Second-Time Bride (HQR Presents) Read online

  With an unsteady hand, Daisy reached for the brandy decanter and began pouring herself a drink, praying that alcohol would ward off the disorienting effect of shock and lessen the freezing coldness settling into her bones. ‘I want you to leave,’ she said without even sparing a glance at the other woman.

  ‘Don’t be childish,’ Bianca urged impatiently.

  ‘And before you leave I would like you to return your keys to this house. Now that your brother is married, I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be walking in without warning whenever the fancy takes you,’ Daisy completed before she braced herself and drank down the brandy all in one go, trembling as the heat raced down her aching throat and warmed the chilled pit of her uneasy stomach.

  Bianca stared at Daisy, a faint hint of disconcertion drawing her brows together. ‘I’m willing to drive you to the airport,’ she announced, loftily ignoring the invitation to depart. ‘You’re obviously in no fit state to get yourself there!’

  The airport. It would be so easy to take advantage of that invitation to run away. Indeed such a speedy retreat from a painful crisis would have all the ease and familiarity of habit, Daisy conceded painfully, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath to steady herself. However, she had Tara’s feelings to consider. In addition, strange as it might seem, she wanted—no, she needed to confront Alessio this time. ‘I don’t require a lift to the airport, Bianca.’

  ‘There’s only one more flight to London tonight,’ the brunette warned sharply. ‘You haven’t got much time.’

  ‘I have all the time in the world,’ Daisy countered tightly, frowning as a faint sound from somewhere beyond the room momentarily pierced her concentration. She focused briefly on the ajar door, listening for a split second before turning back to Bianca. ‘I have all the time in the world,’ she repeated with conviction, ‘because I’m not going anywhere.’

  Bianca studied her in contemptuous disbelief. ‘You can’t be serious! You can’t want to be here when Alessio gets back. How could you want to humiliate yourself to that extent? If I caught my husband in the act of an adulterous tryst with another woman, believe me, I wouldn’t be sitting humbly waiting for him to come home again!’

  Daisy was rigid, her pallor pronounced. ‘But then what I do… and indeed what Alessio does… is none of your business, Bianca. You’re his sister, not his keeper.’

  ‘Alessio and I are very close! ‘Bianca shot back at her in angry resentment. ‘And I want you out of his life for good!’

  Daisy uttered a strangled laugh. ‘The same way you wanted rid of me the last time? You lied about Sophia Corsini and I swallowed your every lie whole,’ she condemned, bitter resentment flooding through her. ‘He never even went out with the wretched girl!’

  Bianca flushed and then her jawline hardened, her mouth thinning as she made a recovery. ‘Where on earth did you get the idea that I lied about Sophia? Alessio may be my brother but even I have never tried to pretend that he’s the faithful type—’

  ‘I’m sick of listening to your poison,’ Daisy interrupted fiercely.

  ‘You just haven’t got the courage to face the truth. If you had any pride at all, you would be getting out before Alessio makes an even bigger fool of you! He doesn’t want you; he never wanted you!’ Bianca asserted in furious frustration. ‘All he ever wanted was his daughter! How can you try to cling to him even after I’ve given you the proof that he’s still involved with Nina!’

  Without warning the door was thrust back noisily on its hinges.

  Both Daisy and Bianca jumped, their heads spinning in unison. Alessio stood on the threshold, diamond-hard eyes blazing with outrage, his golden skin pale with anger.

  ‘Nina is waiting for you at her apartment, Bianca,’ Alessio breathed with chilling bite. ‘She’s most unhappy with the dramatic role you have assigned to her. She doesn’t appreciate being used as a weapon—’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Bianca broke in, a mottled flush overlying her tautened cheeks.

  ‘Spurred on by you, Nina had no objection to causing a little minor mischief, but she draws the line at setting out to destroy my marriage. She’s already ashamed of the lies you instructed her to tell yesterday. You misjudged your partner, Bianca.’ Alessio’s grim gaze rested on his sister in harsh condemnation, his nostrils flaring with distaste. ‘She thinks your malicious games have got dangerously out of control… and, believe me, she’s not the only one!’

