by Sarah Morgan
‘So he’s a soft touch.’
‘Soft?’ Laughing, Stacey finished what she was doing and washed her hands. ‘He’s about as soft as steel. And clever.’
‘But—’
‘He gets something back that money can’t buy, and that’s loyalty. He has virtually zero staff turnover. Not one of his employees has ever sold him out to the press, or anyone else for that matter. They just wouldn’t. We all owe him.’
None of that changed the fact that if Silvio hadn’t given Johnny the money, her brother might still be alive.
‘How many of his staff…?’ Jessie felt awkward finishing the question but Stacey just grinned.
‘Did he drag from the streets? Dunno. He treats us all the same, you see, so you’d never know. Do you want another coffee?’
‘She doesn’t have time.’ Silvio strode across the galley and took Jessie’s hand in his, pulling her off the stool. ‘The helicopter is waiting. Stacey, you have five minutes to put together a delicious picnic. Something special.’
‘Yes, boss.’ Rising to the challenge with a delighted grin, Stacey shot towards the enormous fridge, obviously only too pleased to show what she could do.
Jessie’s face was scarlet—partly because she’d been caught talking about him but mostly because seeing him in daylight after what they’d shared the night before felt hideously awkward. Her stomach cramped and her pulse rate doubled. She didn’t want to look at him and yet she couldn’t not look. She wanted to ask him why they needed a picnic when they had nothing more to say to each other, but she felt too self-conscious to speak to him in front of Stacey. His hand still held hers tightly and the warmth and strength in his grip did something strange to her insides.
Wasn’t he angry with her?
After what she’d said to him the night before, he should have been angry.
And after her conversation with Stacey, she no longer knew how she felt.
Oblivious to the atmosphere between the two of them, Stacey was moving around the kitchen efficiently, chopping, wrapping, washing salad and adding various items to a large coolbox. Then she winked at Silvio and added a bottle of champagne and some glasses. ‘Just in case you’re thirsty, boss. Do you want me to have it taken to the helicopter?’
‘No, I’ll take it myself.’ Silvio held out his free hand and gave Stacey a rare smile. ‘Grazie.’
‘Prego,’ Stacey said in a broad London accent, and Silvio winced.
‘You really must work on that accent. Tell Chef we won’t be back for dinner tonight.’ Without giving Jessie the opportunity to question that command, he tightened his grip on her hand and walked purposefully towards the upper deck.
Wondering whether he’d overheard any of her conversation with Stacey, Jessie tugged at her hand. ‘Wait—Silvio—’ It felt as though everything was shifting around her and she couldn’t keep her balance.
‘I’m not good at waiting.’ Still pulling her along with him, he didn’t slacken his stride and she wondered why it was that he was always so sure of everything he did.
Life wasn’t that black and white, was it?
Jessie couldn’t stand the tension any longer. She had no idea where they were going or why, but she knew she had things to say. ‘At least tell me where we’re going.’
‘Somewhere we can be together without an audience.’ Without pausing, Silvio took the steps that led to the small helicopter pad. ‘Somewhere we can talk.’
‘What is there to say?’ Was he expecting her to apologise for what she’d said to him?
‘Plenty.’ His eyes unfathomable, Silvio touched her cheek gently with his fingers and then urged her onto the helicopter. He spoke to his pilot in Italian and moments later they were lifting into the air and the yacht was suddenly far beneath them.
‘Where are we going? What are we doing?’ Jessie turned towards him and he relaxed in his seat.
‘Consider it foreplay,’ he said huskily, a sardonic smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as his eyes made contact with hers. ‘Generally you like plenty of foreplay—wasn’t that what you told me? I’m giving you what you want, tesoro.’
How could he possibly know what she wanted when she had no idea herself?
The sudden dive of her stomach had nothing to do with the movement of the helicopter.
‘I didn’t mean—I was just—’
‘I know what you were doing. I know far more than you think I do.’ He slipped his hand under her chin and turned her face to his. ‘And the pretence ends now.’
