Coercion to Love (11 page)

'Teresa...' Carlo returned his attention to his still glowering daughter '...Maria has come to take you for your afternoon nap.'

'I'm not tired,' she told him, then spoiled it by yawning widely. 'And anyway,' she added stubbornly, 'Cass will be lonely without me.'

'I shall promise to take great care that your aunt does not pine too much without your company,' her father assured her. 'But Maria is looking forward to having you all to herself,' he appealed to the child's soft heart. 'Just look at her; she will be disappointed if you turn her away.'

Maria was standing by the open doorway, her round face expectant, and Terri looked at her from under lowered brows. 'Cass let me play in that great big bath in our room yesterday,' she recalled slyly, seeing herself in possession of a little bargaining power here.

Amusement sprang back into life in Carlo's brown eyes as he turned them on Cass. 'I see no reason why Maria shouldn't let you do the same,' he allowed.

Mollified, Terri scrambled down from her chair and was carried off by a gaily laughing Maria, while Sabrina Reducci was looking decidedly sour. 'You are going out, Carlo?' she demanded.

'To San Remo,' he explained, reaching down to brush his mother's cheek with his lips. 'So do not overtire my mother with your mindless gossip while I am not here to curb you,' he told her with a quick brush of his lips to Sabrina's cheek. He came to stand by Cass's side. 'Ready to go, Miss Marlow?' he enquired smoothly.

Cass stood up, relieved to have an excuse to get away.

'Ciao, then,' he called lightly, and took Cass's arm, leading her away with the red-hot needles of Sabrina's gaze stinging into her back as they went.

Were they lovers? Cass frowned thoughtfully as she walked beside him, finding that she was altering her opinion on that score. No man, surely, treated his mistress as cavalierly as Carlo treated Sabrina.

But then, she added cynically to herself, the way he had treated Liz had been worse. So maybe he could kiss and dismiss any lover without a qualm.

'Now,' he said, turning to look down at her as he guided her out into the sunshine. Cass's chin came up, the cynicism clear in her green eyes as they clashed with his. Taken aback by it, he halted, turning fully to face her. 'What have I done now?' he asked in genuine bewilderment.

'Nothing,' she said, and looked quickly away, frowning over her own confusion. Last night she had decided that he couldn't possibly have treated Liz as badly as she'd always believed him to have done. Now, after witnessing one short example of his behaviour towards Sabrina, she was condemning him all over again.

"Then why the accusing look?' he demanded, taking hold of her by the shoulders and drawing her closer to him so that she had no choice but to look into his questioning eyes.

Instantly she was aware of masculine hardness, his superior height and strength and potent sexuality. 'Y-you shouldn't treat her as casually as that, you know!' she blurted out.

'Who?' he frowned. 'Teresa?'

'No!' Cass shifted restlessly under his light grip. 'Miss Reducci! It isn't right. Not when she so obviously worships the very ground you walk on!'

He laughed, the sound nothing but a soft rumble in his cavernous chest. And the fingers cupping her shoulders tensed slightly. 'Sabrina and I understand each other very well, Cassandra,' he dismissed. 'Don't let our manner towards each other bother you so.' He moved back to her side, one arm sliding round her shoulders.

'I have to visit my hotel in San Remo for a while, but first we will attend to your belongings.'

He handed her into the car and closed the door. By the time he had stepped around the long bonnet and got in beside her, Cass was chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip.

'Y-you don't have to wait with me while I pack my things,' she began awkwardly, not wanting to put him to too much trouble. 'If you can just drop me off at-----'

'You must stop doing that,' he interrupted, bringing her head around to stare at him in puzzlement.

'Doing what?' she asked. She hadn't been aware of doing anything other than just sitting here!

'Pressing those neat white teeth of yours into that poor bottom lip.' If the words hadn't surprised the breath out of her body, then what he did next certainly managed it as he reached up to rub his thumb across the tender flesh of her bottom lip, urging the imprints left by her teeth to fade away. 'That's better,' he murmured, smiling when her lips quivered on a sudden influx of warm red blood. Then he turned and started the car while she just sat there, with her feelings towards him so complex that she couldn't say a word.

She was still floundering in her own confusion when he said moments later, 'You enjoyed your walk this morning?'

'Yes, thank you,' she answered primly, turning to look at him. 'I found a path at the back of the house which led up the hill...' The sun was shining down on them through the open sun-roof, filling that handsome face with such an air of strength and vitality that she stumbled over her words, and she had to look away from him before going on. 'Y-you live in a very beautiful place, signore,' she finished huskily.

'Yes, don't I, signorina’ he softly mocked, smiling at the faint blush that mounted her cheeks. 'We are very lucky in this part of Italy,' he went on more seriously, 'to be sheltered from the worst of the winter by the Apennine mountain range just behind us. The trees growing on the slopes are mainly good quality cedar, and there are some eucalyptus-----' he flashed her another grin at her surprised expression '—they are not entirely exclusive to the Australian continent, you know. But closer to the valley bottom,' he went on informatively, 'we grow fruit, olive, lemon, fig, orange...' Another flashing glance at her made her heart flip unnervingly. 'No respectable Italian landowner would be without the fruits of the earth growing on his land! They are the symbols of our very culture—the humble beginnings from which we all sprang.'

