Captive in His Castle (14 page)

‘You mean Stan the Van? He does most of the driving to job sites.’

‘And the guy with spiky pink hair and a missing front tooth?’

Jess grinned. ‘He’s called Sharky because he’s Australian and has a scar that he says is from where he
was bitten by a shark, but no one believes him.’ She hesitated. ‘I know they’re a bit rough round the edges, but they’re great guys and they have been like a family to me.’

Drago glanced at her and felt again that curious tug on his insides as he thought how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress. ‘Now you are a member of the Cassari family,’ he said gently. ‘But we’ll go to London often, so that you can visit your friends. I own a penthouse in Park Lane.’

The address of his London apartment was a reminder that they came from different worlds, Jess thought ruefully. She couldn’t help feeling worried again that she would not fit into his sophisticated lifestyle with his glamorous friends.

‘By the way, Sebastian Loxley is in prison.’

She shot him a startled look. ‘How do you know?’

‘I hired someone to track him down.’ Drago gave a grim smile. ‘I wanted to have a…let’s call it a
discussion,’
he said in a dangerous voice, ‘about the way he treated you. But for now he’s out of my reach—serving eight years for credit card fraud.’

‘I’m glad,’ Jess said shakily. ‘At least while he’s in prison he can’t hurt anyone else.’

Tired after the hectic day, she slept for much of the three-hour drive to the north of Italy, and woke to find the car was winding up a steep road surrounded by mountains.

‘Welcome to Casa Rosa,’ Drago said as he pulled up on the driveway of a picturesque alpine lodge.

The lower slopes of the mountains were grassy meadows, but the highest peaks of the Alps were still covered in snow that reflected the fiery brilliance of the setting sun.

‘I’ve never been this close to mountains before,’ Jess murmured in an awed voice as she looked around at the breathtaking scenery.

‘In the winter even the lower slopes are covered in snow.’ Drago smiled at her. ‘After the baby is born I’ll teach you to ski, if you like.’

Jess gave him a puzzled look. ‘But who would look after the baby while we were skiing?’

‘We will employ a nanny. You’ll need help with the baby. Although I intend to cut down my work commitments, I’ll still need to spend time running the company.’

While he was speaking Drago led the way into the house—a charming lodge with low ceilings, wood-panelled walls and stripped-pine floorboards scattered with colourful rugs.

But Jess did not notice the quaint charm of the house as she said fiercely, ‘I don’t want a nanny. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my baby.’

Seeing the light of battle in her eyes, Drago held back from telling her that he planned to hire a nanny so that he and Jess could enjoy some time together. Much as he was looking forward to being a father, he intended to be a very attentive husband. ‘We’ll discuss it another time,’ he murmured. ‘For now, I think you should go to bed. You must be tired after a busy day.’

‘I slept in the car,’ Jess reminded him, ‘and I’m not at all tired.’ Her heart missed a beat when he cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face to his.

‘Good. I’m not tired either.’ His deep voice seemed to wrap around her like a cloak of crushed velvet. ‘So, what do you think that two people who are on their honeymoon and who are not tired should do,
cara?’

His mouth was tantalisingly close to hers. Jess licked
her suddenly dry lips and watched his eyes blaze with feral hunger. ‘I think they should go to bed,’ she answered huskily.

‘How can our marriage be anything but a success when we are clearly on the same wavelength?’

His sexy smile stole her breath. And then he kissed her and the world went away.

The master bedroom had a wall of glass that gave stunning views of the mountains. In the purple softness of dusk Drago removed her wedding dress and the tiny wisps of lacy underwear, and Jess helped him out of his grey wedding suit, her fingers clumsy with impatience as she undid his shirt buttons.

‘My wife,’ he said softly, testing the words.

They sounded good. Better than good. They sounded like the most beautiful words Drago had ever heard. But he wasn’t ready to share his deepest thoughts with her when they were so new to him, and so he told her instead how beautiful she was as he kissed her mouth and her breasts, and the sweetly sensitive place between her thighs. And when she cried his name he lifted himself above her and sank his powerful erection into her slick heat so that they became one.

He made love to her with passion and an underlying tenderness that touched Jess’s soul. And in the aftermath of their mutual pleasure, when he gathered her close to his chest and they watched the stars pinprick the night sky, she knew that he had captured her heart and would hold it prisoner for all time.

‘D
O YOU REALLY
use the hot tub in winter?’ Jess asked the next day, as she and Drago relaxed in the frothing water of the tub, which was positioned on the terrace and afforded a stunning view of the surrounding mountains. ‘It must be freezing, running back to the house through the snow in a towel.’

His eyes glinted wickedly. ‘There are ways to quickly restore body heat,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll give you a demonstration later.’ He climbed out of the hot tub and pulled on a bathrobe. ‘But first I have a surprise for you.’

