Gabriel’s hands clenched at his sides. Bella could ask him that, when she might have lost her life giving birth to Toby? When they might both have lost their lives and he, Gabriel, Bella’s lover and Toby’s father, would not have even known!
‘The way I see it, both you and I have almost died and have the scars to prove it—’ Bella broke off abruptly as Gabriel turned, his expression fierce. ‘I was only trying to make light of the situation, Gabriel,’ she reasoned.
His eyes narrowed to steely slits. ‘You think the risk to your life is a subject for humour?’
She grimaced. ‘I think it’s something that happened four and a half years ago. It’s nothing but history now. We’re all still here, after all.’
Gabriel knew that Bella was right, but having just learnt that she might have died giving birth to Toby made him wonder—fear?—that a second pregnancy might be as dangerous…
‘May I see your scar?’
Bella looked up at Gabriel warily as he loomed over her and blocked out the sun, his face darkly intense.
He wanted to see her scar from the Caesarean section? Her below-the-bikini-line scar?
She swallowed hard. ‘Can’t you just take my word for it that it’s there?’
There was a slight easing of the tension in his expression. ‘No.’
‘Oh.’ Bella chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I would really rather not.’ Her arms tightened protectively about her knees.
‘Why not?’
Because it was far too intimate, that was why! Because she already felt totally exposed, vulnerable, in the brief bikini, without baring any more flesh!
‘Maybe later,’ she said, turning away.
‘Now.’
Bella frowned her irritation as she looked back at him. ‘Gabriel, we don’t have to literally bare all of ourselves to each other in the first few days of marriage!’
He gave a hard smile. ‘You have seen my scars, now I would like to see yours.’
‘I would rather not,’ she came back crossly.
‘Men and women all look alike in the daylight, too, Isabella,’ Gabriel murmured throatily.
No, they didn’t!
There was simply no other man like Gabriel. No other man with his broodingly dark good looks. No other man with the power to make Bella’s knees tremble with just a glance from the warmth of those chocolatebrown eyes. No other man who made her feel so desirable. No other man who could make her totally lose control at the merest touch of his hand…
There just was no other man as far as Bella was concerned.
Oh, God!
Bella felt her cheeks pale even as she stared up at Gabriel with a feeling of helplessness. She loved him. Loved Gabriel.
Had she ever really stopped loving him?
Probably not, Bella acknowledged with a feeling akin to panic. She had fallen in love with Gabriel that night five years ago, and even though she had never seen him again she had continued to love him.
That was the reason she had never been interested in even going out with another man for all these years.
That was the reason she had never felt even remotely attracted to another man in that time.
Because she was already in love with Gabriel Danti, and always would be!
And now she was married to him. Married to the man she loved, would always love, and yet could never tell him of that love because it wasn’t what Gabriel wanted from her. It had never been what Gabriel wanted from her, and even less so now. All Gabriel wanted was his son; Bella just happened to come along with the package.
She stood up abruptly. ‘I think not, thank you, Gabriel,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I’m tired. I’ll go back to the villa and take a nap before dinner.’
Gabriel remained on the beach, his gaze narrowed in thought as he watched Bella walk into the trees and up towards the villa, her hair a black silky cloud down the slenderness of her back, the gentle sway of her hips wholly enticing.
What had happened just now?
One minute Bella had been challenging him as she always did, just as he had been enjoying that challenge as he always did, and the next it seemed she had completely shut down all her emotions.
Perhaps that was as well when Gabriel knew he daren’t risk another pregnancy for Bella until he was sure she would be in no danger…
‘Tell me what happened five years ago, Gabriel.’
‘As in…?’ Gabriel’s expression was guarded as he looked across the dinner table at Bella.
‘As in the accident, of course,’ she said impatiently.
‘Ah.’ Gabriel sat back to take a sip of the white wine that he had opened to accompany the lobster and salad they had prepared together and just eaten.
