Authors: Christina Hollis
‘And please don’t look at me like that.’
‘Have you got eyes in the back of your head?’
‘I don’t need them, where you’re concerned. I can feel you looking at me.’
‘It’s meant as a compliment,’ he mused.
‘Then thank you, but please stop,’ she said sharply.
‘I’d like to get a photograph of that spring. It’s exactly the sort of thing I’m interested in. If you really do want to help me, Dario, you could tell me if there are any more hidden treasures like that one on your estate.’
She could already feel the heat of the day pulling the moisture out of her cheap, thin clothes. If she blushed much more, they would be drying out from the inside as well as the outside. Trying to ignore the sounds behind her of Dario stripping off his sodden shirt, she knelt on the forest floor. Emptying the contents of her messenger bag onto the soft green moss surrounding the pool, she picked out her camera.
‘You should come out here in the sunshine with me. You’ll get dry quicker,’ Dario called.
Before she could stop herself, Josie looked up and saw him in magnificent silhouette. He was rubbing some still-dry parts of his shirt over his wet body before sliding his arms into its damp embrace again. ‘It’s a great way to cool off, but when I decided to treat you to lunch out here I never expected to need towels as well.’
‘Lunch?’
‘You don’t think I’d come out to find you without being fully prepared?’ He strolled across the glade, doing up the buttons of his shirt as he walked. Josie purposely avoided watching the way his fingers moved, as it brought back all too clearly the memory of their potent strength. Instead, she looked him straight in the face—but that laid her wide open to the devastating effect of his smile.
Holding Josie powerless in his arms had aroused all sorts of feelings in Dario. Now, he couldn’t stop thinking about the best use for secluded glades—and that was seduction. When he had ridden out here to surprise her with an impromptu picnic, he hadn’t expected to end up holding her so tightly against his body, even in the role of lifeguard. Dario was a typical red-blooded Italian male and found it difficult to ignore temptation. Especially when it came in the form of a voluptuous woman in thin, wet clothing.
As Dario raised his arm to unstrap the picnic basket from his horse’s saddle, his white sleeve flickered brightly against the mysterious depths of the wood. It was as good as a signal to Josie. She tensed as he walked back to join her.
‘Hmm … as I thought—the staff have only packed hand towels, although if I put this picnic rug around your shoulders—’
The rug was folded up so tightly he needed both hands to shake it free. Unfurling it, he moved forward to swirl it around Josie’s shoulders, but when he touched her she drew in her breath and backed away.
‘I can manage, thank you.’ Reaching out, she snatched the picnic rug from his fingers.
‘You’re shivering. Let’s go and sit in that patch of sunshine over there.’
Picking up the picnic basket, he went over to the far side of the clearing. When he looked back she was following, but slowly and at a distance. Dario smiled to himself; he had enough experience to know when a
woman was nearly his. He started to unpack the things he had brought, then sat back on his heels as she came towards him cautiously.
‘The archaeology isn’t suddenly going to disappear before you can get to it, and I’m hardly going to eat you when my kitchen has provided us with all
this
.’ He spread a hand towards the tempting display he was setting out. ‘Why not take the time actually to enjoy yourself for once, Josie? Are you too sensible to relax? Give it a try over lunch—there’s no one here to see!’
Unable to resist his challenge, as he’d known she would be, she sat down, but several feet away from him. When Dario went back to his work without comment, she eventually leaned forward to help. Without moving his head, he saw her hands moving in and out of his peripheral vision, arranging pristine white crockery like clouds against the sky-blue picnic cloth.
‘There. What could be better than that?’ He turned to her.
For a split second they looked into each other’s eyes, then her glance slipped away to the half a dozen tempting types of antipasto the
castello
’s kitchen had packed for them. As the pool of sunlight gilded her wet brown hair, Dario opened a bottle of limoncello and poured a shot of it into each of two crystal glasses. Topping them up with chilled mineral water, he handed one to Josie. Then, touching his glass lightly against hers, he said softly,
‘Salute!’
She gazed at him, then at the food on display, and then at the drink in her hand.
‘You did all this for me?’ Her tone was one of sheer disbelief.
