Meanwhile Tom had flourished under the attention of three loving adults and, as Lucas had hoped, the change in Eleanor was marked. Her great-grandson had brought a joy of life back to her and, though she would mourn the loss of her husband for a long time to come, Tom was the shining light which gave her a reason to get out of bed each morning. He, in his turn, loved her, as she was not above getting down on the floor with him and playing cars.
So those were the days. The nights were a different kind of heaven. In the darkness Sofie and Lucas came together with a passion that never seemed to fade. There were moments when the beauty of their lovemaking brought her to the verge of tears. Last night had been such a night and, had she not known in her heart that Lucas did not love her, she would have been certain that he did feel something powerful.
Which was why she sighed wistfully, gently stroking the strong tanned arm which curled around her waist. They lay spoon-fashion and she liked the feel of him touching her from head to toe. It made her feel…protected, and it was foolish for her to wish that it would also make her feel loved.
She sighed again and the arm around her tightened a fraction. It was the first intimation she had that he was awake.
‘You sound a little sad. What’s wrong? I thought you were happy here,’ Lucas asked, his voice still gravelly from sleep.
‘I am,’ she agreed instantly. ‘This is a beautiful place, and I love your grandmother. She’s such a warm, generous person. Tom adores her.’
‘That’s because she gives him everything he wants,’ Lucas said dryly. ‘She’ll spoil him rotten.’
Sofie laughed. ‘Yes, but you’ll see his head is screwed on right,’ she added with certainty and satisfaction. She twisted round so that they were facing each other. She liked seeing Lucas with faint stubble on his chin. It made him look wild and rakish. ‘Did I say how sorry I was for keeping him from you?’
He smiled, magnifying the rakish effect a hundredfold. ‘Yes, but you can tell me again if you like,’ he invited as his hand travelled over her hip and thigh, drawing her leg up and over his so he could nestle against her.
Sofie’s breath hitched in her throat as she became aware of his arousal. Her body, which had still been sluggish from sleep, immediately woke up, sending delicious tingles along her senses. ‘I don’t think conversation is what you want,’ she told him with a sultry look from beneath her lashes.
His teeth flashed whitely as he grinned. ‘There’s conversation and then there’s…’ he rolled his hips teasingly ‘…conversation.’
She laughed softly, whilst her body began to pulse with rekindled desire. ‘Ah, I get it now. Actions speak louder than words,’ she flirted, pressing a tantalisingly brief kiss on his lips. ‘Did you know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?’
‘Oh, yes. It’s what I’m counting on,’ he growled sexily, and proceeded to take her mouth in a slow, deeply arousing kiss.
That kiss led to another, and another and, before long, they were lost to the outside world.
Later they showered and dressed and went to find Tom, but he was already having breakfast with his great-grandmother. After she had kissed him good morning, Sofie sat down and tucked into the mouth-watering food laid out on the table. She was ravenous, and it wasn’t entirely due to the fresh air—a fact that hadn’t gone unnoticed, she discovered, when she caught Lucas’s eye and saw the wicked glint in it.
‘Don’t!’ she warned, her eyes drawing his attention to their son. Tom was likely to ask embarrassing questions and she would rather avoid that.
Lucas’s lips twitched. ‘I was only going to say I like a woman with a good appetite.’
‘Stop teasing the poor girl, Lucas. Just remember, little pitchers have big ears,’ his grandmother cautioned him with a glance at Tom, who was steering a toy car around the pots and plates on the table whilst he ate. ‘Do you have any plans for the day? You could go to the market. Tom and I will be perfectly all right here, won’t we, Tom?’
He looked up with a cheeky grin. ‘She’s going to race cars with me. She’s cool!’
Sofie laughed. ‘You’re a lucky boy, to have her.’
Tom looked at her seriously. ‘And there’s Daddy’s mummy and daddy. Am I going to see them too?’
Lucas nodded. ‘Of course. Probably as soon as we get home. They’re looking forward to meeting you.’
‘OK.’ Tom accepted that with a tiny shrug and started zooming his car around again.
Sofie stared at her husband in surprise, but all he did was smile at her and ask, ‘Shall we go to the market?’
Pulling herself together rapidly, Sofie nodded. ‘Yes, please.’
‘Have lunch out,’ Eleanor urged them. ‘You two need some time alone together. I’m only on the end of the phone. Make a day of it.’
‘Are you trying to get rid of us?’ Lucas enquired wryly, and Eleanor smiled conspiratorially.
‘Tom and I have plans and we don’t need you here. So shoo!’ She waved her hands at him. ‘Go. Have fun. Don’t come back until you’re worn out and weary!’
