by Maggie Cox
‘Marco? Are you all right?’
He turned to regard the matchless blue eyes that were considering him so concernedly. A rueful smile hijacked his lips as he cupped her small delicately made jaw. ‘Yes, I’m all right—although after what I’ve just experienced that may well be the understatement of the year. But I also have to confess to being somewhat stunned by my recklessness. I should have used protection, but I got so swept away by you … by what was happening between us … that I didn’t. I hardly know what to say, Grace, except to tell you that I’m genuinely sorry.’
‘I’m equally to blame. I got just as carried away as you, Marco. If anything happens as a result of this I want to reassure you that I won’t take you to court to get your money … well … at least not all of your money.’
This was said in such a matter-of-fact tone that it took Marco a couple of seconds to realise that she was shamelessly teasing him. For a sickening moment the soul-destroying belief that had hounded most of his existence—that people only befriended him for what they could get out of him—had disturbingly revisited him. It didn’t help his case right then to remember his ex-girlfriend’s misguided and heartless attempt to try and fleece him to help fund her expensive drug habit.
‘Don’t even joke about that,’ he growled. ‘In all seriousness … if you were to fall pregnant with my child then of course you could rely on me to help you in any way that I can. You certainly wouldn’t have to resort to taking me to court for child support! But from now on I will definitely be more careful when we make love.’
Grace was silent, propping herself up on her elbows to study him. Any sign of humour had utterly vanished, he saw. In fact, her expression was almost grave.
‘I’m not taking the possibility of falling pregnant, lightly Marco. I’m well aware that it’s a life-changing thing, as well as a huge responsibility … to raise a child, I mean. It impacts on a woman’s life like nothing else. But we’ve done what we’ve done and now we’ll just have to wait and see. Can’t we just enjoy what we have right now, or is that too selfish? We both work hard … we’re both responsible people—don’t you think we deserve to relax and not worry? We’ve agreed that we’ll share this one holiday together then return to our own lives. From your reaction to my little joke I’m guessing that you’ve probably been deceived by women before, but you’ve nothing like that to fear from me. I’m a very up-front kind of girl, Marco. What you see is what you get. Whilst I’ll always be more than grateful that you’ve agreed to help the children’s charity, I don’t want anything for myself other than your company … at least until the end of this holiday. After that I’ll go back to London, return to my work and carry on as normal. I mean it. You won’t even have to hear from me again if you don’t want to.’
Icy fear hurtled through his veins. He caught hold of her slender-boned wrist with a sense of hard-to-suppress fury at the idea she would so easily turn her back on him and not have a single regret. ‘And what if you do become pregnant?’ he demanded. ‘What then? Will you still insist on maintaining your distance from me?’
Pulling away from him, Grace rubbed her wrist with a wounded look in her eyes. Then she sighed and lay down on her side, resting her head against the silken pillows behind her. In the soft glow of the lamplight her fair hair tumbled like skeins of spun gold down over her bare shoulders. It was the only eye-catching adornment to her lovely nakedness, Marco reflected. He didn’t doubt that he was a lucky man to see her like this … to be able to reach out his hand and touch that matchless skin whenever he chose … to hear her soft moans and cries when he made love to her again—which he fully intended to do, and soon.
‘If it did turn out that I was pregnant, then of course I would let you know. But let me ask you something … Do you want to be a father, Marco?’
It was the hardest question he had ever been asked. His reaction to it sent a multitude of fears and hopes crashing through him. It was the hope that disturbed him the most. ‘I have no experience of what it entails to be a father … no good example,’ he admitted gravel-voiced. The weight of sorrow that suddenly lay on his chest was close to unbearable. Because he was so ill at ease and uncomfortable he batted the question back to Grace. ‘What about you? Do you maybe harbour a secret desire to become a mother?’
Shrugging, she reached for a section of the silk eiderdown to pull up over her chest. ‘One day, perhaps. But not yet … not while I’m still young and have the time and energy to help children who desperately need a home and a school to go to. Anyway … we’re hypothesising about something that probably won’t even happen.’ As if she’d just thought of something more pressing, she turned her glance back to Marco. ‘I know you were raised in an orphanage, but did you never see your father at all?’
Manoeuvring himself up into a sitting position, Marco deliberately averted his gaze from Grace’s—even when she sat up next to him, dragging the silk covers with her. ‘No. My father wasn’t around and neither was my mother. She died giving birth to me, and my father couldn’t handle taking care of me by himself, so he gave me away to an orphanage. Are you satisfied now that you’ve heard the whole sad and sorry story?’
‘Oh, Marco.’
The compassion in her voice burst the dam of emotion he was intent on holding back … had been holding back for years. He turned his head to regard her furiously. ‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for me. If you do then I’ll get Miguel to take you back to your villa right now and you will never see me again, I mean it! Do you understand?’
Mutely, she nodded.
