The Ultimate Romance Box (6 Bestselling Romance Novels)

by Eckhart, Lorhainne

  She laid out the ingredients to make peanut chicken and cut up the chicken breasts, then washed her hands and moved on to the rest of the preparation. As she added each ingredient to the slow cooker, she did a twirl, giggling to herself. She had forgotten how much fun dancing could be, how music lifted the spirit.

  Once the peanut chicken was in the slow cooker, she retrieved her risen dough and put the baking tray in the oven. She swayed her hips and spun around, flapping the tea towel in time to the music. And nearly collapsed with a heart attack at the sight of Dino in the doorway, arms crossed, shoulder resting against the door frame.

  Heat flooded her cheeks until they felt like they were glowing. "What are you doing back so soon?" she blurted rudely. But he didn't appear offended. All he did was hold up a newspaper.

  He sauntered into the room, wagging a finger at her. "Ah, Maria, Maria. You waited for me to go out before you played your music. Do you not want to practice your dance steps with me?" His tone held a note of censure, but she could see he didn't mean it because he fought a smile.

  He dropped his newspaper on the kitchen table and held his hands out to her. "No, Dino. I'm in the middle of cooking." She glanced over her shoulder at the counter, searching for a good excuse not to dance with him. "I haven't finished preparing your dinner."

  He clucked his tongue. "It is morning, cara. You have all day to do that."

  "My hands are dirty." She held them out and realized she had just washed them. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he caught her hands in his and backed up, pulling her into the only clear space in the kitchen, in front of the fridge.

  "You remember the steps I taught you?"

  "Yes, but..." She had run out of excuses, and he was so persistent it probably wouldn't matter what she said.

  He shimmied forwards and back, leading her. Maria looked down at her feet, but she didn't need to. She had practiced the steps a number of times that morning and her feet followed his easily. A song ended and another called "Hungry Eyes" started. While the singer carried on about love and desire, she glanced everywhere but at Dino. Dancing with him to romantic lyrics was a great deal different from practicing in silence. Her face was still hot from her earlier blush, and she couldn't see it going away any time soon.

  Although she tried not to look at him, her eyes drifted to his face without permission. He watched her, a mischievous grin tugging at his mouth. And she couldn't help smiling back. He spun her around and a light, airy feeling invaded her chest as though she could float through the dance.

  The song finished and the notes of a slow romantic ballad filled the kitchen. Dino drew her closer. Suddenly there wasn't enough air to catch her breath. Surely he didn't intend to slow dance with her? He hesitated. A flicker of uncertainty crossed his face. With a small shrug, he released her hands and stepped back. "Now you must practice on your own, and I will read my newspaper." He grabbed the paper from the table and held it up like a prize as he backed towards the door. "Tomorrow, we practice again." Then he pivoted on one foot and headed off along the hall.

  Maria leaned back against the counter and put a hand to her racing heart. If he had drawn her into his arms for the slow dance, she wasn't sure what she would have done. But he hadn't. Her relief slowly gave way to disappointment, and she silently chided herself for being silly. Slow dancing with her Italian was asking for trouble, even at eleven in the morning.

  ***

  Dino took his newspaper to the small conservatory at the back of the sitting room and angled one of the wicker chairs so he could see in through the kitchen window. Maria moved around purposefully, doing her chores, her lips forming words he could not hear. Singing to the music, he guessed.

  The paper lay forgotten on his knees and he blew out a breath. He should stop flirting with her, making her blush, but she was so charming, so sweet. He loved the way she reacted to him, shy and yet eager. It took him back to his past, before women started throwing themselves at him, when he had to use his charm to catch the attention of a pretty girl. With Maria, he could be himself, just as he was with his family and friends back home. He didn't have to worry about maintaining an image or giving his fans the wrong impression. The pain of losing his son still burned, but Maria's gentle care and this quiet, calming place had helped him cope.