‘Where I come from, picnics are a couple of rounds of sandwiches grabbed from a supermarket. I don’t know what to say … or where to start …’ she began, but Dario didn’t need to be told—the look in her eyes said it all. He moved around, away from the sudden rush of emotion he felt at her obvious pleasure, until he was on the far side of their feast. From there, safely back in seduction mode, he started to offer her little dishes of
caponata
and pasta salad, smiling as she gave in to temptation.
Josie chose some roasted tomatoes and peppers, gleaming with the estate’s own olive oil, mozzarella and a slice of fragrant focaccia spiked with rosemary and crystals of sea salt. While Dario loaded his plate with a little of everything on display, she watched him covertly. His movements had the smooth assurance of a man born to lead. With another shiver, she noticed the strength in his smooth brown forearms. The sleeves of his shirt were turned back, showing off his taut muscles. That provoked a reaction deeper than anything her ex-fiancé had ever sown in her. Unexpected sensations simmered within her, and they were scary—not because Dario felt threatening, but because of the way her body responded so easily to his. She could remember every nuance of feeling aroused by his capable hands as they rescued her from the water. Her body had been without the touch of a man for so long, she had forgotten how exciting the slightest contact could be.
‘Is there anything else you’d like, Josie?’
In her heightened state, his voice was a purr of encouragement as seductive as the sound of the golden orioles warbling deep in the woodland around them. She felt her mouth go dry. Her whole body began to melt under the warmth of his gaze. To hide her growing arousal, she took a long, slow sip of her limoncello. Nothing in her life so far had prepared her for the sensuous promise she heard in Dario’s voice—or the primitive reactions of her body. The lilt of his rich accent cast a magical spell over her every time he spoke her name.
This is seduction by telepathy
, she thought.
Dario seemed perfectly attuned to her, and her physical response to his confident masculinity. Her body turned to water beneath his gaze, ebbing and flowing like the warm flush that threatened to engulf her entirely. It was a struggle to conceal the effect he was having on her. Before they met, she had assumed any contact with this man would be brief and boring. Now his silent temptation threatened to undermine all her good intentions to concentrate on her work while she had the chance.
‘Let me guess. Before you got here, you had already assumed you would dislike me on sight. Now you find I’m not the man you expected. Isn’t that so?’ he said quietly.
Josie swallowed her reply. It would only incriminate her, when her expression alone was enough to set the light of amusement dancing in his amazing eyes.
‘And now you are wondering how I know that! It’s
because I thought exactly the same about you, Josie. To begin with.’
She picked up her cutlery, pretending to be more interested in her meal than she was in Dario. It was a mistake. She might be able to ignore the tremors of excitement powering through her body but it was impossible to suppress the way her hands were trembling. Sunlight filtering between the leaves high above flickered and danced over her silver fork, betraying her.
‘You’re making me nervous,’ she announced in her defence.
‘Really? I don’t know why. It’s never been my intention to scare you.’
‘I didn’t say I was scared. It’s more a kind of … passive intimidation …’ she managed. The past histories of her mother, her best friend and her own broken engagement were powerful reminders of what could happen when a man didn’t get things his own way, but right now defiance was the last thing on Josie’s mind.
Dario’s beautifully sculpted mouth lifted in a smile. ‘I imagine my forebears would be pleased to hear you say that. They ruled by the sword. But, speaking for myself, I’ve never liked to think I make people nervous. I want you to enjoy yourself, Josie. So … what more can I do to please you?’
The tempting lilt in his voice was deliberately ambiguous. She could see it in his eloquent dark eyes.
‘I think this lovely lunch is enough for the time being, thank you,’ she told him unsteadily.
He nodded, and turned his attention to his own plate.
Josie felt a sudden stab of disappointment that he had taken her words as a hint to back off.
‘What keeps a man like you buried out here in the countryside?’ she said, desperate to steer the topic of conversation away from herself. As she moved, a mischievous little breeze cooled the damp T-shirt beneath the blanket around her shoulders. It clung to the smooth curves of her breasts, sharpening her nipples into almost painful points. They were tingling in a way that made her want to learn a whole lot more about Dario, despite all her reservations.
