by Sarah Morgan
‘Pietro made you this, madam.’ He handed her a small bag. ‘Just a few of your favourite snacks.’
‘He is such a sweetie.’ Choked by the warmth that they’d showed her, she suddenly rose on tiptoe to kiss Emilio. ‘And so are you,’ she said huskily, her lips brushing his cheek. ‘You’ve been so kind to me all the way through this. Thank you.’
Emilio cleared his throat. ‘You are a very special person, madam.’
‘I’m a waitress,’ Holly reminded him with a dry tone, but Emilio shook his head.
‘No.’ His voice was soft. ‘You’re a princess. In every sense that matters.’
Holly blinked several times and suddenly found that she had a lump in her throat. She was so touched by his words that for a moment she couldn’t reply.
She could be happy with her life, she told herself. She had friends.
‘Well, let’s hope that’s one kiss that the paparazzi didn’t manage to catch on camera.’ Lightening the atmosphere with a cheeky wink, she walked onto the sand.
‘I’ll be right here, madam,’ Emilio called after her, adjusting the tiny radio he wore in his ear. ‘You know how to call me.’
‘Thanks. But no one has access to this beach. I’ll be fine. Go inside and relax. It’s too hot to stand out here.’
Her pale-blue sun dress swinging around her bare calves, Holly walked to the furthest end of the beautiful curving beach and plopped herself down on the sand.
For a while she just stared out to sea. Then she opened the bag Pietro had sent, but discovered she wasn’t hungry.
Finally she opened her book.
‘You’re holding that book upside down. And you should be wearing a hat.’ Casper stood there, tall and powerful, the width of his shoulders shading her from the sun. ‘You’ll burn.’
Holly dropped the book onto the sand. ‘Please go away. I want to be alone.’ What she didn’t want was to feel this immediate rush of pleasure that always filled her whenever he was near.
‘You hate being on your own,’ he responded instantly. ‘You are the most sociable person I have ever met.’
Holly brushed the sand from the book, her fingers shaking. ‘That depends on the company.’
His arrogant, dark head jerked back as though she’d hit him again, but instead of retaliating he settled himself on the sand next to her, the unusual tension in his shoulders suggesting that he was less than sure of his welcome.
‘You’re extremely angry with me, and I can’t blame you for that.’ He studied her for a moment and then reached gently for her hand and curled her slender fingers into a fist. ‘You can hit me again if you like.’
‘It didn’t make me feel any better.’ She pulled her hand away from his, hating herself for feeling a thrill of excitement instead of indifference. ‘And I’d be grateful if you’d stop looking at me like that.’
‘How am I looking at you?’
‘You’re sizing up the situation so that you can decide which of your slick diplomatic skills are required to talk me round.’
‘I wish it were that easy.’ Casper lifted one broad shoulder in a resigned gesture. ‘Unfortunately for me, I have no previous experience of handling a situation like this.’
‘Which is?’
‘Grovelling.’ A gleam of self-mockery glinting in his sexy eyes, he reached for her hand again, this time locking it firmly in his. ‘I was wrong about you. The baby is mine. I know that now.’
Holly closed her eyes tightly, swamped by a rush of emotions so powerful that she couldn’t breathe.
He believed her. He trusted her.
Finally, he trusted her.
And then she realised that something wasn’t quite right about his sudden confession and her eyes flew open. ‘Wait a minute.’ She snatched her hand away from his because she couldn’t keep her mind focused when he was touching her. ‘The last time I saw you, you were accusing me of having an affair with Eddie—when did you suddenly become rational?’
Dark streaks of colour highlighted his aristocratic bone structure, and Casper spread his hands in a gesture of conciliation. ‘I believe you, Holly. That’s all that matters.’
‘No.’ Holly scrambled to her feet, knowing that she only stood a chance of thinking clearly if he wasn’t within touching distance. ‘No, it isn’t. You went to the doctor, didn’t you?’
A muscle flickered in his bronzed cheek. ‘Yes.’
Holly wrapped her arms around her waist and gave a painful laugh. ‘So you placed your trust in medical science, not me.’
