by Lynne Graham
‘You’re pregnant.’
‘I know. Go slow.’ Cordelia’s smile felt forced. Of course she was. It was a simple statement of fact but it felt like cold water being dashed over her. That shift in atmosphere—the sudden need to attend to work… Had Luca sensed something in her? Something tender and vulnerable? Something that wasn’t part of the package deal? Had she transmitted feelings to him by osmosis and had he reacted by pulling back the way he had?
It made sense.
‘I’m strong. I’ll manage and, don’t worry, I won’t take any risks. I may just have a nice stroll and explore what’s around.’ The smile broadened and felt more forced. ‘What time shall I aim to be back here?’
‘I would rather you had a personal escort.’
‘And I would rather do my exploring on my own without someone trailing behind me to make sure I don’t trip over any paving stones.’
‘Why are you suddenly being difficult?’
Tension spiked and, for a second, Cordelia was sorely tempted to come right out and tell him what was on her mind. Was he worried that she might be getting too emotionally involved with him when he’d specifically told her that love wasn’t on the menu? Was he afraid that she might start making demands he wouldn’t be able to meet?
Fear at where such a conversation might lead gripped her and she backed away from it fast.
‘Nothing. I guess I’m just a little disappointed that I’ll be spending a whole day without you.’
Luca visibly relaxed. He strolled towards her and smoothed his hand over her arm. She had skin as soft as satin.
‘Me too.’ He was tempted to dump the work but that wouldn’t do. Behaving out of character when he was around her was becoming a career choice and he didn’t like it, even though he could rationalise it well enough. She was having his baby so of course he was going to treat her differently! ‘I’ll meet you mid afternoon. I should have had everything wrapped up by then. Keep your mobile handy and I’ll call you. We can have tea.’
Cordelia thought that this was how awkward moments were navigated. Was this a prelude of things to come? Small, emotional inroads always taken under cover? Her love hidden away for fear that if he sensed it, he would back off? There was no point dwelling on it, she decided. She would go and have an enjoyable day. When she smiled this time, it was genuine.
‘Sure. No rush. If I don’t hear from you, I have the address and I can make my way back. Everything feels pretty close so I’m sure I’ll be able to walk where I want to go. See you later!’
She headed for the door and knew that he was following her through the villa to the imposing front door overlooking the lake. She didn’t want to do anything silly and tempting like spin round and fling her arms around him because she hated the way things had suddenly and inexplicably gone frosty, but instead she slipped on her boat shoes, glanced over her shoulder without making eye contact and gave a little wave.
She had her map.
She’d spent a lifetime longing to leave the Cornish coastline, to see the world. She was seeing it now and she couldn’t afford to live off her nerves, letting her imagination get the better of her and letting all the considerable wonders at her fingertips pass her by.
She would have to obey the rules of the game and if that meant keeping her love hidden away like a shameful secret, then she would do that.
Luca wanted to go to one of the windows to follow her progress to the shore.
Perhaps he had allowed that temporary blip in his good humour to show through, but wasn’t the occasional mood allowed? She’d also laughed off his concerns about her safety but, hey, wasn’t a little paranoia allowed on his part? She was carrying his child and accidents happened!
Luca was not accustomed to worrying about a woman. He wasn’t accustomed to imaginary scenarios about unlikely things that might or might not happen on a simple walk by a lake.
He repeated the mantra about this not being a normal situation because she was the mother of his baby. It worked for a while but when he discovered that he had been staring at the same page of the report he had been reading on his email for fifteen minutes, he was forced to concede that the mantra, while it made sense, wasn’t having the desired effect.
Like it or not, his head was crammed with a variety of possible dangers she might encounter because she felt she needed some exercise and fresh air.
He couldn’t squash his fears even though there was nowhere on earth safer than the shores of this stunning lake. For a start, there were endless tourists around. It wasn’t one of the smaller, quieter lakes. If she slipped or fell or fainted or urgently needed to lie down, there would be people around to help and she’d call him, but none of those things would happen anyway because all she would do was stroll and maybe stop and have something to drink at one of the cafés. You couldn’t walk five metres without colliding into a packed café.
Not that she was going to slip. Or fall. Or faint. Or urgently need to lie down.
But what if she did?
He would never forgive himself. Protecting her was his duty. The place for him right now wasn’t in front of his computer trying to focus. It was by her side…making sure she didn’t slip.
Mind made up, he left his villa at speed. He hadn’t been to the villa for a hundred years, or so it seemed, but he knew this lake like the back of his hand. Just one of the many exotic destinations he had frequented in his early days. It was muggy outside. Grey skies and the lake wearing an angry look, as though thinking about getting choppy.
Luca ignored the crowds. How far had she walked? He was approaching at pace by the time he spotted her, laughing on one of the rental boats, of which there were many. This one was a small, sleek, mahogany little number, your basic speedboat made for two.
And she was with a guy, which made him pull up short.
Blond hair in a ponytail, tanned, wearing a shirt that was stupidly unbuttoned all the way down and surfer shorts.
