Читать книгу Modern Romance Collection: December Books 5 - 8 - Дженнифер Хейворд, Julia James - Страница 15

CHAPTER FIVE

THEY BATHED IN the stream, seemingly unaware of the chill of the water, and dried off on the bank next to each other, kissing and staring into each other’s eyes. Luca seemed surprised when she insisted she would go home on one of the staff buses, but she wasn’t ready to spend the night with him. She needed to clear her head and come to terms with the fact that this might have been a life-changing experience, but it had no future.

Let this be, she thought as Luca smiled against her mouth before kissing her. Let it remain shiny and special. Allow nothing to taint it. She had those same thoughts when she boarded the bus, but by the time she walked into the hotel lobby her mood had changed, mainly because the concierge was waiting for her, and he looked worried to death.

‘Thank goodness, Signorina Smith. This came for you.’

She looked at the envelope he was holding out. It was obviously urgent. She ripped it open and started reading. There was some confusion about her room at the bed and breakfast. She had intended to move hotels tomorrow, but now it seemed her room at the B & B was no longer available. Crumpling the note in her hand, she frowned as she wondered what to do next. She couldn’t afford to stay on here.

‘Signorina Smith?’

The concierge was hovering anxiously. ‘Yes?’

‘Forgive my intrusion, but I can see how concerned you are. Please don’t be worried. The manager at the establishment you had hoped to move to left that note for you. He has informed us of a problem, and so it is arranged that you continue to stay here.’

Callie’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. ‘I’m afraid I can’t afford to stay here,’ she admitted frankly. The concierge looked as embarrassed as she felt and this wasn’t his fault. ‘I’d love to stay on,’ she added warmly. ‘Everyone’s been so kind to me, but I need to find somewhere cheaper. Maybe you can help?’

‘Please, signorina,’ the concierge implored, shifting uncomfortably from polished shoe to polished shoe. ‘There will be no charge. You have been let down. This is a matter of local pride. The management of this hotel and the staff who care for you will be insulted if you offer payment.’

‘And I’ll be insulted if I don’t,’ Callie said bluntly. ‘I really can’t stay on if I don’t pay my way.’

‘The cost of your room has been covered.’

She swung around in surprise. ‘Luca! Are you following me?’

‘Yes,’ he admitted.

‘What do you know about this?’ she demanded. Luca, tousled and magnificent, couldn’t have looked more incongruous in the sleek, polished surroundings of the five-star hotel. She had to curb a smile as she glanced down at her clothes, and then at his. They both looked exactly what they were, labourers from the fields, which was another reason for decamping to another, much plainer establishment. Not that her body could have cared less what Luca was wearing. As far as her body was concerned, Luca looked better naked, anyway.

A million and one feelings flooded through her as they stared at each other. ‘Are you responsible for this?’ she asked, holding out the letter. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the concierge, who’d returned to his booth, looking more anxious than ever. Something was definitely going on. Luca knew Marco. Had they pulled strings between them so that she would have to stay with Luca? She refused to be manipulated, especially by Luca.

‘I couldn’t help overhearing that you were having difficulties,’ he began.

She bit her tongue and decided to wait to see what he said next. When he shrugged and smiled, threatening to weaken her resolve, she said, ‘I don’t suppose you know anything about my mysterious benefactor, or the fact that the hotel is refusing to charge me?’

He raised a brow. ‘Don’t you like it here?’

‘That’s not the point,’ she insisted. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Luca was speaking as calmly as if he were a tour operator dealing with a quibbling client, rather than a controlling alpha male who seemed to think that everything and everyone should run to his prescription. He might have quite literally swept her off her feet at the party, but post-party common sense had had time to set in.

‘My only concern is that you have somewhere comfortable to stay,’ he insisted.

She bristled. ‘Well, thank you, but I’m quite capable of making my own arrangements.’

‘They had a burst pipe at the small establishment where you booked a room,’ Luca explained while the concierge nodded vehemently. ‘Marco alerted me to this, and the concierge was only trying to help.’

