Читать книгу The Wedding Charade - Melanie Milburne - Страница 8

JADE arrived at the hotel in Venice at five in the afternoon. A member of the paparazzi had told her Nic was staying there, right on the Grand Canal. She was quite pleased with her detective work. Her sources had told her Nic was in a meeting until eight this evening, and then he would be returning to the hotel for a massage before a late dinner; she hadn’t been able to find out if he was planning to dine alone or with one of his legion of female admirers.

Nic was the sort of man who had always had women swooning over him. She, to her eternal shame, had once been one of them. It still riled her that he had rejected her when she was sixteen and madly in love with him. Although she knew it was really her own fault for being so wilful, she couldn’t help partly blaming him for the horrid experience of her first sexual encounter, not that she had ever told anyone. Even the man who had taken her virginity had no idea of how dreadful an ordeal it had been for her. But then she was good at deception. Deception was her middle name—well, it would be if she could spell it, she thought wryly.

She smiled at the concierge at the reception desk, fluttering her lashes in the manner she had perfected over the years. ‘Scusi, signor. I am meeting my fiancé here, Signor Nicolò Sabbatini. It is to be a very big … I don’t know how to say it in Italian …a big surprise?’

The concierge smiled conspiratorially. ‘Sì, signorina, I understand—a sorpresa. But I did not know Signor Sabbatini was engaged. There has been nothing about it in the press, I am sure.’

There will be shortly, Jade thought with a mischievous private grin. ‘Sì, signor, it is all very hush-hush. You know how the Sabbatini brothers hate the intrusion of the press.’ She pulled out a photo of her and Nic that had been taken at his grandfather’s funeral. It wasn’t a particularly intimate one but it showed Nic with his head leaning towards her as he whispered something before the service. Luckily, the shot didn’t show her face for she had been scowling at him in fury at the time. Jade smiled at the concierge as she showed him the photograph. ‘As you can see, we are never left alone by the press. That is why I wanted this to be our special time together before the world gets to know. I am so appreciative of your cooperation.’

‘It is my pleasure, signorina,’ he said and, handing back the photo, passed her a regulation form to fill in. ‘If you would be so kind as to give your full name and address and country of residence for our records.’

Jade felt the familiar flutter of panic build in her chest. It was like a million micro bats’ wings flapping all at once. She took a steadying breath and summoned up another megawatt smile. ‘I am sorry, signor, but I have taken out my contact lenses for the flight,’ she said. ‘They are packed in my luggage somewhere. I am practically blind without them and I hate wearing glasses. So unfashionable, don’t you think? Would you be so kind as to just type my details straight into your computer? ‘

The concierge smiled. ‘But of course, signorina,’ he said, his fingers poised over the keys as she gave him her details.

‘You are so very kind,’ Jade said as he handed her a swipe key.

‘Signor Sabbatini is staying on the top floor in the penthouse suite. I will have your luggage taken to the room straight away.’

‘Grazie, signor. But there is one more thing,’ she said, leaning closer. ‘Would you mind contacting the masseuse who was coming at eight?’ She gave him a twinkling smile. ‘I will give my fiancé a massage instead. He will enjoy it so much more, sì?’

The concierge grinned. ‘Sì, signorina. I am sure he will.’

Jade made her way to the lift, smiling at her reflection in the brass-plated doors once they were closed. She had dressed in her best look-at-me clothes. A black and sinfully short tight-fitting dress with a daringly low neck and shoes with the sort of heels podiatrists the world over shook their heads in dismay at, and flashy jewellery that screeched inherited wealth and decadence.

Jade found the room without any trouble and immediately ordered champagne. A bit of Dutch courage wouldn’t go amiss right now. She would have to go carefully, however. She had to keep her wits about her in order to bring about what she wanted. Nic would be furious, but then that was his fault for being so stubborn about this. It was all right for him with his squillions, but what was she supposed to do without her trust fund? It wasn’t as if she could just ‘go out and get a job’ as he had so mockingly suggested. Who on earth would employ her?

She looked out of the window to the bustling tourists below. The serpentine network of the canal system and the colourful villas fringing it was exactly as the postcards portrayed it. Even the light was the same: the pastels in the sky as the sun lowered brought out the pinks and oranges and yellows of the centuries-old buildings. She wished she had time to paint it. Her little makeshift studio back in her London flat was full to bursting with her work. Not that anyone had ever seen any of her paintings. It was her private passion. Something no one could rubbish, something no one could say was trashy and uneducated and unsophisticated.

