The Vengeful Groom

This was nothing, she told herself, but knew she lied, because she was emotionally involved and it wasn’t the same at all.

“I won’t release you yet. First, I have something for you, Tina,” he muttered. And he twisted her around, impaling her with his black, black eyes.

The white imprint of her hand flared accusingly against the dark gold of his skin, and she stared at the mark of her contempt as if hypnotized by it.

“You have nothing for me,” she said in a low tone.

He had changed. Bigger, harder, with a hatred that lay cold as ice in the cruel eyes. Yet whatever the hardships he’d suffered, there was still that stomach-clenching impact of stunning good looks. Blond hair on a dark-skinned Sicilian had thrown a curve at women of all tastes and ages, and she’d never been immune. Her mouth trembled with a soft exhalation.

“I have,” he murmured. “More than you think.”

“Only memories, Giovanni,” she replied quietly.

The songs they’d sung on clambakes, the trips down the Sussex River in a flat-bottomed boat, the lazy days building sand castles on Neck Beck. The laughter. The affection. Licking each other’s sticky fingers—and then the doughnut sugar off Giovanni’s lips…

Tina drew in a quick breath, her expression guilty because she’d become aware that she was being watched by a pair of melting eyes that gleamed like deep shaded water—black, still and fathomless—and the mark on his face had grown into an angry red. His expression chilled her to the bone.

“Done all the checking you’re going to do?” he murmured sardonically. “Have I changed so much?”

She shrugged and pretended that was what she was still doing, quite surprised at his sophistication and casually elegant clothes. Yet in the rawness of his wicked eyes lay hints of that exciting rough edge of danger, which also touched his carnal mouth and made her think carnal thoughts.

“Little change,” she said huskily. “You still have the arrogance to imagine women will come whenever you call.” Her head lifted in defiance. “Let me go, or I’m going to scream.”

His eyes narrowed. The steady pull of his hand brought her close enough to feel his hot breath flaming her hot skin. His finger had delicately scooped up a bead of sweat from her forehead and transferred it to his tongue before she could blink. But the effect devastated her; all the sensual pleasures they’d enjoyed had turned her into a voluptuary, and that one small gesture filled her body with a terrible ache. He smiled with triumph when she remained mute, nursing her desolation.

“I need five minutes of your time,” he said, his black eyes unreadable. “Nothing more. Yet.”

Five minutes. She could survive that and wipe him from her life again. “What do you want?” she demanded shortly.

The extravagant mouth eased into a cynical smile. “You left these behind just now. They’re yours. Multiply them by ten,” he drawled, “and you get thirty pieces of silver.”

And before she knew what he intended, he’d reached out and pulled forward the neck of her thin T-shirt with a disdainful thumb and forefinger, audaciously dumping the three dimes into the gap. They lay stuck to her sweating breasts and stomach, dust and dirt and bits of clamshell and all.

“You brute!” she gasped in red-faced outrage as he calmly dusted off his hands and wiped them on an immaculate navy silk handkerchief. “You’ve made me feel dirty inside!”

The corners of his mouth swooped downward in scorn and he tucked the handkerchief back in his jacket pocket. “But, Tina,” he demurred, “I thought you were already dirty inside.”

She winced. “I’m clean scrubbed,” she said tightly, easing her top from the waistband of her shorts and letting the coins fall to the ground. Then she concentrated on trying to dislodge the bits from her stomach by rubbing vigorously—till she realized from the breathless silence, and then his frowning stare, what the movement was doing to her unsupported breasts.

“You look pretty pure,” he conceded laconically. “But there’s no honor or loyalty in there.” His scornful finger stabbed the air, pointing at her heart. “And when you drop the demure act, we get the truth. A woman driven by sex who’s only too ready to launch into a display of erotic originality.”

Tina was momentarily lost for words. Slowly her expressive eyes widened, their color first pale, then becoming almost navy as her emotions changed from shock to shame and then to outrage.

“Hypocrite!” she said bitterly. “I thought that we had a loving relationship and that our lovemaking was the natural consequence of our affection. I wasn’t ashamed of sharing my body with you—then. I am deeply shamed by it now!” she said shakily. “I trusted you with my most precious secrets…and you tricked me! All my life I’ll resent you for taking my innocence and betraying it when it had been so gladly, so devotedly given as a gift for the man I loved!”

