The Sicilian Duke's Demand

‘I told you—it was very unpleasant!’

‘Do you know what you felt like in my arms?’ he asked. ‘You felt more wonderful than I can tell you. Vibrant, alive, dynamic.’

‘You’re lucky I didn’t scratch your eyes out,’ she panted, her heart pounding now.

‘And your mouth was like a flame,’ he went on, ‘sweet and burning. I felt you catch fire in my arms.’

‘Stop!’ she said, her voice cracking with the strain.

‘That’s the way it’s supposed to be, Isobel,’ he said. ‘You’re supposed to feel wonderful at a moment like that. You can’t live in an emotional ice-box for ever.’

‘You know nothing about me!’ she flared at him. ‘How dare you presume to judge me?’

‘If you had your way, nobody would do anything,’ he replied, his eyes glittering like sapphires as he approached her. ‘We’d all sit around talking ethics while the roof fell in.’

‘If you had your way—’

‘If I had my way, you’d be mine,’ he said softly, reaching out to her.

‘Don’t touch me—’

Isobel gave a little cry as he took her in his arms. It should have been some withering protest that would have stopped him in his tracks, but instead it was more like a whimper; a whimper that was smothered against his mouth as he kissed her.

Her legs felt so weak that she had to cling to him to stay upright. What on earth was this? Could anger turn into lust? Was it her very dislike of the man that fuelled her body’s insane response to him?

He thought she was a prig and she thought he was a scoundrel. So why was it that they were now locked in one another’s arms, kissing like a pair of famished lovers who had been separated by the widest ocean? Isobel had no idea. She only knew that the fiery, engulfing kisses their mouths were hungrily demanding from one another seemed to make them both hungrier, rather than sated.

She had never dreamed that she could feel like this with any man, that passion could ignite in her like a carelessly tossed match landing in gasoline. It wasn’t love, it wasn’t even lust, it was passion, a raw, elemental force, explosive and dangerous.

She had a sudden mental image, bright as the hallucination a fever might bring: his body naked against hers, his skin golden-brown and scrawled with black, curly hair, hers pale and tipped with rose; the sheen of their sweat, the smell of their arousal, the feel of his body within hers, all were as real and sharp in her mind as existence itself.

She wanted him to do to her what he had done this morning, but this time not with a kiss; she wanted him to make love to her, here and now. It was a swelling ache that filled her nipples and pushed them out into hard points, that flooded her loins with hot and wet desire.

And then she was afraid, afraid of what was happening to her, afraid of this body of hers that was beyond her control for the first time in her life.

Panicking, she fought away from him. ‘I told you—not to—touch me!’ she panted. ‘Damn you, do you just take everything you want?’

‘There are very few things in life I truly want,’ he said, and she could hear that his breathing was ragged, too. His eyes were hot blue slits. ‘But I want you, Isobel. I want you so badly that I would commit any folly, any madness, to possess you.’

‘Don’t come near me,’ she said, backing away from him. ‘We’re not on the same side, Alessandro. Maybe you think we are, but we aren’t. Don’t kid yourself. Just stay on your side of the fence and I’ll stay on mine, until this thing is over. And then we don’t have to see each other ever again.’

She turned and ran, as swiftly as her strappy sandals would allow her, out of the echoing marble vault.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘DID you believe that story about the scrolls?’ David asked, rinsing out his mask as the boat rocked at anchor.

‘Alessandro Mandalà, philanthropist?’ Theo grinned. ‘I guess with that guy, anything is possible. I never got such a shock in my life as when he walked in the room. Why didn’t anyone tell us the old duke was dead?’

‘He’s probably keeping it quiet deliberately,’ Isobel said with a bitter twist to her mouth, ‘so nobody notices there’s a cuckoo in the nest.’

‘You’ve really got it in for the guy, haven’t you?’

‘He’s the enemy,’ she said shortly. ‘He’s the opposition. He stands for everything we have to fight against.’

David laughed. ‘Well, I wouldn’t go as far as that, Isobel. A lot of what he said last night made sense. Somebody has to rescue this illegal stuff that’s floating around. At least he loves the things he sells and tries to protect them. We all know what the alternative is like.’

‘Hyaenas have a natural place in the world order,’ she retorted. ‘Doesn’t mean I have to curl up with them.’

‘Well, he’s the most interesting man I’ve met in a long time,’ David said. ‘After you went to bed last night, he was telling us about some of his recent projects—’

‘Yet more Indiana Jones stories?’ she said coolly.

‘Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Isobel, Alessandro knows about ancient art. And he’s not short on courage, either.’

‘Or on barefaced cheek!’

‘I agree with David,’ Antonio Zaccaria said in his quiet voice. ‘Mandalà is unconventional, but he is doing sensational things for world archaeology. And sometimes at great personal risk.’

Isobel just shook her red-gold head. This was Sicily, as Antonio had said yesterday, and they saw things differently here. ‘One day, one of his shady deals will go wrong and somebody will put a bullet through that arrogant head of his.’

‘Isobel, I know you’re the team leader,’ David said. ‘You have the PhD and all. But Theo and I both think your antagonism towards Alessandro isn’t helpful. And I know Antonio agrees. We’re here because Alessandro invited us here, he smoothed the way with Antonio’s department, and he also happens to be our host. Those are three very good reasons to get along with the man.’

She bit her lip. She could hardly tell them about her first meeting with Alessandro—nor about what had happened last night. ‘He just rubs me up the wrong way.’

‘Be professional,’ Theo said gently. ‘Please, Isobel. For the sake of the whole project. Just be nice to the guy.’

‘And try and be detached about him,’ David added. ‘Give him the benefit of the doubt, at least?’

Theo nodded. ‘You were pretty off with him last night. Say something nice to him today, okay?’

‘Okay,’ she said, with a grimace of defeat. ‘I promise I’ll be as nice as pie. Even though it chokes me.’

‘Great! Here come the trays.’

The winch on the dive boat had been carefully hauling up the ‘basket’, actually a steel mesh platform, which they had loaded with the morning’s finds. It broke surface now, bearing several secured boxes, each containing an artefact. Excitedly, they swung the things aboard.

‘I’ve never known a site like this one,’ David exclaimed in glee. ‘Stuff keeps turning up all the time. It just keeps getting better and better.’ Carefully, he held up an amphora for them to see. ‘Look at this! This particular design is so rare and beautiful. I’m putting this one in the B Category, for sure.’

Part of their arrangement with the Beni Culturali was that they got to take certain selected artefacts back to New York, for eventual display in the Berger Foundation Museum on Park Avenue. These items went on the B Category list for discussion.

‘More bronze,’ Theo reported, showing them a box of corroded green shapes. ‘I think these must have been some part of the galley, maybe some kind of cleats for fastening ropes. I’ll know better when I’ve cleaned them up.’

The rumble of a boat intruded on their animated discussions. Isobel turned. A sleek white launch was cruising towards them. She recognized the expensive toy at once: it had been moored in the palazzo’s boathouse next to their dive boat. And she knew whom she was going to see at the wheel, too.

‘Good morning,’ Alessandro called as he pulled alongside them, courteously slowing right down so as not to rock their boat. He was bare-chested, wearing only Bermuda shorts, his splendid torso gleaming in the sun. She saw the black octopus etched against one muscled shoulder. A suitable insignia for a man who grabbed everything he wanted. He leaned on the rail, smiling down at them. ‘Any luck?’

‘Look!’ David held up the amphora for Alessandro to see.