Italian's Scandalous Marriage Plan (Mills & Boon Modern) by Louise Fuller

Author:Louise Fuller [Fuller, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Modern
Published: 2021-05-27T20:09:51+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

RALPH WOKE WITH a start, his heart racing, muscles stretched taut. Opening his eyes, he stared around the cabin. It was still dark, but there was a silvery opalescence in the air and he guessed that it was not quite dawn.

For a minute or so he steadied himself, willing the panic to recede. Finally, he managed to breathe. He felt as though he’d been fighting, but it was just a dream. The same vivid dream, part nightmare, part panic attack, that had woken him on and off since his mother had told him the truth about his father.

A dream that seemed to be getting more intense, more vivid, more terrifying...

It always started the same way, with him walking into the Palazzo Gioacchino after work. Everything looked normal—except his mother was still alive and he could hear her and Carlo talking in the drawing room.

But when he walked into the room his father was alone, and instead of welcoming him home Carlo said, ‘You shouldn’t be here. You’re not my son.’

His fingers tightened against the sheet, the memory of the terror and the guilt pressing down on his ribs. So far, so familiar—but then this time in his dream his father had turned into Giulietta, who had shaken her head and said, ‘You shouldn’t be here. You’re not my husband.’

From somewhere outside the sharp cry of a gull cut through his heartbeat and he felt a rush of relief, for even though he knew it was just a dream it had felt paralysingly real.

Beside him, he felt Giulietta shift in her sleep, and his body tensed as she rolled towards him. But as she settled against him he felt some of his tension ease.

It was called ‘grounding’. Using something solid and certain to pull yourself back to reality.

And Giulietta was real. He could feel the heat of her body and the steady beat of her heart, her breath against his bare chest.

She was real and she was here with him.

Against her will?

His hands clenched and then he breathed out slowly. On the boat, yes. But in his bed, no.

His groin tightened at the memory of her touch. It had been almost a rerun of that first time in Rome. There had been no time to savour any preliminaries, no slow, teasing exploration. They hadn’t even taken off their clothes. It had been raw and urgent and necessary—a consummation of desire. She had wanted him as much as he’d wanted her.

But last night had to be more than just some mechanical satisfying of hunger.

Why else would she have led him back to this cabin? To this bed.

Thinking back to the moment before they’d kissed, he felt his breathing slow.

He had brought her onto the Alighieri wanting answers, wanting to punish her for her hypocrisy, for running away, for deceiving him, for wanting to abandon their marriage.

They had already argued twice—once in the car and then again after he’d tossed onto the bed in their cabin. But neither round had ended satisfactorily,

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