The Italian Billionaire's Betrayal: What if you fell in love with the one person you couldn't have? A story of forbidden love and overpowering need. Read online

  Meghan sighed. “This is beautiful.” She said to both men.

  Tony nodded. “My wife, Esmerelda, had it designed and built. She liked to sit here and read.” His eyes took on a faraway expression. “Now I come and sit and think of her.”

  Pete came and put an arm around Meghan’s shoulders.

  Meghan thought Tony seemed quite sweet, but she could see that he treated Pete with a cool manner, nothing approaching love nor affection. Her heart broke for her friend, and she decided she would do everything she could to help him gain acceptance in his family. She slid her arm around his waist and stared up at him in what she hoped was a besotted way. Given that her experience was very limited, she had to draw from films she’d seen, but she thought she did a good Deborah Kerr from An Affair to Remember. Out of nowhere, she remembered Teo’s face, and she knew she could have conjured an endless array of soppy expressions if he were there.

  Pete’s lips quirked briefly in amusement. “Grandfather, is there somewhere we can wash up before lunch? I only got in to Italy this morning and I’m keen to, er, catch up with Megs,” Pete said, intentionally creating the impression that their catch up wis going to have a very physical bent.

  Tony’s chuckle was spontaneous. “I was young once too, Pietro. You’re in the Rose Room.”

  “Grazia,” Pete said, and for good measure, he kissed Meghan on the top of her head. They walked from the courtyard arm in arm. The Rose Room was a delightful suite that had, as the name suggested, been decorated with roses overwhelmingly in mind. The wallpaper featured a delicate rose pattern, the bed linen too, and the tiles in the bathroom had roses sculpted in around the edges.

  Far from the passionate tryst Tony no doubt imagined they’d been desperate to indulge in, they spent the morning as they would any other in their London flat. Meghan read the crime novel that she’d brought with her while Pete sunned himself on the small balcony overlooking an olive grove. After an hour and a half had passed and the time of lunch approached, they prepared to leave the room and go back downstairs. Meghan felt her nerves doubling. While she’d already met and begun to impress Tony, there was still Pete’s parents and brother, and she suspected they would be a little harder to sell.

  “Hang on,” Pete said, eyeing her carefully.

  “What is it?” She froze, chewing on her lower lip.

  He reached out and before she could guess his intention he’d pulled a strategic bobby pin from her hair and loosened her auburn top knot so that her hair fell in its natural waves about her shoulders.

  “Pete!” She snapped, running a hand through it in exasperation. “It will take me forever to get it smoothed down.”

  “Don’t.” He said firmly, a teasing smile on his lips. “Trust me, this is better. Your hair is breath taking, and never more so than when down, and wild like that. Plus, it looks like I’ve been ravishing you senseless.” He winked at her and she laughed. She supposed that was the aim of this weekend. But her heart was contracting painfully at the vivid memories of having been ravished only the day before.

  “Okay, let’s go.” She let him take her hand in his as they walked downstairs. “So who else is coming today?” She asked as they reached the bottom of the marble staircase.

  “Just the immediate family. My parents, grandpa, my cousin, and my know-it-all brother. God, he’s such a pain in the arse. I’m glad you’re here to help me get through this.” When they reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked at her reassuringly. “They’ll love you.”

  “I don’t care if they love me,” she whispered honestly. “I want them to love you.”

  Two male voices reached them and he held a finger up to his lips, peering around the corner into the courtyard. “My brother,” he mouthed. They strained to hear what the men, out of sight, were saying. Tony’s voice, old and frail but loud and clear as a bell, came to them, but he was speaking Italian. Pete translated in a hushed voice: “It seems serious to me. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. In fact, they couldn’t wait to be rid of me and you don’t need to be a mind reader to guess what they went to do.” Pete waved his fingers in the air like an octopus and she had to stifle a giggle. “It’s good to see Pietro with someone like her – God knows he probably doesn’t deserve her.” He pulled a face and Meghan squeezed his hand sympathetically.

