She looked around the tiny bay, a tear forming in her eye. And she finally admitted what she had subconsciously known all along: she loved Solo, always had and probably always would, but she would never dare tell him. She was his only for as long as he wanted her body, and the tear fell.
‘Ready, Penny?’ Solo’s long arm wrapped around her waist and turned her around to face him. ‘Hey, what is this?’ He flicked the solitary tear from her smooth cheek.
‘The thought of the flight back to England.’ She sighed. ‘And I was wondering if I will ever get back here again, it is so beautiful.’ She told him half the truth.
Solo looked at the woman in his arms, and his heart expanded in his chest. Penny did like his sanctuary. ‘Of course you will.’ He kissed the tip of her nose and led her to the car. ‘If I have to I will drive you back and forward to England, whenever you want.’ In fact he would drive to the ends of the earth for Penny.
The ludicrously emotional thought made him stop in his tracks and he let go of her. Solo knew himself that it was only with burning ambition and ruthless self-discipline that he had become the successful man he was today. Emotion played no part in his life.
‘Solo…’ Penny laid a hand on his arm. He looked ill—he had gone white beneath his naturally tanned complexion, the skin pulled taut across high, arrogant cheekbones. ‘Solo…’ Ice-grey eyes surveyed her, and every nerve in her body tensed.
‘Get in the car, Penny.’ he said harshly. What had he done? She hated him, she was only with him now because he had given her no choice and she needed his money to keep her young brother and that damned old house.
It irritated the hell out of him that from the moment he had seen her he had wanted her with a fierce, consuming hunger that had nothing to do with logic, but everything to do with lust. It angered him that he who had always prided himself on the ability to control his passion couldn’t control it with Penny.
Her wide green eyes were staring warily up at him; her lush lips, still swollen from early-morning love-making, trembled slightly. He reached out a finger and traced the soft curve of her breasts revealed by the blue sundress she was wearing, and saw her catch her breath. He could take her now; without conceit he knew he was a good lover and he had taught her well. He had never met a more wildly responsive woman in his life. Penny was like a kid in a sweet shop, but he recognised it was because sex was new to her, and what was worse he also knew that her need was nothing like the wild hunger that ate at him.
Shrugging off the unpleasant truths, he dropped a light kiss on the top of her head and helped her into the car. What did he care why she was with him, as long as she shared his bed? he told himself, and frowned as he started the car, no longer sure he believed it…
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘ACTUALLY, flying is not all that bad,’ Penny said. Anything to break the tension that had sizzled between them since leaving the cabin. She glanced at Solo as he manoeuvred the sleek black car through the traffic. ‘Those tablets really worked.’
‘Good—in that case you can travel with me sometimes,’ Solo remarked, flicking her a sidelong look.
‘No,’ she said immediately, panicked by the thought. ‘I couldn’t, there is James. And the house.’ She had enjoyed the last few days in Italy, in fact more than enjoyed. She cast a surreptitious look at Solo’s classic chiselled profile, and her heart ached.
Who was she kidding? She had loved their brief honeymoon; she loved Solo. He had the power to make her heart leap with a single look. But she knew she could never tell him, because she could never forget she was not the only woman in his life.
‘We can hire a nanny, staff—it won’t be a problem.’ His grey eyes were enigmatic with a glimpse of something else less easy to define as they briefly focused on her. Anyone but Solo and she would have thought it was a silent plea. Which was ridiculous. She straightened in the passenger seat.
‘No,’ she said again. ‘I stay at Haversham Park with James, that was our agreement, and you do as you like,’ she reminded him with biting sarcasm. ‘Anyway, you have Tina to accompany you on your travels; three is a crowd.’
‘As you wish, my dear wife,’ Solo drawled sardonically. ‘But whatever you may imagine, Tina is not my lover, and be advised I will not tolerate anything except complete fidelity on your part, and I will accord you the same distinction as long as the marriage lasts. What you choose to think is your prerogative, but I will not be the subject of idle gossip, understand?’ he warned implacably.
