Coercion to Love (13 page)

Cass didn't answer immediately, having to fight a private battle with herself. The extra weeks in this man's company could prove disastrous to her own feelings. In the meantime it would also take Terri further and further away from her. But he was right—a week really wasn't time enough to give him a fair chance with his daughter.

'A holiday, Cassandra, nothing more,' he pressed her gruffly. 'Time to relax in the sun, and enjoy my hospitality, can only be good for both of you...'

'All right,' she agreed reluctantly, wondering even as she said it whether she was making the worst decision of her life. She was very much afraid that when those weeks were up she would be leaving Italy with nothing. Not Terri. Not even her heart.

The Hotel Valenti Grande was as luxurious as Cass had expected it to be. Carlo guided her across the forecourt from where he had parked the car, and, with an impersonal hand on her arm, he guided her behind the reception desk and into an elegant office, where he formally introduced her to his manager as, 'Miss Marlow, a guest in my home.' Nothing more, nothing less. 'Guido Renaldi, my manager,' he completed the introduction.

Cass saw the glint of interest light the younger man's eyes. 'Would that we all could have guests as beautiful, Miss Marlow,' he smilingly complimented her, and earned himself a scowl from his employer.

'I shall be as brief as I can,' Carlo said coolly, then strode over to the desk, placing himself in the chair behind it and snatching up the telephone receiver, his business manner as surely in place as his overriding passion had been earlier.

With all the inherent charm of his Italian nature, Guido Renaldi invited her to sit on the long cream leather sofa set along one wall, and joined her there. Then, either ignoring or just simply careless of his employer's narrow-eyed glare as Carlo sat barking out instructions via the telephone, he settled himself down to flirt outrageously with Cass.

She took it all in her stride, enjoying his amusing banter because it meant so little to her. Guido Renaldi had no chance of turning her head when it had already been turned by a past master at the art! she acknowledged ruefully.

When Carlo eventually came off the phone, his mouth was set and grim. 'How heavily is the yacht committed during the next three weeks?' he asked the younger man curtly.

Guido's dark brown eyes gave a flicker of amusement at his tone, but he answered smoothly enough, 'I don't know. I'll have to check. Why?' he then asked innocently. 'Who do you wish to impress with it—is it for business or pleasure you require it?' he then added goadingly.

It was obvious that Guido did not hold Carlo in any awe by his tone alone, but even he stopped grinning when Carlo said, 'Pleasure,' while sliding his gaze over Cass in a way which brought the colour pouring into her cheeks.

Cass shot to her feet, infuriated by the inflexion he had deliberately placed into all of that. Her eyes shifted to the amused face of Guido, and glinted calculatingly. 'Perhaps you would like to join us, Guido,' she suggested silkily, sending the manager a bewitching smile. 'We could make it a foursome—since Carlo will have his time taken up with Teresa. After all,' she added, 'it is for her sake that he wants to take the cruise...'

Sparks flew across the room while a hugely entertained Guido observed it all, reading into what she had said everything he was expected to read.

'Grazie, signorina,' he bowed graciously. 'I would be honoured to be your—companion for the day.'

'You may change your mind when I tell you that Sabrina Reducci is coming too.' Carlo's eyes held Cass's in cruel triumph as his counter-punch hit her firmly on the chin.

'Ah, no, Carlo, my friend-----' Guido stared at him in horror '—not the lovely Sabrina also? You take two beautiful women for a day cruise on your yacht, and invite the very possessive Sabrina along?' He affected a disappointed sigh. 'I worry about you, Carlo, I really do...' Then he looked tragically at Cass. 'The man has no finesse!' he complained.

'I know,' she agreed, hating Carlo more than she'd ever hated him.

'Tell me,' Guido went on interestedly, 'what is this Teresa like? Will she be able to fight Sabrina for her handsome host's attention?'

Cass glanced defiantly at Carlo while he glared grimly back at her. The phone began to ring on the desk, and, still smiling, Guido lifted the receiver, then smiled even more when, after a moment, he offered the receiver to Carlo. 'It is for you, amico,' he murmured softly. 'Sabrina.'

The receiver changed hands, Cass and Carlo still locked in a battle with their eyes across the width of the room. 'Ah, mi amore...' he murmured, his deep voice dropping into the same huskily intimate Italian tones he had used with such devastating effect on her earlier.

