Tempted By Desire

It was already seven o’clock by the time she reached her room, and seven-fifteen by the time she had showered. Choosing what to wear was a difficult decision. Should she wear the clinging black silk and look sophisticated, or wear the lemon chiffon that made her hair look like spun gold? She finally decided on the black silk. At nineteen to Vidal Martino’s thirty-two, thirty-three, she wanted to appear as worldly as possible.

Her hair was another problem, a golden mass of riotous curls, it was difficult to tame into any semblance of order. Pinning the majority of the curls on to the top of her head, she allowed one or two tendrils to curl provocatively at her temples and three or four at her slender nape. It gave her a look of childish sophistication and she knew it was as good as she was going to get. A light make-up and pale lipstick to add colour to her face and she was ready to face even the watchful Celeste.

A hasty look in the mirror showed her that she had what Robert would call her ‘adult look’. Robert! She had completely forgotten him since her meeting with Vidal Martino. As she had thought, Robert paled to insignificance when compared with her ideal man. And since meeting the vibrant masculine man in the flesh, Robert had been put completely out of her thoughts.

Her hotel room door swung open without any warning and she didn’t need two guesses who it was, in fact, she didn’t even need to turn round. Nevertheless she did turn round, only to come under the scornful gaze of Celeste.

‘Well, well, well,’ she drawled silkily, swaying gracefully into the room to walk mockingly round Suzanne as she willed herself not to be bothered by Celeste’s taunting. ‘And who is this little lot for?’ she flicked one of the curls caressing Suzanne’s temple.

Suzanne flinched away from her stepmother. ‘What’s what little lot for?’ she asked steadily.

‘Why, the outfit, darling,’ purred Celeste. ‘Do you have an assignation with one of the waiters? Carlo perhaps?’

‘Don’t be childish,’ she snapped, picking up her evening bag in preparation to leave the room. ‘I’m merely dressed for dinner, nothing more.’

‘Really?’ I haven’t noticed such an effort on any other of the evenings we’ve been down to dinner.’

‘Are you trying to tell me I usually look a mess?’

‘Of course not, Suzanne. I would have told you so if you did. So who is it for?’

‘No one,’ Suzanne said sulkily. ‘I just felt like making an effort. Do you object?’

‘Oh, no.’ Celeste shook her head, her vibrant auburn hair gleaming as she moved. ‘I just hope you aren’t getting any big ideas about your own future. I made it obvious to you before we came here that it was my fortune we were seeking. Have you forgotten?’

‘How can I forget anything so disgusting?’

‘Quite,’ Celeste’s mouth twisted sneeringly. ‘And I think it’s just arrived.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. You don’t have to sound quite so eager to get rid of me.’ Celeste looked at her stepdaughter suspiciously, picking up bottles at random from the dressing-table to study their contents.

Suzanne saw her mistake as she felt Celeste’s keen looks in her direction. It was just that it would be so convenient if she didn’t have Celeste watching her every move over the next few days. But she mustn’t let Celeste know that; already she had given away too much to this perceptive woman.

‘Come along, Suzanne, we can discuss this better over dinner. Well, perhaps not better, but at least in comfort.’

‘All right,’ agreed Suzanne, herself eager to get dinner over with as soon as possible. The sooner she had eaten the sooner she could go to the lounge and wait for Vidal.

Dinner was delicious as usual and Celeste in her more mellowed mood was quite convivial company. They even laughed together a couple of times, something they had never done before. Celeste often laughed at Suzanne but never with her.

‘You many not believe this, Suzanne,’ Celeste said quietly as they drank their coffee at the end of the meal. ‘No, I’m sure you won’t believe it. But in my own selfish way I loved your father very much.’

‘You can safely say that now, can’t you, now that he’s dead and can’t refute such a statement?’ Suzanne said vehemently.

‘Are you trying to say I didn’t make your father happy?’ Celeste gave a slight smile. ‘I don’t think you can say that with any degree of honesty.’

‘Maybe not. But I was his daughter, didn’t I deserve to be included in his life too?’

‘I said in my own selfish way, Suzanne, and that didn’t include you. Children have never entered into my plans for my future, and that means other people’s as well as my own.’

‘Surely this wealthy man will want children?’ Suzanne pointed out spitefully. Celeste certainly brought out the worst in her.

‘Perhaps. It may be a necessary evil,’ she said in a bored voice. ‘Perhaps just one, to satisfy the man’s vanity.’

