MELANIE MILBURNE - The Temporary Mrs Marchetti

On the third day without sight or sound of Cristiano, Alice got a call from her salon building’s landlord, Ray Gormley. ‘I know this will come as a bit of a surprise, Alice, but I’ve sold the building,’ he said. ‘The new owner is taking possession immediately. You have a few months left on your current three-year lease so it shouldn’t disrupt—’

‘Sold?’ Alice gasped. ‘I didn’t even realise you had it on the market.’

‘I didn’t, but I got an offer I’d be a fool to refuse,’ he said. ‘I’m consolidating some of my interests. This guy’s bought the building next door as well. Says he’s going to make them both into a luxury hotel.’

Suspicion made every hair on the back of Alice’s neck stand up and fizz at the roots. ‘A...a hotel?’

‘Yes,’ Ray said. ‘You ever heard of Cristiano Marchetti? He has boutique hotels all over Europe.’

Alice’s jaw was so tight she felt the tension in her neck as if someone had a noose around it—which they did. Damn it.

‘So...let me get this straight... Marchetti approached you completely out of the blue?’

‘Yes,’ Ray said. ‘He’s been looking for suitable property in London. The UK is the only place he doesn’t have a hotel. This is stage one of his British expansion.’

Alice was still trying to get her heart out of her mouth and back in her chest where it belonged. Cristiano was her new landlord? What did he plan to do? Hike up her rent so she had no choice but to marry him? She had three months left on her three-year lease. It had always worried her having such a short-term lease, which was one of the reasons she wanted to buy her own property. But Ray had always assured her he wasn’t selling any time soon. His wife and three daughters were clients of hers. She had thought—stupidly thought—she was safe.

But what would happen once Cristiano took possession?

Alice ended the call and started pacing her office so hard she thought she’d go right through the floorboards to the subway below. This was absolutely outrageous. Cristiano was going to such devious lengths to bend her to his will. She wished now she hadn’t torn up his card. Not that she had forgotten his number—no matter how hard she tried to erase it, for some reason, it remained fixed in her brain. But he might well have changed it. After all, she had changed hers.

She sat back at her desk and dialled his number. She listened to it ringing and ringing, her courage just about deserting her when finally it was answered by a husky female voice. ‘Hello?’

Alice’s stomach dropped. ‘Erm... I’m not sure if I have the right number—’

‘Are you looking for Cristiano?’ the young woman said.

‘Erm...yes, but if he’s busy I can—’

‘He’s right here beside me,’ the woman said. ‘Who will I say is calling?’

Right here beside her doing what?

Alice clenched her teeth so hard she could have bitten through a pair of tweezers. It was the middle of the day, for pity’s sake. Why wasn’t he at work instead of in bed with some gorgeous nymphet?

‘It’s Alice Piper.’

She heard the sound of the phone being handed over and couldn’t stop an image forming of him lying amongst the rumpled bed linen of a hotel with a naked woman’s body draped over his. ‘I’ve been expecting you to call,’ Cristiano said. ‘Changed your mind yet?’

Alice gripped her phone so hard she thought her knuckles were going to burst through her skin. ‘No, I have not.’

‘That’s a pity.’ There was a note of casual amusement in his tone. ‘I didn’t want to have to play dirty but needs must.’

Alice’s spine tightened as if someone were turning a wrench on each and every vertebra. ‘I know what you’re trying to do but—’

‘Come to my hotel and we’ll discuss this over a drink.’

Alice wasn’t going anywhere near his hotel. A hotel room was way too intimate. If she and Cristiano were alone together with a bed nearby, who knew what might happen? It wasn’t him she didn’t trust. It was her. Her body remembered him like a language she thought she’d long forgotten. Even now it was responding to the deep gravelly cadence of his voice, making her senses reel as if she had ingested some sort of mind-altering drug. ‘I’d rather meet somewhere less...’

‘Dangerous?’

The silky tone of his voice loosened the bolts on her vertebrae.

Alice pressed her lips together, trying to garner her defences. He wasn’t the same man as seven years ago. He had changed. He was harder. More ruthless. More calculating and brutally tactical. She was going to have to be careful dealing with him. He wasn’t in love with her now. He hated her. He wanted revenge. ‘I’m not scared of you, Cristiano.’

‘Perhaps not, but you’re scared of how I make you feel. It’s always been that way between us, has it not?’

‘I felt lust for you back then. Nothing else.’

‘You still feel it, don’t you, cara mia?’ His voice was a teasing feather stroking over the nerve-sensitive base of her spine.

‘You’re mistaken,’ she said, injecting her voice with icy hauteur. ‘I feel nothing for you but contempt.’

‘That’s a strong word for someone who once shared their body with me.’

‘You know something? I didn’t break your heart,’ Alice said. ‘I bruised your ego. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? You hadn’t had a woman say no to you before. You weren’t in love with me. If you were you would have accepted and respected my decision not to get married.’

‘That is an argument for another time,’ he said with a thread of steel entering his tone. ‘I want to see you tonight to discuss the rent on your salon going forward.’

