Caroline Anderson, Anne Fraser, Kate Hardy, Margaret McDonagh

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 04 (lit)

  ‘I know, darling, and I’m so sorry,’ Polly soothed.

  ‘Papà said she had to go to heaven,’ Rosie added, and although it hurt, Luca was relieved there was acceptance, not distress in his daughter’s voice.

  ‘My mother died when I was very young, too, so I know how it feels. But you and Toni are blessed to have Papà. He loves you so much, and he’ll always be there for you, encouraging you to reach for your dreams and sheltering you from harm.’

  Luca had no idea if the girls had heard all Polly’s words because by the time she had finished speaking, they were asleep. But he had heard them. And it took a few moments to ease the lump that had formed in his throat. He had felt so humbled that Polly believed him to be a good father but there had also been the painful knowledge of everything Polly had lacked, that as a child she’d been deprived of the love and care and cherishing she had deserved. He hoped it wasn’t too late to give her those things, because with every day that passed, he was more and more sure that he wanted her in his life…for all his life.

  With Polly, he felt the most amazing closeness and intimacy, and a real sense of peace. It was extraordinary how far he had come in two weeks, from meeting Polly, fighting against the initial desire and not wanting any involvement with a woman to now…unable to bear a moment apart from her, knowing something very special was happening that could make a huge difference to his future and that of his children.

  He also knew there were issues yet to be discussed that Polly needed to face before she was free to embrace that future with him.

  ‘You can keep the photo,’ Georgina said now, drawing him from his thoughts. She hesitated, then she glanced up and met his gaze, a serious expression in her hazel eyes. ‘I’m only mentioning this because of the way Polly responded when I complimented her on how she looked.’

  ‘Go on,’ Luca invited, his attention sharpening. He, too, had noted Polly’s dismissive denial, especially as it had come so soon after her rejection of Jane’s comment about her sharing her mother’s looks.

  ‘I know Polly doesn’t have a copy of this picture, because I offered her one at the time and she wouldn’t take it.’

  Luca frowned. ‘Why not?’

  ‘She said it would cause trouble if her father found it and she didn’t want to risk her visits here to the stables,’ Georgina admitted, and he felt sick to his stomach at the implications. ‘She gave it back to me and said she’d written a suitable caption on the back. It’s what Reg called her.’

  Something in the young woman’s voice forewarned Luca that he wouldn’t like what he was about to see. Slowly, he turned the photograph over, his gaze zeroing in on the four words written in a youthful but recognisable hand. Plain Polly from Penhally. Dio! He could only imagine the damage caused by the planting of those words in Polly’s mind when she was so young and fragile—words he feared the man who had dared to call himself her father would have repeated insidiously, and, from all he had learned so far, with perverse enjoyment, knowing it would hurt.

  To judge from all Polly had said, and her problems with the anorexia, she had believed those words. Did she still? Was that what lay behind her lack of self-belief and the way she hid her body? Was that why she rejected any suggestions that she was attractive and desirable? He needed to find out. Because if it was, it was way past time he did something about it.

  ‘Maybe Polly would like a copy of the picture now,’ Georgina suggested.

  Luca nodded. ‘Thanks. I’ll take care of it.’

  ‘No…thank you,’ she countered with emphasis.

  Luca raised an eyebrow in surprise. ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes. For bringing Polly back here…’ She paused a moment, watching him. ‘And gut instinct tells me you’re just what Polly needs. Look after her, Dr d’Azzaro.’

  ‘I plan to. If she’ll let me. And it’s Luca…with a “c”,’ he added, making her laugh.

  Still chuckling, Georgina rose to her feet. ‘OK, girls, shall we get started and take you for your first ride?’

  Following through the yard, his heart swelled in his chest as he watched his daughters almost burst with joy as they met their first real-life pony. He loved them so much. They were his life. But he still found it hard to reconcile what Elaine had done…and how she had done it. If things were to go much further, he needed to know that Polly would never try to do the same. There was an issue with her and children, that was obvious, and it was one more important thing he needed to understand. Soon.