Suzanne looked about her curiously. The only man she could see who remotely fitted into Celeste’s mercenary plans was a man sitting at a corner table of the dining-room, but even he didn’t have to be the man, this dining-room was open to the public and he could just be a visitor, not an actual guest. He was a man in his mid-sixties, with grey streaked hair and a body that was running to fat. He was quite handsome for a man of his obvious years, but surely Celeste couldn’t be contemplating marriage to a man so much her senior.

But why not? Suzanne’s father had been eighteen years her senior, so what did it matter that this man could give her at least thirty years? It didn’t matter in the slightest to Suzanne, Celeste must make her own future, in any way she wanted. But to marry a man like that! It made her feel slightly sick.

She looked at her stepmother. Celeste might be hard and grasping, but surely she deserved something better than that. Her father had loved the woman, so she couldn’t be all bad. But she couldn’t be all good either, not when she could shut out a child of ten from her own father’s love.

‘What on earth is the matter now?’ Celeste asked impatiently. ‘Surely I haven’t shocked your puritan little mind again? Dear, oh dear, Suzanne, you’ll have to toughen up if you want to survive in this harsh cruel world your father and mother introduced you to. It’s a rough world out there and you have to be the same if you want to survive, and I intend to do just that.’

‘I’m not shocked, Celeste,’ Suzanne gave a rueful smile. ‘I think I’m past that where you’re concerned.’

Celeste laughed, a completely natural gesture that added to her already considerable beauty. Blue, often mercenary eyes were filled with amusement and Suzanne wished that Celeste would act this naturally all the time. How much more attractive it made her. Not that her stepmother needed any extra attraction tonight, dressed as she was in a clinging russet-coloured gown that should have clashed with her rich auburn hair, but somehow didn’t.

‘Why were you looking so serious, then?’

Suzanne shrugged, unwilling to start another argument. ‘I was—I was just looking round to see if I could spot the man—you know, the man you—–’ she broke off in embarrassed confusion.

‘The man I’ve picked out to be my husband,’ finished Celeste, completely unembarrassed herself. ‘And who did you decide it was?’

‘Well, I—–’ Suzanne looked at the elderly man she had picked out earlier and Celeste followed her gaze.

‘Not him, Suzanne!’ she burst out laughing. ‘Give me credit for a little taste!’

‘Then who?’

‘Oh, he isn’t here, darling,’ again Celeste affected that false drawl. ‘He’s otherwise engaged this evening, but I’m meeting him tomorrow. He’s absolutely fascinating, Suzanne, a shame he’s only a means to an end.’

‘So who is he, Celeste? Don’t keep me in suspense!’

‘You are interested, aren’t you? Well, I suppose it makes a change from your apathy. His name is Vidal Martino.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘VIDAL MARTINO?’ Suzanne echoed weakly.

‘Mmm—lovely name, isn’t it? And so is the man. I think Celeste Martino sounds quite distinctive, don’t you?’

Suzanne felt physically sick. Oh, God! Not Vidal Martino! Why couldn’t it be anyone else but him? And Celeste had said she was meeting him tomorrow. Oh, how could he, when he had already arranged to meet her this evening! Her distress must have shown on her face, because Celeste looked quite concerned.

‘Are you all right, Suzanne?’ She touched her arm. ‘You’ve gone terribly pale.’

‘Oh, I—I’m fine. I felt rather faint for a moment, but I’m all right now,’ Suzanne lied. How could she feel fine when she was dying inside? In the space of an hour she had fallen in love for the first time in her life, and now it was completely shattered by a few short words. Celeste meant to marry Vidal Martino, and knowing Celeste that was exactly what she would do.

‘It is rather warm in here,’ Celeste agreed. ‘Why don’t you go out into the garden for a while?’

‘Yes. Yes!’ Suzanne said jerkily, rising unsteadily to her feet. ‘It is rather stuffy, isn’t it? I won’t be long.’

Celeste sat back lazily. ‘Take your time, darling. I may just wait here on the off chance that Vidal returns earlier than expected.’

‘Oh, oh, I see,’ Suzanne said dully. She had to escape from here, be on her own for a while to sort out her thoughts.

The garden was definitely cooler than the hotel dining-room, although the hotel was air-conditioned. The fragrance of the many flowers out here was exquisite.

