His arms closed round her and her heart began to pound as if she were running a race. He tipped her face up, covered her mouth with his and teased her sensitive lips with the tip of his tongue, igniting a fierce desire in her for more. But she couldn’t have more...she knew that. Gianni needed a challenge with a reward. He knew that himself. He was already practically training McTavish into begging at his feet out of sheer greed. And not in this lifetime did she plan to find herself begging at Gianni’s feet as so many others of her sex had done before. His fingers strummed down her spine and a wanton shiver ran through her entire body, her breasts peaking, her thighs pressing together. Out of the question, she reminded herself angrily.
She pulled back from him and smiled soothingly. ‘Sorry, but I’m desperate for a shower before dinner.’
Gianni’s gorgeous eyes flashed like the shimmer of pure gold in sunlight, much as if she had thrown him a challenge. ‘I’ll see you downstairs, then,cara.’
He was so smooth, so practised, it was impossible to shift him out of automatic charming mode, she mused ruefully as she freshened up. But she needed much more from him than that polished surface show.
The next morning, Jo stirred drowsily, voices filtering out from somewhere bringing her eyes open.
As she woke up, she recalled the beautiful meal she had shared with Gianni the night before and the guilty enchantment of the wedding day that was already behind her. Her spirits were buoyant after a long and very necessary deep sleep in an incredibly comfortable bed. She went into the bathroom and washed before tugging on a light robe to head downstairs. She didn’t have to get fully dressed first thing, did she? Gianni was always so laid-back. She didn’t need to dot every i and cross every t for his benefit.
It was only when she reached the stone stairs that she realised that there were two male voices speaking very loudly in Italian towards the rear of the castle. Indeed, they weren’t speaking, they were shouting in what sounded like a bitter argument. What on earth was happening? she wondered as she followed the voices to source.
Jo was astonished to cross the threshold of the room Gianni used as an office and find herself in the midst of a heated dispute between Gianni and his father.
As the two men focused on her, both fell ominously silent.
‘What on earth’s going on?’ she exclaimed.
Federico Renzetti turned his censorious gaze on her with disdain. ‘Perhaps that’s somethingyoucould clarify for our benefit.’
CHAPTER FIVE
‘ME?’JOECHOEDin disbelief, wondering what on earthshecould possibly have to do with their argument.
Gianni looked at Jo as he had never looked at her in his life before: with furious distaste and condemnation.
‘This is my fault,allmy fault,’ Federico muttered in a pained declaration as he shot a guilty glance in his son’s direction. ‘I persuaded you to get married and, like you, I too would have believed that you had made a very safe and sensible choice of wife.’
Jo was not slow on the uptake and that statement was an attack on her integrity. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ she told her father-in-law. ‘But I think it’s time that I did.’
Gianni strode across to his desk and punched a hand down on the crumpled newspaper lying there. His dark golden gaze was lit up like the hot, stormy heart of a bonfire.
Jo raised a brow. ‘Words, Gianni...words,’ she urged.
In a violent movement he swept up the newspaper and thrust it at her, drama accompanying his very gesture. ‘Read it and weep!’ he advised. ‘You’ve been exposed as the fake you truly are!’
Although shaken by his attitude, Jo remained outwardly composed. She grasped the newspaper and registered that it was the same sleazy publication that had published the article on Gianni’s worst mistake. It was a misunderstanding, Jo told herself, a ghastly, embarrassing misunderstanding. What else could it be? She didn’t have any enemies that she knew about and had nothing in her past that she wished to conceal. Her knees loosened when she recognised the photo of Ralph’s one-time fiancée, Jane Yerry. Not a pleasant girl. Jo had gone to school with the attractive brunette, who had been a terrible bully. But what on earth could Jane have to say about her? Her phone was vibrating madly in the pocket of her robe and it was a challenge to ignore it while two angry men stared at her as if they were expecting her to spontaneously combust or breakdown.
Instead, Jo backed down into an armchair on wobbly knees to address her attention to the newspaper. As she read, she was instantly infuriated by Jane’s vile claim that Ralph had cheated on her with Jo and that Jo was the reason why Jane’s engagement had been broken off. In one corner there was also a photo of Gianni and Jo emerging from the village church after their wedding, the only part of the day when camera phones had been less restricted.
‘This is a load of bilge,’ she spelt out unhappily, because she was affronted to find herself the target of such lies in print even though she was conscious that just about all the people who knew her and the other parties concerned were also aware of thetruestory.
My goodness, she reflected wretchedly, why the heck would Jane make up such outrageous lies? Her brow furrowing, she contemplated that puzzle. Jane had never been a fan of Jo’s longstanding friendship with Ralph and Jo had been careful to stay in the background once she had recognised that reality.
Sadly, that broken engagement had, in the end, turned out very badly for Jane Yerry. Ralph had turned his back after discovering her in bed with his best friend, Peter, but Peter had been shamed into walking away from Jane as well. Jane’s parents had been outraged by their daughter’s conduct and by the cost of cancelling a large wedding at the very last minute. Jo’s ongoing friendship with Ralph afterwards and the rumours that they were actually together as a couple would have annoyed Jane. Evidently hearing talk about Jo’s marriage to one of the richest men in the country had ignited Jane’s bitterness and she had made a crazy attempt to rescue her own reputation at the cost of Jo’s. Even so, while Jo would not have counted Jane a friend, she would not have believed her to be an enemy either.
‘I’m at a loss to understand why Jane would make such claims to a newspaper,’ Jo confided quietly. ‘But I think she’ll find she’s made a major mistake because most people will be annoyed with her for trying to shift the blame for her broken engagement onto me.’
Both men studied her with varying degrees of disbelief.
‘And that’s all you have to say on this subject?’ Federico Renzetti pressed almost delicately.
‘I do not even know who these people are!’ Gianni told Jo.
‘Why would you?’ Jo responded, her tone even softer. ‘And why would you even care about this nonsense?’
‘Nonsense?’Gianni fired at her wrathfully. ‘My bride’s reputation has been trashed!’