Jade wandered over to the huge bed and tested it for comfort by pressing a hand down on the mattress. She snatched her hand away as she thought of all the women Nic had bedded on his trips. He would have lost count by now, surely? At least she could count her partners on the fingers of half a hand in spite of what the press reported of her sexual proclivities. Quite frankly, she wondered what the fuss about sex was all about. It didn’t seem all that pleasurable to her to be pawed and sweated over. She could flirt and tease with the best of them and it got her what she wanted—well, most of the time.

The champagne arrived and Jade tipped the young man who brought it. She allowed herself one glass to settle her nerves. The time was dragging and she desperately wanted this to be over with so she could feel more secure. Nic had left her dangling, uncertain of whether he was going to cooperate or not. It was too risky to leave it all up to him. She had to force his hand, otherwise she would be destitute. She didn’t mind pretending to be a tart at times but there was no way she was going to become one because all her other options had been destroyed.

Marrying Nic would solve everything for her. All her troubles would be over if she did what Salvatore’s will stated. The lawyer had explained it all to her after the funeral last year. She had to marry Nic by the first of next month and stay married for a full year. Both partners had to remain faithful. Jade wasn’t sure why her godfather had put that condition in. She didn’t intend to sleep with Nic. He had spurned her in the past. What was to say he wouldn’t do it again? She would find it just as shattering as she had then.

Jade was sipping at her second glass of champagne when Nic came in. His hazel eyes narrowed as he saw her sitting with her legs crossed on the bed. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he said.

‘Celebrating our engagement,’ she said with a demure smile as she hoisted her glass.

He stiffened as if he had been snap frozen. ‘What did you say?’ The words came out slowly, menacingly.

Jade took a sip from her glass, looking at him from beneath her lashes. ‘The press already know about it,’ she said. ‘I gave them an exclusive. All they need now is a photo.’

Nic’s anger was palpable. It rolled off the walls towards her, keeping her rooted to the foot of his bed. Jade fought the instinct to flee. She had been hit before. Her father had backhanded her for insolence enough times for her to know how much it hurt, but her pride would not let her show it. Instead, she gave Nic a defiantly sassy look. ‘If you kick me out I will tell the press about the terms of your grandfather’s will. You don’t really want me to do that, do you, Nic?’

His top lip lifted in a snarl. ‘You trashy, deceitful cow,’ he said.

Jade let the words roll off her. ‘Sticks and stones,’ she said in a sing-song voice as she took another sip of champagne.

Nic strode over and snatched the glass out of her hand, spilling champagne over her lap in the process. She glared at him as she jumped up to wipe off the spillage. ‘You bastard!’ she said. ‘This dress is brand new and now you’ve ruined it.’

His nostrils flared like those of an angry bull. ‘Get out,’ he said through tight lips. He pointed to the door with a rigid arm. ‘Get out before I throw you out.’

Jade tossed her head and put her hand behind her back to unzip her damp dress. ‘You put one finger on me and I’ll tell even more Sabbatini secrets to the press.’

His mouth flattened to a thin line of fury. ‘Do you have no principles at all?’

‘Plenty,’ she said, wriggling out of her dress.

His dark brows snapped together. ‘What do you think you are doing?’

Jade tossed the dress on the floor, raising her chin as she stood before him in black lace bra and knickers and her come-and-get-me heels. For a brief moment she wondered if she had stepped not just out of her dress but out of her depth as well. Nic’s gaze seemed to be seeing through much more than her lacy underwear. She could feel the heat of it all over her skin, inside and out. She could feel a faint stirring deep inside her, a fluttering little pulse that seemed to intensify with each throbbing second. ‘I’m going to have a bath,’ she said, summoning her courage and resolve. ‘Then, once I am freshened up, we are going out to publicly celebrate our engagement.’

He stood there, breathing heavily, his eyes hard on hers, hatred darkening them in a way she had never seen before. ‘I am not letting you get away with this, Jade,’ he warned. ‘You don’t get to screw around with me, do you hear?’

‘What a lovely choice of words,’ Jade said as she sashayed over to the bathroom. ‘But there will be no screwing, OK? That’s not part of the deal.’ She gave him a saucy little fingertip wave and closed the bathroom door, clicking the lock firmly in place.

