‘Thank you,’ Cordelia said politely, while, inside, she raged with the force of an erupting volcano at what she could only interpret as his smug contempt for everything she stood for. How on earth could she not have seen through him? ‘I’ll make sure I tell him.’
‘Perhaps,’ Luca murmured, watching the satiny softness of her skin, the tinge of colour spreading across her high cheekbones. He had to stop himself from staring. Worse, from closing his eyes and remembering the supple strength of her beautiful body, the fullness of her breasts, the smoothness of her inner thighs. ‘Perhaps...’ he dragged his thoughts away from those dangerous zones and back to the matter at hand, which was the necessity to show her to the door ‘...you really haven’t come here because you’d sussed who I was and what I’m worth. It beggars belief that you would have taken this length of time to make your move, but were I to give you the benefit of the doubt...’ he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair, annoyed because for once in his life the logical way forward with the conversation was not one he felt comfortable taking ‘...then the outcome would be the same. Cara, we had our moment in time, and believe me when I tell you that I will cherish it for ever, but it was no more than a moment in time.’
His words slithered through her like shards of glass, destroying every rose-hued memory. She felt sick. The ground seemed to be spinning under her feet and she took a few deep breaths and balled her hands into fists.
‘My life here is prescribed,’ he said softly. ‘More than I can begin to explain. These vineyards...’ he signalled to the window, beyond which lay all those rows of carefully tended vines, heavy with grapes ‘...they are my legacy and I can no more escape my destiny than you can escape yours.’
‘My destiny to remain where I was born? You mean that destiny?’ Of course, that was what he meant. She’d told him all the ins and outs of her life, had lain in his arms and mused on all those doors that had been solidly closed for her. She’d laid bare her heartfelt wish that she could see the world, see what was out there. God, was it any wonder that, with her having shown up on his doorstep, he’d instantly jumped to all sorts of conclusions?
‘You have always wanted to see the world. If you have not researched me, if you truly arrived here thinking that you would find the impoverished manual worker you imagined me to be, then you have my most sincere apologies. It would make sense that you might find yourself tempted to cross the ocean to make contact with someone who might represent an escape from your life, which is as prescribed as my own...’
Cordelia tilted her head to one side. She was curious to see how far he would run with this particular theory. It wasn’t quite as offensive as theory number one, but nevertheless it still felt like a kick in the teeth after all the things they had shared.
After all the things, she mentally amended, she had shared. He’d just sat back and done the taking. And, of course, the lying.
‘But, as I said, for very many reasons, what we have is no more and cannot be resurrected.’ He looked down, lush dark lashes concealing his expression.
‘Of course,’ Cordelia expanded coolly, ‘as you mentioned, I don’t belong here.’
‘Cordelia, it’s slightly more than that.’
‘What more could there be, Luca?’ She paused and looked at him in stony silence. ‘If I’m not a gold-digger, then I’m a sad, love-struck ex who was so desperate to live a little that she decided to show up, unannounced, on the doorstep of a guy who walked away from her without a backward glance. I don’t know which is worse. Oh, no. I do know. They’re both bad.’
‘I am destined to marry a woman I have known from my childhood.’ Why bother going round the houses? He watched as the colour drained away from her face.
‘You’re engaged?’
‘Not as such.’ Luca flushed darkly and looked away from her accusing gaze.
‘What does that mean?’
‘It is an understanding.’
‘I see.’ It was a mistake coming after all. He was engaged to be married. The outcome couldn’t have been worse for her. To be faced with a baby bombshell would be his ugliest nightmare and she couldn’t do that to him. The giddiness was growing and the spinning in her head made her want to close her eyes but she gritted her teeth together and remained present.
‘I don’t think you do.’
‘You’re going to be married and yet you led me to believe...you let me think...’
‘No rings were exchanged. You misunderstand.’
‘I don’t believe I do.’
‘It was always an understanding between families. A marriage of convenience. Isabella belongs to a dynasty like mine and the union would secure an estate of unimaginable wealth.’
‘Right. What could be better than that? Who, in their right mind, would refuse unimaginable wealth?’
Luca shook his head in frustration. ‘You’re not getting it. I...when you met me, I was in a weird place. I knew that the time for this marriage was fast approaching but I was reluctant to commit to that final step. I needed to think.’ He pressed the pads of his thumbs against his eyes and then looked at her wearily.
For a second, just a second, Cordelia could sense his confusion and she felt a tug of sympathy for a man trapped by his elevated birth, more trapped than she had ever been, then her sympathy vanished and she hardened her jaw because she was in an impossible situation and he had lied to her.
‘And do you...love her?’
‘Love? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m just asking a question.’
‘Love
