Page 58 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
Her question on their wedding night echoed too clearly for comfort.
I believe you didn’t betray me, Alessandro. Is it so hard for you to believe I didn’t betray you?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ALESSANDRO nuzzled the silk tresses on his pillow, inhaling the scent of flowers. He wound a strand round his fingers, then brushed the end across her bare breast.
Carys shivered. Even now, exhausted from lovemaking, she responded to him. As he did to her.
It was as if she’d got into his blood, his bones.
Still it wasn’t enough. ‘Tell me about us,’ he murmured, finally confronting the need that had gnawed at him so long. ‘What did we do together…before? What was it like?’
He watched her breathing falter. Raising his gaze, he found her biting her lip. Wary eyes met his.
‘You really want to know?’
He nodded. More than ever he needed to understand. Knowing the past might help him understand the present.
Huge eyes surveyed him carefully, as if seeking a hidden trap. Then she looked down to where he caressed her. Long eyelashes shielded her eyes from his gaze.
‘It was like a summer storm. Like a lightning strike out of the blue.’ Her lips tilted up. ‘It was sudden and overwhelming. Wonderful and scary and…undeniable.’
‘The sex, you mean?’ She described perfectly the marrowmelting intensity of their loving.
Her moue of disappointment told him he’d got it wrong. ‘No.’ She tugged the sheet up, dislodging his hand. He ignored the tiny splinter of hurt that jabbed him.
‘So tell me. What did we do together?’
She shrugged. ‘Everything. You taught me to ski and snowboard. We went climbing and hiked some of the hills here. I cooked you Aussie style roast lamb and pavlova for dessert, and you taught me about Italian wines and the history of the area.’ Her voice was so wistful he felt a pang of discomfort.
But greater still was his confusion. He’d taken her climbing and hiking? He slid a hand around her hip, lodging her concretely against him as the world started to spin.
‘Alessandro? What is it? Have I sparked a memory?’
Numbly his shook his head. ‘No memory.’ The words were curt, but he couldn’t help it. He still couldn’t face with equanimity the fact he’d probably never remember.
Yet that wasn’t what shocked him.
Climbing, hiking, constituted his rare, private time away from the high-pressure business world. He climbed with a friend or two. Male friends. He hiked alone. Always. Most of his acquaintances had no notion he loved the mountains even more than his fast cars. The idea of sharing that most precious private time with a woman was astonishing.
‘We hiked together?’ His voice sounded rusty.
Carys nodded. ‘It was glorious. The countryside’s so lovely. In the evening we’d sit together and discuss where we’d head the next weekend.’
‘Really?’ The picture she conjured was completely foreign. Yet it seemed…right. He frowned, wondering how he knew that so definitely when he remembered nothing.
‘You don’t believe me.’ She shuffled away to prop herself against the bed head, hurt shimmering in her eyes.
He reached out to cup her face, stunned by what he’d learned. He needed to know more. But this wasn’t the time.
‘I believe you, Carys.’ He paused. ‘Tell me about Leo. What was he like as a newborn? Did you know from the first how intelligent he was?’
The sound of his son’s laughter warmed Alessandro, but it was the sight of his wife, smiling as she held Leo up to look out the ferry window, that made something shift inside him. Something he hadn’t ever acknowledged before.
The barrier that had kept him safely separate and selfcontained from those who tried to get too close.
Alessandro drew a slow breath and exhaled, battling the turmoil inside.
This shift wasn’t a sudden event. The barrier had been crumbling for weeks. Day by day the connection with Leo and Carys had strengthened, growing into something he’d never expected to feel. There was protectiveness, possessiveness, caring. Joy and acceptance.
Despite the ferry’s smooth progress across the lake, Alessandro rocked back on his feet as if struck off balance.
He should have expected it, he supposed, with Leo.
His son.
Though his own parents had never indicated they felt anything for Alessandro except mild pleasure if he did well and cold dismissal if he intruded at an inopportune time, he knew what the bond between parent and child should be. When he discovered his son, he’d acted instantly to get custody, desperate to ensure Leo was in the care of a loving parent.
Even though Alessandro knew he had everything to learn about how to love.
