The Sicilian's Mistress (7 page)

Gianni ran a mocking fingertip down the exposed line of her extended throat and watched her jerk and instinctively lean closer. ‘You're still mine,
cara
. You don't have any resistance to me at all. But then you never did have… I want you back, Milly.'

‘You couldn't possibly! You're nothing to do with me any more. Our only connection now is Connor!' Faith asserted in a feverish rush of protest. Hurrying forward, she stooped
to grab her son's hand and turn back the way they had come. ‘It's getting dark…it's time I went home.'

‘Ducks?' Connor cried in plaintive surprise.

‘The ducks have gone to bed,' Faith told him with desperate urgency.

And the last sound she heard was Gianni's husky appreciative laughter.

A
FTER
buckling a squirming complaining Connor into his car seat, Faith ruefully acknowledged that she had done it again. She had reached saturation point and fled when she could take no more. Once more Gianni D'Angelo had breached the boundaries of her expectations and forced her into uncharted waters.

His
territory. She recalled that assertion with a shiver.
Gianni wanted her back.
And with that shattering statement of intent Gianni D'Angelo had plunged her into shock again. Just as she was struggling to regard and accept him as Connor's father, Gianni had revealed a motivation she had never dreamt might exist.

He had been so casual about it too, but in the cool fatalistic fashion of a male referring to an inevitable event. And he had totally unnerved her when he had urged her to let Edward go. Edward was the man she
loved
, the man she was to marry in a few months' time! Yet with frightening confidence Gianni had talked as though her fiancé was already on the way out of her life.

But mightn't she herself have unwittingly encouraged that attitude? Faith squirmed, steeped in shame over behaviour which had merely increased her emotional turmoil. Gianni was incredibly attractive, but he had one trait more disturbing and more dangerous than all the rest put together, and that was a high-voltage aura of pure sex.

She had never recognised that in a man before. But she had been susceptible, indeed had found it quite impossible to control her own intense awareness of him. But then, around Gianni she was steadily becoming a person she didn't know…

Edward hadn't come into her mind once while her wretched body had come alive like an insidious enemy. And then, as she sat there fighting to understand what was happening to her, Faith suddenly found an escape route from the daunting conviction that in responding in any way to Gianni she had betrayed Edward.

Why was she being so tough on herself? What a fool she was being! That flashback about that long-ago phone call had destabilised her. The instant she'd realised that she had once loved Gianni it had become a huge challenge to deal with him as a stranger. So for a few minutes her barriers had slipped. The line between the past and the present had blurred. And in the enervated state she was in, she had reacted in a way she would never normally have reacted…

Now that she knew the problem it wouldn't ever happen again, she told herself urgently. She had behaved as if she was still the woman making that phone call, hadn't she? She had behaved as if Gianni was her lover. So she wasn't
really
still attracted to Gianni. Involuntarily, she had responded to an eerie sense of familiarity.

Since Faith hadn't heard the limousine pulling into the car park, and certainly hadn't seen it, she almost leapt from her seat in fright when a hand gently rapped on the windscreen to attract her attention. Her head twisted round. She recognised Gianni's burgundy silk tie and it was like an instant shot of adrenalin.

Gianni opened the car door to subject her to a fulminating appraisal.

‘What are you doing?' Faith demanded defensively.

‘You're sitting in the dark in an unlocked car in a deserted park. You've got a lot on your mind. Let me run you home,' Gianni urged, his dark, deep drawl sending an odd little shiver through her.

‘If I've got a lot on my mind, whose fault is it?' she condemned tautly. ‘Why can't you give me five minutes of peace?'

‘You shouldn't be on your own here.' Delivering that as
surance with the supreme confidence of a male making an unarguable statement, Gianni lowered his arrogant dark head to glance into the back of the car. His brilliant dark eyes connected with hers again. ‘Connor looks pretty miserable too.'

‘Daddy!' Connor squealed in sudden excitement.

Flinching from that cry of recognition, Faith bowed her forehead down against the steering wheel and fought off an urge to bang it hard. But she had seen the reproof in his gaze. He hadn't needed to say anything. ‘Go away, Gianni…'

‘Only if you go straight home and go to bed. You're exhausted.