She had escaped here many times during the last few days, when she couldn’t stand Celeste’s overbearing attitude any longer. And now this! For the first time in her life she had found someone she was sure she could love, and he was destined for Celeste! She was certainly no competition for the beautiful redhead, and she might as well give up any hope of keeping a man like Vidal Martino interested in someone as plain as herself when Celeste wanted him.

It was a bitter blow and one she had faced once before in her life—and both of them dealt by Celeste. First her father and now Vidal Martino. She should hate Celeste, but she didn’t. At times Celeste showed a gentler side of her character, a facet of her nature she took great pains to hide. And she mostly succeeded.

She said Vidal had arranged to meet her tomorrow—he couldn’t have wasted much time after leaving Suzanne this afternoon. This knowledge hurt her somehow, and she wasn’t feeling particularly friendly towards him when she saw him walking across the garden towards her.

‘Suzanne,’ he put out his hands to her, drawing her close to him. ‘You were not waiting in the lounge,’ he scolded gently. ‘Luckily I spotted your hair in the darkness.’

‘I see,’ she said huskily, unable to draw her gaze away from those warm compelling brown eyes. ‘My stepmother was in the lounge.’

‘Ah, I see,’ he nodded understandingly. ‘You did not want to meet me in front of her. Well, I think she must have gone to bed because the lounge was deserted when I came through just now.’

Suzanne felt angry at his casual dismissal of Celeste, and yet excited too. Celeste hadn’t made such a big impression on Vidal that he didn’t want to see her again. ‘Oh,’ she licked her lips nervously. ‘Did you—Did you have a nice evening?’

Vidal Martino grimaced. ‘As pleasant as one could when visiting a grandmother. When Cesare’s mother married our father her mother moved in too. She now lives in her own home in England and complains that we neglect her. She does not think that it would have been better for all of us if she had stayed at the Palazzo like any other grandmother would. And of course Cesare visits her regularly when he is here.’ Again that harshness entered his voice when talking of his brother. ‘But I must not bore you with my family. Shall we go in and have that drink now?’

Why not? Celeste wasn’t in the lounge, and by the look of things she would have to make the most of this meeting with Vidal Martino, tomorrow Celeste would take over. She nodded her head, renewed eagerness entering her eyes. ‘I’d love to.’

He grinned at her. ‘Good.’

As he had said, the lounge was deserted, and within minutes they were ensconced at a corner table with two drinks on the table in front of them.

‘So,’ Vidal turned on the bench seat they were both sitting on, his knee touching hers intimately before it was politely withdrawn. But he was still sitting very close to her and she found she liked his closeness, liked the fresh male tangy smell that his body exuded and the expensive aftershave that she had come to realise he wore exclusively. ‘Tell me a little about yourself, Suzanne.’

‘There isn’t much to tell, and I’m not being trite when I say that, there really isn’t much to tell. I’m a student, training to be a teacher, eventually.’

‘If the job is available,’ he put it mildly. ‘There seems to be an abundance of unemployed teachers in this country at the moment. I can sympathise with you.’

‘Mm, it could all be wasted effort when I’ve finished.’

‘And do you live on your own?’ He offered her a cigarette, lighting one for himself at her refusal.

‘In a bed-sitter? I certainly hope so, there’s hardly room for me, let alone anyone else.’

‘And you have a boy-friend?’

She looked at him sharply, but could see only mild curiosity in his clear brown eyes. ‘I have male friends,’ she said carefully. ‘But none that I feel serious about.’

‘But one who feels that way about you,’ he guessed shrewdly. ‘If he feels this way why has he allowed you to come to London without him?’

‘I don’t feel that way about him, it’s as simple as that.’

‘It is a good enough reason—and I for one am glad of it. I would not like to think I was—cutting in is, I believe, the right expression.’

Suzanne laughed. ‘Mmm, but you aren’t—or at least, you wouldn’t be if you intended—–’ she broke off confusedly.

His dark brows lowered with concern. ‘My age worries you, perhaps?’

She looked startled. It certainly wasn’t his age she was worried about, it was Celeste, beautiful Celeste with her lethal charm. She shook her head wordlessly.

‘I am thirty-two. Is that much older than you?’

Suzanne had to laugh at his earnestness. As if a little thing like age mattered where someone of his looks and charm was involved. ‘You shouldn’t ask a lady her age, Vidal,’ she rebuked him teasingly.

