by Kim Lawrence
Her chin lifted, concern slipping into her eyes when her amused laugh wouldn’t come. She had never pretended to be something she wasn’t for any man and she was not going to start now!
The wattage of her smile increased. ‘Do I need to change?’ She glanced down. It was the sixth night she had spent at the palazzo and the entire dressing-for-dinner thing was still new to her. She had assumed that as staff she would be eating in the kitchen or at least in her room but Nat had made it clear that this was not the case.
The first night, spent with Franco and Nat, dinner had been a relaxed affair, but the next...well, she could tell from the way Danilo had kept staring at her bare legs that she’d got it wrong.
The next night her skirt had been even shorter...to emphasise a point. Should the fact she felt the need to have worried her? Tess pushed away the thought. Even if she had it wouldn’t have mattered: Danilo had not joined them for dinner that night or any since.
So she had dressed to please herself, quite enjoying the nightly ritual. Tonight she wore a simple, floaty, summer dress.
‘You look great.’
‘And if I may say so, so do you.’ It was true. Nat was wearing a figure-hugging number in baby-blue silk that brought out the colour of her eyes and emphasised the voluptuous curves that Tess so envied.
* * *
There was plenty of room, but Alexandra was sitting close enough for their thighs to touch, not that many men would have complained. The designer—her company had been awarded the contract to furnish the latest luxury cruise ship that was being added to the expanding Raphael Cruise Line—looked exactly what she was: an ex-model. Topping six feet in her heels, she was slim with endless legs. Somewhat cynically he suspected that she already had her plastic surgeon of choice on speed dial for the day she didn’t like what she saw when she looked in the mirror.
The rows of gold bracelets on her wrist jingled as she leaned across the table to top up her glass, giving him a free view of her excellent cleavage. Mildly amused by the action—Alex was pulling out all the stops tonight—Danilo felt his half-smile fade. Whatever Alex tried, it wasn’t working.
Maybe he shouldn’t have made the trip to Pisa with her. Nor suggested she break the trip from Florence to Pisa here—the small town where he was instantly recognised lacked the comfortable anonymity he sought. But why require anonymity? It wasn’t as if he were committing a crime!
He considered drinking the untouched wine in his glass. Since when had he needed alcohol to appreciate a sexy woman? He held his hand above his glass as she lifted the bottle, which was now two thirds empty, not that Alex was anywhere near drunk.
‘How many times a day do you need to shave? Not that I’m complaining! I like a man to look like a man.’
She lifted a hand to his cheek, rubbing her fingers across the stubble. She was a beautiful woman, at least he’d always thought so, who had made it clear on their first meeting that she was available. She’d made the first move and waited for him to make the next. He doubted she’d lost any sleep when he hadn’t—until tonight.
He saw her looking at him expectantly but it was only when he took hold of her hand and placed it on the table that he realised she’d said something and he’d missed it.
‘Sorry?’
‘I said are you ready to leave? I don’t want to keep you up too late.’
She was gorgeous and he was badly in need of sex so the question was, why wasn’t he leaping to his feet and paying the cheque? This was exactly what he needed.
Alex leant back in her seat with a sigh. ‘It’s not happening for you?’
‘I’m finding it hard to switch off at the moment,’ he explained, unable to get the image of a pair of golden eyes out of his head.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t take it personally.’ Alex smiled and broke the connection of their thighs as she leaned over to kiss him. ‘But just so you know what you’re missing...’
He leaned back in his seat but she followed. Short of tipping her on the floor, he was going to have to sit there and take it like a man! Danilo doubted many would have sympathised with his dilemma. She was a good kisser, he recognised on an objective level. While on another, non-objective, totally irrational level he discovered that kissing one woman while thinking of another felt like cheating. Wrong word, wrong feeling and what the hell was wrong with a man just enjoying himself? And yet, wasn’t he just going through the motions? Was he being polite?