Faith tensed even more. She didn't
want
to go home. No longer did she feel up to dealing with her parents, who were likely to be very upset by the news that Connor's father had surfaced. Her past had caught up with her with a vengeance, and nobody was going to escape the fall-out, she acknowledged guiltily.

Lifting her head again, Faith turned the ignition key. ‘I'll phone you tomorrow. I'm taking Connor to a fast-food restaurant for tea,' she announced defiantly, and, reaching out, she slammed the door loudly on Gianni.

Connor sobbed when she drove off, which really bothered her. Had he already taken that much of a liking to Gianni? Half a mile down the road, she stopped at a callbox to ring home and yet again excuse herself from a family meal. The phone rang a long time before it was answered by her father.

After she'd explained why she wouldn't be home, her father said in a curiously quiet voice. ‘That's fine. Actually, we're dining out ourselves, and we'll probably be late back, so don't wait up for us. By the way, Edward's home.'

‘He is?' Faith exclaimed in surprise.

‘He caught an earlier flight and called in at the plant just as I was leaving,' Robin Jennings told her.

Faith drove to the restaurant. Connor ate with gusto. Faith nibbled at the odd chip and surveyed her son with her an
guished heart in her eyes. Gianni had rights she couldn't deny. Gianni had had a tough deal. At lot of men who fathered children outside marriage sought to evade their responsibilities, but her son had a father who had spent three years trying to track him down. A father who showed every sign of wanting to be very much a part of Connor's life. But a father whose very existence was likely to cause Connor's mother endless hassle and grief.

Edward was home, so she knew where she was heading next. More than anybody else, her fiancé deserved to hear her news first. Edward was always calm, she reminded herself. He certainly wouldn't be happy, but surely he would ultimately take this unexpected development in his stride?

Beginning to feel like a traveller who had no place to lay her head, Faith wearily parked outside the Edwardian villa where Edward still lived with his mother. She thanked heaven that it was one of Mrs Benson's bridge nights. Connor was half asleep, and she carried him up the steps feeling like the worst of mothers for keeping him out beyond his bedtime.

Edward opened the front door and studied her in surprise. ‘Faith?'

Faith chewed at her lower lip. ‘Dad told me you'd got back early and I needed to see you…so here I am.'

‘But why didn't you leave Connor at home?' Edward enquired.

‘Mum and Dad are dining out.'

‘Are you sure of that? Your father's with your mother? When I walked into Robin's office this afternoon, he was cancelling the business dinner he had arranged for tonight.' Her fiancé continued with pronounced disapproval, ‘And, believe me, Bill Smith is too valuable a customer to cancel at such short notice!'

Engaged in settling Connor's limp little body into a corner of the sofa in the chilly lounge, Faith made no response. She was too worked up about what she had to tell Edward.

‘Something rather unexpected has happened,' she said stiltedly.

‘Everybody does seem to be acting in a very unexpected way today. Your father's evasive manner with me was distinctly odd,' Edward informed her flatly, his pale blue eyes reflecting his annoyance at what he had clearly taken as a snub.

‘Look, this is
really
important, Edward,' Faith stressed.

Edward planted himself by the fireplace, a rather irritating air of indulgence in his scrutiny. ‘What's up? Wedding stationery not up to scratch?'

‘Something I never, ever thought was likely to happen. Connor's father, Gianni D'Angelo, has turned up!' Faith shared in a driven rush.

Edward stiffened. She certainly had his attention now. He began shooting questions at her as if she was in the witness box, charged with some kind of crime.

‘Gianni D'Angelo…' Edward repeated incredulously. ‘Let me get this straight. You are telling me that the electronics tycoon Gianni D'Angelo is Connor's
father
?'

‘Yes, I was pretty shocked too,' Faith admitted heavily.

‘Stop talking as if when all this took place it happened to somebody else!' Edward suddenly snapped accusingly. ‘Believe me, I'm not too happy with the sound of all this. It's hardly what I expected, is it? Gianni D'Angelo! How on earth did you meet a man like that?'

‘I don't remember, Edward—'

‘Did you work for him?'

‘No…' Faith began pleating a fold in her shirt with tense fingers.

‘I'm starting to suspect your loss of memory might be based on a very sound instinct to bury a less than presentable past,' Edward told her in a derisive undertone.