‘Holly…’
‘So they’ve told you that you’re capable of fathering a child. That’s good. But it still doesn’t tell you that this child is yours, does it?’
His stunning dark eyes narrowed warily, as if he sensed a trick question. ‘I have no doubt that the baby is mine.’ He drew in a long breath, his shimmering gaze fixed on her face, assessing her reaction. ‘I have no doubt that you have been telling me the truth all along.’
‘Really? What makes you so confident that I didn’t have sex with the whole rugby team once I’d finished with you?’ Her voice rising, Holly winced as the baby planted another kick against her ribs, and glared as Casper lifted a hand in what was obviously intended to be a conciliatory gesture.
‘You’re overreacting because you’re pregnant. You’re very hormonal and—’
‘Hormonal? Don’t patronise me! And anyway, if I’m hormonal, what’s your excuse? You overreact all the time! You accuse me of having sex with just about everyone, even though it should have been perfectly obvious to you that I’d never been with a man before. You thought I was some scheming hussy doing some sort of—of—’ she searched for an analogy ‘—paternity lottery. Trying to win first prize of a prince in the “most eligible daddy” contest.’
Casper rose to his feet, a tall, powerful figure, as imposing in casual clothes as he was in a dinner jacket. His mouth tightened and his lean, strong face was suddenly watchful. ‘You have to agree I had reason to feel like that.’
‘To begin with, maybe. But not once you knew me.’ Dragging her eyes away from the hint of bronzed male skin at the neck of his shirt, Holly stooped and stuffed her few items back into her bag. She wasn’t going to look at him. So, he was devastatingly handsome. So what? ‘I loved you, Casper, and you threw it back at me because you’re afraid.’
He inhaled sharply. ‘I am not afraid. And you’re stuffing sand in your bag along with the books.’
‘I don’t care about the sand! And you are afraid—you’re so afraid you’ve shut yourself down so that you can’t ever be hurt again.’ Frustrated and upset, she emptied her bag and started again, this time shaking the sand onto the beach.
Casper stepped towards her, dark eyes glittering. ‘I came here to apologise.’
Holly stared at him, wishing he wasn’t so indecently handsome. Wishing that she didn’t still ache for him to touch her. ‘Then you definitely need more practice, because where I come from apologies usually contain the word sorry at least once.’ With a violent movement, she hooked the bag onto her shoulder and reached for her hat, but he caught her arm and held her firmly.
‘You are not walking away from me.’
‘Watch me.’ With her free hand, she jammed the hat onto her head and then gasped as he swung her into his arms. ‘Put me down right now.’
‘No.’ Ignoring her protest and her wriggling, Casper walked purposefully to the end of the beach, took a narrow path without breaking stride and then lowered her onto soft white sand.
‘You’ve probably put your back out,’ Holly muttered, her fingers curling over his warm, bronzed shoulders to steady herself. ‘And it serves you right.’
‘You don’t weigh anything.’
Noticing their surroundings for the first time, Holly gave a soft gasp of shock, because she’d never seen anywhere quite as beautiful.
‘I had no idea there was another beach here. It’s stunning.’
‘When we were children, my brothe
r and I called it the secret beach.’ His tone gruff, Casper spread the rug on the sand and gently eased the bag from her shoulders. ‘We used to play here, knowing that no one could see us. It was probably the only real privacy we had in our childhood. We made camps, dens, we were pirates and smugglers, and—’
‘All right—enough.’ Emotion welling up inside her, Holly held up a hand, and Casper looked at her with exasperation.
‘I thought talking was good.’
‘Not when I’m angry with you.’ Holly flopped onto the rug and shot him a despairing look. ‘I’m so, so angry with you, and when you start talking like that I find it really hard to stay angry.’
Evidently clocking that up as a point in his favour, Casper joined her on the rug, his usual confidence apparently fully restored by her reluctant confession. ‘You find it hard to be angry with me?’ Gently, he pushed her onto her back and supported himself on one elbow as he looked down at her. ‘You have forgiven me?’
