She knew that, in addition to his chauffeur-driven Mercedes, Carlo possessed a fire-bright red Ferrari that Lucia claimed was the real love of his life, and no doubt in this monster he had made far better time than their leisurely progress.
She heard a car door slam and knew that she ought to go down and join the two men. After all, she was here to work, but she felt reluctant to leave the room: to face anyone, she admitted wryly.
A car engine fired and she presumed it was the chauffeur leaving for Florence. Everything was so quiet. She could hear birds singing.
There were footsteps on the stairs, their intrusion reminding her of how long she had been up there. She wasn't there to daydream but to work, and yet still there was this reluctance to move.
The door swung open^ and her pulses leapt in sudden shocked recognition.
^Elliott!' she gasped.
'Beatrice!' he mocked, mimicking her shocked tone.
CHAPTER TEN
Beatrice couldn't understand what was happening. She looked towards the door, expecting to see either Jon or Carlo behind him, but the house felt eerily empty of anyone other than themselves.
* Where... Where's Carlo?' she queried. Elliott still looked tired, but not quite as drawn
as he had looked last night.
This morning he was wearing clothes more appropriate to the climate: soft butter-yellow jeans and a matching short-sleeved shirt.
Tou mean your lover.'
She could have sworn he was laughing at her behind the coolness of his unsmiling face. Her heart was tripping double time. She felt a swift stab of panic, a fear that something was wrong. She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue, her stomach plunging sickly as she caught the look on Elliott's face.
It was such an intense combination of desire and pain that she couldn't believe it was directed at her.
* Why didn't you let anyone know where you were going?'
The question caught her off guard and she stared at him, not knowing what he was asking.
*I left a note...' she began.
*Yes, if you can call a few scribbled lines saying that you had to get away that. The whole house was in an uproar when I got back from France. For
the first time in their spoiled, protected lives, the members of your family are aware of how much they depend on you.
'I know why you ran away, Beatrice, but I thought you had more sense than to pay any attention to Ben's fabrications. You must have realised that he...'
She didn't want to talk about how much he had hurt her; she dared not take the risk of breaking down completely in front of him.
'What are you doing here? Carlo...'
'You mean your lover.'
Again that secret note of amusement in his voice. She tossed her head and glared at him.
'It's no business of yours if I choose to take another lover!'
He stared hard at her, the amusement suddenly gone and a frightening grimness taking its place.
'If you genuinely believe that, then it's no wonder that Ben...' He broke off and came towards her until she was backing away from him. The win-dowsill jarred her back and she realised she had nowhere else to go.
'Did you really think the thought of you giving yourself to another man would stop me? Last night you'd have been well advised to get down on your knees and pray to God that what you told me wasn't true, but there wasn't any need for that, was there, Bea?'
She couldn't look at him. He was suffocatingly close to her; she could almost feel the heat coming off his body, and a rebellious part of her ached to reach out and touch him.
^I know everything, Bea, so it's no use continuing with this farce that Carlo is your lover. While you were lying asleq) this morning I was talking to Lucia. I found her most informative.'
Beatrice felt the blood leave her face. How much had Lucia told him? Although she had never mentioned him by name, she knew that Lucia wouldn't have had much difficulty in reaUsing who he was, and yet she couldn't believe that her friend had completely betrayed her.
Tour Carlo is a very fair-minded gentleman, I'll say that for him. Last night he helped you; today he's helped me.'
*I don't have anything to say to you, Elliott, so...'
Then you're going to have to think of something, otherwise the next three days are going to be full of a lot of empty silences.'
Beatrice stared at him in disbelief.
'The next three days?' An awful feeling of realisation began to creep over her.
She pushed past him and ran across the landing to the window so that she could see the front of the villa.
It wasn't Carlo's Ferrari that stood outside, but an unfamiUar Mercedes coupe.
