Читать книгу Tall, Dark... Collection - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 15

‘DO YOU know how to scuba-dive, Isabella?’

‘No.’ Bella looked up from eating her piece of toast as she and Gabriel sat outside on the veranda eating their breakfast. ‘Do you?’

As Bella had already guessed, it had not been a restful night’s sleep, and she had still been awake but pretending not to be when Gabriel had joined her in the bedroom half an hour or so after she had gone to bed. That Gabriel had fallen asleep within minutes of his head resting on the pillow had made absolutely no difference to her own feelings of tension, and Bella had lain awake for hours after the even tenor of Gabriel’s breathing told her he remained fast asleep beside her.

Bella’s only consolation was that Gabriel was already up and making breakfast when she finally woke up shortly after nine o’clock. But her eyes still felt gritty from lack of sleep, and all she really felt like doing was going back to bed!

‘I would hardly have asked otherwise,’ Gabriel pointed out before taking a sip of his coffee. ‘Would you like to learn?’

He looked disgustingly well rested this morning in a white short-sleeved shirt and white trousers, Bella noted, disgruntled. Much more relaxed than he had a right to be, as far as she was concerned.

‘I suppose I could try,’ she agreed irritably. ‘As long as you aren’t one of those awful teachers who gets cross with their student.’

‘I have no doubts you will be a very attentive pupil, Isabella,’ Gabriel teased, knowing by the heavy look to her eyes and the weary droop of her mouth that she hadn’t slept well.

Gabriel had known she was still awake when he joined her in the bed the night before, her back firmly turned towards him as she had tried to give every appearance of being asleep. A deception Gabriel had allowed her to keep; it was enough for the moment that she accepted that they would be sharing a bed in future.

She gave him a sharp glance. ‘I sincerely hope you were referring to scuba-diving!’

‘What else?’ he taunted.

Bella continued to eye him suspiciously for several long seconds, and then she gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Why not? I obviously have nothing else to do today.’ She stood up suddenly.

Gabriel looked up at her searchingly. ‘Perhaps you would have preferred to go somewhere a little more…entertaining…for our honeymoon?’

Bella raked him with a scathing glance. ‘Oh, I think this is entertaining enough, don’t you?’

He laughed softly. ‘Let us hope so.’

Bella refused to meet the challenge in his gaze. ‘I’ll go and get changed.’

Although she wasn’t too sure about that once she saw the skimpiness of the bikinis that Claudia, obviously in on the secret of their honeymoon destination, had packed for her!

There were two of them. A black one that consisted of two very small scraps of material that barely covered anything, top or bottom. And a pink one, which admittedly had a little more material in the bottom half, but unfortunately the top plunged deeply at the front, meaning that when she put it on her breasts spilled over it revealingly.

Quite what Claudia had been thinking of when she chose them, Bella had no idea—but she could take a good guess.

Bella forgot her own self-consciousness in the pink bikini the instant she came out onto the terrace and saw that Gabriel was wearing the briefest—and sexiest—pair of black swimming trunks she had ever seen!

Fitting low down on his hips, the material barely covered that revealing bulge in the front of the trunks. A bulge Bella found it difficult to look away from…

Gabriel looked up from checking the scuba gear, his expression hardening as he saw the way Bella was staring at him. ‘Do my scars bother you, after all?’ he ground out harshly.

‘Scars?’ she repeated vaguely, trying to concentrate on something other than those skimpy bathing trunks. ‘Oh. Those scars.’ She nodded as she took in the revealing criss-cross of scars that marked his chest and back, several deeper marks that looked like surgical incisions on his left leg, both below and above the knee. ‘I’ve already told you they don’t bother me, Gabriel,’she said with a frown.

‘That was before you had seen the full extent of them,’ he said stiltedly. ‘Some women would be bothered by their unsightliness.’

Some women would? Or they already had? Perhaps Janine Childe, for instance…?

Bella stepped outside. ‘We all have scars, Gabriel. It’s just that some of us have them on the inside rather than the outside. Besides,’ she continued as he would have spoken, ‘what does it matter to you how I feel about them?’

Gabriel’s eyes were narrowed to dark slits. ‘You are the woman who will have to look at them for the rest of your life.’

The rest of her life?

