by Kim Lawrence
* * *
Even before they had stepped out of the helicopter Cesare was regretting his spur-of-the-moment decision to extend the invitation to Louise. Not that he had a problem with Louise herself, he just preferred to keep the compartments of his life separate and, though his sister had never commented, he knew she appreciated that he did not parade his lovers in front of her impressionable daughter.
They both had personal experience of what it was like to grow fond of someone who simply vanished one day—though sometimes he and Angel had been only too glad to see them disappear.
‘Uncles’ grew less of a problem for Cesare after his growth spurt when he was sixteen. Almost overnight he turned from a gangly teen into a muscular six feet plus. For Angel the problems got worse when she grew and Cesare, away at university, had not been around to protect her. His expression grew sombre as he recalled the scene he had walked in on, his fourteen-year-old sister fighting off a slobbering ‘uncle’, who had waved a branch of mistletoe when he saw Cesare.
The ‘uncle’ had spent that Christmas nursing a broken jaw in hospital, and he and Angel had spent it in a hotel. After that Angel had spent weekends with him and mid-week boarding.
He pushed away the memories—Cesare preferred to live in the present—along with his misgivings. It was only a weekend, he was hardly inviting Louise to take up residence. He seriously doubted that the successful litigator with whom he had enjoyed a short and pleasant association the year before would feel inclined to get her clothes grubby playing with a child.
When Louise had wafted fragrantly into a meeting as the legal representative of a rival company Cesare had found himself sitting opposite the perfect solution to the classic signs of sexual frustration he had been exhibiting.
After the meeting it had been Louise who had approached him. Was he involved? she had asked, making it clear once he had said he wasn’t that she would not be averse to rekindling the affair.
The only setback had been the business dinner she needed to attend in Paris that evening, but she would, she had assured him, be available the next day. She was flying back to London bright and early and had the whole weekend free.
‘I have to be in Scotland this weekend.’ Normally he would have been able to shrug off this case of bad timing but instead he heard himself saying, ‘Why don’t you join me?’
Once the offer was made and accepted he could not withdraw it and why would he want to? A weekend with the lovely Louise in his bed would be a perfect cure for the redhead who was in danger of becoming an obsession with him. There had been no sign of her when he landed, not that he had been looking for her specifically but Jas usually ran to greet him and claim the token present he always brought her when he returned.
‘You have a lovely home. I hope you have these insured?’ She ran her finger down a leather spine.
Cesare dragged his attention back to his beautiful companion who was examining a row of first editions on the shelf just as the door was flung open.
‘Sorry.’ Anna, following close behind the excited child, bent forward to grab her charge but missed as Jasmine pushed excitedly by her and straight at Cesare’s outstretched hand.
‘What have you got me?’
‘Who says I’ve got you anything, kiddo?’ While he bent to angle a teasing look at his diminutive niece, in the periphery of his vision he was aware of another figure. He straightened up and watched Jas tear the paper off the gift she had extracted from his pocket before he turned his gaze her way.
Louise’s presence did not protect him from the streak of white-hot lust that shot through his body. With the lust came the reluctant acknowledgement that the explanation for the impulse behind the uncharacteristic invitation to the beautiful lawyer had little to do with the pleasure of her company or even the prospect of steamy sex. He had wanted to demonstrate to Anna Henderson that there were men who could kiss her and walk away without a backward glance. He could see now that the need to prove something, even to himself, was in itself a weakness. Wanting to catch a glimpse of jealousy on Anna Henderson’s face... That was hardly a sign of indifference.
He expelled a long slow breath and found his gaze drawn irresistibly to the face in question. His eyes roamed the delicate contours, the softly flushed cheeks, the small nose sprinkled with freckles and the mouth smiling now as she looked at Jasmine. A mouth that promised sensual delight and delivered on that promise.
