Lucy Gordon - The Tuscan Tycoon’s Wife

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The third book in the Counts of Calvani series, 2003

Dear Reader,

I’ve saved my favourite Calvani until last. The Tuscan Tycoon’s Wife is the story of Leo, Guido’s half brother and Marco’s cousin. He is like nobody else in the family, a countryman who would hate to live anywhere but close to the earth, far away from the fashionable cities, in the beautiful Tuscan hills.

Where the others are sophisticated, he is uncomplicated; a gentle giant with a huge warm heart that loves but does not judge. Many women would like him as a brother. But Selena isn’t “many women.” She’s the one woman Leo can’t forget, a hard-living rodeo rider who can challenge him on any level. Tough on the surface, lonely inside, she touches his heart because he can see how much she needs him-even if she can’t see it herself.

She thinks he’s as poor as she is-and that’s fine by her. It’s when she finds that he’s not only rich but aristocratic that the trouble starts… The only person who understands her feelings is Liza, Count Calvani’s longtime love and eventual countess. It’s Liza’s intervention that reconciles the lovers, and brings the whole family together for the happy ending that unites them all.

Enjoy!

‘SELENA, you need either a miracle or a millionaire.’

Ben eased himself out from under the battered vehicle, monkey wrench in hand. He was lean, elderly, and had spent thirty years as a garage mechanic. Now those thirty years were telling him that Selena Gates wanted him to revive a corpse.

‘This thing’s had it,’ he said gloomily surveying the van, which was actually a Mini Motor Home, with the accent on Mini.

‘But you can make it go again?’ Selena begged. ‘I know you can, Ben. You’re such a genius.’

‘You stop that,’ he said with an unconvincing attempt at severity. ‘It doesn’t work on me.’

‘Always has so far,’ she said, with perfect truth. ‘You can make it go, can’t you, Ben?’

‘For a bit.’

‘As far as Stephenville?’

‘Three hundred miles? You don’t want much! All right, it’ll probably just about make it. But what then?’

‘Then I’ll win some money in the rodeo.’

‘Riding that washed up brute?’

‘Elliot is not washed up,’ she flared. ‘He’s in his prime.’

Ben grunted. ‘Been in his prime a few years, if you ask me.’

Any mention of her beloved Elliot touched a nerve, and Selena was about to defend him fiercely when she remembered that Ben, good friend that he was, was fixing her van on the cheap, and calmed down.

‘Elliot and I will win something,’ she said stubbornly.

‘Enough for a new van?’

‘Enough to get this one fixed as good as new.’

‘Selena, there ain’t enough money in the world to get this ramshackle old bus fixed as good as new. It was falling to bits when you bought it, and that was way back. You’d do better sweet-talking a millionaire into buying you a new van.’

‘No point in me chasing a millionaire,’ Selena sighed. ‘Haven’t got the figure for it.’

‘Sez who?’ Ben demanded loyally.

‘Sez me!’

He regarded her tall, ultra-slim figure. ‘Maybe you’re a little flat-chested,’ he admitted.

‘Ben, under these old jeans I’m flat everything.’ She grinned with rueful self-mockery. ‘It’s no use. Millionaires like their women-’ with both hands she traced the outline of a voluptuous figure. ‘And that’s something I never was. Haven’t got the hair for it either. You need long, wavy tresses not-’ she pointed to her boyish crop.

It was a startling red that blazed out like a beacon, telling the world, ‘I’m here!’ There was no way to overlook Selena. Smart, cheeky, independent, and optimistic to the point of craziness, she was her own woman. Anyone who challenged that soon learned the other lesson of that red hair. Beware!

‘Besides,’ Selena said, coming to her clincher argument, ‘I don’t like millionaires. They’re not real people.’

Ben scratched his head. ‘They aren’t?’

‘No way,’ Selena said, like someone articulating an article of faith. ‘They have too much money.’

‘Too much money is what you could do with right now. Or a miracle.’

