Luciano lifted and spread lean brown hands in a fluid motion. ‘I’m not denying that.’
Kerry was disconcerted. ‘You’re…not?’
‘What’s wrong with revenge? I’ve done nothing illegal,’ Luciano drawled.
‘Something doesn’t have to be illegal to be wrong!’ Kerry condemned with angry emphasis. ‘Don’t you have any principles? What about what you’ve done to me? You should be ashamed…you’re married to the daughter of a man whom you’ve done everything within your power to ruin!’
‘Possibly I should be more ashamed of having married the daughter of the man who stood back and let me take the fall for a theft I didn’t commit,’ Luciano traded, his strong jawline clenching. ‘I’m the one in the right here. I’m the one who was wronged. It’s time that you acknowledged that instead of bleating goody-goody sentiments that have little relevance in the real world!’
Kerry was cut to the bone. ‘I don’t bleat goody-goody sentiments!’
‘You’re out of line. What I do in business has nothing to do with our marriage—’
‘If you murder someone in business, am I supposed to turn a blind eye to that as well?’ Kerry demanded in furious rebuttal. ‘You’re totally ignoring the true issue here! Ever since you came back into my life, you’ve been working against my family in a totally underhand and dishonest way!’
‘I’m not listening to this bull. I refuse to fight with you over this. Five years ago, your precious family ensured that I was locked up—’
‘I don’t want to hear that again…I don’t believe it!’
Splintering golden eyes raked over her angry face. ‘Per meraviglia. I told you that you were either with me or against me, and now that we’re married the dividing line is even more distinct—’
‘Don’t threaten me, Luciano. Don’t you have any conscience about what you’ve done?’
‘What are you really upset about here? Surely even you couldn’t have believed that eventually we would all shake hands and end up the best of friends?’ he derided harshly.
‘I am shattered that you could go ahead and bankrupt Linwoods without once stopping to think or care that that might hurt me or make a difference to our relationship.’
‘Why would it hurt you?’
Kerry surveyed him with shaken incredulity. ‘How can you ask me that?’
‘I do feel moved to ask why you should be this upset. Harold Linwood wouldn’t cross the road for you if you were dying, and he felt like that even before you became my wife!’ Luciano countered with contemptuous clarity. ‘You have no relationship with him.’
Kerry recoiled from that blunt and wounding statement but stood her ground. ‘He is still my flesh and blood. Is there nothing you won’t say or do to come out on top? Is winning all that matters to you?’
Fierce dark golden eyes struck sparks off hers. ‘I won’t be sidelined into discussing this sort of emotional stuff—’
‘And do you know why? Because you couldn’t defend yourself!’
‘Business is business. I don’t owe you an explanation and, as I have done nothing wrong, I have no intention of defending myself.’
‘I can’t believe I’m married to a guy with no scruples whatsoever…it’s terrifying!’
At that emotive assurance, Luciano groaned out loud.
‘I’m not overreacting. Right now, you feel like a stranger to me,’ Kerry whispered chokily, pinning her tremulous lips together.
Lean, powerful face troubled and no longer hard, Luciano strode forward as if he intended to take her into his arms.
Kerry backed away from him. ‘L-leave me alone!’
Ignoring that demand, Luciano reached for her hands, closing them between his when he realised how cold her fingers were. ‘Don’t make this a bone of contention between us, bella mia.’
Perspiration had beaded her short upper lip. She looked up at him and she still loved him and that tore her apart, for somehow she had expected the love to go away when she was as furious and distressed as she was. ‘It’s not me who’s doing that…it’s you,’ she argued with desperate vehemence.
Golden eyes very intent, he gripped her hands tightly in his. ‘I want you to understand and believe in me. I need that. When people damage me, I hit back hard. That’s my nature—’
‘And business is business…and you don’t want me bleating like some good-living prig even though you know very well that you chose to marry a good-living prig!’ In a sudden movement of rejection that took him by surprise, Kerry hauled her hands free of his. ‘Obviously I should have listened to my sisters. When I first met them, they warned me that you were out for revenge and I wouldn’t listen to them—’