The Italian's Future Bride(8)

Behind her his silent study pin-pricked her spine.



He had not even bothered to challenge her threat to leave. It was as if  he knew she was becoming more and more trapped here by the sexual pull  and he was enjoying feeding it.



One of the friends she'd made during her stay in Naples had once claimed  that Italian men could seduce you and make you feel wonderful about  falling in love with them without so much as considering falling in love  themselves. It was the Italian way. Apparently you were supposed to  feel blessed that they'd bothered to notice you at all.



Because they were conceited and arrogant by nature, so confident in  their prowess as mighty lovers, that the suggestion that they might not  assuage your every sexual fantasy never entered their minds or their  beds. Such an uncrushable self-belief was seductive in itself. Rachel  had fallen for it with Alonso. Now here she was, feeling the pull again  and with a much more dangerous beast than Alonso ever had been.



It was time to put it to death, she told herself.



Turning from the window, she looked back at him. 'Leo knows about your affair with Elise,' she announced.



And saw death happen to sexual promise as he flicked those eyes into sharp focus on her face.



'He was sent photographs of the two of you together in a restaurant here  in London, then later being very intimate on a dance floor,' she pushed  on.



His tight curse brought him to his feet.



'Elise got upset-'



'Naturally,' he gritted.



Rachel bit down hard on her lower lip. 'She denied everything, which was  a bit stupid when Leo was standing there with the photographic  evidence,' she allowed. 'F-fortunately the photos were dark and very  grainy and she insisted that the blonde in them could be anyone.'



'She lied, in other words.'



'Wouldn't you have done in her place?'



His dark head went back. 'If I was so miserable in my marriage that I  needed to look elsewhere for-company, I would be man enough to say  sobefore the event!'



'Well, good for you, Mr Villani,' Rachel commended. 'It must be really  great to be so sure of yourself that youknow what you would do in any  given situation! Well, Eliselied ,' she stressed. 'And, right off the  top of her head, she suggested that the woman in the photos could even  be me. Leo wasn't impressed-I don't normally look or dress like this,  you see-'



He flicked her a cynical look. 'Another liar in the family, then.'



'Yes,' Rachel sighed, seeing no use in denying it. 'I had been staying  with Elise in London for a while to-to keep her company while Leo was  away. She was so low and depressed I encouraged her to go out with an  old f-friend from her modelling days and-and enjoy life a bit instead of  moping around the house waiting for … ' She stopped, shutting the rest of  that away where it belonged.



By his expression she knew he knew what she meant.



'Anyway,' she went on after a moment. 'She took me up on the offer and  really started to cheer up and be her old self! But I had no idea she  was out there enjoying herself with another man … '



'Oh, call it as it is,cara , we had the hots for each other.'



'You don't need to be so crude about it!' she said heatedly.



'What happened next?' He was striding across the room towards the brandy  bottle to replenish his empty glass and there was nothing languid in  his movements now.                       
       
           



       



'Elise told Leo thatI had been seeing someone while I was staying with her … '



'A someone who just happened to be me-?' Brandy splashed into the glass.



Rachel watched it and mentally crossed her fingers and hoped he had the steady head for it. 'She was fighting for her marriage.'



He swallowed the drink. 'So did Savakis call you up to demand confirmation and you lied to him for your sister's sake?'



'Leo didn't do anything.' Ignoring his sarcasm, she kept strictly to the point. 'Instead he chose to let the subject drop.'



'Generous man,' he drawled. 'Or a sadly besotted one.'



The idea of Leo being either generous or besotted was so alien to Rachel  that she had to stop and think about it and still couldn't get either  scenario to fit the Leo she knew.



'Things have been-strained between the two of them ever since, and  now … 'Rachel gathered herself in before she revealed the next bit. 'Elise  has just found out that she's pregnant.'



Raffaelle responded to this with an abrupt stiffening of his long body.  The glass clenched between his fingers, he turned a narrowed look on her  face.