‘How did Marco know I was planning to move to the B & B?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘I’m sorry, Callie, but you can’t live in a small town like this and not know what’s going on.’

‘So Marco told you?’ How could she have been so dim?

‘Stay on at the hotel,’ Luca offered, as if he were the owner of the sumptuous building. ‘You’ll be closer to the lemon groves here.’ He shot her a questioning look. ‘That’s if you intend to continue working on the Prince’s estate.’

‘Of course I do,’ Callie confirmed. She loved it on the Prince’s estate, and was nowhere near ready to leave yet.

‘So, come back with me.’

Luca was waiting at the lobby door, as if it were all a done deal. Did he mean go back to the party with him? Or did Luca have something different in mind? She had paid for the hotel until tomorrow, and packing could wait until the morning. Meanwhile...adventure beckoned!

More adventure? Why not? Luca was everything virile and masculine, drawing her deeper into the adventure she’d always dreamed about. ‘Thank you for your concern,’ she said, knowing she needed time to think more than ever now. ‘And, thank you,’ she added to the concierge as she walked away.

* * *

Callie avoided him the next day. His pride was piqued. However, everyone broke for lunch in the afternoon and congregated at the cookhouse. She was there, and they nodded to each other as they stood in line.

‘Luca.’

Her greeting was cool. She hadn’t appreciated his interference at the hotel, he gathered. He was hot from the fields, and hot for Callie, who had spent the morning in an air-conditioned facility the size of an aircraft hangar. Small, neat and clean, she slammed into his senses in her prim little buttoned-up blouse. Her denim shorts were short and they displayed her legs to perfection, as well as a suggestion of the curve of the bottom he’d caressed last night. That was all he needed before an afternoon’s work.

‘Excuse me, please,’ she said politely, waiting with her loaded tray to move past him.

The urge to ruffle those smooth feathers and make her wild with passion again was more than a passing thought. Weighing up the bandana he wore tied around his head to keep his crazy hair under control, she moved on to scrutinise the ancient top skimming his waist, though was careful not to look any lower. He took charge of her tray. Her gaze settled on his hands, and then his wrists, which were banded with leather studded with semi-precious stones, collected for him by the children of Fabrizio so he wouldn’t forget them while he was away. ‘I can manage, thank you,’ she said, trying to take the tray off him.

‘I’m sure you can,’ he agreed, ‘but sometimes it’s good to let people help you.’

Her brow pleated in thought as if she’d heard this somewhere before.

‘Are you staying on at the hotel, or have you found somewhere else to stay?’ he enquired lightly as he carried her tray to the table where Anita was waiting for Callie to join her.

‘Is that why you’re here? To question me?’ Callie probed with a penetrating look.

For a moment he couldn’t decide whether to shrug off her question or throw her over his shoulder like the caveman she thought him. He did know one thing. The tension between them couldn’t be sustained.

‘See you later,’ he said, turning to go.

‘Not if I see you first,’ she called teasingly after him.

A little frustration would do them both good, he decided. Ignoring the buzz of interest that accompanied him to the door, he saluted the chefs and left the cookhouse.

* * *

Infuriating man! How was it possible to feel so aroused, and yet control the impulse to jump on Luca and ravish him in front of everyone? Which was probably exactly how he expected her to feel. The tension in the cookhouse had been high, and made worse because people were obviously trying hard not to stare at them. She had tried to start a conversation with Anita, but couldn’t concentrate and kept losing her train of thought.

‘If you take my advice, you’ll get it over with,’ Anita advised, glancing at Callie with concern.

‘Get what over with?’ Callie demanded, frowning.

‘Sex. You need to sate yourself.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Oh, come off it, Callie. You’ll be no good to anyone, least of all yourself, until you do.’

‘Anita, I’m shocked!’

‘No, you’re not, you’re frustrated,’ Anita argued. ‘No one would think any the worse of you if you glut yourself on that one.’ She glanced in the direction Luca had gone.

‘This isn’t an adult playground. It’s a place of work.’

