filled the air with its fragrance or a woman who has

never cried out her fulfilment to the lover who has

taken her to it?"

Beneath them the golden silence of the morning

was suddenly broken by the sound of a car arriving

in the adjacent courtyard.

"That will be Alfredo," Lorenzo told her, suddenly

businesslike. "Come through into my office as soon

as you are dressed. Alfredo will want to go through

all the necessary paperwork for our marriage."

As she watched him leave, Jodie wanted very badly

to tell him that she had changed her mind; to break

through his arrogance and to pierce his pride the way

he had pierced hers. How could she possibly have

reacted to him as she had? How could she have let

her guard down so far that she had actually physically

responded to him? Now he obviously thought that he

could use her own vulnerability against her to make

her do anything he wanted her to do. Anything. Every

word he had just said to her, every look he had given

her, had said quite plainly that he now believed she

was his for the taking.

But she wasn’t, and she never, ever would be. She

knew that, and she was going to make sure that he

knew it as well. And if she couldn’t? How much did

she really want to bolster her pride and appear at John

and Louise’s wedding with her own brand-new husband?

Enough to take that risk?

More than enough, Jodie decided with renewed determination

as she gathered up some clean clothes and

headed for the shower. Especially since she already

knew that, no matter what Lorenzo said or did, or

even fleetingly made her feel, nothing could alter the

fact that she simply did not want an intimate one-toone

emotional or physical relationship with a man

ever again. John had shown her that she could not

trust his sex, and if John could not be trusted to mean

it when he said that he loved her and wanted to marry

her, then she certainly wasn’t going to risk trusting a

man like Lorenzo!

Fifteen minutes later, showered and dressed, and with

her still damp hair caught back off her face, Jodie

hesitated outside the door to the study-cum-office

Lorenzo had shown her the previous night.

She could have sworn she hadn’t betrayed her presence

by the smallest sound, much less even raised her

hand to knock politely on the door, but somehow

Lorenzo must have divined it, because before she

could do so he was opening the door and taking her

by the arm to draw her into the room. Taking her by

the arm or imprisoning her? Certainly to any onlooker

the way the strong, lean fingers were curling round

her wrist might look both protective and possessive—

the hold of a lover wanting to establish the exclusivity

of a relationship — but she, of course, knew better.

"I was just beginning to wonder what was keeping

you," he told her.

"I’ve only been half an hour," Jodie protested defensively.

"A lifetime for us to be apart," he told her softly,

giving her a look of such sexually explicit hunger that

her own eyes widened and darkened before she could

stop herself from reacting to it. She was awed by the

impact of a look that somehow managed to convey a

desire to strip every item of clothing from her body

and explore and pleasure it in the most intimate way

possible, but at the same time made it fiercely clear

that he also wanted to wrap that same body in the

protection of his love and adoration, to keep it and

her for himself alone. What on earth must it be like

to be truly loved and desired by a man who looked

at one like that? A man who was not either afraid of

or embarrassed to show his feelings? But Lorenzo had

no feelings for her, she reminded herself, and nor did

she want him to.

"Alfredo, come and let me introduce you to my

wife-to-be."

Lorenzo’s lawyer was about the same age as

Lorenzo himself, but nothing like so tall or so awesomely

good-looking, Jodie thought. He did, though,

have very nice, warm brown twinkling eyes, and a

kind smile.

"Lorenzo has just been telling me about you. I

thought he must be exaggerating, in that deranged

way that lovers have, but now I see that he was not

doing you justice," Alfredo complimented Jodie

warmly.

Lorenzo’s lawyer was just being courteous, that

was clear, albeit in a flattering, slightly over-the-top

way. Jodie knew that, but she still couldn’t help dimpling

him a laughing smile, immediately feeling at

ease with him.

"No wonder you are so anxious to rush her to the

altar, Lorenzo," Alfredo continued. "In your shoes—"

"But you are not in my shoes, are you?" Lorenzo

pointed out, with what Jodie thought was almost insufferable

arrogance.

The lawyer, though, did not seem to be offended.

Instead he laughed and said, "There is no need to be

jealous, my friend. I can see that Jodie only has eyes

for you." Whilst Jodie was still digesting this untruth,

he continued, "I was just asking Lorenzo where you

met. I assume it must have been when he was out of

the country, in the aftermath of that dreadful earthquake.

I know that Lorenzo was there in his capacity

of adviser to those government officials who run our

own aid programmes. Which reminds me, Lorenzo—

I have, as you instructed, ensured that sufficient

money has been put aside to cover the medical fees

of the children who are to join the prosthetic limb

replacement programme." Alfredo turned to Jodie and

gave her a charming smile accompanied by a small

rueful shrug. "You will already know that your husband-

to-be has a soft heart and digs deep into his

pockets to help those in need. Did you meet him

through his charitable work?"

Jodie could feel her face starting to burn as she

remembered her earlier accusatory comments to

Lorenzo. And she couldn’t even allow herself the satisfaction

of inwardly believing that Lorenzo had

primed his lawyer to speak as he had. One look at

Lorenzo’s grim expression was enough to make it

plain that Alfredo’s unwitting revelations had not

pleased him.

"Jodie does not work in any capacity for any of the

aid programmes, Alfredo." Lorenzo stopped him. "As

it happens I met her some time ago, when I was in

England. I had planned to bring her here to meet my

grandmother, but unfortunately Nonna died before I

could do so…which brings me to the matter of my

late cousin’s widow, Caterina."

"She can have no claim on the Castillo once you

have complied with the terms of your grandmother’s

will and are married," Alfredo assured Lorenzo immediately.

"No claim on the Castillo, no, but it seems that

Caterina feels she has the right to make a claim on

me," Lorenzo told him cynically.

Alfredo started to frown. "But that is impossible."

"Indeed. But Caterina, as we both know, is somewhat

prone to exaggeration. Ridiculously, she has

even suggested that my grandmother wished me to

marry her! Having run through Gino’s money, and

dragged his name in the gutter, it seems she desires

to do the same with mine."

"There has been gossip about her," Alfredo agreed

uncomfortably.

"Indeed. And I do not wish there to be any about

my marriage or my future wife, so perhaps a few

words in the right ears to warn them to ignore anything

Caterina might have to say?" Lorenzo suggested

smoothly.

"An excellent idea," Alfredo agreed, whilst Jodie