“Do you hold me solely responsible for your seduction?” he drawled.

Tina lowered her head. She blamed herself for trusting him. “I—I was innocent and I didn’t know I was…”

“Getting me beyond the point of no return?” he suggested. “So was I to blame for finding you irresistible, or were you to blame for not realizing how naive and provocative your behavior was to a teenager with Sicilian blood?”

“We were both to blame,” she said quietly.

“Progress at last,” he mocked. “There’s always shared blame, Tina. Remember that. Hold it in your beautiful head and think about it. And remember we were in love,” he said softly, as though remembering with pleasure. ”Love.”

Heat scoured through her, head to toe, making her skin prickle. Shaken by the warmth in his voice, the lyrical indolence that cruelly brought back the soft nights beneath the stars and the moonlight gleaming on their naked skin, she let her thick black lashes hide the desolate expression in her eyes. If only she’d never let him arouse her to that fateful point of no return! It had been such a corny error to make after hearing the magic words, I love you. He loved himself. Sex. Her teeth snagged at her lip, stilling its tremble.

“Take the coins,” he said tightly. “They represent your betrayal,” he said, slivers of steel behind each carefully enunciated word.

She winced. “What did you want me to do in court? Stay silent? Perjure myself?” she asked, her voice husky with emotion, because she’d considered those options but obeyed her conscience.

“I wanted you to believe me,” he replied quietly.

“It wasn’t possible!” she cried irritably. “I know what I saw. Please, Gio. Don’t let’s go over it again. It was bad enough the first time. What benefit is there in raking up the past and accusing one another? Let it be!” she pleaded.

“I can’t.” He seemed unaware that his hands were lightly sweeping up and down her bare arms. His eyes impaled hers, blazing a message she didn’t understand. “I wish I could walk away right now,” he said huskily. “But the memories have drawn me back, and I can’t escape them any longer.”

Nor could she. All she could think of right now was what it would be like to be in his embrace again, clasped to the big curves of his muscular body. She felt a flash of fire deep within her slumbering core, and she tensed, her hands curling like claws to stop her maverick fingers from humiliating her by touching him. He had to go. Now, before she said or did something she’d regret for the rest of her life. She had regrets enough.

“You must leave town,” she said flatly. “Or…”

“Or what?” he murmured. “You’ll call the police and claim I harassed you?”

“I don’t want to, Gio. But push me and I might,” she muttered.

“I’d be arrested.”

Her head tipped high. “Not if you left,” she pointed out.

“You’d get me into trouble again just because you can’t cope with your own sexual response to me?” he asked in clipped tones. “Like the last time?”

He showed no shame, no guilt, no recognition that he’d been in the wrong. Tina felt the color in her face drain away, the beat of her pulse ticking like a time bomb.

“The evidence was overwhelming,” she rasped. “You drove your car on the night of the accident. You kept denying it and you’re still stubbornly denying it, but I saw you and so did dozens of others, and there is no doubt in my mind that you drove the car that…that…” She choked, but forced herself to say it, however much it hurt. “That killed my sister—and her baby!” she finished hoarsely.

And she felt her heart jerk in pain, remembering the last time she’d seen her sister, Sue, and her baby, Michael, alive—she and Sue splattered with apple-and-banana puree, laughing fondly at little Mikey’s determined attempts to feed himself. A sob rose in her throat, choking her, and she gritted her teeth to hold back the threatening tears.

Gio’s lips had whitened in anger. “How could you believe that? I’ll never understand….” he said, shaking his head.

“Beth said—” she began miserably.

“Didn’t it matter what I had to say?” he asked roughly. “Wasn’t I owed any loyalty? I was your lover. You were supposed to be in love with me and I deserved a hearing. You gave me none! How do you think I felt when you abandoned me?”

“I’m asking you for the last time. Leave me in peace!” she moaned.

“Peace? Il quieto vivere? I wish to God I had peace in my life! If only you had believed me, I could have survived anything!” he said bitterly. “But no, you blanked out everything we’d been to one another, all knowledge of my feelings about honor and life and women, and descended into behaving like a petulant bitch who’s been denied the dog she wants!”

