by Sarah Morgan
Izzy burned with outrage. ‘I hope she gets wrinkles and has a horrid life.’
‘She did me a favour.’ His face was expressionless. ‘Because of her I learned not to let myself get close to anyone. I realised that women were attracted to my title and position, not me. Maybe not all of them—’ he gave a humourless smile ‘—but I learned that it was impossible to judge. It was the last time I allowed myself to trust anyone.’
And now she understood why he’d behaved the way he had towards her. ‘Right from the start you thought I’d be bad for the royal family. You thought I’d damage your reputation or try and squeeze money out of you.’
He breathed deeply. ‘Yes to all that.’
Izzy bit her lip, comforted by his honesty even though it was painful to hear. ‘You loved her, didn’t you?’
‘I thought I did.’
‘I did a search on you. Why is there nothing about this on the internet?’
‘My father has had decades of experience of handling delicate situations. Only a couple of people knew the truth. The press were told I’d come off my motorbike.’ His laugh was bitter. ‘An excuse I objected to strongly because I have never had an accident in my life.’
‘And what happened to the film?’
‘It was destroyed. Carly was so panicked by how out of control her brother had been, she handed it over in return for a reduced sentence.’
Izzy hesitated. ‘I’m glad you told me. I wish you’d told me sooner.’
‘The surprise is that I’ve told you now.’ His expression was guarded and she realised that he was absorbing the enormity of what he’d done.
‘No big deal,’ she said quickly. ‘I never gossip.’ But the fact that he had told her warmed her. Made her feel special. ‘So you lay in hospital for weeks.’
‘Bored out of my mind. Bitter. Angry. I stayed that way until a very long-suffering nurse became fed up with my complaining, wrestled me into a wheelchair and took me up to the children’s ward. They were rushed off their feet and they needed someone to read to a little girl who had no visitors.’ His voice softened. ‘That’s how it started.’
‘How what started?’
‘The Prince’s Fund. That nurse was clever and she did me a bigger favour than Carly because she made sure I saw how lucky I was. I deserved a slap, but what she gave me was insight. In those weeks after the accident I saw a world I hadn’t seen before. I saw children who smiled even though they were sick. I saw parents in desperate financial straits make every sacrifice to get the best possible care for their children. I saw life in the raw. It wasn’t Carly who changed my life, it was the time I spent in hospital. Before that, I hadn’t really known what to do with myself. I was the second son. The spare to the heir. The understudy. And then I realised that I could use that influence for good. By the time I was discharged I knew what my role was going to be.’
There was a lump in her throat. ‘And you’ve been doing it ever since.’
‘I discovered that my name and my presence at events attracted big money and I took that money and ploughed it back into my charity.’
She rubbed her toe on the floor. ‘For what it’s worth, I know how it feels to discover someone was just using you, so I sympathise.’
‘Is this the point where we talk about Brian?’
‘Please, let’s not.’
‘I’m surprised you didn’t punch him for leaving you at the altar.’
‘I didn’t want him to think I cared enough to punch him. I danced until four in the morning and ended up kissing a total stranger in the hope that it would get into the papers and show him I didn’t care. Of course that was the only picture the press never took—’ she shrugged ‘—so I kissed some vile slobbery guy for no reason. What happened after Carly? I know you started the charity, but what about your own relationships?’
‘I’m not good at relationships.’
‘I read that about you. Mr Heartbreaker. And then you discovered that your brother was marrying a Jackson and you thought, Here we go again. These people are the worst kind of trouble.’ Seeing the wary look in his eyes, Izzy managed a smile. ‘It’s OK. I’d rather you were honest and it’s a natural reaction. We all judge from the outside to some extent. I thought you were an arrogant prince who was full of himself.’
‘The me you don’t see.’
‘Exactly.’
He didn’t smile. ‘It is very much on my conscience that I was so vile to you. You should have been crushed by what I said and it’s a reflection of your strength and determination that you brushed yourself off and carried on trying. I have never met anyone more tenacious than you.’
