‘Do you think she was?’
He really was infuriating. ‘I don’t know what I think. At the time, when it happened, I assumed you were involved and you’ve never denied it.’ She shrugged. ‘So, maybe your sister’s wrong, after all?’
‘Maybe she is.’
‘Why won’t you tell me?’ There was exasperation in Carrie’s voice now. ‘I really would rather like to know.’
Leone said nothing for a moment, just watched her across the table, the blue eyes seeming to study her very closely. Then he sat back in his seat and quietly told her, ‘I arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes after the table fiasco. I was mad when I found out. That’s why I came over to apologise.’
He continued to watch her. ‘And Caterina was quite right. That’s not the kind of behaviour I go in for or approve of.’
As Carrie looked at him she felt about half an inch high. She grimaced. ‘I’m sorry.’ Then she demanded in an accusing tone, ‘But why didn’t you tell me I’d got it all wrong?’
‘You didn’t ask. And I like people to make up their own minds about me. It’s not for me to tell them what to think.’
‘That’s all very well—’ Carrie’s tone was suddenly sharp ‘—but how can people make up their minds if they don’t know the facts?’
She felt angry, as though he had wilfully misled her. Though he hadn’t, of course. She had misled herself.
Then she sank back in her seat. So Caterina had been right about that. She took a deep breath and braced herself to confront him with the rest.
‘It seems I was wrong about you. And maybe on more counts than one.’ She narrowed her hazel eyes. ‘Caterina was telling me something else. She was telling me you have a full-time job.’
One jet-black eyebrow lifted. ‘My, my,’ he observed, ‘it sounds as though my sister’s been telling you a lot.’ But his tone was light. He was more amused than annoyed.
‘And is that true too? About the job, I mean?’
‘Yes, of course it’s true. And why do you look so surprised? Why on earth wouldn’t I have a job?’
‘Because you’re the brother of the Duke. Because you’re a count and all that. People like me tend to assume that people like you don’t have jobs.’
‘You think we’re all idle pariahs? Surely that’s a bit out of date? These are the 1990s we’re living in. This isn’t the last century.’
‘Well, I didn’t think all of you were idle par—’
Wishing she could bite off her tongue, Carrie let her voice trail off. Perhaps that wasn’t the most diplomatic thing she could have said.
‘I see. Just me?’ To her surprise, Leone laughed.
‘Well, maybe you got that idea because I like to keep my life private. It’s not common knowledge that I have a nine-to-five job.’ He smiled. ‘Though some days eight-to-eight would really be more accurate.’
Carrie was staring down into her lap feeling even smaller than before. What Caterina had told her was all true and she had been totally wrong about him.
‘He just wants to live his life, as far as possible, like an ordinary person,’ Caterina had confided. ‘Though, if you ask me, he works a hell of a lot harder than most people. He does his job as a member of the royal family, plus his other job as well.’
And now that she knew that to be true Carrie was left without defences. She could no longer disapprove of him as she had up until now. She could no longer tell herself he was a waster and a hooligan. Instead, to her dismay, she could only admire him.
She looked across at him now. There was one more thing, of course. In the course of their conversation Caterina had also insisted that the reports about his womanising were grossly exaggerated.
‘He’s no saint, of course. I wouldn’t claim that. But he’s not a woman-eater either. That’s an invention of the Press. I don’t know if he’s ever been in love, but he’s had a couple of longish relationships and I’ve always got the impression that he was totally faithful to his women.’ She’d shrugged. ‘I don’t think you can expect any more of a single man than that.’
Carrie tended to agree, but was it true? she wondered. She let her eyes scan his face as the waiter brought their espressos. She could scarcely ask him that as well. It would begin to sound like a third degree. Besides, and more importantly, it would be a little revealing if she were to start demanding reassurances about his love life!
So she said nothing. She would reserve final judgement on that score and, in the meantime, give him the benefit of the doubt. For she had a strong gut feeling that his sister had been right about that too.
