The Wedding Charade (16 page)

He stepped back from her. ‘I won’t be long. Wait for
me downstairs, otherwise I might change my mind and drag you into the shower with me.’

Jade left the bedroom as soon as she put the earrings on because she didn’t trust herself with him only metres away, naked and wet and all too irresistibly male.

N
IC
had booked them a table at the Terrazza Serbelloni at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, one of the most luxurious hotels fringing the shores of Lake Como. The restaurant overlooked the lake and, as the evening was warm and still, the water was as smooth as a sheet of glass.

They were led to their table and, once they had drinks ordered, Jade tried her best to relax. There had been no sign of the press and, while the staff had addressed Nic by name, they had retreated to the background, leaving her and Nic to contemplate the menu in peace.

She looked at the menu and chewed her lip in concentration. As usual, the words meant nothing to her. ‘What are you thinking of having?’ she asked after a moment.

‘I think the fillet of turbot sounds good, but then again the loin of lamb is tempting,’ Nic said. ‘What about you?’

Jade closed the menu. ‘I’ll have the fish.’

He cocked his head at her. ‘You’re very decisive. Don’t you want a bit more time? There are lots of other things to choose from. This is an award-winning restaurant.’

‘No, I’m good,’ she said. ‘I fancy fish. It’s good for the brain, or so they say.’

Nic closed the menu after a few minutes and the waiter came over and took their orders.

Once he had left, Jade asked, ‘You haven’t thought of developing a rival hotel here?’

‘I have thought about it but Giorgio would have my guts for garters if I went ahead with it,’ he said. ‘It will stay in the family until all three of us come to some agreement over what should be done with it. I think Luca and Bronte will use it a fair bit. It’s a great place to get away from the press.’

‘I can’t believe it has been empty for so long,’ she said musingly. ‘It’s such a beautiful place. I could sit for hours just looking out at the gardens. It must take an awful lot of maintenance, even if it’s not occupied very often.’

He gave her a rueful look over the top of his wine glass. ‘It does and that is why I insisted on using it more. I am glad you like it. Hopefully, during this year we will get up here a few more times.’

Jade took a sip of her mineral water and then put her glass back down with careful precision to disguise the slight tremble of her hand. ‘Do you think your family will be upset when we eventually divorce?’ she asked.

He frowned as if he found the question annoying. ‘It has nothing to do with them. It’s about what we want.’

Jade already knew what he wanted; the trouble was, it wasn’t the same as what she did. ‘At the wedding, your mother seemed rather keen on the idea of us making a go of it,’ she said. ‘I didn’t like to disillusion her. She thinks we will fall in love like your father eventually did with her.’

‘My mother is a hopeless romantic,’ he said, still frowning in irritation. ‘She thinks no man is complete unless he is married with a family. When the time comes, she will have to accept the termination of our marriage just like everybody else.’

Including me,
Jade thought sadly.

He looked at her with a serious expression carved into his features. ‘It has to be this way, Jade. At the risk of repeating myself, you have to realise this isn’t going to last.’

‘How long has your longest relationship lasted?’ she asked.

His frown tightened even further. ‘What has that got to do with anything?’

Jade held his gaze with an effort. ‘What if you still want me once the year is up?’

He shifted his mouth from side to side as he thought about it. ‘We can continue our affair for as long as we like, but marriage in the long term is not an option for me. It’s not that I have anything against marriage. I can see my brothers are both very happy, but it’s not something I want for myself.’

Jade continued on the devil’s advocate route. ‘What about if you get tired of me before the year is up?’

‘I can’t see that happening,’ he said with a glinting smile. ‘You excite me,
cara,
like no other woman has done before.’

Jade felt a ripple of excitement move through her body. His eyes darkened with desire as they held hers, promising earth-shattering passion. ‘Have you ever been in love?’ she asked.

‘No, have you?’

She looked down at her glass rather than hold his
penetrating gaze. ‘I thought I was once but now I realise it was just a crush. Real love, the lasting sort, I suspect, is something else entirely.’

‘So you believe in lasting love?’ he asked as he picked up his wine glass again.

