The Cost of her Innocence

It was that simple. They actually were brothers! Beth was horrified, and her whole body tensed. She was appalled at the thought of being in the hateful man’s presence for even a minute, let alone all evening.

She listened with a sinking heart as Tony continued speaking. ‘With a fourteen-year age difference between us I’ve always been a bit in awe of him. Dante has it all—tall, good-looking, fit and incredibly wealthy. He doesn’t need to work so hard or even at all. I keep telling him, but he just ignores me. He’s far too cerebral for my mind, but he is a great guy when you get to know him, and all the women adore him. I’ll introduce you.’

‘No,’ Beth said abruptly. ‘You and your brother must have a lot to catch up on, and I need to feed Binkie.’

She tried to excuse herself but Tony’s hand tightened on her waist when she tried to move.

‘The cat can wait. Do me a favour, Beth, and play along with me. With a stunner like you on my arm, for once I will get one over on my big brother. He has played the field discreetly for years with a string of beautiful women. To be honest I’m surprised he’s decided to get married…. His fiancée looks lovely, but she’s not as nice as you.’

Beth didn’t get a chance to refuse….

‘Good to see you, Tony,’ a deep, dark voice drawled, and Beth froze in Tony’s hold at the hauntingly familiar sound of the man’s voice.

‘And you, Dante. I’m surprised you could make it.’ Tony grinned and shook his brother’s hand. ‘And this must be the fiancée Mum told me about.’ Tony smiled at the woman at his brother’s side.

Dante Cannavaro smoothly made the introductions. ‘Ellen, this is my younger brother, Tony.’

‘Lovely to meet the woman who can tame Dante,’ Tony declared with a grin and, dropping his arm from Beth’s waist, he introduced her to the other woman.

Beth shook hands with Ellen and almost felt sorry for her as they exchanged the conventional greetings. She looked to be in her early thirties, her hair perfectly styled, her face perfectly made-up, and her casual trousers and top both designer label. She smiled, but there was condescension in the smile as her blue eyes took in Beth’s department-store apparel. Some of Beth’s sympathy for the woman faded.

‘Congratulations on your engagement. I wish you both a very long and happy marriage,’ Beth lied through her teeth. Personally, she hoped Cannavaro’s life was hell. ‘Have you chosen your dress yet?’ she asked enthusiastically. She was not in the least interested, but it delayed the moment when she would have to face the man she despised, and gave her time to control her wildly beating heart and the shock of seeing him again.

Cannavaro was the man responsible for sending Beth to prison, and she had nearly died the first week she had been there. A group of women had thought that because she was in prison on a drugs charge she had the contacts to supply them with drugs. When she had told them she was innocent and that she had no knowledge of drugs she had been dragged into the showers and stripped. Her hair had been cut off and she’d been told her throat would be next … Luckily Helen, a middle-aged woman and her cellmate of three days, had walked in and saved her.

It had been Helen who had convinced her to change her name to Beth Lazenby when she was released, and had made it possible for her to do so. Ironically, the women who had cut off her hair had helped too. Beth was naturally a redhead, but as a child she had been teased unmercifully from her first day at school, and as she had grown taller and bigger than most of her class the bullying had gotten worse.

Finally, when she had been fourteen and they had just moved from Bedford to Bristol for her father’s work, her mother had suggested that Beth dye her hair dark before she attended a new school and made new friends. Beth had quickly agreed and the bullying had stopped. Her life had been content for a number of years—until she had turned eighteen and had been in her first year at college.

Her parents, on their first holiday without her, had tragically died when the cruise liner they were on had sunk off the coast of Italy. This had been heartbreaking for Jane as the parents she had lost had been her adoptive parents, who had taken her in when she had been just a baby. Jane had no idea who her biological parents were, and had suddenly found herself all alone in the world.

So the day Jane Mason had walked out of jail after serving eighteen months of her sentence she’d been almost unrecognisable. Her hair had returned to its natural red colour and she’d been almost two stone lighter in weight. With Clive’s help she had legally changed her name by deed poll to Beth Lazenby.

Helen’s plan for Jane to change her name had made perfect sense; it was hard enough for an innocent young woman to make her way in the world without the totally unjustified tag of a prison sentence on her CV.