‘I feel bad that I haven’t given you a wedding present,’ Jess murmured as she wrapped a towel around her and followed him back to the house.

‘In a few months you will give me a child, and that’s the only gift I want.’

His words were a timely reminder that she was only here at this beautiful mountain retreat as his wife because she had conceived his baby. Jess pushed the thought away when she saw a large wooden chest on the floor of the sitting room.

‘My wood-carvings!’ she said in delight.

‘I had all your tools and the carvings that you kept in your workshop sent over from London,’ Drago explained.
‘I’m having a room prepared at the
palazzo
for you to use as a studio.’

Jess had opened the storage trunk and was on her knees searching through it.

Drago took out an exquisite carving of an eagle and inspected it with a growing sense of incredulity. ‘Your work is amazing. The detail on this eagle’s wings is astounding.’ As he studied a carving of a lion, which was perfect in every detail, he recognised that Jess had a very special talent. ‘Each piece must take hours to complete. Have you had any formal training in art?’

‘No. I would have loved to study art at college,’ she revealed wistfully, ‘but when I left school I needed to work to support myself.’

Drago picked up another sculpture of a young child. The detail on the face was so perfect that the small wooden figure was uncannily lifelike. He was puzzled as he watched Jess take other figurines from the chest. There were seven in all, clearly of the same little girl at different stages of her life—from a tiny baby lying in a carved crib to a child standing on skis, smiling joyfully.

‘These figurines are so beautiful,
cara
. Who is the child?’ Drago stared intently at the wooden figure he was holding and then at Jess. ‘She looks a little like you.’

‘Do you think so?’

A tremor shook her voice, and the expression in her eyes was so bleak and full of pain that Drago drew a sharp breath.

‘Jess, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?’

He stretched out a hand to her, but she turned away and began to place the carvings back in the box. ‘I’m not crying, and nothing is wrong.’ She stood up and gave him a fiercely bright smile. ‘Everything is wonderful,’ Jess insisted.

But Drago sensed she was keeping something from him, and once again frustration surged through him that she did not feel able to reveal the secrets that he could tell haunted her.

‘The weather is too nice for us to stay indoors. Let’s go for a walk higher in the mountains.’

Beneath the request Drago caught an almost desperate plea in her voice. He was tempted to shake her, to
force
her to open up to him and explain the cause of the tears that she sought to hide from him. It was not surprising that Jess had trust issues after the diabolical way she had been treated by the lowlife scum who had seduced her when she had been a vulnerable teenager, he reminded himself, but surely she knew he was nothing like Sebastian Loxley?

Her lack of trust in him was tearing him apart, and with a savage oath he caught hold of her shoulder and spun her round to face him. ‘Who is Katie?’ he demanded urgently.

His instincts told him that the name Jess cried out in her sleep, a person she denied she knew, was the cause of the raw anguish in her eyes. He glanced at the wooden figurine he was still holding and somehow knew it had a connection to Katie. The little wooden child had been carved with such infinite care, such
love
.

He stared at Jess, and his gut clenched when he saw her fearful expression.
‘Tesoro,’
he said thickly, ‘do you really think I could ever hurt you?’

She swallowed and shook her head. ‘No,’ she whispered.

Drago released his breath slowly. ‘Tell me about Katie,
cara
. Who is she?’

In the silent room the ticking of the cuckoo clock on the mantelpiece echoed the painful thud of Jess’s heart.
She felt as though she was standing on the edge of a precipice, but when she looked into Drago’s dark eyes she knew suddenly that he would catch her if she fell, that she would always be safe with him. She thought of their wedding the previous day. He had gone to so much effort to make the day special for her, and when he had looked into her eyes while they had made their vows his tender expression had reassured her that she could have faith in him.

‘You’re holding her,’ she said huskily. She gazed at the wooden figurine in his hand. ‘Katie is my daughter.’

More shocked than he had ever been in his life, Drago forced himself to speak calmly. ‘You have a child? Where is she? And who is her father?’ His eyes narrowed on Jess’s white face and the truth hit him as if he had been punched in the stomach. ‘It’s Loxley, isn’t it?’

‘He didn’t want to know when I told him I was pregnant.’ Jess’s voice was a thread of sound. ‘I was seventeen, alone, and terrified about the court case I was facing for the fraud charge. My social worker suggested that it might be best for the baby to be adopted and…and I agreed, because I didn’t know how I would cope.’

Jess closed her eyes and so did not see the conflicting emotions that crossed Drago’s face: anger at the man who had hurt her so badly, and a depth of compassion for Jess that made him pull her into his arms and simply hold her tight.

He stroked her hair, and the gentle caress calmed Jess a little. ‘The baby was born on the fifth of April,’ she said quietly, wanting to tell him everything now—needing to let out the pain she had lived with for so long. ‘She was such a pretty thing. I’d never seen anything so perfect. I called her Katie because it was the
prettiest name I could think of, and I took her home because I loved her more than anything in the world and I wanted to keep her.’