Bella frowned. ‘What did you think I meant?’
Gabriel looked at Bella beneath lowered lids as he admired her and thought how lovely she looked in her simple black knee-length gown. Its thin shoulder straps and the bareness of her arms revealed the light tan she had attained at the beach earlier, the heavy cloud of her dark hair cascaded loosely over that golden hue, and her face was bare of make-up except a pale peach lip gloss.
Bella had never looked more beautiful. Or more desirable.
‘What did I think that you meant?’ Gabriel repeated slowly. ‘The night we spent together, perhaps?’
‘I think we’re both already well aware of what happened that night!’ Bella pointed out tartly. ‘Impressionable student meets sexy racing-car driver,’ she enlarged as Gabriel raised questioning brows. ‘And the rest is history, as they say!’
‘What do you say, Bella?’
What should Bella say?
She could say that she had behaved like a complete idiot five years ago. She could say that she should have had more sense than to fall for all that rakish charm and spent that one glorious night in his arms. She could say that she should never have committed the complete folly of falling in love with a man like Gabriel Danti!
‘Oh, no, you don’t, Gabriel.’ Her smile was tight. ‘You’re not going to distract me from my original question by annoying me.’
‘I’m not?’
‘No, you’re not!’
He quirked dark brows. ‘I am curious as to why our talking about the night we spent together five years ago should cause annoyance.’
‘Gabriel!’ she protested.
‘Bella…?’
Maybe if he had continued to call her Isabella in that cold and distant way then Bella would have refused to answer him. Maybe. But when he said her name in that sexy, husky way she had no chance!
She sighed. ‘I really don’t want to argue with you again tonight, Gabriel.’
He nodded. ‘Fine, then we will not argue.’
‘We can’t seem to do anything else!’
He shrugged his shoulders beneath the cream silk shirt he wore.
‘We are here together for a week, Bella, with no other distractions. We have to talk about something.’
‘I’ve already told you what happened that night. I’m more interested in what happened afterwards,’ she said firmly.
Gabriel’s mouth tightened. ‘You are once again referring to the car crash in which two men died.’
The sudden coolness in his gaze, the slight withdrawal Bella sensed in his manner, told her how reluctant Gabriel was to talk about the accident.
At least as reluctant as Bella was to talk about that night they had spent together!
She gave him a direct look. ‘I assure you I’m not going to be hurt by anything you have to say concerning your feelings for Janine Childe.’
‘No?’ Gabriel’s eyes glittered in the moonlight that shone in the ever-encroaching darkness.
‘No,’ Bella said. ‘You aren’t the first man to go to bed with one woman when you’re actually in love with another one. I very much doubt that you’ll be the last, either!’ she added with a rueful smile.
Gabriel’s jaw tensed. ‘You believe me so utterly dishonourable?’
‘I believe you were a man
surrounded by Formula One groupies who were only too happy to go to bed with defending champion Gabriel Danti, whether he was in love with someone else or not,’ Bella explained practically.
‘Formula One groupies?’ Gabriel exclaimed.
‘Oh, stop being obtuse, Gabriel,’ Bella teased gently. ‘Women of all ages find that macho image as sexy as hell, you know that.’
‘Did you?’ He sounded amused now.
‘We weren’t talking about me—’
‘Why did you go to bed with me that night, Bella?’
He had called her Bella again! Her defences were already in tatters after the momentous recognition earlier of her love for this man, without that!
‘Because you were sexy as hell, of course,’ she said brightly. ‘Now could you just—’
‘Past tense, Bella?’ Gabriel cut in softly, an edge to those husky tones. ‘You no longer find me sexy?’
If Bella found Gabriel any sexier she would literally be drooling down her chin at how gorgeous he looked this evening with the dark thickness of his hair flowing onto his shoulders and the way that cream silk shirt emphasised every muscled inch of his chest.
If Bella found him any sexier she would be ripping that shirt from his back just so that she could touch bare flesh.
