‘Oh, you definitely were five years back,’ her stepsister sneered. ‘But today I genuinely feel sorry for you.’
Kerry raised a brow. ‘And why would that be?’
‘Well, you’ve missed the boat once again with Luciano…why else would he be flying me in on his private jet? You’re such a loser, Kerry,’ Rochelle mocked. ‘You’ve had a clear field with him for more than a week and I bet you did nothing but whinge at him.’
‘I’m not going to listen to this stuff.’ Kerry turned on her heel.
‘It’s so sad that you’re about to lose all hope of ever regaining the family castle as well…’
Kerry hesitated and then spun back. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘According to Costanza, Luciano has just received an offer to name his price to sell Ballybawn and make a massive profit,’ Rochelle delivered with smug superiority. ‘Now, you tell me, would Luciano turn down a chance like that?’
The revelation that Luciano might be considering some very tempting offer to sell her grandparents’ home to strangers made Kerry’s slight figure tense in rigid rejection. ‘I believe that he would turn it down,’ she contended. ‘If he wants to sell, why would he be having all this work done to the castle?’
Rochelle widened derisive green eyes in apparent wonderment. ‘Oh, dear…oh, dear…you just don’t get it even now, do you? Luciano’s out to take everything that you value away from you. I saw his desire for revenge weeks ago…where have you been? On a different planet?’
In receipt of that chilling assurance from her worst enemy, Kerry lost every scrap of colour. If she was honest with herself, that same fear had occurred to her the instant she laid eyes on her gorgeous stepsister: surely Luciano could only have invited Rochelle to Ballybawn out of a desire to hurt and humble his former fiancée? Was he planning to conduct an affair with Rochelle right under her nose? Her tummy lurched and she started feeling sick.
Did she even have the right to get upset about Rochelle’s arrival? After all, she herself had turned Luciano’s proposition down flat and had been avoiding him to the best of her ability ever since. In fact, when she had told him to treat her as an employee, she had made it very clear that she wanted nothing more to do with him. At that point, Kerry had made a mortifying discovery about herself: she might have said that but she certainly hadn’t meant it! No, she hadn’t meant a word of it, so where did that leave her?
Costanza strolled in and acknowledged Kerry’s presence with an inclination of her elegant head. ‘Luciano would like to see you and your stepsister together.’
‘Kinky!’ Surprised but full of bubbling confidence, Rochelle sashayed past Luciano’s PA into the library.
Angry, terrified curiosity made Kerry follow in the blonde’s wake.
A stray shard of sunshine gleaming over his luxuriant black hair and accentuating his smooth, hard cheekbones, Luciano was poised by the window. In his formal dark grey business suit, he looked incredibly attractive, and her stepsister’s greeting was effusive. Over the top of Rochelle’s blonde head his glittering golden eyes scanned Kerry’s pale, set features and veiled. He was angry with her but too proud to show it. Time was very precious to him yet seven days when they might have been together had already been wasted and he found it hard to forgive her for again subjecting him to the maddening ache of unsated desire. He had finally reached the conclusion that she must still have doubts about his past fidelity and he had decided to settle that issue head-on.
‘You must be bored out of your mind here with only Kerry the nag for company,’ Rochelle quipped. ‘In fact I bet you’re wondering what you did to deserve so much punishment, but rest assured, I’m here now and we’re going to have fun—’
‘Rochelle…’ Lean, strong face sardonic, Luciano said flatly, ‘All fun aside, you need to know why I asked you to come to Ireland—’
Rochelle lowered her lashes with a mock innocence that suggested that she scarcely required an explanation on that score. ‘I…do?’
‘I want you to tell Kerry what happened between you and me thirty-six hours before I was arrested five years ago,’ Luciano drawled, taking both women aback with that request.
Rochelle’s lashes stopped fluttering like fly swats. ‘You’re kidding me…you’ve got to be—’
‘No, I’m not kidding.’ Luciano surveyed the bewildered blonde with cool dark eyes.
‘I get it.’ Rochelle giggled. ‘You want to remind Kerry just how stupid she was—’
‘I wouldn’t have put it quite like that.’
As confused as her stepsister had initially seemed by Luciano’s demand, Kerry’s attention skimmed from Rochelle’s malicious smile to Luciano’s hard, bronzed profile. ‘Will someone tell me what’s happening here?’
‘Wise up and wake up,’ Rochelle advised her. ‘I filched those cuff-links I showed you from the warehouse where Luciano had left them. Naturally, he didn’t sleep with me that night the way I said he did. In fact he was an award-winning hero of restraint. When I brought him coffee stark naked, he refused to be tempted and he left the house!’
Kerry gaped at Rochelle. ‘You brought in the coffee naked—?’
‘You’re supposed to pick up on the main issue,’ Luciano intervened with driven impatience. ‘Which is…that your stepsister lied to you the following day.’
‘And if you’re expecting me to feel bad about having lied to you, you can think again.’ Rochelle gave Kerry a defiant glance. ‘Make love not war—’
‘I wasn’t a child of the sixties and neither were you,’ Luciano incised. ‘Who suggested that particular timing to you?’
Rochelle frowned. ‘Sorry…I don’t know what you’re asking me.’