by Rachel Lyndhurst; Carmen Falcone; Ros Clarke; Annie Seaton; Christine Bell
Lorenzo felt a prickle of discomfort at her words. They sounded far too close to what he wanted for his own daughters. Was he making a terrible mistake in planning to give them the best of everything and nothing of his own poor culture? He felt confused about how he felt about a lot of things, about what he was going to do to everyone and everything he held dear in the next week. It had taken him years to reach this point, to be strong and defiant enough to break free and do things his way. He couldn’t change things now. He would not deviate. It was too late for that.
“You’ve turned out pretty well, in spite of all that hardship. It must have been difficult for your mother having to make a decision like that. Choosing between you both, I mean.”
“Mummy is a natural survivor.” She shot him a wry look. “Once I left home, she remarried for a short while. She didn’t love him, she was very open about that, but she had no intention of getting a job. And husband number two, being a widower, was happy to have a compliant wife to look after his sons.”
“So she married first for love and then once again for money?”
“That about sums it up.” She snapped the twig between her fingers. “My stepfather died and left everything to his boys, so she was out on her ear again.”
Lorenzo made a whistling noise between his teeth. “Ouch.”
“More like damn and blast it. She was as mad as hell at the time, but they say karma comes and gets you in the end.” Her gray eyes were huge and the emotion shining out of them made his stomach muscles quiver. “It’s taught me something, though. I’d only ever marry for love.”
“Come here. I want to kiss you, kiss away the bad stuff.” He couldn’t admit to himself that what he really wanted was for her to kiss his bad stuff away, too. He wanted her magical touch to make things better like they always seemed to.
She moved closer and linked her hands around the back of his neck. “I’m ready to give it a try if you are,” she whispered mischievously. “And I do love the things your mouth does to me.”
He moved his lips over hers and felt a surge of relief at the feel of her cool skin and soft, sweet tongue that eagerly danced with his. There was no pretense with Lora, no artifice, no silly games. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, and it was always an act of mutual consent and of matched desires. He had never known a woman like her or wanted one so much. He wished they could stay here alone together in the woods forever, naked and free as nature or the gods had always intended, but life couldn’t be like that. He had nothing to offer her but money and his body. She wanted things he couldn’t give; children of her own and a normal life. She probably even wanted marriage to the right man, and he’d sworn he would never go down that route again. They had agreed they would part at the end of the contract, and she showed no signs of wanting to extend that period. She had said many times how cool she was with the situation. The time was fast approaching when he would have to set her free
…
Lora felt sharp bolts of excitement dart through her as his kiss deepened and he curved his hand over her breast, stroking its center with the pad of his thumb.
She bit down hard on her bottom lip. “It’s not exactly private out here.”
His mouth brushed her ear, and his teeth nipped at her jaw. “Aren’t you feeling wild? I am.”
Lora smiled at the fire in his bright, blue eyes. “You know I am, but what if—”
“What if what?”
“What if we get seen? It’s not the first time the camera’s caught us during foreplay. Sorrento, remember? Long lenses.”
“Let’s skip the foreplay, then.” He began to unbutton her blouse.
“Or…” She reached down and trailed her fingertips over the bulge in his jeans. “We could go deeper into the forest, because what I want to do to you right now is extremely graphic.”
His breath came out with a hiss as she began to ease down his zipper. “There’s nobody around for miles. Not even a bodyguard.”
“You sure about that?” she said while her eager fingers slid inside the denim.
“I made sure of it.” His voice grew deeper. “Because I planned this all along.”
“You’re disgusting.” She laughed against his mouth when he leaned in to kiss her.
“And you’re filthy,” he groaned. She sank to her knees onto the grass and released him.
“Beyond redemption,” she whispered and then ran her tongue over the tip of his hard hot flesh. Lorenzo reached down and pulled her blouse roughly open to bare her breasts. She slid her lips over his silky head, dipping hungrily to take him into her mouth as far as she could. She moaned when his hips began to move slowly, pushing himself farther in. She sucked harder, enjoying the way she could make his body twitch with excitement, loving the feel of him in her mouth, and anticipating the way he would soon come over her tongue or breasts.
“You’re too good at this,” he murmured, pushing one of his hands inside the lace cup of her bra, kneading her breast with hard fingertips. She slid her hands around his buttocks and pulled him harder against her as fire burned in her sex. She could feel her panties growing damp, and she felt his climax build. “Far too good.” He sounded breathless as he eased her unsteadily away from him. “Stand up and put your hands against the trunk of the tree.”
Lora, dazed for a moment by the change of direction, realized quickly what he intended to do to her. And she wanted him to do it that way; she wanted rough sex in the open where their cries would echo back for her pleasure. She stood up, stole a bite of his bottom lip as she did so, and then turned to place her palms flat against the tree. The bark was rough against her fingers, and now the thought that someone might actually be watching them was an incredible turn on. “Undo my bra. I want to feel everything.”
She felt his breath against her neck and the tension of her bra relax as he undid the clasp. “Shall I take it all off?” he whispered.
