Sicilian's Shock Proposal

‘That’s just a dream, though,’ Bella said.

‘Perhaps not. Your application might be accepted. You might be off to Milan soon.’

‘I got rejected,’ Bella said. ‘My drawings weren’t enough for them and I’ll never be able to afford models and photographers for a decent portfolio.’ Bella shrugged her shoulders as she both tried and failed to convince Sophie that not getting in to study fashion design in Milan didn’t hurt like hell. ‘I could never have gone anyway. I need my wage to pay the rent. Malvolio would give my mother hell if...’ Bella’s voice trailed off and she shook her head.

Yes, there were things that should never be discussed, but with her engagement now less than a week away Sophie could no longer keep her fears in. ‘I don’t want to be pulled even closer into Malvolio’s life. I don’t think Luka is anything like his father but—’

‘Shh,’ Bella said, and even though they had the cove to themselves she looked over both shoulders just to make sure. ‘Don’t speak like that.’

‘Why not?’ Sophie pushed. ‘We’re just friends talking.’

Bella said nothing.

‘I don’t want to get married.’

There—Sophie had said it.

‘I’ll be barely nineteen. There are so many things I want to do before I settle down. I don’t know if I want to...’

‘You don’t know if you want to live with Luka in a beautiful home and be taken care of?’ Bella’s response was one of anger. ‘You don’t know if you want to be rich and pampered?’ Bella was starting to shout. ‘Well, I’d take it if I were you and count yourself lucky—after your engagement party Malvolio has told me to stay back. I’ll be working the bar. This time next week I won’t be making beds at the hotel, I’ll be...’ Bella broke down then and Sophie held her own tears in check. ‘Like mother, like daughter,’ Bella sobbed. ‘I am not ashamed of my mother, she did what she had to to survive, but I don’t want that for me.’

‘Then don’t do it!’ Sophie shook her head furiously. ‘You are to tell him no!’

‘Do you think for a moment that he’d listen?’

‘You don’t have to jump to his rules. He can’t make you do anything that you don’t want to.’ Sophie was insistent. She loathed the way everyone jumped at Malvolio’s command, her own father included. ‘If you can’t say no to Malvolio then I shall for you.’

‘Just leave it,’ Bella pleaded.

‘No, I will not leave it. When Luka gets here on Wednesday I’ll try speaking with him...’

‘It won’t do anything.’ Bella shook her head and stood. ‘I need to get back...’

They walked down the little pathway together and Bella apologised for her outburst. ‘I didn’t mean to be cross with you. I understand that it should be your choice if you marry.’

‘We should both have choices,’ Sophie said.

They didn’t, though.

Everyone considered Sophie lucky—that, because of her father’s connections to Malvolio, she would marry Luka.

There had been no discussion with the future bride.

They came out of the trees and onto the hilly street and walked past the hotel Brezza Oceana, where Sophie and Luka’s engagement party would be held.

‘Are you taking your Pill?’ Bella asked, because they had taken the bus two weeks ago to a neighboring town so that Sophie could get contraception without the local doctor knowing.

‘Every day.’

‘I’d better get some,’ Bella said, and Sophie’s heart twisted at the resignation in her friend’s voice.

‘Bella—’

‘I have to go.’

‘Will I see you tonight at church?’

‘Of course.’ Bella attempted a smile. ‘I want to know if you like your dress.’

They parted ways and Sophie was almost home when she remembered she was supposed to have stopped for bread, so she turned and raced back to the deli.

As she walked in, the conversation stopped abruptly, just as it often did these days.

Sophie did her best to ignore the strange tension and when it was her turn she smiled at Teresa, the owner, and ordered the olives and cheese she had chosen, as well as a large pane Siciliano, which was surely the nicest bread in the world, and then took out her purse to pay.

‘Gratuitamente.’ Teresa told Sophie there would be no charge.

‘Scusi?’ Sophie frowned and then blushed. She was being let off paying because she was marrying Malvoio’s son, Sophie decided. Well, she wanted no part in that sort of thing and angrily she took out some money, placed it on the counter and then walked out.

‘You’re late,’ Paulo said, when Sophie let herself into their home and walked through to the kitchen, where her father was sitting reading his paper at the table. ‘You would be late for your own funeral.’

