the perfect woman, who would become the perfect mother. She would be his perfect bride, and would transition seamlessly into a much-loved princess. ‘What’s so terrible about becoming my wife?’

‘If you don’t know,’ she said, sounding sad, ‘I can’t tell you. I suggest you forget about me, and ask one of those princesses to be your wife. You’ll hardly be short of replacements for me.’

‘Aggravating woman!’ he roared. ‘I don’t want a replacement. I want you.’

‘You can’t have everything you want, Luca.’

‘Are you saying no?’ he demanded with incredulity.

‘I’m saying no,’ Callie confirmed.

‘But you’ll be a princess.’

‘Of what?’ she demanded. ‘All you’re offering is a temporary position, an empty life in a foreign country with a man who only wants me for my child-bearing capabilities.’

‘That’s Max talking. Don’t listen to him.’

‘I don’t want that for our child,’ she said, ignoring him, ‘and I don’t want to be a princess in a loveless marriage. I can’t snuggle up to a tiara at night. I’d rather be back home in one room with my baby.’

‘That isn’t your choice to make,’ he said, adopting a very different tone.

‘Are you threatening me?’ she said quietly.

‘I’m reminding you that you’re carrying the heir to the principality of Fabrizio, and that neither you nor I can change that fact.’

‘And thank God for it,’ she whispered as blood drained from her face. ‘But there is something I can do.’

‘Which is?’ he demanded suspiciously.

‘Unless you intend to keep me here by force, I can return home to spend Christmas with friends I can trust. You took my trust and abused it,’ she accused. ‘And tonight I learned that you took my body and used that too.’

‘What? Dio! Never!’ He raked his still-damp hair with frustration. ‘Don’t we know each other better than this? Yes, passion drove us initially. And yes, your pregnancy was convenient. I won’t deny it. But it means so much more to me now. You mean so much more. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I feel—’ He stopped. He couldn’t even put into words how many feelings he was dealing with. For a man who’d spent most of his life avoiding emotion, he was drowning in them. ‘I respect you and I always will,’ he stated firmly. ‘Please give some thought to what becoming my wife will mean.’

‘I have,’ Callie assured him quietly, ‘and it’s not what I want.’

‘What do you want?’ he demanded fiercely. He’d do anything to put this right.

‘I want love and respect on both sides,’ she said without hesitation. ‘I want friendship that makes both of us smile, and I want trust like a rock we can both depend on. I want to honour the man who is my lover, my friend, and the father of my child, as he honours me. And I want my independence. I’ve fought too hard to lose that now.’

‘You’ll have it as my wife,’ he asserted confidently.

‘And as your Princess?’ When he didn’t answer, because he knew only too well the restrictions that royal life imposed, she continued, ‘I’ve spent too much of my life caged, and I won’t exchange one cage for another, however big an upgrade that might seem to you. And it’s not what I want for our child. I want us all to be free. I know I’m a fantasist,’ she added in a calmer voice, ‘and I know I want too much. I should have realised that from the start.’

‘Callie!’

‘No. Don’t try to stop me,’ she called back as she ran back to the lake. ‘We were never meant to be together. Max is right. I can’t marry a prince—this is over,’ she flared, trying to shake him off when he caught up with her.

‘It doesn’t need to end here,’ he said firmly, holding her still.

‘Yes, it does.’ With a violent tug she broke free. ‘Goodbye, Luca—’

‘But I love you.’

She stopped on the edge of the lake. Whether she intended to swim back or row back, he had no idea. He did know she was furious. ‘You love me?’ she said tensely. ‘Yet you didn’t think to tell me this before tonight? It sounds like you’re desperate to keep me here.’

‘I am desperate, but not for the reasons you think. You’re more to me than you could ever know, more than Max could even comprehend.’

She shook her head. ‘You had to be sure of me, didn’t you, Luca? That’s why you made the announcement of our engagement tonight in front of so many witnesses.’

‘You’re not listening, Callie. I love you. And you’re right. I should have told you long before now, but I didn’t realise it myself. I didn’t recognise the symptoms,’ he admitted ruefully, raking his hair with frustration. ‘I’m not exactly familiar with love in all its guises.’

‘Your father didn’t love you?’ she challenged with an angry gesture.

‘The Prince loved me, but it wasn’t easy for me to trust him enough to return his love, not as soon as he wanted, anyway.’

‘He must have been a patient man.’

‘He was.’

‘Know this, Luca. Nothing will change my mind. I don’t want a work in progress, while you discover your feelings. I want the boy who made his home in the Coliseum and dreamed of what he would one day become. I want the man who made that happen. Don’t you dare make your past an excuse. I haven’t.’

That was true. She shamed him. ‘How can I prove that I love you?’

‘By letting me go,’ she said with her usual frankness.

* * *

Back home at the Browns’, the ache in Callie’s heart at the absence of Luca was like a big, gaping wound that refused to heal. Even the Browns’ famously over-the-top Christmas preparations couldn’t do anything to mend it. Seeing Anita again had helped, Callie conceded as she smiled across the room at her friend from the lemon groves. Anita had become a most welcome fixture at the Browns’. On her return, Callie had persuaded Anita, who lived alone in a rented room, to take a job close by, and the Browns had offered to rent her a room. They always welcomed help with the younger children and Anita would never be alone again, Ma Brown had promised. Anita had a proper family now—if she could stand the noise and chaos. Anita could certainly do that, and had fitted right in.

‘Come on, our Callie,’ Ma Brown insisted as she bustled into the room they called the front parlour. ‘Anita, I need you to help me in the kitchen, and, Rosie, you and Callie still have the rest of those crêpe paper streamers to hang.’

‘And make,’ Rosie pointed out as she glanced at the uncut reams of crinkled paper and then at Callie’s preoccupied face. ‘Come on, I’ll help you.’ Kneeling down at Callie’s side, Rosie waited until her mother had left the room before putting an arm around Callie’s shoulders. ‘I know you haven’t said anything in front of the family, but you can’t keep bottling this up. And you can’t keep refusing to speak to him,’ Rosie added. ‘If Prince Luca comes to England to see you—’

‘Do you know something?’ Callie asked. Her heart soared at the thought of seeing Luca again, even as her rational mind told her she could never be a princess, so it was better not to see him at all.

‘Not exactly,’ Rosie admitted uncomfortably. ‘I’m just saying that if Luca did turn up, you should see him.’

‘I don’t have to see anyone,’ Callie argued stubbornly, but her heart was beating so fast just at the thought of seeing Luca again that she could hardly breathe. Was he in the country, maybe somewhere close by? There was no smoke without fire, she concluded, glancing at Rosie, who refused to meet her eyes.

‘We’d better get these streamers made,’ Rosie said, acting as if the lack of paper decorations was the only crisis looming, ‘or there’ll be hell to pay.’