Stolen Bride

He looked at what he was carrying and smiled. ‘Not quite.’

There was a pause, then Cara glanced curiously at him. ‘Would you have shot him?’

There was an expression on his face she couldn’t read at all. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

He hefted the gun in his hand and gazed at her rather apologetically. ‘I don’t think this would hurt anyone,’ he said at last. ‘Although I suppose it could make their teeth fall out.’

She wondered if she was hearing correctly. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked tentatively. ‘Shock can do funny things to people.’

‘You think I’m crazy, don’t you?’ replied Finn, and then her heart stopped as he put the gun in his mouth.

‘Mother of God!’ she shouted. ‘What the hell are you playing at now?’ With an enormous effort of will she kept driving. ‘Look,’ she said as calmly as she could. ‘Don’t do this. Please. I beg you. I—I’m sorry I said all those things to you back at the service station. Your nerves obviously can’t take all the strain. Maybe we should get a doctor or something.’

He removed the gun from his mouth and grinned broadly at her. ‘You’re really sorry?’

She nodded hastily. ‘Absolutely.’

To her utter amazement his smile widened. ‘Such a shame the gun is only made of chocolate, isn’t it?’ he remarked. And then putting the fake gun once more in his mouth he bit off a piece and relaxed in his seat. ‘Want a bite?’

Her hands felt wet on the wheel. She rubbed them briskly on her shorts and took several deep breaths. ‘No, thank you,’ she said shortly.

‘I always think it’s a shame you can’t get chocolate bullets, as well,’ he mused, breaking off the trigger and offering it to her.

‘What about a chocolate cruise missile, full size, that I could drop on your head?’ she retorted, taking the piece without even noticing what she was doing.

‘Do you always drive like this?’ he inquired.

She glared at him, but before she could say anything be asked interestedly, ‘Did you have lessons? Or are you learning as you go along?’

She clenched her jaw. ‘One of my uncle’s bodyguards taught me.’

‘That makes me feel much better,’ he said drily. ‘I’ve already aged twenty years this afternoon. By the time you’re finished I’ll need a wheelchair and an oxygen mask.’

Cara’s fingers tightened on the wheel. ‘Yes, well, you’re not the only one,’ she said icily. ‘If Luca had known about that gun...’ Her voice trailed away, her mind almost refusing to accept what had just happened. ‘How could you do that?’ she whispered.

He shrugged. ‘We didn’t really have much choice, did we?’ he remarked. ‘It was either bluff him or give up.’

‘But the gun.’ Cara thought of what he had done.

Finn stared expressionlessly out the window. ‘You said you were hungry,’ he remarked. ‘And when I went to get you something, they only had sweets left. It was either the gun or a sherbet lollipop.’ He shrugged. ‘I bought both, actually, but somehow, when it came to the crunch, I didn’t think Luca would feel very threatened by a lollipop.’

Cara shook her head. ‘If only he knew,’ she said softly.

‘He’s hardly likely to, though, is he?’ said Finn, stretching out in his seat. ‘You’ve eaten practically all the evidence.’

‘I was hungry!’ she retorted earnestly, and then realising that he was winding her up once more, thumped the steering wheel. ‘Do you want to drive?’ she demanded.

‘No,’ he said innocently. ‘No. I like being driven at a hundred and twenty miles an hour on an Italian motorway by a beautiful woman eating a chocolate gun.’

She shot a furious glance at him. ‘Surely you mean a beautiful but gormless woman,’ she snapped.

He lifted his hands in mock appeal. ‘I didn’t know you then,’ he said.

She pressed her foot down harder. ‘Well, you’re not going to get the chance to know me any better now.’

‘Is that because you’re going to drive us into the middle of next week?’ His hand rested lightly on her arm, and she jumped at the contact. ‘Slow down, Cara. We don’t need to go this fast.’

She eased back jerkily on the accelerator. He nodded. ‘That’s better,’ he said.