‘Bella and I got talking,’ Sophie said.

‘What do you have there?’

‘Just some bread and olives...’ Sophie answered, and then realised that he was referring to the parcel she was carrying, but before she explained what it was she asked her father a question. ‘Father, when I went to pay, Teresa said there was no charge. Why would she say that?’

‘I don’t know.’ Paulo shrugged. ‘Perhaps she was being nice. After all, you are there every day.’

‘No.’ Sophie refused to be fobbed off. ‘It was uncomfortable when I walked in—everyone stopped talking. I think it might have something to do with my getting engaged to Luka.’

‘What is in the parcel?’ Her father changed the subject and Sophie let out a tense breath as she set down the food and pulled out some plates.

‘Bella gave me my birthday present a day early. It’s my dress for my engagement. I’m going to try it on when I have had my shower. Father...’ As she cut up the loaf Sophie did her best to sound casual. ‘You remember you said I could have my mother’s jewellery when I got engaged?’

‘I said that you could have it when you got married.’

‘No!’ Sophie corrected. ‘You told me years ago that I could have it when Luka and I got engaged. Can I have them now, please? I want to see how my dress looks with everything.’

‘Sophie I’ve just sat down...’

‘Then I will fetch them if you tell me where they are.’

Her father let out a sigh of relief as the phone rang and, though not prepared to get her mother’s jewellery, he happily headed out to answer the phone.

He was always making excuses. For years Sophie had been asking for her mother’s necklace and earrings and always he came up with different reason why she couldn’t have them yet.

‘Father...’ she started as he came back into the kitchen.

‘Not now, Sophie. Malvolio has called a meeting.’

‘But it’s Sunday,’ Sophie said.

‘He said that there is something important that needs to be discussed.’

‘Well, surely it can wait till Monday?’

‘Enough, Sophie,’ her father snapped. ‘It is not for me to question him.’

‘Why not?’ Sophie challenged. She was sick and tired of her father being Malvolio’s puppet. ‘What is this meeting about? Or is it just an excuse to sit in the bar for the evening?’

Surprisingly, her father laughed. ‘You sound just like your mother.’

Everyone said the same. Rosa had had fire apparently, not that Sophie could remember her as she had died when Sophie was two.

‘Here,’ Paulo said, and handed her a small pouch. ‘These are her jewels.’

Sophie let out a small gasp and then looked at her father and saw that he was sweating and a little grey.

‘This means so much.’

‘I know,’ Paulo said, his voice shaken. ‘There are only her earrings.’

‘I thought there was a necklace...’ In all the photos Rosa wore a simple gold cross but she could hear the emotion in her father’s voice when he told her that he didn’t have it.

‘It was a very fine chain. I believe that it came off in the accident. Even after all these years I still look for it in the bushes when I take my walk in the morning. I wanted you to have it. I’m so sorry that I cannot give that to you.’

‘Is that why you haven’t let me have them?’ Sophie asked. ‘Father, I just wanted something...anything of hers...’ She looked at the fine gold hoops, that had a small diamond in each, with tears in her eyes. ‘And now I have her earrings. Thank you so much.’

‘I have to go to my meeting,’ Paulo said, and Sophie pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to fight, especially not when he had just given her something so precious, but her father looked terrible and she really did want him to rest. ‘I’ll try and get back for dinner.’

Sophie simply could not hold her tongue. ‘If Malvolio lets you.’

She saw her father’s eyes shut for a brief moment before he turned and headed for the door.

Sophie knew it might be kinder to apologise and that she was maybe making things harder for her father by admitting her truth but she didn’t like his involvement with Malvolio.

‘Father, I don’t know if I am ready to get engaged...’ She held her breath as her father’s shoulders stiffened.

‘It is normal to be nervous,’ her father said, but did not turn around. ‘Sophie, I have to go.’

‘Father, please, can we talk...?’

But the door had already closed.

Sophie walked around the small home and picked up a picture of her mother. She could see the similarities there—they had the same long black hair, the same dark brown eyes and full lips. Oh, Sophie wished she was here, just for a moment. She missed having a mother to give her advice so badly.