Not allowing himself the dangerous indulgence, he pushed away the memory before it had fully surfaced and exhaled in a series of carefully controlled breaths. This was all about control and exerting it, all about not being a victim of his own hormones or the lush promise of her lips.
As if feeling his eyes, she turned her head. As their glances connected he saw wariness in those blue iridescent pools and also a need that made the ache in his groin tighten another painful notch.
He thought of Paul. It should have been enough to quench the hunger—it wasn’t.
‘Uncle Cesare, we lifted a stone and counted the different creepy-crawly things underneath. They were totally gross! You’ll never in a billion years guess how many there were. Uncle Cesare?’
Dark lines scoring the chiselled angles of his cheekbones, Cesare wrenched his stare free of those blue eyes and responded to the sharp imperative tug on his sleeve.
‘Were you listening?’
He cleared his throat before answering the charge. ‘A billion?’
‘No, stupid, twenty-two.’
His dark smouldering stare had deconstructed Anna’s careful rationalisation of that kiss and her shameful response brick by brick. She had never wanted to know what real passion felt like, the sort that made otherwise sensible women like Rosie act foolishly for men who were so obviously no good for them. She still believed there was always a choice, but now she understood why some women made the wrong choice.
She wouldn’t, but still... Heart pumping like an overstretched piston, she watched him grin. It softened the lines of tension from his handsome face, managing in the process to make him look even more wildly attractive and years younger.
She felt the dangerous weakening of her antagonism and reminded herself that even monsters had soft spots. Some loved their mother or their dog, and maybe this monster loved a tall blonde with the sort of grooming she would never achieve?
Jaw clenched, she slid a surreptitious look at the other woman. Tall and elegant in a silk shirt and high-waisted, wide-legged linen trousers that emphasised her endless legs and tiny waist. The woman with her sleek bobbed hair, immaculate appearance and perfect figure made Anna feel hopelessly inadequate, but on the plus side having her around might mean Cesare wouldn’t have the time to be on her case so much.
The thought of him being too exhausted after a night of relentless steamy passion with the ice queen here afforded Anna surprisingly little comfort, though it was hard to imagine that hair mussed.
Not so hard to imagine those long crimson-tipped fingers running over his golden skin. She recalled the feel of the hair-roughened skin of his face and flexed her tingling fingertips before she smothered the memory under several layers of antagonism and stubborn resolve. If he still continued to harass her even with his girlfriend around she would rise above it and simply ignore him. Anticipating her occupation of the moral high ground, she lifted her chin.
‘Look what I’ve got, Anna.’
Anna gave herself a mental shake and dutifully examined the tiny house, perfect in every detail, beautifully carved out of wood. She turned it over in her hand before handing the beautifully crafted piece back to Jasmine.
‘You have quite a collection now.’ Jasmine had confided her intention of building an entire village with the pieces her uncle brought her back from his trips.
‘Nearly a complete street now and the church. Thank you, Uncle Cesare.’
H
e tipped his dark head in acknowledgement. ‘You are welcome.’ He laid a hand on Louise’s arm. ‘My niece, Jasmine. Say hello to Miss Gove, Jas.’
‘Hello.’
‘I had no idea you had a niece. Why, isn’t she a darling? Call me Auntie Louise.’
‘Why? You’re not my auntie.’
The tall blonde bent down towards Jas but jerked back in alarm at the last moment. ‘Goodness, you’re covered in mud!’
‘So is Anna,’ Jas offered by way of defence.
‘But I don’t have frosting all around my mouth,’ Anna retorted, pulling a tissue from her pocket to wipe around Jas’s cupid-bow lips.
As the comment drew the tall, elegant couple’s attention Anna stood there and endured the scrutiny, feeling her cheeks heat. It was hard to see what was going on behind his smoked-glass stare but the woman looked amused.
‘Goodness, so she is.’ Her wrinkled nose, as much as her pristine white shift dress, made Anna conscious of the contrast she must make. ‘You’re the nanny?’
