Trapped By Vialli's Vows
‘Cool. Can we have pizza for dinner?’
‘I’m glad your appetite hasn’t been affected,’ Leandro said drily.
‘Maman is on holiday in Barbados, with my real father, so Monsieur Bergier phoned you. I knew you would come.’ Henry’s expression clouded. ‘I wish you were my papa, Leo.’
The knife in Leandro’s heart cut deeper. ‘We’ll always be best buddies. That will never change.’ He rearranged Henry’s pillows. ‘The painkillers the nurse gave you should start working soon, so try and sleep while I go and phone your mother. I expect she is worried about you.’
‘I don’t suppose she is,’ Henry said matter-of-factly. ‘She and Dominic will be having too much of a nice time on holiday to think about me.’
‘That’s not true.’ Leandro gritted his teeth and forced himself to go on. ‘Your mother and...and father care about you very much.’
He stepped out of the room and swore savagely beneath his breath. Nicole had told Henry six months ago that Dominic Chilton was his real father, but instead of choosing to spend time with the boy, as a family, she and her lover had gone on a month’s holiday to the Caribbean.
Leandro hated feeling helpless, but he could not protect Henry from his mother’s casual approach to parenting. He remembered how rejected he had felt when he was a boy and his mother had failed to turn up when she was supposed to visit him—either because she had forgotten or because she was too busy. Disappointment and hurt that neither of his parents had much time for him had been constant features of his childhood, and his concern that Henry felt the same sense of abandonment meant that Leandro had to bite back his anger when he spoke to his ex-wife.
‘There’s no reason for me to rush back to Paris if Henry’s injury is not serious,’ Nicole stated. ‘Dominic and I only arrived in St Lucia a few days ago, and it’s the first chance I’ve had to relax and enjoy a break.’
It was on the tip of Leandro’s tongue to ask Nicole what she needed a break from, when her life consisted of shopping and beauty salon appointments. But he was bitterly aware that he had no legal rights to Henry, and that if he antagonised Nicole she could prevent him from maintaining a relationship with the boy. She would not care that Henry had declared that he wanted to stay in regular contact with ‘Uncle Leandro’.
The hatred Leandro had felt for his ex-wife when he had discovered how she had deceived him had turned to contempt, and he only half listened to her whining that Dominic was facing demands for a huge divorce settlement from his wife. His thoughts strayed to Marnie, and he was struck by the contrasting characters of his ex-wife and his current mistress.
He had missed Marnie while he’d been in New York—and not only in bed, he admitted. Logically he knew he should not allow their affair to continue for much longer. A year was at least six months too long to keep a mistress. An alarm bell sounded in his mind as he acknowledged that he did not want to end the affair just yet, but he assured himself that it was because the sex was good.
Now that he was no longer so worried about Henry he was able to relax, and thinking of the passionate sex life he enjoyed with Marnie evoked an ache in his groin. He felt bad that he had hurt her feelings at the party. Would it compromise the rules he had set for their affair if he gave her a token to show that he valued her being his mistress? He frowned as he tried to think of a suitable gift. Jewellery was too emotive, and he did not want her to think that his emotions were at all involved, but flowers were too impersonal. And he usually sent flowers to his mistresses when he dumped them.
It would be useful if he knew of any hobby Marnie enjoyed, but he had no idea what she did in her spare time when she wasn’t working as a cocktail waitress. She was just there in the background of his life, always cheerful and smiling as she handed him a martini when he arrived home from work, and always as eager for sex as he was at any time of the day or night. She was the perfect mistress, Leandro acknowledged.
He recalled that earlier in the summer they had spent a week cruising the French Riviera on his yacht, and one starlit night after they had made love outside on the deck Marnie had said that she liked looking at the stars. Problem solved—he would buy her a book about stargazing. A book was the sort of gift that showed he had thought about her, but not too much.
Satisfied with his reasoning, Leandro zoned back to his ex-wife’s conversation. He was instantly bored but, although it irked him, he had to be diplomatic with Nicole, and it was a few more minutes before he was able to end the call and return to Henry’s bedside.
CHAPTER THREE
‘IT’S SUCH A shame Leandro couldn’t come to the wedding. Your uncle and I were looking forward to meeting him.’ Marnie’s aunt, Susan, who was her mother’s sister, smiled at her across the buffet table at the wedding reception. ‘You said he had to dash off to Paris unexpectedly?’
‘Yes, his friend was hurt in an accident but I don’t know any more details,’ Marnie murmured. She had hoped that Leandro would phone her, but she hadn’t heard from him since he left London two days ago.
‘Perhaps you and Leandro will visit when he has a free weekend?’ Aunt Susan suggested. ‘I’m serious about wanting to meet him. You are my sister’s only daughter, and for Sheena’s sake I’d like to be sure that you’ve met a decent man who will look after you.’