Something wild and primitive ripped through Luca and he had to take a few seconds to gather himself.
They were laughing.
He thought back to that tight smile she had given him before stalking out of the villa earlier and he saw red. Fists bunched, he breathed in deep and by the time he made it to the boat, he was in control.
‘Having fun?’
In the midst of trying to make herself understood, in Italian, to the very pleasant guy from whom she was trying to rent the boat, Cordelia took a few seconds to register that Luca had shown up, far earlier than she had expected.
She turned around and, smile fading as she took in his glowering expression, she tentatively said, ‘You’re early. I didn’t think you’d be here for a couple of hours.’
She was standing on the deck of the small outboard motorboat, and she leapt off with the surety of a gazelle.
She knew boats as well as she knew the changing moods of the ocean.
Shading her eyes with one hand, she turned around and offered a very poor goodbye in Italian to Elias, the young guy who was now not going to get the rental he wanted.
‘What are you doing?’ Luca enquired coolly, having restrained himself from being just too aggressive for no reason towards a perfect stranger.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I thought you were going to have a stroll and maybe grab some lunch somewhere. Instead, you’ve decided that that’s all too tame and you’d rather risk life and limb on a speedboat…’
Cordelia’s mouth dropped open. ‘Luca, there’s no need for you to be overprotective! Are you forgetting that I rescued you from the sea? I’ve been handling boats faster and bigger than this since I was ten.’
‘You’re pregnant. You shouldn’t be thinking of doing anything as reckless as sailing. Of course, if I’m with you, then that’s a different story.’
They were heading towards the centre of the village, a
charming honeycomb of small winding streets jam-packed with attractive, expensive shops, cafés and restaurants. Tables set out on the pavements were filled with tourists playing people-watching.
Luca veered off the main thoroughfare down one of the smaller avenues and eventually they managed to find themselves a quiet corner in one of the restaurants.
‘And who was that boy you were laughing with?’ he asked with a scowl.
‘Elias?’
Luca nodded and shrugged and looked away for a few seconds before scrutinising the menu and ordering nothing more than a double espresso from the waiter who had sidled up to the table.
‘He was the guy in charge of the boat rentals.’ Cordelia broke off to order a selection of little cakes, irresistible, before returning her gaze to his face with a frown. ‘Why?’
‘No reason. Should I have one?’
‘I have no idea what you’re getting at.’ The coffee and the cakes arrived and Cordelia gazed at them, marvelling at how perfectly formed each one was. Almost a shame to eat them. She wasn’t looking at Luca at all.
‘You seemed a little familiar.’
Her eyes flew to meet his.
‘Luca, were you…jealous?’
‘Jealous?’ Luca sat back and drummed the tabletop with his fingers while he looked at her with a brooding expression. ‘I have never been jealous in my entire life.’ He gestured in a way that was exotically Italian and gave a bark of laughter. ‘I don’t believe in jealousy. It’s a corrosive emotion.’
Cordelia didn’t say anything because what he really could have said was that he didn’t do jealousy because to be jealous you had to have some kind of intense emotion inside you for someone, and intensity on that level wasn’t something he was capable of feeling.
Suddenly deflated, she fiddled with the small fork that had been placed in front of her.
‘However,’ Luca gritted, ‘I’m an old-fashioned man with old-fashioned principles. I don’t care for the idea of my woman flirting with other men.’
At that, she met his steely gaze with a look of outraged incredulity. His woman? That level of possessiveness seemed to beg for a far deeper connection than business arrangement for the sake of a baby with someone you had a fling with, but she decided to let it pass. Was it a case of a business arrangement and keeping her at arm’s length except when his arrogance kicked in, at which point she turned into his woman?
‘I wasn’t flirting,’ she said in a low voice.
‘You were laughing.’
‘Since when is laughing the same as flirting?’
‘It’s a damn sight more than I managed to get from you today,’ Luca gritted in immediate response.
Uncomfortable with a show of feeling that was so far removed from his usual calm, cool and collected responses to anything that asked for an emotional response, Luca concentrated on drinking his espresso. There was no point continuing a conversation that seemed mired in abstract nonsense.
So what if he’d been jealous? It was only natural. A wife-to-be was quite different from a passing conquest.
Jealousy had never been an issue with Isabella. Perfect.
‘A person can’t be in a happy mood all the time,’ Cordelia pointed out, finishing the last of the tasty delicacies and licking the very last of the icing sugar from her finger while she thought about how he had changed earlier on, gone from light-hearted and warm to suddenly as cold as the Arctic sea. From wanting to spend time with her to needing to spend time on his computer.
‘I get that,’ Luca growled. When it came to happy moods, he hadn’t, after all, written the book. ‘But I want you to be. I… I’m going the extra mile… I’m trying.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Luca didn’t want her to feel tempted to return to the life she was going to be leaving behind. Showing her his country was a labour of love, more so because he seemed to be seeing so many beautiful parts of it for the first time himself, but he knew that it was also his way of getting her on board. He didn’t see anything devious about that. It seemed perfectly fair and reasonable.
