His Wedding Day Revenge

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

D RACO APPEARED LATER that day just as she was settling Mattie for his afternoon nap, or trying to.

‘Did you enjoy your morning?’

‘Very much. It was good to get away.’ And the local town, with its historic cobbled streets and harbour, was really beautiful.

‘Good to get away from me?’

Soon every day would be away from Draco. She felt her stomach tighten and pushed away the thought, painting on a smile as she surreptitiously studied his face, observing that the same indefinable thing she had heard in his voice echoed in his lean features.

Had he got out of the wrong side of the bed?

It had not been hers.

When Mattie had kicked off she had wheeled his crib to beside her bed. Draco had been lying there, the sheet low over his hips to reveal the light dusting of dark hair on his flat, muscle-ridged belly and broad bronzed chest, one hand behind his head, looking gloriously tousled and, with the stubble on his jaw, even more mind-numbingly sexy than normal as he’d watched her.

He hadn’t said a thing.

He hadn’t needed to. Having caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, Jane could imagine what he’d been thinking! Her hair a wild mess of curls, dark shadows under her eyes and her hip bones visible through the thin robe she had quickly pulled on.

She had tried to sound as if she didn’t care when she had suggested in a scratchy, impatient voice that if he wanted any sleep he should make the trip through the interconnecting door to his own bedroom suite. Would he make the same trip when his own children were here, or would the nanny be in the nursery while Draco made love to his perfect wife?

Later, when Mattie had settled and she had rolled over to sleep, missing the warm body beside her, she had regretted her generosity.

She ignored the lingering sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and managed to respond to his question with a teasing smile and a negligent shrug. ‘Oh, absolutely, you weren’t there to cramp my style.’

‘You did the usual tourist stuff. You ate?’ he added.

‘Well, I am pretty much a tourist,’ she pointed out. ‘And of course I ate. I know you think I’m too skinny, but I do not have to be force-fed.’

‘You are not too skinny! You are—’ Tough and vulnerable, and the combination shook loose some uncomfortable emotions in him that he was not prepared to own. ‘I like watching you eat. When you remember, you eat like you make love—with total commitment.’

The frown melted from her face. ‘Yes, well, I love the local cuisine and it’s quite nice not to have to cook. I’m a terrible cook,’ she confided with a rueful grin. ‘Actually Luciana showed me a few places only the locals would know about.’ She glanced at the dress, hanging up behind the door, she had found in the incredible vintage shop down a side alley. It had been an Aladdin’s cave, a treasure trove of vintage and rare, owned by an equally fascinating woman.

In her mind’s eye Jane could see the dress as it would be shortly. Her fingers itched to get to work on it.

‘You didn’t have to go on the minibus. I would have taken you and Mattie if you’d asked,’ Draco observed, continuing to sound disgruntled.

‘Mattie was fine. He’s a very sociable baby.’ Though not, admittedly, today. He was not his usual cheery self. ‘And you weren’t there,’ she said, keeping her tone neutral, then adding brightly before he responded, ‘It was actually nice to be part of the group and not the woman who is staying at the palazzo.’

‘Has that been an issue?’

She shrugged. ‘People are initially wary of the person being given preferential treatment, but Mattie is always a vote winner.’ And everyone could see that it made sense they had been given more baby-friendly rooms.

Of course, if they had realised that she was sleeping with Draco she could imagine that situation would change very quickly! Which was a very good reason, one among many, to stick to the rules and keep the sleeping arrangement under the radar. It was important to her for people to know she was here on her own merits, which she liked to think she was, or at least deserved to be.

There were some fascinating characters, and she was learning a lot, some of which would be transferable when she got back home.

Some days...home seemed a very long way away, in another life, but she had to keep her feet on the ground and remember the life she was living now was not real. A week and a half and she would be back home.

‘Everyone is very excited about the party tonight.’

He raised a sceptical brow as he looked at her with narrowed eyes. ‘Everyone?’

She shrugged. The truth was, when Draco had said that there was to be a cocktail party to celebrate the first of what he intended would be a yearly course and conference and he was inviting some people, she had been concerned that someone there might have been at the wedding and might recognise her. She didn’t want to be outed as the runaway bride!

