The Count's Prize

Josie couldn’t answer. She was studying the pool. It had been edged with wide stones, but everything was now worn with age and green with algae. It looked treacherous. Dario was already striding around the perimeter to the other side and calling across the water to her.

‘I’ll go first. Look, it’s perfectly safe—but, if you’re nervous, you’ll get a better view if you stand over there, beside that nearest alder …’

Josie had dropped her bag and reached his side before he finished speaking. Her fear of being thought not up to a task was greater than her fear of the water, until she saw where she would have to walk. The path to the spring’s source was narrow and cut into solid rock. In places, water splashed and played over it as though from a hose.

Edging along, she followed as close behind Dario as she dared. As he crossed the wettest place she took a step forward, felt her foot slip and caught her breath in a tiny cry of panic. Instantly, he grabbed her hand but she had already fought and won the battle to retain her footing. Once again she pulled herself from his grasp.

‘I’m fine, thank you.’

Dario wasn’t convinced, but grudgingly gave her the benefit of the doubt. ‘As long as you’re sure.’

‘I didn’t mean to alarm you. Water just isn’t my thing, that’s all,’ she said, gritting her teeth.

‘Does that mean you won’t be using the swimming pool down at the castello during your stay?’ he murmured as they pressed on.

She steeled herself to ignore the interesting tone in his voice.

‘Not if I can help it.’

‘A shame. Though I, too, much prefer the fun that can be had on dry land.’ His words were suggestive, but when Josie glanced at him suspiciously he met her gaze innocently, belying the wickedness she could see in his smile.

‘At a time like this I’m inclined to agree with you,’ she answered with grim determination as she concentrated on keeping her balance and ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. ‘Can you hurry up and show me whatever it is? This is turning into some kind of endurance test!’

‘As someone who is in the business of teaching, you should know that nothing good comes without effort.’

‘The benefits of hard work can be overstated,’ Josie said quietly before she could stop herself.

She had to concentrate grimly on her footwork, but Dario could afford to look at her quizzically.

‘What do you mean?’

Josie cursed the twin distractions of Etruscan art and the slippery surface. She had said too much. Furious with herself for accidentally bringing up such a sensitive subject, she tried to laugh it off.

‘Oh … while I was studying, my boyfriend found someone else to catalogue his artefacts for him. You know how it is,’ she finished lamely, expecting him to laugh.

He didn’t. Instead, he looked at her for a quiet moment, while Josie shivered under his leisurely, assessing gaze.

‘What a foolish man, not to see what he had,’ he said quietly, before turning away as if the compliment had never happened. Josie took a deep breath, trying to control the adrenalin suddenly fizzing through her veins.

‘Here we are … careful … now look at this …’

Reaching out, Dario pushed aside the curtain of young hart’s tongue fronds. Nourished by the run off from the slopes above, they were easily two feet long and covered the source of the waterfall with thick green ripples. As he moved the leaves apart, Josie saw that the water poured out from the mouth of a hideous grinning mask. It must have truly terrified Antonia when she’d played here as a child, more than twenty years before.

‘Wow!’ she breathed.

In her excitement she forgot all her fears about the slippery surface. Squeezing in front of Dario, she leaned forward for a closer look. At that moment a wren burst out indignantly from its hiding place behind the stone head. Whirring past Josie’s face, it missed her by inches and gave her such a fright she jumped, lost her footing—and toppled straight into the pool.

Her world exploded in a mass of bubbles. Before she had time to realise what was happening, she was grabbed and pulled above the surface again. Half drowned and spluttering, she found herself held tightly in Dario’s arms. She felt his body shaking and heard his laughter, but her indignation died as she discovered how incredible it felt to be pressed against his hard, unyielding body.

She stopped struggling. For one glorious moment the glade fell still and silent. All she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat and feel Dario’s pulse beating in time with hers. It was intoxicating, and such a primal feeling. His beautiful face was so close, she felt her lips part in anticipation of something so wonderful she dared not give it a name.

Then she remembered what it felt like when temptation led to betrayal. Panic engulfed her. In a surge of desperation, she tried to wriggle from his grasp, flailing the water into a maelstrom.

‘Hold still!’

Josie stopped splashing. Her feet floated down and she found her toes brushing the floor of the pool.

‘Oh …’ she moaned, feeling a complete fool.

‘You’re quite safe with me,’ he said reassuringly, and Josie wanted to believe it.

She tipped her head back to look at him properly. Water trickling over the carved intensity of his face sparkled in golden streaks of sunlight flickering through the trees.

‘Oh, dear—you seem to have got a faceful of water!’ She blushed. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Dario said nothing. His white shirt was plastered against his chest, showing dark shadows of hair beneath. Feeling his body, so hot and vital in the cool seductive depths of the pool, Josie unconsciously relaxed against him. Her whole body felt as liquid as the water, ready to absorb him and flow around him for ever. His eyes feasted on her face, and it was the ultimate aphrodisiac. When his hands began to move, she held her breath in an agony of expectation. As he gently brushed a lock of wet hair away from the corner of her mouth, she closed her eyes again. Unable to resist, she parted her lips and this time she knew exactly what she wanted. Her breathing quickened in desperate anticipation of his kiss.