‘A miracle would be easier,’ she said. ‘And I’ll find one. No-it’ll find me.’

‘Darn it, Selena, will you try to be a bit realistic?’

‘What for? What good did being realistic ever do me? Life’s more fun if you expect the best.’

‘And when the best don’t happen?’

‘Then think of another best and expect that. Ben, I promise you, somewhere, somehow, a genuine twenty-four-carat miracle is heading my way.’

Leo Calvani stretched his legs as far as he could, which wasn’t far. The flight from Rome to Atlanta took twelve hours, and he travelled first class because if you were six foot three, and forty-two inches of that was leg, you needed all the help you could get.

Normally he didn’t consider himself a ‘first class’ kind of man. Wealthy, yes. Afford the best, no problem. But frills and fuss made him nervous. So did cities, and fine clothes. That’s why he travelled in his oldest jeans and denim jacket, complete with scuffed shoes. It was his way of saying that ‘first class’ wasn’t going to get him.

An elegant stewardess hovered over him as solicitously as if he didn’t look like a hobo. ‘Champagne, sir?’

He took a moment to relish her large blue eyes and seductively curved figure. It was an instinctive reaction, a tribute paid to every woman under fifty, and since he was a warm-hearted man he usually found something to enjoy.

‘Sir?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Would you like some champagne?’

‘Whisky would be better.’

‘Of course, sir. We have-’ she rattled off a list of expensive brands until Leo’s eyes glazed.

‘Just whisky,’ he said, with a touch of desperation.

As he sipped the drink he yawned and wished the journey away. Eleven hours gone and the last was the worst because he’d run out of distractions. He’d watched the film, enjoyed two excellent meals and flirted with the lady sitting beside him.

She’d responded cheerfully, attracted by his handsome, blunt-featured face framed by dark-brown hair with a touch of curl, and the lusty gleam in his blue eyes. They’d enjoyed a pleasant hour or two until she fell asleep. After that he flirted with the air hostesses.

But for the moment he was alone, with only his thoughts of the coming visit to occupy him. A couple of weeks on the Four-Ten, Barton Hanworth’s ranch near Stephenville, Texas, enjoying wide-open spaces, the outdoor life, riding, attending the nearby rodeo, was his idea of heaven.

At last the great jet was descending to Atlanta. Soon he’d be able to stretch his legs, even if only for a couple of hours before squeezing his protesting frame onto the connecting flight to Dallas.

Ben pared the bill to the bone because he was fond of Selena, and he knew her next few dollars would go on Elliot’s welfare. Any cents left over would buy food for herself, and if there were none, she’d go without. He helped her hitch the horse trailer onto the back of the van, kissed her cheek for luck and watched as she eased her way carefully out of his yard. As she vanished he sent up a prayer to whichever deity watched over crazy young women who had nothing in the world but a horse, a clapped-out van, the heart of a lion and a bellyful of stubbornness.

By the time Leo boarded the connecting flight at Atlanta jet lag was catching up with him and he managed to doze until they touched down. As he unfolded his long body he vowed never to get on another aeroplane as long as he lived. He did that after every flight.

As he came out of Customs he heard a booming voice.

‘Leo, you young rascal!’

Leo’s face lit up at the sight of his friend advancing on him with open arms.

‘Barton, you old rascal!’

The next moment the two men were pummelling each other joyfully.

Barton Hanworth was in his fifties, a large amiable man with grizzled hair and the start of a paunch that his height still disguised. His voice and his laugh were enormous. So were his car, his ranch and his heart.

Leo made sure to study the car. In the six weeks since this trip was planned he’d spoken to Barton several times on the telephone, and never once had his friend missed the chance to talk about his ‘new baby’. It was the latest, the loveliest, the fastest. He didn’t mention price, but Leo had checked it online, and it was the costliest.

So now he knew his duty, and lavished praise on the big, silver beauty, and was rewarded by Barton’s beaming smile.

