Fringes of coconut trees lined the small ribbon of road, stretching into the distance—banks of them like upright soldiers on parade.
Every so often she would see a flash of deep blue sea, and then, after twenty minutes of driving, they were ploughing down a rocky incline and pulling into a cove.
It was a private beach, small but perfectly formed. Backed into the shrubbery among the coconut trees was a small cabin, and moored to one side was the boat he had told her about.
‘How many properties like these do you own?’ she asked as he swung round to help her out of the Jeep.
‘A handful. All investment places. Some used slightly more than others.’
‘Don’t you get tired of London? Want to escape to some place like this?’
‘I’ve never been good at escaping,’ Leo confessed. He looked at her and then brushed some of her hair away from her face.
‘If you were born into money...’
She bent down to pull off her sandals and Leo drew in a sharp breath, causing her to look up, catch his eyes on her cleavage and the black swimsuit holding in her pouting breasts, which were bigger and fuller now with her new pregnant figure. She looked away and quickly straightened, hopping a little because the sand was hot.
‘Then surely you must have had loads of opportunity to do whatever you wanted...’
‘I must have been born with an over-developed responsibility gene. That sand’s hot.’ He swept her off her feet and carried her to the cabin. ‘Make sure you apply lots of sunblock. I’m going to fetch the hamper and we can relax for a while before we take the boat out.’
Maddie looked at him for a while, silent and speculative. He did that. He only told her what he wanted her to know. He never spoke about anything personal and she wished she could get into his head and prise out his secrets. He knew all hers!
‘Okay.’
She shrugged. She was going to enjoy the day and enjoy being away from the chaos of the house and the weight of running the store.
The cabin was small but exquisite, as lovely as anything money could buy. She opened the few doors and peered into two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a bedroom and another bathroom on either side of a wooden-floored sitting area and an open-plan kitchen. Lots of squashy sofas and low tables.
She replaced her dress with a sarong and rubbed sunblock all over. She was used to the sun, having lived in Australia, and knew that taking chances was never a good idea, even though she tanned easily.
She looked in the full-length mirror and saw a girl who looked radiant. Her skin had deepened over the summer to the colour of a latte—her Italian ancestry shining through. Her hair was almost down to her waist. When she turned to the side she could see the small but definite bump of her tummy.
The biggest change to her appearance, though, was that the misery of the past few years and the horror of what had happened to her before she’d left Australia were no longer etched on her face.
She looked...happy. She was pregnant after a one-night stand, the house she had inherited had been all but dismantled the last time she’d set eyes on it, and the responsibility of running the store was a weight that couldn’t be underestimated because other people’s livelihoods were at stake, and yet she was happy.
Happy to be right here, right now, with a man who wasn’t in love with her and never would be. Just happy to be around him.
It was a frightening thought, and it made her heart beat fast—because there could only be one reason why she felt so content, despite the many things that should be concerning her.
Leo didn’t love her, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t fallen for him—because she had. He’d got under her skin, and now that he had lodged there she couldn’t prise him away.
Ever since she’d become pregnant he’d been a rock, and never more so than now. He was determined to prove just how solid he could be and it was a seductive tactic—because it was making her rethink the decision she had made.
Still pensive, she went out to find that he had set up camp under a canopy of coconut trees. She took a few seconds to absorb the setting. Powdery white sand sloping down to crystal-clear water as blue as the sky above it...rocks and coconut trees embracing the cove...the brightly painted boat now bobbing in the water to one side...and Leo, hunky and sexy and willing to cook her breakfast because he felt she needed looking after.
Had she been seeing everything from a skewed perspective? Instead of bemoaning the fact that he was protective because of the baby she was carrying and not because of her, should she instead just be seeing his drive to be protective as something to be lauded? As an indication of his strength of character and his fundamental decency?
Her formative experience with men had come in the form of her father, who had jumped ship and bailed on wedlock the second he’d discovered that her mother came without the dowry he’d banked on. And then Adam, who had treated her like a mannequin and then dumped her when she’d been accused of theft because he’d thought that someone who didn’t come from his class couldn’t possibly have principles.
And yet, despite her experiences, she realised she’d put a lot of faith in love. Heck, she’d dug her heels in and turned down Leo’s marriage proposal because he didn’t love her.
But what she’d failed to appreciate was that there were all sorts of counter-arguments for the deal he’d proposed that made a lot of sense. Including the fact that not marrying him meant she’d have to face the idea of him not being in her life after the baby was born.
Leo glanced across and saw her standing there, looking at him pensively. She quickly looked away, out towards the water, but she wasn’t fast enough to miss the appreciative glance he cast over her rounded stomach, which he was seeing for the first time. She suddenly realised how little the wisp of floaty fabric tied around her waist did to cover her.
‘Have you remembered the sunblock?’ he asked, with a hint of some deeper thought in his voice.
Maddie remembered that her feeling resentful because his concern was solely directed with the baby in mind should not be on the cards, and so she smiled and nodded.
