I was twenty-two and too rich and naïve to smell a rat. Of course, she was already pregnant when she first slept with me.’
‘And you didn’t even suspect?’
‘I was infatuated with her. It was probably a little like the way you reacted to your unknown twin when she first turned up. I only saw what I wanted to see in Gigi and I was flattered by her interest.’
‘But the marriage only lasted because of Melita?’
Luciano could not hide his sadness. ‘The marriage died within months of Melita’s birth. I loved that little girl and she loved me. Gigi had no interest in her daughter but she wouldn’t have given up custody of her because she said that would damage her reputation as a mother.’
‘And did you say that you would never love a woman again after her?’
‘Yes,’ Luciano admitted freely. ‘Because loving Gigi was a horrendous experience and I couldn’t forgive myself for being such a fool. I sincerely believed that it would only be safe to love a child, which is why I planned the surrogacy arrangement.’
‘You do think in some seriously screwy ways sometimes,’ Jemima told him gently.
His nostrils flared as he thrust open a side door into the castle. ‘It seemed perfectly logical to me at the time. Gigi did a lot of damage and I didn’t want to be burned again.’
‘It was still a little over the top,’ Jemima criticised. ‘You may have decided to live without love but most children want two parents.’
Luciano shot her an impatient look. ‘All right, I’m selfish...and maybe I didn’t think it all through the way I should have done. But look how it turned out,’ he said with a sudden grin. ‘I got you... Have I still got you?’
‘It would take more than Sancia to scare me off.’
‘Yet you actually thought I could be about to dump you?’ An ebony brow quirked in wonderment. ‘What makes you so modest? I cut my trip short a day and travelled all night to get to you because I heard that you were upset.’
Jemima stiffened. ‘Who said I was upset?’
‘I promised not to name names,’ Luciano revealed.
‘I wasn’t upset yesterday,’ Jemima insisted out of pride. ‘I was just working through some stuff and thinking a lot. Getting married is a big challenge.’
‘Especially when the groom is someone like me,’ Luciano slotted in without hesitation. ‘Someone too proud and private to admit that his first marriage was a disaster and that his first child wasn’t his child.’
Jemima wrinkled her nose as he walked her up the rear staircase she had never used before. ‘But I sort of understand you keeping quiet about that, although that doesn’t mean I approve of you being that secretive.’
‘And the prospect of marriage must become even more challenging for a woman when the bridegroom refuses to admit that he loves you,’ Luciano told her in a rush shorn of the smallest eloquence. ‘That wasn’t just secretive, that was stupid, because if you’d known how much I love you yesterday you would have laughed in Sancia’s face and I wouldn’t have been panicked into rushing halfway across the world to assure myself that you weren’t going to desert me.’
‘I wouldn’t desert you...or Nicky,’ Jemima added, still working very slowly through what he had said. ‘You love me?’
‘Insanely.’ A flood of dark colour accentuated his high cheekbones. ‘The thought of life without you downright terrifies me. A couple of weeks being without you has proved a chastening experience. I’ve never missed anyone or anything so much in my life...’
Jemima suddenly realised that they were having a very private conversation in the corridor and she walked on a few steps and thrust open his bedroom door. ‘Never missed anyone...’
Luciano leant back against the door to close it fast behind him. ‘Jemima, does it take a hammer to knock an idea into your head?’ He groaned. ‘I phone you every hour on the hour and you think that’s normal? I invite your whole family here to keep you company so that you can’t even look at another man while I’m away. Don’t you ever get suspicious, piccolo mia? You think I don’t realise that wet blanket, Steven, is sitting out there waiting for you, hoping like hell that I’ll screw up and lose you?’
‘But I don’t fancy Steven...and even when you upset me or I get annoyed with you, I still fancy you,’ Jemima confided a little desperately, because he was smiling that wicked smile of his that made her heart beat crazily fast.
‘Is that a fact?’ Luciano teased, shifting off the door to shed his jacket and jerk loose his tie. ‘I had this unrealistic fantasy where I came home and everything would be all right and we would go straight to bed... Don’t know what I thought we’d do with all our guests.’
‘Everything is all right. Our guests are also remarkably good at entertaining themselves,’ she opined. ‘Oh, by the way, I love you...loads and loads...and it’s got nothing to do with your money like Steven thinks.’
‘Honestly...you love me?’ Luciano growled. ‘But why?’
‘That’s the weird bit... I truly don’t know. One minute I was fancying you like mad and the next I was wanting to make your life perfect for you,’ Jemima confided with an embarrassed wince.
‘Equally weird for me from the very first moment. Took me a long time to realise that not wanting to love again was basically a fear of being hurt again, which is cowardly,’ he declared with disdain. ‘And then you were there and I liked just about everything about you and it wasn’t only sex. I should’ve told you the truth about Gigi sooner but I suppose I didn’t want you to think less of me.’
‘How could I think less of you for her bad behaviour?’
Luciano shrugged. ‘I love the way you are with Nicky because she was so cold with Melita. Comparisons are tasteless but...’
‘So, don’t make them.’ Jemima unzipped her dress and shimmied out of it while he watched.
‘Your parents...’ Luciano began, slightly shocked.
‘I think everyone will mind their own business rather than ours,’ Jemima whispered sagely. ‘But you do realise that you still haven’t told me who told you that I was upset?’
Luciano expelled his breath on a slow hiss. ‘Your father.’
Taken aback, Jemima blinked. ‘Say that again?’
‘He thinks I make you happy and he likes the fact that I’m honest with him,’ Luciano told her guiltily, as if he had been consorting with the enemy. ‘I was grateful that he called me.’
Jemima was secretly pleased that the father she loved so much clearly liked and trusted the man she was about to marry. ‘I’ve got no complaints either. We love each other and that’s special.’
‘Simply finding you was special, piccolo mia,’ Luciano told her as she unbuttoned his shirt, undid his waistband, sent her fingers roaming over the prominent bulge at his groin with a daring new to both of them and even more thrilling. ‘Dio mio, I love you...’
‘Me
