by Dani Wade
Sweat beaded on his upper body as he fought to control the urge to plunder her. But he forced himself to hold back, to make this last as long as humanly possible.
Blair wrapped her legs around his hips, holding him to her, and rocking her pelvis gently against him. He shook with the effort of staying still, of concentrating on the sensation of her movements, of the clench and release of her inner muscles. Over and over, until he was nearly mindless with passion.
His hands gripped her hips and he surged back, before sliding home again. He’d never felt this way with another woman. Never experienced this sense of vulnerability or level of need before in his life. Instinct overtook reason, as he set up a rhythm calculated to drive them both to shattering completion.
His climax ripped through him just as he began to feel her body tighten and bow beneath his, and he gave himself over to the waves of pleasure that pulsed between them. His whole body shook as he lay down beside Blair, pulling her body up and over his so they could remain joined for just that moment longer. She sagged against him, her heart beating furiously against his chest, her breathing as ragged as his own.
This is life, he thought, as he smoothed his hand down her back and cupped her buttocks, pulling her tight against his body, as if they could stay like this forever. This is living. Anything else he’d done before today, before this moment, had merely been a rehearsal.
They dozed together in the sunshine, oblivious to all but the slowing of their breath, the even rhythm of their heartbeats, the languorous warmth enveloping them. But even so, a darkness hovered on the periphery of Draco’s thoughts. It was Blair’s determination to return to New Zealand once the baby was born.
No matter how perfect their physical union, she had no intention of staying, of creating a family with him. He’d had to threaten her precious restaurant before she would agree to come home with him. The reminder was sobering and took an edge off the pleasure that had saturated his senses.
Draco stirred, as uncomfortable now with his thoughts as he was with the hard ground beneath his back. He needed some distance from Blair, time to regroup his thoughts, remind himself what they had was lost.
“Come,” he said softly, stroking her short, black hair with a steady hand. “We should think about heading back.”
Blair groaned in protest but disentangled her limbs from his and slid off his body in a sensuous glide. She slipped her underwear back on and watched from under her lashes as Draco did the same. Her body hummed with satisfaction but her mind whirled with confusion.
Where did this leave them? Continuing their affair while he’d been staying in Auckland was one thing, but what had happened today changed things again. When Draco practically forced her here she would never have believed that within twenty-four hours of their arrival they’d be making love. And it had been lovemaking. He’d been so reverent, so tender with her. She knew at any time she could have called a halt to his attention, but she hadn’t wanted to.
She wanted to make love with him again. The heightened sensitivity of her skin, her breasts—nearly every molecule in her body—had made the entire experience one she ached to repeat.
She dragged her creased sundress back on and found her head scarf, which had slipped off her hair at some stage during their lovemaking. Only when she was fully clothed could she meet Draco’s eyes.
He had packed away the cooler and its contents into the back of the car, and now stood, tall and straight and endearingly handsome, looking into the distance. He turned and caught her eye. A small smile briefly twisted his lips, sending a jolt of desire through her again.
Blair scrambled to her feet and thrust them into her sandals, then picked up the blanket to give it a shake and fold it back up again. Draco took the blanket from her, his fingers lingering a moment as they grazed hers.
“We will have to do this again, before it grows too warm.”
“I’d like that,” Blair answered, holding eye contact. Trying silently to tell Draco that she’d like that and more.
He’d tucked the tails of his shirt in at the waistband of his black trousers, but the absence of buttons meant closing the edges of the fabric was impossible. Her gaze was drawn to the smooth, golden planes of his chest. Without thinking, her tongue swept her lips.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we may not get home before dark,” he said, with a note of humor in his voice.
But beneath the humor there was something else that Blair couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was almost as if he’d created some mental distance between them. She felt the distance widen as he opened the car door for her and gestured for her to get in. Once she was seated he closed the door and walked around to his side of the vehicle.
Draco barely spoke on the journey home, and as they re-entered the palazzo he made his apologies, saying he had work to attend to. Blair watched him go.
“Draco?”
He hesitated and turned to face her, his face inscrutable.
“Si?”
“Is something wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. I will see you at dinner at eight. If you need me for anything before then, you’ll find my office extension on the list next to the phone in your room.”
Blair nodded, but her mind latched on to his expectation that she’d spend the rest of her time in her room. Banished perhaps?
She certainly needed to shower and freshen up, but she’d be darned if she was going to spend the next few hours hemmed up in her room, no matter how beautiful it was. There was plenty she could explore before meeting Draco for dinner.
After Blair had showered and changed, she went back to the ground-floor level of the palazzo and headed in what she hoped would be the direction to the kitchen. If Cristiano was there preparing for their evening meal, she wanted to see if she could lend a hand. And if she couldn’t help, maybe she could learn something that she could take back home with her.
Large glass-and-wooden doors led off a gallery and onto a wide, tiled patio, and the shine of late afternoon sun on water distracted her from her intentions to find the kitchen and instead led her outside. Topiaried orange trees and low box hedging defined a beautiful formal garden. A few yards away a large stone building squatted—an old stable by the look of it—its golden brick bathed in sunshine. Blair meandered along the pathways, intrigued by the building ahead.
