Page 19

“I’m sorry. I really am. Come on, come here,” he beckons to me, arms open.

Cautiously, I crawl down the sofa towards him. Once I’m in arms reach he yanks me up and sits me on his lap so I’m straddling him.

“What are you doing?!” I squeal. “As you said, we don’t even know each other!”

“Relax! I’m not going to try and root you here.” He laughs with a glint in his eyes that says he wouldn’t say no if I gave him the go-ahead. An opportunist and an arrogant dickhead for sure, I realise that the only thing I can be sure of with Elio is that he will act entirely in his own interest. “And I’ve known you your whole life technically.”

Giovanna is watching us. I see her standing through the glass doors when I glance up. Angry at her earlier dismissal of me, I hope she’s maybe a little jealous. She seemed to enjoy my attention before she shut me down. I’m furious at her for toying with me. As if I need another person yanking my feelings around.

My attention is swiftly drawn back to the man I’m straddling when I feel his cock hardening between my legs. I quickly climb off his lap. His face is plastered with another cheeky smile and I roll my eyes.

“Not today, Satan,” I say sternly, pointing a finger at him.

He throws back his head and laughs. He has no problem being the devil.

Chapter Nine

Francesca

Without so much as an interview, Deano the frazzled manager of a gym not far from the Marino House shakes my hand and thrusts a generic contract at me. I guess I’ve got a job.

“Your CV speaks for itself,” the swollen gym beast says. I suspect he is just too lazy to conduct any interviews and he’ll probably hit on me.

He leads me to a cramped staff room. Gym bags clutter every surface and there is a bin overflowing with wrappers and containers of a variety of health products. Deano digs into a locker full of uniforms and pulls out a couple of branded t-shirts.

“Just wear gym leggings with the t-shirt,” he instructs. “Come on, I'll introduce you to some of the team.

Awkwardly I shake hands with several of my new colleagues, smiling and immediately forgetting their names. I cringe at the appreciative gazes of the male personal trainers and hope that this job won’t turn into a predator’s playground.

“Hey, I’m Sammy!” A bright voice with an accent that hints that she is originally from New Zealand.

“Francesca,” I smile warmly back at her genuine grin.

“Don’t let the meatheads put you off. They’ll try their luck, but if you tell them to piss off they listen.” She has been perceptive in picking up my discomfort. “Anyway, I’ll catch you around.”

I say goodbye and watch the woman I have taken an instant liking to walk away.

As I wait for Deano to bring me a copy of the signed contract, I watch her challenge some of the guys to a pull-up competition which she very nearly wins. Her confidence draws me in and I know immediately that I want to be her friend. From the assertive way she shouts across the gym to the way she banters with everyone, she is the picture of exuberance and completely carefree.

Elio and I are given little time to get used to the idea of our marriage. Outsourcing the practical organising of the wedding to their wives, Dad and Sandy want me signed, sealed, and delivered, like, yesterday, but compromise on an engagement not longer than six months.

There are few things I would less like to spend my time doing than planning a wedding to a man Carly Simon could have writtenYou’re So Vainabout.

I’d rather:

Shove bamboo under my fingernails.

Have a Brazilian wax every day for a year.

Cover myself in syrup and lay down on a nest of fire ants.

Have every man in England explain football’s offside rule to me.

Just to name a few.

My lack of enthusiasm is made up for by my mother’s abundance of it. If I was still an affection-starved child, desperate for her mother to show interest in her, I would be basking in the sudden attention from Vanessa Rossi. But I’m not. I have long accepted that I won’t have a loving mother/daughter relationship until I’m the mother.

That’s what upsets me the most about this stupid marriage, I think. I have dreamed for so long about the happy, healthy, loving family I will create with someone who loves me as madly as I love them. Now I appear set to have an awkward and miserable marriage instead.