Which was disastrous news, of course. There wasn’t a thing left to hold against him. Suddenly, she felt hopelessly, helplessly vulnerable.
They had their coffee and left the restaurant. And it was as they were climbing into the black car that Leone suggested, ‘Let’s go for a drive. I’d like to take you somewhere special. A secret spot I know with the most incredible view of the city.’
As she hesitated, he added, ‘It’s not far. Don’t worry. I’ll have you back home for the stroke of midnight.’ And the next minute they were setting off up into the hills.
Driving through the darkened countryside in the open-top car would normally have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, with the clean scent of the cypresses, the chatter of the cicadas, the carpet of stars spread out above their heads. But Carrie was still feeling tense. She shouldn’t have agreed to this, she was thinking. This was the start of the slippery slope.
And she didn’t want to fall. To fall for Leone would be disastrous. She was quite sure of that, though at this moment she couldn’t think why.
At last they came to a stop on a high grassy knoll on the edge of a thicket of moon-dappled trees. And as Leone pulled on the handbrake Carrie sat forward in delight.
‘This is incredible,’ she gasped. ‘You can see the entire city from here!’
For spread out below them was the most wonderful tapestry of city lights and shadowy, wooded hills, with the sea, off in the distance, gleaming like a mirror.
‘Didn’t I tell you this place was special?’ Leone smiled at her obvious pleasure. ‘And not everyone gets to come here. This is one of my secret places.’
‘Well, I can see why. It’s absolutely breathtaking.’
But a little too romantic, she was thinking. This was a spot for lovers. She could feel her heart begin to hammer. She should never have come with him to this secret, special place.
Leone had not suggested that they get out of the car, so Carrie didn’t suggest it either. Maybe this was going to be brief. They would just admire the view and then go. So there was no point in getting out of the car and prolonging it.
But they weren’t leaving just yet. Leone leaned back in his seat. ‘I always find this place relaxing, especially at the end of a hard day. I often come up here just to unwind a bit,’ he told her. ‘And today, I’m afraid, has been that kind of day. It definitely calls for a bit of unwinding.’
Carrie’s spine was pressed so hard against the leather back of the seat that she was in serious danger of popping out the other side. Unlike him, she didn’t find this place relaxing in the least. On the contrary, it was tearing her poor nerves to shreds.
She said, struggling to sound cool, ‘So it’s been a hard day, has it?’
‘It’s been hectic. Nothing went smoothly. You know the kind of day? Appointments cancelled. People turning up late. The sort of day when you end up doing everything twice.’
He looked at her, noticing how she had edged away a little, and deliberately he sat back, widening the distance between them. He had no desire to make her nervous. That was the last thing on his mind.
Carrie picked up that move and its effect was most peculiar. Instead of feeling glad, she found herself feeling oddly disappointed. Perhaps she had nothing to worry about, after all.
She said, ‘I had a good day. I got lots of things done: a few more interviews, some more research. I even managed to take
a few more photographs. And, of course, seeing the dinner service was the perfect way to end it all.’
And as she said it she was thinking, Was all that really just today? She seemed to have lived at least two days in the space of one.
And the day wasn’t even finished. She felt her stomach go tight. Perhaps it was better not to think about that.
Leone watched her as she spoke. ‘I’m going to speak to Damiano again tomorrow. Though I doubt we’ll be able to fix anything just at the moment. For one thing, right now he’s up to his ears in work. . . And for another I won’t be here. I’ve got to go to Paris on business tomorrow. I’ll be away till the end of next week.’
‘Oh, really?’
It was perfectly silly, but Carrie’s heart plummeted to her shoes. A whole week without him! What a terrible prospect! Though she was mad to think such things. Utterly mad. What difference did it make to her even if he was gone for an entire month?
‘But I promise I’ll sort things out just as soon as I get back.’ He looked at her. ‘You don’t mind waiting an extra week, I hope?’
