by Jennie Lucas
‘I was in the area and thought I’d drop by,’ Rebecca said. ‘I’ve left some vitamins for Fergus. They’ll boost his immune system.’
‘Thank you,’ Edoardo said. ‘How much do I owe you?’
‘Isn’t it me who owes you?’ Bella said with a pointed look. ‘He was my father’s dog, after all.’
‘You don’t owe me a thing, either of you,’ Rebecca said. ‘That’s just a sample pack in any case.’ She smiled up at Edoardo. ‘Want to walk me to my car?’
His expression was as blank as a sheet of paper. ‘Sure.’
‘It was lovely to meet you, Bella,’ Rebecca said. ‘I hope you enjoy your stay.’
‘I will,’ Bella said with a smile that cracked her face.
* * *
‘She’s in love with you,’ Bella said as soon as Edoardo came inside a few minutes later.
He reached for a glass and filled it with water from the tap. ‘And you can tell that how, exactly?’ he asked.
‘She blushed as soon as you came into the room,’ she said.
He turned from the sink to look at her. ‘Just because a woman blushes doesn’t mean she’s in love,’ he said. ‘Take you, for instance.’ He let his eyes run over her slowly but thoroughly. ‘I could make you blush within seconds. Does it mean you’re in love with me?’
Bella jerked her chin back against her neck in disdain, her cheeks feeling like they had been too close to a fire. ‘I would never fall in love with someone like you.’
‘That’s very reassuring,’ he said with a mocking slant of his mouth.
‘Rebecca seems a very nice person,’ she said. ‘The least you could’ve done is said a proper hello to her.’
‘I don’t like impromptu visitors,’ he said. ‘If she wanted to see me, all she had to do was call me and arrange a time.’
‘Maybe she doesn’t like being called in the middle of the night to suit your needs.’
He gave a loose shrug. ‘She’s not my type.’
‘No, because she’s got a brain between her ears,’ she shot back. ‘I can only imagine what your type is like: big boobs, toothpaste-commercial smile, long legs and no conversation. Am I close?’
A half-smile kicked up the edges of his mouth. ‘Close enough,’ he said.
‘Have you dated her?’ she asked.
‘We had a drink a few weeks back,’ he said.
‘Have you slept with her?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’ she asked.
He put the glass down on the counter. ‘What’s with all the questions?’ he asked. ‘Are you jealous?’
‘Of course I’m not jealous!’ Bella retorted. ‘I just think you could really hurt her if you don’t do the right thing by her.’
‘It’s not my problem.’
‘It is your problem,’ she said. ‘You should nip it in the bud before she gets too involved. You shouldn’t encourage her to just drop by if you’re not serious about her.’
‘I didn’t encourage her to drop by,’ he said. ‘I’ve given her no encouragement, full-stop.’
Bella folded her arms across her chest. ‘She obviously thinks you have,’ she said.
‘Then she’s mistaken.’
‘Is she who you went to last night?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘Who did you see?’
He leaned back against the counter in an indolent fashion. ‘Are you sure you’re not jealous?’ he asked.
She rolled her eyes. ‘How could I be?’ she asked. ‘I’m about to get engaged.’
‘It’s not official.’
‘It will be soon.’
‘There’s been nothing in the press about your relationship with your preacher boy,’ he said. ‘Not even a whisper.’
‘That’s because Julian doesn’t attract press attention,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I want to wait until he gets back from Bangladesh before we tell anyone anything. I’m going to meet his family and then we’re going to make a formal announcement.’
‘You’re assuming, of course, that I’ll agree to this match.’
Bella unfolded her arms and clenched her fists. ‘You can’t prevent me from marrying the man I love.’
His blue-green eyes challenged hers. ‘If you love him so much then why aren’t you over there with him?’ he asked.
Bella floundered for a moment. ‘I...I have things to see to here,’ she said. ‘I’d be in the way over there. I need to learn the ropes a bit before I go with him on a mission.’
He made a sound of scorn in his throat. ‘I just can’t see you handing out trinkets to the natives.’
‘That’s not what missionaries do these days,’ she said. ‘They help to build schools and hospitals.’
‘And what will you do when you do accompany him?’ he asked.
‘I’ll support him in any way I can,’ she said.
‘It’s what every man of the cloth needs,’ he said with a curl of his lip. ‘A rich wife to bankroll every do-good project.’
Bella glowered at him. ‘You think I haven’t got a clue, don’t you? You think I’m too stupid to do anything but get my nails done.’
‘You’re not stupid,’ he said. ‘You’re naïve. You’ve lived a sheltered life. You don’t know how the other half lives. You don’t know how desperate and ruthless people can be.’
‘Like you, you mean?’ she said with an arch look.
His eyes glinted as they locked down on hers. ‘I can be very ruthless when I go after something I want.’
Bella felt the skin of her arms lift in a tiny shiver. ‘You can’t always have everything you want,’ she said.
The corner of his mouth lifted in a devilish smile. ‘Who’s going to stop me?’ he asked.
She quickly moistened her parchment-dry lips, her heart doing double time inside her ribcage. ‘I’m not going to sleep with you, Edoardo.’