Marco could hardly hear himself think beneath the drowning wave of rage and fear that crashed over him. He didn’t want his past or his emotions put under the microscope by anybody … especially not Grace. The kindness in her eyes would likely tempt him to reveal things that would only end up making him feel bad. He might not have made peace with the events that had shaped him, but at least he’d kept their memory far enough at bay to get on with his life and become a success of sorts. At least he wasn’t dependent on anyone else to build his self-esteem.
Just when he believed his emotions were returning to a more even keel, with her inimitable ability to speak her mind Grace stirred them up again.
‘It’s not that I feel sorry for you, you know. It just grieves me that you might believe you’re not deserving of sympathy or care. At least … that’s the impression I get. You’re such a good man, Marco. I can’t believe—’
‘I warned you, but you clearly didn’t listen. Now you will have to go.’
He pushed his fingers furiously through his hair, his heart thumping. At the same time he wondered why he was being so reckless and self-destructive, depriving himself of the one good thing that had really started to matter to him. He’d done the same throughout his growing up in the orphanage. If anyone had tried to get close he’d pushed them away, fearing either that they didn’t mean it or that he couldn’t live up to any expectations they might have of him.
‘What?’
‘I said you will have to go. I warned you that I neither wanted nor welcomed your sympathy, but you had to persist, didn’t you?’
‘All right, then.’
Although her lovely blue eyes were silently assessing him, and no doubt reaching more unwanted conclusions about his vehement reaction, Grace was already throwing back the silk covers and moving towards the side of the bed. Dry-mouthed, Marco at last came to his senses and reached for her. Enfolding her from behind, he moved his hands over her bared breasts, kneading them, playing with the rigid velvet tips and pulling her urgently back against his chest. A river of volcanic heat stormed through his bloodstream and went straight to his loins. He had no recollection of ever being this hungry and mindlessly desirous for a woman before … he only knew that he needed her almost as much as he needed his next breath.
‘I’ve changed my mind,’ he breathed against the side of her neck under the soft fall of her hair. ‘I don’t want you to go. It was stupid of me to say I did.’<
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She carefully disengaged his hands from her breasts and turned round to study him. Her smile was tender. ‘I wouldn’t have gone you know. I wouldn’t have left you because I know you didn’t really mean it. I would have just gone to look for Inês, asked her where the kitchen was, made a cup of tea and then sat out on the patio until you were ready to talk to me again.’
‘Is that so?’ He stared back at her in astonishment. Then he shook his head, leaned forward, and ravished her with a hotly exploring open-mouthed kiss. When her arms feverishly encircled his waist and she pressed herself so close to him that she felt like a part of him he’d never even known he’d lost he broke off the caress to gaze searchingly into her eyes. ‘You are either very stubborn, Grace, or unbelievably daring that you would risk my fury in that way. Do you know I’ve heard that even some of my board members quake in their boots at the thought I might lose my temper if they displease me in some way?’
‘You can’t believe it’s a good thing to intimidate people like that … surely?’
‘You were not intimidated.’
‘Yes, but I’m as stubborn as a mule … so my dad often tells me. Even if I’m terrified of something I somehow can’t let it get the better of me. Except when my boyfriend attacked me,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘Afterwards, I let my fear of it happening again stop me from getting close to anyone … I regret that. But I’ll never let fear have such a hold on me again.’
In all his years of doing business Marco had never met her equal, he mused in wonder. It was rare indeed that anyone stood up to him or was so frank in confessing their reflections. Grace wasn’t just brave, she was inspirational too.
Quickly, his musings turned to much more urgent and seductive reflections as he saw the sexy evidence of his passionate exploration on her moist slightly swollen lips. ‘I think we have done enough talking for now, don’t you? We can resume this very interesting conversation later.’
‘If you say so.’
She gave him the kind of cheekily provocative grin that came close to making him vocalise his need for her in the most basic and unequivocal terms available to him in language. Instead, he tipped her back onto the bed and demonstrated his need in a much more physical and satisfying way for them both …
It was rare that he stayed in bed all through the night with a woman and didn’t get up early, to work or distance himself in some way. Telling himself that it was because he was on vacation, but knowing it was more, much more than that, Marco turned onto his side to view his still-sleeping lover. The oyster silk cover had slipped from her body and he silently studied the naked, very feminine curves of hip and supple thigh. Immediately the waves of strong desire that seemed to be a permanent occurrence whenever he was near Grace flowed forcefully through him again.
Drawing the cover up gently over her bared satin shoulder, he realised he couldn’t seem to get enough of both her company and her body. When once again the thought struck him that he might have made her pregnant, he sensed a shockingly uncharacteristic surge of hope sweep into his heart. He had no family. In his will he had left most of his considerable fortune to charity. Not once in his romantic history had he ever considered marrying and starting a family of his own. But then he had never really been in love or cared for a woman enough to contemplate it.
Examining the face that was just as lovely in repose as when she was awake, Marco felt a definite quickening inside his chest. If he and Grace did make a child together, what would the infant be like? he wondered. He was suddenly fascinated by the idea. He was so dark—and she, being fair and blue-eyed, was his polar opposite. Smiling to himself, he lifted the silk coverlet again to contemplate her smooth flat abdomen. Mesmerised, he grazed his fingertips over the area just below her bellybutton. Grace stirred and opened her eyes. It was like looking into the most sublime sunlit blue lake.