She snatched breath from somewhere, her huge eyes dark with pain. Giovanni and Beth. Her lover and her best friend. That had been hard enough to take, seeing them together that night. Worse was seeing the two smashed cars and knowing that each contained someone she loved.

She put her hands over her ears, wishing she could shut out forever the sound of Beth screaming that awful night of the accident, hating the memory of the white-faced Giovanni shaking Beth violently and snarling at her to shut up before he reversed his car away from Sue’s.

He had changed. There was no gentleness in him at all now. And she shuddered, wondering what two years in prison could do to an eighteen-year-old who’d loved his family and life with a wonderful zest and optimism. Every Christmas, each New Year, each Thanksgiving that she’d celebrated with her grandfather and Adriana, she’d wondered how Giovanni was coping, because he was so alone and no one was visiting him. Tears welled up to wash the blue eyes and she turned her head away.

“Prison…prison has brutalized you….”

Her voice trailed away, choked by relentless emotions, and then his fingers were drawing her chin back, tilting it up so she was forced to meet his unreadable eyes. Emotions were taking their toll on him, too, perhaps the memories of the dark days in jail, and she winced in heartfelt sympathy. It was misplaced.

“You brutalized me,” he accused harshly. A thumb scooped the tears from her cheeks without tenderness. And the sickness threatened to overwhelm her. Hastily she brought her hand to her mouth and swallowed back the hard lump in her throat. Giovanni’s breath hissed in through his teeth, his merciless eyes flashing a spine-chilling warning that rooted her to the spot. “So you think you’re suffering!” he mocked. “You don’t even know you’re born! But you will soon.”

And she saw the raw anger in him, the sense of injustice he bore her as though he’d been brooding for all the intervening years and planning revenge. Nervously she looked around, hoping to catch the eye of a passerby and evade Giovanni, but the street was empty. In any case, she knew her only hope was to make him go. If he stayed for any length of time, even if there was a restraining order on him, he’d find out about Adriana.

Her heart lurched with sheer horror at the prospect. She had to shield Adriana from Giovanni, or he’d move heaven and earth to take her away. And the bewildered Adriana would scream and cry and he wouldn’t give a damn.

A sense of tender protectiveness engulfed her at the horrible scenario. It must never happen. She’d make sure Giovanni left. Now.

Her head snapped up, her mouth tight with determination. “You’re crazy to come here!” she said coldly. “You’ll be recognized at any moment! Given half a chance, folks here’ll tar and feather you!”

“And you?” he said, in a sinister tone.

“I’d be selling the brushes,” she said curtly. “You really don’t appreciate how strongly some folks feel. They have long memories.”

“So do I,” he said quietly, his eyes raking her body. And in the wake of his appraisal there came a sudden heat that radiated over her skin and made her suck in a breath sharply. “Memories that make me desire…action.”

“Like what?” she asked huskily, and foolishly, before she knew it, she’d responded to the sudden dryness of her lips by licking them. She scowled, hoping to cover up her giveaway reaction.

Giovanni smiled faintly but didn’t answer the question. “You really think there’s still bad feelings in Eternity about me?” he asked casually. “Even after all this time?”

“I know there is,” she said in a low tone. Go! She pleaded with her eyes. Go and leave us all alone!

Unperturbed, he shifted his weight against the low parapet of the bridge and folded his arms confidently. “Bad feeling,” he mused. “That’s awkward.”

“Why?” she asked warily.

“Because I’m coming back to live here,” he replied with a pleasant smile, and walked off in the direction of her apartment while she stood staring at his retreating back in horror.

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS A DREAM. A nightmare. But Tina saw the tall resolute figure in the cool cream suit turn to give her a mockingly seductive smile, and she knew from the hot spilling of hormones into her bloodstream that this was cold reality.

She could ignore the come-on and be safe. Walk away, get on with her day. Her finger slicked over the perspiration on her upper lip as she dismissed that choice.

Adriana’s welfare came first. The last thing she wanted was for Giovanni to find out that she and her grandfather weren’t alone anymore. Tina’s heart thudded in alarm. If he was insensitive enough to hang around, he’d hear everything there was to know.