‘I’m not really a party person, but yes, I’m sure it will be...interesting. Will there be many of your friends there?’ To her dismay she did not pull off the casual part of her question.

‘Just spit it out, cara .’

‘I was worrying that...’ The words came in a rush. ‘Will there be people there who were at the...wedding?’

‘You think they will recognise you? You were hardly there long enough for that.’

The acid sarcasm brought a flush to her pale cheeks. She touched her red hair, which today she had loosely gathered in a knot from which bronzed curls spilled out and framed her face.

‘People see the hair.’

‘Indeed they do,’ he agreed as he thought of the texture, how it looked spread out on the pillow catching the sun and burning burnished gold when she lay sleeping in the morning.

‘There is no need to be concerned. It is a different set of guests, diverse, but all people whose attendance will raise the profile of the event and hopefully more to follow. Also I am announcing the launch of a prize for an eco-initiative for young people. These guests are contacts that will be useful. It is not black tie tonight, but I can have a selection of outfits—’

Exasperated, she cut across him. ‘We have already had this discussion, Draco, and I’m not wearing jeans and a nice top, if that is what you’re worried about.’ Actually Luciana, the willowy Italian girl, had offered her a dress that, though mini on its owner, would have been mid-calf on Jane, but with the waist cinched in would have done nicely. She had found a suitable belt but then found the rather nicer alternative.

‘I think you look delightful in jeans.’ He quite enjoyed peeling them down her slim legs. The top was to his mind nice or otherwise optional.

‘I have my outfit sorted. I found something in town this morning.’

He looked dubious. ‘There are not many shops in—’

She gave a small smile and sighed at his persistence. ‘You mean designer shops and no, there aren’t, but there are a few really good small independent stores and I discovered an absolutely incredible vintage shop. The flamboyant elderly lady who owned it had many tales to tell of her time working in the film industry.’

At one point she had brought out an album of signed photos of old film stars, pleased to find an audience that was genuinely fascinated.

Jane had come away with the blue silk thirties dress in really great condition, which was now hanging behind her door, and the promise that the next time she came there would be cakes.

Jane had assured her that cakes would be much appreciated, feeling sad when she’d realised that she wouldn’t be here for a return visit.

The dress needed a few tweaks but nothing that was beyond her capabilities. Would that her life could be sorted so painlessly—a snip here, a stitch there.

‘I don’t think she does it for the money. I think she just loves beautiful things.’

‘You bought a second-hand dress?’ He sounded so comically shocked at the idea that she smiled as she gestured to the dress.

‘I did.’

‘You are wearing that?’

‘How lucky I don’t need your approval to feel good about myself,’ she tossed back. ‘It was a bargain. I felt quite guilty.’

Seeing the antagonistic challenge in the eyes turned to him, Draco swallowed the protest on his lips. Obviously she would look gorgeous in anything, but she deserved to wear beautiful clothes and not someone’s hand-me-downs.

‘So what time would you like to walk across?’

She raised a feathery brow. ‘To the party? Oh, I’ll make my own way across.’

She saw his jaw clamp but he didn’t say a word as he pushed his hands into his pockets and turned to the window. She sighed. Draco’s back was very expressive.

She finished folding the last of the baby sleep suits, extracted a grumbling Mattie from his stroller and, performing a soothing jiggle to quieten the baby, walked across to where Draco stood, a tower of glowering disapproval.

‘I don’t know why you are being so cranky.’

He spun around to face her. ‘Cranky?’ he echoed, sounding so incredulous at the suggestion that she almost laughed, but stopped herself, realising that might be unnecessarily provocative.

She glanced down at the baby in her arms, whose eyes had drifted closed, but, to be on the safe side, didn’t stop rocking him. ‘Well, it is sometimes difficult to work out who the baby in the room is.’

His expression of utter outraged astonishment drew a short laugh from her throat...before she held her breath, waiting for him to explode. She released it again when he laughed, reluctantly, but Jane decided she’d take it.

‘Well, it is daft, isn’t it?’ she observed with a smile. ‘It’s not as if it’s a date. We have established that we don’t do dates.’