His dark eyes twinkled back at her. ‘I know, but you are not a lady—I mean, you aren’t—–Oh, dear, I am wording this badly. My English is not as fluent as I would wish it to be. What I meant was that you are a beautiful young girl and have no reason to hide your age.’

‘You had me worried for a moment.’ She couldn’t hold back a grin. Wow! When he smiled at her like that…! ‘I’m nineteen—just,’ she supplied.

‘You have been on your own since you were sixteen?’

‘Just about. But I was on my own long before that really. Daddy and my stepmother lived out of the country most of the time, and so I was left in boarding school.’

‘At least I cannot say that. Cesare always cared for me when I was a child. I was fifteen when our father died and Cesare was forced to take up the responsibilities of being the head of the family. I am afraid I was not always a well-behaved child, far from it in fact.’

‘I can believe it.’ And she could too. He still had the look of an impish child when he teased her and she felt sure the Conte Cesare Martino must have had his patience sorely tried. ‘And how did his wife feel about that.’

This question seemed to cause him a certain amount of amusement, and Suzanne could only wonder why. Until he told her. ‘Cesare is not married. Many have tried and many have failed, but as I have told you, it is hard to love a rock, and believe me, Cesare is pure granite. One day I think a woman will come along and knock him completely off balance. It must be so, I am sure of it. He is a Venetian, and we are a warm passionate race. Cesare cannot be so different,’ he smiled with relish. ‘I hope I am around when it happens, I think I would like to see him bowed by love for a woman.’

‘That isn’t a very nice thing to say,’ she scolded.

‘You are right, but I find I have many of these thoughts about my austere brother. You would know why if you were ever to meet him.’

Suzanne gave a little laugh, a soft gentle sound that riveted her companion’s eyes on her glowing face. ‘I don’t think there’s any chance of that!’

The smile faded from her face as she saw the scowl on Vidal Martino’s face, and following his gaze she saw the reason why. A man had just entered the lounge, a tall aristocratic man with a dark look of disapproval in his rigidly held features. Suzanne was instantly aware of his air of arrogance and she wasn’t surprised when the manager of the hotel began bowing subserviently to him, only to be waved imperiously away again. Icy grey eyes settled on the two of them sitting in the corner of the room and Suzanne felt herself stiffen as the newcomer strode towards them with long easy strides.

‘You are about to be proved wrong,’ muttered Vidal, rising slowly to his feet.

Suzanne’s startled gaze swung to the man now standing beside their table, her eyes widening with shock. Surely this couldn’t be the Conte Cesare Martino! This man was too young and he didn’t fit her picture of him at all. That over-long blond almost silver-coloured hair, and those steel grey eyes couldn’t possibly belong to a Venetian. And yet his skin was a dark swarthy colour. The whole effect was very startling and very attractive, much too attractive for any woman’s peace of mind.

‘Cesare,’ Vidal Martino said firmly, confirming Suzanne’s suspicions. ‘I did not expect to see you tonight.’

The Conte’s eyes flickered momentarily over Suzanne as she remained seated, and if anything his look became even more contemptuous. ‘So it would appear,’ he said coldly, his voice only slightly accented, much less so than his brother’s, a deep slightly husky sound that commanded attention.

‘And what do you mean by that?’ Vidal’s face became flushed with anger.

Suzanne compared the two men and could find little resemblance, except perhaps in their physique. Both looked powerful men, although she would hazard a guess that any battle these two entered opposed to each other, be it verbal or physical, the Conte would always emerge the winner. As brothers, half-brothers, they bore no resemblance to each other. One was so dark in colouring, and the other so fair and yet with that dark contrasting skin. There couldn’t be more than six or seven years difference in their ages and yet the Conte had such a distinguished air that he appeared older. And no wonder, if he had had to take over his duties as the Conte Martino at such an early age.

‘I merely meant that as you are already occupied then of course you could hot have been expecting me,’ the Conte answered his brother’s rather heated question. ‘Are you not going to introduce us, Vidal?’ As he said this the Conte lowered his tall frame to sit on the other side of Suzanne, and Vidal had perforce to join them.

‘Suzanne, my brother the Conte Cesare Martino,’ he gave in sulkily. Suzanne was again reminded of a little boy and her resentment towards his brother grew for interrupting what should have been a perfect evening spent with Vidal. ‘Cesare, this is Signorina Hammond, Signorina Suzanne Hammond.’