‘I am so confused,’ Sophie admitted to the photo of Rosa. A part of her dreaded being married, yet there was another part of her that longed to see Luka again, the man who had always filled her dreams. She had always looked up to him, had always nursed a crush on him, and she wanted her first kiss to belong to them and to be made love to by Luka.

What would Luka want, though?

She blushed in embarrassment at the thought of him returning and being forced to marry her.

No doubt he was dreading next weekend and returning to uphold his father’s commitment for him to marry poor little Sophie Durante.

Was that the hold Malvolio had over her father? Sophie wondered.

Well, she didn’t need charity and she would tell her father that.

She put down the photo, took her parcel upstairs and finally opened it.

The dress was exquisite. It was in the softest chiffon and the colour was a very pale coral. Sophie badly wanted to try it on but she had a very quick shower and washed her hair and then combed it before picking up the dress.

She slipped it over her head and looked in the mirror.

Sophie found she was holding her breath. All those hours standing as Bella had pinned sheets of paper had been worth it for this moment.

The dress was amazing. It was scooped low at the front and showed Sophie’s cleavage. Of course, it would need a bra but even without it was somehow both elegant and sexy. It came in at the waist and then fell in layers, emphasising her curves when usually Sophie did what she could to downplay them.

Yes, she knew she should take it off but instead she put on her mother’s earrings and found the lip glaze she had bought.

Working at the hotel, Sophie was used to seeing beautiful women but this afternoon, for the first time in her life, she felt like one.

Now she blushed for different reasons when she imagined facing Luka.

She wanted him to see her grown up.

Briefly she imagined his mouth on hers but a loud knocking on the door snapped her out of her daydream.

It sounded urgent and Sophie ran through the house but she smiled when she opened the door and saw that it was just Pino on his bike.

He was twelve years old and everyone used him as a messenger.

‘Malvolio wants you to go to his home,’ Pino said in a self-important voice.

‘Malvolio.’ Sophie frowned. She had never been to Malvolio’s home. ‘Why? What does he want?’

‘I was just told to give you the message,’ Pino said, balancing on his bike. ‘He said that it is important and that you’re to go there now.’

Sophie went and got Pino some money and thanked him but her heart was racing.

Why would Malvolio ask her to go to his home?

She had assumed that he and her father were meeting at the hotel bar.

Sophie thought of her father’s grey complexion and the sweat on his face and was suddenly worried that he might have been taken ill.

She slipped on some sandals and ran up the hill towards Malvolio’s spectacular home, which overlooked not just the ocean but the entire town. Once there she took a breath and then knocked on the door. She didn’t want to be there but he had summoned her after all.

No one ever said no to Malvolio.

CHAPTER TWO

‘WHY DON’T YOU ask Sophie to come over?’

Luka let out a tense breath at his father’s suggestion. Against his father’s wishes he had been in London for the last six years, at first studying but now he was now starting to make a name for himself.

He had offered some financial advice to a boutique hotel, but when unable to pay him to implement the changes Luka had offered to work for them for a stake in the hotel.

It had been a gamble. For a year he had worked for nothing by day and earned money by working in a bar at night.

Now, though, the hotel was starting to flourish and Luka owned ten percent of a thriving business.

Luka had his start.

He could have it all here, he knew that.

His father was one of the wealthiest men in Sicily, and he should be stepping in now. His father thought he was back to settle down and start taking over his empire, but instead Luka was choosing to step out for good.

His time away had opened his eyes. With an increasing awareness of his father’s corrupt ways he had chosen to stay away and had made only the occasional trip home to Sicily.

Deliberately he hadn’t seen or spoken to Sophie in that time.

And in that time an awful lot had changed.

‘It might be nice to spend some time with her before the engagement party,’ Malvolio pushed. ‘Angela will be at church all day and I know that there is a bible meeting this evening she wants to attend,’ he said, referring to their maid. ‘I’ll go out and give you two some time—’

‘There isn’t going to be an engagement party,’ Luka said, and met the eyes of his father—a man who he did not even recognise, for Luka had come to understand that he had never really known his father at all. ‘Because there isn’t going to be an engagement. I’m not marrying Sophie Durante.’

