tensed as he retrieved the small package. Throughout the week he had bought her gifts—not expensive ones, which had made it easy for her to accept them, with perhaps not an entirely clear conscience, but she’d reasoned she wanted something to keep as a reminder of what she could have had if life had dealt her a different hand of cards.
She took the tiny package from him, her fingers beginning to tremble slightly as she felt the cushioning of velvet beneath the tissue wrapping. ‘What is it?’ she asked, her voice sounding rusty.
‘Open it and see,’ he said, smiling at her.
She began to undo the tiny silk ribbon, each movement of her fingers meticulously slow. The tissue fell away, and the red velvet box lay in her hand like a square of blood. She knew what was in it before she opened it, knew too that she should have handed it straight back and told him the truth, but instead she slowly lifted the lid.
A diamond solitaire ring gleamed up at her, its sheer brilliance taking her breath away.
‘Put it on,’ he said into the silence.
Nikki had never hated herself more than at that moment. The shame of her past was nothing to what she was experiencing now. But as if her fingers had a mind of their own they lifted the ring from its velvet home, and slid it on her ring finger where Joseph Ferliani’s ring was supposed to be. But, unlike the heavy, cumbersome cluster Joseph had insisted she wear, Massimo’s ring was exquisitely delicate, suiting her slim hand perfectly.
‘Will you marry me, Nikki?’ Massimo asked as he took her hand in his. ‘I know this is terribly rushed, but I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.’
Nikki bit her lip in anguish, tears springing in a crystal stream from her eyes as she met his. ‘I don’t know what to say…’ she began. ‘It’s been so sudden…so totally unexpected.’
He brought her closer to the warmth of his body and, holding her hand to his heart, smiled down at her. ‘It looks like I will have to be patient and wait for your answer on my return,’ he said. ‘That will give you time to talk it over with your family. I am forgetting how very young you are. I am nine years older than you, so it is reasonable to expect you to be feeling a bit overwhelmed—especially now, after we have made love for the very first time.’
She was overwhelmed, but with guilt. It prodded and poked at her from every angle like a thousand pointed daggers. How could she have let things get to this stage? What had she been thinking? She should have known from the beginning that a man like Massimo Androletti would want more than a quick fling. She should have had one drink with him that first night and left, then he would not have had to suffer the pain of rejection, and she would not have known what it felt like to be truly in love, only to have to walk away because of circumstances beyond her control.
‘Massimo, there’s something I need to tell you…’
He bent his head to press a soft kiss to her mouth. ‘No, cara,’ he said. ‘Do not give me your answer until we meet again. I am flying to Palermo on Sunday. I am sorry I cannot spend the day with you tomorrow, but I have an engagement to attend which I cannot get out of.’
‘It’s all right,’ she said, inwardly blowing out a breath of relief. ‘I have something on as well.’
He held her close, his arms strong and protective around her. ‘I will miss you, Nikki. Every day we are apart I will miss you.’
‘Me too,’ she whispered, her heart breaking into a million pieces.
He put her from him. ‘I will not say goodbye, but vederla presto.’
She looked up at him in puzzlement. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means “see you soon”,’ he said, and sealed his promise with a burning kiss.
CHAPTER FOUR
NIKKI arrived at the church in her stiff-as-meringue dress, the lace itching her all over as she walked up the aisle, her bouquet feeling as heavy as her heart in her hands. She didn’t recognise any of the faces, but then it wasn’t as if she had a large circle of friends to invite. Ever since she’d moved from Perth with Jayden, there hadn’t been time to socialise even if she had felt inclined to do so. Holding down a job in order to pay for her brother’s care had taken up every bit of available time.
She just wanted this bit to be over so she could help her younger brother get the extra support he needed. Joseph had offered her a large sum of money in exchange for her hand in marriage. He had told her he needed a trophy wife, and was prepared to pay her a wage on top of the amount he’d promised for as long as she lived with him. He had assured her he was not interested in consummating the union due to his health problems, which he’d insisted no one was to know about. To all intents and purposes, their marriage was to appear normal, and Nikki had only agreed because she knew it would be worth it to see Jayden settled into Rosedale House where he would receive the twenty-four-hour care he so desperately needed.
Finally the vows were over, the register signed and the organ playing as they came out of the church to a cloud of confetti.
It was only then that Nikki saw him.
She stumbled in her tracks, her hand digging into Joseph’s arm to steady herself as Massimo Androletti stepped from the crowd to stand in front of them, his black gaze glittering with a rage so intense she felt as if her skin was going to peel away layer by sensitive layer under its scorching heat.
‘I would like to be introduced to your new wife,’ he said, addressing Joseph in a seemingly polite tone, although the way he said the word ‘wife’ made it sound more like an insult.
‘Nikki,’ Joseph said, ‘this is my stepson, Massimo Androletti, who has graced us with his presence this afternoon, after telling me for weeks he wouldn’t be seen dead at any wedding of mine. Massimo, this is Nikki, my new wife.’
‘Il piacere è tutto mio,’ Massimo said, and with a sardonic curl of his lip translated, ‘The pleasure is all mine.’
Nikki felt the heat of his fingers as he took her hand, the hint of steel in them as they brought it up to his mouth sending a tremor of terror through her body. She knew her face was every shade of red, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had never dreamed that such a fateful coincidence could occur, but, thinking back over the last week, she realised there had been a hundred clues if she had taken the time to reflect on them. But then she hadn’t wanted to think about anything, but that precious time with Massimo, for she’d known it had to end.
‘So you decided to come after all,’ Joseph said to Massimo. ‘What changed your mind?’
‘I had heard you were marrying your new secretary,’ Massimo said, swinging his hardened gaze to Nikki, running it up and down her body insultingly. ‘But I had no idea she was so very young and beautiful.’
Joseph’s arm came around Nikki’s waist in a territorial manner. ‘She is to be the new face of the Ferliani Fashions advertising campaign. She is delightful, is she not?’
‘Exquisite,’ Massimo drawled insolently. ‘But then you always want the best, and do whatever you can to get it.’
Joseph gave him an imperious smile. ‘Get over it, Massimo. This is one time you are not going to win. I have it all—a beautiful wife, a business that is thriving,