  “Now my brother is asking if you’re after my money; he always was a suspicious git.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Come on. No good ever came of eavesdropping.” She hugged him. “At least your grandfather believes we’re a couple. That’s phase one, right?”

  He held his hands in the air in a mock cheer and she felt her spirits deflate. She had hoped Pietro had exaggerated their dislike for him, but it appeared his belief was well-founded.

  As they came around the corner, she concentrated on the role she was there to play – that of doting, adoring lover. She stared up at Pete as they strolled hand in hand out into the sun-dappled courtyard.

  Aiming for casual and relaxed, she tossed her mussed hair over her shoulder, turning a mega-watt smile first on Tony, and then on the man standing beside him. As her glance transferred to Pete’s brother, she froze. The eyes staring back at her, with just as much shock as her own must have showed, were the very same eyes that had enchanted her the night before. Teo.

  These were the eyes that Tony also owned. That’s why they had seemed so familiar to her. She shivered as a frisson of recognition ran down her back. Her mouth gaped and she seemed powerless to close it. She had to pull herself together or Pete would get suspicious. She unleashed a string of curses in her brain. Of all the men in all the world, she had to have a one night stand with her dear friend’s brother. What were the odds? Unheard of.

  Many times, Meghan had heard that expression about wishing the ground would open up and swallow a person whole, and she’d never understood it. Her life, before the previous afternoon, had been master planned, and she’d never taken a misstep that left her wanting to run away and hide. Of course, with her luck, the first time she’d had a one night stand with a man it had turned out to be someone she had to spend the next three days in close quarters to, all the while pretending to be in love with his brother.

  It was excruciating. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she knew she was blushing fiercely.

  Uncertainty besieged her limbs. She wanted to turn and flee, but the dye was cast, and for Pete’s sake, she had to go through with this charade, regardless of what Teo would think of her. She straightened her spine and tried to control her expression, staring back at Teo with what she hoped was polite blankness.

  “Matteo, this is my girlfriend, the divine Meghan Walker. Megsy, my brother. Matteo.” Pete introduced, releasing Meghan’s hand so that he could embrace his brother stiffly.

  As Teo returned the formal greeting, his eyes didn’t leave Meghan’s face. And he was quite clearly furious. She banked her eyes downward, not wanting to see the cynical anger he was directing at her. Teo stepped back from his brother and neatly sidestepped him, so that he was almost in front of her. She swallowed nervously, and extended a hand in greeting.

  As with Tony, he pushed it aside and pulled her into a swift embrace. He kissed her on both cheeks, and his contact sent a painful throb of desire crashing through her limbs. She turned away. “Pleased to meet you,” she stumbled a little as she said the words and Pete threw her a curious glance.

  She had to get it together.

  If Pete knew she’d slept with his brother, he’d be devastated. They might not be a real couple, but he had huge insecurities where Matteo was concerned and the last thing he needed was to think that she too had fallen under his spell. Dependable, unromantic, platonic Meghan. That was her role. It always had been. Where Pete had been her loveable lothario friend, Meghan had always stressed how much that lifestyle didn’t interest her. And now, the first time she’d gone against type, she’d walked into some kind of bear trap.

  She flashed Pete what she hoped was a reas
suringly bright smile and moved to stand by his side, needing the comfort that their friendship offered. He put an arm around her waist and squeezed her side. Although Meghan felt like she could have cut the tension with a knife, she was surprised at how normally the others behaved. Of course, it was only her and Matteo that would have been fighting the undercurrent of anger and betrayal.

  She even surprised herself with how she was able to ignore the pounding tension headache and go along with their pretence. On autopilot, she laughed when Pete joked, answered questions calmly, but her heart was racing as if it might just leap out of his chest, and she could feel a fine film of perspiration on her back. Pete and Teo’s parents, Nina and Giovanni, arrived soon after, and having more people there helped ease the atmosphere somewhat. Cousin Marco added more diversion.

