When his sister found out—which she would, when Vittoria told Izzy and Izzy told Saoirse—she’d kill him.
But then he felt the sand shift under the blanket as Vittoria shuffled slightly closer to him.
And it just seemed natural to slide his arm round her shoulders. Gently. Lightly.
She slid her arm round his waist, and for a second he couldn’t breathe.
They were from different worlds. Of course this was never going to work out between them. He shouldn’t even start something he knew they couldn’t finish. A fling was out of the question. Someone in Vittoria’s position couldn’t just have a mad fling.
But he really, really wanted her. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted someone so much.
But then he made another mistake: he stole a glance at her.
She was looking up at him, her face sweet and guileless in the moonlight.
He forgot who she was, where they were. All he could see was a woman next to him in the moonlight, lifting her face to his for a kiss. The woman he’d wanted to kiss on the window seat of her library, all soft and sweet and taking his breath away. The woman who was right here in his arms.
It was impossible to resist.
He lowered his head until his lips brushed hers. Once. Twice. His mouth tingled where it touched hers. She tasted of hot chocolate and salty sea air and something sweet that was just her, and he wanted more.
Then she slid her free hand round his neck; the arm she’d wrapped round his waist drew him closer. And Liam was completely lost; nothing existed except kissing Vittoria. It felt as if he’d waited his whole life for this moment, where her mouth was claiming his and she was holding him as tightly as he was holding her.
There was a shout from further down the beach which jolted him back to the present. In one horrible moment, he realised where he was. Who he was kissing. And why he shouldn’t be doing anything of the sort.
He broke away from her. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...’
Colour slashed across her cheekbones. ‘It’s OK. We’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.’
Yeah, right. He had a feeling he’d be lying awake tonight until stupid o’clock, thinking about her and that kiss.
But he went along with it. ‘Sure.’ He didn’t dare look her in the eye. ‘We probably ought to go back.’
He got to his feet, waited for her to stand up, then sorted out the blanket and travel mugs.
‘Don’t you want your jacket?’ she asked.
‘No, it’s fine. I’ll be warm enough walking.’
This time, the silence between them as they walked back to the cottage was awkward. He didn’t know how to fix it. Why had he been so stupid and given in to the urge to kiss her?
The worst thing was, now he knew what it felt like to kiss her, he wanted to do it all over again. And he knew he shouldn’t.
Back in the kitchen, Giorgio was reading the newspaper at the table with a mug of coffee beside him. He looked up as they walked in. ‘Did you have a good walk?’
‘Yes. But all this sea air has made me sleepy,’ Vittoria said, and smothered a yawn that Liam was pretty sure was fake. ‘I hope you’ll excuse me.’
‘Of course. Sleep well,’ Giorgio said with a fond smile.
Liam didn’t quite want to leave it like this. They still had another couple of days here, and he wanted them to be good ones, not filled with awkwardness because of his stupid mistake. ‘I meant to say, earlier—the weather’s meant to be good, so perhaps you’d like to go to see the seals tomorrow? There’s a huge colony of common and grey seals a bit further round the coast, at Blakeney Point. It’s quite a popular sight.’
‘I remember—you said you’d gone last year with your best friend and his family.’ She spread her hands. ‘If it’s OK with Giorgio, that’d be nice.’
Liam looked at the security detail. ‘Risk assessment time?’
‘Risk assessment time,’ Giorgio agreed.
‘We’ll talk it over,’ Liam said. ‘If Giorgio’s happy, I’ll book tickets online and we’ll go after breakfast tomorrow.’ He had to suppress the sudden vision of waking in Vittoria’s arms, because that definitely wasn’t going to happen.
That kiss on the beach had been a mistake, and it wasn’t going to be repeated—no matter how much he wanted it to.
‘See you tomorrow,’ she said, and left the kitchen.
* * *
Back in her room, Vittoria took off the wig and removed the contact lenses before showering and changing into a pair of pyjamas covered in sunflowers. The design was so very Izzy, and she felt a sharp pang, missing her little sister.
Izzy, too, had been instrumental in Vittoria’s escape.
Today had been so very different from the kind of days she usually spent. No pressure, no having to be diplomatic—except for the moment when Liam had shown her the final photograph he’d taken in the library, and she’d had to mask her instant reaction. She’d looked as if she was about to be kissed, her expression all soft and dreamy and her lips parted. She hadn’t looked like a princess; she’d looked like a woman dreaming of her lover.
Or a woman wondering what it would be like if a man she’d only just met kissed her.
She’d wondered.
And now she knew.
She’d been kissed in passion before. Kissed tentatively. Kissed by the man she’d thought she loved.
But nothing had felt like Liam MacCarthy’s mouth against hers. Once definitely wasn’t enough.
What was she going to do?
She’d told Liam and Giorgio that she wanted an early night. She’d fibbed that the sea air had made her sleepy; considering that she lived on an island and was very used to sea air, it had been a very stupid comment and they would both have known she was lying. Lying to herself, too, because she had a feeling she was going to spend most of the night awake, thinking about Liam MacCarthy and remembering the touch of his lips. Wishing she could kiss him all over again.
