The Italian's Future Bride(9)

'"Intimately linked-?"'he fed into that rumbling thunder.



Rachel bit down hard on her bottom lip to stop it from quivering. The  thickened air in the room began to curdle-or was it the vodka she wasn't  used to drinking that was beginning to make her feel slightly sick?



'Explain that,' he raked out.



'I w-will in a minute,' she whispered. 'I just need to-get my head together to … ' say what still had not been said.



Abandoning what was left of the glass of vodka and her bag to the floor  at her feet, she made herself stand up again, preferring to meet what  was about to come back at her from an upright position with her hands  free rather than have him loom over her like a threatening thunderclap.



Why did he have to be so intimidatingly tall and big?



She found herself sending him a plea for understanding with her eyes as  she lurched back into speech. 'Elise provided this d-dress and the  invitation to the charity thing tonight,' she explained. 'Then she was  packed off to Chicago with her son this afternoon f-for a surprise visit  to Leo, while Mark and I … '



'Set up the sting on me?'



Pressing her lips together, she nodded, deciding not to object to the  latest label he'd hung on them because it was the truth, and there was  still more to come.



'Tomorrow morning you and I will appear together in a Sunday tabloid-'



'Saying what-?' he bit out.



Oh, God, she groaned silently. 'S-something like-Raffaelle Villani goes public with his latest w-woman … '



Having to really bite down hard on her bottom lip now, Rachel searched  the hard angles of his face for a small sign that he wasn't into  murder-but she didn't see it.



'It was important to convince Leo that the woman in the photographs he  has in his possession and the one who will appear in tomorrow's paper  are the same person andcannot be Elise if she is in Chicago with him!'



And that was the bottom line.



Suddenly he was a tall dark stranger standing there. A man so cold and  so very still it was as if he had pulled on the same awesome cloak of  implacability that Leo always wore.



The silence gnawed. So did the heightened tension which began sapping  the defences that had kept Rachel going through all of this.



'It should have ended there,' she pushed into the taut atmosphere. 'If  you had behaved as predicted and let me get away from you, I would have  disappeared back to Devon and tomorrow's tabloid spread would have  become Monday's bin liner-over and forgotten about-and my sister's  marriage would have been safe!'



It was the way it worked, Mark had said. Raffaelle Villani would have no  case to deny. He might bluster and demand a retraction from the paper  but that would be all he could do. Elise's name would not be mentioned  by Mark and other than Leo receiving hard evidence that his wife was not  the woman in the grainy photographs with Raffaelle Villani, everything  else would just-go away.



But this man had not reacted as predicted. He'd grabbed and held on to  her. And the pap-pack had caught their scent. Now she was stuck here in  his apartment with the pack no doubt waiting outside ready to pounce on  her the moment that she tried to leave.                       
       
           



       



And where was her darling quick thinking half-brother? Putting his twin's needs first, as he always did.



Now Rachel hadn't a clue as to where it was all going to go from here except-



It was time to beg, she recognised starkly. Time to appeal to one very  cold and angry Raffaelle Villani for his understanding and co-operation,  when deep down she knew they deserved neither.



She moved towards him. 'Mr Villani,' she murmured huskily, 'please, just  think about it. I was actually doing you a favour too tonight because  if Leo-'



'What the hell is-this?'



Rachel hadn't realised she'd lifted a hand out towards him in appeal  until his long fingers were suddenly clamped around her wrist.



'W-what-?' she said jerkily.



Grim mouth flattening, he lifted up her hand until her fingers dangled  in front of her confused face. She had to blink twice to focus on the  diamond-encrusted sapphire ring twinkling back at her.



'Oh,' she said and swallowed. She'd forgotten all about the ring.



'You are betrothed-?'he enquired with blistering thinness.



'N-no.' Rachel shook her head. 'It-it's nothing; the ring is a f-fake, just w-window-dressing.'



'Window-dressing,' he repeated.



'Part of the look … ' She was beginning to squirm inside again. 'Leo needed to see it if he was going to … '



'Believe you were not his wife?'



She nodded, then swallowed again. 'Elise's engagement ring is a big  single yellow diamond. Th-this one is so glaringly different that it … '



Her voice trailed away, the hiss of his breath making it do so because she knew he had caught on.



'So, let me see if I have this clear,' he said grimly. 'You dressed  yourself up to look like your half-sister-from behind, then you threw  yourself at my neck, kissing me as if I am your … ?'



He wanted her to say it. Her heart began thumping. He was going to make her confess the final full duplicity.



'L-lover,' she breathed.



'Betrothedlover?' His voice was getting softer by the second.



Rachel licked her lips and nodded.



'And I was not supposed to issue an instant denial about this?'



'Th-there's a letter going to be h-hand-delivered here to you tomorrow  along with the relevant newspaper,' she told him shakily. 'The letter  will explain everything we have talked about and point out to you that  to expose the photograph as a lie will leave you open to questions about  wh-whose baby it is Elise is carrying.'



'Madre de Dio,' he breathed. 'You are truly devious.'



He was right and she was, but-'This is serious, MrVillani!' she cried  out. 'You don't know Leo! He's one hell of a strict Greek! He's also an  absolute killer expert on law! If he decides that his wife has been  cheating on him with you and could be havingyour baby … for all your  wealth and power, he will drag you to the courtroom and through the  gutters along with Elise!'



He threw her hand away. 'I never touched her-!' he bit out angrily.



'Even this very trusting sister can't believe that!'



Her denunciation bounced off the walls and the sheets of plate glass while the air sizzled with his undiluted rage.



'One kiss, Mr Villani,' Rachel stressed urgently. 'One small kiss stolen  from the wife of Leo Savakis and he will never forgive her, and you  will find yourself stuck with the worst kind of enemy there is!'



He just turned and walked off, striding across the expanse of wood flooring and out through the door.



Rachel followed, quivering, shaken to the roots because it was only now,  when faced with what this all meant tohim , that she was beginning to  realise how none of them had given much thought to how unfairly they  were treating him in all of this.



She hurried after him. 'I'm so sorry … '



The husky quaver of her apology fell on stony ground. It had been such a  useless thing to say anyway, so she didn't blame him for the filthy  comment he threw back at her, as one of his arms flew out with an angry  hand attached to it, which hit open another door to allow him to keep  walking without altering his angry stride.



Rachel found herself coming to a trembling halt in yet another doorway.  This one opened on to a shiny black and white kitchen and he was  standing by a huge black mirror fronted fridge. One of the doors was  swinging open, but by the way he was just staring Rachel received the  pained impression that he didn't know what it was he was staring into.                       
       
           



       



'Please believe me when I say I didtry to explain it all to you  earlier-at the charity thing!' she tried again-frantically. 'Iinsisted  to Mark that we should at least attempt to get your understanding and  cooperation but … ' she sucked in a breath ' … you wouldn't give me the  chance to speak and then the whole thing j-just ran out of control!'



He slammed the fridge door shut and turned to face her. If her trembling  legs would have let her, Rachel knew she would be running by now.



But-look at him, she told herself helplessly as he began striding  towards her. He was so gloriously magnificent in his anger, his face  muscles stretched tight across his amazing bone structure and his torso  pumped up like a warrior about to begin a slaying-fest.



He reached for her.



She quivered. 'Y-you-'



He shut her up with his hard hot mouth to mouth that totally blacked out  her brain. When he let her up for air again she was dizzy and  disorientated, in no fit state to find herself being dragged by the hand  down the hallway then out of the door to the lift.



His free hand stabbed the call button. Bright balls of panic spun in her  head. He was going to throw her out. He was going to hand her to the  wolves out there and-