Tears slipped down her cheeks. ‘I was living with Ted and Margaret by then, and they were so supportive. But I had no job or money. I loved my beautiful baby, but I knew that she needed more than I could give her. The couple who wanted to adopt her had tried for a baby for ten years and they were desperate to have Katie. They promised they would love her and give her the happy and safe childhood that I hadn’t had. When she was three weeks old I cuddled her and kissed her one last time, and told her that I would never, ever forget her.’

The tears were falling harder now, and as Drago pulled her close she clung to him and her shoulders shook. ‘And then I gave her to the social worker and that was the last time I saw my baby.’

‘It’s all right,
tesoro
, it’s all right. Let the tears fall.’ Drago did not know what to say. There were no words that would help. So he simply held Jess tight and laid a cheek that was wet with his own tears against her hair.

‘Once a year Katie’s adoptive parents send me a photo of her,’ Jess continued after a moment in a choked voice. ‘They moved to Canada when she was a year old, and they live in a beautiful house in the mountains where Katie is learning to ski. She has a pony, and for her seventh birthday her parents gave her a puppy. They adore Katie, and I can see from the photos that she is happy. She knows she is adopted, and when she is eighteen she can decide if she wants to meet me. Every year I carve a new figure of her in the hope that if we do ever meet I will be able to show her that even though we were apart she was always in my heart.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me about her before?’ Drago said quietly.

‘I was afraid to,’ she admitted. ‘I was scared you would think badly of me because I gave my baby away, and maybe you would think I wouldn’t be a good mother to our child.’

He shook his head. ‘How could I think badly of you? I think you are incredible. Your decision to allow Katie to be adopted was utterly selfless. You put her best interests before your own happiness.’

He dropped his arms to his sides as an agonising realisation became clear to him. ‘That is the reason you agreed to marry me, isn’t it?’ Drago said hoarsely. His throat felt as if he had swallowed broken glass. ‘You chose what you believed to be best for our child over what you wanted—which was the freedom to return to your friends in London.’

‘That’s not true,’ Jess said shakily, stunned by the raw emotion in his voice.

‘It
is
true. You admitted the day you went on your own to Murano that you felt smothered and missed your independence. You didn’t tell me about Katie because you didn’t trust me—and I understand,
cara
, I understand why you find it hard to trust, but I hoped I had shown that you could trust me.’

He brushed a hand across his eyes and grimaced when he felt his wet lashes. His heart was being shredded and he was in agony. ‘After what happened with Loxley it’s not surprising that you felt you had no option but to accept my proposal rather than struggle to bring up a child on your own. And so you chose to sacrifice your personal happiness and marry me.’

His voice deepened. ‘You once accused me of keeping you a prisoner, but now I am offering you your freedom.
If you want to go back to England, you and the baby, I won’t stop you. All I insist is that you will allow me to support you both financially. And of course I will want to visit our child often. But I have to tell you…’ He took a harsh breath and felt his lungs burn. ‘I have to tell you that the thought of living without you kills me.’

Drago looked into Jess’s eyes, uncaring that there were tears on his face, unable to hide any longer how he felt for her.

‘I love you, Jess. I didn’t ask you to marry me just because of the baby. The truth is I want you in my life, always and for ever. But I was a coward and I didn’t want to admit how I felt, so I used your pregnancy as an excuse to force you to marry me.’

He swallowed as he saw a tear slide down her cheek. ‘Say something,’ he pleaded.

‘You really love me?’ Jess was afraid to believe him—afraid to believe in the happiness that was slowly unfurling inside her.

‘I adore you. I desired you the second I laid eyes on you, and I think I fell in love with you when I caught you trying to escape from the
palazzo
by climbing down from a second-floor balcony.’ Drago’s patience snapped, and with a groan he pulled her into his arms and threaded his hands through her vibrant hair. ‘Jess,
ti amo!
Please say you’ll stay with me and let me love you and take care of you and our baby.’

Jess looked into his eyes and saw the intensity of his emotions, and she finally believed.

‘I will,’ she said softly. ‘I love you with all my heart. You stormed into my life, and from that day I knew that you were the only man I would ever love.’ She heard him catch his breath when he saw her love for him blaze in her green eyes. ‘I would trust you with my life.’

‘Tesoro…’
Drago’s voice cracked, but there was no need for words when he kissed her with such tender passion, such love, that Jess felt her heart would burst with happiness.

‘My heart is your willing prisoner,’ she whispered against his lips, ‘and I never want you to set it free.’

‘I’ve thrown away the key,’ he promised as he swept her up and carried her to the bedroom, where he undressed them both and worshipped her body with loving caresses until she gasped his name.

He made love to her with exquisite care, and afterwards, as they lay content in each other’s arms, he pressed his lips to her stomach, where his child lay, and told her that he was the happiest man in the world.