He had surprised her by his declaration of married fidelity; whether to believe him or not, she was not sure. As for his distaste for gossip, he was a vastly wealthy, powerful man. A very influential force in the world’s money markets, governments listened to him, but as Penny was beginning to realise he had an exaggerated desire for privacy.
She recalled her surprise at first seeing the secluded villa that he called his home, and the amazing little wood cabin where they had spent the last few days. He obviously loved the place and yet he owned some of the most perfectly situated, luxurious hotels around the globe.
Recalling his confession about his mother, she could understand his fierce protection of his privacy, but in this day and age Penny did not believe it mattered. It certainly did not matter to her, and she opened her mouth to tell him so. But one glance at his grim expression was enough to make her close it again, and keep her mouth shut for the rest of the journey.
The difference was amazing. Brownie met them at the door, and insisted on showing them around all the ground-floor rooms. Everywhere had been painted and polished and scrubbed. ‘I can’t believe all this could happen in less than a week.’ Penny turned shining eyes to Brownie. ‘You must have worked like a slave.’
‘Not a bit of it.’ Brownie laughed. ‘Mr Maffeiano hired over twenty people. It was wonderful, all I did was order them around.’ Turning to Solo, Brownie added, ‘And the new bed arrived this morning. You and Penny pop on up and have a look, while I get the lunch.’
Solo took Penny’s hand. ‘Come on,’ he said curtly and led her upstairs.
‘What new bed?’ she murmured, her pulse racing at the warmth of his hand enfolding hers, and inexplicably she felt nervous. It was stupid, she knew, given how they had spent the last three days. But somehow knowing she loved him had made her more cautious, not less so. Solo had seemed to change as soon as they’d left Italy and he was once more the aloof, powerful businessman. Looking around her now, back in the house where she was born, she felt their sojourn in Italy was quickly becoming a distant fantasy.
In the master bedroom the garish colours had vanished, replaced by the colours she remembered from her childhood. The only difference was a large four-poster bed with elegant cream silk drapes tied back with twisted golden tassels. A thick, quilted cover in the same material and colour, with huge plump pillows, adorned the bed.
‘Incredible.’ Penny sighed. ‘How did…?’ She looked up. Solo was standing by one of the long windows, his back to her, and there was something about the set of his shoulders, a tension in his tall frame as he slowly turned around, that froze the rest of the words in her throat. As he walked towards her she was struck again by his superb animal magnetism, an intrinsic male dominance that fancifully reminded her of some lethal predator intent on devouring its prey.
‘So was it worth it, Penny?’ Solo asked, the words a barely concealed taunt.
‘Was what?’ She looked at him, mystified.
Solo saw the puzzlement and the slight darkening of her glorious eyes as she watched him approach, unable to hide her sensual response. But that was all it was, he reminded himself. His anger at her rejection years ago had faded, lost in the passionate abandonment of their love-making. But today her refusal to even consider travelling with him, and then walking into this house had brought back to him all too vividly the real reason she was his wife: money and the threat of pregnancy, and it angered the hell out of him.
A self-derogatory smile twisted his sensuous mouth.
He had deluded himself into thinking a few nights with Penny in his bed and he would get her out of his system. But the violent, primeval passion he felt whenever he looked at her, or touched her, he knew was the reaction of the primitive male animal in him that lurked beneath the thin veneer of civilised sophistication he presented to the world. She was his mate, only his, and he wanted to keep it that way.
It was not a realisation he was comfortable with. She had bewitched and beguiled him with her mixture of innocence and sensuality, so that he only had to look at her to feel like a randy teenager again. He stared down at her, and gestured with one elegant hand around the room. ‘All this,’ he drawled, and, closing his hand around her slender wrist, he added, ‘This house for my money.’ A cynical smile curled his beautiful mouth. ‘My body, my bed.’
Penny stared at him, genuinely shocked and then angry. ‘I could ask you the same. But I would not be so crude,’ she returned.
‘Ah, of course, you are a lady…’ Long, tanned fingers moved caressingly on the tender skin above her wrist. ‘But to answer the question you are too polite to ask,’ he said mockingly, ‘so far you are repaying my investment admirably.’ His ice-grey eyes flared, then narrowed on her angry face, and suddenly she sensed just below the calm surface was a violent rage waiting to escape. ‘The highest-paid whore in the world could not have done better,’ he opined in a deep, dark voice that slashed through her body like a knife.
