‘Nonno would have wanted the ball to go ahead,’ Paloma said with conviction. ‘All the tickets have been sold, and refunds will have to be given if we cancel. The event raises a huge amount of money for the Morante Foundation and the many charitable causes it supports.’
Daniele nodded and turned to the trustees. ‘I suggest a show of hands if you agree with Paloma.’
The vote was carried unanimously, although Franco had been the last to raise his hand, Paloma remembered after the board meeting had finished and she and Daniele were in the car on the way to her grandfather’s palazzo, a few miles along the coast in the pretty resort of Tirrenia.
She simply could not believe that her great-uncle or any of the other trustees had been behind her kidnapping in Mali. Everything that had happened in the past few days seemed unreal. It felt like a lifetime ago that she had been teaching at a school in one of the poorest regions of Africa. Now she was the heiress to an enormous fortune and, thanks to Daniele, her position in Morante Group was more secure. But she’d had to agree to a fake engagement to the sexiest and most infuriatingly enigmatic man she had ever met.
She glanced at him, sitting beside her in the back of the limousine. Like her, Daniele had not spoken since they’d left Morante Group’s offices, and he seemed to be lost in his thoughts. Paloma studied his chiselled profile, and her heart skipped a beat when he turned his head and caught her staring at him.
‘That will be something to tell our grandchildren,’ he drawled.
‘What will?’ She gave him a puzzled look.
‘The story of how in the middle of a board meeting you propositioned me to marry you.’ He grinned at her affronted expression. ‘And how, to save you from embarrassment, I officially proposed.’
‘Marriage was your idea. You know I only agreed to it to stop Franco seizing control of the company,’ she said sharply. ‘I don’twantto be engaged to you. Obviously, we are not going to have any children and therefore grandchildren.’
‘Don’t you want to have a family of your own?’
An image flashed into Paloma’s mind, of herself cradling a baby with jet-black hair and amber eyes. Daniele’s son. She shook her head, feeling hot-faced and flustered, aware that he had been teasing her. ‘Perhaps I will have children one day. But it’s beside the point. We don’t have to get married.’
Daniele raised an eyebrow. ‘We don’t?’
‘All we have to do is keep up the pretence that we’re engaged until I am twenty-five, when I can take charge of Morante Group as Nonno’s will states. My birthday is in eight months. It’s not unusual for couples to take a year or more to plan the perfect wedding, and it won’t seem odd if we announce that we will marry next year.’
‘By which time, you will have inherited your grandfather’s company, and no one on the board of trustees will be able to make a leadership challenge.’
‘Exactly.’ Paloma gave a sigh of relief that Daniele saw the sense in what she was saying.
‘You seem to have forgotten that we made a marriage bargain,’ he reminded her. ‘I stated my terms for helping you and I expect you to marry me. You will be able to claim your place as the head of Morante Group, and I will have an aristocratic wife with a pedigree that goes back centuries.’
‘You make me sound like a thoroughbred broodmare,’ she muttered.
Daniele gave her an amused look. ‘You are much prettier than a horse,cara.’
Those mesmerising amber eyes of his glowed like the embers of a fire. Heat surged through Paloma at the startling idea that he was flirting with her. His throwaway‘cara’tugged on her heart, even though she told herself he probably used the affectionate term with his—if the gossip columns were to be believed—legions of lovers.
‘Why do you want a wife with a title?’ she asked him. ‘You told me that it mattered to your mother, but why do you care what she thinks after she abandoned you when you were a child?’
Daniele looked uncomfortable and raked his hand through his hair. ‘I suppose it was seeing reports in the newspapers that my grandfather had died, and my half-brother has succeeded him as the new Conte.’ He shrugged. ‘Pride drives me to want to remind my mother that she has another son besides Stefano and to show her that I have made a success of my life without her support. There is another reason why it is vital that we marry.’ Daniele’s voice hardened. ‘The prenuptial agreement stating that I will not receive any of your money or possessions when we divorce must be kept a secret. Publicly we will let it be known that if something should happen to you, I will inherit the fortune left to you by your grandfather and automatically become the head of Morante Group.’
Daniele lifted his hand and captured her chin between his fingers, gently turning her head so that her eyes met his. ‘I need you to trust me, Paloma. As your husband, I will be your next of kin, and anyone thinking of threatening your life in order to get hold of your inheritance will have to get rid of me too. But I won’t let anything happen to you,’ he said quickly when she gasped.
‘Do you really believe I am in danger?’ Paloma felt sick when Daniele nodded. The idea that someone valued her inheritance and control of the company more than her life was a crushing blow to her already shaky self-esteem. She wished she could hide away on a remote island, but if she turned her back on Morante Group, whoever had arranged for her to be kidnapped would have won. ‘Marriage to me could put your life in danger. Why would you be prepared to risk your safety?’ she asked Daniele huskily.
‘My final words to your grandfather before he died were to promise to protect you. Like you, I have no wish to marry, but I’m afraid there is no other way.’
Daniele could not have made it any clearer that he would prefer to walk barefoot through a pit of vipers than walk up the aisle with her. His incentive was that she was the Morante heiress, and he hoped that by marrying her, he would gain his mother’s acceptance. Paloma stared at the ring he had placed on her finger. An engagement ring was meant to be a symbol of love and commitment, but for all its beauty, the sapphire ring was a reminder of the marriage bargain she had made with a man who regarded her as his duty and nothing more.
‘Was it by chance that you came to the board meeting prepared, or had you planned to announce our engagement to the trustees?’ She held out her left hand and, in the bright sunshine streaming through the car window, the diamonds surrounding the sapphire sparkled with fiery brilliance. ‘I am curious as to why you gave me this particular ring.’
‘I’m sure you know that Marcello always carried your grandmother’s engagement ring with him, as he did on the day we played golf together. He gave me the ring when we were in the ambulance and said he wanted you to have it.’ Daniele frowned. ‘Your grandfather could not have foreseen the circumstances in which I presented you with the ring, but I believe he would understand that a fake engagement and marriage are the best way I can protect you.’
Daniele knew he had not been completely truthful with Paloma about the ring. He stared unseeingly out of the car window, remembering when Marcello had pressed a small leather pouch into his hand.
‘I will soon be with my beloved Isabella,’ the dying man had rasped. ‘I have kept her ring next to my heart since she was taken from me. You have it now, and one day you will give the ring to the woman who possesses your heart.’
It was never going to happen, Daniele brooded. He would not allow his heart to be possessed by any woman. Although the circumstances had been different, both his father and Marcello had lost the women they’d loved, and they had been heartbroken for the rest of their lives. Daniele did not want to be consumed by a grand passion. He preferred to be in control of his life and his emotions.