‘I can’t tear myself away from the place.’ He raised both his hands in a gesture of resignation. ‘This estate, these people—they are my duty but, beyond that, this countryside is part of me. Although I couldn’t expect a modern woman to understand this.’
Josie stiffened.
‘Modern?
What’s that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?’
Dario turned his attention to a pile of fruit that stood between them. Selecting a perfect peach, he cupped it in one hand, feeling its mass and appreciating its weight.
‘The meaning I had in mind was
intellectual
,’ he said idly. ‘You’re used to using your mind instead of taking simple pleasure from your surroundings. You’ve come here from a place where learning is prized above emotion, and so that has coloured your attitude.’
‘I sometimes wish it hadn’t,’ she said wistfully.
He smiled. It was a slow, seductive gesture that reached right out to her.
‘Good … because here at the Castello Sirena, emotions run deep; deeper even than the spring that feeds
our ancient pool. It is a place made for pleasure, not for relentless work. Let me show you.’ His voice was a warm caress of desire. ‘In my world, even the simple acting of eating can be transformed into a beautiful experience.’
Taking a silver fruit knife, he cut a neat segment from the fruit in his other hand. Reaching across their picnic, he held the slice out to her.
Josie’s mind went to pieces completely.
Work later, play now …
The gentle sounds of nature receded as her head filled with clouds of cotton wool. She seemed to be looking at herself from outside. Instead of taking the piece of fruit from Dario’s fingers with her own, she watched herself lean forward to take it directly into her mouth. Through a warm mist of arousal, she heard herself gasp as the peach’s rich nectar ran down her chin.
Dario had never expected her to do something so spontaneous. His shock and surprise seamlessly turned to raw lust, ready to overwhelm him. No one could expect a man like Count Dario di Sirena to refuse such an invitation. Swiftly and silently, he took Josie’s hands and moved in to taste her.
F
OR
endless moments Josie was powerless to resist Dario’s sudden onslaught. The tip of his tongue traced delicately over her skin until she willed him to pull her into his arms and make mad passionate love to her.
… Then a sudden breeze rustling through the trees startled her out of her paralysis. Shrinking away from him, she stood up, but he followed. Josie had been so completely lost in the moment, she was still holding his hand. There was no point in trying to let go now—her body wouldn’t allow it. When he took a step forward to claim her again, she succumbed to the magic of his mouth a second time.
Josie knew she should resist, but it was as though their kisses were always meant to be. As his arms enfolded her, she melted under their firm pressure. The touch of his fingers as they glided over her back pressed her wet T-shirt against her naked skin. When she shivered he held her closer, but she wasn’t cold. The heat of desire kept rising and building within her until she twined her arms around his neck. This was it—she was ready to be released from her long and painful sentence of self-denial. All the years of loneliness would slip
away, forgotten, in this single supreme act. She pressed her body against his, feeling the scarily exciting kick of his manhood against her belly. When that happened he drew back, and for the first time in what felt like heady hours of excitement their lips parted.
Dario’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he snatched at steadying breaths. Josie fought the urge to lean forward and kiss him again—and for one desperate moment she saw him struggle with that same primitive need. Then he closed his eyes and his head sank until his forehead rested against hers. For one heart-stopping moment she thought he was going to take her lips again.
‘Yes …’ she breathed in reply, not wanting him to stop. His response was a sigh almost absorbed by the silence. ‘Please, Dario …’
After all, as he had said, there was no one about to see … and no one but Josie’s conscience to know what happened out here among the trees. Her mind had tortured her for too long already. Rising on tiptoe, she searched for his lips with her own and tasted his skin.
All the time her hands roamed over his body, he stood as still as stone. It was only when her hands slid around his waist that he stirred and gave a wordless moan of longing and regret. Then he reached around and grasped her wrists. That one simple movement woke Josie from her trance. With a spasm of alarm, she realised how close she had come to total surrender. She stood back and stared at him, shocked.
Dario’s expression was a mask of regret, his eyes squeezed shut as he whispered, ‘No … I can’t … I’m sorry …
Arietta
…’
Josie’s longing drained away, replaced by the old, familiar mix of anger, shame and humiliation.