A deep flush overlaid her pale skin. It had been insensitive of her to call a man with Solo’s background crude, but his response shamed and horrified her. Now she knew what Solo really thought of her, and she collapsed on the side of the bed, only dimly registering that her legs were shaking.
‘But I think it is time for another instalment,’ Solo suggested, and, roughly hauling her up hard against him, he took her mouth in a fierce, brutal kiss.
‘Don’t.’ She struggled against him. ‘Solo…’ He was frightening her.
‘Yes, say my name,’ he breathed, the violence in his eyes making her shake, and she pushed hard at his chest. ‘Remember who you belong to.’ He laughed, a harsh, cruel sound, and captured her mouth with his own as he tumbled her back on the bed.
The breath whooshed out of her body. ‘No, please, Solo,’ Penny cried and grabbed a handful of his hair to pull him away. ‘I didn’t…’ was as far as she got.
He lifted his head and the scorch of his laser-like gaze burned into hers as he claimed her mouth again with a low, agonised groan that seemed to reach right into her body and pluck out her heart.
She tried to struggle, striking out at his chest. ‘Wait.’ Fear, stark and debilitating, made her shudder as his eyes, hard as flint, clashed with hers. One strong hand caught the hem of her dress and dragged it up around her waist.
‘I don’t need to. I might be crude but you are bought and paid for,’ he snarled, and his lips came crashing down on hers again.
Penny battled to breathe, her fingers curved into his shoulder, her other hand pulled his hair, but slowly the heat, the hungry passion of his mouth got to her as only Solo could. His body, hard and taut with a need he could not hide, slid between her thighs, and the hand that pulled his hair turned to caress the silken locks.
‘Dio!’ Solo suddenly exclaimed, lifting his head. ‘What the hell am I doing?’
She saw a flicker of vulnerability in his hooded eyes and her heart squeezed. Solo was the most arrogant, indomitable male she had ever met and yet… Something made her slip her arms around his back and hug him as he would have moved off her.
‘I can make a guess,’ she tried to tease, staring up into his sombre face, but he wasn’t amused.
He jerked to his feet and glanced down to where Penny lay sprawled on the bed and gave her a long, brooding look, before spinning on his heel and walking away.
Penny watched him depart with sad, puzzled eyes. She saw him rake his hand through his hair as he went through the open door, but he didn’t look back. The honeymoon was definitely over.
Slowly Penny dragged herself up to a sitting position, and made an attempt to smooth her dress down over her legs. He could not have made it plainer the marriage was to be a short-term affair. Solo was a man who thrived on challenge; maybe she had been too willing and he was tired of her already. Then there was Tina…
A deep, shuddering sigh shook her. How long could Penny live with a man, love a man, when he treated her like a whore he’d paid for? What about every time Solo left on business—would she wonder if he was sleeping with his mistress? His avowal that he demanded strict fidelity in a relationship she had a suspicion should have ended in a caveat. With the exception of Tina. Penny could not live like that; it would destroy her.
Why had she let it happen? Because she loved him, her heart cried.
Dinner was a quiet affair. Penny, dressed carefully in one of the new gowns Solo had bought for her as a kind of armour against her raw emotions, tried her best. She made herself smile for Brownie’s benefit and drink a toast in champagne.
Solo sat grim and brooding all evening and it was a relief when he said he had some work to do and she could escape upstairs to bed.
After showering and slipping on a scrap of blue lace that Solo had bought for her, Penny crawled into bed and fell into a restless sleep.
Her eyes fluttered open, a strong arm pulled her gently towards the warmth of a hard male body. ‘Solo…’ Penny murmured his name dreamily.
‘I was a boar earlier, forgive me.’ She felt his lips at her temple and then the warmth of his breath at her earlobe, before seeking the soft bow of her mouth, in a kiss of incredible sweetness.