If she found Gabriel any sexier she would be on her knees begging him to make love to her again!
And again.
And again…
Just thinking about it made Bella’s breasts firm and swell, the nipples hardening against the soft material of her dress, and an aching warmth begin to start between her thighs.
She shot him an irritated glance. ‘You should have a public health warning stamped on your forehead!’ She scowled as he began to smile. ‘I’m glad you think it’s funny,’ she muttered.
Gabriel continued to smile as he regarded Bella across the width of the table. Without Bella realising it—or particularly wanting it?—they were becoming easier together in each other’s company.
He sat forward slightly. ‘Your public health warning should be on your breasts.’
Colour suffused Bella’s cheeks. ‘My breasts…?’ she choked.
Gabriel nodded. ‘They are beautiful, Bella. Firm. Round. A perfect fit in my hands. And your nipples are—’
‘I’m not sure this is altogether polite after-dinner conversation, Gabriel!’ she gasped when she could once more catch her breath.
Gabriel allowed his gaze to lower to the part of her anatomy under discussion as they pressed firm and pouting against the material of her gown. A clear indication that their conversation had roused Bella as much as it had him.
Yet he could not—no, he dared not—make love to her. The fear of further loss and trauma in his life made Gabriel determined not to put Bella’s life at risk with a possible second pregnancy.
His mouth tightened as he realised the disastrous predicament he’d landed them both in. ‘You are right, Isabella, it is not.’ He stood up suddenly.
‘I—Where are you going?’ Bella frowned as Gabriel strode off towards the beach.
He turned on the pathway, the moonlight turning his hair to ebony and reflecting in his eyes. ‘I require some time to myself,’ he said distantly.
Gabriel needed some time to himself…
He couldn’t have told Bella any more clearly that after only two days alone together he was already bored in her company!
‘Fine.’ She nodded abruptly. ‘I’ll see you in morning, then,’ she added lamely, still slightly stunned by the way Gabriel’s mood had changed so swiftly from seduction to a need to go off by himself. After spending so many weeks resisting him, Bella was also shocked by the fierce desire that she wanted to be seduced.
‘No doubt,’ he answered curtly.
And, Bella realised painfully, he looked far from pleased at the prospect…
The two days it had taken Gabriel to find himself bored with her company was the same two days it had taken Bella to realise she was more in love with him than ever!
CHAPTER TEN
‘BREAKFAST, Bella.’
Bella felt as if she were fighting through layers of fog as she roused herself from a deep and troubled sleep, inwardly wincing as she remembered exactly where she was. And who she was with…
Once again Bella had pretended to be asleep the previous night when Gabriel had finally come to bed about two hours after her, and had known by the restlessness of Gabriel’s movements as he lay beside her that he was no more asleep than she was.
Still they hadn’t spoken. Hadn’t touched. Had just lain there, side by side, awake but totally uncommunicative.
‘Your coffee is becoming cold, Bella,’ Gabriel told her sharply.
Bella could smell that coffee, and warm buttery croissants, finally opening her eyes to frown up at Gabriel as he stood beside the bed holding a breakfast tray. He was already fully dressed, his hair still damp from the shower, evidence that he had been up for some time.
‘Why the breakfast in bed, Gabriel?’ Bella sat up against the sumptuous pillows, having decided attack was her best form of defence after the way the two of them had parted the previous evening.
He shrugged. ‘It seemed like something a new husband should do for his bride.’ He placed the tray across her knees and stepped back.
‘No one has ever brought me breakfast in bed before,’ Bella muttered uncomfortably, keeping her gaze averted from him to instead look down at the pot of coffee and the freshly warmed croissants with a deliciously tempting pot of butter.
‘As we are leaving later this morning I thought it best if I ensure you have something to eat—’
‘Leaving?’ Bella cut in incredulously, the breakfast tray forgotten as she stared up at Gabriel. ‘As in going back to England leaving?’