‘I don’t need anyone to look after me. I had to take care of myself after Dad left, and Mum was...’ Marnie grimaced. ‘Well, you know how she was. Sometimes her depression was so bad that she didn’t get out of bed for days on end.’
Her aunt sighed. ‘I wish I’d known the extent of Sheena’s mental health problems. I think she must have been devastated when she found out your father was having an affair.’
‘Mum warned the twins and me that Social Services would take us into care if we told anyone about her depression.’
‘Things must have been worse for Sheena after the accident. Poor Luke...twenty was far too young to die,’ Aunt Susan murmured. ‘Have you heard from Jake?’
Marnie shook her head. ‘I last saw him about five years ago. He admitted he was taking drugs because he couldn’t cope with losing Luke. He asked me for money but I didn’t have any. It was a struggle to manage on Mum’s welfare allowance and the small amount I earned from my part-time job while I studied for my A levels.’
Thinking about her brothers was painful, and tears stung Marnie’s eyes. Growing up, she had adored the twins, who were two years older than her. They had been a happy family—especially when her father had been at home from his job as a long-distance lorry driver. But he had struggled to cope with her mother’s depressive illness, and when Marnie was eleven her dad had abandoned his wife and children and stopped paying the mortgage on the family’s comfortable house.
With their mother unable to work because of her depression, she, Marnie and her brothers had been moved to the estate and the twins had been drawn to the gang culture that existed there until Luke had been killed. It had been a tragic accident: he’d been thrown from the back of a motorbike that Jake had been riding.
Marnie pulled her mind back to the present as a waiter brought round a tray of sparkling wine to toast the newlyweds.
‘Don’t you want a glass of bubbly?’ asked her uncle, Brian, when she opted for fruit juice.
‘Juice is more refreshing in this heat. I seem to have gone off alcohol at the moment.’
‘You haven’t gone off cheese,’ her uncle noted, looking at the pile of cheese and crackers on her plate. ‘You’re not pregnant, are you?’ he teased. ‘I remember Susan ate pounds of cheddar when she was expecting Gemma.’
‘Brian!’ Aunt Susan glared at her husband.
Marnie nibbled on a cheese straw. Thankfully an unplanned pregnancy was something she did not have to worry about. After years of suffering from debilitating menstrual migraines her doctor had prescribed her a type of continuous contraceptive pill which prevented her from having periods and had ended her excruciating monthly headaches.
The wedding buffet was followed by a disco in the evening, before Gemma and her new husband, Andrew, left for their honeymoon, and the guests cheered as the newlyweds drove off, trailing tin cans that someone had attached to the car’s exhaust pipe.
It had been a happy family occasion, Marnie mused the following afternoon, when she boarded a train back to London. The kind of wedding she would like if she ever got married—although none of her immediate family would be at her wedding because her mother and one of her brothers were dead, and she had lost contact with her father and her other brother.
Besides which, Leandro never spoke of the future, and the subject of marriage had never been mentioned. Was it wrong of her to want to have some indication of where their relationship was heading?
She finished reading the magazine she’d bought for the train journey and picked up a newspaper that had been left on another seat. The tabloid was full of celebrity gossip, and Marnie’s heart gave a sickening lurch when she flicked through the pages and saw a photo of Leandro and a stunning brunette.
She recognised the woman as Stephanie Sedoyene, a famous French model who was the current ‘face’ of an exclusive perfume brand. The paparazzi on both sides of the Channel stalked Miss Sedoyene relentlessly—which probably explained why she and Leandro did not look happy in the picture of them emerging from a restaurant in Paris.
Was this the Stephanie who had left a message on Leandro’s phone before he had rushed off to Paris to visit an injured friend? Marnie chewed her lip. Had the story about his friend being in hospital been a cover for his dinner date with this beautiful model? In the photo, Leandro had an arm around Stephanie’s shoulders, and something about their body language suggested they were comfortable with each other, as if they were old friends—or lovers.
Marnie ordered herself not to jump to conclusions. She would not listen to the voice in her head which taunted her, saying that Leandro was bound to find the beautiful model more attractive than a nothing-special, veering-towards-chubby waitress. But suspicion slid with the deadly menace of a poisonous snake into her mind. Maybe Leandro’s regular monthly trips to Paris were so that he could visit Stephanie Sedoyene.
She closed her eyes as she was bombarded with memories from her childhood, and she heard her mother’s shrill voice accusing her father. ‘Who is your tart, Ray? Don’t take me for a fool. I followed you when you said you were going to the pub on Friday night and I saw you and your blonde bitch going into a hotel together.’