But she had a duty to fulfil. OK, she wasn’t officially dating José, but she knew their families were trying to negotiate terms for a marriage. She couldn’t afford to let herself fall for someone she definitely couldn’t have, so she needed to keep Liam MacCarthy at a distance. No matter how much she wished that things could be different.
* * *
On Wednesday morning, there was a knock on Vittoria’s door.
‘Yes?’ she called, sitting up in bed and pulling the duvet respectably round her.
The door opened a crack and she heard Giorgio’s voice. ‘Liam’s booked the tickets for the seal trip. We need to leave in three-quarters of an hour.’
‘OK. I’ll be ready,’ she said. With the wig and the contact lenses, she didn’t need to worry about her hair or make-up. Even though she’d learned to be quick and flawless with cosmetics, it was nice to be able to choose not to wear any make-up without worrying what the press would say and what kind of spin there would be on the story—most probably about the princess looking ill, and then the suggestion that being queen would be too much for her.
‘Liam’s making bacon sandwiches,’ Giorgio added, ‘and I’m making coffee.’
‘Wonderful. Give me fifteen minutes.’
Ten minutes later, she went downstairs in jeans, a T-shirt and the floral canvas shoes.
‘Morning, Vicky.’ Liam greeted her cheerfully, as if that kiss last night had never happened and neither had the awkwardness.
Even though she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss, now wasn’t the time or the place to discuss it. So she followed his lead. ‘Morning, Liam.’
He slid a plate in front of her with a bacon sandwich cut neatly into triangles. ‘Help yourself to ketchup or brown sauce.’
She smiled. ‘I’ll leave mine unadulterated, thanks. This looks lovely.’ She tried to imagine José making h
er breakfast in their private apartment, and failed dismally. Whereas she could easily imagine Liam making waffles with maple syrup, or cooking eggs Florentine, or toasting cinnamon bagels.
Tough.
Liam wasn’t going to be part of her future. She’d just have to find a way to fall in love with José.
But Vittoria’s resolution failed miserably later that morning, when Liam had driven them further down the coast to catch the boat. He’d insisted on her wearing sunscreen plus Izzy’s sunhat—a white floppy bucket hat covered in roses—and Giorgio helped her into the boat. Somehow she ended up sitting between him and Liam, and when the last people got onto the boat they all had to move up a little. Vittoria was very aware of the press of Liam’s thigh against hers. He stretched one arm out behind her, to give her a little more room, and rested his other hand on the edge of the boat. It would be so easy to move in closer to him. Though she intended to keep a tight control of her feelings and stay exactly where she was, with just enough distance between them.
They listened to the skipper going through the safety briefing. The boat was sailing smoothly and she’d got herself back under control when they hit a rough patch of water, the boat rocked unexpectedly, and she ended up practically falling into Liam. His arm tightened round her, keeping her safe; except she noticed that when they were sailing smoothly again he didn’t move his arm away.
Should she move?
Stupid question. Of course she should.
But she didn’t want to. And this was her sort-of Roman Holiday, her stolen time away. So it didn’t count, did it?
She stayed right where she was, in the protective circle of his arm, enjoying his nearness.
The boat’s skipper was telling them all about the area and what they were going to see, though Vittoria was so aware of Liam’s proximity that she found it hard to concentrate.
They drew nearer to the spit of land in the distance. A blue building with white windows, a semi-circular roof and an observation tower came into view, and the skipper told them that it used to be the lifeboat shed but was now the visitor centre. There were lots of seabirds flying about; the skipper taught them the differences between the varieties of gulls and told them what to look out for.
As they moved further along the shingle and sand spit, the seals came into view, basking in the sun; many of them turned their faces to look at the boat, as if they were as intrigued by the occupants as the passengers were with them. One or two raised a flipper, as if waving. They had such pretty faces, with those huge dark eyes, smiling mouth and long whiskers; Vittoria’s heart melted.
One or two of the seals shuffled off the sand, moving surprisingly fast; once in the water they immediately changed from slightly ungainly creatures to agile swimmers, ducking beneath the waves and popping up again to look at the boats.
‘Don’t crowd to the starboard side of the boat,’ the skipper warned. ‘You’ll all get the same opportunities to take photographs, because we’ll be returning the same way and the port side will get the better view on the way back.’
People on the starboard side of the boat, closest to the seals, were snapping photos.
Liam surprised her by taking his phone from his pocket. ‘Budge up, Giorgio—we’ll take a selfie to send to Izzy,’ he said, keeping his voice low so he didn’t ruin the commentary for the other passengers.
‘You use a phone camera?’ she asked, keeping her own voice low. ‘When you’re... A professional photographer?’
He smiled. ‘The best camera is always the one that’s to hand. Sure, a phone doesn’t have the same flexibility as an SLR, but I’m never going to be snobby about it.’ He took a couple of shots. ‘You can choose which one you want to send her later.’
‘Thanks.’ She took some pictures of the seals on her phone and reviewed them.
The disappointment must’ve shown on her face, because he said softly, ‘What’s wrong?’
She shrugged. ‘I wanted to capture the expressions on the seals’ faces. These are a bit too far away.’