  How she got through it, she’d never know, but somehow, main course plates were cleared and coffee was served, and she was still alive and appearing to enjoy herself. Mainly, she had spent the entire time avoiding looking anywhere in Teo’s direction.

  “How did you two meet?” Teo drawled when conversation had lulled, and she threw a startled glance at him. Their eyes met and such hatred was visible to her that she had to look away again immediately.

  “At university,” Pete supplied casually.

  “When did you two meet?” Teo asked immediately, stirring his coffee with every appearance of casual inquiry.

  “Two years. And it was love at first sight.” Pietro gushed lovingly, his large eyes roving over Meghan appreciatively. “Who can blame me though? Have you ever seen a more beautiful woman?”

  Pete’s mother Nina was looking like the cat who’d got the cream. From what Meghan could tell, she genuinely wanted her younger son to be happy. That, at least, was something.

  Matteo sipped his coffee then replaced the cup quietly on the saucer. “Beauty is not everything, Pietro. There are other qualities that matter equally, if not more.”

  “Such as?” Pete challenged, his eyes locking with Meghan’s.

  “Loyalty. Honesty. Strength of Character.”

  Pete actually laughed, and she knew he was truthfully amused. “I’ve never met anyone with more integrity than Meghan. She is the most loyal, honest, faithful, thoughtful and kind person in the world.”

  Her cheeks glowed and again she had the strangest desire for the ground to open up and swallow her completely inside, removing her forever from this excruciating discussion of her merits. If there was one person on earth with every reason to think the worst of her, it was Matteo. Scepticism was write large on his face.

  “She almost sounds too good to be true,” Matteo observed dryly, and his eyes lanced through Meghan, before he turned his attention back to his grandfather.

  “Don’t worry,” Pete whispered, leaning his head close to hers. “He’s just jealous. It’s not the norm for a woman like you to be on my arm instead of his.”

  She flicked her glance to Matteo and the volume of disgust evident in his expression made her stomach roll. Guilt washed over her. Of all the men in all of the world that she could have fallen in lust with, it had to have been Pete’s older brother. She smiled weakly at Pete, and asked sotto voce, “Where is the bathroom?”

  He gave her directions. “Would you like me to come with you?”

  “No!” She snapped, a little too firmly. She softened it with an apologetic look. She needed to be alone. “I’ll only be a moment.”

  She slipped inside the cool, tiled hallway and collapsed against a wall, pressing her hands against her eyes. She moaned softly, feeling like the world’s biggest idiot. She had no way of knowing that the man whose bed she’d so willingly fallen into the night before was Matteo Maratelli’s. He’d called himself Teo, after all, and they hadn’t got around to establishing last names, she thought with self-recrimination. This is one of the reasons she’d always sworn sexual flings were a misadventure best avoided. She groaned again and pulled her hands from her face. When she reluctantly opened her eyes, Matteo was staring back at her, his face pale with emotion, his eyes flashing with anger.

  “At least you have the sense to look ashamed,” he bit out, grabbing her elbow and ushering her down the hallway, away from the courtyard. He pushed open a heavy oak door with his shoulder and escorted her inside, his fingers digging painfully into the flesh of her arm.

  “Let go of me,” she bit out, spinning around to stare up at him.

  “What the hell kind of game are you playing at?” He demanded fiercely, dropping his hand from her arm. “Did you know I was Pietro’s brother?”

  She gaped at him. “Do I seem like I knew? Believe me. I’m as blindsided as you are.”

  He ran a hand through his hair, and the gesture lifted his shirt at the waist, exposing an inch of his tanned belly. She swallowed and looked away, cursing herself for still being so overwhelmingly attracted to him. Her reaction didn’t escape him and he cursed under his breath.

  “When I woke this morning and couldn’t find you, I didn’t understand why you would have left without saying goodbye. You didn’t seem like that kind of woman. How very wrong I was. You’re that kind of woman, and so much worse.”

