Italian Marriage: In Name Only (7 page)

‘For what it’s worth, my moral judgement was falling quite heavily on the guy who chose to walk away from his child,’ Antonio told her softly. ‘But you’re right, it’s none of my business.’

The door opened into the cabin and the stewardess came over to them. ‘Is everything all right with the meal, sir? Are you ready for your main course?’

Antonio glanced over at Victoria and she nodded. ‘Yes, I’m finished, thanks.’

There was silence as the appetizers were cleared away. Antonio noticed that Victoria hadn’t eaten much at all.

More silver salvers were placed in front of them and then they were left alone again.

‘Let’s hope the beef is properly seasoned,’ Antonio said wryly. ‘Otherwise when we land to refuel in Hong Kong we might have to send out for a Chinese meal.’

The statement was so absurd that Victoria laughed, then darted him a curious look. ‘That was a joke, right?’

‘Yes, it was.’ He smiled. ‘But if you’d like Chinese it could be arranged. We land in a few hours.’

‘I love Chinese food. But I’ll stick with the beef Wellington.’

‘You haven’t tasted it yet.’ He leaned over and topped up her glass. ‘So when was the last time you had aeroplane food?’ he asked casually.

She flicked him a wary look.

‘You were telling me earlier about it tasting like cardboard,’ he prompted.

‘It was a long time ago when I was flying from London to Sydney. I was fourteen.’ She cut into the beef and found it was perfectly cooked. ‘I don’t really remember what I ate, but I do remember it was not as good as this.’

‘I thought your accent was more English than Australian. I take it you were immigrating to Australia with your parents?’

‘I was on my own actually. My mother had just died and I was sent to live with her sister.’

‘And where was your father?’

‘He’d died a year earlier.’ She looked over at him. ‘You’ll be happy to know that the food is perfectly seasoned. So no need for that Chinese.’

He noticed the swift change of tack and knew it was deliberate, knew that she really didn’t want to talk about herself at all. And he supposed he had no right to pry; as she’d already so concisely told him, her personal life was none of his business.

‘Your life must be amazing,’ she murmured suddenly.

‘Must it?’ He looked over at her with a glimmer of amusement in his dark eyes.

‘Yes…I mean to be so rich and so powerful that you can have anything you want, whenever you want it. That’s pretty amazing.’

‘I’ve never really thought about it like that. I’m always too busy working.’ He took a sip of his wine and sat back in the comfortable leather chair. ‘But yes, I suppose wealth does have a lot of pluses.’

‘What’s the most impetuous thing you’ve ever done?’ she asked curiously.

‘You mean apart from buying myself a wife?’

He looked at her wryly and she could feel the heat of humiliation seeping over her body. She supposed he
had
bought her. And when she allowed herself to think about it in those terms, it was absolutely mortifying.

‘You know, I don’t think I am hungry after all.’ She put the cutlery down with a clatter. She wanted to get away from him. She couldn’t sit here and smile politely and pretend that she was all right with what she’d done.
With what he had forced her to do,
she reminded herself fiercely. Because he was the one who’d made sure she’d run out of options. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll—’

‘Sit down,’ he said quietly as she started to rise to her feet.

She paid him no attention and he reached across and caught hold of her arm. It was only the briefest of contacts, but it made her senses go into freefall.

‘Sit down,’ he said again.

The low commanding tone wasn’t one to argue with. Slowly she did as she was told and sank back into the chair.

‘You asked me a question and I gave you the honest answer. I’ve taken you as my wife as part of a business deal—it is pretty extreme.’

She tried to shrug as if she didn’t care, and from somewhere she found the resources within her to try and joke. ‘Well, let’s hope I’m value for money.’

He watched how she angled her chin up. She was a very intriguing blend of vulnerability and feisty defiance, he thought distractedly.

‘So far, I think I’ve got a good deal.’ There was a teasing gleam in the darkness of his eyes as he smiled lazily at her. ‘But time will tell.’

She wished he wouldn’t look at her like that! Or say things like that. It made her feel weird inside—scared and…totally keyed up. ‘Time will tell with what…exactly?’