Beth owed it to the memory of her friend to show no weakness now.

CHAPTER TWO

DANTE CANNAVARO WAS not in a good mood. When he had called at Ellen’s apartment earlier, contemplating their reunion after a month apart, he had casually mentioned his brother’s barbecue and suggested they call in. Ellen had yet to meet Tony, and Dante was considering asking him to be his best man at their wedding. Ellen had hated both ideas. Barbecues were ‘not her style,’ and she was adamant that one of Dante’s lawyer friends or a business associate would be much more appropriate as best man.

Finally she had agreed to attend—but only if they went immediately, so that they would still have time to have dinner at their favourite restaurant. This was news to Dante, who hadn’t even known they had a favourite restaurant!

Ellen had carried on in the same vein for the hour it had taken to get here, and Dante had switched off and let her chatter. But when he had glanced across to where Mike had indicated his brother and seen the woman with him he’d immediately switched on again.

Now Dante studied the tall, striking redhead at Tony’s side. There was something about her that niggled at him. He had caught the name Beth, but he could not remember having met anyone called Beth before. Yet there was definitely something familiar about her. Then, as the sun’s rays caught her hair, turning it to flame, it came to him—she was the stunning woman he had noticed in the street a few days ago.

Dante barely heard the conversation that continued. His dark gaze roamed over her instead. He noticed the swell of her breasts beneath the lemon silk shirt she wore tucked into white jeans that moulded her slim hips and long legs, before his gaze slid back to trace the creamy skin over the high cheekbones of her face, framed by the red hair that was styled to fall sleekly to her shoulders. Finally his look rested on her big green eyes. He was intrigued as to who she was, and what she was to Tony.

‘Beth—my brother Dante.’

Tony made the introduction and Beth had no excuse but to finally look at Cannavaro.

Dante offered his hand. ‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Beth.’ Her eyes were cold, he noted, and the fingers that briefly touched his and swiftly withdrew were smooth and cool. But the heated sensation he felt at her merest touch surprised him—and her, it would seem. He recognised the flash of awareness in her green eyes though she fought to disguise it. Her lashes flickered down and her full lips tightened. He sensed her antagonism. She had not wanted to shake his hand. Only social niceties had demanded the slight contact.

Dante wasn’t a conceited man, but her reaction wasn’t the one he usually got from females. This woman had never met him but she was determined not to like him, and he had to wonder why.

‘Nice to meet you,’ Beth said, but she refused to use his name. Her fingers stung from the brief contact with his and she took a step back, shocked that he could affect her so intensely. His powerful physical presence provoked an instant reaction—a stomach-churning anger that she was barely able to control.

‘I’m considering following you, Dante.’ Tony reached his arm around Beth again, holding her close. ‘And talking Beth into marrying me. What do you think?’ he asked outrageously.

Beth’s startled gaze flew to Tony. What on earth was he playing at?

‘Beth is a lovely girl, I’m sure,’ Dante offered with a cynical smile.

He had met a lot of women in his time, and could see the beautiful Beth was probably older than Tony—maybe not so much in years, but, by the guarded look about her, certainly in experience. She could be more interested in Tony’s money than she was in the man. His brother worked in the merchant bank his father, Harry, owned and stood to inherit a fortune. The fact that he chose to share an apartment with Mike in suburbia, rather than a luxury apartment he could easily afford in the city centre, didn’t mean Beth did not know exactly who Tony was—an extremely good catch for any woman.

Beth’s blood ran cold as Dante’s hard dark eyes met hers. Now she recognised the cynicism in his smile immediately—but years ago she had not, and it had been her downfall. Her anger and resentment grew at the memory as he continued speaking.

‘But you have only just turned twenty-three, Tony. Isn’t that a bit young to be contemplating matrimony?’ Dante queried. He had seen the anger in Beth’s eyes and his conviction that she was only after Tony’s money deepened. This woman was smart enough to know that as the older brother he was a possible threat to her plan. ‘Marriage is an expensive business—especially for a young man just starting his career. I’m sure Beth would agree.’

His mocking tone did nothing to quell the bitterness bubbling inside Beth. No wonder Tony wanted to get one over on the arrogant swine. Rashly, she decided to help him. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Money isn’t everything.’ She shot Cannavaro a defiant glance before looking adoringly up at Tony. ‘Is it, darling?’

