LYNNE GRAHAM - Second-Time Bride

So why were you hurt? Daisy was still asking herself. There had to be something wrong with her that she could still flinch from the reminder of Alessio’s rejection this long after the event. And how could she have been so blind to her daughter’s very real need to know that her father had at least been made aware of her existence? Had Tara even thought of what might come next? Had she some naive fantasy of Alessio welcoming her with open arms and delight?

Or was that her own prejudice and pessimism talking again? But Daisy could only remember Alessio’s distaste when she’d been pregnant, his indifference to her need for him when she had miscarried. That had been the final bitter blow that had driven Daisy away.

Was there the remotest possibility that a male that selfish could respond in an appropriate manner to a painfully vulnerable teenage daughter whom he had never wanted in the first place? Daisy acknowledged that she had known what she was doing when she’d kept quiet about Tara’s existence. The risk of exposing her child to the same rejection that she herself had experienced had been too great.

Daisy got out of the lift on the top floor. If she had thought Giles’s office was the last word in luxury, she was now learning her mistake. The sleek smoked-glass edifice which housed the Leopardi Merchant Bank was stunningly elegant in its contemporary decor. There were two women in the reception area. The older one moved forward. ‘Miss Thornton? I’m Mr Leopardi’s secretary. Could you come this way, please...?’

Daisy reddened. Alessio’s secretary wore a marked look of strain—possibly the result of Daisy’s steadfast determination not to be refused an appointment. Alessio was undoubtedly furious. After all, he had made it very clear that he did not wish to see her again. However, she didn’t know where he lived so she had had no choice but to approach him at the bank.

Her heart pounding at the foot of her throat and reverberating in her eardrums, she walked dizzily into Alessio’s office, a great big room with a great big glass desk and...Alessio standing there, suppressed dark fury and rigid restraint emanating from every lean, poised line of his tall, muscular body.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he demanded with icy precision.

Her head swam, her knees wobbled. She opened her mouth and closed it again. A quite sickening wave of dizziness overwhelmed her and the next thing she knew the blackness was folding in and her legs were crumpling beneath her.

CHAPTER THREE

DAISY surfaced from her faint very slowly. She focused on Alessio’s dark features as he swam gradually into focus, and a dazed smile curved her soft mouth. He was cradling her in his arms, her slight body still limp, her head resting back against his forearm. It felt wonderful. Her violet eyes dreamy, she looked up at him...and melted, a honeyed languor stealing through her as she shifted and curled her toes in wanton anticipation.

‘You have the most gorgeous eyes,’ Alessio breathed in an abstracted undertone, drawing ever closer.

They were lost in his. Pools of passionate gold set between luxuriant black lashes even longer than her own. Daisy expelled a tiny sigh, the raw heat of his lean, hard body curling sensuously into her relaxed limbs. She curved instinctively closer and he lifted a hand almost jerkily and let long brown fingers thread into the fall of her hair, his thumb rubbing caressingly against her earlobe. Her heartbeat went crazy in the thrumming silence.

‘Alessio...’ she mumbled.

‘Piccola mia...’ The familiar endearment left him in an aching sigh.

Warm fingers cupped her cheekbone as he bent his dark head. He captured her moist lips in a devouring kiss and plundered them apart. From that first instant of contact, Daisy was electrified. The erotic flick of his tongue exploring the tender interior of her mouth made her jerk in shock and gasp. lightning heat sizzled through her. Her hands came up to clutch at his thick hair, his broad shoulders, his powerful arms and clung. Every clamouring sense roared off in glorious rediscovery. He crushed her to him and she surrendered with enthusiasm. As she strained up to him in a fever of desire, excitement clawed at her throbbing body in a voracious surge.

With a driven groan, Alessio dragged his mouth from hers and stared down at her with stunned intensity. He snatched in a ragged breath and abruptly stood up, carrying her slim body with him. His strong face set like cement as he gazed into her passion-glazed eyes. Swinging lithely round, he simply opened his arms and let her drop from a height back down onto the sofa he had just vacated.

‘Give me the bad news first!’ Alessio raked down at her.

Daisy had landed in a mess of wildly tangled hair and inelegantly splayed limbs on the mercifully well-sprung sofa. She didn’t know what had hit her. For an instant she didn’t even know where she was but she knew that Alessio was there all right, standing over her like a hanging judge as she attempted to halt a seemingly unstoppable roll in the direction of his plush office carpet. A pair of strong hands caught her and impatiently flipped her back upright into the corner of the seat.

‘“The bad news...”?’ Daisy echoed. Momentarily, utter cowardice had her in its hold. She didn’t want to be forced to think. Not about how time had cruelly slid back to entrap and humiliate her. Not about how excruciatingly pleasurable it had felt to be in Alessio’s arms. Not about how dreadful it felt to be separated from him again. No, she definitely didn’t want to think.

‘You only faint when you’re terrified! Do you think I don’t remember that?’ Alessio launched at her grimly. ‘You drop in a pathetic little heap, then you open those big blue eyes and fix them on me and I have an uncontrollable urge to give way to my baser instincts. That’s how you broke the news of your pregnancy!’

‘My pregnancy?’ Daisy questioned helplessly. ‘I didn’t get that way on my own!’

‘There was nothing accidental about it,’ Alessio condemned harshly.

Daisy froze, shattered by that particular accusation. Even thirteen years ago, it had not occurred to her that Alessio might believe that her pregnancy was anything other than an accident. That his family suspected her of such manipulative behaviour had been no surprise to her, but she had innocently assumed that at least Alessio did not share their suspicions. ‘Are you really trying to accuse me of having deliberately set out to...?’

Alessio spread two brown hands in a frustrated movement of dismissal. ‘We are not going to talk about this.’

‘Now just you wait a minute,’ Daisy objected, springing upright. ‘You can’t throw an accusation like that and then back off from it again!’

‘Did you hear me? Leave yesterday’s bad news where it belongs,’ Alessio spelt out. ‘We are not about to get into that again. We are not going to fight about ancient history like a couple of stupid kids!’

‘Ancient history...yesterday’s bad news...’ How would Alessio react when she informed him that ‘yesterday’s bad news’ was infinitely more current than he had had any cause to suspect? The fight went out of Daisy. She sank heavily back down on the sofa again. ‘You want to know why I told your secretary I had to see you to discuss an urgent, confidential matter—’

‘I think I’m ahead of you there.’ Alessio surveyed her with innate cynicism, his lip curling. ‘You’re broke, aren’t you? You’re in debt.’

‘I don’t know where you get that idea.’ But Daisy turned a guilty pink, unable to avoid thinking about that Swiss bank account filled with Leopardi money. Not just filled but positively bursting at the seams with Leopardi money, the original investment having grown greatly in the intervening years, according to Janet.