He picked up a lock of her hair and coiled it around his finger. She felt the gentle pull on her scalp; it made her backbone tingle and fizz like an effervescent liquid was being poured down its length. ‘I’m not planning on us doing too much sleeping once I have you in my bed,’ he said.
Bella’s insides flickered and flashed with red-hot lust. She felt shocked at her involuntary response to his incendiary words. After years of keeping her distance, her body now seemed to have a mind of its own. It totally disregarded her common sense. Her body was drawn to him, lured into his sensual orbit like a satellite.
‘Read my lips, Edoardo,’ she said stiffly. ‘I am not going to end up in bed with you, asleep or not.’
He slowly unwound her hair, his eyes meshed with hers in a sensual lock that felt like an intimate caress at the secret heart of her femininity. ‘Want to put money on that, princess?’
Bella gave her head a toss as she stepped away from him. ‘I don’t need to,’ she said. ‘I already know who’s going to win.’
‘So do I,’ he said and, before she could get in the last word, he left.
CHAPTER FIVE
BELLA kept out of Edoardo’s way for the next couple of days. She caught up with some old friends in the village and ate out rather than spend time alone with him at the manor.
But as the week drew to a close, she felt increasingly bored and restless. She hadn’t heard from Julian, as he had gone to a new mission in the mountains where the telephone signal was poor. With each day that passed without a message from him, she felt more insecure. She needed his reassurance and encouragement. She needed his enthusiasm and positive attitude to life.
A niggling doubt had started playing at the corners of her mind about how she would fit into his life of self-sacrifice. She admired his commitment and faith enormously, but she sometimes wondered if he could be passionate about anything other
than trying to save the world. She knew it was selfish of her to want to be the central focus of his attention, but she couldn’t help wondering if he truly loved her the way she wanted to be loved.
Her mother’s desertion when she was so young had made her insecure about intimate relationships. She loved too deeply and too quickly, only to be disappointed when the other party pulled away from her. Was Julian’s trip abroad his way of distancing himself? She knew he loved her, but it wasn’t a passionate all-or-nothing love.
It was a safe love.
A love she could count on to get her through the bad times as well as the good. A love that would be the solid foundation of a well-ordered family life.
It was what she wanted. What she needed. She didn’t want to be like her mother, flitting off to somewhere exotic on yet another passionate fling that would only end in tears and heartbreak.
She didn’t want the hair-raising, nail-biting, gut-twisting rollercoaster ride of passion. She wanted the smooth, predictable ride of a merry-go-round.
Bella was in the kitchen poking about in the fridge when Edoardo came in from outside.
‘Eating in tonight?’ he asked as he hung up his jacket on the hook behind the door.
She closed the fridge guiltily. ‘I can get something later,’ she said.
‘I can rustle up something for both of us,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to hide away in your room.’
‘I’m not hiding away in my room,’ she said. ‘I’ve been busy catching up with friends.’
He grunted and moved across to wash his hands at the sink. ‘Give me half an hour,’ he said. ‘I have to sort something out on my computer.’
‘Who taught you to cook?’ she asked.
He dried his hands on some paper towels and dropped them in the pedal bin. ‘No one in particular,’ he said. ‘I didn’t stay anywhere long enough to pick up more than the basics.’
‘What was the longest you stayed with a foster family?’
Edoardo felt the familiar tension crawl over his skin like a cockroach. He hated thinking about his past, let alone talking about it. He wanted to forget it had ever happened. He wanted it erased from his brain. He mostly had erased it from his mind. Every time Bella pushed him for more information, it made his head ache with the suppressed memories. They felt like they were busting out of the shackles he had bound them with all those years ago. ‘Can you quit it with the twenty questions?’ he said. ‘I’m not in the mood for it.’
‘You’re never in the mood,’ she said. ‘You’re like a closed book. Lots of people come from difficult backgrounds. I don’t see why you have to be so secretive about it.’
He stepped into her body space, watching as her big brown eyes rounded. ‘You’re playing with fire,’ he warned. ‘But I think you already know that, don’t you?’
A silence throbbed between them.
‘I’ve known you since I was a child, but I hardly know you at all,’ she said in a husky tone.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and watched as the tip of her tongue snaked out to sweep over her lips. He had never seen a more kissable mouth. Desire twisted and tightened in his groin. He felt his body surge and swell. He wanted her so badly it was like a drug his system craved. The trouble was, he knew one taste would never be enough. He wasn’t sure how long with her would be enough. For years he had thought of this moment, when she would come to him with that look of wanting in her eyes. He saw it: the need, the lust and the longing. It pulsed in the air in a hot, swirling current that was almost palpable.
Her eyes flickered to his mouth and back again to his. ‘I want to know who you are,’ she said. ‘Who you really are.’
‘This is who I really am,’ he said.
‘I want to know why you’re so closed off emotionally,’ she said. ‘You push everyone away. Why do you do that?’
Edoardo gripped her shoulders a little tighter. ‘I’m not pushing you away right now, am I? In fact, I’m about to bring you a whole lot closer.’
