The Sicilian's Defiant Virgin

by Susan Stephens

  He kissed her, and then he kissed her again, until finally she softened in his arms. ‘We can’t!’ Jen protested in a voice trembling with excitement.

  ‘Why not?’ Luca murmured, caressing her tenderly as he spoke.

  ‘Because we’re in public?’

  ‘And the beach is different?’

  ‘The beach was deserted,’ she reminded him.

  ‘And so is this passageway. Where’s your sense of adventure, Jen?’

  Luca’s smile was irresistible. His touch was too. And he was right in that ancient buildings rose high on either side of them, throwing the narrow cut-through into deep shadow. Reaching up, she wound her arms around his neck.

  He kept on kissing her as he pressed her against the wall. His body blocked out all the light, leaving nothing but him and sensation, and as his hands began to work their magic she knew there was no more talking to be done. There was only touching and feeling, and whispering to each other as they exchanged increasingly heated kisses. She ached for him, and when he reached beneath her dress to strip off her thong, she let him lift her so she could wrap her legs around his waist.

  The touch of Jen’s tiny hand gripping him, nursing him, was an incendiary device to his senses. ‘Now,’ she begged him, thrusting her hips fiercely towards his.

  They both needed this. She cried out with relief when he thrust deep. He took her in one firm stroke while she grasped his biceps with fingers that had turned to steel as she worked her hips strongly with his. They both felt the same urgency, and it didn’t allow for finesse. Jen’s control soon shattered, as did his shortly after. The noise of the crowd drowned out her release.

  ‘No one can hear you,’ he reassured her, stroking her to soothe her as she slowly came down. Her eyes were still black with arousal as she stared into his face. He couldn’t let that pass, and started to move again.

  ‘I love that you’re so intuitive,’ she gasped against his neck, groaning in time with each thrust as he took her firmly.

  ‘Relax,’ he whispered. ‘Do nothing, Concentrate.’

  ‘Do nothing. Concentrate... On?’

  ‘Sensation,’ he suggested, moving steadily to please her.

  She laughed softly in between appreciative groans. ‘Is there anything else?’

  When Jen was finally able to express her approval with a deep satisfied sigh, he kissed her. ‘I think you’re going to be taking up quite a lot of my time;’

  ‘I hope so,’ she said as he carefully lowered her to her feet. Her eyes cleared and just for a moment she seemed so innocent. He wanted to forget that there could be any doubt about that. But he couldn’t. Not yet. It frustrated him to think that he knew her so intimately, and yet he didn’t really know Jen at all.

  ‘Beads,’ she reminded him.

  ‘Whatever you wish.’ As they smiled into each other’s eyes, there was just a moment when he believed they could be like any other couple.

  He led her out of the alley, back into the heat and glaring light of the main event. He waved to one of the passing floats and was rewarded with an armful of gaudy necklaces.

  ‘Are these all for me?’ Jen demanded as he draped them around her neck. ‘You have to wear one too,’ she insisted.

  ‘What do you think?’ she asked, standing back to check him out, once she had looped the necklace over his head.

  ‘I think it’s a great look,’ he joked, wondering when he’d enjoyed himself more.

  ‘I agree. Day-Glo pink is definitely your colour,’ she said as he made her a mock bow.

  His heart banged in his chest. This was getting really complicated, and it was only day one.

  Jen hadn’t realised that Luca was due to crown the Queen of the festival. But, of course, it made perfect sense. As the uncrowned king of the island, who better for the task?

  ‘I’ll stay in the crowd and watch, if you don’t mind?’ she said when Luca wanted her to join him on the stage. ‘I can feel the atmosphere better down here,’ she explained.

  ‘Being jostled by the crowd?’ he asked, frowning.

  ‘I’m sure I’ll survive it.’

  ‘Be sure you do,’ Luca said as he leaned in to kiss her lingeringly on the mouth.

  She had to be realistic about this, Jen’s sensible side warned as she watched Luca mount the stage. This thing between them had happened quickly, and it could fade just as quickly. But her sensible side didn’t stand a chance, because her heart was fully committed to the dangerous path she was taking.

