The Wedding Charade (6 page)

But Jade had always wanted more. The trouble was, the more she wanted, the more likely it was to be taken away from her.

Like Nic.

She pulled away from her wayward thoughts, reminding herself sternly of Nic’s motivations. He only wanted what he could get out of her by keeping her as his wife for the appointed time. Within a month they would be officially married. They would be on their way to having what they wanted: the inheritance. For Nic she was a bonus thrown in for free. He had a fantasy about her that stemmed from that silly little schoolgirl crush she had subjected him to. What full-blooded man wouldn’t want to revisit that hotbed of almost but not quite ripe sensuality? But what Nic didn’t know was that she was not really at heart that hardened hormone-driven harlot. What would it be like for him to see her as she really was instead of how the press portrayed her? Ha! As if he would have any respect for her if she revealed all.

‘I like my life,’ she said, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘I know it’s not for everybody but it suits me.’

‘You are only…what, almost twenty-six? You are in the prime of your life. Have you no desire to do something with your intellect? Perhaps do some sort of course or degree?’

She gave him a bored look. ‘I hated school so I can’t see myself signing up for anything academic. I haven’t got the discipline for it. Jon was the brains of the family.’

‘I am sure you are underselling yourself,’ he said. ‘I know Jonathan was brilliant but you come from the same nest. You have the same blood running through your veins. It’s just a matter of finding what you enjoy and are good at doing.’

‘Don’t worry about me,’ she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘I will be quite happy being a social butterfly while you are off doing what you have to do.’

‘Are you even interested in what it is I do?’ he asked.

Jade felt a tiny stab of guilt she couldn’t quite explain. ‘You do something with the Sabbatini hotel chain,’ she said, suddenly feeling hopelessly inadequate. ‘Aren’t you the financial controller or something?’

His eyes flickered upwards as if in disbelief or frustration or perhaps a bit of both. ‘That is my brother Giorgio’s role. I am the property developer. I scope out new real estate for development, some for hotels and others for our family investment portfolio. I am working on projects in several countries.’

Jade thought of all those hotel rooms, all those beds and bathrooms she would have to share with him in
order to keep the truth of their convenient marriage a secret. One could possibly trust a long-serving household servant to keep that sort of confidence, but not the staff in a hotel, even a luxury Sabbatini one where the staff were rigorously hand-picked. ‘Have you thought about the logistics of all of this?’ she asked. ‘We can hardly have separate rooms everywhere we go. People are bound to speculate and talk.’

He smiled at her in that seductive way of his that made her blood bubble with excitement in her veins. ‘Do you really think you won’t be begging me to bed you by the time we are married, or is this all just an act to whet my appetite?’

She tightened her mouth. ‘It’s no act, Nic. This is a hands-off deal.’

He cocked his handsome head at her. ‘Why do I get the feeling you are saying that for your benefit not mine? ‘

Jade felt a blush steal over her cheeks. ‘I am saying it because I know what you are like. You are used to women falling over themselves to occupy your bed.’

He leaned forward, his forearms resting across the table, his eyes dark and challenging as they held hers. ‘How about we make a little deal, Jade?’ he suggested. ‘In public I will have to touch you as any husband would touch his wife, but in private I won’t lay a finger on you unless you give me the go-ahead with those seductive green eyes of yours. Not one finger, OK?’

Jade eyed him suspiciously for a long moment, her heart beating like a drum that was being played by someone not quite sure of the correct rhythm. Could she trust him to keep his word? More to the point: could

she trust herself? ‘O …K,’ she said at last, her breath coming out a little shakily.

‘Good.’ He sat back and picked up the bottle of champagne and topped up both of their glasses. ‘It looks like we have a deal.’

T
HE
press had gone by the time they left the restaurant. Jade quietly blew out a breath of relief as Nic walked with her back to his hotel. She worked the press when she needed to but there were times when she wished she could disappear into anonymity. The news of their impending marriage would be splashed over every paper by morning. That was well and good, for it would make Nic less likely to pull out of the arrangement. He wouldn’t want to draw any attention to the terms of his grandfather’s will. He had his fair share of the notorious Sabbatini pride. For a playboy such as him to be dragged kicking and screaming to the altar would be the epitome of having one’s pride bludgeoned.