Adriana needed stability more than anything. Tina hoped she’d provided that. Love and attention, laughter and understanding had filled the small apartment, and she and her grandfather were devoted to Adriana. Without her, their lives would be less full, less rewarding. Tina let her eyes close, dreading the thought of losing her. They were family. Giovanni was an outsider, however closely he might be bound by blood to Adriana.

If he should assert his rights and demand access—or even custody—it would be unbearable. The days would be too empty. They’d gotten into the habit of washing one another’s hair, curling up on the sofa with their eyes glued to some weepie on TV and trying out new recipes together.

What would Giovanni make of the trivial things that gave Adriana such pride? That neatly sewn apron, the final pom-pom on the knitted hat, the poem learned by heart…. She knew what milestones they were. Gio didn’t. And Adriana would be hurt by his lack of praise and bewildered at being torn from her familiar, much-loved surroundings and the safe rituals.

Tina thought of her parents, devoting themselves to their teaching jobs in Puerto Rico, and how badly she missed her mother. Adriana had helped to fill that need for another female in the house who was close to her heart, someone to receive the huge amounts of love she needed to give to others.

But stupidly she’d forgotten Gio’s rights. When she’d committed herself so completely to caring for Adriana, it had never crossed her mind that he’d come back to Eternity.

Her worried eyes focused on his striding figure. He was an inveterate liar. Perhaps his threat that he was intending to live in the town had been spite and nothing else. For Adriana, for her own peace of mind, she must make every effort to make sure he left Eternity before he talked to anyone.

Her body jerked into motion and she began to run, stumbling at first because her legs seemed to have lost their strength, and then finally catching up with him in a burst of fury and panic.

“Giovanni!” she panted, jogging along beside him while his long strides covered the ground rapidly. “You’re bluffing, aren’t you?” she asked anxiously. “You mean to drive off—”

“No.” He glanced down at her briefly, a flash of triumph in his eyes. “I’m not.”

“But why come here, of all places in the world?” she asked, a sense of dread settling in the pit of her stomach.

“For one thing,” he said evenly, “I mean to persuade the folks around here to give me a different kind of character from the one you and your dear friend Beth landed me with.”

“Beth?” She felt relieved that Beth was safely out of harm’s way in Boston. But she was her ex-friend now. Giovanni’s two-timing and the trial had killed their lifelong friendship stone dead. “How do you intend arranging that?” she asked with a worried frown.

“I have a very carefully thought-out plan,” he said smoothly. “Time hangs heavily in jail. One has to do something to keep amused.”

She flushed. “Gio, this is unrealistic. You can’t come here to settle down! You’re behaving like…like a cartoon character!”

“Well, this is my fantasy and I’m making it happen,” Giovanni said in mild sarcasm.

“Don’t you have any concern for what I’d feel seeing you walking the streets? Or Grandpa?” she asked angrily.

“It’s worth a little pain to get what you want,” he said quietly.

Her shoulders drooped, her body slumping in distress, and she fell back a step or two. If he meant he wanted to give her pain, he was succeeding already. Grandpa would be hurt when he saw Gio, the man who’d killed his elder granddaughter and great-grandchild, driving around Eternity and showing no contrition, no sensitivity to their feelings. Then Adriana would be flung into the maelstrom…

Seeing Giovanni had forged on ahead again, Tina hurried to catch up. “If you stay,” she reasoned, “you’ll upset us—and Beth’s parents, everyone who saw you that night, everyone who knew and loved Sue,” she said passionately.

“Possibly.”

Her mouth crimped with anger at his callousness. “Haven’t you the decency to stay away? Didn’t you learn anything from what happened?” she asked sadly.

“Yes,” he replied. “Never to trust women.” His beautiful, rich chocolate eyes were almost black with contempt, the long lush lashes spiking at her accusingly. “If you want to know what else I learned in prison, we’ll need several hours and you’ll need a strong stomach.”

“Oh, Gio!” she whispered brokenly. She’d have done anything not to be driving him away. In her heart of hearts, if he’d been different—penitent, changed, less vengeful—she would have loved to see him with Adriana and would have gladly prepared the ground for them to accept one another. The wounds would have healed. But sadly, it seemed he was no fit guardian for her precious Adriana. “Gio, if only you’d come back to apologize…” she began wistfully. And hesitated. Perhaps there was hope. “You could. It would make everything quite different.”