‘You could at least call me by the right name!’ she spat.
That broke the spell.
‘I should never have done anything at all,’ he said grimly, dropping her hands and striding away across the glade towards his horse.
Josie watched him go in silent horror. If only she had trusted her instincts. For years, she had been careful to stay out of harm’s way. On that principle, she should have kept right away from Dario. She had suspected there must be a girl in his life, and now she knew—
and no wonder
, she added,
he’s irresistible!
Instantly, she regretted the terrible thought. It catapulted her straight back to the dark, awful moment when she’d discovered Andy had been cheating on her. Back then, she hadn’t been able to understand how any woman could inflict such agony on another and here she was, guilty of almost exactly the same thing.
I’ve always said I couldn’t bear to put anyone through what I’ve suffered
, she thought.
Not even for a man with kisses like that …
She had to get away. Snatching up her bag and camera, she plunged out of the glade and into the sunshine. The thought of investigating that fountainhead now made her feel sick with guilt. It would always be linked in her mind with the first time Dario had touched her, and where that wonderful sensation had led.
If I hadn’t succumbed to him, hadn’t
encouraged
him, if he hadn’t moved in on me …
Desperate for distraction, she scrambled back up the slope, away from that seductively shady woodland glade. The sun beat down mercilessly and she had left the sun hat behind. Tough, dry grasses scratched at her hands and the dusty hot air kept catching in her throat. By the time she reached the crest of the hill, her breath was tearing holes in her chest but she still couldn’t forget the feel of Dario’s hands and the exciting insistence of his lips.
Dropping to the ground in the meagre shade of a juniper, she looked down on the scene she had left behind. Dario had returned to the woodland edge. He was half in shadow, half in sunlight. Shielding her eyes against the sun, she studied him. His hands were on his hips and he was staring up the hill towards her. As she watched, waiting for him to jeer at her, he did something quite unexpected. His head dropped, he rubbed his hands over his face as if trying to scrub off something dirty—and then he turned away.
It was an indignity too far.
Josie was only too aware that she used work as an excuse to retreat from real life.
And this is why!
she thought furiously.
Is it any wonder I keep myself to myself when there are men like Dario about?
She took out her notebook and looked around for something new to study, determined to try to carry on as normal. It was hopeless. She could only think of one thing, and it wasn’t work.
It seemed to Josie that whenever she tried to taste life as other people lived it, she came unstuck. She had started
off her adult life by using hard work as the measure of her success. By the time she had realised her fiancé was more interested in his own prospects than their future together, he was already having an affair with one of her colleagues. That betrayal had been awful, and public. But there was another, darker side to her disappointment. The idea that sex with Andy had never set her on fire had been a private worry, which made today ten times more painful. In a few seconds Dario had blown away all her fears of being frigid, and released the animal inside her. Now she found herself wanting more. A man who could surely have any woman he wanted had managed to unravel all her self-control simply by holding her in his arms. In the seductive shadows, that scared her. Out here in the brutal light of day, it stoked her anger. It took the sight of Dario’s reaction to provoke an emotion in her more powerful than the fear of her own needs.
No one turns their back on me any more!
she thought, getting to her feet and brushing her hands free from dust in a gesture dramatic enough for him to see. Shaking out the folds of her damp T-shirt and jabbing all the escaped strands of soggy hair behind her ears, she took a deep breath. Then she marched down the slope again. In a few frantic moments she had learned a little about Dario di Sirena—but a whole lot more about herself.
It was time to start being ruthlessly honest. He had kissed her only after she had first accepted his offer of a picnic in a secluded spot.
So what else did I expect to happen, after that clinch in the pool?
The man had acted completely in character. In contrast, she had sent her common sense back home to England!
A simple ‘no thank you’ to the picnic would probably have done the trick. I should have tried that first
, she told herself, but knew it would have been impossible. Well, now she had to face up to the consequences of her actions.
The sun pounded down on her head almost as fiercely as the blood pulsed in her ears. Josie now realised she had been secretly wondering what it would be like to be kissed by Dario since first setting eyes on his sensuous mouth and those wonderfully dark, expressive eyes.