She took a deep breath as she realised she hadn’t actually thought about her marriage to Gabriel with exactly that time-frame in mind before…

She suddenly realised she hadn’t said anything and Gabriel was still waiting…‘I wouldn’t worry about it, Gabriel. All men look the same in the dark—’ She broke off as Gabriel’s hands suddenly closed firmly about her upper arms. ‘Let go of me!’ she gasped.

His grasp didn’t relax in the slightest. ‘I am not interested in what you think of other men, Isabella. In the dark or otherwise!’ He shook her slightly, his expression now distinctly dangerous.

Bella stared up at him, unable to see anything but the darkness of his anger as he glared down at her. ‘Your scars don’t bother me, Gabriel, and that’s the truth,’ she finally said evenly.

His gaze remained dark and stormy on her face for several more seconds before he released her so suddenly that Bella stumbled slightly. ‘I will be several more minutes checking the scuba equipment, so perhaps you would like to go for a swim while you are waiting,’ he suggested abruptly.

Bella gave one last, lingering glance at the stiffness of his scarred back before turning away to walk in the direction of the beach.

Another day in paradise…

‘That was the most wonderful experience of my life!’ Bella gasped excitedly once she had waded out of the sea and removed her breathing mask.

‘The most wonderful?’ Gabriel arched mocking brows as he removed his own scuba gear before sitting down on the blanket spread on the white-gold sand, the long darkness of his hair pushed back from his face, rivulets of sea-water dripping enticingly down his shoulders and back.

‘Well…one of them,’ Bella corrected hastily. ‘Holding Toby in my arms seconds after he was born was probably the most wonderful,’ she added huskily.

A frown darkened Gabriel’s brow. ‘I would have liked to have shared that experience with you.’

‘It’s been a lovely day, Gabriel, let’s not spoil it with another argument.’ Bella sighed as she dropped down onto the blanket beside him before slipping her arms out of the straps of the scuba gear and dropping it back on the sand behind them. She pushed the dampness of her hair back over her shoulders and sat forward to clasp her arms about her knees and rest her chin on her bent knees. ‘Besides, I very much doubt even you would have been allowed into the delivery-room.’

Gabriel arched one dark brow. ‘Even me…?’

She nodded. ‘Not even the Danti name would have got you in there,’ she teased. ‘There was a bit of a scare at the last moment,’ she explained as Gabriel continued to look at her enquiringly. ‘My blood pressure went off the scale, Toby became distressed, and they had to rush me off to Theatre to deliver Toby by Caesarean section.’

Gabriel tensed. ‘Your life was in danger?’

‘I think both our lives were in danger for a while,’Bella admitted. ‘But luckily it all turned out okay in the end.’

The frown between Gabriel’s eyes didn’t lessen. ‘Is that likely to happen with a second pregnancy?’

Bella gave him a surprised glance. ‘I don’t know. It never occurred to me to ask. Gabriel?’ She stared at him as he stood up abruptly to walk the short distance to the water’s edge. ‘Gabriel, what’s wrong?’

Gabriel’s hands clenched at his sides. Bella could ask him that, when she might have lost her life giving birth to Toby? When they might both have lost their lives and he, Gabriel, Bella’s lover and Toby’s father, would not have even known!

‘The way I see it, both you and I have almost died and have the scars to prove it—’ Bella broke off abruptly as Gabriel turned, his expression fierce. ‘I was only trying to make light of the situation, Gabriel,’ she reasoned.

His eyes narrowed to steely slits. ‘You think the risk to your life is a subject for humour?’

She grimaced. ‘I think it’s something that happened four and a half years ago. It’s nothing but history now. We’re all still here, after all.’

Gabriel knew that Bella was right, but having just learnt that she might have died giving birth to Toby made him wonder—fear?—that a second pregnancy might be as dangerous…

‘May I see your scar?’

Bella looked up at Gabriel warily as he loomed over her and blocked out the sun, his face darkly intense.

He wanted to see her scar from the Caesarean section? Her below-the-bikini-line scar?

She swallowed hard. ‘Can’t you just take my word for it that it’s there?’

There was a slight easing of the tension in his expression. ‘No.’

‘Oh.’ Bella chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I would really rather not.’ Her arms tightened protectively about her knees.

‘Why not?’

Because it was far too intimate, that was why! Because she already felt totally exposed, vulnerable, in the brief bikini, without baring any more flesh!

‘Maybe later,’ she said, turning away.

‘Now.’