‘That's a horrible thing to say. It's not like it's something I can help,' Faith whispered painfully.

‘Gianni D'Angelo…so once you moved in distinctly rar
efied circles,' Edward remarked snidely, and she winced. ‘What sort of relationship did you have with him?'

Stress made Faith's stomach twist. Edward's anger was already greater than she had naively anticipated, and his contempt was an equally unpleasant surprise. I can't tell him the whole truth now. I
can't
, she thought in desperation.

‘As your future husband, I have the right to know, and if you don't tell me I have every intention of asking him!'

‘He said…he said I was his mistress,' Faith admitted in a deadened voice. She was too exhausted to withstand any more pressure.

The silence went on and on and on. Finally she raised enough courage to look up.

Edward had gone all red in the face. He was also surveying her as if she had turned into an alien before his eyes.

‘I'm very ashamed of it,' she told him unevenly.

‘So that's who I'm about to marry…Gianni D'Angelo's slut.' Edward labelled her with cold venom. ‘Thanks for telling me.'

Pale as milk, Faith got up and bent down to lift her son back into her arms. ‘There's not much point continuing this conversation,' she replied tightly. ‘You're shocked, and I understand that, but it's my past,
not
my present, Edward.'

‘
Shocked
barely covers it…a sleazy association of that nature!' Edward fired back in furious disgust. ‘If this gets out locally, I'll be a laughing stock!'

‘Gianni's not likely to go around telling people. I only told you because it's not something I felt I could keep to myself.' Only now, she acknowledged, she very much wished she had.

Edward vented a humourless laugh. ‘My mother once said I didn't know what I might be taking on with you. Clearly I should have listened!'

‘Do you want your ring back?' Faith heard herself ask, without any expression at all.

Edward went rigid, bitter resentment showing in his eyes.
‘Of course I don't! My God, can't I let off a little steam without you asking me that?'

‘Calling me a slut is more than “a little steam”,' Faith countered jaggedly, already wondering if, after their marriage, Edward would throw her past in her teeth every time she annoyed or disappointed him. ‘You might as well know the lot. I was Gianni's mistress for two years…and I loved him.'

Edward surveyed her in near disbelief. Whether Faith realised it or not there had been a decided edge of defiance in that final announcement.

‘Faith—' he began brusquely.

‘I just want to go home, Edward. Could you open the door, please?' she asked woodenly.

Connor restored to his car seat, Faith drove off. Edward was never likely to see her in the same light again. Could she blame him for that? Edward was always very conscious of what others might think. A lot of people had seemed surprised that he should ask a single mother to be his wife. Now Edward was questioning that decision. Were his feelings for her strong enough to withstand such damaging revelations?

Arriving home to find all lights blazing, Faith carried her son straight upstairs and quickly put him to bed. Only when she went downstairs again did it occur to her that the house had the strangest air of being like the
Marie Celeste
. The kitchen even showed every sign of her mother's initial preparations for an evening meal. Faith began to tidy up, amazed that the older woman had gone out leaving potatoes half-unpeeled and the radio still playing.

Where had her parents gone in such a hurry? Her father had cancelled a business dinner and her mother should have been attending the choral evening in the church hall. It wasn't their anniversary or either of their birthdays. Their behaviour didn't make sense, but Faith was already so tired that she fell into bed, determined to suppress every anxiety and every thought.

Once she had caught up on her sleep nothing would look so bad, she assured herself. Edward would have had time to come to terms with her bombshell. He had hurt her, but possibly she had expected too much from him. After all, she too had been upset by what she had learnt about her own past today. Let the dust settle, she urged herself wearily. Tomorrow would be a whole new day.

 

Accustomed to being rudely awakened by Connor bouncing on her bed, Faith woke the next morning to a curious silence. Glancing drowsily at her alarm clock, she stiffened and then leapt out of bed in dismay. It was just after ten! For goodness' sake, why hadn't her mother roused her?

On her way into the bathroom Faith registered that her son's bed was already neatly made. After washing at speed, she pulled on a brown skirt and a burgundy sweater. This morning it had been her turn to open the shop early for the deliveries. A perplexed frown on her face, she hurried downstairs.