Not quite sure how to respond, Anna found herself glancing Cesare’s way.
‘Miss Henderson is helping Angel out for a few weeks as a sort of glorified babysitter.’
Jas tugged her uncle’s sleeve. ‘Call her Anna. She’s not my teacher.’ She giggled as if the idea was hilarious.
It was the tall blonde with her scarlet claws on Cesare’s arm who broke the pregnant silence.
‘I admire teachers,’ she said unexpectedly. ‘Not a job I could do, though,’ she admitted, instantly going up in Anna’s estimation. ‘I’m sure your job has a lot of satisfaction too and without all that responsibility.’
Anna produced a fake smile and realised that first impressions were normally spot on. ‘Now there’s a thought,’ she drawled, directing her stare straight at Cesare, who returned it without any visible sign of discomfiture.
‘Children are the future.’
Anna just managed not to roll her eyes while his companion acted as though he’d just voiced something profound, not blindingly obvious. ‘How true,’ Louise said earnestly.
‘I think that the people who care for them should be above reproach, don’t you, Miss Henderson?’
Anna, who chose to ignore the dig, lifted her chin. ‘Don’t ask me, I’m in it for the money, status and prestige. Come along, Jas, we need to clean up.’ Before she took the child’s hand Anna thought she caught a flash of something approaching amusement in his slate-coloured eyes, but, no, it must have been a trick of the light. He didn’t possess a sense of humour...just a great body and formidable sex appeal.
It didn’t matter how many times he knocked her down verbally, Cesare mused, Anna always got up, brushed herself off and came out fighting. He had waited for her to put a foot wrong, but she hadn’t. His initial concerns for his niece’s welfare in Anna’s charge had diminished. It was now his welfare that concerned him—her presence was driving him insane.
‘Looks like I’m in the wrong job,’ Louise drawled, watching the two make their way across the cobbled courtyard. ‘I think I offended your nanny,’ she teased lightly.
‘She’s not my nanny,’ he gritted back, his eyes still trained on the retreating flame-haired figure. Her walk was like the woman herself—provocative! The swing of her hips, the way she... He clenched his jaw and refused to acknowledge the lustful surge of hunger in his blood and snarled, ‘She’s a damned pain in the—’ He caught Louise’s startled expression and forced a smile while he dragged a hand down his jaw. ‘She is Angel’s choice, not mine.’
‘So get rid of her.’
‘There’s nothing I’d like more.’ A life without those blue eyes judging him. A house without that husky laugh or the perfume that lingered in rooms.
He knew there was a simple solution to his problem. They might be living under the same roof but that roof did not cover a two-up two-down cottage. It would have been easy to avoid the rooms where her scent might linger, remain safely out of hearing distance of her aggravating laugh.
But that would mean putting his own comfort ahead of Jasmine’s well-being. He needed to stay vigilant; he had to be there to step in if needed. This was not about his personal comfort.
Noble Cesare, mocked the voice in his head.
‘I’ve never seen you like this,’ Louise decided, studying his face. ‘I can look at her contract if that’s the problem?’
‘I doubt very much she has one.’
Louise looked shocked by the admission. ‘Then legally—’
Cesare took a deep breath. ‘I appreciate the offer, Louise, but I have it under control.’ If only.
Louise suddenly let out a startled laugh. ‘It’s her, isn’t it? The nanny. There’s something going on between you two.’
‘Of course there isn’t something going on.’
But Louise had her litigator’s hat on and she wasn’t letting go. ‘I wondered why you invited me here, but you wanted to make this girl jealous, didn’t you?’ She released a husky laugh.
Cesare scowled. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’
‘Well, well. For once in your life you’re doing the running, aren’t you, Cesare?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
LEAVING JAS SITTING in front of the computer screen chatting excitedly to her mother, Anna walked through to the adjoining room to take her call.