Since Leo travelled light it took barely a moment to load his few bags, and they were away on the two-hour journey to the ranch near Stephenville.

‘How come you flew from Rome?’ Barton said, his eyes on the road. ‘I thought Pisa was closer for you.’

‘I was in Rome for my cousin Marco’s engagement party,’ Leo said. ‘Do you know him? I forget.’

Barton grunted. ‘He was at your farm when I came to Italy two years back, and bought those horses of yours. What’s she like?’

‘Harriet?’ A big grin broke over Leo’s handsome face. ‘I tell you, Barton, if she weren’t my cousin’s fiancée-well, she is, more’s the pity.’

‘So Marco drew the prize and he’s hog-tied at last?’

‘Yes, I think he is,’ Leo said thoughtfully. ‘But I’m not sure if he knows it yet. If you believe him, he’s making a “suitable” marriage to the granddaughter of his mother’s old friend, but there was something very odd about that party. I don’t know what happened exactly, but afterward Marco spent the night outside, sleeping on the ground. I went out for a breather at dawn, and saw him. He didn’t see me, so I vanished.’

‘No explanations?’

‘He never said a word. You know, Marco’s last engagement got broken off in a way nobody ever talks about.’

‘And you think this one’ll be the same?’

‘Could be. It depends on how soon he realises he’s crazy about Harriet.’

‘What about your brother? Isn’t he going the same way?’

‘Oh, Guido’s got enough sense to know when he’s crazy. He’s all right. Dulcie’s perfect for him.’

‘So that just leaves you on the loose?’ Barton said with a fat chuckle.

‘On the loose and happy to stay that way. They won’t catch me.’

‘That’s what they all say, but look around. Good men are going down like ninepins.’

‘Barton, have you any idea how many women there are in the world?’ Leo demanded. ‘And how few of them I’ve managed to meet so far? A man should be broad-minded, expand his horizons.’

‘You’ll find “the one”, in the end,’ Barton said.

‘But I do, time and again. Then the next day I find another one who is also “the one”. That’s how I get short-changed.’

‘You? Short-changed?’ Barton guffawed.

‘True, I swear it. Look at me, all alone. No loving wife, no kids.’ He sighed sorrowfully. ‘You don’t know what a tragedy it is for a man to realise that nature has made him fickle.’

‘Yeah, sure!’

This time they both laughed. Leo had a delightful laugh, full of sun and wine, lusty with life. He was a man of the earth, who instinctively sought the open air and the pleasures of the senses. It was all there in his eyes, and in his big, relaxed body. But above all it was there in his laugh.

On the last lap to Stephenville Barton began to yawn.

‘It’s enough to make a man cross-eyed to be staring at a horse’s ass for so long,’ he said.

Just ahead of them was an ancient, shabby horse trailer, displaying a large equine rump. It had been there for some time.

‘Plus I had to get up at some ungodly hour to be at the airport on time,’ Barton added.

‘Hey, I’m sorry. You should have told me.’

‘Well, it wasn’t just that. We were up late last night, celebrating your visit.’

‘But I wasn’t there.’

‘Don’t fret. We’ll celebrate again tonight,’ Barton said, adding, by way of explanation, ‘this is Texas.’

‘So I see,’ Leo said, grinning. ‘I’m already beginning to wonder if I can take the pace. I’d offer to drive, but after that flight I’m in a worse state than you.’

‘Well, it’s not much further,’ Barton grunted. ‘Which is lucky because whoever’s driving that horse trailer can’t be doing more than fifty. Let’s step on it.’

‘Better not,’ Leo advised quickly. ‘If you’re tired-’

‘The sooner we’re there the better. Here we go.’

He pulled out behind the horse trailer and speeded up to pass it. Glancing out of his window Leo saw the trailer slide back past them, then the van in front. He had a glimpse of the driver, a young woman with short, bristly red hair. She glanced up briefly and saw him looking at her.