Nowhe got a reaction. She started and faltered back. ‘I don’t understand. You weren’t expecting me here.’
‘On the contrary, I was. Four years ago.’
‘Four years...?’ She blinked and surveyed him with dilated pupils. ‘After the wedding?’
‘Of course, after the wedding.’ He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets. ‘As my wife you’d attract a lot of attention, more so as I head a luxury goods company. It was important you dress the part, showcasing fashion from our designers. I had my people organise a suitable wardrobe.’
Because, though expensive, the clothes she’d worn before had never seemed quite right on her, despite her poise and grace. They’d looked as if she’d chosen them only for their high price tag, not because they suited her.
‘Except you disappeared in the night, leaving me to deal with the furore.’
She lifted one eyebrow. ‘Don’t expect me to apologise. No woman would have stayed after what you said that night.’
Ida tried to make him out to be at fault? It was she and her grandfather who’d blackmailedhim.
‘If you can’t face the truth...’
Her eyes flashed and unholy excitement dug its claws into his belly. The devil in him, the one he kept leashed, responded to that spark of fire. Yet instead of following through she looked away.
When that green gaze met his again, he read no emotion there. ‘Why did you keep the clothes, Cesare? You surely didn’t want me to return and use them.’
Could she really believe that? Pride demanded he disabuse her of that idea.
‘Nothing so puerile. I just forgot about them.’
‘Forgot?’ She stared as if she didn’t understand English. ‘A wholeroomof designer clothes?’
This time he was sure her amazement was real. It puzzled him. Whatever her circumstances now, she was heir to a fortune. She’d be used to designer clothes and other luxuries.
‘I had other things on my mind. My business. Dealing with your grandfather. Quelling the worst rumours about your disappearance, including the ones that painted me as a Bluebeard who’d done away with his wife.’
Ida’s head jerked back. ‘You’re kidding!’
‘You know it’s true. Even if the reputable news outlets didn’t say it, there was enough gossip.’
It had been horrendous. The only positive the fact that through him the Brunetti brand was constantly in the limelight and doing better than ever.
Her wide-eyed stare bored into his. ‘I didn’t know. I didn’t follow the news.’
Cesare frowned. ‘It was splashed across social media.’
She shook her head. ‘Not that either.’
It was too unlikely to be true, yet despite his reservations Cesare began to wonder. What had she been doing with her time?
‘You really kept a room full of designer clothes for me all this time?’
‘If I’d thought about it, I’d have got rid of them. But I forgot until I talked to my housekeeper about getting you more suitable clothes than the ones you arrived in.’
‘I see.’
Did she? Cesare didn’t want her getting the idea he’d been sentimental about what had been not so much a wedding gift as a necessity so she looked the part as his wife.
‘Just as well I hadn’t disposed of them.’
The idea of her parading around his home in her raunchy clothes set up a flurry of distaste in his belly.
Itwasdistaste, he was sure.