Nic placed a protective arm around her waist as they weaved their way through the tourist crowd. Feeling that band of muscle against her was creating enough heat to start a wildfire. She could feel the way her body responded to his closeness, the way her thighs trembled when he stood in the hotel lift beside her, not quite touching, but close enough for her to feel the hot, hard male heat of his long strong legs.

He took out his mobile and began to fiddle with the keypad. ‘For some reason I don’t have your mobile
number in my phone,’ he said, glancing sideways at her. ‘I’ve only got your landline. What’s your number?’

Jade pressed her lips together for a moment. ‘Um …I don’t have a mobile phone.’

His dark brows met over his eyes. ‘What—did you lose it or something?’

She hesitated before answering. ‘I …I had one once but then I lost it and I didn’t get around to replacing it.’

He was still looking at her as if she had just landed out of time from a couple of centuries back. ‘Are you
serious?’
he said. ‘You really don’t have a mobile?’

She shook her head as the doors of the lift opened.

‘I will get you one tomorrow,’ he said and pocketed his phone as he held the door back with the barrier of his arm.

Jade felt as if a butter churn had started to work on overdrive in her stomach. ‘Please don’t,’ she said, biting her lip when he looked at her quizzically. ‘I’m embarrassed to admit it but I’m really a bit of a technophobe. I only just worked out how to use the phone I had when I lost it. I don’t want to have to go through all of that again.’

‘Jade.’ He gave her that look—the look that made her feel as if she were just about to walk in on the first day of kindergarten. ‘The newer models are extremely simple to use. I will talk you through it and you’ll be amazed at how easy it is. It’s the same as using a computer. A little kid can do it. My niece Ella is already great at playing one of the games on my phone and she’s not even three.’

She gave a vague nod of acquiescence and stepped out past him.

‘What’s your email address, then?’ he asked once they were inside the penthouse.

Jade felt her stomach tilt in alarm. She racked her brain to think of an excuse for why she didn’t have an email address. How could she possibly read an email when she couldn’t even write her own name and address? ‘Um …I can’t tell you offhand—I’ve just had it changed. I was having some trouble with loads of … er… spam. The technician thought it best to change my network server. I haven’t quite memorised the new address. It’s a little more complicated than my last one.’

‘Just shoot me an email when you get a chance and I’ll add you to my contacts,’ he said and handed her a business card with his contact details on it.

Jade looked down at the card. It was like Nic: distinctive and bold. The card was embossed and she ran her fingertip over it, feeling each letter through her skin, her brow furrowed in intense concentration.

‘Are you learning my numbers off by heart?’ he asked.

She tucked the card away in her purse, keeping her expression blank. ‘I have no interest in learning anything but how to navigate myself through life to my advantage,’ she said. ‘Marrying you is, unfortunately, the only way of my achieving self-sufficiency.’

Nic’s eyes studied her with increasing intensity and disdain. ‘You are as shallow and self-serving as the press makes out, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘You don’t even bother disguising it. All you want is money and plenty of it.’

Jade gave him a fabricated smile, the sort that any hard-nosed gold-digger would use with ease. ‘We are on the same mission then, aren’t we, Italian boy? We
both want a fortune to land into our hands and we are both prepared to sacrifice our souls to get it.’

His mouth tightened into a hard, flat line. ‘Let’s just hope it’s worth it in the end,’ he said.

‘I am sure it will be,’ she said, but inside she was already trembling with doubt. ‘You will get your inheritance and I will finally get my independence. What more could we both want?’

His eyes seared a fire trail into hers. ‘That remains to be seen, doesn’t it?’ he asked. He nodded towards the big bed. ‘Which side do you want? ‘

Jade felt her eyes flicker in alarm but quickly controlled it before he could notice. ‘Call housekeeping for a roll-out bed. I’ll sleep on that.’

‘You’re joking, surely?’ he said. ‘We have just announced our engagement. What do you think the hotel staff will think if we insist on sleeping in separate beds?’

Jade put on her sassy face. ‘They’ll think we’re saving ourselves for our wedding night.’