Bella frowned her irritation as she looked back at him. ‘Gabriel, we don’t have to literally bare all of ourselves to each other in the first few days of marriage!’

He gave a hard smile. ‘You have seen my scars, now I would like to see yours.’

‘I would rather not,’ she came back crossly.

‘Men and women all look alike in the daylight, too, Isabella,’ Gabriel murmured throatily.

No, they didn’t!

There was simply no other man like Gabriel. No other man with his broodingly dark good looks. No other man with the power to make Bella’s knees tremble with just a glance from the warmth of those chocolate-brown eyes. No other man who made her feel so desirable. No other man who could make her totally lose control at the merest touch of his hand…

There just was no other man as far as Bella was concerned.

Oh, God!

Bella felt her cheeks pale even as she stared up at Gabriel with a feeling of helplessness. She loved him. Loved Gabriel.

Had she ever really stopped loving him?

Probably not, Bella acknowledged with a feeling akin to panic. She had fallen in love with Gabriel that night five years ago, and even though she had never seen him again she had continued to love him.

That was the reason she had never been interested in even going out with another man for all these years.

That was the reason she had never felt even remotely attracted to another man in that time.

Because she was already in love with Gabriel Danti, and always would be!

And now she was married to him. Married to the man she loved, would always love, and yet could never tell him of that love because it wasn’t what Gabriel wanted from her. It had never been what Gabriel wanted from her, and even less so now. All Gabriel wanted was his son; Bella just happened to come along with the package.

She stood up abruptly. ‘I think not, thank you, Gabriel,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I’m tired. I’ll go back to the villa and take a nap before dinner.’

Gabriel remained on the beach, his gaze narrowed in thought as he watched Bella walk into the trees and up towards the villa, her hair a black silky cloud down the slenderness of her back, the gentle sway of her hips wholly enticing.

What had happened just now?

One minute Bella had been challenging him as she always did, just as he had been enjoying that challenge as he always did, and the next it seemed she had completely shut down all her emotions.

Perhaps that was as well when Gabriel knew he daren’t risk another pregnancy for Bella until he was sure she would be in no danger…

‘Tell me what happened five years ago, Gabriel.’

‘As in…?’ Gabriel’s expression was guarded as he looked across the dinner table at Bella.

‘As in the accident, of course,’ she said impatiently.

‘Ah.’ Gabriel sat back to take a sip of the white wine that he had opened to accompany the lobster and salad they had prepared together and just eaten.

Bella frowned. ‘What did you think I meant?’

Gabriel looked at Bella beneath lowered lids as he admired her and thought how lovely she looked in her simple black knee-length gown. Its thin shoulder straps and the bareness of her arms revealed the light tan she had attained at the beach earlier, the heavy cloud of her dark hair cascaded loosely over that golden hue, and her face was bare of make-up except a pale peach lip gloss.

Bella had never looked more beautiful. Or more desirable.

‘What did I think that you meant?’ Gabriel repeated slowly. ‘The night we spent together, perhaps?’

‘I think we’re both already well aware of what happened that night!’ Bella pointed out tartly. ‘Impressionable student meets sexy racing-car driver,’ she enlarged as Gabriel raised questioning brows. ‘And the rest is history, as they say!’

‘What do you say, Bella?’

What should Bella say?

She could say that she had behaved like a complete idiot five years ago. She could say that she should have had more sense than to fall for all that rakish charm and spent that one glorious night in his arms. She could say that she should never have committed the complete folly of falling in love with a man like Gabriel Danti!

‘Oh, no, you don’t, Gabriel.’ Her smile was tight. ‘You’re not going to distract me from my original question by annoying me.’

‘I’m not?’

‘No, you’re not!’

He quirked dark brows. ‘I am curious as to why our talking about the night we spent together five years ago should cause annoyance.’

‘Gabriel!’ she protested.

‘Bella…?’

Maybe if he had continued to call her Isabella in that cold and distant way then Bella would have refused to answer him. Maybe. But when he said her name in that sexy, husky way she had no chance!

She sighed. ‘I really don’t want to argue with you again tonight, Gabriel.’

He nodded. ‘Fine, then we will not argue.’

‘We can’t seem to do anything else!’

He shrugged his shoulders beneath the cream silk shirt he wore.

‘We are here together for a week, Bella, with no other distractions. We have to talk about something.’