She watched with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as his expression changed, the humour wiped out to be replaced by a dark scowl.

‘So you wish to leave your options open. If you go alone you can leave with who you wish.’

His interpretation immediately fired Jane up. She was spending all her time and energy trying to maintain the boundaries and keep to the rules and Draco seemed not even to recognise they were there! If they came down she would have to see that all those self-imposed lines were not just invisible, they were utterly useless. She didn’t want her delusions to be revealed, because then she would have to admit she was not in control of this situation. She was not in control of anything. Her emotions didn’t recognise any lines, invisible or otherwise, and at some point this was going to hurt.

All over again!

‘That’s a crazy, not to mention insulting, suggestion!’ she retorted, her voice shaking as she clung to her control by her fingernails. ‘Be careful, Draco, or I might walk away with the idea you are jealous,’ she threw out in frustration, not expecting her words to find a mark.

The words stopped Draco cold.

An image flashed into his head, his father consumed with jealousy demanding that his wife, her bags packed, tell him who the man was she was leaving him for. And she had laughed contemptuously at him, falling to his knees begging her to stay, degrading himself, literally crawling after her.

He stood there trying to shift his brain into gear, the pressure in his chest heavy.

‘I am sorry to disappoint you but I do not do jealousy,’ he said finally.

She saw his closed expression and asked herself what else she had expected. ‘I am aware.’

He looked at her through narrowed eyes. ‘Do you still feel guilty for having sex with me so soon after your partner’s death? Is that what this is about?’

‘I have no idea what the “this” you are talking about is,’ she replied, guilt putting an acidic note in her voice. ‘And I resent being looked at like I’m a bug under a microscope...a...psychological experiment.’ And a liar. She felt several kinds of terrible for taking refuge in a lie that just seemed to grow and grow the longer she hadn’t addressed it.

Now it was too late.

‘Which is why you can’t meet my eyes?’

She met his eyes then, her green eyes sparking fire, and directed a defiant look at him. ‘This is not something I want to discuss with you. People do not—I don’t feel guilty, Draco. I feel—’ She paused and thought, I feel scared stiff, because the illusion that I can have sex and not fall in love with you is making me feel ill, especially as I never fell out.

For a split second she wondered what he’d do if she voiced the words out loud. He might really think he wanted to know what her motivations were, mainly because he couldn’t believe that any woman would say no to him. But he would regret it if I did, she thought grimly.

‘So you will have sex with me, but you won’t walk a few hundred metres and enter a cocktail party beside me.’

‘I suppose that about covers it,’ she said, noting her deliberately cheery delivery was making him look even more bad-tempered, in a way that beautiful people and sleek jungle cats looked bad-tempered. ‘And will you lower your voice? Mattie is just settling. He has been a bit cranky today.’

Draco watched her look down at the baby in her arms, concern pleating her brow, and something shifted in his chest. It was happening a lot.

She was, he had to admit, a perfect mother.

Some masochistic impulse made him throw salt in the open wound as his inner voice said, A mother, but not of your babies.

Fine by him. He didn’t want babies.

When had he decided that he would leave the passing of their dubious genes to his little brother?

Could that change of heart have anything to do with the only woman he had ever imagined being the mother of his children leaving him standing at the altar?

Ignoring the taunting voice in his head, he ground out a frustrated, ‘This is absurd.’

‘What is absurd?’

‘You are being absurd. Are you trying to make some sort of point?’

The moment he flung the words it hit Draco that he could just as easily ask himself the same question.

Why was he getting so hung up on this? It wasn’t as if he wanted a relationship. Or was it that she very obviously didn’t that was getting to him?

Was he arguing with her or his own responses?

Turning her head to deliver an exasperated glare, Jane caught an indecipherable expression on Draco’s face, but by the time she had laid the drowsy baby in his buggy it had gone.

Draco watched as she dropped into a chair before hooking one small foot onto the metal rest intended for a bag and on auto pilot began to push it back and forth with a metronome regularity meant to soothe the baby to sleep.

She looked exhausted.