The thoughts slid through his head while his half-opened eyes drifted across the room, scanning the occupants with a detached curiosity as he detachedly kissed her back. His eyes had made one sweep of the bar when quite suddenly they made contact with someone who was staring straight at him. His libido, dormant all night, roared into painful life.
He swore, pulled back and had half risen in his seat before he sank back down again. He swore again as the connection was broken and Tess’s hair fell across her face. Belatedly remembering his companion, he turned his head.
‘Sorry!’
The expression on Alex’s beautiful face suggested that she was taking it personally and he couldn’t blame her.
‘It’s just that my sister and cousin are here.’
She looked slightly mollified. ‘I thought, from the way you reacted, it was your wife or something.’ Automatically she followed the direction of the tilt of his head. ‘I take it that the woman in the wheelchair is your sister. I heard...’ She broke off, looking uncomfortable, and added, ‘I’ve met Franco, through a mutual friend.’ Curiosity slid into her eyes as she studied the second woman in the group. ‘Who is his new girlfriend?’
‘She is not Franco’s girlfriend.’ The amusement in his voice sounded forced even to his own ears. He should be laughing; it was funny—weird how the images playing in his head did not make him feel like laughing. Images that involved Franco doing the things to Tess he had been imagining doing to her all week.
‘Do we have to go over?’
‘No.’
Alex looked pleased. ‘So, who is she?’
‘She is...’ Recovering a little, the heat that had streaked through his body when he had half risen in his seat coalescing in his groin, he lied coolly, ‘A family friend.’
Everyone’s friend in a matter of days. Tess Jones had won hearts and minds; he was the only person who had not fallen under her spell.
Ever heard of denial?
‘She has gorgeous hair.’ Alexandra lifted a hand to her own sleek blonde head, her confident smile twisting into a spasm of annoyance when the compliment she was fishing for didn’t arrive. ‘Are you going to introduce me?’
‘No.’ Then, to soften the bluntness of his response, he added, ‘I wouldn’t want to cramp their style.’
* * *
Franco gave their order to the barman and, lowering his voice, added in a conversational tone, ‘Don’t look now but... I said don’t look!’
‘Danilo!’ His sister jerkily turned away, the tension that Tess had sensed growing in Natalia since they’d set off for the evening crystallising into something close to panic. ‘Dio, he isn’t supposed to be here. What if he sees us and comes over...? Wait, he already knows, doesn’t he?’
He has already seen us, thought Tess, who didn’t turn her head. She already knew he was sitting in a corner pressed up against a gorgeous blonde who had been stroking his face adoringly when they had walked in. Unlike Nat, she hadn’t experienced panic when she’d seen them, just nausea. It looked as if Danilo was not quite the workaholic his family thought, she mused sourly.
‘Knows what?’ Tess asked, concerned by the younger girl’s pallor.
Nat shook her head, not meeting Tess’s eyes. ‘Nothing.’
‘Actually, I think he probably knows everything. What’s the word for it? Omniscient?’
Tess shot Franco an irritated look. ‘Not helping.’ She turned to Nat. ‘What if he does come over?’ It didn’t matter; his presence had already ruined the night for Tess. ‘We haven’t broken any laws.’ Except the un
written one that said no one could do anything without asking him first! The man was a control freak, she decided. But her thought processes were suspended by a fresh wave of nausea as the couple on the other side of the room began to kiss.
Franco, who was watching them too, let out a low chuckle. ‘I doubt if he will. It looks to me like they’ll be leaving soon.’ His observation was tinged with envy as he added, ‘Talk about get a room.’
Tess’s mind had already gone to the scene Franco’s comment painted. ‘Is that his girlfriend?’ She was staring; she didn’t want to but she couldn’t stop.
Ignoring his own advice, Franco turned his head. ‘Danilo doesn’t have girlfriends...he just has partners.’ He glanced down at his cousin with a grimace of apology. ‘Sorry, Nat.’
‘Do you really think I thought my brother was a monk?’