Cass spun away so that he wouldn't see the angry self-disgust in her eyes. It all came so damned easily to him! Guido moved over to her side, and gently took her arm. 'We will leave the signore to his—privacy, signorina,'' he suggested quietly, 'while you and I adjourn to the restaurant for some refreshment.'

Outside the door, he burst out laughing. 'What is going on between you and my old friend?' he demanded. 'I have never seen him so uptight about a woman before— and a red-haired villain of a one, too!'

His dark head shook in rueful disbelief, and Cass turned a fulminating look on him. 'All that flirting with me in there was done just to tease him, wasn't it?' she accused.

'He deserved it,' Guido grinned. 'No man of Carlo Valenti's sophistication should wear his feelings on his sleeve and not expect to be teased about it! He could not take his eyes off you! Come,' he appealed to her with a disarming smile when her cheeks burned up all over again, 'forgive me for using you as bait. And allow me to take you for some refreshment to make amends.' His hand guided her across the foyer and through the doors of the restaurant. 'And you can tell me all about this mysterious Teresa, so I can then understand why you use her as a shield against the undeniable battle going on between you and my employer!'

But Cass had no intention of discussing Terri with Guido. If Carlo wanted to keep his daughter a secret, then it wasn't her place to speak.

'Aha!' Guido cried, when she didn't even smile. 'I sense a real mystery here.'

'Your English is very good,' she observed, deftly changing the subject.

He looked affronted as he held her chair for her. 'Of course it is good!' he exclaimed arrogantly. 'I work for Carlo Valenti! Nobody works for the Valenti organisation unless they are the best!' He took the seat opposite her, a smooth lift of his hand instantly catching a hovering waiter's attention. 'I speak fluent English, French, Spanish and German—besides my own native tongue of course. And can also get by in several Arabic dialects, and hold my own quite well in Japanese.'

'I do beg your pardon,' Cass laughed. 'And I speak only one language,' she admitted ruefully. 'English—very badly.'

'You do nothing badly, mi amore,' a deep voice drawled from just behind her, and Cass shivered involuntarily as two hands came possessively on her shoulders. 'Grazie, Guido, for taking care of Cassandra for me, but...' Carlo was already propelling her out of the chair while his friend looked on in amusement'., .we really don't have time today to linger and chat.' The last word was said as a clipped-off rebuke which seemed to sail right over Guido's elegant head. 'We will see you again soon, no doubt.'

'And with your other friend—Teresa—perhaps?' Guido taunted.

'Ah, yes...' Carlo paused in the process of turning away, his hands sliding down Cass's arm to take tight hold of her slender wrist '...my daughter,' he announced, and had the satisfaction of seeing the smile wiped off Guido's stunned face. 'Cassandra and Teresa will be staying with me for some time. Time enough for you to meet Teresa, I am sure. You will like her, Guido,' he smoothly assured his employee. 'She looks exactly like me—but she has Cassandra's smile.'

'Do you realise what you've just done?' Cass choked as soon as they were alone in the car with the dark head of Guido visible from the hotel doorway, his expression still stunned.

'Mi scusi?' he questioned innocently. 'My Eengleesh eet eez nota gooda!'

'Your English is better than mine—and you know it!' she snapped, sitting stiffly on the edge of the Ferrari's cream leather seat, so angry that she couldn't relax back. 'You've just deliberately and intentionally made him believe that Teresa is our child! Which automatically implies that you and me have been...' She couldn't say it;

It dried up her throat to even try! She gave a short huff of disgust.

'Do not "deliberate" and "intentional" mean the same thing, caro’ Carlo murmured thoughtfully, slipping the car into gear and moving smoothly away. 'You are right, you know; your English is not good. Guido was asking for it,' he then inserted grimly. 'And so were you, flirting with him like that.'

'I can flirt with whom I please!' she informed him crossly, sending him a sparkling look. 'Just because you've decided that you wa-----' Her lips snapped-shut, horrified by what she had been about to blurt out.

But Carlo bore no such sensitivity. 'Want you?' he finished for her, watching her with scant regard to the road they were moving along. 'But we have established that fact already. And I made you an assurance that I shall do my best to keep. But don't think,' he warned, 'that I will also stand by and watch another man move in on something I am denying myself!'