He took a camera from his pocket, checked one of the settings and handed it to her. ‘Try this.’
He was offering her his camera? But this was what he did for a living. Wasn’t this an expensive, precious piece of kit? ‘But isn’t it—?’ she began.
‘It’s a digital compact camera,’ he said. ‘It’s old and battered and very reliable. It’s the one I keep in my pocket if I’m not going somewhere specifically to shoot something. I also use it when I’m checking out the background for a shoot. I’ve set it on auto mode, so you don’t have to spend time focusing the shot.’ He showed her how to use the zoom.
‘Thank you. Though it’s a bit intimidating, taking photographs next to a professional.’
He shook his head. ‘Ignore what I do for a living. Take the shot that pleases you. There are rules that can help you take better compositions, yes; but we can go through those another time, if you want to. For now, just keep it simple, use the zoom if you want close-ups, and look at the details that interest you. I’ll send you the pictures over Wi-Fi when we get back.’
‘Thank you.’
Finally she got the pictures she wanted. Her hand touched his when she gave the camera back to him, sending a surge of awareness through her, and she was glad of the sunglasses that meant he couldn’t read her feelings in her eyes. Though his glasses meant that she couldn’t read his feelings, either.
Princess Vittoria di Sarda was cool, confident and collected. She’d been trained for years not to let any situation throw her. The woman sitting on a boat full of tourists, with borrowed clothes and a borrowed name, didn’t feel in the slightest bit cool or collected. She felt like a teenager with a crush on a friend’s big brother. And it threw her completely.
Liam didn’t slide his arm round her on the journey home, and she wasn’t sure if that was more of a relief or a disappointment. It was definitely a mixture of the two. Relief, because it gave her the space to get her thoughts collected again; disappointment, because she liked his nearness.
She focused on the skipper’s commentary all the way back to the harbour, and Giorgio was the one who held her hand to steady her while she climbed off the boat and back onto the quayside.
They had a simple lunch in a little pub with the most amazing sea views, then Liam drove them further round the coast to another beach. ‘I’m guessing that looking in tide pools and beach-combing for fossils isn’t part of your everyday life.’
‘No. It’s not something I ever really remember doing,’ she admitted.
He glanced at her canvas shoes. ‘They should be fine. You’re sensible enough to realise the rocks will be a bit slippery and be careful where you put your feet.’
Vittoria thoroughly enjoyed looking in the tide pools, spotting crabs, anemones, limpets and starfish. She took a few shots on her phone for Izzy.
On the way back to the car, they beach-combed for fossils.
‘So what kind of fossils are we looking for?’ she asked.
‘Sponges and coral. Or a belemnite.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Apparently it was a bit like a squid but had a hard skeleton. Look for an amber stone that looks a bit like a bullet casing, and is about the length of your thumb.’
They continued looking, and Vittoria bent to pick up a cylinder-shaped stone. ‘Do you think this is a belemnite?’ she asked, handing it to him. Her fingers tingled when her skin touched his.
‘Definitely.’ He smiled at her and dropped it back into her palm. ‘Well spotted.’
Again, at the brief touch of his skin, she felt that weird tingling. ‘There are three or four others here,’ she said. ‘But someone else might enjoy finding them, so I’m not going to take more than one.’
His smile was full of approval and made her feel warm all over.
They called into a supermarket on the way back
to the cottage to buy the makings of dinner. Liam insisted on taking the basket before they got to the checkout.
‘This isn’t fair. You paid for dinner last night.’
‘We don’t want a paper trail leading back to you, remember,’ he said softly. ‘And if I was in London I’d be buying groceries. So this is pretty much the same thing.’
She couldn’t argue with him. But she could send him a thank-you gift once she was back in San Rocello. A first edition of his favourite book, perhaps, or a piece of art. He’d given her time to herself. And that was priceless.
* * *
Back at the cottage, Vittoria shooed Liam and Giorgio into the enclosed back garden while she cooked dinner.
‘The princess is nothing like her sister, is she?’ Liam said. ‘So quiet and controlled. I guess it goes with her job.’
The security detail nodded. ‘It will be good for her to have this break. She never takes time off.’
‘Does she really have to marry whoever her family says she has to marry?’
Giorgio shrugged.
‘What a waste,’ Liam said softly. ‘She deserves someone who understands her, makes some space around her and makes her feel special.’
Giorgio’s raised eyebrow spoke volumes.
‘Don’t worry. I know I can’t be that man. I don’t have blue blood and her family would never accept me,’ Liam said. ‘I’m not going to do anything inappropriate.’ He really hoped the security detail didn’t have a clue about that kiss last night. ‘And I won’t do anything to hurt her.’
‘Good,’ Giorgio said. ‘Technically, she’s my boss, but she feels like my little sister.’
‘I have a little sister,’ Liam reminded Giorgio, ‘so I know exactly where you’re coming from. You want to wrap them in cotton wool and save them from the harshest bits of the world. Though that isn’t healthy, either. They need to learn to fly. And sometimes it’s hard to find the middle way.’
‘Very true,’ Giorgio said.
‘So what’s he like? The guy her family want her to marry?’
Harlequin Romance April 2021 Box Set Page 36