*It was all that I could hire this morning,' ElUott told her casually. There's no escape, Beatrice, you might as well resign yourself to it. You and I shall be spending the next three days here—alone. There's no phone, and no way out. You don't have an international driver's licence or any insurance, and the Italian poUce have some pretty stiff punishments for tourists driving under those circumstances.'
*But why? Why?' She whirled round and stared up at him, unable to comprehend why he had gone to such lengths to be alone with her, and how he had managed to persuade Lucia and Carlo to lend their aid.
'Do you really need to ask me that?' He leaned towards the wall, palms flat against it, entrapping her within the circle of his arms. Panic and need raced through her.
*Why are you doing this?' she demanded ach-ingly. 'Haven't you had enough...'
'Pleasure out of tormenting me', she had been about to say, but he cut her off ruthlessly, his voice harsh and unfamiliar as he said thickly, 'Enough of you? Never!'
And she couldn't say any more because his head was bending towards her and she knew he was going to kiss her, and she couldn't do a damned thing about it other than to stand there quivering in mute anticipation.
'Beatrice, Beatrice, why did you run from me? You've just knocked ten years off my Ufe, do you know that?'
The words were punctuated with soft kisses that teased her lips until they parted and clung to his, seeking more than such a brief tormenting touch.
'Ah, so you do want me!'
She tried to deny it, but the words remained locked in her throat, and anyway they would have been Ues, as her response was very quickly proving to him.
He kissed her as though he was starving for her, no gentleness or restraint in the passionate onslaught of his mouth.
This time he was not coming to her as a prospective lover but as a man with an established right to a specific place in her life and in her arms, Beatrice recognised dizzily. There was possessiveness as well as need in the rough pressure of his mouth on hers, punishment, and the betrayal of a pain she had never expected him to disclose.
'How dare you run from me?' he demanded rawly, lifting his mouth a breath away from hers. *How dare you frighten me half to death like that?*
His arms weren't braced against the wall any more, and his hands were running over her arms and then down her back and over her hips with fierce demanding movements that said quite plainly that he considered her his.
'Surely you knew what Ben was trying to do? Surely you knew, after what we'd shared, how I feel about you?'
He might as well have been talking in a foreign language, and her eyes told him as much.
'Dear God, Bea,' he groaned against her mouth. 'You can't have believed him. You can't have thought I'd go from your arms to another woman!'
She felt the fierceness in his body and tensed against it. |L 'Was that why you ran away? Because of me?' W She couldn't help it, she could feel tears pricking her eyes and then rolling betrayingly down her face.
She heard Elliott swear, and then her head was pushed gently into the curve of his shoulder, and his tongue was moving tenderly over her face, lapping up the salt tears.
'I never meant to hurt you. I thought you knew how I felt. I told you...'
*Ben said you were just playing with | me..
. amusing yourself/ Her voice was rusty with pain.
'And you believed him? Beatrice, Beatrice, are you completely blind?'
'But why should Ben lie?*
She heard Elliott sigh as he lifted her head from its comfortable resting place and looked into her eyes.
'We'll deal with that one later; for now Fve got more important things on my mind.'
'Such as?'
His eyes darkened, crinkling at the comers with amusement at the breathless note in her voice.
'Such as convincing a certain woman that I love her.'
He picked her up as easily as though she weighed no more than Mirry, and placed her down on the bed.
'I've wanted you so much. I couldn't believe it when I got back and found you gone.' His voice shook, and she looked up at him in bemusement, seeing the faint sheen of sweat dampening his skin, and suddenly aching to feel it beneath her fingertips.
He must have registered her sudden surge of need, because he made a sound deep in his throat and lifted her hand to his chest, his eyes never leaving hers.
'You made me hurt, Bea, and only you can take that pain away.' He raised his other hand and unfastened the buttons on his shirt, still holding her gaze.
Beatrice could feel her heart pumping. She could feel her body reacting to him. Breathless and dazed, she lay completely still as he placed her hand over the hard flesh above his heart.