‘But the two of you have been promised to each other since childhood.’

‘That was your promise, not mine,’ Luka said. ‘You chose my future wife, the same way you have chosen for me to follow in the family business. I’m here to tell you that I am going to be returning to London. I’m not going to live and work here.’

‘You can’t do that to Paulo, to Sophie.’

‘Don’t pretend you care about them,’ Luka said, and watched his father start to breathe harder as he realised the challenge he was facing.

‘I won’t let you do it to me,’ Malvolio said. ‘You will not shame the Cavaliere name.’

Luka jaw gritted. His father had no shame. His father took from the poor, from the sick, his father ruled the people of Bordo Del Cielo with an iron fist—there was the real shame.

‘I will speak with Sophie’s father and explain that I will not have a bride chosen for me. The same way that I will not have my career, nor the place on this planet where I live, dictated to me.’

‘You will destroy Sophie’s reputation.’

‘I am not discussing this,’ Luka said. ‘I am telling you that I shall speak with Paulo about my decision and then, if he will allow me to, I will talk to Sophie myself.’

‘You are not returning to London, you will work with me. After all I have done for you—’

‘Don’t!’ Luka said. ‘Don’t say that you did all this for me when I never asked for any of it.’

‘But you took,’ Malvolio said. ‘You have lived in the best home and I gave you the very best education. I have a business waiting for you to take over. I will not let you walk out on that.’

‘Let me?’ Luka checked. ‘It’s not for you to choose how I live. I don’t need your permission for anything.’ He went to walk off but his father stopped him in the way he knew best.

Luka, at twenty-four, could have halted the punch that was coming to him but he did not. His father sent him crashing back into the wall and there was a gush of warm blood down his face. Not that it would stop Malvolio.

His only son, his only child was now turning his back on everything Malvolio had worked for and Luka had known that it would come to this.

Too often, growing up, it had.

As his head hit the wall his father thumped him in the stomach and as Luka doubled over Malvolio’s fist came into his ribs, but all it did was reaffirm to Luka that his decision to leave for good was the right one.

While he did not hit his father, Luka pulled himself back to his feet and faced him. ‘Clever men fight with their minds,’ Luka said, as Malvolio raised his fist again. ‘Whereas you instil fear...’ He shrugged his father off. ‘But not in me. The next punch you deliver will be returned,’ he warned—and he meant it.

‘You will marry her.’

Luka might not have fought back but anger raged through his veins. He loathed his father’s assumptions and the way he dictated his life, and he told him so.

‘I live in London,’ he shouted. ‘I date models now, glamorous, sophisticated women, not some peasant that you have chosen for me.’

‘I have to go to a meeting,’ Malvolio hissed. ‘We will speak of this when I return.’

Luka said nothing, standing bruised and bleeding and a bit breathless as his father picked up his car keys and stormed out.

He headed up to his old bedroom and stripped off his shirt then went into his bathroom and examined the damage.

There was bruising to his ribcage and on his shoulder where it had met the wall. An old gash above his eyes had opened up and probably needed stitching.

Not now, though.

For now he would patch himself up and then head to the airport. He might call Matteo and ask if he wanted to meet for a drink but they would meet at the airport.

He was done with Bordo Del Cielo.

Sophie.

As he splashed cold water on his face he thought of her.

Yes, this would be hell for her, Luka knew that and it didn’t sit right with him. Perhaps before he left for good he should go and speak with Paulo and maybe Sophie too.

He pressed his bloodied shirt over his eye and went into his suitcase to find a fresh one. He hadn’t unpacked. Luka hadn’t even been back home for an hour before the argument had started.

He heard a knock at the door but ignored it.

Angela could get it, but then he remembered that she was at church.

There was another knock but more loudly this time, and Luka headed down the stairs and opened the door.

The breath that had just returned after his father had knocked it out of him stilled inside Luka now.

His voice, when it finally came, was low and curious, and even though he said but one word there was a slight huskiness.

‘Sophie?’

He was struggling to meet her eyes. In the argument that had just taken place, as he had attempted to wrestle back his life from his father’s control, things had been said about Sophie.

Things she did not deserve.

It had been said in the heat of the moment. Vile words in a vile row and Luka could taste bitterness along with blood in his mouth.