‘You’ve got that spot-on,’ Tony offered, his eyes dancing with amusement as he planted a brief kiss on her lips. ‘Isn’t she incredible, bro?’ he prompted.

‘Yes,’ Dante agreed curtly, surprised by the swift flare of irritation he felt at seeing them kiss. His dark gaze flicked to Beth and he caught the gleam in her green eyes. It wasn’t passion for Tony, he recognised, but a direct challenge aimed at him.

There was nothing Dante liked better than a challenge, and there was something about the striking redhead that had aroused his suspicions the minute he had met her. Now he was in danger of arousing another part of him, and worryingly it had nothing to do with his fiancée. He hadn’t reacted to a woman so swiftly in a long time. He enjoyed sex, but was never blinded by it, and he chose his partners carefully—as he had Ellen. He was always in total control, as he was in all aspects of his life. Yet every instinct he possessed was telling him his surprising reaction to Beth was not just sexual attraction. It was as though he knew her—but how?

He needed time to think, and changed the subject. ‘What about a drink, Tony? This is supposed to be a party. I’ll have a soft drink as I’m driving.’ And, concentrating on his fiancée, he added, ‘A vodka and tonic all right for you, Ellen?’

‘I’ll get them, Tony,’ Beth offered, her heart pounding in panic as she realised that playing along with Tony’s game to irritate his brother had been the height of stupidity. She had let her anger overcome her caution and drawn attention to herself—a big mistake. ‘You stay with your guests. You must have a lot to talk about with a family wedding coming up.’

Tony kissed her cheek and let her go. ‘Thanks, you’re a gem. And bring me a beer as well, hmm?’

Beth agreed, and with a huge sense of relief walked across to get a can of beer, then sprinted up the stairs of the boys’ apartment and into the kitchen.

She recognised a couple of their friends from the bank, and responding to their chatter helped her to regain her shattered nerves as she mixed the drinks and placed them on a tray. Caution and confidence, she reminded herself. But even so she was in no hurry to go back down to the party.

Just then Mike appeared. ‘I need more food! These people eat like horses,’ he declared, and she saw a lifeline.

‘You’re looking stressed, Mike.’ And, handing him the tray, she suggested, ‘Why don’t you add a drink for yourself and take these down to Tony, relax and enjoy the party? I’ll take care of the barbecue—no problem.’

‘You are an angel.’ He grinned and agreed.

Beth doubted Cannavaro and Ellen would deign to eat from the barbecue. Fine dining was more their thing, and she could hopefully avoid them for the rest of the evening.

Tony had watched Beth depart with an appreciative eye, then turned to catch Dante doing the same. ‘So, when are you getting married, bro?’ he asked mischievously. ‘At your age you don’t want to hang around.’

Before Dante could reply Ellen laughed and launched into a long explanation as to how difficult it was to get the right church at the right time and find the right venue for the reception. He saw Tony’s eyes glaze over with drink or boredom—more likely the latter—and he knew the feeling.

Dante had presumed that once they were engaged all he’d have to do was pay up and turn up on the wedding day. The endless lists and arrangements Ellen expected him to be interested in and discuss had come as an unpleasant shock to him.

Eventually Ellen ended with a date in September.

‘That’s fine,’ Tony said. ‘Don’t forget to send me an invite. I’ll bring Beth. Hopefully it will encourage her down the same path.’

‘Is that wise? The guests will be family and close friends, and though Beth seems nice how long have you known her?’ Dante demanded. Somehow the thought of the emerald-eyed beauty as a guest at his wedding was not one he wanted to contemplate.

‘Ever since we moved in, eighteen months ago. She’s a great girl and a fabulous cook. Her cakes are to die for. I don’t know what we’d do without her. Isn’t that right?’ Tony asked as Mike appeared with the drinks.

‘Yes, she is a diamond—especially to you, mate. And as we’re standing in her garden, and she prepared most of the food and has offered to take over the barbecue so I can enjoy myself, I’d say she is indispensable. And she certainly improves the view….’

