It was ridiculous but she felt mean for pointing it out.
‘Which is why I am offering an incentive.’
‘You’re trying to buy me.’
‘Think of this as headhunting... You have a unique skill set that I want.’ I want you.
‘With sex as an optional extra?’ she threw back bitterly.
‘It would be a lie to say I am not eagerly anticipating sharing your bed,’ he admitted, with a gleam in his eyes that sent a rush of receptive heat through her body. ‘However, should the need arise the palazzo is a big place and you don’t need to see me if you don’t wish to.’
‘Palazzo? I assumed we’d be living in your apartment...not that I’m going to be...living with... I’m not agreeing...’
He let her stumble on for a moment before permitting himself a smugly triumphant smile. ‘See, a terrible liar.’
‘For heaven’s sake, being honest is not a defect, and I can lie.’
‘I’ve never met anyone who wore her emotions so close to the surface.’
She lifted a hand to her temple, massaging the area to relieve a tension headache. ‘No wonder I have a headache. You make me want to scream.’
‘Now that’s the truth, just as when you saw me you wanted to rip off my clothes...’
Before she could react to this casually voiced and deadly accurate observation he cast a look of critical distaste around the crowded room. ‘I think we should go somewhere less crowded...’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m catching my flight,’ Lara said, unable to shake the feeling she was fighting the inevitable.
‘That might be hard—your flight was called some time ago,’ he said gently.
‘You heard and you didn’t say anything.’
Raoul rose to his feet. ‘We both know you’re not going to fly out of here—you’re coming home with me.’
The denial on her tongue died as he caught her eye.
Unable to maintain contact, she looked away, shaking her head. ‘It wouldn’t just be your grandfather we have to convince. What about my family? They’ll think I’ve gone mad.’
‘You can’t tell them the truth, Lara. You can’t tell anyone the truth.’
‘Then what do you suggest I tell them?’
‘That I am your soulmate.’
‘OH, MY G—!’
Lara took her eyes off the tree-lined, private road they were driving along—it wasn’t as if they were going to meet any oncoming traffic—to look at her twin sister’s face. She imagined that she had worn a similar look a week earlier when Raoul had brought her for the first time to the family estate—her new home.
It was all deeply surreal.
‘Yeah, it is a bit, isn’t it?’ It wasn’t just the size and sense of history of the golden-stoned palatial house, but the magnificent setting. Cradled by a backdrop of mountains, olive groves covered the gently sloping hills to the west and a river wound its way like a silver ribbon to the north with the palazzo like a jewel in the centre.
‘It looks like an illustration in a fairy tale, you know, not quite real, a bit like you getting married to someone you’ve only just met...?’
Lara focused on the road ahead, not reacting to the unspoken question. ‘Oh, there’s Mum.’ She nodded towards a plume of dust. ‘We’ve almost caught them up.’
‘It is incredibly beautiful, but don’t you feel isolated here?’
The emphasis was not lost on Lara. She supposed it was her own fault. She had kind of played up how great the social side was when she had moved to the city for her job, but it was better than admitting that for the first six months she’d been terribly homesick.
‘Without a night club within stumbling distance, you mean. I guess I’ll just have to make my own entertainment, like in the olden days,’ she mocked. ‘I grew up in the country too, remember, only here there isn’t a bus at the end of the lane, there’s a helicopter.’
‘And you have this.’ Lily patted the deep leather upholstery of her seat.
Lara thought of all the cars in the garage that Raoul had given her the key code to on the first day, telling her she had her pick but warning her that the roads took some getting used to.
Up until now she had driven a 4x4 but this morning she had picked out the sleek sports car to pick up her mum and sister from the helicopter strip. Now she was regretting the impulse that might appear like showing off to Lily. In the end, when she’d arrived, Raoul’s grandfather Sergio was already there with the limo.
‘It is only good manners to meet your family,’ he had reproached when Lara, already concerned that the hastily arranged marriage was going to exhaust him, had said he shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.
Her mother had been delighted to be driven to the house in the style to which she laughingly said she could easily become accustomed, but Lily had opted to go back with Lara.
Lara was glad it was a short drive. Lily had started in with the questions straight off, and Lara had avoided giving direct answers, then launched into a running commentary of the history of the house and estate. What she couldn’t remember she made up, which, keeping in mind it was her inability to lie convincingly that had got her this gig, she felt she was doing rather well at.
If only Raoul were here to see her, she mused grimly, but he had flown off to Paris early that morning and wasn’t expected back until tomorrow morning, barely an hour before the wedding.
He’d laughed when she’d accused him of avoiding her family but he hadn’t denied it.
Wrapping a sheet around her, she had followed him out onto the balcony of their bedroom where he was taking his coffee. ‘Even if Mum swallows this, Lily will know I’m lying. She’ll definitely smell a rat. She knows even I wouldn’t be insane enough to marry someone I’ve only just met.’
‘Even I?’
‘Lily is the sensible twin.’
He’d stood there with a look on his face that she had struggled to interpret. ‘Sensible?’
‘She wouldn’t have agreed to this...and, no, you wouldn’t have asked her.’
The odd look had come back, along with a smile. ‘Then it is lucky for me I met the non-sensible twin. Relax, you do not have to prove anything to anyone, but if in trouble adopt the fall-back position.’
‘What’s the fall-back position?’
‘Love
