From Florence With Love: Valtieri's Bride / Lorenzo's Reward / The Secret That Changed Everything. CATHERINE GEORGE
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face.
He’d swim. Maybe that would take the heat out of his blood. And if it was foolish to swim alone, if he’d told the children a thousand times that no one should ever do it—well, tonight was different.
Everything about tonight seemed different.
He crossed the upper terrace, padded silently down the worn stone steps to the level below and rolled back the thermal cover on the pool. The water was warm, steaming billowing from the surface in the cool night air, and stripping off his clothes, he dived smoothly in.
Something had woken her.
She opened her eyes a fraction, peeping through the slit between her eyelids, but she could see nothing.
She could hear something, though. Not loud, just a little, rhythmic splash—like someone swimming?
She threw off the covers and sat up, wincing a little as her head pounded and the bruises twinged with the movement. She fingered the egg on her head, and sighed. Idiot. First thing in the morning she was going to track down that dress and burn the blasted thing.
She inched to the edge of the bed, and stood up slowly, her ankle protesting as she put weight through it. Not as badly as yesterday, though, she thought, and limped out onto the terrace to listen for the noise.
Yes. Definitely someone swimming. And it seemed to be coming from straight ahead. As she felt her way cautiously across the stone slabs and then the grass, she realised that this was the terrace they’d sat on last night, or at least a part of it. They’d been further over, to her left, and straight ahead of her were railings, the top edge gleaming in the moonlight.
She made her way slowly to them and looked down, and there he was. Well, there someone was, slicing through the water with strong, bold strokes, up and down, up and down, length after length through the swirling steam that rose from the surface of the pool.
Exorcising demons?
Then finally he slowed, rolled to his back and floated spread-eagled on the surface. She could barely make him out because the steam clouded the air in the moonlight, but she knew instinctively it was him.
And as if he’d sensed her, he turned his head and as the veil of mist was drawn back for an instant, their eyes met in the night. Slowly, with no sense of urgency, he swam to the side, folded his arms and rested on them, looking up at her.
‘You’re awake.’
‘Something woke me, then I heard the splashing. Is it sensible to swim on your own in the dark?’
He laughed softly. ‘You could always come in. Then I wouldn’t be alone.’
‘I haven’t got any swimming things.’
‘Ah. Well, that’s probably not very wise then because neither have I.’
She sucked in her breath softly, and closed her eyes, suddenly embarrassed. Amongst other things. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise. I’ll go away.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m finished. Just close your eyes for a second so I don’t offend you while I get out.’
She heard the laughter in his voice, then the sound of him vaulting out of the pool. Her eyes flew open, and she saw him straighten up, water sluicing off his back as he walked calmly to a sun lounger and picked up an abandoned towel. He dried himself briskly as she watched, unable to look away, mesmerised by those broad shoulders that tapered down to lean hips and powerful legs.
In the magical silver light of the moon, the taut, firm globes of his buttocks, paler than the rest of him, could have been carved from marble, like one of the statues that seemed to litter the whole of Italy. Except they’d be warm, of course, alive …
Her mouth dry, she snapped her eyes shut again and made herself breath. In, out, in, out, nice and slowly, slowing down, calmer.
‘Would you like a drink?’
She jumped and gave a tiny shriek. ‘Don’t creep up on people like that!’ she whispered fiercely, and rested her hand against the pounding heart beneath her chest.
Yikes. Her all but bare chest, in the crazily insubstantial pyjamas …
‘I’m not really dressed for entertaining,’ she mumbled, which was ridiculous because the scanty towel twisted round his hips left very little to the imagination.
His fingers, cool and damp, appeared under her chin, tilting her head up so she could see his face instead of just that tantalising towel. His eyes were laughing.
‘That makes two of us. I tell you what, I’ll go and put the kettle on and pull on my clothes, and you go and find something a little less …’
‘Revealing?’
His smile grew crooked. ‘I was going to say alluring.’
Alluring. Right.
‘I’ll get dressed,’ she said hastily, and limped rather faster than was sensible back towards her room, shutting the doors firmly behind her.
He watched her hobble away, his eyes tracking her progress across the terrace in the skimpiest of pyjamas, the long slender legs that had been hidden until now revealed by those tiny shorts in a way that did nothing for his peace of mind.
Or the state of his body. He swallowed hard and tightened his grip on the towel.
So much for the swimming cooling him down, he thought wryly, and went into the kitchen through the side door, rubbed himself briskly down with the towel again and pulled on his clothes, then switched on the kettle. Would she be able to find him? Would she even know which way to go?
Yes. She was there, in the doorway, looking deliciously rumpled and sleepy and a little uncertain. She’d pulled on her jeans and the T-shirt she’d been wearing last night, and her unfettered breasts had been confined to a bra. Pity, he thought, and then chided himself. She was a guest in his house, she was injured, and all he could do was lust after her. He should be ashamed of himself.
‘Tea, coffee or something else? I expect there are some herbal teabags or something like that.’
‘Camomile?’ she asked hopefully.
Something to calm her down, because her host, standing there in bare feet, a damp T-shirt clinging to the moisture on his chest and a pair of jeans that should have had a health warning on them hanging on his lean hips was doing nothing for her equilibrium.
Not now she knew what was underneath those clothes.
He poured boiling water into a cup for her, then stuck another cup under the coffee maker and pressed a button. The sound of the grinding beans was loud in the silence, but not loud enough to drown out the sound of her heartbeat.
She should have stayed in her room, kept out of his way.
‘Here, I don’t know how long you want to keep the teabag in.’
He put the mug down on the table and turned back to the coffee maker, and as she stirred the teabag round absently she watched him. His hands were deft, his movements precise as he spooned sugar and stirred in a splash of milk.
‘Won’t that keep you awake?’ she asked, but he just laughed softly.
‘It’s not a problem, I’m up now for the day. After I’ve drunk this I’ll go and tackle some work in my office, and then I’ll have breakfast with the children before I go out and check the grapes in each field to see if they’re ripe.’
‘Has the harvest started?’
‘La vendemmia?’ He shook his head. ‘No. If the grapes are ripe, it starts tomorrow. We’ll spend the rest of the day making sure we’re ready, because once it starts, we don’t stop till it’s finished. But today—today should be pretty routine.’
So he might have time to show her round …
‘Want to come with me and see what we do? If you’re