The idea of questioning Leandro about why a photo of him with another woman was in the newspapers was too humiliating to contemplate. She couldn’t bear to sound possessive and obsessive like her mother had been. She quickly folded up the paper and put it back on the empty seat where she had found it.
But for the rest of the journey to London she could not erase the photo of Leandro and his beautiful companion from her mind, and she was deep in thought as she walked back to Eaton Square from the station.
‘Marnie?’
The voice was familiar, but it was a voice from the past that she’d wondered if she would ever hear again. She spun round and saw a man walking along the pavement towards her. For a few seconds she thought she was seeing a ghost.
‘Luke?’ She swallowed. Of course it wasn’t Luke. ‘Jake! I haven’t seen you for so long.’
Although it was five years since the accident, grief was still etched on Jake’s thin face and he looked much older than when Marnie had last seen him.
‘Where have you been for the past five years?’ she said softly.
‘I wish it was Luke here instead of me. As for where I’ve been...’ Jake shrugged. ‘Here and there, but mostly in hell.’ He glanced up at the elegant townhouse. ‘You seem to have done all right for yourself.’
‘It’s not my house. I live here with a...a friend.’
Marnie flushed, but her brother shrugged.
‘Hey, your life is your business, and as long as you’re happy that’s all that matters.’
‘I am happy,’ Marnie said truthfully. ‘Leandro is a great guy. I wish you could meet him, but he’s away at the moment. How did you know where to find me?’
‘I went back to the Silden Estate and found it had been demolished, but I remembered you had a job at a cocktail bar on the King’s Road so I went there. One of the waitresses gave me your phone number and address. I don’t have a phone, since mine broke, so I came to find you.’
Jake grimaced.
‘I’m sorry I haven’t been around, but... Well, the truth is that I spent some time in prison after I was charged with theft. I broke into houses and sold the items I stole to buy drugs. I was in a bad place in my head after Luke died—but that’s not an excuse and I’m not proud of what I did.’
‘Oh, Jake.’ Marnie reached out and grasped her brother’s hand. ‘I wish I’d been able to help.’
‘In a funny way going to prison helped me, because it was hell and I never want to go back inside. I’m sorting my life out and I no longer take drugs. Tomorrow I’m catching a train up to Scotland. I’ve been offered a job as a groundsman on a country estate near Loch Lomond, and I appreciate it that the owner, Lord Tannock, is giving me a chance.’
Jake looked down at Marnie’s fingers, entwined with his.
‘I never forgot about my little sister and I wanted to find you and make sure that you’re all right.’
The lump in her throat prevented Marnie from speaking, and instead she flung her arms around her brother’s neck and hugged him. ‘I’m so glad to see you. Do you have a place to stay before you leave for Scotland?’
Jake shook his head. ‘I spent all the money I had on a train ticket, but it’s a warm night and it won’t be the first time I’ve slept on a park bench.’
‘You must stay here tonight.’ It occurred to Marnie that she had never mentioned to Leandro that she had a brother, but she was sure he would not want Jake to spend the night on the streets. She called his number, wanting to check that it was okay for Jake to stay, but his phone was switched off—as it had been when she had tried to call him earlier. ‘I’ll try Leandro again later,’ she told Jake as she led him into the house.
Jake whistled as he took in the Italian white marble floor tiles in the hallway and glanced up at the magnificent crystal chandelier. ‘Wow, your boyfriend must be loaded. No wonder you’re happy with him.’
‘I love Leandro, and I’d love him just as much if he wasn’t wealthy.’
Marnie’s heart contracted as she acknowledged the depth of her feelings for Leandro. Admitting that she was in love with him made her feel vulnerable, because she had no idea how he felt about her.
She glanced at Jake and thought how difficult his life must have been since Luke had died. Grief was so hard to deal with. She had focused on her studies as a way of trying to forget the ache in her heart. It must have been even worse for Jake because he had lost his twin.
She longed to be able to help him, and an idea suddenly occurred to her. ‘Grandma’s pearls.’
‘Sorry...’ Jake looked puzzled. ‘I don’t follow you.’
‘When Grandma Alice died she left her jewellery to her daughters. Mum had Grandma’s pearl necklace and Aunt Susan was left a ruby ring. Mum didn’t make a will before she took the overdose.’ Marnie sighed. ‘I’ve often wondered if she meant to take her life or if it was a cry for help. But now the necklace belongs to Mum’s surviving children. I wore it recently to a party, but I want you to have it. I think it’s worth quite a bit, and if you sell it you’ll have some money to last until you get your first pay cheque at your new job.’
‘Marnie, you don’t have to give me the necklace,’ Jake protested.
But Marnie had already entered Leandro’s study and slid back a panel in the wall to reveal the safe. When she’d moved in with Leandro he had told her to put any valuable items she owned into the safe. The pearl necklace was the only piece of jewellery she possessed, and she had often wondered why her mother had refused to sell it when they had needed money.