It was her aunt Jane with the news that Rosie had started getting pains the previous night. They had all gone to hospital but it had turned out to be a false alarm. Anna laughed when her aunt described the journey there, sent her sympathy to Rosie, who had lost sight of her feet, and wished she too could be there.
Anna, who had smiled all the way through the phone conversation, felt strangely flat after she put the phone down. She realised the heaviness in her chest was homesickness—not for a place but for her family. Rosie was not just her cousin, she was her best friend, and if she had been here Anna would have been at the birth and later she’d have been toasting the baby with the proud grandparents, who had decided to stay on an extra few weeks in Canada before they flew back home.
She took a deep breath, told herself not to be stupid—things didn’t stay the same. Having Rosie safe and happy with her gorgeous husband, Scott, in another country was a lot better than an unhappy Rosie living within walking distance.
She would visit next Christmas as they’d planned and she’d be a doting aunt.
When she walked back into Jasmine’s bedroom a few minutes later the little girl was blowing kisses at the screen.
‘You go clean your teeth, there’s a good girl, and Mummy will give you another story tomorrow.’
Watching Jasmine skip from the room, Anna bent down to see the computer screen, her smile fading as she saw the tears running down Angel’s face.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, slipping into the seat the child had just vacated.
Angel shook her head and gave a sniff before wiping the moisture from her face. ‘I miss her so much. I just wish...’ She gave a sigh and produced a tremulous smile that just about broke Anna’s heart. ‘Ignore me, I’m just having a bad day—you know, sunshine, sand, palm trees.’ She shook her head gave a wry grimace and drawled ironically, ‘It’s a tough life. You have no idea how exhausting it is to be forced to live in the lap of luxury in a five-star hotel and then to top it all be asked to wear beautiful clothes and have your face painted by experts.’
Anna was not fooled by the self-mocking grin. She knew that Angel would have given every glamorous trapping of her life to be able to hold her daughter on her lap while she read the bedtime story.
‘So ignore me, how are you and is that big bad brother of mine behaving himself?’
Anna hadn’t intended mentioning the house guest but she found herself blurting, ‘He’s brought a woman home.’
Angel
’s jaw dropped. ‘Now that I didn’t see coming. So what’s she like?’
Anna struggled to be scrupulously fair in her assessment, though Angel’s verdict of, ‘She sounds terrible,’ suggested she might not have succeeded.
* * *
Anna glanced at the illuminated clock on her bedside table, and groaned as she read the time. Three a.m. It had been two before she had finally dropped off.
She had lifted her pillow, intending to cover her head with it, when a muffled cry made her sit up straight, her head tilted to one side in an alert listening attitude, almost immediately the cry...no, sob...came again.
Anna was out of her bed in one leap, fired by urgency. She hit the floor running, fighting her way into her robe as she dashed down the corridor. Jasmine’s room was two doors along. When she had looked in earlier the little girl had been fast asleep in the pretty canopied bed that was illuminated by a night light that cast shadows of birds on the wall above her head.
Jasmine was no longer asleep but sitting up in her bed, two patches of bright colour on her cheeks. The little girl’s otherwise pale face was stained with tears.
‘I was sick.’
‘You poor thing.’ Bending over the bed, Anna smoothed the damp curls from the little girl’s feverish forehead and assessed the situation.
‘I’m hot!’
‘I know, darling, never mind—we’ll have you sorted in two ticks,’ Anna soothed.
It took a little longer than that. She sponged Jasmine and dressed her in a fresh pair of pyjamas, then sat the child, who was shivering even though her skin was hot, in an armchair while she changed the bed linen. ‘Oh, you poor thing.’
Five minutes later Jas was back in her bed. Heavy-eyed, she looked on the point of falling back to sleep and not obviously distressed. In charge of a class of thirty six-year-olds for the past four years, Anna was not a stranger to childhood ailments, but the first call with unwell children had always been to contact the parents and clearly in this situation that was not possible.