Dante had wondered why Tony insisted on living out here, and now he knew. Tony was infatuated by the woman. With a few judicious questions Dante soon found out a lot more about Beth Lazenby. She was twenty-seven, and an accountant for a prestigious firm in the centre of London. She owned a cottage by the sea, and lived in the ground-floor apartment—too close to Tony for Dante’s comfort. He wasn’t sure why, but his gut feeling was telling him there was a lot more to Beth than met the eye.

He glanced across to the barbecue and saw her standing there, handing out plates of food to a group of men gathered around her, none of whom could take their eyes off her. Maybe that was the problem. She was tall, and so stunningly attractive few men would think to look past her surface beauty. She was an unlikely accountant. With her height and looks she could have been a model—she was slender enough. But maybe her high, firm breasts were a little too much for a fashion model, he mused.

‘Dante, darling.’

Ellen’s voice stopped his musing.

‘I feel like dancing.’ Grasping his arm, she smiled up at him.

‘Not my kind of dancing, but I’ll give it a go.’

Ellen was the lovely, intelligent woman whom he had chosen to be his wife, Dante reminded himself, and it was time he stopped worrying about the redhead and concentrated on his fiancée. Ellen had not wanted to attend this barbecue, but she was making an effort for his sake. Dancing with her was the least he could do….

Julian, the last man standing by the barbecue, was talking about stockbroking, laughing as he described his latest gamble on the markets. Beth listened politely, her mind only partially on what he said. She seemed unable to stop her eyes from straying towards the people dancing on the patio, and the tallest man in particular. For a big man he was a smooth mover—though he wasn’t so much dancing as allowing his fiancée to flit adoringly around him. More fool her, Beth thought. In her experience most men were a waste of time. All she wanted to do was call it a night, get into her apartment and check on Binkie. But there was no way she was going to walk through the crowd of gyrating bodies.

Luckily the music stopped and Mike came strolling over, his face flushed and smiling, obviously having enjoyed himself. ‘Sorry, Beth. I didn’t mean to leave you so long, but with it still being so light I didn’t realise the time. Tony has just gone to change the music. You go and enjoy yourself, and I’ll pack up here.’

For Beth it already felt like the longest night of her life, and she leapt at the chance to escape. People were moving to replenish their drinks, and her route was almost clear to her back door.

She was nearly there when the music started again—this time slow and moody—and suddenly her way was blocked as Cannavaro stepped in front of her, crowding her. She wanted to step back, but her pride would not let her.

‘May I have this dance? Tony is partnering Ellen, and it will give us a chance to get to know each other. We might all be family one day.’

Beth tensed and looked up at him—which was an unusual event in itself for her. She noticed that his eyes were not black. They were the colour of molasses—dark and golden. She found herself thinking that once she fell into them she would be stuck for ever. Disturbed by the fanciful thought, she caught the gleam of mockery in those same eyes and wanted to refuse his request outright. But she did not dare. He had not recognised her, she was sure, but she had aroused his suspicion by being less than courteous when they had been introduced. She did not want to compound her mistake by showing her dislike again.

She took a deep breath. ‘That’s not likely to happen. Tony was just teasing,’ she managed to say evenly. ‘But, yes, if you insist, I will dance with you.’

‘Oh, I insist, Beth.’ He drawled her name softly and his arm slid around her waist.

He looked at her, his other hand taking hers, and she was not prepared for the tingling sensation that crept over her skin and made her shiver as he held her close to his long body.

A reaction to the cooling night air, she told herself, but somehow her body, with a will of its own, was moving with him, automatically following his movements.

‘You are a very lovely lady, Beth. What man wouldn’t insist?’ he added in that deep, barely accented silken voice she remembered so well and so bitterly.

She forgot her good intentions. ‘Are you trying to flirt with me, Mr Cannavaro?’ she demanded. ‘And you an engaged man,’ she prompted, giving him a derisory smile while trying to control her inexplicably racing pulse.

A quizzical expression flickered across his face for a moment, and his incredible eyes seemed to bore into hers as his hand stroked up her spine to hold her closer still. To her shame she felt a fullness in her breasts when they came in contact with his broad chest.

