Coercion to Love Read Free

the ice-cold feel of dread slewing everything inside her to a shuddering, grinding halt.
    The world stopped moving. She forced herself to look at him again, praying desperately that she was wrong and knowing wretchedly that she was right. She had lived for too long with that face etched on her memory to mistake it when she saw it. The way he wore his straight black hair swept negligently away from his lean-boned face. His eyes, dark  brown and as hard as pebbles. The long smooth line of his Roman nose. His mouth, thin and cruel with a tendency to wear a sardonic curl to one corner. She knew every detail of that face as intimately as she knew her own, had spent hours staring at it via the photographs she had ripped out of various newspapers. Hating him, despising him for what he had done to her sister.
    And it was most definitely him. Carlo Valenti.
    She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, the cold, hard breath of fate holding her trapped in the horror of her own making, and for long, slowly moving seconds they just stood there staring at each other across the width of the dusty road, his own shocked amazement at finding her here in his own San Remo of all places registering in the astounded expression on his face.
    Giuseppe murmured something in Italian, his tone matching his puzzled frown at the suffocating tension suddenly assailing them all.
    'Cass?' Terri whispered anxiously, moving closer to her as the strange tension got to her also.
    'It's all right,' she murmured, but her voice was low and thick, too restricted by the horror she was experiencing to give much comfort.
    The child's movement made Carlo Valenti's dark lashes flicker, and he shifted his gaze down to the little girl. Instantly something blazed into violent life in him, and sent the air wrenching from Cass's lungs on a pained whimper.
    It was recognition, instant and possessive.
    'My God,' he breathed at last, his stunned gaze lifting back to Cass. 'My God. It is you.'
    Yes, she thought emptily, it's me all right. Living in a fool's paradise.
    'You were supposed to stay in London for another week at least,' she heard herself say stupidly.
    ‘Business demanded my early return,' he informed her as though it were her God-given right to know.
    Cass even managed to smile at it, acknowledging the way both of them had been caught completely unarmed by the unexpectedness of the situation. He smiled too, causing her to catch her breath as those eyes so like Terri's glinted ruefully at her.
    The world began to move again, birds twittering lazily in the shaded branches of the tree, the bee buzzing, the light breeze kicking up the dust from the road. The sun shone brightly down on the bodywork of the Ferrari, and Carlo Valenti relaxed suddenly, leaning back against the car and folding his arms across his chest.
    'Well, well, well,' he drawled, getting a hold of himself far quicker than Cass could manage. 'So the lamb has walked right into the lion's lair.'
    ‘I’m no lamb for the slaughter, Mr Valenti,' she disclaimed, lifting her chin to defy a taunt she knew held more than a little truth to it. 'Don't make the mistake of comparing me with my sister.'
    Liz had been the meek little lamb. She had allowed this man to use her, then leave her flat when the going got tough. Cass was made up of an entirely different stuff.
    'You are quite right, of course,' he entirely agreed, using those eyes, narrowed against the sun, to slice over her in derisive contempt. 'There is no comparison. At least Elizabeth could give the appearance of being an angel when necessary, while you, Miss Cassandra Marlow, look and are, nothing but a-----'
    'Don't you shout at my aunt Cass!' All of a sudden Terri was thrusting herself on the scene. 'And my mummy is only an angel 'cos she's dead!' The shrill statement wobbled a bit, and Cass tried to gather the angry little girl to her, but she was having none of it, pulling away so that she could stand free, legs planted firmly apart, hot and angry face