‘Listen to yourself,’ Anita protested with a forkful of crisp, golden fries poised in front of her mouth. ‘Take precautions and don’t involve your heart. You’re here for adventure, aren’t you?’

It might be too late to do as Anita said, Callie reflected as she left the cookhouse ahead of her friend. Her heart was already involved. She couldn’t last a minute without wondering if she’d see Luca again soon.

Turning onto the dusty track leading through the lemon groves, she headed for the storage facility where she’d been working that morning, only to see Luca coming towards her.

‘Shall I show you a short cut?’ he offered.

A short cut to what? she wondered as he grinned and took hold of her hand.

* * *

It was no good. He couldn’t get through the afternoon without it, without her, without Callie, without being up against a tree kissing her as if they were the last couple on earth and time was running out fast.

‘Luca—we can’t—’

‘Yes, we can,’ he insisted. Pressing his body weight against her, he slowly moved his body against hers until she was sucking in great gulping sobs of frustration.

‘I need you,’ she gasped out.

‘I know,’ he whispered.

He found her with his hand over the rough, thick denim shorts and stroked firmly. He could feel her heat and his imagination supplied the rest. He couldn’t wait. Neither could she. They tore at her shorts together. Removing them quickly, he tossed them away. There was no time for kissing, or touching, or preparing, there was only this. He freed himself. She scrambled up him. He dipped at the knees and took her deep. She came violently after a few firm thrusts. Tearing at him with hands turned to claws, she threw back her head and howled out her pleasure as each powerful spasm gripped her. When he felt her muscles relax, and her hands lost their grip, he gave it to her again, fast and hard.

‘Yes!’ she cried out as he claimed her again. ‘More,’ she begged, blasting a fiercely demanding stare into his eyes.

‘You can have all you want,’ he promised as he worked her steadily towards the next release. ‘But not right now,’ he murmured, still thrusting, ‘because we have to go back to work.’

‘You’re joking.’ Her eyes widened. ‘How can I go back to work after this?’

‘That discipline we talked about?’

‘You talked about.’

He ended the argument with a few fast thrusts, and she screamed out her pleasure as they both claimed their most powerful release yet.

‘You’re right,’ she accepted groggily a long while after she’d quietened. ‘They’ll be short a team member if I don’t go back, and I can’t let everyone down.’

He could have sorted this out for her with a few words in the appropriate ear, but that would be taking advantage of his position, and so he huffed an accepting laugh and lowered her down to the ground. They were both bound by duty. Groping for his phone, he clicked it on to see the time. What he saw was a line of missed calls. Springing up, he dislodged her. ‘Sorry, I have to take this,’ he explained as he walked away. Sorting himself out as the call connected, he tucked the phone between ear and his shoulder and asked a few pertinent questions. Having cut the line, he beckoned to Callie. ‘Sorry, but there’s somewhere I have to be.’

‘Your afternoon shift?’ she queried, frowning.

‘Something like that, but I’ll have to leave the estate.’

‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ she asked, feeling his tension.

‘Nothing.’ He sounded abrupt, but there was no time for explanations.

Callie was hurt. She refused to meet his eyes. His sharp response had shocked her. And no wonder, when one minute they were totally absorbed in each other, even if that was up against a tree, and the next he couldn’t wait to leave. It couldn’t be helped. He’d see her again, if and when he came back.

* * *

She didn’t have much experience of love affairs, but she knew enough to know Luca’s behaviour wasn’t acceptable. His intended departure was brutal and sudden, and only went to prove she didn’t know the man she was with. She didn’t know him at all. Shame and humiliation swept over her in hot, ugly waves as he paced impatiently while she struggled to put on her shorts as fast as she could. For Luca it was just sex, necessary like eating and breathing, and now it was done, he couldn’t wait to leave.

What a mug I am, Callie thought as she pulled up her zipper. Even her well-used body mocked her as she dressed. It was so tender and still so responsive, while her mind continued to whirl in agitated spirals as she flashed glances at a man who seemed to have forgotten she existed. She’d been swept up in a fantasy, but as far as Luca was concerned they were two healthy adults who’d wanted sex. Now that was done there was nothing left. She couldn’t even be angry with him. She’d been a more than willing partner. She was just puzzled as to how they could seem so close, and now this.

