Page 41 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
If he’d felt…attached to Carys, he’d have kept her to himself rather than parade her before the sharks ready to pursue an attractive woman.
If he’d felt attached.
Alessandro shook his head. He didn’t do serious relationships. Didn’t believe in romantic love. It should be impossible.
Should be.
Yet that frisson of instinct told its own story.
He scrubbed his hand across his jaw, knowing a moment’s unfamiliar hesitation.
There were too many unanswered questions, and Carys alone held the key to every answer.
Even his fiancée’s relationship with her family puzzled him. Not one of them would attend the wedding. That wasn’t like any family he knew.
The woman was an enigma as well as a temptation.
He turned on his heel and strode to the door.
He found her in the grand salon, leaning into the corner of one of the uncomfortable antique sofas Livia had installed.
In her crumpled aqua skirt and matching beaded top, her hair in a ponytail, Carys was a breath of fresh air in the stuffy, formal room.
He walked closer.
She didn’t move. Her head rested on one arm as if she’d leaned sideways and fallen instantly asleep. One beaded sandal dangled precariously from her toes. The other lay discarded and his gaze moved to her slim, bare foot, pale and shapely and ridiculously enticing with its painted pink toenails.
A tremor of heat ricocheted through his belly as he followed the lissom curve of her ankle to her calf, her knee and, where her skirt had rucked up, to her thigh.
He remembered the feel of her supple legs encasing him as he thrust her back against the wall of his suite at the Landford. The musky scent of her arousal. The sound of her whimpering mews for more. The sheer erotic blaze of glory that had been him and Carys, on the verge of consummating this…need between them.
Just the echo of that memory had him hard and wanting and ready, feet planted wide and breathing constricted.
Yet instinctively he resisted.
Livia’s news made him pause.
It couldn’t be true that Carys had become so important to him before his accident. He, who’d learnt early not to trust in love or the fidelity of the female sex!
No. There was some other explanation behind his relationship with Carys.
And for the way she made him feel now.
Protective. It was ludicrous. This was the woman he’d told to leave because she’d been with another man. And yet…
Alessandro shook his head, adrift on a sea of turbulent, unfamiliar emotions. He was used to his life proceeding in the pattern he designed. Emotions had no place there. Or they hadn’t before Carys.
His shoulders cramped as he fought the tug of feelings, weaknesses, he preferred not to acknowledge.
Despite a few hours’ sleep on the long flight from Melbourne, dark smudges were still visible beneath her eyes.
Unwilling concern twisted in his belly.
This woman got to him as no other!
Without giving himself time to think, he bent and scooped Carys into his arms, ignoring the sense of familiarity that rose and crested, like a wave of warmth, as he tucked her close to his torso. Clearly he’d carried her before.
His body knew hers, only too intimately.
He turned for the door. She’d rest better in her own bed. He’d leave her there and then look in on Leo.
Alessandro lengthened his stride as he headed for the main staircase. That time alone with Leo on the flight had whetted his appetite for his son’s company. He found the boy more fascinating than any other child of his acquaintance.
Alessandro had reached the top of the stairs when Carys woke. Her lips parted in a sleepy smile, and heat doused him. Eyes as bright as stars met his and instantly desire exploded into life, tightening his groin, tensing every muscle. In that moment he veered automatically towards the master suite rather than the rooms where she’d been installed.
An afternoon of pleasure, rediscovering her feminine delights beckoned. He quickened his pace.
Then the misty soft smile disappeared, and alarm filled her eyes. Her mouth tightened and she jerked as if trying to wriggle out of his hold.
The heat in his belly fizzed out as quickly as it had ignited. He slammed to a stop. No other woman had ever looked at him in such horror.
‘What are you doing?’ It was an accusatory gasp.Automatically Alessandro lifted his chin, unaccustomed to such a tone.
‘Carrying you to bed. You need rest.’
If anything her tension increased. He felt her stiffen. Her eyes blazed.
‘No! I need to see to Leo. He—’
‘Our son—’ Alessandro paused, savouring the words ‘—is being looked after by a very capable and pleasant carer.’ Carys opened her mouth, to object no doubt. He overrode her. ‘In the longer term we will look for a more permanent carer to help with him, but for now be assured he’s in safe hands.’
