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His eyes met hers, holding her questioning gaze intently. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘I …’ She fiddled with the edge of the tablecloth, doing her best to avoid the full force of his all-seeing eyes. ‘A hunch, I guess. I’ve heard Italians are pretty big on kids.’
‘I suppose that is why you sent him that letter to twist the knife a bit,’ he said, leaning forwards on the table so the other diners couldn’t hear his harsh accusation. ‘Did you ever consider how much you were hurting an elderly man who is already doing his best to cope with unbearable grief?’
Nina wished she could tell him the truth. It hurt so much to have him think so poorly of her when in fact it had been her sister who had acted so unthinkingly.
‘No.’ She let the edge of the tablecloth go and raised her eyes to his condemning ones. ‘No, it was very insensitive of me. I’m sorry.’
Her answer seemed to surprise him. If it had come from Nadia, it would have surprised even her, Nina thought wryly. She couldn’t recall a single time when her sister had apologised for anything; ‘I’m sorry’ just wasn’t in her twin’s vocabulary.
‘Sometimes sorry is not enough,’ he said, leaning back again, settling Georgia more comfortably against his shoulder. ‘Once the damage is done there is no going back to undo it.’
Nina felt sick at the truth of his curt statement. How much damage had she already done with all the lies she’d been forced to tell on her sister’s behalf?
‘Yes, I know.’ She stared at the salt and pepper shakers standing side by side like small china soldiers on the table in front of her. ‘I guess I was so confused at the time. I hardly knew what I was doing.’
There was a small silence broken only by the soft gurgling of Georgia, who had found the breast pocket of Marc’s business shirt, her tiny fingers clutching at the fabric in delight.
‘You deliberately tried to trap my brother, did you not?’ he upbraided her. ‘By using the oldest trick in the book.’
She wished she could deny it on Nadia’s behalf but knew that too would be yet another lie. Her sister had deliberately set about to snare Andre Marcello by fair means or foul. Nina had been appalled when Nadia had told her of her plan to trap him, casually revealing the way she’d sabotaged a whole box of condoms in order to bring about a pregnancy as if it was all a game, not real life with the potential for irreparable damage to occur. Nina still tortured herself with her own guilt at not being able to talk her sister out of it. Maybe if she’d spent more time with her, had counselled her to think a little further ahead than the next moment of pleasure.
‘It was a stupidly impulsive thing to do …’ she finally said, her voice low, her eyes downcast. ‘I had no idea of how it would backfire on … me.’
Again her answer seemed to surprise him. She chanced a look at him and found his hard accusatory expression had softened slightly as he looked across at her, the child in his arms nestling against him preparatory to sleep.
‘There are few of us who get through life without one or two regrets,’ he offered.
Nina gave him a rueful smile. ‘Don’t tell me the great Marc Marcello admits to getting it wrong now and again?’
He held her gaze for a moment before looking down at the child in his arms. ‘I have made one or two errors of judgement in the past but I have no intention of ever doing so again.’
Nina wondered if he bore the internal scars of a broken relationship which had made him wary of emotional commitment. The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. What better way to take himself out of the game than to marry for convenience, not love? He would be free to liaise with whomever he chose without the pressure of formal commitment due to the piece of paper that would soon be documenting her as his wife.
His wife.
She swallowed a lump of panic as she thought about all such a relationship would entail. Even though he’d stated implacably that the marriage would not be consummated, they would still be living in the same house which would force certain intimacies on them both regardless.
She imagined seeing him in less formal attire, perhaps in sports gear or after a shower with a towel around his waist, his long strong body exposed. Or seeing him unshaven in the morning, his chiselled jaw dark with stubbly growth, the sort of growth that tingled female skin if it brushed up against it …
Nina pulled back from her thoughts with a little jerk in her chair, her guilty glance meeting Marc’s questioning one.
‘Is something wrong?’ he asked. ‘No, of course not.’
‘You do not seem yourself,’ he observed.
‘Oh, really?’ She gave him one of Nadia’s scathing looks. ‘And you know me so well after, what is it—’ She checked her watch for the date and looked back at him. ‘Less than a week?’