'Do go on,' he invited softly.



Rachel wished she didn't have to go on but she knew that she did.  'W-with the timing and-everything, there's a big chance that Leo might  not believe the baby is his.'



'You mean he does not know about it yet?'



'Not yet,' Rachel murmured.



'And is it his baby?'



'Yes!' she cried out. 'Unless you are wondering if it might be your baby?' she then could not resist hitting back.



'I know it isn't.' His mouth was as hard now as his eyes were like ice.



Rachel shivered. 'It's Leo's baby,' she repeated firmly. 'Conceived  during one of his flying visits home. He'd only been there one night  when he was telling Elise over the breakfast table that he was flying  back to Chicago the next day. S-so she rebelled at his arrogant  assumption that he could just fly in and-' The rest was cut off and  smothered. But once again she knew that he knew what she was getting at.  'So Elise decided to punish him by telling him she had started her  period and so was off limits … '



Because, as Elise had said, if Leo thought he could fly in just to ease  his libido, then he could go back to Chicago and to libido hell!



'Dio,' Raffaelle muttered. 'The sly machinations of a selfish woman never cease to impress me.'



'Nor am I impressed by the casual attitude of a man on the hunt for sex!'



'Was that remark aimed at me?' he demanded.



'Does it fit?' Rachel lanced back. 'Did you or did you not hit on my sister because you fancied your chances in her bed?'



Guilty as charged. His teeth came together. 'I did not know that she was married,' he declared stiffly.



'And that's your excuse?' Rachel denounced. 'Why didn't you know she was  married?' she demanded. 'She was a famous exmodel, for goodness' sake!  Her face used to be seen everywhere. Her marriage made the front pages  of every glossy there is!'



'Does she look like the famous model any more?' he hit back. 'You know  she does not! She carries more weight now and her face has altered. And  she did not exactly go out of her way to tell me who she was!'



'What did she do then-pretend to be Catwoman, complete with rubber mask?'



Rachel saw him make a grab at his temper. 'She used a different name,' he said.



A different name-? That was one small detail Elise had left out of her account of her reckless rebellion against Leo.



'What name-?' She frowned at him.



He looked at her, then dared to laugh, though it wasn't a very  pleasant-sounding laugh. 'Does-Rachel Carmichaelmean much to you?'



Rachel suddenly needed to sit down again. Walking on trembling legs to  the nearest sofa, she sank into its soft black leather and put the glass  to her equally trembling mouth.



'I see you recognise the name,' he drawled hatefully.



'Shut up!' she whipped back; she was trying to think.



The devious witch, the calculating madam! She'd gone out there on the  town stuffed full of rebellion, usingher name as a cover-up, while  insisting that Leo's precious security guards remained at the house to  guard her son!



'No wonder Mark dragged me back here,' she mumbled.                       
       
           



       



'Who the hell is Mark?' Raffaelle Villani rapped out.



'My half-brother-the one with the camera,' she enlightened.



'You mean you are related to one of the paparazzi?'



Rachel shifted uncomfortably. 'Mark and Elise are twins.'



He didn't bother to say anything to that, but just stood there glaring  into space. The atmosphere was pretty much too thick to breathe now and  Rachel was wishing she was wearing armour plating because she had a  horrible feeling she was going to need it soon.



'From where?' he demanded suddenly.



Looking up at him, she just blinked.



'You said that your brother dragged you back,' he enlightened her. 'From where-?'



'Oh-Devon,' Rachel responded. 'I work there on the family farm-organic,' she added for no reason she could think of.



His raking scan of her was downright incredulous. 'You … are afarmer ?'



Her chin shot up. 'What's the matter with that, Mr Villani?' she  challenged. 'Does it bruise your precious ego to know you're about to be  intimately linked to a poor farming girl instead of some rich chick  with a three-hundred-year-old pedigree-?'



Silence clattered-no, it thundered down as both of them realised at the same time what it was she had just said.