CHAPTER TWO

      VINN DIDN’T KNOW what was worse—seeing Ailsa again without a little more notice or walking into the hospital to see his grandfather, possibly for the last time. But, in a way, he’d been expecting to lose his grandfather...eventually. But two years ago when Ailsa called time on their marriage it had not only blindsided him but hit him in the chest like a freight train. Sure, they argued a bit now and again. What newly married couple didn’t?

      But he’d never thought she’d leave him.

      They hadn’t even made it to the first anniversary. For some reason that annoyed him more than anything else. He had given her everything money could buy. He had showered her with gifts and jewellery. Surrounded her with luxury and comfort, as was fitting for the wife of a successful man. He might not have loved her the way most wives expected to be loved, but she hadn’t married him for love either. Lust was what brought them together and he’d been perfectly fine with that and so had she, or so he’d thought. She had never said the words and he hadn’t fished for them. He’d just assumed she would be happy with the arrangement because most women wanted security over everything else and the one thing he was good at was providing financial security. Financial security was what you could bank on—pardon the pun—because emotions were fickle. People were fickle.

      But Ailsa had been unwilling to even discuss the subject of having a child. He knew her career was important to her, as was his to him, but surely she could have been mature enough to sit down and discuss it like an adult? He’d told her he wasn’t all that interested in having a family when they’d first got together because back then he wasn’t. But after a few months of marriage, his grandfather had his first health scare with his liver and had spoken to Vinn privately about his desire for a grandchild to hold in his arms before he died. He had made it sound like Vinn would be letting down the family name by not providing an heir. That it would be a failure on Vinn’s part not to secure the family business for future generations.

      Letting the family down.

      Failure.

      With his father already the Gagliardi family’s big failure, those words haunted Vinn. They stalked him in quiet moments. It reminded him of how close to losing everything he had been when his father had jeopardised everything with his fraudulent behaviour. Vinn couldn’t allow himself to fail at anything. Being an only child had never really bothered him before then, but with his father acting like a born-again teenager at that time and his grandfather rapidly ageing, it had made Vinn think more and more about the future. Who would he leave his vast wealth to? What was the point of working so hard if you had no one to pass on your legacy to when you left this mortal coil?

      But no, practically as soon as he’d brought up the topic, Ailsa had stormed out of his life like a petulant child, refusing to communicate with him except through their respective lawyers. She had dropped another failure on him—their marriage. He would give her the divorce when it suited him and not a moment before. He had far more pressing priorities and top of that list was getting his grandfather through this surgery.

      Vinn was banking on Ailsa’s love for her younger brother Isaac to get her to agree to his plan for the next three months. But her turning up unannounced at his office was a reminder of how careful he had to be around her.

      Careful. Guarded. Controlled.

      He’d assumed she would call and make an appointment, but the one thing he knew he should never do with Ailsa was assume anything. She had an unnerving ability to catch him off guard. Like when she’d point blank refused to sign his agreement even though he’d dangled ten million pounds in front of her. He hadn’t expected her to ask for time to think about it. He’d expected her to sign it then and there. But with the pressure of getting to the hospital in time to see his grandfather before the surgery, Vinn had allowed her to get away without signing. He had never allowed anyone to do that to him before. Push him around. Manipulate him. He had always put measures in place to avoid being exploited or fooled or thwarted.

      All through his life he had aced everything he had ever set out to do, but his marriage to Ailsa was a failure. A big fat failure. How he hated that word—failure. Hated. Hated. Hated it. It made him feel out of control, incompetent.

      But it wasn’t just him who had been affected by Ailsa walking out on him. The breakup of their marriage had shattered his grandfather and it was no surprise the old man’s health had gone into a steep decline shortly after Ailsa had left. The death of Vinn’s father so soon after her leaving certainly hadn’t helped. But in some ways his grandfather had coped better with Vinn’s father’s death than the breakup of Vinn’s marriage. His marriage to Ailsa had been the hope his grandfather had clung to for the future—a future ripe with promise of a new generation, new beginnings and new success. But that hope had been snatched away when Ailsa left.

      But just lately, as the two-year mark of the separation crept closer, he’d noticed his grandfather becoming more and more stressed and his health suffering as a result. His grandfather had always been a devoted family man and had stayed faithful and true to Vinn’s grandmother, Maria, until her death five years ago. If Vinn could do this one thing—make his grandfather believe he and Ailsa were back together—then at least the old man’s recovery wouldn’t be compromised by the stress and worry about their imminent divorce.

      Besides, this time around, Vinn would be the one in control of their relationship and he would stay in control. He wouldn’t allow Ailsa to throw him over again. He had put a time limit on their ‘reunion’ and he’d mentioned the no-sex rule just to be on the safe side. When he’d seen her walk into his office unannounced, his loins had pulsed with a drumbeat of primal lust so powerful it nearly knocked him off his feet. And if he hadn’t been talking to one of his senior staff on the phone about a tricky problem in one of his workshops, he might well have taken Ailsa into his arms then and there and challenged her to deny the spark that arced between them. The spark that had always arced between them from the first time they’d met at a furniture exhibition in Paris. He was attracted to her natural beauty—her long silky curtain of ash-blonde hair and creamy complexion and coltish model-like figure, and the way her bewitching grey-blue eyes seemed to change with her mood.

      The other thing he’d liked about her back then was she hadn’t been easy to pick up. With his sort of wealth and profile it had been a new experience meeting a woman who didn’t dive head first into bed with him. She had taken playing hard to get to a whole new level. The thrill of the chase had been the biggest turn-on of his adult life. He had seen it as a challenge to get her to finally capitulate and, if he were honest, he would have to admit it was one of the reasons he’d married her instead of offering her an affair like anyone else. Maybe even the major reason. Because nothing shouted I won more than getting that wedding ring on her finger.

      But that iron-strong determination of hers that had so attracted him in the first place was the same thing that had ultimately destroyed their marriage. She refused to back down over a position she adopted. It was her way or the highway and to hell with you if you didn’t agree.

      But Vinn was equally determined, and this next three months would prove it.

      * * *

      Ailsa followed Vinn into the private room where Domenico was being monitored prior to the transplant. Strict sterilisation procedures were being conducted and, according to the nurse, they would be a hundred times more stringent once the surgery was over.

      The old man was lying in a bed with medical apparatus tethering him seemingly from every limb. He opened his eyes when Vinn approached the bed and gave a weak smile. ‘You made it in time.’

      Vinn gently took his grandfather’s hand in his and Ailsa was touched to see the warmth and tenderness in Vinn’s gaze. Had he ever looked at her like that? As if she mattered more than anything at that moment? She felt guilty for thinking such thoughts at such a time with his grandfather so desperately ill, but how could she not wish Vinn had felt something more than just earthy lust for her?

      ‘I