‘No.’ She closed her eyes tightly so that she couldn’t see his thick dark lashes and impossibly sexy eyes. But she could feel him looking at her. ‘You’ve hurt me really badly.’
‘Sì, I have. But now I am saying sorry. Open your eyes.’
‘No. I don’t want to look at you.’
‘Open your eyes, tesoro.’ His voice was so gentle that her eyes fluttered open, and she tumbled instantly into the depths of his dark eyes.
‘Nothing you say is going to make any difference,’ she muttered, and he gave a slow smile.
‘I know that isn’t true. You’re always telling me that I should know who you are by now, and I think I do.’ He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek gently. ‘I know you are a very forgiving person.’
‘Not that forgiving.’ Her heart was pounding against her chest, but she refused to make it easy for him.
Lowering his head, Casper brought his mouth down on hers in a devastatingly gentle kiss that blew her mind. ‘I am sorry, angelo mio. I am sorry for not believing that the baby was mine—for implying that you targeted me.’
Holly lay still, waiting, hoping, praying, dying a little—knowing that he was never going to say what she wanted to hear.
His eyes quizzical, Casper gently turned her face towards him. ‘I’m apologising.’
‘I know.’
He frowned. ‘I’m saying sorry.’
‘Yes.’ His apparent conviction that he’d done what needed to be done made her want to hit him again and he gave an impatient sigh.
‘Clearly I’m saying the wrong things, because you’re lying there like a martyr burning at the stake. Dio, what is it that you want from me?’ Without waiting for her answer, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with devastating expertise.
Holly was immediately plunged into an erotic, sensual world that sucked her downwards. Struggling back to the surface, she gasped, ‘I don’t want to do this, Casper—’
‘Yes, you do—this side of our relationship has always been good.’ He eased his lean, powerful frame over hers, careful to support most of his weight on his elbows. ‘Am I hurting the baby?’
‘No, but I don’t want you to—’ She broke off as she saw his expression change. ‘What? What’s the matter?’
‘The baby kicked me.’ There was a strange note to his voice, and Holly felt her heart flip because she’d never seen Casper less than fully in control of every situation. He pulled away slightly and slid a bold but curious hand over the smooth curve of her abdomen. ‘He kicked me really hard.’
‘Good. Because quite frankly, if you weren’t pinning me to the sand at this precise moment, I’d kick you myself for being so arrogant!’ Holly glared at him but his face broke into a slow, sure smile of masculine superiority as he transferred his hand to the top of her thigh.
‘No, you wouldn’t. You’re non-violent.’
‘Funnily enough, not since I met you,’ Holly gritted, and he gave a possessive smile.
‘I bring out your passionate side, I know. And I love the way you’re prepared to fight for my baby.’
‘Your baby? So now you think you produced it all by yourself? Just because you’ve finally decided to acknowledge the truth—’ Holly gasped as Casper shifted purposefully above her, amusement shimmering in his gorgeous dark eyes as his mouth hovered tantalisingly close to hers.
Tiny sparks of fire heated her pelvis, and her whole body was consumed by an overpowering hunger for this man.
Her mouth was dry, her heart was thundering in her chest, and she couldn’t drag her eyes away from his beautiful mouth and the dangerous glitter in his eyes. ‘Cas—you’re squashing the baby!’
‘I’m putting no weight on you at all,’ he breathed, one sure, confident hand sliding under her summer dress and easing her thighs apart.
And then, with a slow smile that said everything about his intentions, he lowered his head. His mouth captured hers in a raw, demanding kiss just as his skilled fingers gently explored the moist warmth of their target, and Holly exploded with a hot, electrifying excitement that eradicated everything from her brain except pure wicked pleasure.
She ached, she throbbed, she was desperate, and when he slid a hand beneath her hips and lifted her she wound her legs around him in instinctive invitation, urging him on.
She’d become accustomed to the wild, uninhibited nature of their love-making. Right from the start the sexual chemistry had been so explosive that there had been times when it was hard to know which of them was the most out of control.
But this time felt different.
