'Yes, I am,' she said. 'But if you’d told me about
your aid work in the first place, I wouldn’t have
needed to, would I?'
'Ah, I thought so. I’ve yet to meet any woman who
will genuinely admit that she could be to blame for
anything.'
'that’s the most ridiculous exaggeration I have
ever heard!' Jodie objected immediately. 'It’s like
saying that—'
'That You’re never going to trust another man because
one man has let you down?' Lorenzo suggested
silkily.
'No! that’s a personal decision I’ve made about
my own future. It doesn’t mean — and I have never
said — that all men can’t be trusted. Maybe you should
look more closely at why you think the way you do,
instead of making unfounded accusations against my
sex!' she told him recklessly.
'That was an apology?' Lorenzo said derisively.
She felt so tempted to tell him that she had changed
her mind, and he would have to find someone else to
help him to secure his wretched Castillo. But her determination
to salve her pride with the possession of
a husband to replace the one she had so humiliatingly
lost was stubbornly refusing to let her do so. She
would withstand whatever she had to in order to enjoy
the sweet satisfaction of seeing John and Louise’s expression
when she introduced them to her 'husband'.
She didn’t want revenge, or money — such negative
aspirations were empty and worthless — but she so
badly did want the ego-boosting experience of seeing
everyone’s faces when she turned up at the wedding
with Lorenzo.
With a handsome, multi-millionaire, titled husband
at her side, no one was going to pity her, or glance
at her leg when they thought she wasn’t looking, or
whisper about her, explaining who she was and what
had happened. Yes, it was shallow. Yes, it was foolish.
Yes, a part of her felt ashamed that she should
give in to such a need. But she was still going to do
it. And if it turned out that she ended up upstaging
the bride? Tough!
A small shiver of shocked awareness of her own
growing strength tingled over her skin. Two months
ago she had been so low she couldn’t even have contemplated
feeling like this. Who knew what she could
achieve once the wedding was behind her? She could
begin a whole new life, a life doing the things she
wanted to do, without having to worry about pleasing
any man ever again.
'What are you hoping for? That he will turn round
at the altar, see you and leave her?' Lorenzo demanded
harshly.
Jodie stared at him and blurted out, 'How did you
know I was thinking about John?'
'There is a certain look in your eyes when you do
so.'
'Well, You’re wrong,' she fibbed. 'I wasn’t thinking
about him. I was thinking about what I am going to
do in the future. I wasn’t well enough to go to university,
or to train to do anything after the accident,
but there is nothing to stop me doing so now.'
'Most admirable,' Lorenzo said, making it clear
that he found her mission statement for the future anything
but. 'Now, if we Don’t go in soon Maria will
be coming to warn us that it is time for dinner. I hope
you like pasta, because that is all you are likely to
get. Her cooking is of the plain and simple variety,
but at least it might add some flesh to your bones.'
Perhaps she was a little bit on the thin side — emotional
pain did that to a person, after all — but there
was no need for him to keep on pointing it out to her,
was there? Jodie decided crossly as she turned away
from him.
'Be careful,' he warned her sharply. 'There is a step
here—'
But it was already too late, and Jodie gave a small
cry as she missed it in the darkness and stumbled
forward.
Powerful hands seized her waist, and, as he had
done before, Lorenzo caught her before she hit the
ground, lifting her back onto her feet and steadying
her there.
When was it that her instincts registered and recognised
the subtle shift in the way those hands were
holding her? The movement that took their hold on
her body and turned it from the impersonal dig of his
fingers into the curve of her waist as he supported her
into an explorative search for the femaleness of that
curve? Was it really after it was too late to check or
reject his instinctive male reaction? Had he really
drawn her closer? Or had she been the one to move
towards him?
In the shadowy darkness it was impossible for her
to see his face, or to judge which of them had promoted
the body-to-body intimacy they were now
sharing, and she hoped it was equally impossible for
him to read her expression.
He bent his head towards her and took her mouth