  She wasn’t alone in her admiration for Luca. The excitement in the crowd was almost hysterical when he appeared on stage. Even dressed casually, he was magnificent. Just like a king, she thought, though he had the popular touch too. Luca had a quiet confidence that said he could deal with any problem and would do so efficiently and permanently. It was to be hoped she never became a problem for him, Jen thought, growing tense. She had more sense, she told herself firmly. She’d know when it was time to pull back. Unfortunately, all her body was interested in, was when they would make love again.

  She’d never met anyone like Luca Tebaldi before, Jen reasoned as Luca addressed the crowd.

  Was this love at first sight?

  More like being swept up in a whirlwind, she concluded.

  Was that how it felt to be in love?

  Was it possible to fall in love with someone in such a short time?

  Why not, if it was right? Jen concluded. Some friendships and love affairs took years to develop, while others sprang from the heart fully formed.

  Her heart raced as Luca glanced down from the stage to smile at her. Even if he didn’t return her feelings, it wouldn’t change what she felt for him. It was thanks to him that she’d had the chance to experience the most wonderful feeling in the world, and she was in no hurry to let go of it.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ‘YOU SEEM PREOCCUPIED,’ Luca commented as the crowd began to drift away from the stage. ‘Is there a problem?’

  He was the problem. Her mixed-up feelings for Luca were the problem. Since the day Luca had arrived at the casino her world had been turned upside down, and it hadn’t stopped spinning since.

  Perhaps they could talk—really talk and open up to each other if they left now. Her feelings for Luca were out of control—and not just because of the amazing sex. He was different in Sicily, more relaxed than in London, and now she knew why. This island was his home, his kingdom, his birthright, and she wasn’t sure what that entailed. She’d only experienced life within certain boundaries, and had taken a great leap over them. It would be sensible to get things back on a professional footing, Jen concluded. That would probably be a relief for Luca too.

  ‘Will I see the jewels tomorrow?’ she asked as they walked back to the house.

  ‘Why not tonight?’ Luca offered. ‘Why not now,?’

  ‘If you’re sure?’ Her heart started thumping for a very different reason.

  Don Tebaldi’s secret hoard of priceless jewels was discussed with awe across the world of fine jewellery, but no one had ever seen the gems in one place before. Rumours abounded, as many were cursed, and all of them had a bloody history. Which brought Jen’s thinking back to the so-called curse on the Emperor’s Diamond, the precious gem that would be the centre of her exhibition. She didn’t believe an inanimate object could carry any sort of power. She wasn’t superstitious—or she hadn’t been, up to now.

  You had to have something really big at risk before you could believe in things like that, she thought as a prescient shiver tracked down her spine.

  Back at the big house, Luca took her straight upstairs. He opened a bedroom door and stood back. ‘After you,’ he said.

  Jen hovered uncertainly on the threshold. The blinds were drawn, the room was dark, and the air smelled stale and musty. ‘Is your father’s collection in here?’ she asked, frowning.

  He waited until Jen was inside the room before explaining that a new vault was under construction now he was in charge, but until that was re
ady his father’s hoard remained, quite literally, under the bed.

  ‘I’m fascinated,’ Jen admitted. ‘I can’t wait to see them.’

  She had imagined some wonderful state-of-the-art cellar, with air-con and doors that slid silently closed, complete with complicated locking systems, but Luca simply put his shoulder to the mahogany frame, and moved the bed to reveal a trapdoor. Shooting the bolts, he opened the structure on its creaking hinges.

  Jen guessed her face must have been a picture. ‘Down there?’ she exclaimed as he indicated a ladder.

  ‘I hope you don’t have a nervous disposition?’ he mocked lightly.

  ‘I’ve been alone with you,’ she said, clinging to humour. ‘I’m neither claustrophobic, nor afraid of the dark,’ she assured him when Luca gave her one of his ironic looks.

  ‘Good, because it’s deep and dark and dank, and there may be spiders,’ he countered, laughing when she shuddered. ‘I did warn you that my father is one of the world’s last true eccentrics, didn’t I?’