“Yes, all of it.” She shivered with excitement when her blouse and bra fell to the forest floor and then her shorts and panties quickly followed. She pressed her sensitized breasts against the resin-scented bark; she felt him move behind her, easing her legs apart with his knee, and grabbing her hips to lift her slightly. Lora shuddered and closed her eyes when she felt his hard, hot length nudge between her wet folds.
“Yes…”
“Si,” he murmured, positioning himself at her center. Lora pushed back against him, wanting him inside her with burning need. Lorenzo held her lower body firm with one hand over her flat belly and the other gripping her hipbone; she moaned when he gradually inched inside her. “Relax, mia cara. I won’t hurt you.”
Her legs and buttocks trembled with exquisite tension, because it took him three short urgent thrusts to get his girth fully inside her, and then he was rocking slowly, forcing her up against the tree trunk as his pace quickened. Her core gripped him tightly, spasming with carnal pleasure when she felt him beginning to lose control. His unsteady breath feathered her neck and shoulders with each hot, sliding movement, and she splayed her palms against the rough bark of the tree, relishing the way he was forcing her bare breasts to rub against it with each deep thrust.
“Dio.” She felt him bite gently down into the soft flesh between her shoulder and neck. “I don’t want to stop this.”
He slid his hand down from her stomach and stroked between the apex of her thighs. His fingers found her inflamed nub, applied firm pressure downward, and then started to move in deliberate circles. Around and around with his fingertips, in and roughly up with his hips, faster and more urgent until she heard her own cries fill the air. “Don’t stop,” she moaned, her nails scraping against bark, and she felt her orgasm building. She knew he wasn’t wearing protection; she could feel the difference, and it made their feral act all the more intoxicating. “Come inside me.”
Lorenzo began to pump harder, pushing beyond the physical intensity of their lovemaking behind closed doors. His finger twitched wildly on her clitoris while he drove powerful
ly into her from behind, and Lora felt the intoxicating flood of climax rush through her body. She cried out his name, torrents of explosive pleasure tearing through her. Lorenzo grabbed both her hips and groaned loudly with his one final thrust.
…
His forehead dropped onto her naked shoulder, and their ragged breathing sounded harsh and unnatural in the silence of the forest. “You’re amazing,” he whispered into her hair and turned her to face him. He kissed her on the nose and smoothed the matted hair out of her eyes.
“And you’re a very bad influence,” she said with a coy smile. “We both got carried away.”
“Sometimes things like that happen, and, when it does, it’s special.” He swallowed and ran his thumb along the edge of her jaw. He was trembling slightly. “I’ve never lost control like that before.”
“I’ve done a lot of things with you I’ve never done before,” she said and bent over to pick up her clothes.
In that moment, he sensed a new vulnerability about her, and experienced an urge to look after her, keep her by his side for always, make promises he couldn’t guarantee to keep. He was losing control of more than his body. Forming a bond with this woman would be far too dangerous, for him and his children. They’d been hurt too much already by Ivanka. He couldn’t risk breaking their little hearts again if things went wrong. And things would go wrong, because Lora had made it clear that she could never be a permanent feature in his life. He needed to get a grip and build a steel barricade around his heart before it was too late.
Chapter Thirteen
“Fina cried at tea time.” Lora looked down at her fingers as she twiddled the stem of her wineglass. It had been a few days since their trip to the forest, and it felt as if he had deliberately withdrawn from her and the intimacy they’d shared. He’d been out most of the day again and looked tired. She sensed he might be snappy if she forced the issue, but she couldn’t keep quiet about the emotional turmoil Lorenzo’s children were suffering. “She’s upset Vanessa is leaving tomorrow. So is Bee, I can tell, but she’s putting on a brave face.”
“She knew it was coming,” Lorenzo said, and his expression darkened. “They both did. And they’ll both get over it.”
“And this happens every three months?”
“It does.”
Lora felt anger prickle around her jaw. “Don’t you think it’s unkind to put them through that so often?”
“Unkind? How much more upset would they be when their nanny leaves after longer than three months? It’s unkind to let them form emotional bonds that aren’t sustainable. I’m doing my best, but it’s their birth mother who does them the greatest unkindness.”
“What do you mean?”
He made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “She’s not interested. Never has been. They’ve been raised by their grandmother and staff since they were removed by C-section.”
“And you? Are you interested in them? Or are you merely going through the motions of being their father?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “You know what my role is. I pay the bills and provide them with what they need.”
“Yes, but things have been different in the last three weeks, haven’t they? You’ve spent every other day with them doing something fun and exciting. You’ve seen to their emotional needs as well as their practical ones.”
“It has been different, and I have you to thank for that. It wasn’t until you persuaded me to take them up to Mount Etna that I realized what was achievable, and what I needed to do before…before more time passed and more changes happen. I had never taken them out before.”
“Never? Not in five years?”
He shook his head. “It’s not the Ferrante way. Fathers and daughters are not like fathers and sons. Girls have always been brought up by the women of the family while the men and boys get on with the nasty business of making money and enemies.”
“Prehistoric…”
Lorenzo shrugged. “It has always been like that. Break the rules and you face being cast out, and that isn’t somewhere you want to be in Sicily.”