‘With how you perform in Italy.’

‘Perform?’ Her eyes narrowed on him warily.

‘Well, I shall require some wifely duties from you, Victoria,’ Antonio told her. ‘But nothing more rigorous than accompanying me for dinner at my father’s house. He’ll be anxious to meet you.’

‘I see…’ She frowned, but didn’t really understand. ‘So have you told him that the marriage is…a sham?’

‘The marriage is real, Victoria, and I have the certificate to prove it.’ For a moment the darkness of his eyes seemed to cut through her. ‘But no, he doesn’t know anything about you or about our arrangement—not yet anyway.’ He was saving that revelation for when he could see him face to face.

Victoria noticed the expression of determination on
Antonio’s face now, a look that made her wonder what was going on between him and his father. ‘And you’re looking forward to telling him…aren’t you?’ she whispered.

The gently perceptive remark made him focus on her again. ‘Yes, Victoria, I’m looking forward to that moment very much.’

She wanted to ask why but she didn’t dare go any further, because there was a cool aura of authority about him that seemed to forbid it.

Silence fell between them and she picked up her cutlery again and tried to eat a few more mouthfuls, but it was a relief when the stewardess finally returned to clear the table and she could allow her to take the plate away.

Antonio ordered a black coffee, but Victoria declined anything else.

He leaned back and let his eyes drift over her thoughtfully.

‘I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that!’ she murmured impulsively.

‘Like what?’ He seemed amused by the remark.

‘I don’t know…’ She shrugged helplessly. All she knew was that when his eyes drifted slowly over her it made strange little shivers pierce straight through her body. But then that was probably more to do with her than him, she realized with acute embarrassment. ‘I guess…I’m just tired.’ Clumsily she tried to cover the words. ‘How much longer, before we reach our destination?’

‘Only about another nineteen hours or so.’

Her heart seemed to plunge somewhere down into her stomach.

He smiled. ‘You need to relax.’

How could she relax when he could churn her emotions to shreds with just one look! ‘Yes, I think I’ll go and sit back beside Nathan now.’ She flicked an unconsciously pleading glance across the table, willing him to allow her to escape. ‘If I may?’ She added the question pointedly as she remembered how he had commanded her to stay where she was.

‘You may do as you please,’ he told her sardonically. Her reaction to him bemused him slightly; there weren’t many women who ran away from him. ‘Maybe you’d like to make yourself more comfortable in the bedroom? See if you can get some sleep.’

‘That would be great, but what about you?’ She asked the question without thinking, and it was only when she saw the gleam in his eye that she realized it could be misconstrued.

‘Is that an invitation?’ he asked lazily.

‘No! You know very well that it wasn’t!’

Obviously she was completely mortified. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had blushed like that when he’d teased. Her shy manner really was quite delightful.

‘I was just checking that you don’t want to take the room for yourself, that’s all!’ she continued hurriedly.

‘Very considerate of you.’ He smiled. ‘And I assure you, if I want to stake my claim on anything I’ll let you know a little later on. But right now, I have some more work to catch up on.’

He was just bantering with her, she realized suddenly. Trouble was, she really couldn’t think straight around him—he totally flustered her.

She wondered suddenly what it would be like to have him
really
flirt with her, as if he were
really
interested in her. The thought made her emotions flip wildly and quickly she pushed it away, because even thinking along those lines was storing up danger.

Antonio was the type of man who would flirt without even a moment realizing he was doing it. And he would never be serious about someone like her.

‘Well, I’ll leave you to your work.’ Hastily she turned away. ‘And I’ll bring Nathan into the other room with me, in case he disturbs you.’

‘Whatever suits you.’

What suited her was getting away from him as fast as
possible. Even when he looked at her with amusement in his eyes, it made her senses spin.

Victoria got to her feet and reached into an overhead locker to get Nathan’s bag but it was wedged firmly into the tight space and she found it difficult to pull it free. She stood on tiptoe and tugged a little harder.

Antonio found himself watching her.