  Jen shrugged. ‘Maybe. Do your worst,’ she challenged.

  ‘Take care as you come down the ladder,’ Luca warned, turning serious.

  He was waiting to steady her at the bottom as she took in her surroundings. They were standing in a small box-like room, with a reinforced steel door at one end. Spinning the combination, Luca opened the door and switched on the light inside. She could see now that the walls were lined with stacks of jewellery boxes, large and small, and there were some hessian sacks resting against the wall.

  ‘This is it?’ she said with surprise.

  ‘This is it,’ Luca confirmed. ‘My father was a hoarder and nothing pleased him more than to dip his hand into one of those sacks and feel the priceless jewels running through his fingers.’

  ‘They’re just loose in there?’ She couldn’t believe it, especially when she remembered the neat displays in the vault at Smithers & Worseley.

  ‘And all jumbled up,’ Luca confirmed. ‘Now can you see why we need you to sort things out? I’ll bring them up,’ he offered.

  Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t this, Jen thought as Luca upended the first sack on top of his father’s bed. ‘How many sacks are there down there?’ she managed in a voice that barely made it above a squeak.

  ‘Half a dozen or so.’

  She stared down in amazement at his father’s haul. Even in the gloom of the bedroom they seemed to sparkle with a feverish light.

  ‘Are they all cursed?’ she asked faintly.

  ‘I thought you didn’t believe in that?’

  ‘I don’t,’ she said with far less certainty than she had before.

  ‘They can’t hurt you. Only life and people can do that.’

  ‘I know,’ she agreed. ‘It’s just that I’ve never seen so many valuable gemstones lumped together like this. I can’t even imagine their combined value, or how long it’s going to take me to identify each one—did your father keep any records?’

  ‘I doubt it.’

  ‘This is going to take longer than I expected.’

  ‘Around six months?’ Luca suggested.

  ‘I didn’t imagine I’d be here so long.’

  ‘But you’ve finished your college course?’

  ‘Yes, I have, but still...’

  ‘I’ll get you all the help you need. I doubt my father even looked at these gems more than once before he tossed them into the sacks.’

  Like penny sweets, Jen thought, refusing to think about value, or the good that could be done with such a sum. ‘This collection is unique.’

  ‘And you must be eager to start work?’

  ‘I am,’ she confirmed, but as she stared into Luca’s eyes, she wondered how she would bear to be on the island if he distanced himself.

  Get over it, Jen told herself firmly. She was here to do a job, though she couldn’t deny that the amount of jewels to be catalogued and displayed had shocked her.

  ‘A summer in Sicily,’ Luca said in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere, she guessed. ‘What’s so bad about that?. What would you do if you weren’t here on the island—work in the club, and at the auction house? Why do that when you can be here enjoying a paid holiday?’

  ‘Hardly that,’ she said, glancing at the mountain of jewels.

  ‘You can do the work you love at your own pace., And living here has to be better than living in a bedsit?’

  She couldn’t argue with that, so why didn’t she feel good about this? Why was there still something nagging at the back of her mind? She should be thrilled. Luca was right. This was a wonderful opportunity.

  But not once had he mentioned them spending time together, Jen realised, and, though she hated herself for the weakness, she couldn’t help wondering if, once she got to work, she would see him again.

  * * *

  Reassurance was needed, Luca concluded as he took a shower. He’d got it in hand. Jen had been thrown by the extent of his father’s collection, and more especially by the realisation that it would take her months, rather than days or weeks, to complete the work she had been engaged to do. He had left her at the gate of the guest house to give her some time to get used to the idea. If she pulled out now it would put an end to his investigations and that wasn’t going to happen. He had suggested dinner at the big house with him and, after a few moments of contemplation, she’d agreed.

  He pulled on his jeans and snapped his belt through the loops. He parked the shave. It could wait until morning. He was impatient to see her again. He glanced in the mirror. Running his fingers through his hair had only succeeded in making it more unruly. His eyes beneath upswept brows glittered darkly.

  Because he wanted Jen.

  And that couldn’t wait until the morning.