‘Tenacious, as in pushy?’
‘Tenacious as in focused.’ His hand curved behind her head and he drew her towards him. ‘It was your focus that kept us from doing something foolish last night, not my self-control. I’m grateful for that.’
Izzy’s heart was pounding. ‘I like the fact you lost control. It was sort of a compliment.’
Part of her was desperately hoping he’d continue where they’d left off but she sensed his withdrawal and she could have screamed at the irony because she understood that the very confession which should have deepened the intimacy between them had caused him to back off.
He’d taken a step he hadn’t taken before and he wasn’t comfortable with it.
There was a tense silence and then his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘I need to take a shower. Meet me at the recording studio in twenty minutes and bring all those notebooks. Everything you’ve ever written. And start warming up your voice.’
‘Why?’
‘We’re going to do something about those goals of yours. It’s time to record your songs.’
In a state of conflict and not enjoying the sensation one little bit, Matteo watched Izzy in the vocal booth. He was all too aware that his inexplicable loss of control the night before had been compounded by an even greater lapse when he’d revealed information that was both confidential and deeply personal. Even had he been able to explain away the first as the natural response of a male with a healthy sex drive, nothing explained the second. Since when had he felt the need to serve up the truth about his past for public consumption? The moment he’d launched into his confession he’d wanted to withdraw the words but it had been too late for that and the realisation that he’d spilled his darkest secret to someone he barely knew filled him with cold panic.
Sharing secrets was the first step to intimacy and he avoided emotional intimacy at all costs. He was a master at keeping women at a distance. He prided himself on the wall of protection he’d constructed around himself. And yet somehow Izzy, through a lethal mixture of natural charm and sheer perseverance, had managed to find a weakness. And that perseverance shouldn’t have surprised him because it was her trademark. He could see it now as she sang. If something wasn’t right, she did it again. And again, until she was satisfied it was the best it could be.
He’d never known anyone work so hard.
‘She’s incredible.’ Even Phil, his engineer producer who had seen it all before and was never complimentary about anyone, was impressed.
They worked for nine hours straight, nine hours during which Matteo brooded and simmered. By the end of it she was still buzzing with energy.
‘That was so cool. Thank you.’ Virtually dancing on the spot, she gave Phil a huge kiss. ‘I will love you forever.’
Seriously unsettled by how much that innocent kiss bothered him, Matteo propelled Izzy out of the door with undignified haste and she looked at him in astonishment.
‘What’s the hurry?’
‘I assumed you were hungry.’ He was not jealous, he told himself. It would be irrational to be jealous and he was never irrational. ‘We missed breakfast and lunch. I’ve organized food.’
‘You mean you gave an order and fifty staff jumped into action.’
No one else dared to speak to him the way she did and it shook him because teasing was another dangerous step towards
intimacy and he had no intention of going down that path.
As she noticed the rug spread out on the grass next to the fountain, she stopped dead. Her eyes settled on the champagne in the ice bucket and Matteo had to concede that his staff had risen to the challenge of recreating fine dining outdoors.
He watched, fascinated by the delight that spread across her pretty face, and then tensed as she flung her arms round him.
‘Oh, thank you! This is perfect.’
The spontaneous display of affection caught him off guard. ‘It’s just a picnic. Not a Michelin-starred restaurant.’
‘But that’s just it—’ her voice was husky ‘—you knew I’d hate a Michelin-starred restaurant because I bet they have a confusing amount of forks. This is so much more romantic. Wow.’
Romantic?
He’d instructed his team to provide food outside. He hadn’t said anything about romantic. He’d prepared an evening he thought she might enjoy and the fact that she’d loaded the gesture with additional meaning sent him into rapid reverse. ‘I’d offer you champagne,’ he said smoothly, extracting himself from her hug, ‘but after seeing the effect it had on you the night of the party I’m not sure I’m ready to take that risk.’