Jade made herself meet his eyes. ‘I think it can happen, sure. I think there is probably a bit of luck involved, you know, meeting at the right time, having similar goals and values. I am sure it’s hard work at times, all relationships are, but if both parties are committed and willing to go the distance, I can see it could be a very satisfying thing.’

‘So once the ink is dry on our divorce papers, are you going to immediately set out to hunt down a husband and father for your children?’ he asked.

Jade sent him a frowning look. ‘I told you: I don’t want children.’

He smiled cynically. ‘So you say now at not quite twenty-six, but what will you say in five or ten years?’

‘I could ask you the same question,’ she quickly threw back.

‘Ah, yes, but I do not have a biological clock to worry about,’ he pointed out. ‘I can father a child, should I choose to do so, at almost any age.’

Jade didn’t like being reminded of the clock ticking inside her. She sometimes heard it late at night when she couldn’t sleep. She worried about missing out on such a wondrous experience as giving birth to her very own child, but what sort of mother would
she
make? She would be as hopeless at it as she was at so many other things. It wouldn’t be fair on the child to have such an inadequately prepared mother. The child would end up embarrassed and ashamed of her even before it was
of school age. There were some things you could hide from adults, but children were incredibly perceptive. She had already had a couple of close calls with Julianne McCormack’s children, who had picked up on her reluctance to perform certain tasks they took for granted in their mother doing for them, like reading a bedtime story.

‘You have gone very quiet, Jade,’ Nic said. ‘What are you frowning about? Have I touched on a sensitive nerve? ‘

‘Not at all,’ she said, raising her chin. ‘I guess not all women are cut out to be mothers.’

He tapped his fingers on the rim of his glass as he continued to study her. ‘Has your reluctance to reproduce got something to do with your dysfunctional family? ‘

Jade bristled defensively. ‘No, why should it? Lots of people come from broken or dysfunctional homes and they still go on to have children of their own.’

‘You lost your mother so young,’ he said. ‘Don’t you think that might be why you are so against having children in case the same happens to them? Perhaps you are worried they might go through the trauma and loss you did.’

‘Why are we even having this conversation?’ she asked, trying not to show how seriously rattled she was. ‘It’s pointless. Neither of us wants children. I don’t see why I have to be cross-examined like this.’

‘I am not trying to upset you,
cara,
I am simply trying to understand you,’ he said. ‘You are like a difficult puzzle. There are pieces you seem to be deliberately hiding from me.’

She glowered at him resentfully. ‘As far as I see it, you know far more about me than anyone. But I don’t
see the use in becoming bosom buddies as well as sex buddies.’

The corner of his mouth lifted. ‘Is that how you see us, just as sex buddies?’

‘It’s true, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘We scratch each other’s itch.’

‘It’s one hell of an itch,’ he said with another glinting smile.

Jade dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. ‘Would you excuse me?’ she asked, pushing back her chair. ‘I need to use the bathroom.’

‘But of course,’ he said, rising politely as she left the table.

Jade let out a breath of air when she got to the ladies’ room. Her face was flushed with colour and her skin felt tight all over. She took a few minutes to gather herself. Nic was pushing on buttons she didn’t want pushed. She didn’t understand his motives. He was adamant their relationship was finite. Why then badger her with questions that were so deeply personal? It was unsettling to have to face such interrogation. She was so frightened she would betray herself by confessing her love for him. Making love with him made it almost impossible not to whisper the words. She had come so close so many times. He made her flesh sing and her heart ache with the weight of the love she felt for him, but telling him would make things so much worse for her. It would drive him into another woman’s arms for sure.

Jade came out of the ladies’ room and was halfway back to the table when a hand came down on her arm. She stopped in her tracks and looked at the man who
had stalled her. Her heart gave a sickening thud in her chest and her mouth went completely dry.

‘Jade,’ Tim Renshaw-Heath said with a sleazy smile. ‘Long time no see. What, it must be over a year now, right? How are you? Are you here with someone?’

‘Yes,’ she said, pulling her arm away. ‘I am here with my husband.’

Tim’s blond brows rose. ‘Married, huh? Somehow I didn’t see you as the settling-down type.’