‘It’s practically a criminal offence to go out without sunblock in Australia. You’re really well prepared for a day at the beach, Leo.’ She eyed the picture-perfect oversized towel, the hamper, the fluffy beach towels rolled into sausage shapes.
‘I’m going to put the food inside,’ he responded. ‘Then what about a bit of sailing?’
‘Are you sure...’
‘That I’m a master sailor? Yes.’ He grinned. ‘You’ll be safe with me.’
But my heart won’t be, she thought as he disappeared into the cabin, and reappeared almost immediately, hand outstretched to lead her to the boat.
She felt a frisson as their fingers linked and then as he helped her in, settling her under the canopy and taking the wheel.
Maddie leaned back and closed her eyes, and as the boat chugged off in a very sedate manner she smiled, letting the wind blow her hair all round her face.
It was too noisy with the engine running to talk, and she liked that because she needed to think. She needed to do something with the churning in her head. She needed to sift through the tangle of confused thoughts and put them into some kind of order.
She needed to ask herself whether she had made the right decision in turning him down and whether it was too late to reverse that decision.
She half opened her eyes and drank him in. He’d unbuttoned his shirt and it whipped behind him, exposing the bronzed perfection of his torso. His swimming trunks were baggy, riding low on his lean hips, and he was steering with one hand, dark sunglasses in place.
He took her breath away.
He would take any woman’s breath away.
If they were married, though, she wouldn’t have to deal with the pain of watching him take those other women’s breath away.
; She walked towards him and stood right next to him, slinging her arm casually around his waist.
Leo stiffened, but didn’t glance down at her.
‘I’ll anchor in a couple of minutes,’ he said roughly. ‘If you’re not confident in the water you can stick to the side of the boat. The ladder will be down. You can climb up any time you get nervous. Or you don’t have to come in at all. Although...’ He breathed in the scent of her and felt a rush of desire. ‘I hope you do. The water here is warm. If you’re feeling brave, we can grab a couple of snorkels and see what’s there.’
‘Should I be scared?’
‘Never with me around.’
* * *
He killed the engine and it spluttered into silence. When he drew back to look at her she was shading her eyes against the glare, her face upturned to his.
‘You do make me feel safe,’ she confided truthfully. ‘And I know I haven’t said this before, but I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me now that I’m pregnant.’
Leo wondered whether she knew what that arm round his waist had done to him and how those glass-green eyes were affecting him.
‘Good!’ he said heartily. ‘Swim?’
He turned away before his arousal became overpowering and paused on the edge of the boat, desperate for some cold water to kill his rampant libido.
‘Definitely!’ Maddie laughed and untied her sarong, and then faced him, still smiling.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and Leo dived into the sea before he let loose a groan of desire. He swam underwater, his powerful body sleek and brown as he sliced through the water and surfaced wiping his face.
She was tentatively taking the steps down and he swam towards her to help.
‘I can manage!’ Maddie laughed, but she did curve round and link her fingers behind his neck briefly before letting go and doggy-paddling by the ladder. ‘This is as good as it gets with me. I can swim a bit...’
‘Hang on to the ladder. I’m going to get the snorkels. There’s a lifesaver ring you can hold, to make sure you don’t feel out of your depth.’
‘I won’t need that,’ Maddie teased breathlessly, ‘Not when you’re here and you’ve said that I can trust you.’
Hell, she was doing it again...turning him on when she obviously didn’t mean to...
Five minutes later they were snorkelling, and Maddie was clearly having the time of her life.
It was strange that she’d never done anything like this before, especially as she’d lived in a country famed for its Great Barrier Reef and its exotic underwater life.
She got a bit braver the longer they were in the water, venturing further out holding on to Leo. She only reluctantly returned to the boat when he tapped her and told her how long they’d been swimming.
‘That was amazing,’ she confessed excitedly, removing the snorkel and shaking her hair, before flipping it into a makeshift braid that hung like a wet burnished gold rope down her back. ‘I could do that every day!’
Leo grinned. ‘Then we’ll have to do something about that,’ he drawled, towelling himself dry and slinging the damp towel across his shoulders.
Their eyes met and he didn’t look away. Nor did she.
When she walked towards him—carefully, because a boat was not the steadiest surface in the world—he didn’t move a muscle. He waited. As still and as watchful as a jungle animal on high alert.
He was picking up all sorts of signals and he didn’t know what to believe and what not to believe. But when she stopped right in front of him and looked up at him he knew exactly what to believe.
‘You shouldn’t,’ he said roughly.
‘Shouldn’t what?’
‘Stand there looking at me as though you want me to strip you bare and make love to you right here on this boat.’
Maddie looked down, suddenly shy. She was pregnant with his baby, and yet here she was shy?
‘Is that what you want, cara?’
He tilted her chin and met her apple-green eyes steadily.
‘Do you want me to do this?’
He trailed one long brown finger along her cleavage and she shuddered and let loose a stifled little gasp.
‘What about this?’
