felt his eyes on her face as the silence had stretched. ‘Try and relax. No one is going to question our motivation for getting married. Why would they? I suppose a few might wonder if the haste means that you are already pregnant.’
The possibility had not occurred to Lara, who had reacted with a moan. ‘Oh, no!’
He’d seemed bemused by her reaction. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘You don’t have a problem with people thinking I’m pregnant?’
‘Fictional pregnancies I can deal with. Now, a real one...’
His expression had left no doubt as to what his reaction to that circumstance would be. Not that it was going to happen—he was meticulously careful in that way.
‘I really don’t think I can pull it off, Raoul.’ She hadn’t been able to keep the panic from her voice.
‘Of course you can.’
The irritation in his voice had been reflected in his face as he’d lifted his eyes from the tablet his glance had drifted to.
‘I wasn’t expecting anything like this place.’ She’d waved a hand to encompass the view, the room, and everything that went with it. ‘I won’t be able to keep up the act.’
‘Nobody expects you to. It’s not as if you’re going to be on show twenty-four-seven. You’ll be living here. There are no cameras.’
‘Oh, and there’s nothing whatever daunting about that, and actually there are cameras.’
‘Security cameras are there to protect you, not intrude.’
‘Easy for you to say—you were brought up in a goldfish bowl.’ She’d pressed a hand to her head and groaned out. ‘This was a crazy idea.’
‘Anyway, I doubt I’ll be here more than one or two days a week.’
Her hand had fallen away.
‘Did you think we were going to spend the next months joined at the hip?’
‘Of course not!’ she’d lied, trying hard not to examine the ambivalence of her reaction. ‘Won’t people think it odd...?’ she had countered, keeping her voice light. ‘Married couples usually—’
‘Have a honeymoon, make babies...?’ The mockery in his voice had morphed into a steely hardness as he’d spelt it out. ‘This is not meant to be a real marriage.’
‘How sweet of you to explain that to me.’ Her glance had touched significantly on the sealed envelope that contained her copy of the prenup agreement that had been signed and witnessed the previous night.
He’d followed the direction of her gaze. ‘You really should get a lawyer to look through those, you know.’
‘I thought you were a lawyer.’ Yet something else she hadn’t known at the outset.
‘I think they call it a conflict of interest.’
She’d shrugged. ‘Why? Are you trying to cheat me?’
He hadn’t smiled.
‘Talking of cheating...if you want this to work it might be an idea if you’re discreet...things like that might get back to your grandfather.’
‘You are giving me permission to be unfaithful.’
Lara had felt her blush deepen under his sardonic stare. ‘Oh, I know you don’t need my permission.’
‘You think after last night...’ his dark glance had swivelled to the rumpled bed ‘...that I’d have the energy for other women? I will be working a twenty-hour day...jealousy is not part of your duties.’
Playing it again now, she could see how he had misinterpreted her comments, but at the time she had been utterly taken by surprise.
‘Jealous...! I am not jealous!’ Then, in response to the voice in her head saying she was protesting too much, she had managed a less emotional, ‘It’s just the responsibility of your grandfather when you’re not here falls on me.’
She had been massively relieved to see some of the suspicion clear from his eyes.
‘You will always be able to contact me; if he needs me I will be here, and later, when his condition worsens, obviously I will travel less.’ He had paused and delivered a hard, level look at her lightly flushed face that Lara knew she would never forget. ‘Don’t fall in love with me, cara.’
Even thinking about the warning made her skin burn with remembered embarrassment. Fall in love with him! She didn’t even like him!
Lara shoved aside the memory of her response to Raoul, as beside her Lily continued to ask questions.
‘So what sort of man is he?’
‘He’s the sort of man who would drag a woman off a flight to propose.’ It was an inspired lie and, like all the best, had a basis in truth.
Lily’s eyes widened. ‘Seriously? He did that?’
Lara nodded.
‘Wow, that is romantic.’
‘Raoul is extremely romantic,’ Lara lied cheerfully, before going on to invent several incredibly romantic gestures he had made. ‘Here we are.’ She released a sigh of relief as they drove through the last set of massive wrought-iron gates that closed silently behind them and pulled her car up beside the shiny limo that had preceded them. The massive main entrance door of the palazzo stood wide open, and presumably her mother and Sergio were already inside.
Lara got out of the car and waited for her twin, who came to stand beside her. The half an inch or so height advantage she had over her sister was cancelled out by the heels that Lily was wearing this morning.
Their tastes in fashion had always been different and today that difference was particularly apparent. Lily’s floaty, flowered skirt fluttered around her calves, the top button of her simple sleeveless shirt was unfastened and her hair hung down her back in a shiny fat braid.
Lara wore a new acquisition, part of the wardrobe that Raoul had insisted she needed: a miniskirt in bold stripes of purple and lime green. Her silk top was sleeveless too but was cut low enough to show the upper slopes of her breasts and glimpses of her lacy bra. Her flatties were soft turquoise leather ballet pumps and on the way out she’d slid a haphazard selection of bangles on her arm, which jingled as she pushed her loose hair from her face.
She watched her twin as Lily tilted her head back to take in the full impact of the building. ‘I suppose anyone would want to live here.’
Lara’s expression froze over. ‘I hadn’t seen the place when I agreed to marry Raoul and once you’ve met him you’ll realise that his bank balance isn’t the attraction.’
‘I didn’t mean...’
Lara ignored the horrified stuttered denial. ‘There would be a queue around the corner for him if he only had the clothes he stands up in!’