‘I’ve already told you what happened that night. I’m more interested in what happened afterwards,’ she said firmly.

Gabriel’s mouth tightened. ‘You are once again referring to the car crash in which two men died.’

The sudden coolness in his gaze, the slight withdrawal Bella sensed in his manner, told her how reluctant Gabriel was to talk about the accident.

At least as reluctant as Bella was to talk about that night they had spent together!

She gave him a direct look. ‘I assure you I’m not going to be hurt by anything you have to say concerning your feelings for Janine Childe.’

‘No?’ Gabriel’s eyes glittered in the moonlight that shone in the ever-encroaching darkness.

‘No,’ Bella said. ‘You aren’t the first man to go to bed with one woman when you’re actually in love with another one. I very much doubt that you’ll be the last, either!’ she added with a rueful smile.

Gabriel’s jaw tensed. ‘You believe me so utterly dishonourable?’

‘I believe you were a man surrounded by Formula One groupies who were only too happy to go to bed with defending champion Gabriel Danti, whether he was in love with someone else or not,’ Bella explained practically.

‘Formula One groupies?’ Gabriel exclaimed.

‘Oh, stop being obtuse, Gabriel,’ Bella teased gently. ‘Women of all ages find that macho image as sexy as hell, you know that.’

‘Did you?’ He sounded amused now.

‘We weren’t talking about me—’

‘Why did you go to bed with me that night, Bella?’

He had called her Bella again! Her defences were already in tatters after the momentous recognition earlier of her love for this man, without that!

‘Because you were sexy as hell, of course,’ she said brightly. ‘Now could you just—’

‘Past tense, Bella?’ Gabriel cut in softly, an edge to those husky tones. ‘You no longer find me sexy?’

If Bella found Gabriel any sexier she would literally be drooling down her chin at how gorgeous he looked this evening with the dark thickness of his hair flowing onto his shoulders and the way that cream silk shirt emphasised every muscled inch of his chest.

If Bella found him any sexier she would be ripping that shirt from his back just so that she could touch bare flesh.

If she found Gabriel any sexier she would be on her knees begging him to make love to her again!

And again.

And again…

Just thinking about it made Bella’s breasts firm and swell, the nipples hardening against the soft material of her dress, and an aching warmth begin to start between her thighs.

She shot him an irritated glance. ‘You should have a public health warning stamped on your forehead!’ She scowled as he began to smile. ‘I’m glad you think it’s funny,’ she muttered.

Gabriel continued to smile as he regarded Bella across the width of the table. Without Bella realising it—or particularly wanting it?—they were becoming easier together in each other’s company.

He sat forward slightly. ‘Your public health warning should be on your breasts.’

Colour suffused Bella’s cheeks. ‘My breasts…?’ she choked.

Gabriel nodded. ‘They are beautiful, Bella. Firm. Round. A perfect fit in my hands. And your nipples are—’

‘I’m not sure this is altogether polite after-dinner conversation, Gabriel!’ she gasped when she could once more catch her breath.

Gabriel allowed his gaze to lower to the part of her anatomy under discussion as they pressed firm and pouting against the material of her gown. A clear indication that their conversation had roused Bella as much as it had him.

Yet he could not—no, he dared not—make love to her. The fear of further loss and trauma in his life made Gabriel determined not to put Bella’s life at risk with a possible second pregnancy.

His mouth tightened as he realised the disastrous predicament he’d landed them both in. ‘You are right, Isabella, it is not.’ He stood up suddenly.

‘I—Where are you going?’ Bella frowned as Gabriel strode off towards the beach.

He turned on the pathway, the moonlight turning his hair to ebony and reflecting in his eyes. ‘I require some time to myself,’ he said distantly.

Gabriel needed some time to himself…

He couldn’t have told Bella any more clearly that after only two days alone together he was already bored in her company!

‘Fine.’ She nodded abruptly. ‘I’ll see you in morning, then,’ she added lamely, still slightly stunned by the way Gabriel’s mood had changed so swiftly from seduction to a need to go off by himself. After spending so many weeks resisting him, Bella was also shocked by the fierce desire that she wanted to be seduced.

‘No doubt,’ he answered curtly.

And, Bella realised painfully, he looked far from pleased at the prospect…

The two days it had taken Gabriel to find himself bored with her company was the same two days it had taken Bella to realise she was more in love with him than ever!