Now, though, as finally he looked at her, there was a pleasant silence. No other thoughts other than this moment.

Her eyes were the same, yet more knowing. Her mouth was full and she was wearing a little make-up.

Her hair was thicker and longer.

And her body—he could not help but briefly look down. The skinny teenager he remembered had left and in her place stood a very beautiful woman.

One whose heart he was about to break.

CHAPTER THREE

‘LUKA?’ SOPHIE FROWNED. ‘I didn’t think you were getting here till Wednesday.’

‘There was a change of plan.’

‘What happened?’ Sophie asked.

‘I decided to fly home earlier—’

‘I meant to your face.’

‘It’s just a cut,’ Luka said. ‘An old cut that opened up.’

‘The bruises are new,’ Sophie pointed out, and he gave a pale smile.

‘My father,’ he admitted.

Sophie didn’t really know what to say to that so she cleared her throat and got back to the reason she was standing at the door.

‘I just had a message from Pino. Your father said I was to come here. That it was important.’

‘I can guess why,’ Luka said. No doubt his father had thought that one look at Sophie and he would change his mind. Well, he wasn’t that shallow. He saw her frown as he explained things a little better. ‘I think my father wanted us to be alone.’

‘Oh.’

‘You know how manipulative he can be,’ Luka said.

She didn’t answer. Everyone might think that of Malvolio but no one would ever dare to say it.

‘Come in, Sophie.’ He held open the door and after a moment’s hesitation she stepped inside. ‘We need to talk.’ She followed him through to the kitchen, her eyes taking in his back and wide shoulders, and she felt very small and not in a nice way.

He was so glossy, so sophisticated, he was everything that she wasn’t.

Of course he wouldn’t want her.

And now, from the little he had said, and the way he couldn’t quite meet her eyes, Sophie guessed she was about to be told that.

Yes, she had her doubts about the engagement—yes, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get married—but it felt very different from being told to your face that you weren’t wanted.

‘I just need to sort out this cut,’ Luka said. ‘Take a seat.’

She didn’t.

‘I don’t know where Angela keeps the first-aid kit,’ Luka continued as he went through the cupboards. ‘Here it is.’ Sophie watched as he pulled out a small first-aid kit and even smiled as his long fingers tried to open a sticking plaster while holding the shirt over his eye.

‘It needs more than a plaster,’ Sophie said. ‘You need a doctor to stitch it.’

‘I’ll get it sutured tomorrow if it needs it,’ Luka said. ‘In London.’

He looked up and caught her eye but she didn’t respond to his opening.

She’d damn well make him say it, Sophie decided.

‘I’ll do it,’ Sophie said, because it really was a nasty cut. She took out the scissors then cut the sticking plaster into thin strips onto the kitchen bench, and as she did so Luka spoke.

‘You look well.’

Sophie gave a wry smile. At least he had got to see her in her beautiful dress, she thought with slight relish. She knew she looked her very best and it was a rather nice thing to know when you were about to be dumped.

Let him think she ran around on a Sunday in coral chiffon with lip gloss and jewellery...

And no underwear, Sophie remembered, as she jumped up onto the kitchen bench and quickly put her dress between her thighs.

‘Come here,’ Sophie said, now that she had set up for the small procedure.

‘I don’t want to get blood on your dress.’

It didn’t matter now if her dress was ruined, Sophie knew. This was the only time that he’d be seeing her in it. ‘Oh, this old thing.’ She shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Luka went over to where she sat and stood as Sophie concentrated on closing the cut.

‘Why were you two fighting?’

‘We weren’t fighting,’ Luka said. ‘He was taking out his temper on me. I chose not to hit him back. This one last time.’

‘I hate how he treats you,’ Sophie said, and her hand paused over the cut as she deliberated with herself whether or not to continue. ‘How he treats everyone.’

She thought of Bella and if there was any good that could come out of this then she’d damn well find it.

‘Bella’s mother is sick,’ Sophie said. ‘She can’t work and now he wants Bella to start doing shifts at the hotel bar.’ She assumed, given that his eyes refused to meet hers, that he knew what that meant. ‘Can you speak with him for me?’