'I belong to nobody,' she breathed, feeling a little desperate inside.

'You belong to me!' he ground out, sending the car flying as his foot went angrily down on the accelerator. 'As long as you stay in my home and care for my daughter, you, Cassandra Marlow, belong—to—me!'

'Do those rules cover your behaviour with the lovely Sabrina?' she couldn't resist sniping, revealing enough in that telling little remark to bring his lazy smile back.

'Any time you wish to put Sabrina in her place about me, then please be my guest,' he granted. 'I think I may even enjoy watching you do it.'

'Well, don't hold your breath,' she muttered.

The car swerved to a lurching halt, forcing other vehicles following behind them to swerve on a screech of burning rubber around them. Cass stiffened warily in her seat, eyes flicking nervously to the man beside her, who was in the process of lurching his lean body around so that he could glare at her.

'You always have to have the last word, don't you?' he ground out angrily. 'Always have to make the final thrust with your clever tongue before you can feel comfortable again!'

'Who said I was comfortable?' she choked, as aware of the chaos their argument was causing outside the car as she was of the chaos inside it. 'It's you who seems to have forgotten that I am only here because of Teresa!' she flared. 'Otherwise you wouldn't be giving me the time of the damned day!'

'You are here because we are crazy about each other!' he bit out roughly, the air rattling from between his clenched white teeth. 'And Teresa had nothing whatsoever to do with it!'

Cass looked away, knowing she was turning away from the terrifying truth in his words.

Slowly, the anger died from his eyes as he continued to study her flushed, confused profile, then he sighed heavily. 'Be calm, Cassandra,' he murmured drily, relaxing back into his seat. 'I have no desire to alienate you when we have only just begun to understand each other. These next three weeks were offered as a way for us all to get to know each other better, and that...' the car began moving again '... is what I intend to do with them.'

And that had been a firm decree, and not just mere hearsay, Cass discovered as he put himself out to turn their stay into a glorious whirl of doing together and being together. Each morning she and Terri were awoken to a new and exciting plan for the day.

They visited the old town of La Pigna, more affectionately known as San Remo's casbah, where Carlo led them through a positive maze of thin winding alleyways, up steeply climbing staircases and under narrow archways into dark, dark tunnels, where Cass clung tightly to his hand and Terri talked in high-pitched whispers of awe.

Then, on a complete change of mood, he took them up Monte Bignone, smiling at their delighted gasps as the funivia—the cable-car—took them higher and higher to the kind of views that held them breathless. He showed them the weird ghost town of Bussana Vecchia and the fascinating prehistoric caves of Bahri Rossi, where the oldest findings of Neanderthal man had been discovered, the strange drawings etched into the cave walls flinging you back forty thousand years to a time beyond normal comprehension.

And when Cass thought she would overdose on too much history, he took them off to the beach, where she would find herself overdosing on too much tightly muscled, darkly tanned flesh when he stripped off without a care and got down to the simple pleasures of building sand-castles with his daughter or lazing in the shade of one of the big sun umbrellas, or running headlong into the sea when the inactivity got too much for him and he needed to swim off his excess energy. Or they would spend the day exploring his valley, following the river along its winding track towards the eye-of-the-needle gorge which guided the waters into the sea. Or tracking off along one of the dozens of pathways which led into the hills between terraces of sweet-smelling fruit trees and richly scented pines.

He held back on nothing, committing all their daylight hours to learning to know both of them, drawing Terri closer and closer to him with that magical mixture of gentle patience, firm handling, and such an open desire to love that the child could not mistake his sincerity—and using much less subtle means to keep Cassandra's awareness of him always on a low boil.

Not that he'd tried to seduce her again. But really that did not mean much. He still desired her, and his eyes only had to clash with hers to cause that stinging sense of awareness to leap between them, creating a sexual tension which was sometimes so strong that it transmitted itself to those around them.

Terri was clearly puzzled by it, Mrs Valenti knowingly thoughtful, and Sabrina, beautiful, possessive Sabrina, who managed to get herself invited along on several of their excursions, grew more hostile towards Cass as each day went by. She demanded so much of Carlo's attention with her seductive manner towards him that, in turn, it made Cass feel vicious because it was so obvious by the way the man accepted all this adoration as his due that he considered it quite normal to flirt with several women at once!