Casper surged into her quivering, receptive body and then paused, his breathing ragged as he scanned her flushed cheeks. ‘Am I hurting you?’
‘No.’ Not in the way he meant.
Holly closed her eyes tightly, moaning as he eased himself deeper, every thought driven from her head by the silken strength of him inside her.
She’d never known him so careful, and yet there was something about the slow, deliberate thrusts that were shockingly erotic.
She was no longer aware of the warmth of the sun or the sounds of the sea, because everything she felt was controlled by this man.
Her body spun higher and higher, her excitement out of control, until she gave a sharp cry and tumbled off the edge into a climax so intense that her mind blanked. She dug her nails hard into the hard muscle of his sleek, bronzed shoulders as her world shattered around her and her body tightened around his.
‘I can feel that,’ he groaned, and then he surged into her for a final time, his climax driving her straight back into another orgasm.
When the stars finally stopped exploding in her head, she opened her eyes and pressed her lips against his satin-smooth skin, desperately conscious that she’d succumbed to him yet again.
‘That,’ Casper murmured huskily, ‘Was amazing.’ Clearly in no hurry to move, he stroked her hair away from her face and stared into her eyes with a warmth that she hadn’t seen before. ‘Now, where were we in our conversation? I’ve lost track.’
Appalled at her own weakness, Holly closed her eyes. ‘I was about to kick you but the baby did it for me.’
‘You were about to forgive me,’ Casper said confidently, and she opened her eyes and looked up at him.
‘So is that what it was all about this time? Apology sex?’
Casper didn’t answer for a moment, his hand unsteady as he stroked her hair away from her face. ‘It was love sex, tesoro,’ he said huskily, and Holly stilled.
It was like seeing a shimmer of water in the desert.
Real or a mirage?
‘Love sex?’ She was almost afraid to say the words. ‘What do you mean, “love sex”?’
‘I mean that I love you.’
Her heart was thudding. ‘You told me that you weren’t capable of love.’
‘I was wrong. And I was trying to show you I was wrong. I think I express myself better physically than verbally.’ His eyes gleamed with self-mockery. ‘I was always better at maths than English. I�
��m the cold, analytical type, remember?’
A warm feeling spread through Holly’s limbs and she started to tremble. ‘Actually, that isn’t true,’ she said gently. ‘You’re very good with words.’
‘But hopeless at matching them to the right emotion, if my lack of success at an apology is anything to go by.’ Gently, he stroked a hand over her cheek. ‘I love you, Holly. I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you. You were warm, gorgeous, sexy.’ His eyes flickered to her mouth. ‘You were so sexy I couldn’t keep my hands off you.’
‘And the moment we’d had sex, you wanted me to leave. Stop dressing it up, Casper. I’m not stupid.’
‘I am the one who has been stupid,’ he confessed in a raw tone. ‘Stupid for not seeing what was under my nose. When we had sex the day of the rugby, I didn’t know what had happened. I was living this crazy, cold, empty existence, and suddenly there you were. I was shocked by how I felt about you. I actually did think that you were different—and then you kissed me in the window.’
‘You thought I’d done it for a photo opportunity.’
‘Yes.’ He didn’t shrink from the truth. ‘That is what I thought. And everything that happened after that seemed to back up my suspicions. You hid from the world and then announced that you were pregnant. It seemed to me that you were trying to make maximum impact from the story.’
‘From your description, I should obviously be considering a career in public relations.’
‘You have to understand that, when you’re in the public eye, these things happen. You grow to expect them.’ Casper drew away from her and sat up, his gaze thoughtful. ‘Women have always wanted me for what I can give them. Even Antonia, who I thought loved me.’
Holly pulled a face. ‘Yes, well, I can see why your experience with her made you very suspicious of women. I’m not stupid.’
‘No, you’re certainly not. And I’m not blaming Antonia. The blame lies entirely with myself.’ Casper’s admission was delivered with uncharacteristic self-deprecation. ‘I allowed myself to see only bad in women, I expected only bad from women. And the chances of you having become pregnant on that one single occasion when I’d been told I was infertile—to have believed your story would have required a better man than me.’