  She was waiting for him in the library, leafing through one of his favourite books, when he came downstairs. She looked exquisite with her red-gold hair cascading down her back in a waterfall of waves, and with her apparently innocent, make-up-free face. The power of her beauty shocked him. He was transfixed and.stopped just inside the door to take her in. She had picked one of the dresses from her new collection, a simple shift in aquamarine silk; a colour that framed her fiery Celtic looks to perfection. The dress was knee-length, and moulded her shapely figure with loving attention to detail.

  ‘Master and Commander?’ she commented, breaking the spell as she replaced the book on the shelf.

  ‘That’s my Sunday name.’

  ‘The book,’ she countered with an amused look. ‘I love your library. You’re a very lucky man.’

  ‘I love it too,’ he said as he crossed the room to join her. ‘It was here that I learned the Emperor’s Diamond was said to be the most significant stone in Emperor Napoleon’s coronation crown—hence the curse. Napoleon’s life didn’t exactly end on a high point, as I’m sure you know?’ He smiled and shrugged. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the Napoleonic wars.’

  ‘Are you sure it isn’t the tactics of warfare that fascinate you?’ she challenged, and within seconds they were back to verbal jousting.

  ‘Can we agree to lay aside our weapons for one night?’ he suggested.

  ‘In the interest of...?’

  ‘Getting to know each other better?’

  ‘I thought we already did that?’ Her mouth slanted in a teasing line.

  He pointed to one of the sofas.

  Raising a brow at the implied instruction, she moved to put the library table between them.

  ‘Battle tactics?’ he suggested.

  ‘Common sense avoidance tactics,’ she countered.

  ‘I hope you haven’t been put off by the scale of the work here?’

  ‘Do I look overwhelmed?’

  No. She looked beautiful. ‘Please...sit down...’

  ‘Is that an invitation or an instruction?’

  He shrugged. ‘It’s a suggestion you can take up or not.’

  ‘What do you want to know about Raoul?’ she said as she sat down.

  She c
aught him by surprise. ‘Are you a mind reader?’

  ‘I use a crystal ball,’ she assured him dryly. ‘Seriously? I’d want to know, if I were you.’

  ‘You’re right,’ he confirmed. ‘Anything you can tell me about my brother—everything you can remember,’ he said.

  ‘I might not be able to tell you everything.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

  ‘Just that.’ Her emerald-green eyes held his stare steadily.

  ‘Am I being unreasonable?’ he suggested.

  ‘No.’ But her lips had tightened as if Jen had to be careful what she said. ‘I’ll tell you what I can,’ she confirmed. ‘But only on one condition.’

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘You have to answer my questions too.’

  ‘It’s a deal,’ he agreed, coming to sit across from her with a low table in between them. ‘Let’s start with how well you knew Raoul.’

  ‘I didn’t sleep with him, if that’s what you mean.’

  ‘I’m not asking if you slept with him. I’m asking you how well you knew him.’

  ‘Hardly at all,’ she admitted.

  Which didn’t make sense. Either she was lying through her teeth, or Raoul had suffered some form of brainstorm that had prompted him to act so rashly in her favour.

  ‘It’s my turn to ask the next question,’ she said when he was about to press her on this point.

  He sat back and indicated that she should get on with it, while he mulled over the question of whether it was possible to trust a woman who had just told him that she hardly knew his brother when Raoul had left her a fortune with no strings attached.

  ‘Is your business legitimate, Luca?’

  That was quite an interesting start to her line of questioning. ‘Of course it’s legitimate.’ He prided himself on the absolute legitimacy of every one of his business dealings. ‘What are you implying?’

  ‘I’m just curious,’ she admitted. ‘The people here hold you in such high esteem.’

  ‘Is that so wrong?’

  ‘They kiss your hand as if you ruled over them.’

  ‘I love them,’ he said simply. ‘My family has protected this island for generations. If you’re asking if the islanders regard me as some sort of king, then, no, of course they don’t. They come to me for advice, as they came to my father before me, and my grandfather before that. If I can help them, I will. And that’s it,’ he assured her. ‘And now it’s my turn to ask the question. How long have you known my brother?’