The loose T-shirt she wore was raised by the way her arms were reaching up, giving him his first clear view of her small waist. He found himself noticing how the tightly fitting pants she wore emphasized a flat stomach and a well-rounded pert derrière that was surprisingly provocative. His gaze moved over her slowly, and then lingered on the shapeless T-shirt, wondering what her breasts were like.

He frowned to himself.

It didn’t matter what her breasts were like, he reminded himself quickly. She wasn’t his type and he didn’t want to make this situation any more complicated than it already was.

Victoria tugged even more frantically on the strap of the bag. She was overly conscious now of the fact that Antonio was getting to his feet.

‘Do you need some help?’ He folded away the table in front of him to make more room.

‘No, thanks, I’m managing.’ She said the words with a kind of gritted determination that made him smile, and he moved towards her anyway.

‘Really, I’m managing.’ She flicked a nervous glance over her shoulder. But he paid her no attention and moved behind her to stretch over her head and lift the bag easily down.

He didn’t touch her, but in the confined space his body was just a whisper away from hers, so close that he could almost feel the tension in her, emanating like an invisible barrier. It was strange he’d never known a woman to respond to him the way she did. Usually women flirted coyly with him, or moved deliberately closer if they got the chance. Victoria by contrast
seemed petrified of making any contact with him whatsoever. She almost seemed to freeze.

His gaze moved down over the slender vulnerable column of her neck.

Her reserve suited him, he reminded himself. It was part of the reason why she was the perfect wife of convenience. It meant no complications, no emotional minefields.

‘Is this all you want from the locker? There are some toys in there too.’

‘I just need the bag. Thanks.’ She wanted to turn and take it from him but she didn’t dare until he moved back from her. And he seemed in no hurry to do that. Instead he reached around her and placed it on the seat in front of her. The movement brought him closer, his arm brushing against hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her neck and it sent quivers of reaction rushing through her.

If he hadn’t known better he would have sworn she was a virgin, Antonio thought suddenly. She was so unworldly—aeons and light years away from the sophisticated women who gave themselves to him so freely without even a second thought.

He wondered what would happen if he pulled her back into his arms. She’d probably be terrified. For a second he imagined turning her around…claiming her mouth in a possessive kiss, her lips trembling and softly pliant. She would be unschooled in the art of lovemaking.

But of course she wasn’t! She had a child. And what the hell was he thinking?

He frowned and moved away from her. OK, she had a naivety about her that intrigued him, but he wasn’t interested. And he really was going to have to stop analysing her, because she was acquired for business purposes only, and if he overstepped the line in any way, it would be a mistake.

Antonio was very careful about the women he got involved with because he knew he was incapable of settling down. But at least he understood that about himself. At least he only
dated women who were sophisticated and experienced, women who knew the score and wouldn’t get hurt. His one horror in life would be that he turned into his father.

He returned to his seat and was just about to refasten his safety belt when the plane hit some turbulence and Victoria stumbled backwards. For a moment the whole cabin seemed to tilt and instinctively Antonio reached out and grabbed her around the waist.

It was all over within a second and as the aircraft levelled out Victoria found herself sitting on Antonio’s knee, his hands spanning her tiny waist, holding her tightly and protectively against him.

The shock of finding herself in such an
intimate
situation was intense. She was absolutely horrified. ‘Sorry…I…I fell.’

‘Yes, so I gathered.’ He was momentarily amused.

Her body felt surprising good against his, warm and curvaceous. He could smell the clean scent of shampoo from her hair and the honeyed undertones of her perfume. He held her closer as the plane shuddered violently once more and he realized suddenly that his hands were touching her bare skin now, and that he could feel her ribs beneath his fingers, could feel the satin softness of her.

‘I’ll be okay now…’ Suddenly she was scrabbling to get away from him even though the plane wasn’t entirely steady—and he could tell that her skin was on fire.

She was attracted to him, he realized suddenly. And if he wanted to he could pull her back against him, explore her curves more thoroughly. For a moment the idea was tantalizing. Then he pulled himself up in annoyance. OK, her unsophisticated naivety was refreshing but it certainly wasn’t for him. And he wasn’t going to do anything so crazy.