His sudden withdrawal earned him a puzzled look. Then she smiled. ‘But this time you’re feeding me.’ She knelt down on the rug. ‘I bet your staff died of shock when you said you wanted to eat outside.’
‘They died of shock when I carried you upstairs to bed on the first night. Since then it has sadly become a common occurrence to see me behaving oddly.’ And if they could read his mind their shock would treble.
‘It isn’t odd, it’s normal.’ Picking up a fork, she helped herself to chicken. ‘You should relax more often.’
Having just made a conscious decision that he needed to relax less in her company, Matteo swiftly changed the subject. ‘Tell me more about your singing. Why did no one in your family encourage you?’
‘No one in my family is remotely interested in music.’
‘That’s why you entered Singing Star.’
‘It seemed like a great idea. I was seventeen.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘It seems as though we both made our formative mistakes in our teens.’
The brief reminder of his earlier confession was like a shower of cold water.
‘We were talking about you,’ Matteo said hastily, and she glanced at him briefly and then gave a shrug.
‘I naively thought they’d hear my voice and that would be it. Of course it was nothing like that. They weren’t interested in the voice, just the package and the fact that I was hopeless at hiding my feelings. There was so much footage of “Izzy losing it,” they didn’t know which bit to use next. There were a few grumblings in the press about me being exploited, but mostly people just thought I was awful and deserved everything bad that happened to me.’ Her light tone didn’t cover the hurt and Matteo felt a rush of cold anger towards the people who had used her in such an unethical way.
‘Where were your parents when this happened?’
‘Chantelle believes in letting a person make her own mistakes. And as for Dad—he loves us all but he’s very selfish and spends most of his time—’
‘Spends most of his time—?’
Izzy stabbed a piece of chicken with her fork, her cheeks pinker than before. ‘Having sex with his ex-wife. You can’t possibly be interested in all this. Can I eat this with my fingers or is that bad manners?’
Matteo discovered that he was interested in everything about her. ‘You can eat it in any way you wish. He still sleeps with his ex-wife?’ He felt genuinely horrified for her. ‘How does your mother cope with that?’
‘As long as she has the status of being his wife, that’s all she minds about.’ Izzy put her plate down, the rest of the food untouched. ‘And I hate that. That’s not love. That’s a business arrangement. I don’t ever want that. I had a narrow escape with Brian. That’s why I’m no good at relationships. Since then I’ve just avoided all that emotional stuff.’
‘Good decision.’ Relieved by that declaration, Matteo sprang to his feet. ‘And if there is one thing guaranteed to take your mind off emotional mess, it’s physical activity. I can recommend it.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What sort of physical activity did you have in mind?’
‘Swimming,’ he purred, ‘what else? Are you wearing a bikini?’
Those blue eyes dropped to his mouth. ‘Yes, but it’s miles to the swimming pool from here.’
‘Who said anything about a swimming pool?’ Deciding that if he didn’t get her in cold water soon they’d both be in serious trouble, Matteo hauled her to her feet, closed his hands round the hem of her dress and lifted it over her head. Underneath she was wearing a minuscule turquoise bikini that revealed more than it concealed and he felt raw lust slam into him.
‘When did you get that tattoo?’
Her eyes twinkled naughtily. ‘The day Chantelle said, “Whatever you do, don’t get a tattoo.” What’s a girl supposed to do? I wasn’t an easy teenager. You should probably feel sorry for her.’
‘I don’t.’ Matteo found it impossible to feel sorry for a woman who had clearly given her daughter so little support. Stripping to his swimming shorts, he scooped her into his arms.
Izzy squealed with shock. ‘Don’t you dare drop me in the water. Don’t you—agh—’ Her words gurgled as Matteo dropped her into the water beneath the fountain and when she surfaced she came up spluttering and swinging for him.
She was wet and slippery but he caught her easily and took her down again and this time he went with her into the cool water.
