Love Islands: Passionate Nights. Louise Fuller

bothered to get dressed. While she had felt an urgent need to cover herself, he was as comfortable having this hideous conversation in the buff as he would have been in one of his hand-made Italian suits. He had moved to sit in the chair by the mahogany desk by the bay window.

      ‘How come?’ he repeated. ‘And please don’t tell me again that you don’t feel comfortable having this conversation.’

      ‘It just never happened for me.’ Bright patches of colour delineated her cheekbones.

      There was no way she intended pouring her heart out with some little-girl story of how unhappy her childhood had been; how she had witnessed her mother’s miserable stoicism in the face of her father’s selfishness and philandering. She wasn’t going to drone on in a self-pitying manner about her lofty determination only to have sex with the man she truly loved which, frankly, would have been a confession too far—especially considering the man she had thought she loved had turned out to be just the kind of man she should never have got mixed up with in the first place.

      ‘No testosterone-filled boys creeping through the windows of your prim and proper boarding school to have their wicked way with the innocent virgins?’

      His lightly teasing tone was so unlike him that she felt herself begin to relax.

      ‘None of that. There was always the house mistress on red-hot alert, waiting with a rolling pin for any daring intruders.’

      She lowered her eyes but could still feel him staring thoughtfully at her and she didn’t like that. It made her feel exposed.

      ‘And I suppose daddy was just as protective with his little girl?’ His voice was hard-edged.

      Lucy shrugged. Yes, he’d seen off potential boyfriends all right, not that there had been many of them, but only because he had been such a crashing snob that no one had fitted the bill.

      In retrospect, taking into account his dire financial situation, none of them had had the necessary bank balances to provide a rescue package anyway. Dio had certainly fitted the bill and he had not been on her father’s ridiculous social-climbing radar.

      Watching her, Dio saw a shadow cross her face, gone as quickly as it had come, and he was struck by a sudden intense curiosity to find out what lay behind that shadow.

      ‘I would completely understand if you’d rather call it a day right now.’ She laughed a little unsteadily. ‘It was a stupid idea, anyway. You can’t just have a honeymoon and pretend that all the stuff that’s happened between us never took place.’

      ‘You’d be surprised,’ Dio murmured.

      He stood up and strolled over to the bed. She was a virgin. The thought rocked him, brought out a fierce possessiveness which he never knew he had. All those nervous little looks and shy glances now made sense. He’d never have guessed, but then he hadn’t been looking, had he? He had accepted the cover version of her, the cool, elegant woman born into wealth and comfortable with it.

      He hadn’t thought to look any deeper. She had deceived him, as far as he was concerned, that that was the end of the story. He had closed the door and it had been a lot easier to keep it closed.

      ‘I’m surprised,’ he murmured, ‘to think that you have never made love to a man before...shocked, even...but not turned off. I have no idea where you got that notion from, my dearest wife.’

      His voice was low and husky, his grey eyes glittering with intent.

      ‘But can I ask you one thing?’ He returned to the bed, depressing the mattress with his weight, and very slowly pulled down the duvet which she had dragged up to her neck in a vain attempt at modesty. ‘Why choose the husband you’re keen to divorce? Seems an unusual option.’

      Lucy felt that if he listened hard enough he would be able to hear the steady, nervous thump of her heart.

      Now, wasn’t that a question?

      ‘I fancy you.’

      ‘And fancying me is enough to paper over the fact that you don’t like me?’

      Lucy felt that she could say the same about him, but men were different from women, weren’t they? Women looked for love and men sought sex. That was why Dio had never been tempted in the past to hitch his wagon to any of the many women he had slept with. There had been no broken engagements or heart-rending tales of thwarted love. When they had been dating, during that brief window when she had actually believed that he was interested in her for herself, he had laughed when she had asked him whether he had ever been in love.

      Dio might have used her, and certainly did not feel anything for her, not even affection—but he would still have no problem getting into bed with her because, as far as he was concerned, that was part of the marriage contract which he had been denied and, besides, he didn’t think she was half bad-looking.

      It was slowly dawning on her that she might hate him for stringing her along—might hate that core of coldness inside him that had allowed him to be the kind of man who could do that—but there was still something deep in the very heart of her that wasn’t quite as immune to him as she would have liked to be.

      She would rather have chewed her own arm off than ever admit that to him.

      ‘Why not?’ she asked.

      Dio frowned. Their marriage had been little more than a business transaction and he wasn’t sure why he now found her attitude unsettling.

      ‘I was young when I married you, Dio. I’m only twenty-four now. Before you came along, I was totally wrapped up doing my maths degree and it didn’t leave a whole lot of time for men.’

      ‘You mean I was the first guy you really ever fancied...’

      ‘You’re a good-looking man.’

      To his ears, that sounded like agreement, which made him wonder why she had retreated to her ivory tower the second the ring was on her finger.

      ‘Then why wait until now?’

      ‘Because maybe I’ve discovered that I’m more like you than I wanted to admit, even to myself.’ She breathed with the panicked sensation of someone treading on thin ice.

      So much safer when she had been able to keep her distance and set aside all the uncomfortable thoughts now besieging her.

      ‘Now that we’re going to be getting a divorce—’

      ‘That’s a matter that’s still up for debate...’

      ‘I know the conditions and I accept them,’ Lucy told him bluntly. And then she added for good measure, for just that little bit of protection, ‘And you’re right—I can’t see a way forward if I leave this marriage with nothing. I’ve never known what it was like to be broke.’

      ‘Because Daddy protected you even when he was going under and all but waving a white flag...’

      ‘Whatever.’ She took a deep breath and did her utmost to disconnect from the contempt she felt for a man who had betrayed her mother and herself for pretty much all of his life. ‘Now we’re going to part company for ever in a couple of weeks’ time, why deny the fact that I find you an attractive man? It makes sense to sleep with you, Dio. Like you said to me, it won’t be a hardship.’

      Pretty much everything she said got on Dio’s nerves even though there was not a single thing he didn’t agree with, not a single thing that shouldn’t have eased his conscience.

      ‘And what if I told you that you could have the money you want without the sex?’ he heard himself ask.

      Lucy looked at him, surprised.

      ‘You mean that?’

      ‘What if I told you that I did?’ For a man who didn’t deal in hypotheses, he discovered that he was a dab hand at dishing them out. He had seen nothing wrong with going after what he wanted, what he was owed, and likewise he had seen nothing wrong