Emotions he kept a tight hold of threatened to break loose in his chest as he studied her face, the shadows under her green eyes, the pallor that made the sprinkling of freckles stand out across her nose and cheeks.

She had looked exhausted last night when she had brought the baby back to bed and kicked him out, so much so that he had heard himself offer to take the baby for a drive. He had heard it said—where, he couldn’t remember—that this was helpful for some crying babies.

She had looked at him really oddly and said thanks, but no, thanks, she...they were fine, as if she was drawing a firm line around an inner circle he would never be allowed inside.

Not that he wanted to be, obviously.

‘Yes.’

He shook his head.

‘Yes, I am trying to make a point. I am going to this cocktail party on my own, not as some sort of arm-candy accessory. Nobody will ever treat me seriously if they think I am your latest girlfriend.’

She made it sound as if it were the worst fate in the world! Controlling his slug of anger and the impulse to respond with a childish retort along the lines of she should be so lucky, which would have made him sound like the total loser she appeared to think he was, he rose to his feet, the abrupt action making the baby stir in his sleep, which earned him a reproachful look from under her lashes.

It was bizarre, almost as if he had walked into an alternative reality. He spent his days sidestepping the women who threw themselves at him, never hearing no if he chose to assuage his physical needs, and here was Jane keeping him at arm’s length.

Arm’s length was generally where he wanted to be, so the situation should have pleased him.

He dragged both hands through his hair and stalked across to the window before turning back.

‘So am I allowed to remember your name?’ he wondered with withering scorn. ‘Or should I perhaps bring someone else?’

The thought of Draco draped over another woman made her feel physically sick. Her chin went up. ‘You can do what the hell you like,’ she said with an unconcerned shrug.

As he stalked down the corridor he stopped short when he suddenly realised she was treating him like a sex object...so why the hell was he getting so irate about it?

Considering the way they left off, Jane wasn’t sure what sort of reception she would get from Draco at the cocktail party. She was not looking forward to making a solo entrance and was glad she bumped into Joe and Luciana in the cloakroom as she handed in her silk wrap.

‘Oh, wow, you look gorgeous!’ Luciana exclaimed. ‘I just love that dress. I can’t believe it’s the same one you bought in that vintage shop.’

Jane nodded a little self-consciously. ‘Thank you, it needed a few tweaks.’ She had stripped the dress down to its basics, removing the fussy frills around the neckline and the gaudy sash to reveal the simplicity of the blue silk underneath, the bodice that hugged and the bias-cut skirt that flared and swished around her calves.

‘The shoes are new though,’ she said, extending a slim ankle for inspection. ‘I haven’t got a clue why I packed them,’ she admitted, looking at the pointy-toed spiky heels that had been a bargain buy in a sale...impractical but beautiful. ‘I felt tall until I saw you, Luciana.’

The willowy young Italian smiled. ‘I thought Joe might take me out somewhere. That’s why I put this in.’ The Italian girl laughed and gave a twirl, the beaded hem of her mini rattling as she did so.

Her English boyfriend, a good foot shorter and wearing a tweed waistcoat over his best jeans, responded with a loud, ‘Bella!’ in a Liverpudlian accent and dragged her in for a kiss.

Watching their youthful and carefree antics made Jane feel a hundred years old. They were so spontaneous, so unencumbered with complications—so in love!

‘It’s gorgeous. If I had your legs,’ Jane said, admiring the girl’s slim, endless legs with envy, ‘I’d wear it every day. You make me feel like a dwarf.’

The laugh, a rather grating artificial sound, made them all turn.

‘You aren’t tall, are you?’ The remark came from a stranger who was peeling off a fur wrap.

Her heels made Jane’s look like flats and her silver dress, which appeared glued to her body, displayed every curve of her lush, voluptuous figure.

‘Hello,’ Jane said a little awkwardly, because the normally warm and welcoming Luciana had not responded at all beyond taking her boyfriend’s arm in a tight warning grip.

The blonde with the hard eyes was looking Jane up and down. Her expression suggested she had awarded Jane a grudging five and a half, and Jane might have been amused except there was something about this woman.

Reproaching herself for judging by appearances, Jane forced a smile.

‘So are you all part of this green thing?’ the blonde asked with another artificial-sounding laugh.