As she got closer she could see inside the deep, arched windows. State-of-the-art gym equipment took possession of the carpeted floor. Here was something else she could fill her time with, she thought. She wondered if the large outdoor pool, further off to her right, was heated. Between the two, the gymnasium and the pool, at least she could keep her fitness up.
At home, being constantly on the run with the restaurant, she’d never had to worry about her fitness, but now—being virtually on holiday until the birth of the baby—she would have to keep “in shape” or she’d struggle to keep up her pace when she returned to work.
Eventually, Blair began to make her way back toward the palazzo, and with a soft exclamation of delight realized the herb garden she’d come through had led her to her original destination—the palazzo kitchen. A wide door stood open, and beyond it she identified hanging copper pots and a large black coal range.
“Hello?” she called from the door.
“Ms. Carson! It is a pleasure to see you again!”
Cristiano bustled across the terra cotta-tiled floor and clasped Blair exuberantly to his rotund figure.
“Cristiano, lovely to see you too. Please, call me Blair. I was wondering if I could help you with anything for tonight, I’ll go mad if I don’t have something to do.”
The cook made a rude noise and flapped his hands toward the long wooden table that dominated the center of the kitchen.
“Sit down, sit down. You’re not here to work. You can watch and learn instead,” he answered with a wink.
Blair did as she was told and sank into one of the cane-bottomed wooden chairs at the table. Time passed quickly a
s Cristiano peppered Blair with questions about what she’d been doing since she left the palazzo back in February. She found it hard to believe that it had been less than three months since she was here, even harder to believe she was back.
She smiled at Cristiano’s voluble sighs and laughter, as she told him about Carson’s latest achievement and how the restaurant had grown from seventy-percent capacity to over a hundred-percent bookings, weeks in advance. But she itched to throw on an apron and work alongside him.
An idea sprang to mind and before she could think it through further Blair found the words spouting from her mouth.
“Cristiano, if I don’t cook while I’m here I think I’ll go crazy. Besides which, when I go back home I will need to bring something new again to the restaurant. Could I take some lessons from you? I know you often conduct demonstrations when tours come through to the palazzo. Would it be too much of an imposition if you coached me privately?”
Before the chef could reply, his eyes flew to one of the internal doorways.
“Blair, you aren’t here to work.”
Blair stood rapidly at the sound of Draco’s voice. Small black spots swam before her eyes and she put a hand out to the back of her chair to steady herself a moment. When the spots receded Draco was at her side.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine, just got up a little too quickly, that’s all,” she brushed aside his concern. “And for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t think it work to have the chance to learn some new dishes from Cristiano.”
Draco shot a glare at Cristiano before the other man could speak. “We will discuss this later. For now we have other, more important matters to discuss. Can you come with me now or would you like to sit a while?”
“Draco, I’m not an invalid. I told you, I’m okay.”
Where had the man who’d been such a tender lover this afternoon disappeared to? she wondered. The Draco she saw now was more like the overpowering man who’d bought her restaurant building out from under her so he could control where she lived and where she bore his child.
He said something in rapid Italian to Cristiano, who answered in kind before turning back to his work.
“Come with me,” Draco said, offering Blair his arm.
Irritated by his high-handed attitude, she fell in step beside him, but refused to touch him. He led her to a salon that looked out over the formal garden she’d found near the gymnasium. Ripples of light from the swimming pool reflected through the deep-arched wood-and-glass doorways onto the high ornate ceiling. Blair felt as if, in many ways, she’d stepped into another world. Certainly she was out of her world.
She sat on the edge of a richly upholstered sofa and gestured to the gymnasium across the garden.
“I was thinking I could use the gym, would that be okay?”
“The gym?” He frowned a little.
“Yes, and the pool too, if it’s warm enough. If I’m not doing anything else, I’d like to at least have some regular exercise.”
“The pool is heated, but we will wait and see what the doctor has to say first. I have made an appointment for you to see a specialist tomorrow.”
“A specialist?” Blair shot to her feet. How dare he go ahead making appointments without discussing things with her first? “Whatever for? I’m fit as a horse. I’ve barely even been sick. Besides, I spent some time checking on the Internet before we left Auckland, and there’s an extremely well-appointed birthing center not far from here,” she protested.
“A birthing center?”
“Yes, run by midwives. It’s a perfectly safe and professional environment for me to have the baby.”
“Safe.” Draco’s jaw tightened, a sign she was rapidly identifying as a precursor to his controlled temper. He pushed a hand through his hair and drew in a deep breath before continuing. “And you know yourself to be in perfect health? You’re absolutely certain there is nothing you do not know about that could happen to you or the baby?”