‘There is no pretence, Silvio, I’m—’
‘Relax. If you look below you now you can see Mount Etna,’ he interrupted her, ignoring her agitation. ‘She is much like a woman. When she’s in a bad mood she grumbles and spits fire.’
Desperately aware of him, Jessie dragged her eyes from his and stared down at the flanks of the volcano but even the wild beauty of the landscape couldn’t distract her. ‘At least tell me where we’re going.’
‘To a beach that you can only reach from the air’ was all he would say, and Jessica gasped when she finally spotted the horseshoe of perfect white sand beneath them.
‘That’s where we’re going? How are we going to land?’
‘Safely,’ Silvio purred, casting an amused smile towards his pilot, ‘or he’s fired.’
Jessie gripped the edge of her seat as the grinning pilot lowered the plane onto the sand, his blades dangerously close to the cliffs that gave the beach its privacy. It was a breathtakingly daring piece of flying and she wondered if she was going to end her days in a mangled heap of wreckage.
It was only when Silvio gently uncurled her fingers from the seat that she realised they’d landed safely. ‘Move. He can only stay here for a few seconds.’
Jessie stumbled onto the soft, white sand and he pulled her against him as the helicopter rose into the air and left them alone. As the helicopter became a speck in the distance, Silvio led her to the far side of the beach where the steep cliffs created an oasis of shade. Then he opened a bag that he’d removed from the helicopter, threw a soft blanket onto the sand and handed her a package.
‘This is for you.’ Without waiting for her response, he stripped off his shirt and dropped it onto the blanket with a characteristic lack of inhibition.
Still clutching the small parcel, Jessie stared dry-mouthed at his bronzed, muscular torso. His stomach was flat, his shoulders wide and his chest shadowed with dark hair that seemed to accentuate his masculinity.
He had an incredible physique and suddenly she remembered what he’d said about foreplay.
Apparently oblivious to her scrutiny, his hand dropped to his zip and Jessie dragged her eyes away from his bronzed abdomen and stared at the sea, trying to ignore the dangerous warmth low in her pelvis.
What was he doing?
After what she’d said to him last night she hadn’t expected him to speak to her again. She certainly hadn’t expected him to maroon them on the equivalent of a desert island.
‘What is this place?’ She stared straight forward but her shoulders tensed as she heard the slide of his zip and the tantalising rustle of fabric. ‘Where are we?’
‘It’s my private bolt-hole. Somewhere no one else can join us. We’re alone.’
A thrill of excitement shot through her and Jessie shivered as his strong, confident hands curled over her shoulders.
‘You need to relax,’ he said evenly, massaging her skin slowly. ‘You’re extremely tense.’
Of course she was tense.
‘Silvio, there are things I really have to say to you—’
‘You said them last night. Don’t forget sunscreen.’ Flashing her a disturbingly attractive smile, he passed her a tube and Jessie glared at him in frustration.
‘I want to talk!’
‘Relax,’ he said softly. ‘We have all day. We don’t have to rush anything. Open the package, Jessie.’
Frustrated with him, her hands shaking, Jessie put down the sun cream and opened the
package, staring at the minuscule gold bikini in disbelief. ‘You have to be joking. And you thought my dress was indecent…’
His eyes gleamed with undisguised amusement. ‘This is going to be a private show. Unless you’d rather be naked. I thought you might be too modest for that, but I could be wrong. After all, you keep telling me how experienced you are and an experienced woman would be confident enough in her body to swim naked, isn’t that right? The decision is yours.’
With a seductive smile, he sprinted towards the shoreline and plunged into the sparkling turquoise sea. Watching him swim away from her with a powerful crawl, Jessie tightened her grip on the bikini in her hands.
A private show?
He wanted her to wear it for him. And she felt far too self-conscious, which was completely ridiculous given what they’d shared the night before.