She remembered the safe’s combination and it took her only a few seconds to open the door.
‘Do all those boxes contain jewellery?’ Jake asked, staring at the numerous velvet boxes stored within the safe.
Marnie nodded, busy searching for the box containing her grandmother’s pearls. ‘Here it is.’ She handed the box to Jake and reset the combination to lock the safe. ‘Now, I’m going to cook you dinner. You’re so thin—I bet you haven’t eaten a proper meal for ages.’
Throughout the evening she tried to call Leandro, but his phone was still switched off. The photograph she had seen in the newspaper of Leandro and Stephanie played on her mind, but she reminded herself that her mother’s obsessive love for her father had driven him into the arms of another woman.
As she undressed for bed she caught sight of her naked body in the mirror and vowed to go on a strict diet. It wasn’t just her breasts that had grown bigger as a result of her gaining a few extra pounds. Her hips and bottom looked rounder and—horror of horrors—her stomach was no longer flat but had a distinct curve.
Marnie glanced guiltily at the plate of cheese and crackers she’d planned on eating for a bedtime snack. She remembered what Uncle Brian had said about her aunt developing a craving for cheese during her pregnancy. But there was no way she could be pregnant, she assured herself. She just needed to work on her willpower. Leandro had always said he found her hourglass figure sexy, and she wished he was with her now to reassure her that her concerns about their relationship were groundless.
* * *
‘Marnie?’
The gravelly voice infiltrated Marnie’s dream and she opened her eyes, blinking in the bright sunlight streaming through the open curtains. ‘Leandro?’
‘You sound surprised to see me, cara. Didn’t you get my message that I was on my way home?’
‘No, I’ve been asleep.’
She glanced at the bedside clock and wondered why she was in bed at three-thirty in the afternoon, before the mist clouding her mind cleared and she remembered. Last night her brother had stayed at the house, but this morning when she had got up for work she’d discovered that Jake had left without saying goodbye.
Leandro threw his jacket carelessly onto a chair before he sat down on the edge of the bed. Marnie’s pulse quickened as she inhaled the familiar musk of his aftershave mixed with his unique male scent. She could see the shadow of his black chest hair through his white shirt, and the dark stubble on his jaw added to his raw sex appeal.
‘Why were you sleeping in the daytime? Are you ill?’
‘I fainted at work.’
She recalled that she’d felt nauseous while she had been serving coffee to some customers, and when she’d returned to the kitchen she’d had the weird sensation that the floor was rushing up to meet her and suck her down into a black hole.
‘The head chef thought I might be suffering from heatstroke. Maybe it’s a good thing that the weather is supposed to break and a storm is forecast.’
Leandro frowned. ‘I think you should see a doctor. It seems unlikely that the heat would cause you to faint. Maybe you have a vitamin deficiency.’
‘Nonsense, I’ve got the constitution of an ox.’
She was also becoming the size of an ox, Marnie thought dismally, conscious of Leandro’s gaze roaming over her body. One of the waiters at the cocktail bar had driven her home and she’d felt so tired that she’d taken off her dress and lain down on the bed wearing only her bra and knickers.
‘You’ve got colour in your cheeks,’ Leandro noted, watching a rosy blush spread across her face and neck and stain the upper slopes of her breasts. ‘But why are you wearing a bra that is at least two sizes too small? It’s no wonder you felt faint when your breathing is restricted.’
He reached behind her and unsnapped her bra. His grey eyes gleamed like molten silver as he stared at Marnie’s lush breasts, as inviting as firm, ripe peaches that he longed to taste.
Leandro traced his finger over the red line on her skin where her bra had cut into her flesh. ‘Buy some new underwear with the credit card I gave you. I enjoy seeing you wearing sexy lingerie, cara.’
‘I don’t expect you to pay for my clothes,’ Marnie muttered.
She was finding it hard to concentrate on their conversation when all she could think about was the insistent ache between her legs. She felt embarrassed that Leandro only had to look at her and she was on fire for him. Her nipples hardened and she drew a sharp breath of longing when he stroked his thumbs over the swollen tips.
Desire swept through her with the force of a tidal wave, consuming her and obliterating her uncertainty about the state of their relationship. It was more than two weeks since they had last made love and it seemed like a lifetime. She held her breath as he lowered his face closer to hers.
‘Do you really feel okay?’
There was genuine concern in his voice, but also a husky sensuality that made every nerve ending on Marnie’s body quiver.
‘I could get you something to eat. Are you hungry?’
‘Hungry for you.’ She gave up trying to fight her weakness and gave in to her yearning to touch him, to trace the slashing lines of his hard cheekbones and run her fingers through the springy softness of his hair. ‘Kiss me,’ she begged.
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