Nic let out a breath that felt as if it had come out of a steam engine. He was beyond angry. He was livid. He was furious.

He was screwed.

Jade had set him up and he had no choice but to go along with it. He would look a hundred times a fool if the press got wind of his grandfather’s machinations. If he had to marry her, he would do it but he would make sure he didn’t look like a pawn being pushed around.

He clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to knock that bathroom door down and drag that little scheming witch out by her long black hair. He had not thought it possible to hate someone so much. Was that what his grandfather had wanted? For him to hate the very air Jade Sommerville breathed? What had he been thinking to tie them together in a mock marriage for a whole year, for God’s sake? It would be torture for him. Marriage to anyone would have been bad enough. He loathed the thought of being tied down to one person for any length of time, let alone the rest of his life.

Look what had happened to his father. He had not been able to remain faithful after the death of Nic’s baby sister, and it had nearly destroyed his mother. Nic had been too young to remember Chiara, but he remembered the years that followed. Both his parents had been absent emotionally, cut to the core over the death of their precious daughter. Nic had run wild for most of his childhood, trying to get the assurances he needed as a young boy that he was still a much loved member of the family. But after losing one child, his parents had lived in fear of losing another and so they had held themselves aloof. Giorgio and Luca had fared better, being that bit older, but Nic knew he had missed out on what so many children took for granted.

Being forced to marry Jade was the worst possible scenario. For one thing, there was no way she would ever stay faithful for the allotted time. No wonder she was proposing a no sex deal. He wouldn’t trust her as far as he could see her.

If he could guarantee she wouldn’t stray, his inheritance would be secured. But the only way to ensure that would be to sleep with her, to make the marriage a real one. To keep her so satisfied she wouldn’t be tempted to play around on him.

He rubbed at his jaw as he thought about it. Bedding Jade would certainly be an unforgettable experience. The blood was already fizzing in his veins from her brazen display of flesh. She had no shame, no limits at all on her behaviour. He smiled to himself as he thought about taking her in a rough tumble of lust. The sexual tension between them had crackled for as long as he could remember. It would certainly be no punishment for him to bury himself deep inside her, to make her scream his name instead of some nameless guy she had picked up in a nightclub.

Jade came out of the bathroom a long time later with her hair piled on top of her head and some damp tendrils hanging about her face. She was wearing one of the hotel’s fluffy white bathrobes. Without her make-up and high heels, she looked young and dainty, her cheeks pink-skinned from her bath. As she moved past him to access her suitcase, Nic noticed she barely came up to his shoulder in her bare feet. Her toenails were painted black. They looked stark against the porcelain white of her skin.

‘What happened to my massage appointment?’ he asked.

She tucked a strand of hair behind one of her small ears without looking up from her open bag. ‘I cancelled it.’

‘You had no right to do that,’ he said. ‘I was looking forward to it.’

She glanced at him as she moved with a bundle of clothes to the wardrobe. ‘I can give you one if you like,’ she said. She hung a skirt and top on the silk-padded hangers. ‘I’m told I’m very good.’

‘I am sure you are,’ Nic said, watching her move back to her bag.

She held up two dresses against her chest. ‘Which one do you think? ‘

Nic had to give himself a mental shake. She was doing it again: sideswiping him with her rapid change of demeanour. One minute the raging virago, the next a little girl playing at dress up. There would be another tantrum soon enough, he thought. ‘The red one,’ he said, striding over to the champagne sitting in the silver ice bucket. He poured himself a glass and sipped from it as he watched her dress.

She did it as if it were a strip show in reverse. She had slipped out of the bathrobe while he had been pouring his drink, but now she was stepping into a pair of black and red lacy French knickers that were gossamer-thin, so thin he could see the waxed clear feminine cleft of her body. His blood pounded all over again, making him uncomfortably stiff. He took another deep draught of champagne but he couldn’t bear to drag his eyes away from her. She picked up a matching push-up bra. Not that she needed any mechanical help in showcasing her breasts. They were beautifully shaped, full and yet pert with rosy-red nipples. She adjusted the creamy globes behind the lace and then shook her head so her hair cascaded down over her back and shoulders.

Nic was fit to explode and he hadn’t even touched her.

‘Aren’t you going to shower and change?’ she said as she moved past him with her make-up bag.

He caught her arm on the way past, his fingers fizzing with the stun-gun effect of her warm flesh under his. He locked his eyes on her sea-glass green ones. ‘How about that massage you promised?’ he said.