  If only he could stay here with her. But this was a dream, time out of time, not his real life. He bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Soon he would have to go back to London and tell Freddy things must change. But not yet. He didn't want to stress over his career now. He had a few more weeks before he had to be in New York. He would make the most of this time to forget his worries and enjoy himself. With Maria.

  ***

  Maria prepared homemade vegetable soup for Dino's lunch, and served him in the conservatory. Then she went upstairs to do some painting. She had finished the first re-carpeted bedroom and started the second. Nervously, she repositioned the plastic floor covering, watching for eight-legged fiends, but mercifully none jumped out at her.

  She was halfway through washing down the paintwork with soapy water when Dino appeared in the doorway. He leaned a hand on either side of the door frame and cocked his hip casually. "I have done enough walking and thinking now," he announced.

  "Oh!" Maria's heart pinched at his words. "Does that mean you're leaving?" Despite knowing it would be best if he left before she got too fond of him, her heart and her head did not agree. Her heart wanted him to stay.

  "No, cara. I want to do something useful. I will help you with your painting."

  Maria was so surprised, the wet cloth dropped out of her hand into her bowl, splashing dirty water up her leggings. "You can't really want to paint. Why don't you visit some of the sights? Truro Cathedral's interesting."

  "I want to be with you." He wandered in and peered at the paint-stained brushes and rollers in the tray on the stepladder.

  Maria's pulse raced as she watched him. He couldn't really mean he wanted to be with her. They must be having a language translation problem. "You mean you don't want to go out today?" she suggested.

  "Yes. I want to relax and talk and enjoy your company. You take my mind off other things, cara." He held up a brush and swiped the bristles across his palm. "So I help you paint, and we talk."

  She blinked at him, wondering for the umpteenth time how this could be the same man she had ushered into the guesthouse, the man who had barely spoken two words to her for the first few days. "Well, if you're sure. But you can't wear those clothes."

  He held out his arms and looked down at himself. "You want me to take them off?" he said with a touch of amusement.

  "Yes. No!" She cleared her throat. "What I mean is that you need to wear old clothes. Then it doesn't matter if you get paint on them. Dad's things'll be too big for you, but if you don't mind them baggy, you could try his overalls."

  Dino shrugged and stepped aside as she moved towards the door. She returned a few moments later with her father's navy overalls and handed them to him. "If you slip them on over your clothes, they'll protect you from splashes."

  "I will be a moment." Dino disappeared and Maria washed a bit more wall before he came back. A tantalizing glimpse of bare chest showed where the top two snaps of the old paint-stained overalls were open at his throat. He'd obviously stripped down to his underwear underneath. Maria dragged her gaze from his skin and tried to push away thoughts of him being nearly naked beneath the baggy garment.

  She fixed him up with a paint tray and roller and he set to work with the same intense concentration he'd had when he taught her to dance. Maria made them both a cup of tea and brought it up. She had just taken a sip when Dino said: "So, Maria, do you have a boyfriend?" She nearly spat out her mouthful. Then liquid went down the wrong way and she coughed.

  Dino came across the room and patted her back, but she stepped away from his ministrations. "Look, Dino. I don't mean to be rude, but that's none of your business."

  "Ah," he said wisely. "You
do not."

  "I didn't say that."

  "If you had a boyfriend, you would tell me. Women like to talk about their men."

  "What gives you that idea?" Maria retorted a bit crossly.

  "Two sisters and six female cousins." He paused and angled his head thoughtfully. "They chatter all the time about boyfriends."

  "Hmm," Maria said, still miffed. She could give as good as she got. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

  Dino's face fell, and he turned away. Maria gave herself a mental kick. What a stupid thing to ask him when he had turned up here so distressed. He'd probably just broken up with the love of his life or something awful and she'd reminded him. Dino returned to painting. For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Then he said softly, "No. Not for many months."