Teel... feel what you do to me/ he groaned, holding her hand against the shallow intense thud of his heartbeat, making her measure its betraying trip. Tm no actor, Beatrice. I can't pretend or fake what I don't feel.'
She looked at him, hardly daring to believe what her senses were telling her.
' Whyl Why did you run away from me? Was it really because you don't want me?'
She felt herself sigh, a long shuddering sound of release and maturity. *No... No. It was because I love you and because I was afraid.'
How easy it was to make the admission, and he made it easy for her, she recognised gratefully as his mouth came down on hers, silencing any further explanations.
'Italian men seem to like curvy women.' She made the comment in an abstracted little voice for no apparent reason. Immediately she saw a glitter of possessiveness lighten EUiott's eyes.
They aren't the only ones,' he told her lightly. His hand had moved beneath the waistband of her skirt and her blouse and was caressing the indentation of her waist, 'I want to see you...touch you... make sure that you aren't some figment of my imagination.'
The low, tortured words raised goosebumps on her skin. She shivered slightly, recognising their suppressed passion, still half inclined to disbelieve
that Elliott could actually feel so intensely about her.
As though he read her thoughts he said thickly, *Don't look at me like that! Fm trying as hard as I know how to hold on to my self-controL I want you so much it's tearing me apart. It was bad enough before, when all I could do was imagine what it would be Uke to make love to you, but now that I actually have...' He closed his eyes in sudden anguish, and Beatrice reached out automatically to touch him, pressing her fingertips against his mouth to silence the groan building deep in his throat.
His hand grasped her wrist, his mouth opening over her fingers, slowly sucking on them until she could feel the sensation he was creating inside her right down to her toes. Her wide darkened eyes betrayed her pleasure and her shock, and as his teeth nipped softly at her smooth flesh he murmured huskily, *And that's only the start of how I want to make you feel.'
He wasn't making an idle threat, Beatrice acknowledged dazedly later as the sunlight played subtly on their naked bodies, highlighting the difference in texture and tone.
*You learn quickly,' Elliott told her rawly, burying his mouth in her throat. Too quickly.' He groaned again, his whole body tensing as he demanded thickly, *Do you know what you're doing to me?'
She wasn't given the opportunity to answer because his mouth was moving down over her body, its heated demand piercing her with pleasure until she felt she would explode with the sensation building inside her.
Without her realising it, her body arched in wanton appreciation of his touch, deUberately inciting him to claim what she was so enticingly offering.
One hand supported her arched back, the other slid down to cup the rounded curve of her hip. There was too much space between their bodies, she decided fretfully, wrapping her arms round his back and trying to pull him down against her.
'Beatrice...' She heard him groan her name deep in his throat and knew that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She woke up slowly, conscious of the most delicious quivers of pleasure running through her, warming her more intensely than the afternoon sun streaming through the window. She moved languorously without opening her eyes, consciousness slowly seeping back.
She opened her eyes, her senses suddenly awake, her mind shocked by the sight of Elliott lying beside her even while her body enjoyed it.
*Now we can talk,' EUiott said quietly.
She nodded, waiting, soothed by his steady tone.
*Ben was trying to frighten you off me. He's always been very possessive where you're concerned. Can't you see that? He never dreamed he'd frighten you to such an extent that you'd run away. Luckily for me he was so distraught when I got back that he admitted the whole thing.'
*But he knew where I was. My note...'
'Your note said only that you were leaving, not where you were going,' ElUott told her patiently. 'It looked as though it had been written in a hurry.'
Guiltily Beatrice remembered her many attempts to write an explanation and the sudden arrival of her taxi while she was in the middle of doing so.
'Luckily it didn't take me long to track you down. Jon's agent was very helpful.'
*You were so angry...' Beatrice shivered.
'You're damned right I was! I came home wanting you... aching for you... and what did I find?'
