Swept Away!: Accidentally Expecting! / Salzano's Captive Bride / Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal

‘I like having a big family. There’s nothing to compare with the feeling that you have the whole tribe behind you.’

‘Isn’t there one member of the tribe you need more than the others?’

‘Hope and Toni have been like second parents. Apart from them, no. Like you, I’m an only child, but I thrive on having plenty of cousins.’

At last everyone drifted back to the house. There were children to be put to bed, and Hope wanted an early night. Ferne was glad of the chance to go to her room to be alone and think about everything that had happened to her.

To think about Dante Rinucci.

He was attractive, amusing, sexy and clearly in the mood for a diversion. Since she felt the same, there was really no problem, except for the little voice in her head that kept saying, Beware!

But beware what? she asked herself.

There’s something about him that doesn’t add up.

Nonsense. I’m just being fanciful.

She put on a night-gown, took out her laptop and connected it to her digital camera. In a moment she was looking at the pictures Dante had taken of her, trying to recognise herself.

Who was this woman with the come-hither look, giving the man that teasing smile because she was basking in his attention? It was an illusion. Dante had summoned that look from her in the joking spirit that seemed natural to him, and somehow he’d persuaded her to glance sideways, smiling, to intrigue him as he intrigued her. This man was a natural showman with the gift of luring everyone else into the show. There was no more to it than that, and she mustn’t forget.

There was a knock on the door and Dante’s voice called, ‘It’s me.’

She drew a slow breath of dismay. She’d half-expected him to appear at her door, but not so soon. Where was the skilled, sensitive man with the light touch that she’d pictured? Was he going to be vulgarly obvious after all? Her disappointment was severe.

As she was preparing the words of rejection, he knocked again. ‘Can I come in?’

‘Yes,’ she said hastily, reaching for her robe and whisking it on as his head appeared cautiously around the door.

‘Ah, you’ve got the pictures on-screen,’ he said. ‘I was hoping to see them. Am I any good as a photographer?’

‘Er, yes, some of the pictures are very nice,’ she said, trying to marshal her thoughts.

He was still fully dressed and didn’t seem to notice that she was attired for the night. He studied the computer screen eagerly.

‘Nice,’ he said. ‘You photograph well, and the light was good just then.’

He ran through to the end of the pictures, then back, then forward again, until he found one that seemed to please him especially. She had just shaken her hair so that it fell in soft curls about her face, framing her laughter.

‘I’d like to have a copy of that one,’ he said. ‘You look just great.’

Here it was: the first move. Be careful.

But it was hard to be careful when she was suddenly conscious of her nakedness beneath the flimsy night-gown. Her whole body seemed alive to him and oblivious to her efforts at control.

‘I’m afraid that may take a while,’ she said. ‘I don’t have a printer with me.’

‘No problem. Here’s my email address. Send it to me as a file attachment and I’ll take care of the printing. Now, I should get to bed if I were you. You’ve had a long day, and tomorrow is going to be even busier.’

He turned in the open door.

‘Sleep well. Sorry I disturbed you. Goodnight.’

The door closed behind him.

Just down the corridor, the sound of that door closing was heard by two who lay contentedly in each other’s arms.

‘Leaving so soon?’ Toni observed. ‘Dante’s losing his touch. Usually he can have any woman he wants—for a little while.’

‘I know,’ Hope sighed. ‘As soon as it looks like getting serious, he vanishes. But how can we blame him? Think what it must be like for him, living with the knowledge that—Oh, it’s terrible! Of course he can’t be like other people.’

‘He won’t let anyone mention the subject,’ Toni said sombrely. ‘If you try, he becomes cold and angry. He wants to pretend that nothing is wrong, but if you catch him off-guard it’s there in his eyes, the knowledge and the fear.’

‘Should we tell Ferne?’ Hope said. ‘Just in case?’

‘Warn her, you mean? Not now. Perhaps later. Dante would be furious to know that his secret was out.’

‘Won’t it have to come out in the end?’

‘I don’t know,’ Toni said sadly. ‘Perhaps it will never be spoken of at all—until it’s too late.’

Dawn was the best part of the day, when the bright, clear air gave the view across the bay to Vesuvius a new vividness. How peaceful the volcano looked now it was sleeping, and how hard won that peace must be. The previous night had taught Ferne that.

She’d thought herself so well prepared, so ready to fend off any advance from Dante. But when he’d bid her a gentlemanly goodnight she’d been ill prepared for any of the reactions that had coursed through her.

Starting with disbelief, they had exploded through to outrage, deprivation and finally insult. At the mere prospect of making love with him, her body had flowered. And he hadn’t been interested. It was sheer bad manners.

She could cheerfully have hurled something at the door he’d closed behind him. It had taken the rest of the night to calm the volcano inside her, and now the sight of the real one in the distance didn’t improve her temper.

Had he suspected her moment of weakness? The thought made her go hot and cold.

She felt an urgent need to get away from where he might be. He’d come out last night to watch the sunset. Suppose he came out again at dawn?

Turning to hurry inside, she saw him standing behind her. How long had he been there?

‘Good morning,’ she said hurriedly, trying to get past him.

But he detained her with a light hand on her arm. ‘Stay.’

‘You’re very free with your commands,’ she said tersely.

‘Have I offended you?’

‘Of course not. But I expect you want to be alone.’

‘Not alone from you.’

He turned her so that she faced the sea and then he stood behind her, his arms crossed over her breast, holding her gently against him. Mysteriously his touch seemed to soothe her annoyance, and Ferne put up her hands, not to push him away but to hold his forearms.