He was almost shouting. Blair looked at him in surprise. Where the heck had that come from? Whatever, she was less than impressed. Before she could say a word, though, he reached for her hand, turning it over and stroking his thumb across the soft skin at the indentation of her palm.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. But I do insist that you see a specialist. This baby—you—deserve the very best of care. I do not want to take any risks or have any last-minute emergencies that could have been avoided.”
Blair felt the tingle under her skin at his touch, heard the depth of feeling in his words. For whatever reason, Draco was privately terrified. While she had to admit to some fears of her own, it came as a surprise to realize that he too felt vulnerable.
Draco continued to stroke Blair’s palm. Her expression left him in no doubt that she was surprised by his outburst. Perhaps he’d gone over the top just now, but she hadn’t been through what he’d been through. And he had every intention of making certain she didn’t. Whether she agreed or not.
Eleven
Her emotions played across her face—irritation followed by surprise, then something else. He didn’t have to wait long to discover what that something else was.
“Fine. I’ll agree to see your specialist, if, and only if, you agree to let me take lessons from Cristiano while I’m here. I won’t get in his way or impede his work, but I need to keep fresh and learning new dishes to take back to Carson’s when I leave.”
He forced himself to stifle the surge of anger that rose as she talked about when she would leave. She’d been here just over a day, and it was as if she had begun the count down to her return to New Zealand. Still, what would it cost him to let her dabble in the kitchen? It would keep her exactly where he wanted her, and once her pregnancy was common knowledge among all the staff, not just the maid he’d assigned to her, she would be cosseted and prevented from overdoing things.
Draco found himself nodding in acquiescence.
“And the gym too. I want unrestricted access to the equipment. Restaurant work is more physically demanding than many people realize. I can’t afford to get soft.”
“If the specialist is in agreement, then yes, you can use the gym too. I will hire a trainer for you so we can ensure you and the baby work out safely.”
He was rewarded with a sudden smile.
“There, that didn’t hurt too much, did it?” she teased him. “Letting me have what I want?”
A pain settled in the region of his chest. Why could she not want what he wanted? Why did she persist in holding on to her ambitions for Carson’s? Certainly it was easy to agree to her terms, provided she saw the specialist for the duration of the pregnancy. Her health, and that of the baby’s, was paramount. But while a child could cope easily with one parent, two would be infinitely better. Was it selfish to want his son or daughter to know the love of a mother and father as he and Lorenzo had known love as they’d grown up? He did not think so.
Somewhere deep inside he’d hoped that in the next few months he could convince Blair to let go of Carson’s, but if she insisted on continuing to train in her field, what chance did he have?
The remainder of the week fell into a gentle pattern. Blair and Draco would have breakfast together before he’d head away for business for the day, sometimes returning at lunchtime to show her around parts of the palazzo or further afield. She’d thoroughly enjoyed their trip to San Gimignano and had marveled over the remaining towers there and the variety of shops and vendors in the narrow streets.
Blair’s mornings, with her specialist’s blessing, were spent in the gymnasium. Gabbi, the trainer Draco had hired to oversee her fitness regime, spoke excellent English, and the two women enjoyed one another’s company for the two hours they spent together each day. Her workout, if it could be called that, was neither taxing nor exhausting, and Blair felt better and stronger each day.
Her afternoons were spent with Cristiano—time she cherished, as the kitchen was probably the only place in the
palazzo where she truly felt at home. She was slowly building up a new collection of recipes and techniques to show off at the restaurant, although with each day, her return to Auckland seemed further and further away.
As Draco spent most of the afternoon and into early evening in his office, or visiting the various business units on the property, Blair had taken to having a leisurely swim in the heated pool in the hour or two before their evening meal. The rhythm of her life was so different from what she was used to, and day by day she could feel herself winding down.
She and Draco had not made love again since that time in the olive grove. She wasn’t sure whether she should be bothered by that or not. She did feel a sense of loss each night, however, when after dinner he saw her to her room before continuing farther down the hall to his own suite.
One morning Blair noticed Draco appeared to be uncharacteristically distracted at breakfast.
“I may have to go away in the next few days,” he announced. “There are matters in our London office that require my urgent attention, and I cannot deal with them from here.”
“When will you know?” Blair asked, fidgeting with her linen serviette. As strange as it felt spending time with Draco this past week or so, it would feel a whole lot worse being here on her own. “We’ll have to postpone our trip to Livorno, I suppose.”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I wish it could be different. I had hoped not to have to travel again during the months you are here.”
There it was, a reminder that she wouldn’t be here for long. Confusion bubbled through her mind. Why did it bother her so much? She wanted to leave. As idyllic as her time here was, as stunning as the surroundings were, she ached to be home and back at Carson’s. But she’d agreed to stay here, to have her baby here. Then, and only then, could she return home.
Her baby? When had she started thinking of it in those terms? Blair laid a hand gently on the small swell of her belly, still barely noticeable through her clothing but making its presence known in the number of jeans and shorts she was now incapable of fastening. So far, she’d managed to keep her mind pretty much off the baby, to keep any thoughts purely based on the fact that it was Draco’s child. But something had happened along the way. Suddenly it was her baby as well.