Ruthless Revenge by Lynne Graham

Author:Lynne Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Special Release
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

WAKING ALONE IN Gabriele’s Florence home, a penthouse apartment spread over two floors overlooking Palazzo Tornabuoni, Elena wandered from the bedroom in search of coffee.

Even larger than his Manhattan apartment, it managed to be lavishly decorated and adorned yet remain homely. It had touched her to find he’d hung a Giuseppe Arcimboldo painting in the room he’d designated as her office.

Since their visit to his mother there had been a definite shift in their attitudes to each other. Family was a word no longer uttered between them. But it was constantly on Elena’s mind.

How had her father been able to denounce Alfredo in such a way? And Gabriele, his own godson too. Why hadn’t he helped their defence? Of course he hadn’t been involved himself, but loyalty should have counted for something. Family loyalty was the crux of her father’s personal philosophy and the Mantegnas had been family to him. She’d seen the photographic evidence with her own eyes.

And how could she not have known the full extent of their families’ ties?

These were all questions she could not bring herself to ask him.

She had just settled on the balcony with a caffè e latte and fresh pastries made for her by Gabriele’s housekeeper when he walked through the open French doors.

Her heart did that familiar little skip to see him.

‘Good morning, tesoro,’ he said, putting his hands on her shoulder as he leaned down to brush his lips against hers. ‘You’re up early.’

‘Not as early as you.’ She turned her cheek so he couldn’t kiss her mouth.

In the ten days since they’d married her refusal to kiss him had become an unspoken rule. She would only allow him to kiss her when there were people around to witness it.

It was the only measure of control she had to hold on to. He never said anything to the contrary but she knew it got under his skin.

He hadn’t been joking when he’d said they would spend the flight from New York getting to know each other better. Half an hour after take-off and they’d been locked in his jet’s private bedroom. By the time they’d landed he’d made love to her so thoroughly and so often her legs had struggled to remain upright.

He’d kissed every part of her. He’d discovered erogenous zones on her body she hadn’t known could be erogenous zones.

Every touch, every kiss, every murmur, every breath against her skin sent her senses into orbit and she had to fight to keep her responses contained.

As this was their so-called honeymoon period they spent nearly every waking minute together. They’d settled into a rhythm where the first hours of the day were spent working on issues for their respective businesses, then they would head out into Florence, or take a drive through the Tuscan hills. They’d visited museums, galleries and vineyards, eaten at a variety of restaurants and simple cafés, all the things Elena had never done before.

Growing up in the Ricci household, culture and days out were things people did on the television.

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