‘Neither of us will have a private life for the next few months.’ His tone became serious. ‘Our marriage must appear to be real, which means that I am the only man you can be associated with.’
‘Idon’t have hordes of admirers.’ She grimaced. ‘Not genuine ones, anyway.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When men look at me, they see a cash cow.’
‘That’s not true.’ Daniele had heard genuine hurt behind her flippant remark, and a hot tide of anger swept through him. Who had made Paloma feel that she was only valued for the size of her inheritance? Had it been her ex-husband? Daniele did not know the reason why her marriage had broken up, but there had been wild speculation in the British press over the size of the financial settlement Paloma had given her ex.
She had become a millionairess at eighteen when she’d taken control of the trust fund left to her by her father, who had died two years earlier. Now she had inherited her grandfather’s vast fortune. Daniele frowned when he remembered that Paloma believed everyone wanted something from her. Was he any better? his conscience demanded. He was not interested in her money, but he wanted the position in society that being married to Paloma would give him.
‘Why did you choose to live in the middle of nowhere?’
‘Actually, I don’t spend as much time here as I would like. My business is based in Rome and I have an apartment in the city. But I was drawn to the remoteness and tranquillity of this place. Like many soldiers who were sent to war zones, I value peace.’
‘I didn’t realise you had served abroad. Where did you go?’
‘Afghanistan.’ Memories flashed through Daniele’s mind. The heat and dust, the constant threat from IEDs, his own very personal dread of being shot dead by a sniper. Like father, like son. He took a deep breath and pushed away thoughts of his best friend, Gino, who had not returned home from war.
The farmhouse was his sanctuary, and Paloma was the only woman he had ever brought here. But he’d reasoned that it would be easier to keep her hidden in the heart of rural Tuscany than if he took her to Rome or Florence. He ushered her into the house and wondered what she would make of its rustic charm after the opulence of the Morante palazzo. Why did he care what Paloma thought? Daniele wondered irritably. He did not need to impress her. Their marriage bargain would benefit her as much as it would him.
‘I don’t employ any full-time staff here,’ he explained. ‘A woman from the village comes in a couple of times a week to keep the place clean. The freezer is always well stocked, and I’ve arranged for someone to deliver fresh produce. You are probably used to being waited on by servants, but you’ll have to muck in. I can cook, although nothing more adventurous than steak and eggs.’
Paloma followed him into the bright kitchen, where an old-fashioned range stood against one wall. The wooden table in the centre of the room looked as ancient as the house. ‘You can leave the catering to me. My grandfather insisted that I spent six months at a Swiss finishing school, and I learned cordon bleu cookery as well as the many other accomplishments expected of an aristocratic bride. That’s the reason you are going to marry me, after all,’ she said drily.
Daniele met her limpid gaze and laughed despite himself. The attraction that had simmered between them since he’d rescued her in Africa sparked into a blaze. Three years ago, Paloma had been shy, and her obvious crush on him had been distracting. He had been determined to ignore the chemistry between them, telling himself that she was too young and inexperienced. He’d felt sure that her grandfather would not approve if he’d had a relationship with Paloma, and so he had avoided her as much as possible. Until he’d kissed her back at the ball and been forced to admit to himself that he’d avoided her for an entirely different reason—that she tested his self-control to its limits.
Since then, Paloma had developed a strong will and a fieriness that Daniele admired. Added to that, she was the sexiest woman he had ever laid eyes on. An erotic image flashed into his mind of Paloma naked and spread across the kitchen table, her long hair tumbling over her breasts and her lips set in a pout that he would enjoy teasing apart with his tongue.
Dio!He turned away from her and pretended to study the bottles in the wine rack to hide the betraying bulge in the front of his jeans. His role was to protect her, he reminded himself. He had discovered a vulnerability to Paloma that warned him to keep his distance.
‘You have a lot of misconceptions about me,’ she murmured. ‘While I was at university, I lived in student digs, and in Mali, my accommodation was basic. I shared a bedroom with a family of cockroaches.’
Daniele knew he should go to his study and switch on his computer. He had several major deals in the pipeline, and usually he would be impatient to get back to work. Instead he opened a bottle of Chianti, found a couple of glasses and pulled out a chair at the table while he watched Paloma investigate the kitchen cupboards and fridge and assemble a pile of ingredients for dinner.
‘Why did you go to Africa? Was it simply a laudable desire to help underprivileged children, or were you running away?’
She flushed. ‘Perceptive, aren’t you? Volunteering as a teacher in Mali was important to me. But you’re right—it gave me a chance to escape from the fallout of my divorce. I felt so stupid that I had been taken in by Calum’s lies.’ Paloma picked up a knife and chopped some mushrooms with unnecessary force.
‘Why did you marry him?’
‘I thought I loved him and that he loved me. I was wrong on both counts.’ She drank some wine. ‘The short version of the story is that Calum was in love with another woman. I discovered later that their relationship had broken up shortly before I met him. He was a barman at a pub near to the London offices of the charity where I worked.’
Paloma paused and took another sip of her drink. ‘Calum was handsome and fun to be with. He was unaware that I was an heiress, or so I thought.’ She sighed. ‘My mother never lets me forget that she is Lady Coulton, and that I am the granddaughter of an English earl and an Italian marchese. She was desperate for me to marry a man with a title. Nonno was putting pressure on me to move to Italy and work with him at Morante Group. When I eloped with Calum, it seemed romantic and exciting, but soon after I’d married him, I realised I had made a mistake when I discovered that he had deliberately fooled me.’
She drained her glass and pushed it across the table for Daniele to refill it. ‘Calumhadknown that I was wealthy after an Italian barman at the pub recognised I was the Morante heiress. He was attracted to my money, but a few days before our wedding, his ex-girlfriend told him that she was pregnant with his baby. Obviously, I knew nothing about it then. Calum went ahead and married me, anticipating that he could expect a sizeable divorce settlement.’
Paloma took another long sip of wine. ‘I’d stupidly married him without a prenuptial agreement because I believed we would be together for ever. But weeks after the wedding, he resumed his relationship with his girlfriend. Their baby was born a few months later while Calum was still technically my husband.’
Daniele frowned. ‘Under those circumstances, it was reasonable for you to file for divorce. Your husband had never been committed to the marriage and I am surprised that a judge awarded him a financial settlement.’
‘I didn’t fight his claim for money in court.’ A pink stain spread over Paloma’s face. ‘Calum had some raunchy photographs of me on his phone. When we were dating, he’d persuaded me to take pictures of myself in the nude and send them to him. I know, I was an idiot,’ she muttered when Daniele swore softly. ‘He’d promised he would never show them to anyone. Calum agreed to a quick divorce if I gave him the house in London that I’d bought as our marital home, plus an additional financial settlement. If I refused, he said he would pass the photos to the tabloids.’
Daniele discovered that he had unconsciously clenched his fists as he imagined meeting Paloma’s ex-husband. ‘You could have had him charged with blackmail, which carries a prison sentence.’
‘I couldn’t risk the pictures being made public. My grandfather would have been horrified, and I couldn’t face further humiliation. I just wanted out of the marriage, so I agreed to Calum’s terms.’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘Now you know the miserable details of my marriage and why I am in no rush to do it again.’
Once again, Daniele’s conscience pricked that he would benefit from marrying Paloma. The situation was not the same as her first marriage, he assured himself. He’d been honest with her and he had not pretended that their marriage would be anything other than a business arrangement. But now more than ever he was determined to ignore his inconvenient attraction to her. He could not risk any kind of involvement with Paloma that she might misconstrue as something more than sexual desire.