He reached to the straps of her swimsuit and hooked his fingers under before he slowly began pulling them down, watching her carefully, getting more and more worked up with every passing second.
It was his turn to stifle a groan of pure pleasure as her breasts were exposed, pale orbs with those delectable rosy nipples, bigger and darker now, just as her breasts were fuller and heavier. He was startled to see that his hands were shaking as he rubbed the tips of her nipples with the pads of his thumbs. The swimsuit had bunched up at her waist and he badly wanted to take it off completely, but he hesitated.
‘Is this what you want?’ he demanded unsteadily. ‘Because it’s what I want...’
Maddie nodded, and Leo did what he wanted to do. He pulled off her swimsuit and then devoted himself to her body, tasting it, working his way down while she remained standing, holding on to the steel pole supporting the canopy. Her head was flung back and her mouth was half open as she moaned, a low, guttural sound as his mouth found the patch between her legs and he burrowed there, nuzzling before gently parting the folds of her womanhood so that he could slide his tongue into her slick groove.
Maddie plunged her fingers into his springy hair, arched her back and enjoyed. She opened her legs wider, sank against his tongue, bucked as it teased her and came explosively against his mouth, twisting and crying out while the sea breeze blew strands of hair across her open mouth and warmed her breasts.
‘I can’t stop wanting you,’ she gasped, finally collapsing against him and letting him carry her down the stunted row of stairs that led to the small living area on the boat. There was no bed, but there was a long, upholstered bench seat, and he lay her down and stood up to look at her nakedness.
‘And I you,’ he growled.
Leo couldn’t get his shirt off fast enough, and then the swimming trunks. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her rosy flushed face. He was captivated by the way she lay there, idly stroking her breast with one hand, mesmerised by her swollen stomach.
‘Is this safe?’ he asked, sinking onto the bench seat alongside her and wishing he’d had the wit to install something more accommodating.
‘Of course it is!’ Maddie laughed and kissed him. ‘I just need you, Leo. I need you to come inside me...’
Leo needed no further encouragement. Some foreplay? Yes. He suckled her breasts and idly played between her thighs. He wanted to devote more time to both, but he couldn’t because his animal cravings were too intense.
This was his woman—ripe with his child. A surge of possessiveness and fierce pride rushed through him as he pushed into her, taking her in long, hard strokes, only just holding on for her to reach her peak before coming inside her, pouring himself into her and crying out with the pleasure and satisfaction of it.
He’d never experienced anything like it in his life before. He couldn’t let this woman go. He couldn’t let any other man hold the child she was carrying. The only man who would ever hold this baby would be him.
He was obviously a lot less New Age than he’d imagined.
‘Marry me, Maddie.’
The silence was the length of a heartbeat and then Maddie nodded, still flushed from lovemaking.
‘Okay.’
Leo dealt her a slow, slashing smile that took her breath away. ‘You changed your mind?’ he said, knowing he should leave well alone but needing to hear why she had come round to his way of thinking.
A post-coital rush of heated acquiescence would inevitably lead to a sober rethink in the cold light of day.
‘I changed my mind,’ Maddie said. ‘In an ideal world, this isn’t how I sa
w my life going—marrying a man for the sake of a baby. But it’s not an ideal world and you were right. I should be the first to recognise that. I’ve seen how attentive you can be, Leo. You would make a great dad. That’s enough for me.’
It would never really be enough, but it would have to do. And in time, who knew...? Perhaps he would come to love her the way she loved him.
‘Are you sure?’ His navy blue eyes were thoughtful. ‘Sure you can do without the fairy tale? I’m not built for the business of falling in love, Maddie.’
Maddie didn’t skip a beat, because she’d made her decision and she was going to stand by it. She adored this man, and she would always nurture the hope that his heart would open up to her, but she would never let him see that. He wanted a business transaction, and that was what he was going to get.
‘I know,’ she said, and shrugged. ‘Maybe I’m not either. Now, let’s not talk any more. Have I told you that I can’t seem to get enough of you...?’
* * *
Maddie swept up the trail of clothes on the floor. On the bed, Leo was half dozing, half looking at her, sated after a bout of extremely satisfying early-morning sex.
‘You’re very untidy, Leo. Is that one of the bad habits of coming from a wealthy background? You’re so used to people tidying up behind you that you’ve forgotten how to do it yourself?’
But her voice was light and teasing. The past three days had been the best three days of her entire life. He made her feel so safe, so secure, so cherished. Maddie knew that it was dangerous, but she could just feel something between them. He said he didn’t ‘do’ love, but surely he wouldn’t be so attentive and tender if he didn’t feel at least some of what she was feeling. Surely!
He had never spoken about what had turned him off all the things that propelled most normal people into marriage, for better or for worse, and she hadn’t asked. They had their pact and she wasn’t going to start rocking any boats. She was going to play the long game.
She picked up his shorts, tutting, and shook them, dislodging his wallet from the pocket. It flew open, discharging its contents. Platinum cards, business cards, cash and...
The Italian's One-Night Consequence Page 14