Instead of changing, Jessie sat down on the rug, looped her arms round her knees and waited for him to return, still confused about why he’d brought her here.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess but she had an uncomfortable feeling that she owed him an apology.
He’d been trying to help Johnny—like he was helping all of the others; like he’d helped her.
When he finally strolled up the beach towards her, she was rigid with stress and braced for a difficult conversation.
Silvio ran his hand over his face to clear the water, and stooped to retrieve a towel from the rug next to her, supremely comfortable with himself. ‘Didn’t it fit?’
Realising that she still had the minuscule bikini clamped in her hand, Jessie released it. ‘I don’t know. I didn’t try it on. Silvio, there is something I really need to say to you.’ Her lips felt stiff and he gave a sigh, looped the towel around his lean hips and sat down on the rug next to her.
‘All right. Let’s get the talking part out of the way.’ His gaze focused on her face and there was something so mesmerising about his eyes that Jessie suddenly found it difficult to breathe.
‘I can’t concentrate when you look at me like that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like you want to…’ Her mouth dried and he gave a slow, dangerous smile.
‘I do want to. I think I made that clear last night. But you obviously have things you want to say, so why don’t we get that out of the way first?’
First?
Hearing him say he wanted her drove all thoughts from her brain. ‘Could you move back a bit?’ she blurted out. ‘I can’t think when you’re sitting this close.’
A sardonic smile on his face, he shifted away from her. ‘Better?’
‘Not really.’ Jessie turned her head away, trying to resist the temptation to stare greedily at his bronzed shoulders and powerful chest. No one else had ever had this effect on her before and she had no idea how to deal with it—how to control it. The feeling was too big. Too powerful.
‘Jessie…’ His voice gentle, he reached out a hand and drew her face round, forcing her to look at him. Trapped by his gaze, she was dimly aware of the sudden changes in her body—the increase in her heartbeat, the melting feeling that started in her throat and spread slowly down all the way to her knees. She knew that if she’d needed to run now, she wouldn’t have been able to. Possibly not even walk. It was as if he’d cast an invisible spell over her body, the chemistry holding her captive.
For a moment neither of them spoke. His eyes dropped to her mouth and he leaned forward slightly as if he intended to kiss her. It was the merest hint of movement but it was enough to set off a chain reaction inside her. He hadn’t touched her, and yet the mere thought of him triggered the same wild response that had erupted the night before. The world around them ceased to exist and they were trapped inside their own invisible bubble of intimacy.
Jessie held her breath, sensing that she was poised on the brink of another wild, crazy ride and then he said something under his breath in Italian and tore his gaze from hers as if he too was disturbed by the astonishing connection.
‘You want to talk about Johnny.’
Dizzy and disorientated, Jessie tried to focus. ‘How do you know that?’
‘You’re easy to read.’
She sincerely hoped she wasn’t. If he could see what was going on in her head at that precise moment, she’d be too embarrassed ever to look at him again.
Trying to keep her mind on what she wanted to say, Jessie rubbed the tip of her finger over the blanket, mindlessly tracing the pattern to try and keep her mind on what needed to be said. ‘I said some awful things to you about Johnny—I see now that you thought you were helping.’ She’d imagined it would have been easier to look elsewhere, but her eyes were drawn back to his.
‘You were right to blame me. I gave him the money.’
‘You gave him a chance,’ Jessie said huskily, Stacey’s words clear in her head. ‘And he chose not to take it. You tried to help him. And he rejected that help.’
‘Don’t make me into some sort of hero, Jess.’ His voice rough, Silvio’s beautiful mouth curved into a cynical smile. ‘I gave him the money because I could. It wasn’t a big sacrifice on my part. And I made a gross error of judgement. He told me that he was serious about getting his life together. That this time he was going to come off the drugs. I believed him and I shouldn’t have done.’
‘Johnny could be very convincing.’ Jessie forced herself to confront issues she’d never confronted before. ‘I think addicts can be like that. Selfish. Persuasive. Dishonest. They’ll go to any lengths to get their fix. He stole from me, you know. I refused to give him cash, so he just took it.’ It was something she’d shut from her mind, preferring to remember the good things about her brother.