'You've never had a humble thought in your life,' Cass derided.

Broad shoulders shrugged in lazy agreement. 'I count my blessing every day, Cassandra, be sure of it,' he said, not in the least offended by her sarcasm. 'San Remo itself, though hectic in the summer season, is a beautiful city, with its own unique brand of old-fashioned quality. And the road which connects it with Imperia further along the coast boasts some of the most spectacular coastline views in the world. Though,' he added, 'in my—admittedly biased—opinion, there are few views which can compete with—this...'

As he had been talking, they had been driving up through the trees on the other side of the valley. Now he brought the car to a stop on the crown of the hill, and turned to face her. 'What do you think?' he prompted.

Captivated, Cass let the air leave her lungs on a long and silky sigh. Out before them lay the rich royal blue of the Mediterranean, the sun glinting down on it from  it’s azure heaven while Sam Remo lay far, far below them, basking in the benevolence of its relentless heat. Around the wide-sweeping bay, the chalk-white cliffs shimmered in a haze of silver heat, their sun-bleached walls topped by the road which ran precariously along its very edge.

'You were too preoccupied to take note of this on our way here yesterday,' he explained his reason for stopping.

'It's beautiful,' she breathed.

'Yes...' And something in the way he said that brought her head jerking around to find him looking at her, not the view. The breath stilled in her lungs, the mood inside the car suddenly tense and stinging.

"The colour of this dress suits you,' he remarked, touching a light finger to the curve of the bodice where it met the satin slope of her breast. 'I am—pleased to see you have made use of the clothes I provided for you.'

'A m-matter of necessity,' she said, willing herself not to jerk away from the burning sensation of his touch, trying desperately to keep her voice light, and wishing she knew how to deal with a man of his sophistication. 'It was either wear this or walk barefooted behind you while you pretended I wasn't with you at all!' she laughed a little shakily.

'Dressed in sack-cloth you would still be beautiful, Cassandra,' he said quietly, and there was no mockery whatsoever in his eyes.

'I...' She dragged her eyes away from him, so acutely aware of him and the sexual messages he was sending her that she could barely breathe. 'C-can we see your hotel from here?' Desperately she changed the subject, pretending to search the San Remo skyline for the distinctive shape of the Valenti Grande.

He didn't answer immediately, and the silence sparked in the air all around them, holding Cass stiff and un-breathing, her staring eyes seeing nothing but a red-hot haze of panic as he sat there watching her with those lazy fringed eyes and the kind of burning expression that set her blood racing in her veins.

The light brush of his lips against her shoulder sent all attempts to remain casual flying as she shrugged him shakily away.

'Stop it!' she choked. 'Please—please stop it!' Green eyes pleaded wretchedly with sensual brown. He didn't move, didn't speak,-but the look in his eyes told her that, far from wanting to stop, he wanted to do more, much, much more. She drew in a shaky breath, the action lifting his fingertips where they still rested on the soft slope of her breast, and she shivered on the wave of sensual awareness that washed right through her.

What was it with this man, she wondered hectically, that he could manage to offset her with just the lightest caress? Had he used the same tactics to captivate her sister? Liz had been made up of much harder stuff than Cass. If she couldn't fight him off, then what chance did she have?

Already she was having to do battle with herself to quell the desire to just throw all caution to the winds and melt towards the pulsing sensuality of his inviting mouth.

This could not be allowed to happen, she told herself desperately. It would not be fair to Terri. It would not be fair to her sister's memory.

'For goodness' sake!' she whispered tensely. 'Don't make things more complicated than they already are!'

Her near panic must have got through to Carlo, because, after studying her strained face for a moment longer, he sighed and turned away. And Cass visibly wilted with relief as, without a word, he started the car again.

He drove them into San Remo, manoeuvring the car through the busy street with all the hot-blooded impatience of his race, jerking to a halt more than once just so that he could sound his horn at some poor unsuspecting tourist who wasn't used to dodging cars with the same dexterity as the natives. And, as she sat quietly beside him, Cass knew that more than half of his intolerance was due to the crazy atmosphere buzzing between the two of them.

It was sheer relief to see Giuseppe's garage come into sight, and she turned impulsively to Carlo. 'If you want to go and see to your business while I-----'

'I will wait,' he clipped, dousing the engine the moment they came to a stop and climbing out of the car, his body movements so graceful that Cass had to wet her suddenly dry lips.

She got out of the car before he had a chance to come around and help her, so glad to see Giuseppe ambling towards them that she sent him a brilliant smile. It shocked the garage owner enough to make him grin appreciatively back.