She gave him a sultry look from beneath her lashes. ‘Later,’ she said. ‘Dinner first. If you’re a good boy I might give you a rub down when we get home.’

He tightened his hold when she made to pull away. ‘Is this how you get every man to do what you want? To make them beg like starving dogs for your favours? ‘

She tossed her head again, making her hair swing back over her shoulders. ‘You won’t have to beg, Nic, because there will be no favours,’ she said. ‘This is going to be a paper marriage.’

Nic laughed out loud. ‘Oh, come on, Jade. How long do you think that’s going to last? You are a born sybarite.’

She glared at him as she tugged at his hold. ‘I am not going to sleep with you.’

‘Then what was the little tease routine for?’ he asked.

She gave him a haughty look. ‘You can look but you can’t touch,’ she said. ‘That’s the deal.’

Nic dropped her arm. ‘There is something you need to learn about me, Jade,’ he said. ‘I choose my own sexual partners. I do the chasing. And I do not beg. Ever.’

She turned away and sat at the dressing table, opening various pots as she applied moisturiser and make-up. ‘We’ll see,’ she said, meeting his eyes in the mirror.

Nic clenched his teeth and strode into the bathroom. We’ll see, indeed, he thought as he turned on the shower full blast.

When Nic came out, Jade was sipping more champagne. She had her face on—the face he was used to seeing: heavy smoky eye-shadow and eyeliner, scarlet lipstick and a brush stroke of bronzing powder to highlight her model-like cheekbones. She was back in another pair of heels, even higher than the previous ones, and she had dangling earrings on that sparkled now and again behind the dark screen of her loose hair. She had a sulky look about her mouth, however, which warned him there might be another scene on its way.

He had thought through his options in the shower.

He would marry her because he didn’t really have a choice, but he would dictate the terms. She thought she had manipulated him into agreeing to it but he wasn’t doing it for her, but for his family.

‘Before we go to dinner I want to lay down some ground rules,’ he said as he reached for a fresh shirt.

She crossed her legs and swung one high-heeled foot up and down in a bored schoolgirl manner. ‘Go on then, tell me what they are and I’ll tell you whether I’ll agree to them or not.’

Nic whipped out a tie from the wardrobe. ‘You will agree to it or I won’t marry you. You’re the one who needs the money more than me, don’t forget.’

She set her mouth in a mulish line, her eyes hardening as she held his. ‘So what are your stupid little rules, then?’

‘I insist that at all times and in all places you will behave with the decorum your position as a Sabbatini wife requires of you,’ he said. ‘You have met both of my sisters-in-law, sì?’

‘Yes, they are very nice,’ she said. ‘I met Bronte briefly at your grandfather’s funeral. I met Maya, Giorgio’s wife, in London. She had taken the time to call on me to show me the baby since I was unable to attend the christening. Matteo is adorable.’

‘Yes, he is,’ Nic said. ‘So why didn’t you come to the christening? ‘

Her eyes stayed determinedly away from his, her tone dismissive. ‘I had another engagement.’

‘And what about Luca and Bronte’s son Marco’s christening?’ he asked. ‘It was only a month later. Did you have another engagement that day too?’

This time she looked at him directly. ‘I always keep myself busy. My social calendar is booked for months ahead.’

Nic felt his top lip curl. He could imagine her shoe-horning in party after party, nightclub after nightclub, and shallow date after shallow date. ‘It was good of you to come to my grandfather’s funeral,’ he said with no intention of it being a compliment. She had obviously known she was going to be included in the will, for why else would she have made the effort? He knew her well enough to know she didn’t do anything for anyone unless she got something out of it for herself. ‘You also came to see him before he died, didn’t you?’

She nodded. ‘It was the least I could do. He had always been so good to me. I was just his godchild. No one takes that role all that seriously these days, but he always looked out for me.’

‘Apart from the will, of course,’ Nic pointed out.

‘Yes, well, he must have had his reasons.’

‘Why do you think he did it?’ Nic asked. ‘To us, I mean. It’s not as if we’ve been the best of friends over the years.’

She gave a little shrug of her slim shoulders. ‘Who knows? Maybe he thought it would be a way of bringing the two dynasties together: the Sommervilles and the Sabbatinis. It has quite a ring to it. My father no longer has a male heir so this is the next best thing. I expect they cooked it up together.’

Nic studied her for a moment. ‘You were supposed to be with your brother on that skiing holiday, weren’t you?’