‘No, of course not. Not at all.’ A week meant nothing to her, workwise. It was on a personal level that, in her foolishness, she was finding it such a blow.
‘So, that’s settled, then.’
Leone shifted in his seat. Perhaps, he was thinking, it’s time to draw this excursion to a close. For she was still looking uneasy, her body stiff and forbidding. Clearly, she had little faith in his intentions.
He reached for the ignition key. ‘I think we’ve seen the view now. I reckon it’s time I drove you home.’
Carrie had already been feeling quite bereft, but she felt doubly bereft now. Was that it? Was it all over? Was she about to be packed off home now, without even a kiss to comfort her during the next lonely week?
It seemed too awful to bear. She turned sharply to face him—a little more sharply, indeed, than she had intended. ‘Do we have to go just yet? I’m really in no hurry.’
And though one part of her cringed—that had sounded blatantly obvious—another, much larger part of her didn’t care. On the contrary, she was quite shamelessly glad that she’d said it, for he had dropped his hand from the key and was turning to say to her, ‘OK. If you like. I’m not in any hurry either.’
He had clearly read the signals wrong. Leone narrowed his eyes as he watched her. Women were so difficult to read sometimes, and this one especially. Though he had to confess that he had never met one he had wanted to read more.
A blush had touched her cheek, which simply made her more beautiful. He reached out one hand and touched her hair with his fingers, that wonderful honey-coloured hair, so thick and glossy, that felt like silk beneath his fingers.
He let his fingers trickle through it, noting the way she sighed and closed her eyes, and again he was struck by the same resemblance he’d seen before.
Smiling, he told her, ‘You know, you look like an angel.’
Carrie turned round then to look at him. Was he joking? she was wondering. Was he making fun of her again?
She said, ‘I must say no one’s ever told me that before.’
Leone smiled. ‘Ah, well, that’s probably because most people aren’t acquainted with the same angels I know.’
As he spoke, still touching her hair, he could feel a sudden softness in her. The tension had slackened. There was a lack of resistance.
He continued, ‘There’s an angel in our family chapel. . . Not a real angel, you understand. She’s painted on the wall. And I noticed it the very first time I met you. . . It’s amazing, but you look exactly like her.’
Carrie laughed. If he was making this up it was corny, but she liked it. And at least no one could accuse him of lacking imagination!
‘I’ll show her to you some time, for I can tell you don’t believe me.’ He smiled. ‘She’s always been my favourite angel.’
And as he said it he let his fingers slide to the back of her head and, moving closer, began to draw her towards him.
Carrie could feel her head spinning. Where he touched her she was burning. And every inch of her longed for the kiss that was about to happen. She sank against him with a small sigh and surrendered her lips to his.
It was less gentle than before. There was an urgency in his kiss this time. She could feel the fire in him reaching out to embrace her and she longed to fling herself recklessly onto the flames. To burn, exquisitely, on the glorious pyre of their shared passion.
His tongue flicked against her teeth, turning her stomach to ashes, and she could hear his breathing, as full of longing as her own.
‘My beautiful angel!’
She pressed against him. ‘Leone!’
For there was nothing in her head now but the heat of this moment. No thought whatsoever of all her previous doubts and worries. They had never existed, or, if they had, they had been mere madness. All that mattered was the thrilling reality of now.
One hand was on her breast, moulding the full contours, while with his other hand he was drawing her down lower in the seat, so that she was half sitting, half lying beneath him and she could feel the wonderful hard weight of him on top of her, the virile evidence of his desire pressing against her thighs.
Carrie caught her breath. What would happen if he tried to make love to her? Would she stop him? Would she resist? It wouldn’t be easy. More than anything she longed to feel that hard muscle deep inside her.
He was unbuttoning her blouse. She began to unbutton his shirt, slipping her hand inside and pressing her palm against his chest. And the feel of it was thrilling. So warm and smooth and potent. Then she gasped as, with a tug at her bra, he released her breasts.