Luca tightened his jaw and reminded himself that, first and foremost, he was a man who never allowed any part of his body to govern his behaviour except for his head.
The feathers that had been stupidly ruffled by that admission of jealousy smoothed back into their normal position and not a second too soon.
‘I’m showing you my beautiful country.’ He gestured around him but his fabulous eyes remained pinned to her face. ‘I am putting work concerns on the back burner so that I can bring you to a place like this!’
‘And so I should be smiling all the time?’ An unwelcome picture began to form, one that killed off any romantic notions that what he felt for her might, actually, have legs.
She could read between the lines as good as the next person.
He was putting himself out to entertain her and it wasn’t because he was necessarily enjoying it or even really wanted to. Everything had changed for Luca the second he had found out that she was carrying his baby and he had rolled with the punches because that was the kind of guy he was.
He had sussed the situation, known the direction he wanted it to go in and had altered his programme accordingly.
Did he think that if he’d handed her over to a tour guide and returned to his work schedule, she might have reconsidered the marriage option?
Had it occurred to him that, as a husband in the making, it wouldn’t have done to have given her the wrong impression? She’d turned down his marriage proposal to start with…it made sense for her to have a visible demonstration of what she would be getting if she took him up on the offer after all. He’d won her with his persuasive arguments and maybe he thought that, yes, he would go the extra mile in making sure she didn’t change her mind.
‘Of course, I appreciate all the hard work that’s gone into making me feel welcome,’ she concurred coldly, pushing away the flowered plate and sitting back to rest her hands on her lap.
Luca had the grace to flush. ‘That is not what I meant.’
‘Sounded like it to me.’
He glared and dumped his serviette on the table with a flourish and summoned the waiter to pay the bill.
‘Let’s move on from this conversation.’ He offered his hand to help her and she took it readily enough but then dropped it the second she was on her feet. ‘I feel it’s one that could end up going round in ever-decreasing circles and getting nowhere fast.’
‘Sure.’ She was going to have to look at the bigger picture. She was going to have to see this upcoming union for what it was and look for no more than what was on the table.
She would enjoy the last couple of days in this wonderful place because, all too soon, she would have to tell her dad about the pregnancy and break it to him that she would not be returning to Cornwall, but making her home on the other side of the ocean.
‘We will be back in Tuscany in no time at all.’ Luca mirrored what she was thinking with uncanny accuracy. ‘Let’s try and relax here. Stress is no good for a pregnancy. There will be much to do when we return.’
So factual, Cordelia thought, so well-mannered, and if she wanted more then that was her problem and nothing to do with him.
CHAPTER NINE
HER FATHER WOULD be coming over for the charity gala.
‘It makes sense,’ Luca had pointed out in the sort of voice that implied that anyone who didn’t agree with that sweeping statement was clinically insane.
‘He’ll be walking into something he hasn’t banked on and he’s not the kind of man who would know what a charity gala is.’ Cordelia’s voice had been laced with scepticism. ‘He doesn’t even own a suit. Or if he does, it will be the one he was married in and it probably won’t fit. And that’s the kind of thing he would want me around to help him with. Choosing a suit.’ Her eyes had welled up.
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‘He won’t be walking into it unprepared,’ Luca had returned equably. ‘He has already accepted that you’ve looked me up over here and he probably suspects that the very reason you left Cornwall in the first place was to get in touch with me. He’s already overcome the disappointment that you didn’t tell him the truth in the first place. So we tell him that there will be an event taking place. Who knows? He might look forward to it.’
Cordelia had maintained a healthy silence on the matter. What did Luca know? She hadn’t cared for his remark about the disappointment her father had had to overcome but she hadn’t been able to argue the logic behind the remark. Luca, she had discovered, didn’t pull his punches. If something had to be said, then he said it. End of story.
Heaven only knew what her father thought of her now, lying to him about this trip.
There was no way Luca could understand how she was feeling and, even though she didn’t want to sound vulnerable and needy, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from confiding in him when the plan had been hatched up.
That was how he got to her. One minute her head was telling her to look for nothing, to play it cool, to accept the conditions that had been imposed on this relationship. It was a situation that had been forced on him and there was nothing offensive in the fact that he was rising to the occasion and doing whatever was within his power to make her feel comfortable about the choice she had made. He was proud that he had gone the extra mile. So what right did she have to be upset about it?
She should be able to maintain a stalwart and adult silence on all things personal, but then the second something began weighing on her mind, like the thought of her father coming over to Italy, leaving his beloved Cornwall behind, and being confronted with the sort of over-the-top event he wouldn’t know how to cope with, she instinctively turned to Luca to hear what he had to say.
Even though he was the instigator of the whole thing! How did that begin to make sense?
Love, she had thought with helpless desperation.
‘Don’t underestimate the power of change,’ he had advised her in that calm, utterly reasonable voice of his. ‘You may find that you’ve kick-started something you hadn’t foreseen. He might have discovered that he can manage just fine without you around. Might prefer it, even.’