Jane nodded.

‘So you are staying in one of those awful rooms?’ She made the en suite facilities sound like hovels and Jane, who had visited Luciana in hers, knew they were anything but.

Luciana, who was normally friendly to everyone, stood, her lips tight, but, making an obvious effort to be polite in the face of the other woman’s rudeness, intervened.

‘Joe and I are, but Jane is staying up in the palazzo, as a guest. She has her son with her.’

The woman’s patronising smile faded and one of her pencilled brows rose as her spiteful, speculative stare turned towards Jane. Her interest was of the malicious variety, something in those heavily made-up eyes making Jane feel uneasy.

‘In the palazzo, how very nice,’ she trilled back, making it sound not nice at all. ‘I am not allowed up there any longer.’ She placed one heavily ringed hand on her heart and, adopting the persona of a heroine in a Victorian melodrama, revealed in a throbbing voice, ‘But it was once my home.’

Jane heard Luciana mutter something in her native tongue under her breath. It did not sound complimentary.

Home...?

Even though the woman’s facial muscles were no longer capable of moving, Jane sensed her frown as she turned her attention back to her.

‘Have we met before?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Oh, I think so, and I never forget a face...’ The woman tapped the side of her head. ‘It will come to me.’

It sounded like a threat.

‘Do you know her?’ Jane asked as the blonde made her sinuous way ahead of them, where a door swung open and she vanished, along with the sounds of chatter and laughter that had spilled out.

‘ Sì , I will explain later,’ Luciana said in a confidential aside behind her hand as a pair of servers in smart black trousers and white shirts passed by carrying trays containing arrays of edible works of art, minuscule but pretty. ‘Take no notice of her. She is an utter bitch and I have no idea why she is here tonight except if it is to cause trouble.’

Mystified by this uncharacteristic venom, Jane wondered who the woman was and what her connection was to the palazzo. She’d lived there?

Could she be an ex of Draco’s...? It was as hard to imagine Draco being seduced by a predatory older woman as it was to imagine him moving one of his overnight girlfriends in.

Jane dismissed the possibility almost immediately. The woman’s face might be lifeless, but her eyes were not young. She fell into step with the young couple as they stepped through the open door.

Jane blinked. The overnight transformation was dramatic! The double doors that interconnected the four meeting rooms had been opened and the space was impressive.

Music provided by a string quartet was playing at one end of the room and serving staff circulated with silver trays among the beautifully dressed guests. There were a few jeans and jumpers from the usual suspects, but even they looked less crumpled than usual as they mingled with the sprinkling of movie stars, politicians and aristocracy.

Jane found herself wondering where she fitted in, and then realised she probably didn’t as she grabbed a glass as it was offered. A couple of sips made her feel a little less panicky.

‘Jane...?’

Jane tried to place the tall, slim, good-looking young man in a blue velvet tux and then it hit her.

‘Jamie?’

Draco’s half-brother, no longer a skinny beanpole of a kid, grinned and hugged her. ‘My God, what are you doing here?’

‘I keep asking myself the same thing,’ Jane admitted.

‘So are you and Draco back together?’

Jane felt her heart clench. ‘No, nothing like that. We are...not a couple.’

Never would be a couple, the depressing thought flashed into her head.

Never really had been a couple. When she had said yes to his proposal, she had not known him... Had she loved him? She had certainly been infatuated by him, but her feelings then, strong though they had been, were a shadow of what she felt now. What she felt now was deeper, stronger, and when she saw him with Mattie she knew what an incredible father he would be one day.

Had his feelings changed too?

She pushed away the question, aware that once she allowed herself to indulge in wishful thinking it would be all the harder to face the reality of the situation when it came time to say goodbye. She had to live in the moment and accept that the moment meant something very different to her than it did to Draco.

Her shaking hand slopped a bit of her wine, and just when she needed it, she thought, draining what was left in the glass.

‘You all right?’ Jamie asked, taking the glass from her fingers and putting it down on a side table.

‘Fine. So Draco didn’t mention I was here?’

‘We’ve hardly had a chance to speak. You were the last person I expected to see after—’