She glanced at him. He glanced back, but only to check on her progress. There’d be no more conversation or confiding, no more intimate jokes. Smoothing her hair as best she could, she looked at the time on her phone and grimaced. She was already late for the afternoon shift and would have to take a shower before returning to work. It must have been her heavy sigh that prompted Luca to say, ‘There are facilities next to the building where you’re working. You’ll find everything there—towels, shampoo—’

Did he do this on a regular basis? Callie wondered. ‘Thanks.’ Why wouldn’t he? Luca came here every year. She couldn’t be the first woman to fall for his blistering charm. Her face flamed red as she pictured him with someone else. She’d thought they were special, which only went to prove how little she knew about men. She could understand he was in a hurry, but couldn’t there be just the slightest pleasantry between them, to allow for an exit with dignity?

‘So that’s it?’ she said as she checked her top was properly tucked in.

‘Should there be more?’ he demanded.

His response was the slap in the face she badly needed. Something had to bring her to her senses. Reality had landed. Hooray. He was right. What more should there be?

Callie was angry, but they were hardly at the stage where he could confide state secrets. She controlled herself well, but the tension in her jaw and the spark in her eyes told their own story. It couldn’t be helped. News of Max’s attempted coup was for his ears only. He strode on ahead as soon as Callie was ready. His mind was already elsewhere. Stabbing numbers into his cell, he told his staff to prepare the helicopter. He had to get to Fabrizio fast. He would just have time to shower and change before it arrived to pick him up. Max and his cronies had been causing trouble again, and, though they had been swiftly suppressed, the people of Fabrizio needed the reassurance of seeing their Prince.

‘So, you’re not even going to wait for me?’ Callie called after him.

He turned around, shrugged impatiently then kept on walking. She was no longer his priority. However much he might want her to be, he couldn’t put his own selfish pleasures first.

* * *

‘What’s got under your skin?’ Anita asked when the two women bumped into each other outside the shower block. ‘A man? One man in particular?’

Anita sounded so hopeful that Callie couldn’t bear to disillusion her. ‘Tell you later,’ she promised as she hurried off for her afternoon shift.

‘Wave goodbye to the Prince before you go,’ Anita called after her.

Callie stopped and turned around. ‘Where is he?’

Shielding her eyes, Anita stared up at a large blue helicopter with a royal crest of Fabrizio on the side.

‘Apparently he’s been called back to Fabrizio to deal with an emergency,’ Anita explained as both women protected their eyes against the aircraft’s downdraft, which had raised dust clouds all around them. ‘Don’t worry. It won’t be an emergency when Luca gets there.’

‘Sorry?’ Callie froze.

‘Prince Luca’s will is stronger than any army his brother Max could raise, and his people adore him,’ Anita explained. ‘The people don’t trust Max as far as they could throw him. I read in the press today that Prince Luca intends to buy Max off. Max will do anything for money,’ Anita explained, ‘and that includes relinquishing his claim to the throne. Max needs Luca’s money to pay his gambling debts. He’d bleed the country dry, if he became ruler. The late Prince, their father, knew this. That’s why he made Prince Luca his heir—Callie? Are you all right?’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that Luca was the Prince?’ Callie stared at her friend in total disbelief, but how could she be angry with Anita when Callie was guilty of ignoring what had been, quite literally, under her nose?

‘I’m sorry,’ Anita said as she enveloped Callie in a big hug. ‘I thought you knew. I thought, like the rest of us, you were being discreet by not naming him, or talking about him. We all know that’s what Prince Luca prefers. If I’d guessed for a moment—’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Callie insisted. ‘I’m to blame. I only saw what I wanted to see.’ She stared up at the helicopter as it disappeared behind some cloud. Luca hadn’t told her anything, let alone that he was the Prince. What a fool she was. How could she have missed all the clues? They were as obvious to her now as the bright red arrow she hadn’t noticed when she’d first arrived at the Prince’s estate. Only worse, much worse, Callie concluded. She didn’t blame Luca. Was he supposed to act like Prince Charming in a fairy tale? He was a man, with all the cravings, faults and appetite that went along with that, and she hadn’t exactly fought him off.