Carrie cried out. He had no mercy. He was strumming the hard nipples with his fingers, sending rockets of sensation ricocheting through her. Then, more merciless still, even as she whimpered he was bending down to take one blood-gorged peak in his mouth.
It was unbearable. She felt her fingers dig into his chest as the spiral of longing in her loins grew tighter. Any moment she would explode. The tension was unbearable. Never had any man taken her to such giddy heights before.
But just as she was thinking that she must either die or have him, right here, right this minute, or else lose her reason, he drew up and kissed her mouth and held her close for a moment.
‘I think we ought to call a halt.’ She could feel his body shivering. ‘I want to make love to you, but not here, not like this,’ he told her. He slipped her bra back into place and closed the front of her blouse. ‘I want to do it properly, in a nice big bed, taking it slowly, with a whole night ahead of us. Not clumsily like this in the front seat of a car.’
He looked down at her, his hair tousled, a fierce look in his eyes. ‘Believe me, that wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve never wanted any woman so much in my life!’
Carrie clung to him, oddly grateful that he’d pulled them both back from the brink. She might have regretted it, though her body was aching for him still, just as she could feel that his still ached for hers.
She heard herself say, ‘And I’ve never wanted any man so much.’
It seemed a reckless thing to say, but there was recklessness in the air. And she was glad that she’d said it as he smiled at her and told her, ‘You’re special to me, Carrie. I want you to know that.’ He kissed her and held her. ‘Very special indeed.’
They drove back to the villa in virtual silence. There simply seemed to be no need for words. It was as though something had been acknowledged, something basic, something vital. Something that now bound the two of them together.
At last they reached the villa and Leone told her, ‘I’ll phone you every day while I’m in Paris.’ He kissed her, a kiss with fire, but achingly tender. ‘And as soon as I get back I’ll come and see you.’
‘OK.’
Carrie was smiling. In a way, she dreaded his going, but at the same time she was filled with a wonderful new confidence. He would come back. She would see him agai
n. And they would make love, just like he’d promised. Suddenly, the entire future felt gloriously bright.
‘Look after yourself,’ she told him. ‘Have a safe journey.’
Then she was climbing up the steps to her apartment, glowing with a serene new happiness she had never known before.
Leone kept his promise to phone her every day. In fact, on quite a few days, he phoned her more than once.
‘I’m missing you,’ he’d tell her. ‘It’s miserable without you.’
And the words warmed Carrie’s heart, for she was missing him too, dreadfully, more than she had ever known it possible to miss anyone. Every minute of every hour of every day she thought of him. It was a torture, but an exquisite one. He had become a part of her, it seemed.
For nothing had altered during his absence. That feeling of serene happiness had stayed in her heart. What will be will be, she told herself calmly. And this was obviously meant to be. There was no point in fighting it.
What did it matter if he was a count and she an ordinary working girl? She had thought that would be a barrier, but really it wasn’t. When they were together, or when they spoke to one another on the phone, they were just two people, a man and a woman. And there was an affinity between them that she had felt with no man before. No, she and Leone had something special going.
At the end of the week came the phone call she’d been longing for.
‘Everything’s wrapped up,’ Leone told her. ‘I’ll be flying home tomorrow on the afternoon flight.’ He threw her a kiss down the line. ‘Make sure you’re ready and waiting for me. I’ll come and see you straight from the airport.’
Carrie barely slept that night. The excitement was unbearable. But she didn’t really care. If this was insomnia she didn’t mind it, for lying thinking of tomorrow, and Leone, was sheer heaven.
She shivered beneath the sheets, her skin tingling with excitement. Tomorrow he would be here. At last they’d be together. She hugged herself with joy and pressed her face against the pillow. Tomorrow, finally, all her dreams would come true.
The Colorado Countess Page 8