  Every scrap of colour had now drained from Bianca’s complexion. She stared at her brother in mingled shock and embarrassment. ‘Alessio, you don’t understand,’ she began shakily. ‘I was only thinking of your happiness.’

  Alessio crossed the floor, closed a determined hand round his twin’s elbow and practically dragged her out of the room with him.

  Daisy’s knees wouldn’t hold her up any longer. She sagged down like a broken doll onto the nearest seat. From the hall, staccato Italian broke from Alessio, scorching anger powering every syllable, Bianca’s responses running from defensive to pleading to—finally—tearful. Throughout, Daisy’s temples pounded with tension. She couldn’t yet think straight but she could not miss hearing the resounding slam of the front door as Alessio saw his sister off the premises.

  ‘You’re soaking wet, piccola mia …’ Alessio gritted, crouching down until he was on a level with her, his vibrantly handsome features still dark and taut with fury, although there was a curious tenderness that bewildered her in the golden eyes that rested on her strained face. ‘You need to get out of those clothes before you catch pneumonia.’

  Stiff as a little clockwork soldier, Daisy cloaked her gaze in self-defence. Springing upright, Alessio swooped down on her again and swept her up into his arms without another word. A startled gasp burst from Daisy. She was not in the mood to be soothed like a distressed child.

  ‘Nina wants to apologise to you but I told her that this wasn’t the right time.’

  ‘Apologise… she wants to apologise?’ Daisy pressed in disbelief. ‘Alessio, if you don’t put. me down I’ll scream!’

  In response to her challenge, Alessio merely tightened his arms round her as he started up the stairs. ‘Daisy…my relationship with Nina was never anything but casual. A prudent male thinks twice before he becomes intimately involved with the daughter of family friends.’ Thrusting back their bedroom door, he murmured grimly, ‘Nina’s ego was hurt when I married you and Bianca found her an easy target. But Nina, spoilt and self-centred as she is, has a conscience—’

  ‘I didn’t notice it yesterday when she was blowing kisses at you and spouting all that nonsense about Barry!’ Daisy retorted, tearing herself violently free of his hold as soon as he began to lower her to the bathroom carpet. ‘And I don’t know what kind of a story you’ve invented as a cover-up but it won’t wash because I wasn’t born yesterday! You were with Nina tonight!’

  ‘Bianca is staying with her. That’s why I went over there. I phoned before I left but when I arrived Bianca had gone,’ Alessio explained with an impatient frown, his brilliant eyes assessing Daisy’s now flushed and furious face. ‘When I confronted Nina, she was very upset—’

  ‘And only yesterday you told me that she was behaving so generously!’

  At that tart reminder, faint colour accentuated the taut slant of Alessio’s hard cheekbones. ‘I was feeling uncomfortable because I dropped Nina the minute you came back into my life. Yesterday, I genuinely couldn’t see the wood for the trees, but I was furious with her tonight—’

  ‘Is that why you tucked her into your Ferrari with you?’ Daisy prompted in a tone of fierce accusation.

  ‘So that’s why you’re wet.’ Alessio surveyed her with dawning comprehension. ‘You followed me?’

  Her cheeks burning but her chin angled high, Daisy told him about his sister’s phone call.

  Alessio vented a sharp imprecation. ‘I was determined to find Bianca, and Nina thought she knew where she was. When we drew a blank, I dropped Nina stra
ight back home again. If you saw us together, surely you noticed that she was crying?’

  ‘Sorry, I forgot my binoculars. Now go away. I want a bath,’ Daisy announced brittly.

  Alessio studied her, his golden eyes incredulous. ‘Dio… in the midst of all this?’

  Daisy planted a determined hand on his chest, pressed him back and slammed the door in his face. But the instant she was alone she slumped, the anger she had forced to the fore in self-defence draining away. She had gone on the attack sooner than let Alessio see how pitifully fragile her self-control was.

  So, Alessio had finally become suspicious and, setting out to confront his sister, had ended up dealing with Nina first. Intense relief washed over Daisy as she tasted the truth. Bianca had been telling a pack of lies and now that Alessio was aware of his twin’s venomous loathing for his wife Bianca would never be in a position to cause trouble again.

