Claimed by the Sicilian. Kate Walker
won’t you just turn round?’
‘As you wish…’
He took his time about it, turning so slowly that she had time to rethink her request not once but twice while he did so. And when he was at last facing her again, those polished bronze eyes fixed on her face, she had to swallow hard to relieve the agonising tension in her throat. Now she wished she’d kept her mouth shut and let him stay where he was. Surely saying what she had to say to the back of his head couldn’t have been as bad, as nerve-racking as doing it now, to his face. Where all his features seemed to be carved from stone, and those eyes were as cold and hard as ice.
He didn’t speak again but just waited—and watched the play of emotions over her face as she struggled for the strength to speak again. And he wouldn’t say anything until she did, that much was obvious.
But still, could she come right out and say it? Say ‘Yes, I’ll do it. I’ll leave here with you—on your arm—as your wife—making public what for the past year has been my shameful little secret, the one I always prayed that no one would ever find out?’
And so she hedged, moving on to another topic. One that was almost as difficult—but one she sincerely needed an answer to.
‘There—there’s one thing I need to know.’
Guido kept silent when she paused, only the faint lift of his head, the way he tilted it to one side, revealing the fact that he had heard her and was waiting for her to elaborate.
‘I don’t really understand. If we do this—’
When we do this, because what choice did she have?
‘Then what would you get out of it?’
Guido didn’t hesitate and his deep, dark gaze didn’t waver for a second but remained so fixed on hers that she felt it might have the effect of a searing laser, marking her permanently like a brand.
‘I get what I want,’ he said with a calm decisiveness that made her toes curl up inside her white satin shoes.
‘And that is?’
The smile that touched his beautiful mouth was slow and dangerous, making her shiver in the same moment that she felt a rush of heat through her veins, flooding her skin with colour.
‘Oh, Amber, don’t play the naïve innocent, it doesn’t suit you—it never did. Isn’t it obvious? I get you.’
‘Me?’ It was a sound of pure horror and revulsion, one that should have provoked an equally passionate response from the man before her. But Guido just nodded, keeping that burning gaze targeted straight at her face.
‘I get you. I’ve always wanted you and now I’ll get you back in my life—and in my bed.’
Soft as they were, the words seemed to scrape away a much-needed protective layer from Amber’s skin so that she felt weak and vulnerable, dangerously exposed.
‘I only agreed to act as your wife—not really be that!’ she protested vehemently, her voice echoing round the church. ‘It won’t be a real marriage!’
She might have felt that the fervour of her protest would reawaken the dark, flashing anger of moments before but instead it simply made that wicked, dangerous smile—that shockingly seductive smile—grow wider and more devastating.
‘I’ll settle for that—for now.’
‘I won’t sleep with you!’
The subtle emphasis on that ‘for now’ made her shift uneasily from one foot to another, facing the worrying thought that she had well and truly jumped out of the frying-pan and landed right in the heart of the blazing, red-hot fire.
‘If that’s a condition of your help—’
‘It isn’t,’ Guido assured her, but then, just as she was allowing herself to relax just a little, he smiled again and went on, ‘It doesn’t need to be. I don’t have to offer any ultimatums, or make conditions about this—I know you and I know how we are when we’re together.’
The arrogant confidence of that assertion took Amber’s breath away, leaving her gasping in disbelief.
‘You’ll stay with me for as long as is needed to let this whole chiasso over your attempt at a second marriage die down and while we’re together you’ll still be my wife. I’m sure you’ll soon remember that the state of matrimony has its pleasures as well as its ties.’
‘I won’t—I’ll never…’
The words shrivelled on her tongue as he took the couple of long strides that brought him to her, standing right in front of her and sliding one powerful hand under her chin, lifting it so that he was looking down into her face. The darkened eyes burned on her skin, the clean male scent of his body was all around her, and her mouth was so dry that she had to slick her tongue over her lips to moisten them.
‘What is it they say about “never say never”, hmm, cara? Because, believe me, in our case it will be true.’
‘Nev…’ Amber began but had to swallow down the word when he shook his dark head almost gently, that smile playing at the corners of his seductive mouth once again.
‘Hush…’ he murmured softly, laying one finger over her mouth to silence her. ‘Don’t say anything you might regret later. I’m happy to wait—for a while.’
His tone heavily underlined the ominous words.
‘I know you will be worth waiting for. But I also know that you will find it harder than I ever will.’
With that restraining finger still on her lips, Amber didn’t dare to speak, to protest, besides, she had no idea what she could say, what argument she might be able to drag up to refute his shocking assertion, his outrageous self-confidence. So she had to content herself with widening her eyes in a look of total disbelief, praying that her expression communicated the meaning she wanted.
But Guido simply ignored her silent refutation of his claim. Removing his finger and replacing it with his mouth, he pressed a slow, lingering kiss onto her partly open lips, taking her breath and all her composure with it as he did so.
Oh, how she wished she could control her reactions to his touch! She wanted to stay absolutely still, to show no response at all. To convince him by her behaviour that his kiss meant nothing to her. That she was immune to his touch…
But her treacherous body just wouldn’t get the message that her terrified, rational brain was screaming at it. Instead of stiffening, her slender frame melted against his. Her mouth softened, letting his tongue slide tormentingly over her hungry lips, dip into the heat and moisture beyond them.
‘You see, bellissima,’ he murmured against her mouth, stealing another kiss as he drew breath to speak, ‘I know you. And I know what you want.’
‘I don’t…’ Amber tried but he shook his head and sealed off the words with another, deeper kiss, one that made her head swim, set her blood pounding.
‘You don’t want a cold-blooded English aristocrat like Rafe St Clair. You need a real man.’
‘Like you, I suppose?’ Amber wrenched her mouth away and tossed back her head to challenge him, green eyes blazing into bronze-rimmed black with what she hoped was daring defiance. She was struggling to deny her own senses, the yearning need that just his kiss, his touch had wakened in her all over again.
Guido smiled that tiger’s smile again and ran his finger down the side of her face, along her neck and into the low V at the front of her dress, the curve of his lips growing as he watched the shuddering response she couldn’t control.
‘I can give you more than your water-in-his-veins Englishman can ever offer you. I can give you the passion you need, the sensuality you crave. I know what it was like between us; what it can be like again. I can—’
‘No!’ Amber actually