There was the slightest tightening of his jaw. “There are no other suites available.”
“But…” She couldn’t continue.
“The Bianchi has only two suites with two separate beds. Two. One of those rooms has been given to my grandparents. The other had been assigned to us, but last night Leonardo received a call from Valeria Esposito’s assistant to confirm Valeria’s request that her suite has two beds.”
It wasn’t like talking to a plank of wood, Luisa realised dimly as dread morphed into horror. It was like conversing with a block of ice. Gennaro was telling her they had only one bed in their suite with less emotion than the cashier who’d looked through her when Luisa had paid for her art supplies the day before.
“What about adjoining suites?” she suggested, trying not to let panic add itself to the knots, dread and horror. Adjoining rooms would be acceptable under the terms of their contract, surely?
“Every suite has been allocated. This suite is second only to the honeymoon suite for luxury. It had been allocated to the Espositos, and now it is ours, and I will not allow a scene to be made about it.”
She held her ground. “But the terms of our contract specifically states separate beds.”
“It also states that the true nature of our marriage remains private and that this need trumps all other considerations. Need I remind you that my whole family is here to celebrate my brother’s wedding to Lorenzo Esposito’s daughter?”
Luisa shook her head. Gennaro didn’t need to spell out why Lorenzo’s wife’s wish for separate beds trumped theirs. Lorenzo Esposito was the most dangerous man in Italy.
She made one last attempt. “Separate rooms, then? It could work in our favour by making it more believable when we file for our separation. You do realise that’s only a week away?”
Finally, something that resembled emotion flickered on his immovable face. “Believe me, I am counting down the days, but no, the idea of separate rooms is out of the question, and not just because there are no free rooms. This week is too important for distractions of any kind to be allowed, and that includes allowing rumours to circulate about our marriage. We part ways next Monday and not a minute before, and if I hear so much as a scintilla of gossip about the state of our marriage before the day we part then I will consider you to be in breach of our contract.”
Even though her insides were quivering, she kept her neck elongated and held his stare. “Any gossip will not come from me.”
His smile was as taut as his jawline. “Then there is nothing further to discuss. Now, excuse me, but I need to find my brother. I will join you for lunch on the sun terrace atone.”
Gennaro digested everything his brother had just confided to their select group. Namely that Niccolo’s most recent lover’s sister was at that moment on a flight to Naples, travelling with the express intention of sabotaging Niccolo’s wedding. Niccolo’s idea to counter this was for his best man, Dante, to whisk her off to his secure Tuscan castle and keep her locked up until after the nuptials.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit extreme, though?” Gennaro posited. “She can’t get into the grounds. There is zero chance of the Espositos crossing her path.”
Niccolo grimaced. “She’s a loose cannon. You’ve seen Georgia’s message. If Callie talks to the press, then God knows what will happen, and I can only thank God she didn’t think of going to the British press first. Siena knows about Georgia – hell, her damned father knows about her. Neither of them cares, but if Callie spills my affair with Georgia to the world in the run-up to the wedding, then it will humiliate them, and you know how Lorenzo will react to that.”
Gennaro closed his eyes and bit back calling his brother a fucking idiot. The message from his brother’s ex-lover stated that her sister had stolen pornographically compromising pictures of Niccolo and the ex-lover and that she was planning to hand them over to the press. Gennaro knew his brother could be impulsive and reckless, but creating homemade porn with someone who wasn’t his fiancée had to rank as one of the most reckless things he’d done, especially when the fiancée in question was Lorenzo Esposito’s daughter. That paled though, in comparison to the most reckless thing Niccolo had done, which was getting into bed – in a business sense – with the most dangerous and notorious man in Italy. And now he was stuck, days away from marrying into Italy’s most dangerous and notorious family, to a woman he felt nothing for, and withno way out. Because getting into bed with Lorenzo meant Niccolo owed the Esposito patriarch hundreds of millions of euros, and all because he’d been too proud to go to Gennaro for help.
He supposed he could understand why Niccolo had been reluctant to confide his money problems with his older brother, but, damn it, the fool had been too proud to go to Dante or Leonardo for help too.
While the conversation continued, Gennaro worked to keep his temper controlled. What was done was done. Niccolo had got into bed with Lorenzo Esposito, and the repayment for the debt he owed him was marriage to Siena. If the marriage failed to go ahead, the financial debt would be called in, and when the Espositos called their debts in, the interest they added wasn’t of a financial kind. So yes, on reflection, hiding the ex-lover’s trouble-making sister away was probably a wise choice, for the sister’s sake as well. If Lorenzo or any of his sons got wind of what she was planning, then God alone knew what would happen to her, because nothing –nothing– could be allowed to spoil this wedding. And it was because nothing could be allowed to spoil this wedding that Gennaro would have to share a bed with his wife for the next six nights.
“Has Dante gone?” Gennaro’s wife asked an hour later when they sat down for lunch on the sun terrace.
“Yes,” he answered shortly. “A business emergency.”
That had been the agreed explanation to account for Dante’s sudden absence from the pre-wedding celebrations.
“Will he be gone long?”
“He will be back in the morning.”
“Oh, good. It wouldn’t feel like a proper celebration without Dante.”
Pouring them both a glass of iced water, he kept his tone even as he said, “There are times when it seems to me that you have a special interestin Dante.”
The enormous Jackie Onassis-style shades Luisa wore hid her eyes from his view, but her golden cheeks coloured and her wide lips twitched. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“There is no need to be defensive, I have simply noticed you become more animated when he is around.” He’d noticed that about her as a child too. Where she’d turned the colour of a tomato and hidden behind her mother’s skirts or in a book whenever in Gennaro’s presence, she would poke her head out of her shell for his brother and come out of it completely for his brother’s best friend.
“I didn’t think you noticed anything about me,” she said coolly.
That was because Gennaro spent an inordinate amount of his time making effortsnotto notice his wife.