He felt her body brush against his. It engulfed his in a wave of hot longing that was like wildfire as he pulled her against him, male against female, need against need. His mouth came down slowly, giving her plenty of time to get away if she wanted to—but she didn’t move. Instead, she parted her lips as his came down. He brushed the point of his tongue against hers, a teasing taste of the eroticism to come. He felt her whole body respond. She pressed close and whimpered in the back of her throat as his tongue teased her again, in and out, barely touching, just hinting at the sensual delight in store.
Her tongue flickered against his, flirting, daring, increasingly provocative. Her hands snaked up around his neck, her fingers weaving through his hair, her pelvis jammed against his. His erection became painful as it moved against her urgently. She rubbed against him wantonly, her body pliant and soft against his.
Edoardo devoured her mouth like a starving man does a succulent meal. He fed off her hot, sweet moistness, tasting the nectar of her; relishing in the answering dart and dance of her tongue as it met and mated with his.
She was everything and more than he had dreamed of: sweet yet sultry, shy yet demanding. He couldn’t get enough of her softness. She yielded to his pressure, softly whimpering in delight as he drove deeper and deeper, demanding more and more of her with each thrust or flicker of his tongue against hers.
Her perfume danced around his nostrils, teasing him, tantalising him with the scent of hot summer nights. He was almost dizzy with it, intoxicated.
He moved his hands from her shoulders and splayed them roughly in her silky hair. Her slender hips moved against his, instinctively searching for him. Wanting him as a woman wants a man.
He ached to feel her surround him, to milk him of his essence with every tight contraction of her body. The need inside him built to fever pitch. Had he ever wanted someone as much as this? It was like a raging torrent in his blood. He could think of nothing but how much he wanted to possess her. His body was rigid with desire, hot and pulsing against her.
His right hand moved under her top to cup her breast through the lace of her bra, the softness and delicate shape of her thrilling him. That night in the library she had brazenly taunted him with her body. But it was her touch that had unravelled his control. The sexy little tiptoe of her fingers on his chest had been like throwing a match on a spill of gasoline. It had roared through his veins until he had finally snapped and grabbed her and shown her what a real man felt like instead of those pasty-faced adolescents she had surrounded herself with like a queen bee with drones.
He had wanted her then and he wanted her now.
He pushed her bra aside and bent his head to take her nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around and around until she was groaning in delight, her fingers digging into his waist for purchase.
He moved to her other breast, taking his time exploring it in intimate detail: the tightly budded nipple, the pink areola and the sensitive underside where thousands of nerves quivered and danced under his touch.
Her hands moved from his waist and danced over the front of him. His erection jutted proudly against her tentative touch, the blood thundering in him—the ache of need so intense he felt like a teenager at his first sexual encounter.
He reclaimed her mouth and backed her up until she was against the kitchen table. He lifted her onto it, and she opened her thighs and wrapped her legs around him, her arms tight around his neck as her greedy little mouth wreaked havoc on his.
The kiss went on and on, drawing him into a sensual whirlpool that was making it impossible to think of anything but possessing her totally. His erection was nudging her intimately, the damp barrier of her lacy knickers taunting him until he was fit to explode.
He blindly went in search of her slick wetness, pushing aside the cobweb of lace so he could slip one finger inside. He felt the
tight grip of her body, heard her little gasp of pleasure. But then she jolted and pulled back from him, her cheeks fire-engine red, her eyes shocked and wide with horror. ‘Stop!’ she said.
He gave her a questioning look. ‘Stop?’
She pushed at his chest with both of her hands. ‘Get away from me!’
He stepped back and watched as she scrambled off the table and pushed her skirt down with shaking hands. She kept her gaze averted, her shoulders hunched as she wrapped her arms around her body. ‘You had no right to do that,’ she said.
‘To kiss you?’ he asked.
She threw him a blistering look. ‘You shouldn’t have touched me...like that.’
‘Why not?’ he asked.
She frowned fiercely at him. ‘You know why not.’
‘Because you fancy yourself in love with another man?’
Her cheeks fired up again. ‘You went too far,’ she said. ‘You know you did.’
‘So,’ he said with a sardonic look. ‘You’re OK with me kissing you, but it’s hands off below the waist. Is that it?’
She compressed her lips until they lost their rosy tint. ‘That shouldn’t have happened either,’ she said, still frowning furiously. ‘Although I accept it was partly my fault.’
‘Partly?’ He gave a scornful grunt. ‘That was the biggest come-on I’ve had since you flashed your breasts at me when you were sixteen.’
‘I wasn’t giving you the come-on back then,’ she said in a tight little voice.
‘So what were you doing?’
She shifted her gaze. ‘I was angry with you. You were always ignoring me as if I was just a silly little spoilt brat who was always getting in the way. I wanted to teach you a lesson.’
‘You wanted me to notice you,’ he said. ‘Well, here’s the thing, princess—I noticed you. I noticed everything about you. I just didn’t follow you around with my tongue hanging out like all of your pimply suitors.’
Her eyes came back to his, the colour still heightened in her cheeks. ‘Can we just forget this ever happened?’ she asked.