  The changes and improvements Georgina and Luka were making to the riding stables were obvious, and everything about the yard seemed more professional and run to an even higher standard. After looking round the new indoor school, Polly went back outside and paused for a moment to watch the lesson under way in one of the ménages. The horses and ponies were in excellent condition, and all the staff, including volunteers as she had been, were smart and wearing monogrammed sweatshirts like the one Georgina had on.

  As Polly walked down between the well-fenced paddocks, some of which were being rested, while others contained animals enjoying good-quality grazing, the late September sun was warm on her skin. Occasional trees lined the track, providing pockets of shade, and Polly stepped into one of these when she reached Long Meadow, an attractive field bordered by woods and which had a shallow stream flowing through it.

  Folding her arms on the top of the post-and-rail fence, Polly sighed, letting the memories roll over her. Her gaze moved over the half-dozen ponies in the field before her, settled on one and stopped.

  ‘No…it can’t be.’ The words whispered from her as she stared in disbelief at the chestnut gelding grazing a short distance away. ‘Copper?’ She shook her head, her heart thudding in her chest as she raised her voice and called again, loudly this time. ‘Copper!’

  The pony’s head came up and turned in her direction. She called his name once more, hardly daring to believe it was true, but a soft whicker sounded in answer and the pony began to walk towards her. Copper Canyon, her special friend! He must be in his twenties, she calculated, amazed and delighted to see how well he looked. Surely it was fanciful to believe he remembered her after thirteen years apart? Yet there was no denying the way he was responding to her voice. And Georgina must have known…she had deliberately sent her down here.

  He arrived before her, his head over the fence, ears pricked, eyes alert. ‘Oh, Copper,’ she whispered, tears escaping as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the silken warmth of his neck.

  There was nothing like the smell of horse. Polly closed her eyes and inhaled the familiar, comforting scent, feeling some of her tension melting away. She ran her fingers through Copper’s mane and along the muscled curve of his neck, and it was as if thirteen years had been stripped away. He’d been her only real friend. Time and again she had poured out her heart to him, sobbing out her pain and despair about Reg, her hopes and dreams for the future.

  She drew back a little, stroking his face, rubbing the spot at the base of his ear, just as he had always loved, enjoying the softness of his muzzle as he explored her face and neck. All too soon he moved a few steps away and began to graze again. She missed the immediate contact but basked in the joy of their reunion.

  ‘Are you all right, zingarella?’

  With a startled gasp, Polly swung round to find Luca close behind her, recalling too late the evidence of her tears. ‘Yes…thanks.’

  ‘And the tears, they are happy ones at seeing your special friend?’ he asked, stepping even closer, making her supremely aware of him.

  Polly nodded, unable to force out any words as Luca’s hands cupped her face, the pads of his thumbs erasing the moisture from her cheeks. ‘The girls?’

  ‘Are in their element and loving every moment,’ he confirmed. ‘They want you to see them.’

  ‘OK.’

  There was something different about him. Polly couldn’t explain what it was, but every part of her responded to it, the aching knot deep inside tighteni
ng and every nerve-ending tingling as his fingers continued to caress her face, slowly moving down to her throat, and then lower, whispering along her collar bones. He leaned in, his lips nibbling along her jawline to her ear, teasing her lobe before his tongue tickled the sensitive hollow beneath. A shudder rippled through her.

  ‘Luca?’ she whispered, a curious mix of uncertainty and excitement building inside her, her legs feeling too unsteady to hold her upright. ‘What is it?’

  He looked up and her breath caught at the sultry, slow burn heat in deep brown eyes. ‘There’s been a change of plan.’ Another step closer and his body made contact with hers, gently rubbing against her, firing her blood and liquefying her bones with the full-body caress.

  ‘W-What do you mean?’ she stammered.

  ‘I mean, mio amore, that I cannot allow another day to end with you believing you are unattractive and undesirable.’ His thumb brushed across her trembling lower lip. ‘So I’m taking you home to prove to you how beautiful and sexy you are.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  BY THE time they left the stables after the twins’ first successful riding experience, Polly had convinced herself that she had misunderstood Luca’s shocking pronouncement. More of her tension eased on the journey back to Penhally until, that was, Luca made an unexpected stop at the deserted surgery.

