The Sicilian's Banished Bride Read online

  ‘Alejandro comes from an extremely high-ranking family,’ Dante murmured, his keen eyes taking in everything, missing nothing. ‘With more notice, it would have been even bigger. As it stands, two hundred is reasonably well contained.’

  ‘I... The cars parked outside...’ She sighed. ‘I’m not sure I’ve brought the right clothes...’

  Dante thought of the women milling around downstairs, dressed to kill and dripping in diamonds. He noted her anxious expression and reminded himself that the most efficient gold-digger would always be the one the least obvious. His lips thinned because he knew that better than most.

  ‘I’m sure you’ll...fit in just fine...’

  ‘You haven’t seen my outfit.’ Caitlin grinned and met his veiled gaze with a roll of her eyes. ‘Once you have, feel free to change your mind. I just didn’t think...’

  ‘You just didn’t think...?’

  ‘That it would be quite like this, like I said,’ she told him honestly. ‘I never thought that the place would be so...lavish.’

  ‘Yet you knew that your fiancé came from a wealthy family...’

  ‘Yes, of course, but... It doesn’t matter. I’m here now so there’s not much I can do about... What you can’t change you might as well accept, and I definitely can’t change the outfit I brought over with me. Anyway... I’m going to get ready so if you don’t mind? I won’t be long.’

  He gave it forty minutes at the very least. Longer if something had to be done about her hair. She was so unexpected and novel an entity that he literally couldn’t imagine what the transformation would be like and it annoyed him that he couldn’t resist letting his imagination break its leash and run away. He responded to that by lounging against the wall, flipping open his phone and scrolling through work emails.

  He was settling in for the long haul when the bedroom door was pulled open and out she breezed, all of a fluster.

  He pushed himself from the wall and slowly moved to stand directly in front of her.

  ‘That was quick.’

  She looked...amazing. Gone was the fashion-disaster outfit she had been wearing. In its place was a figure-hugging jade-green dress that lovingly emphasised each and every delectable curve of her small but insanely feminine body.

  The sight of it made Dante stiffen as he acknowledged, once again, just how inappropriate his reaction was.

  ‘I forgot the diamonds at home.’ There was a nervous edge to her voice and she fiddled with the thin gold chain around her neck, a sixteenth birthday present from her parents.

  ‘I doubt anyone will notice the oversight,’ Dante murmured. She was playing with a thin necklace round her neck and his dark eyes zeroed in on her slender fingers and then on the shadowy cleft between her breasts. He gritted his teeth and quickly looked away.

  ‘It’s kind of you to say so.’ She fell into step with him, taking it slowly because the heels were stupidly high and falling was a distinct possibility.

  ‘I doubt anyone has ever called me kind. How did you and Alejandro meet?’ Dante realised that he had asked very few basic questions about the relationship that had materialised out of thin air. ‘We were all...a little surprised by the speed of the relationship...’

  Dante barely noticed the endless miles of corridor along which they were walking, although he was keenly aware of her wide-eyed awe. Telling but hardly surprising if there was an agenda to the fifteen-second relationship, he thought wryly. To one side, ornate wrought-iron railings offered a view of acres of marble on the ground floor and white walls on which were hung huge statement pieces of abstract art. An enormous crystal chandelier, as delicate as a waterfall, dominated the vaulted ceiling, dropping five metres down to the central hallway, which was manned by several uniformed men and which they had successfully avoided.

  ‘We go back a way,’ Caitlin said vaguely.

  ‘He’s never mentioned having a serious girlfriend in the past.’

  ‘We were...er...friends...before...’ Slanted green eyes collided with dark, coolly thoughtful ones. ‘You still haven’t told me who you are. I guess you must know Alejandro and his brother really well considering you’re so familiar with this house. It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?’

  ‘Admittedly,’ Dante murmured, completely ignoring her question, ‘he hasn’t let on much about anyone there in London.’

  The noise was increasing in volume and then they exited into the massive hall manned by the uniformed guards, who half bowed but were clearly trained to remain in the background. The paintings here were more traditional, less abstract and more impressionistic.

  Caitlin was drawn like a magnet towards one of them and inspected it minutely, lost for a few moments in the exquisite mix of colours and recognising the somewhat obscure artist behind it. It was the artwork of a connoisseur.

  ‘It’s a lovely piece.’ She turned to Dante, her eyes gleaming with appreciation.

  ‘You know about art?’ Dante raised both eyebrows questioningly.

  ‘Why shouldn’t I?’ Caitlin stood back. ‘I’m a photographer but I studied art at college. I probably know a lot more than Alejandro’s brother, even though he owns this house. I’ll bet he hasn’t got a clue who this artist is.’

  ‘Why would you say that?’ Dante asked silkily.

  ‘He’s a businessman,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I gather making money is his number one priority. I’d say that if that’s the case, then he’s probably commissioned someone to bulk-buy a fortune’s worth of valuable artwork that will do its job and appreciate over the years and make him yet more money.’

  ‘That’s quite a statement,’ Dante murmured. ‘You must have gleaned that impression from somewhere... Is that what his brother has told you?’

  ‘Of course not!’ She cleared her throat. ‘Alejandro never has a judgemental word to say about anyone. Not that I’m being judgemental...just expressing an opinion...’

  ‘But surely you would be partisan, considering you’re his besotted better half?’ Dante was outraged that a woman who had catapulted herself into the centre of their family, for reasons that were open to a lot of question, should dare insult him in his own house. Actually, should dare insult him, full stop.

  ‘Sorry?’ Caitlin blinked then blushed. ‘Yes. No. I mean, yes, of course that’s what I am, but no, I’m not at all partisan. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I still don’t even know who you are!’

  ‘Oh, haven’t I introduced myself?’ He gave a mocking half-bow and then fixed her with his amazing eyes. ‘My oversight. I am Dante Cabrera, Alejandro’s brother.’

  Copyright © 2020 by Cathy Williams

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  ISBN-13: 9781488068621

  The Sicilian’s Banished Bride

  Copyright © 2020 by Maya Blake

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is
entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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