  Shivering now with cold, she ripped off her sodden clothing and stepped into a shallow bath. But her sense of relief was short-lived. Misery invaded her afresh. Nothing had really changed between them, she thought wretchedly. Alessio might not be in love with Nina but he didn’t love her either. And he had reacted to the possibility of another baby in the same way that he might have reacted to a death threat. She couldn’t even cherish the hope that extending the family might help to bring them closer.

  The door opened.

  Daisy tensed, feeling hunted. ‘What?’ she demanded.

  ‘You have a count of three to vacate that bath,’ Alessio murmured dangerously softly. ‘One—’

  ‘I’m staying put!’

  ‘Two-’

  ‘You’re turning into a domineering tyrant!’ Daisy screeched, nearly falling out of the bath in her haste to snatch up a towel.

  She emerged from the bathroom with pronounced reluctance. Alessio was lounging back against the footboard of the bed. He rested diamond-bright eyes on her hotly flushed and mutinous face. ‘When you were with Bianca, you made a reference to a girl called Sophia…’

  Daisy paled and chewed her lower lip. ‘Thirteen years ago, Bianca told me that Sophia had been your girlfriend and that you were seeing her again—’

  ‘Madre di Dio… no longer do I need to wonder why you agreed to the divorce!’ Alessio bit out rawly.

  ‘At the time it seemed to make sense,’ Daisy muttered ruefully.

  ‘Porca miseria… the damage Bianca has caused! I never dreamt that she could be such a bitch!’

  ‘But then she doesn’t behave like that with you,’ Daisy sighed.

  ‘She made that call to Barry Stevens …’ A bitter tension had hardened Alessio’s strong features and roughened his deep voice. ‘I’m sorry that you have had to endure her malicious attacks, even sorrier that I refused to listen when you tried to tell me what was happening!’

  He was still appalled and mortified by his sister’s behaviour. Daisy was struggling to overcome a powerfully embarrassing urge to wrap consoling arms around him. Any move to offer comfort would be uniquely revealing to a male as shrewd as Alessio. And Daisy was not prepared to tell him that in spite of everything she loved him even more than she had loved him as a teenager. Only this time she wouldn’t run away—she would stay and fight, if need be, to give their marriage a future.

  ‘I’m not blaming you for what Bianca did. It’s over and done with. Forget about it,’ she urged in a rush.

  ‘That’s very forgiving of you,’ Alessio murmured tautly.

  A thunderous silence stretched.

  Alessio strode restively over to the window. Then he swung fluidly back to face her, expelling his breath in a hiss. ‘I’ve been acting like an insanely jealous and irrational teenager ever since I saw those photo albums of yours,’ he admitted in a driven undertone. ‘When I found out today that… well, that there had never been anyone else I was really ashamed of my behaviour. I had no right whatsoever to question your past.’

  Daisy rubbed abstractedly at the deep-pile carpet with a set of bare pink toes. ‘I’ve always been pretty possessive about you too,’ she muttered.

  Alessio threw back his darkly handsome head, his brilliant eyes bleak. ‘I wouldn’t have acted like that if I hadn’t been so afraid of losing you again,’ he gritted.

  ‘I thought it was Tara you were afraid of losing,’ Daisy whispered slowly.

  ‘Much as I love our daughter, piccola mia, I have to confess that I used her as an excuse to make you marry me again. I was a man with a mission last week,’ Alessio grated unevenly. ‘And my mission was to win, by any means within my power, a second chance with the girl I loved and lost as a teenager. If I had only wanted Tara I would never have forced you into marriage.’

  Daisy’s violet eyes were wide. With immense difficulty she relocated her voice. ‘But you kept on telling me that it was all for Tara’s sake!’

  ‘That was pride talking. Madre di Dio…’ Alessio groaned. ‘You fell apart in horror when I first mentioned marriage! So I cornered you and blackmailed you into it—’

  ‘You bought the agency because you wanted me back,’ Daisy mumbled dizzily, struggling to conceal her delight.

