Untouched Until Marriage by Chantelle Shaw Page A

stupid joke. Perhaps it was wishful thinking? taunted a little voice in her head. Why had her heart leapt with excitement for the nano-second when she had thought he meant that he wanted to marry her? She wasn’t in love with him, she wasn’t even sure she liked him very much, and she could not understand why she felt drawn to him.
    â€˜I don’t understand,’ she faltered.
    â€˜I want to bring Gino up as my son.’ The quiet intensity of his tone told her that this was no joke and that he was deadly serious. ‘Let me explain,’ he said when she gaped at him. ‘When Pietro and Eleanora Carducci adopted me they gave me a life that I could never have imagined when I lived in the orphanage—not just wealth and education, but love, and the stability that comes from growing up with two parents. Gino will never know his real father, but if we marry and I adopt him he will grow up with a mother and father, and hopefully siblings,’ he added, his eyes gleaming with a sensual heat that sent a tremor through Libby. ‘Make no mistake: what I am suggesting is a real marriage,’ he told her. ‘I will love Gino as my son—just as Pietro loved me—but I have no blood relatives that I am aware of, and I would like to have children of my own.’
    â€˜Then surely it would be better to wait until you fall in love, marry a woman you care for, and then have children?’ Libby argued. ‘Heaven knows, enough coupleswho marry for love still end up in the divorce courts. What chance would a marriage between us stand when we don’t even particularly like each other?’
    Raul stared at her speculatively. ‘I thought we had agreed to become friends for Gino’s sake? And I have to say that tonight I thought we succeeded rather well,’ he drawled, watching her face flood with colour when she remembered the feverish passion they had shared down by the lake. ‘It is precisely the fact that we are not in love, and therefore have no expectations about our relationship, that makes me believe our marriage would work.’
    He gave a bitter laugh. ‘I have tried a conventional marriage, and paid heavily for my mistake. Three years ago I mistook the sexual attraction I felt for my PA for love. Dana assured me that she shared my desire for a family, and we had a great circus of a wedding. But once we were married she continually found reasons why we should put off trying for a child. She preferred to live in our apartment in Manhattan and party every night, and she complained that she hated the villa and found life here boring.’
    Raul’s jaw tightened as he recalled how his marriage had imploded.
    â€˜The only thing that made Dana truly happy was spending money—although she resented the hours I spent working to make it. At first I was prepared to fund her hobby, but she was a compulsive shopper, and if I ever suggested that she might like to control her spending she would become hysterical and accuse me of being a tyrant who wanted to keep her barefoot and pregnant. Not that her falling pregnant was ever likely,’ he said flatly. ‘After a year of increasingly bitter rows itwas clear that the marriage was a disaster, and during one of our many screaming matches Dana admitted she had lied about wanting children, and had only married me because I was wealthy enough to give her the extravagant lifestyle she craved. We agreed to divorce and I offered her a generous settlement, including the Manhattan apartment. But that wasn’t enough for my dear ex-wife. She wanted every last drop of blood she could squeeze out of me, and even made a claim on the Villa Giulietta.’
    â€˜But I thought you said she hated the villa?’ Libby said faintly, stunned by the revelation that Raul had once been married. His past relationships were of no interest to her, she reminded herself, so why did she feel so stupidly jealous of his ex-wife?
    â€˜Dana