He gave an amused snort. ‘You really are a chameleon, aren’t you,
cara?
One minute you’re the hot-blooded harlot and the next you turn into a shy virgin.’

She turned for the bathroom but he caught her by the back of her dress, pulling her into the rock-hard wall of his body, his hands coming to rest on the top of her shoulders, his chest against her shoulder blades, his pelvis pressing into her buttocks, stirring every nerve into a frenzy of awareness, making her breath stall like a faulty engine.

This was the closest she had been to him in years.

She could feel the hardened probe of his growing
erection. She could feel the hammering of his heart against her right shoulder.

Oh, dear God, she could feel her resistance crumbling. The brick wall of determination she had set up to resist him was being dismantled second by second. She was not used to feeling this out of control. She was usually the one who had all the power over men. They didn’t have it over her. Not one of them.

Except this one.

Jade wondered what would happen if she turned around and pushed her mouth up to meet his. To slip her tongue in between those mocking lips of his, to show him how hard she could drive him to the very edge of control.

She wanted to.

But she didn’t dare.

‘You know, you really should have thought this through a little more carefully, Jade,’ he said in a smouldering voice, his mouth far too close to her neck.

She felt the fine hairs on her body stand to attention, her skin lifting in a shiver. She felt the warm dancing breeze of his breath as he leaned in closer; it feathered over her skin like a fine sable brush over a canvas.

‘You rushed here to Venice without thinking about how this would end tonight, didn’t you,
mio piccolo?’

Jade bit down on her lip as she felt him move against her buttocks. He was practically parting them with his swollen length. It was the most tantalising feeling, deliciously erotic and sexy. Her body felt on fire. Flames licked along her flesh. Her belly was quivering with a whirlpool of need. Her inner core was throbbing like a heavy pulse that came from deep inside her body, a place she had not even been properly aware of before.

Her breasts were prickling with sensation, her nipples tight and aching as they pushed against the fragile lace of her bra. ‘You said you wouldn’t touch me unless we were in public,’ she said, sucking in her breath as his teeth nipped just below her earlobe.

‘I said I wouldn’t touch you if you didn’t give me the come on,’ he said. ‘But you just can’t help yourself, can you, cara?’

Jade turned and stepped away from him, sending him a defiant look. ‘If you are going to break the rules from day one, then so can I. I have my contacts. I will tell them everything. I will even tell them about some of your brothers’ stuff. That will go down a treat with your family, don’t you think?’

He looked down at her, his jaw tight to the point of whiteness at the edges of his mouth. ‘One false move, Jade, do you hear me? One false move and you’ll be begging for a living off the streets, right where someone with your guttersnipe morals and behaviour belongs.’

Jade met him stare for stare, anger ballooning in her chest at his cruelly taunting words. ‘You think you can control me, don’t you, Italian boy?’ she goaded him right on back.

His nostrils flared as he fought to control his temper. ‘You can’t even control yourself,’ he said with a look of disgust. ‘You’re a spoilt brat who should have grown up a long time ago. No wonder your father cut you off without a penny. You’re nothing but a prima donna who doesn’t know how to behave like a woman of class and breeding.’

Jade swung her hand up towards his face but he caught it mid-swipe, holding it in a cruel grip that made tears spring to her eyes. She suddenly had the most
unexpected urge to cry. She hadn’t cried in years, not since Jon’s funeral. She wasn’t going to break down in front of Nic. She was not going to let him see how much he had hurt her. No one could hurt her. She always made sure of that.
No one.
She blinked her eyes, gritted her teeth and wrenched her arm out of his. ‘I have to use the bathroom,’ she bit out and stalked from the room.

When she came out after repairing the damage to her make-up, Nic was standing with a brooding expression on his face. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.’

She gave a careless shrug. She had been called far worse in the press but somehow coming from Nic the words had been so much more devastating to hear. She hoped he hadn’t heard her snivelling like a baby in the bathroom. She had turned on the taps to drown out the sound, but she saw the way his hazel eyes had softened in remorse. ‘Do you want me to leave?’ she asked. ‘I can go and stay in another hotel. No one will probably even notice.’