  She hung her head. Though she longed to tell him the truth, she couldn’t do it to Pietro. She had promised him that she would play the role of doting girlfriend this weekend, and she was going to see it through. Pete could never know about this. It would kill him. If he knew that Meghan had become just another woman who couldn’t wait to get in bed with his brother, he’d feel ever worse about himself.

  “Yesterday, what happened between us, was a mistake.” She intoned hollowly, wrapping her arms around her body and squeezing herself tight to stop from shaking.

  He exhaled raggedly. “You can say that again. I wish I’d never laid eyes on you.” He swore again in Italian, and looked away from her. The fact he apparently couldn’t even stand the sight of her made her blood run cold in her veins. “I can’t, in good conscience, allow you to stay here for this weekend, given what I know you’re capable of.”

  She drew her gaze to him. “I care about Pete deeply. Last night was a one off; I’ve never done anything like that before.” That, at least, was the truth.

  He dragged his eyes back to her, his expression sardonic. “I find that impossible to believe, Meghan. You were a little too good to be a novice.”

  “Fine, don’t believe it. But it’s the truth.” It hurt more than she thought possible but his viewpoint was completely understandable.

  “My brother is a womaniser, but he says he loves you. I’ve known women like you before. If his feelings are what he says they are, then you are going to break his heart.” His words were heavy and despite the fact that she felt like her own heart was under attack, she experienced a trill of relief that his concern for Pietro was genuine.

  “You care about him,” she mused thoughtfully, her fingers looping through the pearl necklace she wore.

  “Of course I do. He’s my brother.” He snapped, rubbing his temples wearily.

  “You should tell him that.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You are the last person in the world I would ask advice from, particularly when it comes to what to tell my brother.”

  She blanched and turned away from him, so that he wouldn’t see the tears that stung her eyes.

  “Last night was a mistake. I wish I could undo it, but I can’t.” She whispered.

  “That makes two of us.” He responded flatly. “I wish I’d never laid eyes on you. I wish you were anywhere but here. I’ve never loathed someone so much as I loathe you.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Matteo came to stand directly in front of Meghan, careful not to touch her. Despite that, just the proximity of his body made her own start to strum in response. She felt her nerve fibres resonate with the power of their attraction. Memories of last night again assailed her mind and she blinked fiercely in an effort to clear them.

  “I’m watching you, Meghan Walker. I’m watching you.”
He repeated, and stormed out of the room. Feeling thoroughly chastised, she sat down weakly and dropped her head into her hands.

  When she was ready to go outside again, the group had broken up. Only Pietro, Matteo and their cousin Marco remained. Marco seemed to sit squarely in the middle of the brothers in both age and personality. He was nowhere nearly as businesslike as Matteo, but nor did he seem to be such a party-boy as Pete.

  They were lounging around the table when she reappeared, a bottle of wine open and shared between them. Meghan wandered over slowly, pretending a relaxed ease she was far from feeling. “Sorry,” she said, explaining her extended absence. “I got an email I had to deal with. Work.”

  Marco, good looking in the same way Pietro was, smiled at her. “What do you do for work, bella?” Apparently practiced flirtation was also his stock in trade.

  “Meghan is a doctor,” Pete cut in proudly, bringing one of her slim hands to his lips and kissing it affectionately. “The best.”

  She quirked a smile at him. “I’m a paediatrician.”

  Marco stared at her questioningly.

  “Pediatra,” Pete supplied in Italian.

  “Noble work,” Matteo drawled, and she noted how he had the ability to make anything, even a compliment, sound like a scathing insult.

  He lifted the wine bottle and went to tip some into her glass. “No, thank you. I rarely drink.”

  “You’re a model of virtue.” He whispered scathingly, so that only she could hear it. He tipped the remainder of the bottle into Pietro and Marco’s glasses.

  Meghan didn’t know how she was going to get through this weekend, but for the sake of her friendship with Pete, she had to find a way.

  After a further excruciating ten minutes, she excused herself from the table. Pete stood to follow her, with an exaggerated wink at his cousin and brother, once again creating the impression that there was only one thing on his mind. She put an arm through his, but once they were inside, she dropped it.