you can make things a lot easier for all three of us by quietly stepping back the minute Cesare admits that he wants his freedom back,’ the princess pointed out smoothly. ‘If it’s a question of money.’
‘No, I don’t need money and I can’t be bribed!’ Lizzie parried grittily, her cheeks reddening. ‘I wish I could say it was nice meeting you...but it would be a lie.’
‘You’re a farmer’s daughter with no education. Surely you don’t believe you have what it takes to hold a man like Cesare’s interest?’ Serafina fired back with a raised brow. ‘Cesare and I belong together.’
LIZZIE COMPRESSED HER LIPS, said nothing and walked back indoors.
A pounding headache had developed at the base of her skull. How she got through what remained of the evening, she had no idea, but she smiled so much her mouth felt numb and she made polite conversation until she wanted to scream. She was angry with Cesare for ever loving a woman as selfish and grasping as Serafina. Serafina only wanted Cesare now because he had built up an empire worth billions. Nevertheless a few of her remarks stayed with Lizzie like a bruise that refused to heal.
‘You never forget your first love. He married you to hurt me. Cesare and I belong together.’
And who was she to assume that that wasn’t true? Cesare had never dreamt of regaining the island of Lionos in the way his father and grandmother had. Never having seen it, he had never learned to care for it and could probably well afford to buy his own island should that have been his wish. Was it possible that Cesare had been willing to go through with marrying Lizzie because he had a stronger motive? A desire to punish Serafina for her betrayal all those years ago? Revenge? Certainly that was how the princess had interpreted his behaviour of getting married just at the point when she was finally free again. Exasperated by the pointless thoughts going round and round in her sore head, Lizzie tried to blank them out by acknowledging that she knew no more about what Cesare felt for Serafina than she knew about what he felt for herself.
‘You’ve scarcely spoken since we left the benefit,’ Cesare commented as the limo drew up outside the farmhouse. He had noticed that she had seemed unusually animated throughout the evening. That had proved a surprise when he had assumed she might feel the need to cling to him in such exclusive and high-powered company. When she failed to demonstrate any desire to cling, instead of being relieved he had felt strangely irked and could not explain why. He had always felt stifled by women who clung to him. He had always valued independence and spirit in a woman more than feminine weakness and soft words of flattery.
Yet when the spirited and independent woman whom he had once loved had approached him at the benefit for a private word, he had been totally turned off by the experience, he acknowledged grimly.
‘I’m very tired,’ Lizzie said stiffly.
Cesare followed her into the bedroom, unzipping her dress without being asked. Lizzie let the dress glide down to her feet, stepped out of it and, regal as a queen in her underwear, walked into the bathroom without turning her head even to look at him.
He knew when he was getting the silent treatment. She was sulking and that was childish. He had never had any patience for sulks. He pulled a pair of jeans out of a drawer and stripped off his suit. Casually clad, he noted the beady little eyes watching him from below the canopy of the four-poster pet bed and surrendered. ‘Come on, Archie...time for something to eat...’
Archie limped across the floor. The cast had been removed from his broken leg only the day before but Archie still thought he was a three-legged dog and had yet to trust the fourth leg to take his weight again. Cesare scooped the little dog up at the top of the stairs and carried him down to the kitchen where he maintained a one-way dialogue with Archie while feeding them both as he raided the fridge.
Teeth gritted, Lizzie emerged from the bathroom to a frustratingly empty bedroom. She had decided that it was beyond cowardly not to ask Cesare why he hadn’t warned her that the benefit was being staged at his ex-girlfriend’s home. She had not been prepared for that confrontation and was convinced she would have made a more serious effort to look her very best had she known she would be meeting the gorgeous brunette. The problem was that she was jealous, she acknowledged ruefully, green and raw and hurting with ferocious jealousy. She looked out of the landing window at the dark silhouette of the old stone barn and her heart clenched as if it had been squeezed dry. Cesare had made love to Serafina there, love, not sex. He had loved Serafina, cared about her, wanted to marry her. Yet Serafina had turned her back on his love in favour of wealth and social status. Having achieved those staples, she now wanted Cesare back.
Pulling a silky wrap on over a nightdress, Lizzie headed downstairs. Cesare was sprawled on a sofa in the airy living room. In worn jeans and an unbuttoned blue shirt, he was a long sleek bronzed figure and heartbreakingly beautiful. Her heart hammered out a responsive and nervous tattoo as she paused in the doorway.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she asked abruptly.
Cesare always avoided dramatic scenes with women and walking out on the risk of one came as naturally as breathing to him. One glance at Lizzie’s set, angry face and the eyes gleaming like green witch fire in her flushed face was sufficient to warn him of what was coming. Springing lithely upright, he strolled out past her and swiped the car keys off the cabinet in the hall. ‘I’m going for a drive...don’t wait up for me. I’ll be late,’ he spelled out flatly.
Taken aback, Lizzie moved fast to place herself in his path to the front door. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Perfectly. I don’t want to argue with you, cara. I’m not in the mood. We’re flying to Lionos tomorrow and Athene will be joining us. That is enough of a challenge for the present.’
It was a shock for Lizzie to register how cold the smooth, perfect planes of his lean dark face could look. His spectacular eyes were veiled by his thick lashes, his superb bone structure taut, his shapely mouth, defined by a dark shadow of stubble, a hard line of restraint. Alarm bells sounded in her head. ‘You could’ve warned me that we were going to Serafina’s house and that she would be our hostess.’
‘I am not going to argue with you about Serafina,’ Cesare asserted, his jawline clenching hard as granite.
‘I’m not arguing with you,’ Lizzie reasoned curtly. ‘And why won’t you discuss her with me?’
Velvet black lashes flew up on scorching golden eyes. ‘She’s none of your business, nothing to do with you.’
Lizzie flinched and leant back against the door to stay upright. She felt like someone trying to walk a tightrope in the dark and she was terrified of falling. ‘She spent ten minutes talking to me outside on the terrace and made me feel very much as if she was my business.’
Feverish colour laced his incredible cheekbones. ‘You...discussed me with...her?’ he framed wrathfully.
Lizzie found it interesting that, instead of being flattered as Serafina had suggested, Cesare was absolutely outraged by the idea. ‘What do you think?’ She hesitated, hovering between him and the door. ‘I only wanted to know why you didn’t mention that she would be entertaining us.’
Cesare ground his perfect white teeth together because he had thought of mentioning it, only to run aground on the recollection that theirs was not a normal marriage. They were not in a relationship where he was bound