  ‘I thought if I pushed hard enough I could somehow make you feel what I was feeling,’ Alessio confessed roughly. ‘That first day I saw you again, it was like coming alive for the first time in thirteen years! Dio… I had your phone number within an hour of you leaving me again!’ Crossing the room with a look of fierce decisiveness stamped on his taut features, he reached for her with determined hands. Dark golden eyes blazed down at her. ‘This marriage can work. I love you enough for both of us!’

  Daisy braced shaking hands on his broad shoulders, her throat closing over. ‘Alessio,’ she said thickly, ‘I love you too.’

  He stared down at her fixedly.

  Daisy swallowed convulsively. ‘I never stopped loving you but I thought you only wanted Tara and I was so scared of getting hurt again.’

  With a stifled groan, Alessio crushed her to him, snatching her up off her feet to plunder her readily parted lips with an aching, desperate hunger every bit as strong as her own as he brought her down to the bed. Intense happiness and excitement swept Daisy to a breathless height of emotion that drove every other thought from her mind.

  Leaning over her, Alessio curved a possessive palm round one delicate cheekbone, his fingers lacing gently into her hair as he studied her with wondering, mesmeric intensity.

  Then, disturbingly, his strong face shadowed. ‘I still feel so damned guilty about this afternoon,’ he confided heavily. ‘Dio… I was crazy with the need to make love to you but there is no excuse for that kind of carelessness. If I’ve made you pregnant again, you’re going to hate me!’

  Daisy focused on him in bewilderment. ‘Hate you?’

  ‘You were so miserable when you were carrying Tara,’ Alessio said tensely. ‘I know that having another baby is completely out of the question and I’d never ask you to go through all that again for my benefit, but—’

  ‘You said you didn’t want another child because you assumed that that was what I wanted to hear…’ A breathtaking smile slowly blossomed on Daisy’s face as she made that leap in understanding. ‘But there were a whole host of things wrong between us then… Now that everything’s right… actually… I’d love another baby.’

  Alessio looked stunned. For a count of ten seconds he simply stared at her. Daisy grinned, enjoying the knowledge that for once he had not been one step ahead of her. ‘I mean this time I could really enjoy the experience,’ she pointed out chattily…

  * * *

  Sheathed in a diaphanous negligé set, Daisy strolled in from the balcony and watched Alessio pulling on a pair of jeans. Next door to watching him take them off, it was one of her favourite pursuits. Every fluid movement of those long, bronzed, hair-roughened limbs utterly entranced her. Had it been a year, had it really been a whole year since they’d remarried?

  She surveyed the elegant bedroom of their town house in Rome. After lunch,
they would be driving down to the villa for the weekend. Last night they had attended a surprise party thrown by Alessio’s parents to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. The Leopardis had flown her aunt over for the festivities and Janet was staying with them for several days. Indeed even Bianca had put in a brief appearance and Daisy had ended up feeling a little sorry for her sister-in-law.

  When Alessio had exposed Bianca’s malicious lies, his sister had gone home to her parents for sympathy, only to find herself the target of yet another bout of outraged recriminations. Unhappily for her, it had not occurred to her that her parents were genuinely eager to see Alessio’s marriage succeed or that they were overjoyed at the prospect of getting to know their grandchild. Finding herself and her opinions very much out in the cold, Bianca had cut herself off from her family for months.

  However, last night Bianca had approached them with a small present and stilted congratulations, her discomfiture painfully apparent.

  ‘We made it in spite of you,’ Alessio had growled ungraciously, only accepting the present after Daisy had given him a speaking glance, but then adding, ‘And do I need to remind you what people say about Greeks bearing gifts?’

  Certainly it would be a long time before Alessio trusted his sister again.

  ‘You look ravishing, piccola mia…’

  Snatched from her reverie by that innately sexy voice, Daisy collided with Alessio’s intensely appreciative gaze and blushed like a teenager. They had made love until dawn had broken the skies but her heart still skipped an impressionable beat.

  ‘It’s such a beautiful morning.’ She had been out on the balcony reliving the sheer romance of the previous night when Alessio had presented her with a magnificent diamond eternity ring and informed her that this had been without doubt the very happiest year of his entire life.