  So he wasn't suffering from a broken heart—or not one caused by a girlfriend, at any rate. Did that mean he had lost someone else? She cast him a sideways glance as he crouched to paint a low area. It was none of her business why he'd come here, or why he'd been upset. But she wanted to know so badly it was burning a hole in her brain. If she wanted him to open up to her, she had to go first.

  "There was someone special a few years ago," she started, glancing at him for his reaction. He didn't look at her, just continued painting. The tension in her shoulders relaxed and she sighed as if she'd been holding her breath forever. "I went out with him for three years. We even talked about getting engaged, but it didn't work out. We wanted different things from life. I guess we grew apart."

  "What did you want that he did not?" Dino said.

  Strange. It was the first time anyone had asked her that. Chris and her parents had tried to convince her she should share Tom's ambition to travel and see the world, to make something of herself. As if staying in Porthale meant wasting her life.

  "The truth is…" she said, staring out the window at the blue sky. What she really wanted, but had only confided to Chris and her parents. "I want a family. I want my own home to look after, a husband, and children. Lots of children. I want to cook for them, love them, be there for them when they need me, share their joy and their pain." She usually kept this ambition to herself. Most people didn't even consider it an ambition, just what happened along the way as you followed your exciting career.

  "And your boyfriend, he did not want to be cared for and have children?" Dino asked in an incredulous tone.

  Maria put down her paint roller and rubbed her sleeve over her face. She and Tom had never discussed children. They had talked about getting engaged. Thank God they hadn't done that. "Tom wanted to travel." She worked hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "Eventually he'd have settled into a career, I suppose, but he was desperate to 'see the world and experience life.'"

  How many times had he preached that mantra at her as if it were the be-all and end-all? He hadn't cared what she wanted, what her dreams were. All he thought of was himself. She hadn't grasped just how selfish he was until she went to Austria with him. Memories of their stay in Austria ambushed her. Fear prickled her skin and she wiped the back of her hand over her top lip. I'm safe here, she silently recited, until the panicky feelings faded.

  She glanced over at Dino who had stopped painting and was leaning on the stepladder watching her. "You are very pale, cara. Are you all right?"

  Maria snatched a breath and tried to smile. "I'm fine." She might be in a sharing mood, but some things she would never tell.

  "So what happened between you and your girlfriend," she asked quickly, hoping to distract him.

  "She was not who I thought. She did not understand me."

  "I could say the same thing about Tom." Maria flashed Dino an understanding look. "Is she something to do with why you ended up here?" Even as the words came out of her mouth, Maria knew she shouldn't be delving into this. It was likely something he didn't want to share. But her heart ached when she remembered the lost, desolate expression on Dino's face.

  Dino blew out a breath and rested his forehead on the ladder. "I have not shared this with anyone." He cast her a sideways glance. "You will never tell, please, even if you are asked."

  Who would she tell? They had no friends in common. She shook her head. "Of course not."

  "My girlfriend, Rachel, she was pregnant when we parted, but I didn't know."

  Maria's hand flew to her mouth, dreading the next words out of his mouth. "She didn't...?"

  "No. She had my son and gave him up for adoption."

  The awful tension in Maria's chest loosened for a moment. Then what he'd said, hit her. "Adoption? You mean she gave the baby away without telling you?"

  His downcast gaze was her answer.

  "But surely that can't be legal without your permission."

  "One would think not but...he is gone, Maria. I never even saw him."

  Tears flooded her eyes, and she had to swallow a few times before she could speak. "I'm so sorry, Dino." She had been imagining all sorts of things but not this. How could his girlfriend have done something so cruel when he obviously wanted his baby?

  Dino put down his paint roller and scrubbed a hand across his face. "I have painted enough. I will walk now, I think."

  Then he was gone. She heard his bedroom door, and a few minutes later he strode past the open doorway without acknowledging her.

  Why had she dug into his life? He had been happy these past few days and now he was sad again. And no wonder. What sort of a woman did that to a man, especially a caring man like Dino?