'I didn't think you cared. I...' Her voice was full of remorse and guilt.
'I realise that. I should have spent more time with you, but I was already committed to going to France.'
'Ben showed me that photograph of you in the paper, and I felt so insecure anyway...'
'Idiot,' he said roughly, 'although Ben's more to blame than you. I'm afraid your brother manoeuvred you very cleverly. You must have realised that he doesn't exactly approve of our relationship.'
'But why?'
'None of your family want to lose you, Bea. They rely too heavily on you, and they certainly don't want to lose you to me!
'But Ben knew how I feel about you.' She bit her lip, realising what she was giving away, but apparently EUiott was not surprised by her brother's selfishness.
'Don't think too badly of them. In their shoes I'd have fought just as hard to keep you.'
There was a warning glitter in his eyes that made her pulses flutter. He laughed then.
'Ah, yes, you hke the idea of that, don't you? Is that what that secret heart of yours craves, my
Bella Bea... a jealous, possessive lover, too hopelessly in love with you to ever dare to let you go?'
* Isn't that what every woman wants?* she parried Ughtly.
*Not necessarily/ He smiled humorously at her, nestling her closer to his warm body, tracing the half-open shape of her mouth with tender fingers. 'My beautiful Beatrice, who doesn't even know what she is/
'What?' she demanded uncertainly.
The most bewitching, sensual woman in the world. The only woman I've ever met who can drive me half out of my mind with just a look. The...'
'Oh, Elliott! I'm none of those things.'
'Oh, no?' He looked at her, torn between a groan and a laugh. 'Didn't it ever strike you that I felt just as insecure about your feelings as you obviously did about mine? Put yourself in my shoes, Bea. You seemed to enjoy my lovemaking, but I couldn't forget how I had lost self-control so much so that I exhausted you physically to the point where you slept for four hours.
In those four hours I had nothing to do but to go over and over what had happened, and then when you do wake up, what do you do but turn away from me, confirming all my fears that I'd shocked you...frightened you off.'
'But you never said anything. You never told me you loved me or...'
He gave an exaggerated sigh. 'Do you know why not? Because I still wanted you desperately and if I'd told you that I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from showing you. I'd wanted you so much and for so long that once was simply not enough
to appease that need, and that's the truth of the matter/ he finished frankly.
*rve loved you for years, Bea. Almost from the day I saw you, in fact, when I was a teenager and you were little more than a child. Oh, Fm not going to pretend that in those days I knew what my eventual feehngs would be—or that I kept myself pure and celibate for you. But there has been a long space of time in my Ufe when I discovered that taking other women to bed simply wasn't the answer, so I stopped doing it.'
'How long?' she asked breathlessly, then flushed as she saw the gleam of Ught his eyes.
*So long that it's going to be one hell of a long time before I stop wanting to make love to you every time I look at you. Time that can be counted in years, not weeks or months.
'You will marry me won't you?' he demanded abruptly, adding roughly when she nodded her assent, 'and just as quickly as it can be arranged. I'm not going to run the risk of letting your family dissuade you, or of our first child being bom too soon. In fact I think we should find ourselves a British Consul and get married before we go home. We could honeymoon here in Italy. What do you think?'
Beatrice opened her mouth to tell him that it was a ridiculously impulsive idea, and to her astonishment heard herself saying huskily,
*I think... Where is he? The nearest Consul, I mean?'
She heard EUiott laugh, the soft satisfied sound of a man who knows he has got what he wants; it was a sound that punctuated the long afternoon
and evening, a silver thread of joy that wove itself round the glittering pleasure of their loving.
Three weeks later they were back in London. After the hectic speed with which EUiott had arranged their wedding, they had spent a week alone in the Fioris' villa, and then another week in Florence as their guests. The combination of love and self-confidence had produced a new Beatrice, who glowed and laughed and who revelled in her femininity with open enjoyment.
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