He could understand his sister wanting to protect her husband. That was what a wife should do.
But what about Morgan?
If she and Joseph were just friends then she should put
him
—Luca da Silva—first.
Not second.
Not third.
But first, damn it!
‘Don’t worry, ladies,’ Joseph said, sauntering into the room, his wife hot on his heels. ‘I think it’s time Luca and I had a showdown.’
‘Now, Joe, don’t forget you’ve been ill. I—’
Joseph held up a hand. ‘No, Stef. I’m not going to be quiet. Not this time.’ He stared Luca in the eye, his expression harder than Luca had ever seen. ‘Morgan and I had a long conversation after you left us last week. She filled me in on what happened while I was away.’
Ice slid down Luca’s spine. ‘All of it?’
Joseph nodded. ‘All of it.’
Luca spared Stefania the briefest of glances. Her face gave nothing away.
Did she know what they were talking about?
He hoped the hell that she did not.
He turned back to Joseph. ‘And how does it make you feel knowing that Morgan has found pleasure in my bed?’
Luca heard Morgan gasp, but kept his eyes trained on his brother-in-law.
Joseph surged towards him. Stefania grabbed his arm and forced him to a halt several feet away. ‘It makes me ill. But not for the reason you think, you bastard! I ought to punch your lights out for blackmailing the poor girl into sleeping with you.’
‘Joe—don’t,’ Stefania pleaded beside him.
‘I won’t let this go, Stef. I can’t. Morgan is too important to me.’
Joseph’s words bounced off the inside of Luca’s skull.
He closed his eyes.
He felt sick.
Sick to the stomach.
Sick to his very soul.
He would never have imagined this scene would be played out in front of Stefania. He’d tried so hard to avoid this very situation. So hard to protect her. But all his plans lay in dust at his feet.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
He didn’t look at Stefania.
He couldn’t.
Couldn’t look at the pain on her face and in her eyes after hearing her husband pledge his feelings for another woman for all to hear.
His eyes focussed on Joseph’s face, and the anger that had been simmering for months boiled over.
Without thinking, Luca stormed across the distance separating them and hauled Joseph to the tips of his toes by the lapels of his blue blazer. ‘I could kill you for hurting Stefania like this.’
He heard Morgan and Stefania gasp, but ignored them both.
So, too, did Joseph, who bared his teeth in a near snarl. ‘You have gall—do you know that? What have I ever done to make you think I would hurt Steph? I love her, you fool.’
Luca stared at him and kept on staring.
‘Look at her,’ Joseph urged harshly. ‘Go on. Look at her.’
Luca stared at Joseph for a long moment. Then he turned his head slowly, as if he was moving in slow motion, and looked at Stefania. His heart was sitting at the back of his throat in fear of what he might find.
He raked his gaze over Stefania’s face. She stared back at him with wide, pleading eyes. Eyes that showed concern but no obvious signs of distress.
Confusion washed over him in waves.
Slowly he let go of Joseph’s lapels and took a step backwards. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered.
Joseph straightened his jacket. ‘Don’t worry about it. In your position I’d probably have done the same. And besides, it warms my heart to know that if anything ever happened to me you’d be here to look after Stef for me.’
His wife hugged his arm. ‘Nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t allow it.’
Luca watched them. There was true affection between them. A bond of love he’d been blind to for the last few months.
He should have known Joseph wouldn’t betray the wife he adored.
He looked from Stefania to Joseph and back again.
Then he looked at Morgan.
She was staring at him as if he’d grown two heads, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her.
Anxiety tugged at the base of his spine. Then tugged some more.
‘Who is Morgan to you?’ he demanded, turning back to Joseph. ‘Tell me what she means to you.’
Joseph met his eyes steadily. ‘Morgan is my daughter.’
The surprise was so great Luca reeled backwards, his breath jagging in the back of his throat like a serrated knife. ‘Your what…?’
‘My daughter.’
Hearing it a second time didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
While he was still reeling, Joseph briefly and concisely explained.
The story was a typical one. Joseph had been in his
last year at Oxford University when he’d met a local girl waitressing in a pub where the students hung out. One night he’d had too much to drink and the two of them had slept together.
It had never happened again.
He’d finished his degree and moved back to London, where his fiancée had been waiting for him, not once suspecting that he was leaving behind a woman pregnant with his child.
Luca barely absorbed the details; he was still in shock.
He thought about the accusations he’d thrown and gritted his teeth.
He thought about everything he’d done and clenched his hands into fists.
And then he thought about those times in the middle of the night when he’d lain awake, unable to sleep, because of thoughts of Joseph and Morgan together.
And she hadn’t said a word.
Not a damned word.
Fury crackled up his spine.
‘I believe I owe you an apology,’ he said stiffly, holding out his hand.
Joseph looked from his hand to his face and back again. Then he angled his chin into the air in the exact same way Morgan had done so many times without Luca once realising why the action was so familiar.
‘I believe you do.’ Joseph reached out and clasped his hand, squeezing tight. ‘But I’m not the only person you need to apologise to.’
Luca followed Joseph’s glance at Morgan. ‘If you’d give us a few moments alone then I’d be happy to give Morgan everything she deserves,’ he said, with an outward show of calm he was far from feeling inside.
Joseph stared at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Morgan kept our secret at great cost to herself—something I will always be grateful for. Do I have your word you will treat her with respect?’
Luca nodded. ‘You do.’
Joseph looked at his daughter. ‘Morgan…?’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘In that case, we’ll leave you to it.’