Alice stiffened. It was all right for him with the millions he’d inherited when his parents were killed. She didn’t have any rich relatives to hand her an empire or to give her a financial leg up when things turned ugly. Everything she had worked for had been out of her own blood, sweat and tears—and occasional tantrum. If he turned the financial screws on her now, everything she’d worked for could be compromised. Or—God forbid—even lost. ‘Sometimes I wonder how you speak so fluently with all those silver spoons hanging out of your mouth.’

A pulsing silence passed.

Alice wondered if this was going to turn into one of their massive arguments. With hindsight she could see a large part of their relationship had been a power struggle. They had constantly bickered over things without anything being resolved other than in bed. Neither of them had wanted to compromise or back down from a stance. Making love had diffused the battle temporarily, but it hadn’t solved the underlying issue.

He had wanted control of her and she wouldn’t give it.

Cristiano released a long breath. ‘I would give each and every one of those silver spoons back if I could have my parents and brother back for a day, let alone for the last twenty-three years.’

Alice suddenly felt ashamed of herself. He couldn’t help his background any more than she could help hers. It was a cheap shot, similar to the ones she’d tossed at him in the past. Their verbal sparring had been a sort of foreplay. The battle of two strong wills, combined with a fierce lust for each other, had created some combustible arguments on occasion. Too many occasions. When had they ever sat down and had a discussion without one or both of them flying off in a temper? Had either of them actually listened to what the other said? Or were they too busy trying to think of a cutting comeback? ‘I’m sorry. That was...unfair of me.’

‘I have to go. Natalia is waiting for me.’

A dagger went to Alice’s belly. She’d forgotten all about his gorgeous little bed buddy lying right beside him while he spoke to her on the phone. Jealousy rose in her like a beast that had been woken too abruptly. Giant paws of jealousy clawing at her insides, making her feel strangely hollow. Why was she feeling like this? She had no right to feel this way. She had ended their affair. She’d been the one to walk away, not him. She didn’t have any rights over him now. He was a free agent to sleep with whomever he pleased. There should be no reason why the thought of him talking to her on the phone while a woman was in bed beside him should...hurt her so much.

‘I’m sorry to force you to talk business in the middle of pleasure,’ she said. ‘Maybe next time turn your phone to silent so you don’t get interrupted during one of your marathon sex sessions.’

There was another little silence.

Alice wished she hadn’t spoken with such crisp venom. Every word she had spoken sounded as if it were painted bright green. What was wrong with her? It was crazy to give him ammunition he could use against her. If he thought for a picosecond she was jealous he would exploit it every opportunity he could.

‘I’ll pick you up for dinner at seven,’ Cristiano said as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘What’s your address?’

‘I’m not having dinner with—’

‘You will have dinner with me or I’ll cancel your lease as of now.’

Alice’s heart banged against her breastbone. ‘You can’t do that!’

‘Can’t I?’

She swallowed a rush of panic. She had to get control of her tongue. It wouldn’t help her cause to challenge him all the time. It would only make him all the harder to manage. She could handle dinner. Sure she could. It would be a test for her. It would be proof she could spend an hour or two in his company without wanting to tear his clothes off his hot body.

Yikes. Do not even think about that body.

It was probably still naked and sweaty from bed-wrecking sex. ‘Won’t Natalia mind you taking out another woman for dinner?’

‘No.’

Alice was frustrated by his one-word answer so went digging for more. ‘She must have a very laid-back attitude to relationships to allow you to entertain other women while she’s involved with you.’

‘Natalia knows her place.’

‘Are you going to marry her?’

‘She’s already married.’

Shock rendered Alice speechless for a moment. What had happened to Cristiano’s conservative old-fashioned values? The Cristiano of the past would never have slept with a married woman. He’d had no time for men and women who betrayed their marital vows. He’d spoken at length about the commitment his parents had made and how he admired and respected them for staying true to it until their untimely deaths. Until death do us part had been something he had believed in to the letter.

What had changed him?

You changed him.

The thought was an uncomfortable weight in the pit of her stomach. Had she been the one to destroy his faith in relationships? But she hadn’t been ready to settle down back then. Rejecting a proposal wasn’t a crime, was it? Surely she’d had the right to decide whether she wanted to be married or not. It wasn’t the Dark Ages, for God’s sake. But the thought continued to niggle at her. Had she turned him into a casual-living playboy who had no time for commitment? These days he used women to suit his needs. He was in and out of relationships faster than a racing driver changed gears. Was he really no longer a man who longed for a wife and family of his own? And why should that make her feel so...so sad? ‘Well then, I’d better get off the phone so you can get back to your grubby little affair, hadn’t I?’

‘I’ll see you tonight,’ he said and before she could think of a comeback, or tell him she wasn’t going, he ended the call.

* * *

Alice dressed for dinner as if she were dressing for combat. Each layer of clothing was like putting on a suit of armour. The armour of sophistication she had been so sadly lacking seven years ago.