‘What are you doing?’ Her soft voice was sleepily husky.
Marco let the cover drop back down over her body. ‘I was simply looking at you and marvelling at how beautiful you are.’
‘Flattery will get you everywhere.’
‘That’s exactly what I hoped you say.’
‘Except that I have a sudden urge to go for a swim … may I?’
Marco tugged down the covers he had just let fall back into place and employed the most seductive smile he could muster. ‘After we have made love,’ he told her.
Colouring a little, nonetheless Grace made no attempt to cover herself again. ‘It’s a good job that you’re so fit, because you really are insatiable,’ she murmured, even as her slender arms wound firmly round his neck.
CHAPTER NINE
WITH unashamed charm, Marco had persuaded Grace to allow him to take her shopping. Her agreement had only come about when she’d realised that all she had to wear was the dress she’d worn yesterday because she hadn’t expected to be spending the night with him.
Just the thought of how ardently they had made love made her heart race anew, and all the places on her body where he had visited his amorous attentions throbbed and tingled at the memory. The deliciously disturbing sensations were heightened by the realisation that her feelings for this man went far beyond merely enjoying his company. At every turn he mesmerised and seduced her … just by virtue of being himself. Grace loved the sound of his accented voice … the extravagant way he gestured with his hands when explaining something … the flash of an unguarded smile that was more potent even than bright sunlight illuminating a cloudy day …
When she’d suggested that she return to her own villa for some fresh clothing, Marco had caught her by the waist and silenced her reasoning with a long, lingering kiss that had made any inclination to do anything else but be with him inexorably vanish. After that he’d directed her to a luxurious wet room, so that she could take a shower, while he made some arrangements for their shopping trip. Grace had quickly learned that there were always arrangements to be made whenever he ventured out—simply because he was so well known. She’d also intuited that public interest in his activities gave him little pleasure. It was simply a have-to-deal-with by-product of his phenomenal success.
Shortly after his own shower, Marco changed into fresh military-style chinos and another loose white shirt and appeared on the patio, where she was waiting for him.
With his dark hair gleaming, he was looking fresh-faced, unbelievably handsome and somehow endearingly boyish too. Whenever she recalled him angrily asking her if she was satisfied now that he’d told her the full ‘sad and sorry’ story of his upbringing, she sensed the shame he clearly still felt. She wanted to tell him that it was hardly his fault that his grieving father had left him there—that he deserved nothing but admiration for being able to transcend his challenging and tragic start in life to become the incredible success he was now. There should be no hint of shame whatsoever … he was an inspiration, Grace wanted to say.
The only problem was that their relationship wasn’t yet on the kind of footing where she could demonstrate her understanding and compassion towards him without risking being angrily rebuffed. Having already experienced how swiftly Marco’s defences had slammed into place when she’d been about to express her concern for what he’d endured, she knew she had to rein in her natural instinct to try and get him to talk about it more … at least until he was sure she wasn’t going to betray him in any way.
‘I see Inês has made you coffee?’ he observed, smiling.
‘Your housekeeper is a godsend. You’re very lucky to have her.’
‘You think I don’t know that?’
‘I don’t doubt that you know it. You’re probably extremely appreciative of every person who works for you, if the truth be known. Likewise, they must be very appreciative of you,’ she added brightly.
Frowning thoughtfully, Marco pulled out the chair opposite her at the table. For a long moment he silently surveyed the stunning vista spread out before them. Already a shimmering haze of heat hung over it. ‘Don’t be in such a hurry to elevate
me to Employer of the Year,’ he advised, helping himself to some coffee. ‘I am not always so popular … particularly when it falls to me to make some of the tougher decisions. For instance when I have to let people go.’
‘I expect that comes with the territory. In your position you’re always looking at the bigger picture, aren’t you? What’s cost-effective and what’s not etc. Did you always want to be a businessman?’ Relaxing back into her chair, Grace offered Marco the little dish of sugar crystals, but with a slight shake of his head he declined it. She stirred another couple of crystals into her own beverage, grinning unrepentantly when he lifted an eyebrow.
‘I see that you have a sweet tooth, Grace?’
‘It’s only a small vice. Anyway … you haven’t answered my question.’
‘My answer is no … I didn’t always want to be a businessman. I started out just wanting to play golf and to become good at it. There was a course not far from the orphanage …’
He winced—but at least he wasn’t avoiding mentioning it, Grace thought. She almost held her breath at what she couldn’t help but see as a breakthrough.
‘When I turned fifteen,’ he continued, ‘I got a job there, collecting all the stray golf balls. One of the members befriended me. He asked me to be his caddy. He also started to teach me how to play. After a while, I did indeed become good at the game.’
‘But you didn’t want to take it up as a career?’
His dark eyes silently assessed her before he replied, as if he was not quite sure she was being serious. ‘You have never looked up my name on the internet and read my bio?’
Slightly bewildered, Grace swallowed hard. ‘No, I haven’t. Should I have?’