‘No, Beth. I was stating the truth. But if I was flirting with you I would not have to try very hard,’ Dante opined, fully appreciating the feminine sway of her shapely body against his own, testing his control to the limit. ‘I felt you tremble when I took you in my arms, and sensed it in the softening of your body against mine. There is an instant sexual attraction between us—unfortunate, but true. Under the circumstances it is obviously not to be acted upon. But I also sense something more. You seem afraid of me—even actively to dislike me—and I have to wonder why. Are you sure we have not met before?’

God, he analysed everything, and talked like a lawyer even as they moved to the music. His muscular thighs brushed against hers, raising her temperature, and it took all her nerve to hold his dark gaze.

‘I shivered because it is getting cooler now,’ she lied. ‘And, no, we have never met before. I didn’t even know Tony had a brother. He never mentioned you until you turned up here in the garden.’

Dante stilled and let Beth take a step back, putting space between them. His heavy-lidded eyes were shrewd and penetrating, and swept over her flushed defiant face before moving lower.

‘Interesting if true!’ He raised a sardonic eyebrow, noting the thrust of her nipples against her shirt.

The lovely Beth was definitely lying about one part of that statement. He had met enough females in his time, and was experienced enough to recognise when a lustful attraction was mutual. But was she lying about not knowing Tony had a brother until tonight? She had not said half-brother, and if she was telling the truth surely she would naturally assume his name was Hetherington, the same as Tony’s? And yet she had called him Mr Cannavaro—even though his name had not been mentioned when the introductions had been made. He doubted Tony, who was not into formality of any kind, would have called him anything but Dante or bro in the couple of minutes before they had been introduced. So how could she know his surname unless she had met him before, or at least heard of him?

The mystery of Beth Lazenby deepened. His legal instincts told him she was hiding something—but what? And in that moment Dante decided to make it his business to discover everything about her. Not for himself, but to protect his brother, of course.

A wave of heat swept through Beth at his intense scrutiny and it took every scrap of willpower she possessed to control her traitorous body. But at least she was saved from having to respond as Tony and Ellen appeared.

‘One fiancée returned to you, bro, worn out from dancing with me—or it could be the vodka I gave her. She wants to go home.’ Tony grinned, swaying on his feet, and Beth grabbed his arm to steady him. He had definitely had too much to drink.

‘Thanks a bunch, Tony,’ Dante said dryly, his expression grim as he wrapped his arm around a slightly glassy-eyed Ellen. And with a goodnight and a curt nod to Beth, much to her relief he left.

Beth took the key from her back pocket and, ignoring Tony’s drunken request to dance, slipped into her apartment and locked the door behind her. She fell back against it, breathing deeply, fighting to regain her composure.

Binkie appeared and she picked him up in her arms and carried him through into the living room. Her knees weak, with a sigh she sank down onto the sofa, cuddling the cat on her lap, her mind in turmoil as the significance of Cannavaro being Tony’s brother sank in.

Everyone had bad days, she reminded herself, but today hers had gone from good straight to diabolical. She glanced around the cosy room that was her sanctuary, her gaze resting on the two photographs in identical silver frames on the mantelpiece. One was of the parents she had adored, and the other of Helen, her dearest friend. All three were dead now, and moisture glazed her eyes.

Clive Hampton, Helen’s lawyer, whom Beth now considered a friend and mentor, was the closest thing she had to family. He had been instrumental in getting her a job in the offices of a local accountancy firm, where she had got the opportunity to train in-house as an accountant. After taking the requisite exams over two years she had eventually become qualified.

She spoke to Clive frequently on the telephone, and often visited him at his home in Richmond. She was meeting him tomorrow for Sunday lunch, and had almost forgotten in the trauma of the evening. He was over sixty now, and thinking of retiring soon, and though she talked to him about most things, telling him how she felt about Cannavaro was not one of them. It was much too personal. She had never even told Helen how badly the man had affected her in court, only that he was clever and that her lawyer, Miss Sims, had been useless against him. No, this latest development she had to take care of herself.

Her time in prison had taught her how to build a protective shell around her emotions and present a blank face in front of warders and prisoners alike. Living in a confined environment and sharing communal showers had come as a shock, but she had quickly realised that women came in all shapes and sizes and soon thought nothing of stripping off in front of anyone. She told herself she was no better or worse than anyone else, but all her life she had always felt the odd one out and that hadn’t changed. And with her new identity she was even more wary of making friends.