Jade flicked her gaze to their table, but Nic was scrolling through his text messages on his phone. She tried to move away but Tim blocked her with his short but stocky frame. ‘Hey, don’t rush off,’ he said and reached into his jacket pocket and held out a business card. ‘Call me if you get sick of your husband or if he’s out of town some time. I can fill in for him if you know what I mean. I’m still at the same apartment in London. Maybe this time you won’t stand me up, eh? ‘

Jade felt sick to her stomach at his crude suggestion. She ignored the business card and gave him an icy look. ‘I am not interested in betraying my marriage vows.’

His porcine eyes gleamed. ‘I think I could get you to change your mind.’ He fanned open his wallet in front of her face. ‘Perhaps this is what I should have offered you the first time around, eh? How much, Jade? How much to sample that delectable body of yours?’

Jade hadn’t heard Nic approach but she saw Tim take a step backwards as he hurriedly stuffed his wallet back into his pocket.

‘If you ever insult my wife again, I will personally see to it that you never step into this or any other five-star hotel in any country in Europe,’ Nic said through clenched teeth. ‘Do you understand or do I need to
press home my point some other, shall we say, more physical way?’

Jade put her hand on Nic’s tensely muscled arm. ‘Nic, no, please, it’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.’

‘Ah, but
you
are,
cara mio,’
Nic said before turning to glare at the other man with eyes as cold and hard as green and brown flecked marbles.

Tim moved away, or slunk away was probably a more accurate description. He seemed to shrink even further in height as Nic’s tall figure towered over him in an intimidating manner.

‘We’re leaving,’ Nic said, taking her by the hand with firm fingers.

Jade didn’t bother arguing. She couldn’t wait to get away from the curious glances they had attracted. She felt thoroughly ashamed of her past and wished she could make it all go away. How had she been so lacking in self-esteem and self-worth to flirt with someone as boorish as Tim Renshaw-Heath? It disgusted her that she had such skeletons in her closet. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t slept with him or even half of the men the press had made out. The way Tim and his ilk treated her made her feel as if she had, and that, for some reason, was far worse.

Nic didn’t speak until they were back at the villa. Jade glanced at him a couple of times but his mouth was set in a flat line and his eyes were still flashing with fury, his fists clenching and unclenching as if he was mentally landing a punch on the other man’s face.

The door closed with a resounding echo as he slammed it once they were home. ‘You should not have spoken to him,’ he said through tight lips. ‘You should
have ignored him as if you didn’t know who the hell he was and come straight back to me.’

Jade swallowed to clear her blocked throat. ‘I’m sorry—I didn’t see him until he put his hand on my arm. I didn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of the restaurant.’

He glared at her. ‘Damn it, Jade, is this how it’s going to be for the next year?’

She felt her back come up. ‘Aren’t you being a little hypocritical here, Nic? After all, you’ve had numerous lovers. It’s just as likely we will run into one or two or more of them while we are married, especially as you insist on me travelling with you.’

His eyes hardened as they tethered hers. ‘It’s not the same thing at all. My relationships had some context, some meaning, even if they were not long term.’

Jade straightened her spine. ‘Just what exactly are you saying?’

His expression was dark and brooding with tension. ‘I think you know what I am saying.’

‘Actually, I don’t,’ she said, defiantly meeting his gaze. ‘Why don’t you spell it out for me?’

He raked a hand through his hair, his throat moving up and down over a lumpy swallow. ‘I don’t like the thought of you being spoken to by men like that sleaze ball back there,’ he said. ‘I don’t like the thought of men like him treating you as if you’re some sort of high street whore. You’re not and you never have been.’

Jade felt tears bank up in her eyes. He was showing a depth of protection and care she could not have hoped anyone would have shown towards her, let alone him.

Nic’s frown cut into his forehead. ‘Why are you crying,
cara?’

Jade brushed at her eyes. ‘B …because you don’t think I’m a slut … ‘ Her voice tripped over a little sob.

He came over and enveloped her in his arms, resting his head on the top of hers. ‘Mio
piccolo,’
he said softly. ‘Of course I don’t think you are any such thing.’