And bad things about Silvio.
‘I know that he stole from you.’ Tiny drops of seawater still clung to his bare shoulders, glistening like diamonds in the bright sunlight. ‘That’s the other reason I gave him the money. I was frustrated seeing you work so hard to keep him.’
‘You did it for me…’
‘Yes, ironic, isn’t it—that it backfired so spectacularly?’ His eyes darkened and Jessie’s stomach melted, her desperate longing for him so intense that the tips of her fingers tingled with the need to touch him.
But even while her body was reacting, her brain was still holding her back.
She’d been angry with him for so long, it wasn’t easy to let it go.
‘Time for a swim.’ Silvio sprang to his feet in a fluid movement and held out his hand. ‘Are you wearing the bikini or swimming naked?’ His tone velvety soft and tinged with amusement, he stooped and retrieved the bikini from the rug. ‘On second thoughts, I’m not giving you a choice. If you don’t want a repeat of last night, you’d better wear something.’ His searing glance made her catch her breath and she realised that nothing she’d said to him had altered the chemistry between them.
‘I can’t swim,’ she admitted. ‘I never learned. My childhood didn’t exactly include lessons at the local pool.’
He pushed the bikini into her hands. ‘I’ll teach you.’ And then he was sprinting across the sand away from her and into the cold water.
This time Jessie didn’t hesitate. She changed swiftly, not giving herself time to question her decision. The sand was hot on her bare feet and it was a relief to splash into the clear water. She waded in as far as her knees and then stopped.
Without warning, Silvio scooped her up in his arms and carried her deeper. She clung around his neck, her eyes drawn to the dark shadow of his jaw.
He was so strong.
‘If you drop me now,’ she warned, ‘I’ll never forgive you.’
‘I’m not going to drop you, but you can’t learn to swim in shallow water.’
‘I want to be able to touch the bottom.’
‘If you can touch the bottom, you’ll walk, not swim.’ Without releasing his hold on her, he lowered her into the water and she gasped.
‘It feels deep.’
‘I’m still standing up.’
; ‘But you’re taller than me!’ She clung to his neck. ‘I mean it, Silvio, if you let me go, I’ll drown.’
‘Do you really think I’d let you drown?’ His eyes were fierce as he pulled her hard against him. ‘Do you really think I’d let anything happen to you if it was in my power to stop it?’
His body was hard against hers and she couldn’t help be aware of the change in him.
‘You see?’ His voice was full of self-mockery. ‘Even cold water doesn’t help.’ Without giving her time to answer, he shifted her away from him and guided her onto her stomach. ‘You’re out of your depth because it’s easier to learn this way. My hand is underneath you so you’re not going to sink. Now kick your legs.’
Jessie wanted to ask him how she was supposed to learn to swim when all she could think about was his hand on her stomach, but she didn’t want to admit how much he affected her. Determined to impress him, she kicked her legs and followed his instructions. For the next half an hour she did everything he told her, forcing herself to concentrate on staying afloat in the water, rather than on him.
Her face set with determination, she did what he’d taught her. ‘Try letting go of me,’ she panted, and Silvio gave a soft laugh.
‘I let go of you ten minutes ago, tesoro. You’ve been swimming on your own since then.’
The shock made her stop moving her legs and instantly she sank like a stone, taking a mouthful of water on the way. Strong hands locked around her waist and lifted her and she gasped in the air, coughing and choking.
‘Don’t try and breathe under the water,’ he advised, and Jessie pushed her hair out of her eyes so that she could glare at him properly.
‘You should have told me you were letting go.’
‘You swam perfectly. It was only when you thought about what you were doing that you sank. You need to have more faith in yourself, Jess.’ He pulled her against him and her legs wrapped themselves around his waist.
As always she felt incredibly safe with him and she knew that there was no one else in the world she’d rather cling to in deep water.