Her eyes shifted away from his. ‘I missed the flight.’ She gave a little shrug, as if it was just one of those things. ‘I overslept after a night out.’

‘Have you ever thought of how you could have both died if you had gone on that trip?’ Nic asked. ‘You would have been on the slopes with him when the avalanche hit.’

She gave him a glittering glare. ‘Do you mind if we get back to your stupid little rules?’

‘You don’t like talking about Jonathan, do you?’

‘You lost your baby sister,’ she said. ‘Do you like discussing it?’

‘I don’t even remember it,’ he said. ‘I was only eighteen months old. But Jonathan was twenty, almost twenty-one, and you were just weeks off turning eighteen. It must be very clear in your memory.’

‘It is and it’s off-limits,’ she said, looking him in the eye. ‘You might think you have certain privileges as my husband-to-be but that is not one of them.’

Nic pulled his tie up to his neck and straightened it, his eyes still following every nuance on her beautiful, now ice-maiden face. She could change so quickly it was amazing. ‘The second rule is I will not tolerate you playing around,’ he said. ‘I am prepared to give and take a little, but I am not going to be cuckolded.’

‘I won’t play around on you,’ she said, looking at him with a cat-that-got-the-cream-and-the-canary smile. ‘I’ll be too busy counting my money.’

‘If you don’t behave yourself, there will be consequences,’ Nic said. ‘One false move and you will be out without a penny. It’s written in the will. We both have to remain faithful, otherwise we automatically nullify the terms set down by my grandfather.’

‘You will have to be very discreet then, won’t you?’ she asked with an arch look.

‘You don’t think I can do it, do you?’

She pulled her long black hair over one of her shoulders in a mermaid-like arrangement. ‘Do what?’ she said. ‘Stay celibate? No, quite frankly, I don’t. Who is your latest lover, by the way? Is it still the Brazilian heiress, or have you got someone else by now?’

His lips jammed together for a moment as if he was biting back a retort. ‘A year without sex is a long time, Jade, for both of us. I can’t see why we can’t have our cake and eat it too.’

Jade rolled her eyes at his play on words. ‘I want the money, not you, Nic. I thought I had made that perfectly clear.’

‘You say it with your mouth but not with your eyes,’ he said. ‘I give it a month at the most before you have them in sync. It’s all part of the game, isn’t it? It’s what you do to every man: make them want you so badly they forget about promises and principles.’

‘I can see you think you know me inside out,’ she said. ‘At least there won’t be any nasty surprises once we are married.’

‘I am afraid we will have to have a full-on wedding with all the regalia,’ he said after a short tense pause. ‘I hope that is not going to be a problem for you. It’s just that my family will expect it and so will the public.’

‘Fine,’ Jade said. ‘But I am not going to wear white or a veil.’

He tilted his head at her, a smile teasing the edges of his mouth upwards. ‘You’re not thinking of wearing black, are you? ‘

Jade held his look with defiance. ‘I’m not a virgin, Nic. I am not going to pretend to be something I am not.’

He frowned as if he found her statement somewhat bewildering. ‘I don’t recall saying that was a requirement of this arrangement. When it comes down to it, I am no angel myself. I probably should be ashamed to say this but I have lost count of the lovers I have had. You can probably still do a reasonably accurate tally.’

‘Nope,’ she lied, inspecting her nails. ‘I’ve lost count too. Ages ago.’

The silence pulsed for a beat or two.

She looked up to find him watching her with a brooding expression. ‘Is there anything else?’ she asked. ‘Any more tedious little rules I have to abide by?’

‘NO,’ he said, snatching up his jacket and shrugging himself into it. ‘That will be all for now. Just leave the press to me. I will handle the questions.’

Jade uncrossed her legs and got to her feet. ‘Yes, Master,’ she said and flicked the fine chain strap of her evening purse over her shoulder as she walked with swaying hips over to the door.

‘Careful, Jade,’ he warned. ‘One step out of line and the deal’s off. And don’t think I wouldn’t do it.’

Jade refused to let him see how unnerved she was by his threat. He might be calling her bluff but how could she know for sure? Of course she needed the money much more than he did. He had plenty of his own while she had nothing. But a year was going to change all that. She would finally be independent of her father. She would no longer need anyone’s largesse to survive. She schooled her features into meekness. ‘I will be a good girl, Nic, you just watch me.’