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CHAPTER ONE
TOMORROW WAS HER wedding day Sierra Rocci gazed at the fluffy whitefrom her wardrobe door and tried to suppress the rush of nerves that seethed in her stoht thing She had to be She had no other choice
Pressing one hand to her jumpy ardens of her father’s villa on the Via Marinai Alliata in Palerht was still and hot, without even a breath of wind to arden rattle The stillness felt expectant, even eerie, and she tried to shake off her nervousness; she’d chosen this
Earlier that night she’d dined with her parents and Marco Ferranti, theto aze had rested on her like a caress, a promise She could trust this man, she’d told herself She had to In less than twenty-four hours she would promise to love, honour and obey him Her life would be in his hands
She knew the hard price of obedience She prayed Marco truly was a gentle man He’d been kind to her so far, in the threeor pushing, except perhaps for that one tiardens and he’d kissed her in the shadow of a plane tree, hison hers
Another leap in her belly, and this was a whole different kind of fear She was nineteen years old, and she’d only been kissed by her fiancé a handful of times She was utterly inexperienced when it came to what happened in the bedrooly delicious onslaught under the plane tree, that he would be patient and gentle when it caht
She believed him She’d chosen to believe hi her future, her freedoardens as nerves leapt and writhed inside her and doubt crept into the dark corners of her heart, sly and insidious as that old serpent Did she really know Marco Ferranti? When she’d first glimpsed him in the courtyard of her father’s palazzo, she’d watched as one of the kitchen cats had wound its scrawny body around Marco’s legs He’d bent down and stroked the cat’s ears and the aniainst him Her father would have kicked the cat away, insist its kittens be drowned Seeing Marco exhibit a ht no one was looking had lit the spark of hope inside Sierra’s heart
She knew her father approved of the e between her and Marco; she was not so naïve not to realise that it was his strong hand that had pushed Marco towards her But she’d encouraged Marco; she’d made a choice As much as was possible, she’d controlled her own destiny
On that first evening he’d introduced himself, and then later he had asked her out to dinner He’d wooed her gently, always courteous, even tender She wasn’t in love with hierous emotion, but she wanted a way out of her father’s house and e to Marco Ferranti would provide itif she could truly trust him She would find out tomorrohen the voere said, when the bedroom door closed
Heaven help her Sierra bit her knuckles as a fresh wave of fear broke coldly over her Could she really do this? How could she not? To back out noould be to incur her father’s endless wrath She wasin order to be free, and yet she was not free to cry off Perhaps she would never be truly free But what other choice was there for a girl like her, nineteen years old and completely cut off from society, from life? Sheltered and trapped
From below she heard the low ruh she couldn’t make out the words, just the sound of his voice had her tensing, alar the nape of her neck And then she heard Marco answer, his voice as low as her father’s and yet somehoarm She’d liked his voice the first time she’d heard it, when he’d been introduced to her She’d liked his s of one corner of his mouth, the sloay it lit up his face She’d trusted hih he worked for her father Even though he was a reat power and charm, just as her father was She’d convinced herself he was different But what if she’d been wrong?
Before she could lose her nerve Sierra slipped out of her bedroom and hurried halfway down the front stairs, the white , out of view of the men in the foyer below, and strained to listen