“So, your father spent time with you, but not your sister because you were a boy and she was a girl?”
“That was part of it, but he turned his back on Mariella the minute he found out she was less than perfect. He was ashamed, still is, that he had a part in creating a disabled child. He blamed it all on Mamma though, naturally, nothing to do with the belt he regularly took to her when she was pregnant.”
She saw him squeeze between his thumb and index finger like she’d showed him to when he felt a bad headache coming on. “Dear God, how can a person can be that cold?”
“My father has made it his life’s work to be hated and feared, revenge for being raised in poverty and fed donkey meat. He will not be missed by a living soul when he passes.”
Lora sighed. The whole situation was so sad, but so easily fixed with all the money sloshing around. If only the flesh and blood element could be made to change and see how wonderful the world could be if they stopped all the toxic behavior and let go of all the bitterness and anger. “Stress headache?”
He nodded. “I had some complicated contracts to sign today, the last few subsidiary negotiations for Pontecorvo, and I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“I heard you get up in the night. Bad sleeping patterns is definitely one of the contributory factors to your migraines, no doubt about it.”
He smiled briefly. “There are only so many lifestyle changes I can make right now; certain things still need to be done. I’d be grateful if you’d let me keep the red wine, though. It’s quickly becoming my only vice.”
“The best thing you can do now is to have a hot bath. I’ll run you one if you like.”
“Followed by an ice cold shower again?” He shuddered. “I seriously hate having to do that.”
“But it works if you do it quickly enough, and all the pain is over in a few minutes. Much better than hours of agony with a migraine.”
Lorenzo pushed himself up from his chair. “You’re turning me into a hippy health freak, Miss Pryce-Howard.”
He stood and stared at her for a moment.
“I’ll go take that bath and shower. You stay here and enjoy the rest of the evening.”
“I’ll sleep in the annex so I don’t disturb you,” she said and gave him a sympathetic smile.
“No, don’t do that again.” His expression darkened. “I like you with me.”
…
“We have a busy day, girls,” Lorenzo said after breakfast the next morning. His tone was as firm as he could make it without alarming them. Today was going to be difficult enough without him losing an ounce of control and superiority, so he’d instructed the twins to join him and Lora for breakfast instead of eating with Vanessa and cook like they usually did. There had been enough tears from what he’d gathered and he didn’t want them to have puffy eyes and runny noses today. Once Vanessa had gone, they would adapt and survive like they always did. He wished he could tell them it was the last time he’d put them through this, but he couldn’t. Not yet. “So, put your best dresses on.”
“They will be able to wave Vanessa off, won’t they?” Lora said with a moody look. She could read him like a book, he was sure of it, and it made him feel agitated. And now his daughters were silently regarding him with wide sorrowful eyes. The puppy would be at it next.
“Do we know what time she’s leaving?”
“Don’t you?”
Lora’s remark was unnecessarily sharp, he thought, but chose not to rise to it. Calm was to be the order of the day if at all possible. He didn’t have time for female histrionics. “I thought it was some time this morning, but she has a driver at her disposal and the jet home to England, so I haven’t needed to be privy to the details.”
“She’ll be leaving at about ten this morning.”
“I had hoped we would leave for Palermo about half an hour earlier than that.”
There was a burst of angry fire in her
gray eyes that turned them to silver. “I’m sure half an hour isn’t going to ruin your plans.”
“I suppose not.” He was irritated, having hoped to avoid the emotional messiness of another nanny being sent home. “Just make sure we’re all ready to go on time and…are respectable.”
Half an hour later, the three of them came out onto the terrace hand in hand. They made a cute sight in the early morning sun, the girls in yellow pinafores and Lora in a red and white striped halter neck dress. “Papa, you look nice, too!” Fina said in a bright voice. “Aren’t we all pretty today?”
“We certainly are,” he said with a fondness that surprised him and took both their tiny hands in his. “And you’re both wearing your charm bracelets.”
“I hope that’s okay,” Lora said. “I wasn’t sure what we’re doing today, but you said smart.”
“It’s fine.” He dropped their hands abruptly and stuck his into his black suit trouser pockets. “I’d forgotten they even had them, but putting them on today is surprisingly appropriate. Ah.” He looked over the girls’ heads as Gennaro drew up outside the main door in a black Mercedes. “It’s time.”
A silence fell and then when Vanessa emerged pulling a large suitcase. Both girls bolted in her direction without a backward glance. The smooth flat soles of their white sandals slapped like alarmed birds’ wings on the paving slabs of the driveway, which was still damp from the gardener’s early morning watering.
“Oh, dear,” Lora whispered when they fell into Vanessa’s open arms.
He fought the urge to put his arm around Lora’s bare shoulders and tell her everything would be all right. It’s what he should be doing to his daughters, but years of macho upbringing and fighting back tears caused by the sheer physical pain of regular beatings prevented him from even moving. “They will be fine,” he said and felt his spine stiffen.
She took hold of his elbow since his hands were still rammed deep into his pockets and tugged. “Let’s go and say good-bye, too.”