It was time to put her willpower to the test. Officially she was here to work, and that would be so much easier with Dario’s goodwill rather than his contempt.
I’m bigger than my shame, master of my anger, even stronger than the lust that’s still running through me—and this will prove it!
she thought, stamping the seal on her determination with every step. The slope gave her a bit more momentum than she expected.
Dario was adjusting the harness of his horse, ready to leave the scene of the disaster. When he heard a noise and turned back to see what was happening, Josie was half-jogging down the hill in order to keep her balance.
‘I hope you don’t think I’m running back to you,’ she said with all the dignity she could scrape together.
‘No. But I do hope you have come back to accept my apology,’ he said gravely, picking up her discarded sun hat and holding it out to her.
Josie hesitated, unable to decide whether he was being sincere or simply laughing at her. Stiffening her resolve, she grabbed the hat. To show how mad she was at him, she jammed it firmly onto her head. It was only then she realised Antonia’s head must be bigger than her own. The sun hat came right down over her eyes, only stopping when it lodged on her ears.
Before she could do anything about it, lean brown fingers intruded into her restricted field of vision. Dario tilted the brim so he could look straight down into her eyes.
‘That’s better. As I said, you should never go without a hat in this sun.’
His tone was as cool as a mountain stream, in stark contrast to the liquid heat of his kisses only moments ago. There was no trace of emotion visible in him now, either good or bad. Angry though she was, Josie felt her knees turn to jelly again beneath his penetrating gaze.
‘I shouldn’t have behaved like that,’ she said, hotly conscious of his scrutiny.
‘Neither should I.’
He took a couple of careful steps back, putting a discreet distance between them again, before continuing unevenly, ‘And then I made things worse by calling you by the wrong name. I apologise.’ He cleared his throat, then continued with obvious reluctance. ‘Arietta was my fiancée. She died some time ago. There was an accident—’
He stopped. She saw him take a deep breath and steady himself.
‘I thought I had put the episode behind me, but apparently not.’
Josie stared at him, making her face a mask. She had to—her whole body was alive with uncertainty again. She knew all about loss, but it seemed Dario had suffered a far worse disaster than her own.
‘I … I understand. I’m sorry, too. It was just as much my fault as yours. I shouldn’t have led you on, Dario. We both got carried away. That’s all.’
He nodded his appreciation, then cleared his throat again. ‘It took a lot of courage to come back here after what happened, Josie.’
He was right, but she had never expected him to acknowledge that.
‘I learned a long time ago that running away never solved anything, so now I just try to learn from my mistakes. I won’t make the same one twice,’ she said, trying to defuse the situation.
‘No, I can’t imagine you would,’ he said drily.
From the far side of the glade came the sound of his horse, which had wandered off and was now fretting with its bit.
I must be mad
, she thought.
Straight after kissing him like some sort of harlot, I’ve swung back to acting like a boring old maid!
His kiss had made her feel like a woman again for the first time in years. She had forgotten how good that sensation could be, and she wanted to experience it again. Soon. She dithered, blushing, and not knowing what to say.
If I told you what I was really thinking, it would be ‘goodbye research, hello disaster!’
she thought.
‘In which case, I’ll leave you to get on with your work and say
arrivederci
—for now.’
As Dario turned to walk away, Josie felt a powerful urge to call him back. He anticipated her. Swinging himself up into his saddle, he turned his horse in a wide arc, passing very close to where she stood. He treated her to a long, lingering view of his tight breeches and enviable seat as he circled the glade.
Lifting the corners of his mouth in a smile, he acknowledged their new intimacy. ‘But the next time your schedule allows you some room to do something scarily spontaneous again, Josie, be sure to let me know.’
Nudging his horse into a canter, he headed out of the glade and off across the grassy hillside.
Josie was left to stare after him. The way Dario had coaxed her into baring her soul to him was uncanny. She might have expected to feel angry that he found her so easy to read. Instead, she felt let down and strangely empty inside. The wonderful warmth of arousal he had coaxed into life deep within her body threatened to fade as she watched him ride away.
But it didn’t die completely—and, since tasting the temptation of his kiss, Josie knew it never would.