She felt her hand taken into a firm grip and at last looked up as the Conte’s silver-blond head neared her hand, kissing her suddenly warm flesh with those cold firm impassioned lips. Grey eyes widened slightly as they met the sparkle in her green ones and Suzanne felt strangely unreal for a moment before he calmly broke that gaze.

‘Signorina Hammond?’ he queried softly.

‘Yes,’ she replied breathlessly, feeling curiously as if she had run for miles and miles and now felt winded.

‘I only ask because I was informed that a Signora Hammond was staying here.’

‘That would be Suzanne’s stepmother,’ Vidal put in resentfully. ‘And what, may I ask, have you been doing this evening, Cesare?’

‘The same as you, no doubt, visiting my stubborn and wilful grandmother. When she informed me of your visit to her I thought it only polite to see you before I retired. As you only arrived this afternoon I thought perhaps you would be alone. I can see I have wasted my time.’ Again those grey eyes flickered over Suzanne’s still form.

Usually rudeness didn’t bother her, but she was perfectly well aware that coming from this arrogant man it was a gross insult. He certainly wouldn’t talk about one of his own countrywomen with such ill-disguised contempt, and definitely not in front of them. ‘If you are referring to me, signore, then you are quite wrong. I’m not detaining your brother,’ she said icily.

‘Whether you are or whether you are not is not Cesare’s concern,’ Vidal cut in. ‘I am no longer a child, Cesare, but a grown man. You would do well to remember it.’

The Conte stood up in unhurried movements. ‘And you would have done well to remember, Vidal, that the Grant contract was an important part of my plan for greater expansion into America,’ the words rang out with contempt. ‘And if you had contacted me immediately on your arrival this afternoon instead of—instead of flirting with this child—we may have still been able to salvage something from the mess. As it is, Leroy Grant has cancelled any further business with us.’ He bowed stiffly to Suzanne. ‘Miss Hammond. I will see you in your office tomorrow, Vidal.’

There was no mistaking the anger in his voice and Suzanne watched him nervously as he walked out of the lounge. The hand that lifted her glass shook with delayed reaction and she sipped the fiery liquid gratefully. So that was the Conte Martino! Vidal was right, that man was pure granite. She looked at Vidal and was shocked by his appearance. His face was paled somewhat and he was glaring after the Conte with undisguised dislike.

She put out her hand and touched his arm tentatively. ‘Vidal?’ she said questioningly. ‘You mustn’t let his anger bother you so much. I’m sure he’ll have forgotten it by tomorrow.’

Vidal seemed to visibly drag his attention back to her, smiling slightly at her concerned face. He patted her hand reassuringly. ‘Cesare forgets nothing. But I am unconcerned with his anger. Grant had already decided not to sell to us before we even made our offer. It was his rudeness to you that I find unforgivable. And do not say it does not matter, because I can see it did. He annoyed and upset you.’

‘Perhaps,’ Suzanne admitted. ‘At the time. But it isn’t important, at least, not important enough to ruin our evening.’

‘To me it is. He would not have spoken to one of our own nationality in that way. Cesare dislikes the freedom of your countrywomen.’

‘I had already guessed as much,’ she said with a light laugh. ‘But it doesn’t matter. He wasn’t half as old as I imagined him to be.’

Vidal Martino studied her suspiciously. ‘You do not find him attractive, do you?’ he demanded haughtily, looking curiously like his brother at that moment.

‘Why, I—–! No, of course not. What a strange thing to say!’

‘Not so strange when you consider what he has—money, harsh good looks, and most important of all, a title. I am not so foolish that I do not realise how attractive these things can be to a woman. Cesare is thirty-seven, only five years my senior, and yet at times he reduces me to a mere schoolboy. Imagine what havoc he could evoke in a babe like yourself.’

‘I don’t need to imagine anything, I’ve seen him with my own eyes, and as you’ve already said, he only annoyed and upset me. What do you take me for, Vidal? A gold-digger?’ Her green eyes sparkled angrily.

Vidal gave a throaty chuckle. ‘Forgive me, Suzanne. Of course I think no such thing. You must try to understand.

Cesare has always taken everything he wanted, and occasionally it has been women whom I thought I had prior claim to.’

These words gave Suzanne a warm glowing feeling and yet she still felt angry. ‘Now you’re being silly. You heard what your brother called me, a child. He obviously disliked me.’