“I have nothing to apologize for,” he said flatly. “You know, if you keep running along beside me, people will think you’re chasing me. Amazing how people can get the wrong impression from an isolated event they witness, isn’t it?”

Tina flushed at the implication, the quickly rising color making her feel even hotter than before. She eased her T-shirt from her sticky body under Giovanni’s watchful dark eyes, then quickly smoothed her damp palms on her shorts and looked ahead as they strode on. Worryingly, a handful of students were still hanging around the derelict lot, discussing the car.

“I did see you in the driver’s seat that night of the accident,” she insisted. “You did hit my sister’s car during a row with Beth, and all I want now is to watch you drive away before you hurt the people I love again!” she said miserably.

“Save your breath, Tina. You won’t dissuade me from my intentions.”

Suddenly he stopped, allowing his gaze to roam over her. And her soft-fringed eyes mistakenly lingered on him. Lisa had been right about the body language. He spoke fluent sensuality from every pore. Plenty of guys had spectacular muscles that left her cold, but Giovanni knew how to stand and move and project his masculinity and make a woman feel feminine and desirable and hungry. His sex appeal was earthy and direct and irresistible because he adored women and all that came with them.

Gorgeous, she thought hazily. He was absolutely gorgeous and totally evil. Incredibly she caught herself wishing she didn’t look so scruffy and—

“Were you really so beautiful before?” he mused as if genuinely unsure. Her eyes must have shown the leap of surprised pleasure that had taken her unawares, because his mouth curved into a beguiling smile. “Tempting. Tantalizing. Mysterious.”

“M-mysterious?” she stuttered, unable to help herself from asking.

“Then there’s the distortion of time.”

“Time?” She could have kicked herself for falling into his trap. The say-something-kooky trap, to get a woman interested. “Look—”

“It makes fools of us all,” he said softly. “Because I can’t recall that your eyes were such a deep blue. I could swear they’re almost as clear as the lagoon. You know the way it sparkles and invites you to plunge right in.” He gave her a disarming smile, but the words were enough to shake her.

Tina tried to muster some reply, a sharp crack perhaps, but his gaze had drifted to her mouth and she hesitated, wondering what lavish claims he’d make, all thought of coaxing him back to his car temporarily forgotten while she waited, quivering in anticipation.

“I remember that softness,” he said huskily, his eyes caressing. “Know what they always reminded me of?” She shook her head wordlessly. “That silky texture of a petal. Poppies in the meadows,” he mused with such a drowsy murmur that her mouth flowered into an even lusher pout of scarlet invitation. He smiled, breathing out hard so that his breath filtered tantalizingly over her lips till they parted. “I’m afraid that kissing you would tempt a man to linger too long for his safety.”

Aware she was on the brink of sinking in shameful delight beneath the blatant flattery, she forced herself to remember that he was the last person she should allow to compliment her, a man convicted of manslaughter. Ex-convict. Ex-lover. Ex! Ex! she told herself fiercely.

“I said it wasn’t healthy for you around here,” she agreed huskily.

His mouth twitched. “You misunderstand. I’m staying. I’ve gone through too much to be scared off by townspeople,” he said dismissively. He gave an enigmatic smile. “I have schemes to protect me from being tarred and feathered. Be patient. You’ll learn about them soon enough.”

Leaving her openmouthed in dismay, he made straight for her apartment door at the side of the garage, and before she could find her brains he’d put his finger on the bell and was keeping it there.

Tina slipped quickly through the picket gate to his side. “What are you doing?” she asked warily.

“Waiting.”

She closed her eyes and offered up a brief thanks for deliverance. With her grandfather and Adriana on their way to Rockport—probably planning on exploring the delights of rock pools and the gift shops at Bearskin Neck, she thought fondly—she’d been saved an ugly scene.

“No one’s in,” she said.

“I’ll hang around.”

Alarmed, she ruthlessly calmed her nerves, wondering what he meant to do. Judging by the set of that smooth jaw, he had a purpose in mind and was going to see it through once his car was mended. But he was a mechanic! she thought, kicking herself for not remembering.