‘Yes,’ she breathed. A large hand traced up her spine and held her close to the muscular strength of his torso, and the kiss went on and on. She was boneless, floating in a sea of sensations, as long fingers stroked her breasts, the negligee sliding away.
Her lips parted and drank from his, and she felt his slight intake of breath before he moved down to the base of her throat and lower to suckle the small, tight nipples. She moaned softly and ran her fingers along the arrowing hair that spread down past his navel, her touch finding him.
Solo moved over her, his mouth finding hers again as his body took possession with a fierce passion that she met and matched, crying out as she climaxed in a tumultuous explosion of release.
She almost said she loved him but changed the words to, ‘I love…the way you make me feel,’ just in time.
‘The feeling is mutual, cara,’ Solo rasped, and sucked hard on her nipple, his hands lifting her hips as he thrust ever deeper to the very portals of her womb. Sweeping her through her climax, something she had never thought possible, and on and on until his great body shuddered in wave after wave of violent pleasure, and Penny convulsed around him again in a mutual relief.
They collapsed on the bed, Solo sprawled on top of her, their ragged breathing the only sound, and then Solo murmured something in Italian and rolled off her. He curved her possessively into the hard heat of his body, nuzzled her neck, and she wrapped an arm over his broad chest, her head on his heart, and in moments she was asleep. She woke up a long time later to a knocking on the door, and Brownie calling her name.
‘Come on, sleepy head, your husband has been up for hours working, and James will be arriving back in about an hour,’ Brownie said with a smile, and walked to the bedside carrying a coffee tray.
Wriggling under the covers into her nightgown, she sat up, and reached out and took the coffee-cup Brownie offered. ‘Thank you, Brownie, but you really should not be running up and downstairs after me.’
‘Your husband offered, but I told him I wanted you out of bed, not kept in it!’ Penny blushed, and Brownie chuckled. ‘What a man!’ she said and, with an admonishment to hurry up, left the room.
‘Penny, I’m home.’ James ran into the hall, followed a few steps behind by a breathless Patricia.
Bending down, Penny swept James up in her arms and gave him a fierce hug, moisture stupidly blur
ring her vision. ‘Hello, darling.’ She pressed a kiss on his chubby cheek. ‘I’ve missed you.’
Small arms wrapped around her neck, and he said, ‘I missed you, but guess what? I can swim!’ His beaming smile flashed out. ‘Can we go to a swimming pool, Penny, can we? I want to show you.’
‘Of course we can, darling, but not right now,’ she said with a chuckle, depositing him on his feet. ‘Say thank you to Patricia. Brownie is in the kitchen with your favourite…cake.’ Before she had finished the sentence James had darted for the kitchen, screeching at the top of his voice, ‘Thank you. Brownie, cake, cake, cake.’ She watched him go with a shake of her head.
‘I hope he wasn’t too much trouble,’ Penny remarked, glancing at Patricia.
‘No, it was a breeze—he got on great with my little terror. But, hey, you are looking good. Mum told me you were going to Italy for a week, and it seems to have agreed with you. I told you, you needed a holiday, and I was right.’ Patricia stopped, an arrested expression on her face. ‘When did this happen?’ She pointed to the newly painted hall.
‘Yes, well…’ Penny blushed scarlet ‘…about that…’
‘What is all the noise about?’ a deep voice demanded, and Penny silently groaned.
Turning slowly, she watched as Solo, wearing black jeans and a short-sleeved black shirt, his great body exuding an aura of almost lethal male sexuality, moved towards her. ‘James is back.’ She smiled tentatively. After his moody behaviour yesterday and their passionate, almost loving reconciliation in bed last night she was not sure how he would react, but she need not have worried.
‘Ah, that explains the noise.’ Solo smiled into her eyes, touched his mouth briefly to hers and whispered, ‘Good morning, cara mia.’ His eyes gleamed with the smug, sensual satisfaction of a man who knew he had satisfied the woman in his life. Slipping an arm around her waist, he turned her to face their guest, easing her against his long length, her bottom fitting snug against his thighs, and it felt great. ‘And this is?’ He paused, politely smiling over Penny’s head at Patricia.
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