‘Suffice it to say I am familiar with your type,’ he answered smoothly.
‘So you think one size fits all?’
His smile was cynically lopsided. ‘I have been around long enough to recognise danger when I see it.’
‘Danger, eh?’ She arranged her lips into a smirk. ‘You see me as dangerous? What exactly are you threatened by? My sex appeal?’
His mouth tightened and she knew she’d scored another hit. It struck her as ironic that he was fighting an attraction to her when she was pretending to be someone else. What chance did she stand of him being attracted to her as Nina—the real Nina? The Nina without the reputation or the Nina without the baggage? Not to mention the Nina without the designer wardrobe. The Nina who was in very great danger of falling in love with a man who despised the very sight of her.
‘Your ego no doubt has had considerable stroking over the years but I refuse to join your band of avid admirers,’ he said. ‘If you are looking for compliments I am afraid you will have to go elsewhere.’
Nina gave him an arch look. ‘But you do find me attractive, don’t you? Go on, admit it.’
‘I admit nothing.’
She laughed. ‘You’ll get sand in your eyes if you bury your head too deeply.’
She saw his jaw tighten another notch. ‘Women like you think they are irresistible but let me tell you, you are not. Do you think I am so easily swayed by full breasts and pouting lips and come-to-bed eyes?’
She pursed the said pouting lips and affected a super-confident pose. ‘I can feel your interest from right over here,’ she said in a breathy undertone. ‘I bet if I slipped my hand under this table and examined the evidence for myself you’d have some serious back-pedalling to do.’
Black eyes met grey in a challenge that rocked Nina to her very core but she was determined not to back down. She held his look with a spirited defiance she hadn’t thought herself capable of.
Although he tried to disguise it, she noticed he shifted backwards in his chair as if he didn’t trust her not to do exactly as she’d said. Her mind began to wander of its own volition. What would he feel like fully aroused? Would he shudder at the touch of her fingers around his length or would he groan with deep out of control pleasure? And what would his reaction be if her mouth were to close over him, drawing from him a response that would spill his life force out of his body in an explosion of pleasure?
‘It’s time to leave.’ His announcement was curt as he got stiffly to his feet.
Georgia gave a soft rumble of protest about the sudden movement but soon settled back against his chest, her tiny eyelids fluttering closed, her miniature fingers still grasping his breast pocket.
Nina rose with less speed, taking her time to gather up the baby’s changing bag and her own handbag, shooting him a glance from across the width of the table.
‘Do you think it’s worth disturbing her to put her back in the pouch?’ she asked.
Marc looked down at the tiny infant against his chest and shook his head. ‘No.’ He lifted his gaze back to hers. ‘I will carry her.’ He scooped up the bill the waitress had left and added, ‘Is there anything else we need to buy?’
It was the ‘we’ that really got to her. Seeing him with Georgia cradled so tenderly in his arms, she couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of regret over how circumstances had led them both to this. How different things might have been if they had met without the baggage of both of their wayward siblings. If the truth were known they probably had more in common than not. He was the solid dependable type, anyone could see that, and she … well, she was hardly the sleep-around town tart he thought her to be. If only he knew!
‘No.’ She carefully avoided his eyes in case he saw the glitter of sudden moisture. ‘I think we’re more or less done.’ She hoisted the changing bag over her shoulder and followed him out of the café with her head well down.
The city streets were so busy as to make conversation both difficult and unnecessary. Nina was glad of the reprieve. Guilt flooded her from every direction. Maybe she should have been firmer with Nadia, should have insisted she stay and face her responsibilities. But then, when had Nadia ever faced anything? Her policy had been to move from one disaster to the next with her twin picking up the pieces behind her. Nina had even done it for their mother in the past, becoming the parent instead of the child in an attempt to provide some level of security for them. Much good it had done in the end, she thought sadly. Her mother had still drunk and drugged herself into an early grave and there had been nothing Nina could do to stop it.