  ‘I will be just a moment.’

  True to his word, he was back in a very short time, although he didn’t appear to be carrying anything. Polly, her stomach fluttering uneasily, couldn’t help but be curious about what he was up to, but as he slid behind the wheel, their gazes met, and the sultry expression in deep, dark eyes sucked all the air from her lungs. OK…so maybe it was safer for her not to know.

  She had hardly regained her breath when they made another unscheduled stop. Polly had no idea how or when Luca had arranged it—or what reason he had given—but the twins were to spend some time with Oliver and Chloe. Delighted at the prospect of playing with Chloe’s cats and meeting up with Gabriel and Lauren to walk Foxy, Rosie and Toni ran off without a backward glance.

  Left alone with Luca, Polly felt the tension ratchet up on the final mile back to Keeper’s Cottage. Every part of her seemed electrified, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, whereas Luca, damn him, appeared composed and unruffled. Exactly what he had in mind for them Polly wasn’t sure, but her imagination was racing at a million miles an hour. And now they were home and she was running out of time.

  ‘Luca,’ she murmured, desperate need, fear, excitement and anxiety just some of the emotions churning inside her as he took her hand and led her up the stairs to his bedroom. ‘I’m not at all sure about this.’

  ‘I’m very sure.’

  How could he be? Her heart was threatening to beat right out of her chest and she felt paralysed with nerves as Luca moved around the room, turning down the duvet, removing his watch, his shoes and socks. He then took a packet of condoms from his pocket and set it on the bedside table. She swallowed back a rush of fearful excitement, realising now what the impromptu stop at the surgery had been for.

  Colour tinging her cheeks, Polly could only stare as Luca’s fingers moved to the buttons of his shirt and slowly, slowly began to undo them. She had seen him wearing less on the beach, and in the last couple of days—had slept with him, in this very bed, with only a couple of thin layers of material between them. But this was different. Luca was different. He’d changed the rules. And now…Oh, my!

  He slid off his shirt and tossed it aside in a gesture of thoughtless abandon, as if all that mattered was to be rid of it, revealing all that smooth, olive skin and rippling muscle. Next he turned his attention to his belt, unfastening it and sliding it free from the loops at the waistband of his jeans, letting it fall where it may. His wallet came next, drawn from his back pocket and set on the nearby chest. The snap of the button and parting of the teeth of the zip sounded unnaturally loud in the silence of the room and Polly fought for each ragged breath, unable to move or to look away as he eased out of the jeans. Dressed only now in boxer shorts, he closed the gap between them.

  Luca had the most incredible physique. Her mouth watered as her gaze devoured him, moving from his strong shoulders down to his broad chest and six-pack abdomen, the covering of dark hair she itched to feel that arrowed down in a tantalising line over his navel and disappearing beneath his boxer shorts.

  He halted in front of her…so close that the warm, musky aroma of him teased her senses, heightening her arousal and clouding her thoughts. One of her hands lifted, and it took a supreme effort of will to resist the temptation to explore.

  ‘You can touch,’ he invited, his voice warm and low and sexy as he caught her hand and drew her palm to rest over his heart, near the tattoo bearing the twins’ names, where she could feel its steady if rapid beat. ‘I long to feel your hands on my body.’

  His words made her hot all over, her pulse racing as she imagined having the freedom to do just that. For now she was preoccupied with savouring the feel of warm male skin and discovering that the dark hair on his chest was silkier than she had expected…so much so that she was scarcely aware of Luca picking up his wallet and taking something out.

  ‘Do you remember this, zingarella?’ he asked softly.

  Polly was shocked to find herself looking at an old photograph of her in her early teens with Copper. ‘Yes. I remember.’

  ‘Georgina gave it to me. She said you wouldn’t keep it all those years ago, but she thought you might like a copy now,’ Luca explained, and Polly cursed the sting of tears that pricked her eyes as old memories and emotions flooded her.

  ‘Th-Thank you.’

  ‘Do you also remember writing on the back?’