‘Why are you laughing?’ Anita asked.

Callie was thinking that Luca didn’t have to excuse his actions. He simply called for his helicopter and flew off. But into a difficult situation, she reminded herself. Even if Luca and his brother had never been close, no one needed to remind Callie how much a barb from within the family could hurt.

‘I thought he was one of us,’ she admitted to Anita.

‘He is one of us,’ Anita confirmed hotly.

Callie smiled, knowing there was no point in arguing with Anita, one of Luca’s staunchest supporters, but she still couldn’t get her head around her own clumsy mistake. It was so much easier to think of Luca as a worker, rather than a prince, but how she could have been so wrapped up in her Italian adventure that she hadn’t guessed the truth before now defeated her.

‘Max’s uprising was over before it began,’ Anita explained as she linked arms with Callie. ‘You can’t fault Prince Luca for keeping his word to his father, the late Prince. Luca’s been coming here for years to work alongside the pickers, but nothing’s more important to him than the pledge he made to keep his country safe, and we all understand why he had to go back to Fabrizio.’

All except Callie, who was still floundering about in the dark wondering why Luca hadn’t told her his true identity. Perhaps there were too many people who only wanted to be close to him for the benefits they could gain, apparently like his brother, Max. She could forgive him if that were the case. Well, sort of. Luca expected her to trust him, but he clearly didn’t trust her.

And was she always truthful?

The only time she’d reached out since arriving in Italy was to text Rosie to reassure the Browns that everything was going well. She’d explained that she was going to extend her stay, but had kept her answers to Rosie’s excited questions bland in the extreme. She was staying on because she wanted to learn more about Italy, Callie had said, which explained why she had taken a part-time job. She just hadn’t expected to get her heart broken into pieces and trampled on in the process. ‘I’ll be leaving soon,’ she mused out loud.

‘Must you? Oh, no. Please don’t. Was it something I said? I didn’t mean to probe,’ Anita assured Callie with concern, ‘and I’ll understand completely if you don’t want to tell me why you’re leaving.’

Callie responded with a warm hug for her new friend. ‘You’ve done nothing wrong,’ she assured Anita. ‘If anyone’s at fault, it’s me. I could have asked Luca more questions, but chose not to. I didn’t want reality to intrude, I suppose. It’s better if I go home and get real. It’s too easy to believe the dream here.’

How true was that? She couldn’t believe she’d made such a fool of herself with Luca.

‘Can’t you stay a little longer?’ Anita begged. ‘We’re only just getting to know each other, and I’ll miss you.’

Tears sprang to Callie’s eyes at this confession, and the two women exchanged a quick, fierce hug. ‘I hope you’ll come and visit me?’ Callie insisted. ‘I don’t want to lose touch, either.’

‘No chance,’ Anita promised stoutly as they stood side by side on the dusty path that ran through the groves. ‘When I go home, it’s to a damp northern mill town not too far from your docks, so there’s no reason why we can’t meet up.’

‘Come for Christmas,’ Callie exclaimed impetuously. ‘Please. I’ll ask Ma Brown. The more, the merrier, she always says. Promise you will.’

‘Are you serious?’ Anita looked concerned, and then her face lit up when she realised that Callie meant every word. ‘I usually spend Christmas alone.’

‘Not this year,’ Callie vowed passionately with another warm hug. ‘I’ll speak to Ma and Pa Brown as soon as I get back, and I’ll send you the details.’

‘You’re a true friend, Callie,’ Anita said softly.

‘I won’t forget you,’ Callie promised.

Casting one last wistful look around the sun-drenched lemon groves, Callie firmed her jaw. She might be Callie from the docks when she returned home, but she would always be Callie from the lemon groves in her heart.