  Chapter Four

  Maria continued to paint but her heart was no longer in it. Her chest felt tight and achy at the thought of Dino hurting. In spirit she was out on the coast path with him, wishing she could soothe his pain. When he hadn't come home by dusk, she put down her brush, walked through to the front of the house and stared out the window.

  A lone figure sat on the Jacka, facing out to sea. Although twilight made it difficult to see, something about the figure persuaded her it was Dino. The wind had picked up. He must be cold, sitting there alone—and it was her fault for dredging up his troubles.

  She wrapped the bristles of her paintbrush in a plastic bag, then fetched the master key and let herself into number twelve. She paused inside the door. Even though she had been cleaning the room for years, a strange, light-headed excitement fizzed through her at being in the room where Dino slept.

  She gathered his leather jacket off the back of a chair and held it to her chest, pressing her cheek against the smooth, warm collar, breathing in the leathery smell mixed with his spicy shower gel. Enough of this mooning around. Dino was getting cold. She hurried downstairs, donned her own coat and the training shoes she used for walking, and set off down the lane.

  Although she could see the Jacka from the Crow's Nest, it took fifteen minutes at a brisk pace to reach it. She had to walk through the village, past the harbor and up the steep coastal path to the rocky outcrop. She kept her fingers crossed he would still be there when she arrived.

  Her heart raced as she hurried up the final hill and had to pause for a few moments to catch her breath. At the top, she let out a sigh of relief to find him perched on the highest point, staring out to sea. "Dino!"

  He turned at her voice and smiled. "What are you doing out here, Maria?"

  "I thought you'd be cold. I brought you this." She handed his jacket over, and he put it on and turned up the collar.

  "You are an angel. Thank you, cara." He shifted over and patted the rock at his side.

  She hesitated a moment, then climbed up beside him and wriggled to get comfortable. She hugged her knees against the chilly wind. "I'm sorry. I upset you with my questions."

  He shrugged. "It is not your fault. I am coming to terms with my loss, but every now and then I am reminded of my son, and I am sad again. To know he is out there somewhere and will one day call another man papà will always hurt. I just hope he will be happy and loved as much as I would have loved him."

  Life could be so unfair. Maria reached out and laid her
hand over Dino's. "It's an old cliché, but they say time heals and it does. I hardly think of Tom at all these days."

  As she drew back, he caught her hand and lifted it. Her heart jumped at the warmth of his breath, then the soft brush of his lips across her skin. "You are kind and sweet, Maria."

  "Not really." She laughed nervously, trying to ignore the tingles of pleasure racing up her arm.

  "You are," he reiterated, firmly. "If you have finished cooking the dinner, shall we go back and dine?"

  "Of course." Maria climbed off the rock and waited for him to join her on the path.

  He jumped down, ran his fingers back through his dark hair and came to her side. "I'm glad you are here. It is good to have a friend to raise my spirits." He caught hold of her hand and they walked down the slope. It felt right to have her fingers engulfed in Dino's warm grip.

  "I should finish the second bedroom tomorrow," she said. "Then I have to shift the furniture back and paint the other two rooms. Can you give me a hand with the lifting?"

  "Of course I will. You should not lift furniture. Women have no muscles."

  "I do!" Maria bent her elbow to show off her biceps. He squeezed along the top of her arm, making her go all tickly and giggly.

  "You have nothing there."

  "Yes I do!"

  "You need muscles like these to move furniture." He angled his arm and she wrapped her hand around his bicep. She lifted her eyebrows at the firm bulge beneath her fingers, and a delicious image of him shirtless flashed through her mind.

  "I was going to ask my brother-in-law to help. Perhaps you and he can move the furniture, and I'll prepare us a nice dinner. My sister, Chris, and the girls can come as well and make it a family occasion." As soon as the words were out, she realized she'd started to think of Dino as a friend rather than a guest. Maybe more than a friend. And she was helpless to stop the feelings growing.