He gave a haughty inclination of his head. ‘As in going back to England leaving,’ he confirmed evenly.
Bella was completely stunned as she watched Gabriel begin to take his clothes from the wardrobe obviously in preparation for packing them.
Gabriel had decided they were leaving. After only two days of their planned week-long honeymoon!
She gave a confused frown. ‘This is all rather sudden, isn’t it?’
What on earth were her family going to make of them cutting their honeymoon short like this? Especially Toby!
Gabriel saw the doubts flickering across Bella’s face. A face that showed the strain of the last few days and nights in the heavy tiredness of her eyes and the unhappy slant to her mouth.
The same strain that Gabriel was feeling. Although he doubted that Bella’s strain was for the same reason as his own!
He shook his head. ‘You are unhappy here, Isabella.’
‘So are you!’ she shot back.
His mouth tightened. ‘We were not talking about me.’
‘No, we weren’t, were we?’ Bella said. ‘Why is that, Gabriel? Why is it that you can never give me a straightforward answer to a straightforward question?’
Those dark eyes narrowed warningly. ‘Perhaps because the questions you ask have no straightforward answer.’
She sighed in disgust. ‘You’re doing it again!’
Gabriel was well aware of what he was doing. But he could not tell Bella of his fears, of his need to leave here, before he once again put her life at risk if she conceived a second time. ‘If you think that your family will be concerned at our early return from our honeymoon, then I suggest you go straight to your cottage. That way no one even has to know we are back.’
Bella frowned. ‘What’s the difference between us staying here for another five days or hiding out in my cottage?’
Gabriel gave a humourless smile. ‘I said that you could go straight to your cottage, Isabella, not that I would be joining you there.’
Her face blanked of all expression. ‘I see…’
‘Do you?’ Gabriel said grimly.
‘Oh, yes,’ Bella snapped as she placed the breakfast tray on the bedside table before swinging her leg
s to the floor and sitting up. ‘I can be ready to leave in half an hour or so, if that’s okay with you?’
Gabriel had thought Bella would be pleased at the idea of leaving the island today. That she would be even happier at the idea of being relieved of his company once they were back in England. But instead she merely looked angry.
‘There is no rush,’ he told her. ‘I have radioed ahead and instructed that the plane be fuelled and ready to leave as soon as we arrive.’
‘Now I know where Toby gets his organisational skills from!’ Bella huffed as she stood up. ‘I would like some privacy to get showered and dressed, if you wouldn’t mind, Gabriel?’ She looked at him challengingly.
‘Would it matter if I did?’ he growled.
Her eyes flashed violet fire at him. ‘Not in the least!’
His mouth thinned to a severe line. ‘As I thought. Eat some of the breakfast, Isabella,’ he instructed. ‘You will feel less sick on the helicopter if you have eaten.’
‘No—I’ll just have something to be sick with!’ she contradicted him mutinously.
‘That is true, also,’ Gabriel murmured dryly.
Bella glared. ‘Please don’t attempt to try and sugarcoat it for me!’
She looked so beautiful as she faced him across the room, her face flushed with anger and the darkness of her hair a wild tangle about her shoulders, the long, pale cream nightgown clinging to the lushness of her curvaceous figure.
It was all Gabriel could do to stop himself from taking the few steps that separated them before gathering Bella into his arms and making love to her until she screamed for mercy!
Instead he stepped towards the bedroom door. ‘I will be outside if you should need me.’
‘I won’t,’ she assured him firmly.
No, she probably wouldn’t, Gabriel acknowledged ruefully as he strode outside into the sunshine to take deep, calming breaths of the fragrant air.
Much as he had done the previous evening as he walked along the moonlit shoreline and reminded himself all the reasons he dared not make love to Bella again…
‘I thought you said you had to leave?’ Bella reminded Gabriel many hours later as, having driven her to her cottage, he now lingered in the sitting-room.
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