told her you were afraid my passion would overwhelm
me and that I would marry you anyway and
thus bring disgrace upon myself, didnt you?" he accused
her. "You knew how na..ve my grandmother
was, how ignorant of modern mores. You tricked her
into believing you were confiding in her out of concern
for me. You told her you didnt know what to
do or how you could protect me. Then you ""helped""
her to come up with the solution of changing her will,
so that instead of inheriting the Castillo from her as
her previous will had stated I would only inherit it
if I was married within six weeks of her death. As
you told her, everyone knows how important to me
the Castillo is. And then, as though that were not
enough, you conceived the added inducement of persuading
her to add that if I did not marry within those
six weeks, you would inherit the Castillo. You led her
to believe that in making those changes she was enabling
me to marry you, because I could say I was
fulfilling the terms of her will rather than following
the dictates of my heart."
"You cant prove any of that." She shrugged contemptuously.
Lorenzo knew that what she had said was true.
"As Ive already told you, Nonna confided her
thoughts to her notary," he continued acidly. "Unfortunately,
by the time he managed to alert me to what
was going on, it was too late."
"Much too late for you." Caterina smirked at him.
"So you admit it?"
"So what if I do? You cant prove it," Caterina repeated.
"And even if you could, what good would it
do?"
"Let me make this clear to you, Caterina. No matter
what my grandmother has written in her will, you will
never become my wife. You are the last woman I
would want to give my name to."
Caterina laughed. "You have no choice."
Lorenzo had a reputation for being a formidable
and ruthless adversary. He was the kind of man other
men both respected and feared the kind of man
women dreamed excitedly of enticing into their beds.
He was also a superb male animal, strikingly handsome,
with a hormone-unleashing combination of arrogance
and a predatory, very dangerous male sexuality
a sexuality that he wore as easily as a panther
wore its coat. He was not just a prize, but perhaps the
most coveted prize amongst the very best of Italys
most eligible and wealthy men. All through his twenties
gossip columns had seethed with excited interest,
trying to guess which high-born young woman he
would make his duchess. It certainly wasnt from any
lack of willing partners to share his wealth and his
title, along with enjoying the sexual pleasure of mating
title, along with enjoying the sexual pleasure of mating
with such a vigorously sensual man, that he had
escaped into his thirties without making any kind of
formal commitment to the women who had pursued
him.
Lorenzo looked at his late cousins wife. He despised
and loathed her. But then, he despised most
women. From what he had experienced of them they
were all willing to give him whatever he wanted because
of what he had, what was outside the inner him:
wealth, a title, and a handsome male body. What he
actually was was of no interest to them. His thoughts,
his beliefs, all that went to make up the man who was
Lorenzo dEste didnt matter to them anywhere near
so much as his money and his social position.
"You have no choice, Lorenzo," Caterina repeated
softly. "If you want the Castillo you have to marry
me."
Lorenzo permitted his mouth to curl in sardonic
disdain.
"I have to marry, yes," he agreed softly. "But nowhere
does it say that I have to marry you. You have
obviously not read my grandmothers will thoroughly."
Her face blanched, her narrowed eyes betraying her
confusion and distrust.
"What do you mean? Of course I have read it. I
dictated it! I"
"I repeat, you did not read the will my grandmother
signed thoroughly enough," Lorenzo told her. "You
see, it stipulates only that I must marry within six
weeks of her death if I want to inherit the Castillo
from her. It does not specify who I should marry."
Caterina stared at him, unable to conceal her anger.
It stripped from her the good looks which had in her
youth made her a sought-after model, and left in their
place the ugliness of her true nature.
"No, that cannot be true. You have altered it,
changed it you and that sneering notary. You
have Where does it say? Let me see!"
She virtually flung herself at him and Lorenzo retrieved
the will he had thrown down onto the table
earlier. Seizing it, she read it, her face white with
rage.
"You have changed it. Somehow you have She
wanted you to marry me!" She was almost hysterical
with fury.
"No." Lorenzo shook his head, his face impassive
as he watched her. "Nonna wanted to give me what
she believed I wanted. And that, most assuredly, is
not you."
As Lorenzo stood beneath the flickering light of the
old-fashioned flambeaux, the small abrupt movement
of his head was reflected and repeated in the shadows
from the flames.
The Castillo had been designed as a fortress rather
than a home, long before the Montesavro Dukes of
the Renaissance had captured it from their foes and
then clothed and softened its sheer stone walls with