‘I can’t believe you’re swimming in your fountain!’ Gasping and laughing, she gave him a shove. ‘There’s hope for you yet, Your Highness.’
‘Stop calling me Your Highness.’
‘You told me that was the correct mode of address.’
‘The first time.’ He slid his hand behind her neck and drew her face to his, reminding himself that physical intimacy was completely different from emotional intimacy. ‘We’ve gone way past that.’ Devouring her mouth in a hot kiss, he backed her out of the water. Still kissing they stumbled over the edge of the fountain, paused long enough to scoop up the blanket and their clothes and then he swung her into his arms again and strode towards the maze.
This type of intimacy held no fear for him whatsoever.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE maze was a mysterious world of sunlight and dappled shade, the tall hedges giving each path its own feeling of privacy.
Quivering with anticipation, Izzy wrapped her arms around him. ‘Why here?’
‘Because it’s closer than the palazzo.’
‘Well, don’t lose me—’ she buried her face in his neck ‘—I have a hopeless sense of direction. My body won’t be discovered for at least a decade.’
‘Your body is going to be discovered a lot sooner than that.’ Matteo strode purposefully along a path, took a left then a right and flung down his shirt and the towels in the little clearing. Then he gently lowered her to the ground and brought his mouth down on hers.
Izzy’s resistance melted like ice in a heatwave. All the sensations from the night before came rushing back. It was as if they’d never stopped. As if the time in between had been nothing more than a pause.
His hands were hard on her shoulders, his mouth warm and seductive, and she slid down into the dark, erotic depths of his kiss.
‘I’ve never met a woman who makes me feel the way you do.’ He muttered the words against her lips. ‘It drives me mad.’
‘Me too.’ Izzy gave a soft whimper as his mouth trailed down her neck. ‘Don’t stop.’
‘I want you so badly I can’t even make it back to the palazzo.’
It was some consolation that he felt that way too. But even through the lethal buzz of sexual chemistry, part of her refused to completely abdicate her responsibilities.
‘Do you have—?’
‘Yes. I’m n
ot making that mistake twice.’ His fingers smoothed her damp skin and she shivered with anticipation as she felt his hand on her thigh.
‘There’s something I need to say to you.’ Her tone was urgent. ‘I’m nothing like Carly.’
He inhaled sharply. ‘Izzy—’
‘I just want you to know that I’d never—’
He silenced her with a hot, hard kiss. ‘You think I’d be here with you if I thought you were like her?’
‘For what it’s worth, I didn’t plan any of this to happen.’ It seemed imperative that he know that and he paused. His head blocked the sun and she stared into the raw hunger in his eyes, feeling something she’d never felt before.
‘Neither did I.’ With unsteady fingers he removed her bikini top. ‘I didn’t plan this either.
The intention was to haul you off that stage and keep you out of trouble. But you’ve been nothing but trouble from the moment I put you in my car. I can’t believe what you do to me. You drive me crazy.’
Izzy was about to say that he had the same effect on her when his mouth brushed against her nipple and sensation shot through her body like a lightning bolt. She squirmed, consumed by a fiery flash of heat that burned from head to toe. Realising that the power was all his, she gave a moan of desperation and slid her leg over his, locking him against her.
His mouth returned to hers, hot and demanding. She felt the erotic slide of his tongue, the scrape of male stubble against her cheek and the sure touch of his hands on her body, and the world around her ceased to exist. She was aware of nothing except him, not the heat of the sun pounding down on them, the stillness of the hot summer air or the occasional rustle of leaves in the shadows of the maze. Her world was reduced to just this man and the sensations that engulfed her.
Sure and confident, he kissed his way down her body, driving her wild with the skill of his mouth and the touch of his hands. And she touched back, her hands as bold as his, as urgent for him as he was for her.
At some point—she wasn’t even sure when—she lost the rest of her bikini and he spread her thighs with possessive hands and subjected her to an exploration of such intimacy that her body caught fire.