He took hold of Stefania’s hand, but she obviously wasn’t ready to leave just yet. ‘Wait.’ She extracted her hand from her husband’s and walked across to Luca. ’I want you to know that I am OK with this. More than OK. I have already welcomed Morgan into the family and will be honoured to be her stepmother. So there is no need for you to go looking for revenge or anything stupid like that.’
‘How long have you known?’ he asked.
‘Joe confessed while we were in Australia.’
‘I see.’ Luca remembered Stefania’s mysterious comment about discussing something with Joseph that had happened a long time ago and which she was unable to tell him about yet.
No doubt Joseph’s secret daughter was what she’d been referring to.
‘The strain of keeping their secret was what landed him in hospital in the first place. He realised he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. But, had he not, Morgan would have forced his hand.’ She touched his hand and smiled. ’Perhaps you should ask her why.’
As soon as the door closed behind them, Luca turned towards Morgan.
She took one look at his face and began backing away from him. She held up her hand. ‘Don’t, Luca.’
Luca followed her retreat. ‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t come any closer or I’ll use another of Gino’s moves on you. Only this time you won’t get off so easily.’
‘So that’s where you learnt that little manoeuvre from, is it? I’m going to have to have a word with Gino about that.’ Her back came up against the windowsill. He stopped inches from her. ‘You have some explaining to do. You lied to me.’
She tossed her head, sending an invisible cloud of her fragrance into the air. ‘You deserved to be lied to.’
‘Is that so?’ he asked silkily.
‘Yes, it is. You had no right to come after me the way you did. It was wrong. You should have spoken to Joseph, not me. You should have threatened to punch his lights out if you thought he was cheating on Stefania.’
Luca inclined his head. ‘You’re right. I should have. Just as you should have told me the truth.’
‘I couldn’t. I’d promised Joseph I wouldn’t tell anyone. He was terrified of losing Stefania. She was so upset about her inability to conceive. She felt like a failure as a wife. And as a woman. He felt he couldn’t present her with a child from a previous relationship at a time like that.’
‘Perhaps. But by protecting Stefania, Joseph betrayed you. Have you thought about that?’ He paused for a moment, and then added softly, ‘Just as you, by protecting Joseph, betrayed me.’
‘I didn’t betray you,’ she protested.
‘No?’ He tunnelled a hand under her hair and pulled her towards him, then bent his head and feathered a kiss against the corner of her mouth. ‘You lay in my arms,
let me make love to you, and all the while these pretty lips were lying to me. What is that if not betrayal?’
‘I…I…’
‘Well…?’
She tossed her head again. ‘I had no choice.’
This time the fury riding his spine hissed and sizzled. He cupped her throat. ‘You
had
a choice. You chose to lie to me. As little as ten minutes ago you were still lying to me. I had to hear the truth from someone else.’
‘He’s my father, Luca.’
‘And I am your lover!’ Luca roared, eyes searing into hers. ‘I am the man you should put above all others.’
He felt her swallow against his palm. ‘That’s only because…only because…’
‘Only because what…?’
‘You blackmailed me.’
Luca stiffened. He’d always thought of angry emotions as being red. But he was wrong about that. They were black. Such a deep, intense black he was almost blinded by them.
The hand cupping her throat moved until his fingers were pressed against her mouth. ‘Do not
dare
suggest the only reason we were lovers is because I blackmailed you. That might be the way it started, but it is not the way it ended—is it?’
Slowly she shook her head. ‘No. No, it’s not.’
‘You want to be with me, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered.
Satisfaction raced through him.
But it wasn’t enough.
Not nearly enough.
‘You want to be with me more than life itself?’
‘Yes.’
Luca swooped on her mouth, kissing her until they were both breathing heavily. He lifted his head. ‘So our scoreboard is even, is it not?’ he asked, his accent and his voice both thickening. ‘I forgive you for lying to me and you forgive me for blackmailing you.
Si?
’
‘I don’t think—’
Luca kissed the words right out of her mouth. His kiss was tender. Sweet. Heart pounding, he lifted his head and looked deep into her eyes.
’Si?’
‘Si…’
she breathed, collapsing against his chest.
Luca slid his arms around her waist, pulling her closer so that she could feel his growing arousal against her. ‘You are the light of my life,
cara.
I love you to complete and utter distraction. Haven’t you realised that yet?’
Her eyes misted over with tears, then she flung her arms around his neck. ‘Oh, Luca. I love you, too.’
His heart turned over, pleasure filling him. ‘How does a honeymoon in Rome sound?’
She beamed him a smile that made his head spin. ‘I think it sounds wonderful. But are you sure you want to go back?’
He nodded. ‘It’s time I put the past behind me. You can help me build new memories.’ He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of her wrist. ‘Now, let’s go home,
cara.
I’ve been without you for a week and it’s killing me.’
Morgan laughed. ‘We can’t go just yet.’
Luca scowled. ‘Why not?’
She gestured towards the door. ‘Stefania—’
‘Will forgive us for leaving when she hears that we are getting married. She will be in her element, helping you to arrange the wedding. Where my sister is concerned I’ve been blinkered about a lot of things,’ Luca
added thoughtfully. ‘But not any more. She has a husband, he can look after her in future. I’ll be too busy looking after you.’
Morgan snuggled closer. ‘And just how do you plan on doing that?’
He fed his hands into the hair on either side of her head. ‘Oh, I’ll think of something.’
She grasped a handful of his shirt and pulled him even closer. ‘And if you can’t then I’m sure we can come up with something together.’
Luca bent his head and kissed her. It was a kiss of promise and faith and so, so much more.
He’d been determined his will would prevail. But he’d been wrong about that, too. It was love that was going to prevail…until the end of time.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Tina Duncan 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4089-1313-0