Marc pressed the pedestrian button and flicked a glance down at the silent figure beside him as they waited for the lights to change. ‘You are very quiet all of a sudden.’
Nina shook herself out of her mental anguish and sent a vacant smile his way. ‘I’m just tired.’ She yawned widely. ‘Georgia woke me early.’ She patted her mouth and forced another smile. ‘Kids; who in their right mind would have them?’
Marc was saved a reply by the lights changing. It was clear to him that money was Nina’s primary motive and she had targeted the richest man she could and had got on with the business of falling pregnant to him. But it was still somewhat of a mystery to him why she hadn’t asked for a whole heap of money when he’d offered her marriage. He’d been expecting her price to be in the millions and yet even the allowance he’d organised for her had seemingly surprised her. And, as for pretending she had no interest in Andre’s estate, what possible reason could she have other than to try and fool him into thinking she had somehow changed from a money-hungry pleasure seeker to a woman of high morals?
But he knew Nina was trouble from the top of her shiny head to the soles of her dainty feet. She had a disturbing habit of switching from sultry siren to wide-eyed innocent as if she was deliberately trying to confuse him about who she really was. If Andre hadn’t told him how manipulative she was he would sometimes be tempted to think he was dealing with someone else entirely.
He slanted a covert glance her way, instantly noting the line of her slightly anxious brow and the way her small white teeth nibbled at her bottom lip.
He gave a rough inward sigh. Marrying her was going to be the easy part; however, he was starting to think that if he wasn’t very careful, keeping his hands off her was going to be something else indeed.
CHAPTER SIX
ONCE Nina was confident there was no trace of Georgia’s bruises remaining she arranged to return to work. However, when she made to leave the childcare centre the following day, her tiny niece howled miserably, her little arms reaching out to her from the carer’s hold.
‘Don’t worry, Miss Selbourne,’ the childcare worker reassured her. ‘She’ll settle down once you leave. They all do.’
Nina bit her lip in an agony of indecision. Georgia’s little face was bright red, her eyes spilling tears and her desperate wails increasing in volume.
‘Maybe I should call work and tell them I can’t make it.’
‘Of course you shouldn’t,’ the woman said. ‘She’ll be fine. I’ll take her to look at the toys while you leave. Feel free to phone as soon as you get to work but I am sure you’ve got nothing to worry about. Come on, Georgia,’ she told the child with a smile. ‘Let’s go and look at the nice teddy bears over here.’
Nina could still hear Georgia’s cries as she made her way outside the building, her heart squeezing painfully at the thought of her niece being so upset at the prospect of being abandoned. It made her realise anew how important it was to protect her, for it was obvious the baby considered her to be her primary carer. If Marc were to find out who she really was now, Georgia would be the one to suffer, for Nina felt sure he would evict her from the child’s life as soon as he possibly could.
The library was a few blocks away and she walked there with dragging steps, wondering how mothers across the globe dealt with leaving their children in someone else’s care.
She loved her job but she loved her niece more. If push came to shove she would have to quit work, swallow her pride and accept the allowance from Marc that his lawyer had arranged in the pre-nuptial agreement.
‘Hi, Nina,’ Elizabeth Loughton, one of the other librarians, greeted her as soon as she arrived at work. ‘Hey, where have you been the last few days? Sheila said you called in sick. Are you OK now?’
Nina placed her bag in the staffroom locker in order to avoid her friend’s probing look. ‘I’m fine, just a bit tired. It’s been one of those weeks.’
‘Don’t tell me your sister has been giving you trouble again,’ Elizabeth said. ‘I don’t know why you don’t tell her where to get off, really I don’t. She takes advantage of you so much, no wonder you’re not well.’ She pursed her lips for a moment, then, moving over to close the staffroom door, turned back and handed Nina a recent edition of a popular gossip magazine. ‘I suppose you’ve already seen this?’
Nina disguised a gulp as she looked down at the magazine article Elizabeth had shown her. There was a photograph of her twin outside one of Sydney’s best known hotels, dressed in a revealing dress that left little to the imagination, her arms flung around the necks of two well known football personalities who both had dubious reputations with regard to their treatment of women. The caption hinted that, according to hotel staff sources, last Friday night Nadia and her male escorts had engaged in a drunken noisy threesome upstairs.
