And then she knew instantly who was looking back at her.
‘Bianca.’
The woman’s smile was bone-chilling. ‘You know who I am? Good. That saves me the trouble of introductions.’
‘I saw you pawing my husband at our wedding,’ Emmeline heard herself say, and instantly wished she could pull the words back. They were rude and unnecessary, and the last thing she wanted was to make a scene.
‘Being pawed by your husband is a more accurate description,’ Bianca commented, with a purr in the words.
‘Yes, well... That’s ancient history,’ Emmeline said, lifting her slender shoulders in what she hoped looked like an unaffected shrug.
‘If that’s what you want to believe,’ Bianca said, her smile tight, her lips bright red. ‘You know, I could never put up with a husband who was so easily tempted away. But then, yours is hardly a conventional marriage, is it?’
Emmeline’s doubts, already so close to the surface, began to wrap around her anew. Her brain—logical, calm, cool—knew that Bianca had every reason to be unkind. That her gloating attitude was probably just a cruel manipulation aimed at hurting Emmeline. But the muddiness of what she actually was to Pietro, and the truth of what she wanted to be, made her heart ache.
‘I almost wish I had married him,’ Bianca said, tapping a fingertip along the side of her lips. ‘But this way I get to have my cake and eat it too.’ Her laugh was a soft cackle.
‘I don’t understand...’
‘I get the best parts of Pietro—without the press intrusion and the expectations of being Mrs Pietro Morelli... You’re good cover for him and me.’
Emmeline felt as if she was drowning.
She stared at Bianca and shook her head. ‘I don’t know if you’re telling me the truth, or just trying to upset me, but either way it’s time for me to go.’ She blinked her enormous eyes, the hurt in them impossible to conceal. ‘Please don’t come near me again.’
‘It’s not you I want to be near,’ Bianca purred as a parting shot.
Emmeline spun and made a beeline for the door, bursting through it and into the night air with an overwhelming sense of relief.
Pietro was only seconds behind her, his breath loud, as though he’d just run a marathon. ‘Was that Bianca I saw talking to you?’
Emmeline didn’t have time to hide the hurt in her eyes. She nodded bleakly, then looked around for their car.
A muscle jerked in Pietro’s cheek just as a camera flash went off. He swore angrily and put a hand in the small of Emmeline’s back, guiding her away from the nightclub towards his car. He opened her door without saying a word, then moved to the driver’s side.
He revved the engine as soon as she was buckled in, and pulled out into the empty street. The silence prickled between them, angry and accusatory.
‘What did she say to you?’ he asked finally, as they cleared the more built-up streets of the city and went on their way to his villa.
‘Nothing.’ She frowned, then closed her eyes. ‘I don’t know if it matters.’
Pietro gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles glowed white. ‘Tell me what she said.’
Emmeline swallowed, her mind reeling. She had gone from the euphoria of being with Pietro to feeling as if everything was a sinister ruse.
‘She told me our marriage was a convenient cover for your relationship with her. She implied that you and she are still very much a thing.’ Emmeline shook her head. ‘She knows that our marriage isn’t conventional.’
The words were a sharp accusation and Pietro swore.
‘That last part is true,’ he said thickly. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything to her but I was...angry. I was wrong to expose you to that kind of gossip.’
‘Yes, you were,’ Emmeline muttered, her heart plummeting. ‘I’m sure she’s told anyone who cares to listen,’ she added, mortified.
‘I don’t care. It’s not true any more. You know how much everything has changed between us.’
He reached down and put a hand on her knee but she jerked away. Her eyes lifted to his and the pain and uncertainty in them had him swearing and veering the car off the road, pulling to a rapid halt in a space marked for buses.
‘Please listen, cara. You know the truth about Bianca and me because I have told you. She has always wanted more from me than I have to give. She is very jealous of you.’
‘I know that,’ Emmeline said quietly. ‘And I know she wanted to hurt me tonight and obviously cares very much for you. But it makes me wonder... What do I know about you?’
‘You know everything about me.’ He groaned. ‘Please believe me, Emmeline. I have never had with any woman what I have with you. This is special, and different, and you and I are both finding our way with it. Don’t let outsiders—someone like Bianca—cause problems for us.’ He pressed a finger beneath her chin, lifting her face to his. ‘I won’t let you. I won’t let her.’