Not a mistake anyone who had looked at his mouth would have made! The thought materialised at exactly the moment his eyes connected with hers. A flood of mortified heat scorched through Tess’s body as she looked away. He hadn’t really seen her, not at that distance, it had just seemed like it—but she had been staring.
She picked up her glass of wine and willed herself not to look back, though if they didn’t want people to look they should really have taken Franco’s advice, she decided crossly. If anyone should be embarrassed it should be Danilo.
‘I’m just going to the ladies’ room,’ Nat announced, swivelling her lightweight chair around.
‘Hold on.’ Tess moved to walk beside the chair. Her determination not to think about Danilo having sex, especially with the tall beautiful blonde, had the predictable result that that was pretty much all she could think of. ‘I’ll come with you.’
‘No! It’s fine. That’s why I suggested this place. It’s very wheelchair friendly.’
Tess, watching her move away, frowned. ‘Has anything happened today? Natalia seems a bit distracted.’
‘I thought she looked pretty good tonight.’
‘Yes, I know, but don’t you think—?’
‘Danilo a monk? That’s a laugh! Before the car accident there were lots of girls, lots of nightclubs and—’
Tess, who had seen the pictures, read the stories, cut him off. ‘You mean you modelled yourself on him?’
‘I wish! The treat them mean keep them keen thing doesn’t work for me. Seriously though, since the accident he’s changed.’ He flashed the cool blonde a look. ‘Though not in everything. She is definitely his type.’
‘Look, do you mind if we talk about something that isn’t your cousin’s, and my boss’s, sex life?’
She aimed for casually amused but from Franco’s expression she knew she’d missed it by several shrill miles.
Before he could say anything she handed him her glass. ‘I’m going to check on Nat. I’m sure something is wrong. I’ll have the same again.’
‘Who am I to argue with women’s instinct?’
When Tess found the ladies’ room it was empty but for a couple of women who were checking their already perfect make-up.
‘Sorry but have you seen a woman...in a...’ about to say ‘blue dress’, she stopped, and, remembering a comment Nat had made about people noticing the chair and never seeing her, she finished with ‘...wheelchair?’ The two looked blankly at her, not understanding a word, and with a frustrated grimace she shook her head. ‘Never mind.’
Had she somehow missed Nat? Back out in the carpeted passageway she retraced her footsteps, standing by the doorway so she could scan the entire room. She could see Franco at the bar where she’d left him; there was no sign of either Nat or Danilo and his blonde. Starting to get seriously worried now, she ran back towards the ladies’ room. This was stupid. Nat had to be somewhere; she couldn’t just have vanished.
As she stood there telling herself not to panic a door opened and a couple walked through. Before it closed Tess got a glimpse of a few tables spread over what appeared to be a cobbled courtyard area.
She ran towards it, and took a deep breath. If Nat wasn’t here she was going to have to raise the alarm. She pushed the door open. The space behind the door was a lot smaller than it had seemed. Probably a sun trap during the daylight hours, now it was illuminated by fairy lights strung along the wooden struts of the pergola arrangement overhead. All in all the effect was romantic and intimate. The couple there obviously thought so!
‘Nat!’
The couple broke apart, the young man who was squatting beside the wheelchair rocking back on his heels.
Natalia, her expression one of embarrassment mingled with defiance, shook her head and took one of the young man’s hands between both of hers. ‘You can’t tell him!’
Tess didn’t need to ask who the ‘him’ she was talking about was. Oh, hell, just what she needed!
‘He’ll kill Marco!’ Nat pronounced dramatically.
‘I don’t think that it’ll come to that, Nat.’
The young man got to his feet. ‘I am not afraid of your brother.’
More fool you, Tess thought as he extended his hand.
‘I’m Marco.’
Tess took the hand and realised she was between the proverbial rock and a very hard place. Unbidden an image of Danilo floated into her head. He was the living embodiment of hard. Hard in every sense of the word, she decided. Ashamed of the illicit shiver that trickled down her spine, she pushed the image away.
‘I’m Tess.’