  Something in his tone alerted her and her gaze clashed with his. Dark eyes were filled with compassion and implacable determination. She looked back at the photo, seeing the scruffy, painfully thin little girl she had been, and briefly closed her eyes. What had she written? She didn’t know.

  Luca turned the picture over. For a moment Polly couldn’t bring herself to look. When she did, an involuntary sound escaped, somewhere between a gasp and a sob. She averted her gaze, humiliated that Luca knew the words that resonated in her brain now, just as they had done for over twenty-five years…Plain Polly from Penhally.

  ‘Those were Reg’s words?’ Luca asked, refusing to bestow the title ‘father’ on the man, and hoping for Polly’s sake that the anger banked inside him was masked.

  ‘Yes.’

  The word whispered out on a sigh, but it was the shame, resignation and hurt in her blue eyes that cut him into pieces. ‘This morning, when Jane said you looked like your mother, you denied it. Why?’

  ‘My mother was beautiful. I know I’m not,’ she riposted, lashes lowering to hide her expression. Her voice was thick and low when she spoke again. ‘I’ve always known what I am.’

  ‘And what do you think you are, zingarella?’

  ‘The anorexia took its toll. And Rex was right…so was Charles, my ex-husband.’ She paused a moment, and he felt a shudder ripple through her. ‘I’m unfeminine, scrawny and unattractive.’

  Luca had never known that silence could be so loud before, but as each second passed and neither of them spoke, Luca’s anger roared in his ears, growing to fever-pitch—anger at the man who had dared to call himself a father and who had conditioned Polly from such a young age to feel so bad about herself. At the moment the information about her marriage was sketchy, but he very much wanted to know about her husband, Charles. From what she had just said, the man had failed to make Polly feel loved and cherished. If Luca had his way he would be telling—and showing—her every day for the rest of their lives how beautiful and loved and special she was. Starting now.

  ‘Come with me.’

  Luca knew he was taking a risk, but he believed he had to do it, that it was time…for both of them. He could feel Polly shaking as he led her across the room to the full-length mirror, placing her in
front of it and standing up close behind her. Wrapping one arm loosely around her waist, he cupped her chin with his free hand and raised her head until their gazes locked in the mirror.

  ‘You are a beautiful woman, Polly.’ He saw the immediate denial and disbelief in her eyes, but he was determined to counteract them. ‘Your skin is flawless, peachy-soft, so touchable,’ he told her, hearing the huskiness of his voice as he began his honest assessment of her. His fingers caressed the line of her jaw before moving on the trace all the features of her face. ‘The contrast of your pale skin against mine fascinates me. Your bone structure is exquisite.’

  ‘L-Luca…’

  He shushed her interruption, continuing to hold her gaze in the mirror, feeling her response to his touch and his words in the tremble of her body, the faint wash of colour across her cheeks, the unsteadiness of her breathing and the increasingly rapid beat of her heart.

  ‘Your eyes, glinting like dark sapphires, mesmerise me,’ he continued, using one finger to lightly trace her brows, before moving on down. ‘This is so cute!’ He smiled as he gently tweaked the tip of her small, straight nose. She was following his every move, he could see, confusion mingling with doubt and growing desire. He brushed the pad of his thumb across the swell of her lips, which parted instantly. ‘And as for your mouth…if I don’t kiss you properly, very soon, I shall go crazy. Your lips are so soft, so sexy. I want to taste you, to unleash the burning passion we’ve both been trying hard to keep in check since we met. I want you, Polly. I want to see all of you, kiss all of you, spend hours making love with you.’

  A whimper escaped her, a needy little sound that aroused him even more, and as she leaned back into him for support, he splayed his hand low over her belly to hold her close as he rubbed his hips against the delicate curve of her bottom, letting her know just how hard he was for her.

  ‘Can you feel how much I want you?’ he murmured against her ear, teasing the lobe between his lips before sucking on it, teasing her as her breath hitched and she swayed against him. ‘You, Polly. For the first time since Elaine died, I’m attracted to a woman. It is you I respond to, you I find attractive and beautiful.’