‘Oh, God.’ She shut the magazine and handed it back as they sat down together. ‘This is just what I don’t need right now.’
‘Are you all right?’ Elizabeth peered at her in concern.
Nina met her friend’s hazel gaze. ‘I have to tell you something but you have to promise not to tell anyone else.’
Elizabeth used a finger to zip her lips. ‘Mum’s the word.’
Nina’s mouth twisted wryly. ‘That’s exactly right. Mum is the word you now have to use when referring to me.’
Elizabeth’s eyes went out on stalks. ‘Oh, my God! You’re pregnant?’
Nina rolled her eyes. ‘Of course not! No, but I am now acting as Georgia’s mother.’
As Nina filled her in on previous events, Elizabeth’s face fell in horror.
‘Are you completely nuts?’ Elizabeth had got to her feet in agitation. ‘What the hell are you thinking? This Marc Marcello will eat you alive when he finds out! You could go to prison or something!’
‘What else can I do?’ Nina asked. ‘Georgia needs me. Nadia was going to give her up for adoption but this way I can keep her and give her the love she deserves. It’s a small price to pay.’
‘A small price?’ Elizabeth gaped at her. ‘What do you know about this guy?’
Nina couldn’t help a tiny smile. ‘I know he adores Georgia and she adores him.’
‘And what about you?’ Elizabeth gave her another probing look. ‘What does he feel about you? Does he adore you too?’
‘No.’ Nina lowered her gaze.
There was a short silence and Nina looked up to see her friend’s contemplative gaze trained on her.
‘I think I’m starting to get the picture,’ Elizabeth said. ‘You’re in love with him, aren’t you?’
‘How could I possibly be in love with him?’ Nina’s eyes darted away once more. ‘I hardly know him.’
‘You must feel something for him because, knowing you as I do, you would never agree to marry someone if you didn’t respect and admire them at the very least.’
Nina thought about it for a moment. Yes, she did respect Marc. In fact, if circumstances were different, he was exactly the sort of man she could come to love. He had qualities she couldn’t help admiring. He was fiercely loyal and protective and his sense of family was strong.
‘Come on, Nina,’ Elizabeth continued. ‘I can see it in your eyes. You’re halfway there already.’
‘You’re imagining things.’
‘Maybe I am, but I’d watch it if I were you,’ Elizabeth cautioned. ‘You’re not the hard-nosed bitch your sister is. You are going to get yourself seriously hurt if you don’t take care.’
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Nina said. ‘Anyway, I don’t have a choice. I love Georgia and would do anything to protect her.’
‘Sounds like you and that future husband of yours have rather a lot in common, don’t you think?’ Elizabeth mused as she opened the staffroom door. ‘You both want the same thing and are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to get it.’
Nina didn’t answer. She was starting to think it might have been a mistake to tell Elizabeth the truth about her situation. Her friend was seeing things Nina herself had pointedly refused to examine too closely.
She turned to the phone on the wall and quickly called the childcare centre to check on her niece, relieved to hear that Georgia had finally fallen asleep. She hung up the phone and made her way out to the front desk, glad she had something to do other than think about Marc Marcello and how she really felt about him.
Nina had not long returned home with Georgia later that day when the phone rang.
‘Nina?’ Her sister’s voice sounded in her ear. ‘Is that you?’
‘Who else would it be?’ Nina said tersely.
Nadia laughed. ‘Well, for a minute there I thought you sounded just like me.’
Nina ground her teeth. ‘That is so not funny. You do realise that all because of your stupid actions I will be marrying Andre’s brother in a matter of days, don’t you?’
‘Lucky you,’ Nadia said. ‘I’m sure you’ll be more than adequately compensated. A billionaire to call your own.’
‘His money means nothing to me,’ she bit out.
‘Good,’ Nadia said. ‘Then you won’t mind sending it to me.’
‘What?’ Nina stiffened.
