Read Online Too Cold To Love by Doris O'Connor - Free Book Online

instead
of the urge to throttle his ex-wife.
    ****
    Elise looked at herself in the bathroom mirror
of the hotel suite. Even to her own eyes she looked like a rabbit caught up in
the headlights of an oncoming car. And that is exactly how she felt right now.
The adrenaline that had carried her through the emotionally charged scenes at
the registry office and the dinner that followed had faded to be replaced by a
dull terror at what was waiting for her.
    She looked down on the wide platinum wedding
band Marco had slipped on her finger mere hours ago, and her heart skipped a
beat remembering the fierce expression in his eyes when he had done so. The
tension had been rolling off him in waves, a barely controlled fury shimmering
underneath his immaculately tailored suit, ever since that blasted ex-wife had
turned up unannounced. The woman had a nerve; she really did.
    Before Elise had barely had a chance to regain
her equilibrium after the kiss Marco had given her once they were married – a
kiss that had rocked her to the very bottom of her soul with the intensity and
whispered promise of things to come later – Jennifer had descended upon them
once again.
    Mimi tensed up in Elise's arms, and Alex had
moved between Jennifer and them, talking to her in Italian.
    "No need to be like that, Alex dear. I was
just extending my well wishes to the happy couple. You wouldn't begrudge me
that now, would you?"
    The low rumble coming from the man she had just
married propelled Elise into action. She all but threw Mimi at her father,
side-stepped Alex, and squared up to the bleached blonde.
    "How kind of you I'm sure, but you're not
invited. I would suggest you leave."
    "Oohhh, quite the little firecracker aren't
we. This is none of your business, you little fool." Jennifer sneered at
her."Think you're the one to tame Marco are you? Trust me you'll have
bitten off more than you can chew."
    She'd thrown Marco a disdainful look, one he
thankfully hadn't noticed as he murmured to Mimi in Italian using his body to
block her from seeing her mother.
    "I know what you two are playing at, but
Mimi is still my daughter."
    "And you choose today of all days to
remember that, do you? Don't make me laugh. I do not pretend to know what went
on before I showed up. I'm sure I don't want to know, but there must be a
reason why Mimi is frightened of her own mother. So help me you will not get a
chance to hurt that little girl again, not whilst I'm around, so beat it,
woman. Now !"
      "Who
do you think you are to tell me what you can do, you..."
    Elise had drawn herself up to her full height,
and her voice had dripped with all the contempt she felt for that excuse of a
mother. "As of five minutes ago Mrs. Giovanni and Mimi's stepmother, and
don't you forget it!"
    She had stared the woman down, aware of the
Giovanni closing rank around and behind her. When Marco's strong arms had
circled round her waist she had almost felt as though she did belong to that
huge Italian family.
    His voice had been a very low growl in her ear.
    "You heard my wife, Jennifer. Get out of
our lives. You're not wanted here, ever."
    "This is not the end of it, you just wait,
Giovanni." The woman had paled under her heavy makeupand clip-clopped out
of the room, her companion apologising for the interruption as he followed her.
    Mamma G had smiled approvingly at Elise. Marco
had spent the rest of the wedding festivities that followed watching her with
an unsettling intensity that saw her fleeing to the bathroom of the opulent
suite the minute they had finally been left alone in the honeymoon suite of the
exclusive country hotel.
    ****
    Marco paced the living area of the suite like a
panther on the prowl. His new wife had taken off like a skittish foal the
minute the doors shut behind them. The bathroom door banged shut behind her,
the click of the lock the equivalent to a slap in the face.
    That had been half an hour ago. What could
possibly be taking her so long? If she thought she could