Untouched Until Marriage. Chantelle Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ throes and he hadn’t denied it. When they had separated he’d offered her the Manhattan apartment, believing that she would not make a claim on the villa.

      How wrong he had been, Raul thought bitterly. Dana had proved to be an avaricious gold-digger. Their divorce had made legal history when she had won a record alimony settlement after only a year of marriage. But although it had cost him a fortune he had at least forced her to relinquish her claim on the Villa Giulietta, and the experience had taught him that marriage was a fool’s game which he had no intention of ever repeating.

      As the car drew to a halt, a woman appeared at the top of the steps and watched them alight. Libby guessed her to be in her mid-sixties; whippet-thin and elegantly dressed, she did not move forward to greet them but waited imperiously for Raul to come to her.

      ‘My aunt Carmina,’ Raul murmured to Libby, before he strode up the steps.

      ‘Zia Carmina.’ He stifled his impatience as he took his aunt’s hand and lifted it briefly to his lips. She was his mother’s sister, he reminded himself. His father had been fond of her and had often invited her to stay at the villa. Raul knew that Carmina had had been deeply upset by Pietro’s death, but she seemed determined to ignore his gentle hints that she might like to return to her house in Rome, and his sympathy was wearing thin.

      Gino had woken when the car had stopped moving, and he gave Libby a gummy grin when she lifted him out of his seat. Feeling overawed by the magnificent house, she hovered uncertainly at the bottom of the steps, her heart sinking when Raul’s aunt subjected her to a haughty stare that grew gradually more incredulous.

      ‘Who is this woman?’ Carmina demanded in Italian.

      Raul gestured for Libby to join him. ‘This is Elizabeth Maynard,’ he replied in English. ‘She was my father’s…’ He hesitated, conscious of the scandalised expression on Zia Carmina’s face as she raked her eyes over Libby’s wild red curls and garishly coloured clothes. For some reason he was reluctant to refer to Libby as Pietro’s mistress, but his aunt had transferred her gaze to Gino and she threw up her hands in a gesture of disgust.

      ‘This girl was my brother-in-law’s mistress?’ Again she spoke in voluble Italian. ‘She looks so common. What was Pietro thinking? He must have been out of his mind to have invited his puttana to live at the Villa Giulietta.’

      Raul had felt exactly the same sentiments, but now he felt a shaft of annoyance with his aunt for her rudeness, and was glad that Libby could not understand what she had said. ‘My father was entitled to do as he wished, and he made it clear that he wished for his…companion and his infant son to live here,’ he reminded the older woman coolly.

      ‘Pah!’ Carmina made no attempt to greet Libby, and after giving her another disdainful glance swung round and swept back into the house.

      Libby watched her go and hugged Gino to her, startled to find that her hands were shaking. She hadn’t followed any of the lightning-fast exchange between Raul and his aunt, but the older woman’s sentiments had been plain. Puttana probably meant something vile, she brooded as she recalled how Carina had practically spat the word at her.

      Once again she questioned her sanity in pretending to be Gino’s mother. Perhaps the Carducci family would be more prepared to accept her if she explained that Pietro had not been her sugar-daddy? But if Raul learned that she had no right to remain at the villa he might order his chauffeur to drive her straight back to the airport.

      He could not physically snatch Gino from her, she assured herself, automatically tightening her hold on the baby. But this was a man who travelled by private jet and lived in a villa that looked like a palace. His wealth and the power he commanded were undeniable, and she was sure that if he decided to fight for custody of Gino he would win.

      The baby was heavy, and she transferred him to her other hip. ‘Here—let me take him,’ Raul offered, holding out his hands.

      ‘No!’ She gripped Gino convulsively, blushing when Raul frowned. ‘Thanks, but he doesn’t really know you, and I don’t want to unsettle him while he’s getting used to a strange house,’ she muttered.

      Raul stared at her speculatively. ‘I’m sure he’ll soon get used to me—and the house.’

      He wondered why Libby seemed so nervous. Most women he knew would be unable to conceal their delight at the prospect of living at the villa with all expenses paid, but she looked as though she had been sentenced to a term in jail. She made an incongruous sight in her purple boots and skirt, green tights and orange coat, but nothing could detract from the loveliness of her face. His eyes focused on her soft mouth, and he could not banish the image of covering her lips with his own in a long, leisurely tasting.

      Dio, she was a witch, he thought furiously as he moved abruptly away from her. ‘Follow me. I’ll show you to your rooms,’ he ordered curtly.

      Wordlessly Libby trailed after him, her misgivings increasing as she stepped into the hall and stared around at the marble floors and pillars and the exquisite murals which adorned the walls and ceiling. Rays of early evening sunlight slanted through the windows and danced across the stunning crystal chandelier suspended from the centre of the room. She would have liked to linger and study the beautiful bronze sculptures dotted around the hallway, but Raul was striding ahead and she had to race to keep up with him.

      He led the way along endless corridors, past elegant, airy rooms filled with antique furniture. She could easily spend the rest of her life lost in these corridors, Libby fretted as she followed him up yet another flight of stairs. Raul suddenly stopped and pushed open a door, before standing back to usher her into a suite of rooms that comprised a sitting room, small dining area and an adjoining bedroom.

      ‘I have arranged for this room to be the nursery,’ he told Libby, opening another door into a smaller room which had been decorated in soft yellow. The stripped-pine cot and nursery furniture were attractive, and the pale blue striped curtains and matching rug on the floor added to the ambience of the room.

      Libby set Gino down on the floor and he immediately crawled over to the box of brightly coloured toys in the corner. Raul watched him for a few moments before commenting, ‘He doesn’t seem too unsettled, does he? The nanny has the room next door to this one, by the way,’ he added casually.

      Libby stared at him. ‘What nanny?’

      ‘The one I have hired to help take care of Gino. She comes from the best agency in Italy and is highly recommended.’

      ‘I don’t care if she’s Mother Teresa.’ Fear sharpened Libby’s voice. She did not want anyone to take her place in Gino’s life. ‘You can just un-hire her,’ she snapped. ‘I’m perfectly capable of looking after him myself.’

      Raul’s brows rose in an expression of haughty disdain. ‘From what I saw of your flat in Pennmar, I disagree. It was a filthy hovel.’

      Outraged by his description of her former home, Libby felt her temper explode. ‘It was not filthy. I was always cleaning, and scrubbing the mildew off the walls. It’s not my fault the flat was so damp.’

      ‘The living room looked like a pigsty,’ Raul insisted coldly.

      ‘That was only because I’d had to move all my things out of my bedroom when it flooded—’ Libby broke off at the sound of a knock on the door and stared suspiciously at the dark-haired woman who entered the room.

      ‘Ah, СКАЧАТЬ