‘She’s a friend. She’s on our side, aren’t you, Tess?’
Her instinct told her to respond with a yes but her common sense told her that taking any side would be a major mistake, so she sidestepped the question.
‘I take it that you didn’t accidentally bump into one another?’ She arched a brow and looked from one to the other. ‘Which is why you panicked when you saw your brother?’
The young man’s eyes widened. Tess didn’t need to understand Italian to get the gist of what he was saying.
‘He’s gone.’
‘I will protect you from him, cara mia.’
Nat touched his arm. ‘He’s not a monster, Marco.’
‘You defend him?’
‘No, but...he thinks I’m still a kid, and he thinks me being in this is somehow his fault.’ She banged the chair with her hand. ‘He won’t stop looking for a miracle. I hope you won’t tell him.’ She gave a little sigh that tore at Tess’s heart. ‘But if you do, I’ll understand.’
Tess really wished that Danilo could witness this display of maturity from Nat, and she really wished she had not discovered the young lovers’ secret. This was definitely a lose-lose situation, and as much as she sympathised with the young couple she could also see where Danilo was coming from. She felt a surge of exasperation. If he hadn’t waded in with his size twelves the affair would probably have died a natural death by now. There was no better fuel for young love than prohibition!
‘I don’t want to be part of a conspiracy of silence, but, all right, I won’t tell him, but I think you should. He will find out at some point and it’ll be much easier if you come clean now. Just explain to him how you feel, the way you just explained it to me.’
‘You know what happened to the last person who told Danilo he was wrong?’
Tess shook her head.
Nat gave a high-pitched laugh. ‘Right, because nobody does.’ Without warning her anger dissolved and her eyes filled with tears. ‘I love my brother and I don’t want to make him unhappy, but I love Marco too.’
Tess felt a sharp stab of sympathy. She knew what it was like to try and please the person you loved and fail. For years she had tried to be the daughter her mother wanted; it was only when she’d stopped trying that she’d realised her mum loved her even if she was never going to be a political asset.
Nat’s sob was cut off as the door opened and four young women in a party mood spilled out into the courtyard. The illusion of privacy vanished as their laughter and chatter filled the air.
‘I think it’s best
if you go now, Marco.’
The young man appeared inclined to protest but Natalia backed up Tess’s suggestion. ‘I’ll be fine.’ She glanced at Tess and said defiantly, ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’
CHAPTER SIX
THEY WERE BACK at the palazzo before eleven. On the journey home Natalia had closed her eyes and given a not very realistic impression of being asleep. Once they were inside, pleading a headache, Natalia announced her intention of going straight to her room.
Tess, whose own head was pounding, made sympathetic noises and managed to insert a softly spoken comment before the girl disappeared. ‘You know you have to tell him, don’t you? Or stop seeing Marco.’
Natalia lifted her chin and glared at Tess. ‘That’s up to me, isn’t it, not you? I can’t stop you telling Danilo but I don’t have to listen to your advice, considering you’re being paid to give it!’ Her lips quivered and her eyes filled. ‘I... I’m sorry. I know I’ve put you in a terrible position but I can’t give him up.’
Tess stood there waiting until the sound of slamming doors stopped, but waiting for what?
To find someone I can’t give up?
It hadn’t happened yet.
And it never would, not while she... Tess sucked in a shocked breath through parted lips, and thought, Not while I can carry on pretending the only men who are attracted to me are the ones that ignited nothing inside more dangerous than friendship and affection.
Even while the echoes of this flash of insight reverberated around inside her skull, she began to push it away.
Because burying something solves it?
She set her soft jaw. This was not about her mum’s sleazy boyfriend. He had faded away, out of their lives, and she had not asked questions, just felt relief, relief that she didn’t have to tell her mum, knowing that her parent would shoulder all the blame.
But what if she’d buried the memory but not the fear? The fear of not being in control, of being helpless, went so deep that at some subconscious level she’d discouraged the attention of any man she could imagine herself losing control with.
Was all this denial now catching up with her?