Laughing, Lucas rose to his feet. ‘OK, we get the message. We won’t stay where we’re not wanted. Tom, you be a good boy, and maybe we’ll bring you something back from the market,’ he promised his son, who grinned and nodded. Then he looked at his wife. ‘Are you ready?’
Sofie jumped to her feet. ‘I have to get my bag. I’ll meet you out by the car,’ she told him, then turned to Eleanor. ‘Are you sure you’re OK with Tom? He can be a bit of a handful.’
‘We’ll be fine. Have a good day, and take all the time you need,’ Eleanor responded, patting her arm.
‘Thank you,’ Sofie breathed as she bent to kiss the older woman’s cheek. Then she ruffled Tom’s hair and disappeared inside.
Ten minutes later, she and Lucas were in the car heading down towards the coast. He drove slowly, as there was no rush. Sofie sat back in her seat and felt more relaxed than she had for a long time. With the whole day ahead of them, the world was their oyster. Or it was, until Lucas spoke.
‘Why were you surprised when you learned I had let my parents know about Tom? I had to tell them some time,’ he remarked as he steered the car round a series of hairpin bends.
‘I know—’ she sighed ‘—I guess I’m still thinking I have to keep him secret. And…’ She hesitated over the next words, unwilling to face the answer she might get.
Lucas darted her a swift glance before returning his attention to the road. ‘And?’ he prompted.
Sofie pulled a wry face. ‘And I didn’t want to hear that they hated me for keeping Tom from them.’
‘They don’t hate you. They were hurt and disappointed, but that will pass. You’ll have to give them time,’ Lucas explained, easing the car over so another vehicle could pass them.
She had to admit it was a relief to hear him say that because she liked his parents and never wanted to hurt them. ‘They’ll love Tom,’ she pronounced, smiling as she thought of it.
Lucas chuckled. ‘I defy anyone not to love Tom. I loved him from the moment I saw him,’ he declared and she looked round at him, not so much in surprise as curiosity.
‘You did?’
‘He’s my son, caro. One look was all it took for him to capture my heart,’ he confessed, and invisible fingers squeezed her own heart.
‘That’s how I felt, too. The nurse laid him in my arms and he held on to my finger as if he was never going to let go,’ she said softly. Just like his father, he had found his place in her heart and soul and could never be removed. She only had to look at her feelings for Lucas to know that. He had betrayed her. Had broken her trust. Yet she still loved him. She always would.
‘We’re hostages to fortune, amore. We both love our son, and that is why we will make our marriage work this time,’ Lucas answered, and she knew he was right. They were where they were because they had to be, but maybe time, the great healer, would restore something of what had been lost.
The
remainder of the journey passed pleasantly enough, with Lucas pointing out various sites of interest when the nightmare of a road allowed. It was hair-raising at times and Sofie was glad to get down it in one piece. They parked near the waterfront and walked along to where the market was a bustling place of noise and colour.
Lucas insisted on taking her hand in his and Sofie felt her heart lighten as they wandered around the stalls that seemed to carry everything under the sun. Making herself understood was no problem as she spoke very good French, having been good at languages at school. There were so many bargains that, by the time they were ready to have a late lunch, they were loaded down with parcels. Lucas decided to take them back to the car, leaving Sofie to wait in the shade for him to return.
It was whilst she was doing so that her eye was caught by a man standing in the shadows over by the harbour wall. He looked alarmingly familiar, although he was half turned away from her, and her heart kicked as she sat up straighter to get a better look. In build and colouring, he reminded her of Gary Benson, and shock tore through her like lightning.
Of course it couldn’t be him, she reassured herself, shielding her eyes to try and get a better look. She hadn’t seen him since that day outside their house, before she’d left Lucas. She had almost forgotten all about him, in fact, with all that had happened. In England he might have turned up again eventually, but there was no way he could be here. And yet from this distance it looked very much like him. As if the man sensed her attention, he turned his head and looked directly at her for a few mind-numbing seconds, before turning and walking away.
Feeling sick, Sofie shot to her feet. Her legs wanted to shake, but this time she refused to let them. That look had sent a chill through her, but she wasn’t going to react to it. She had to remain in control because it was Gary Benson. Every instinct she possessed told her so. But she had to make sure. Had to know for certain.
Without another thought, she hastened after him, trying to close the distance between them without being seen. If the man wasn’t Benson, and she prayed that he wasn’t, she didn’t want to be seen following him. Which was why, when he stopped some minutes later, she darted into a doorway and held her breath, heart racing like mad at the prospect of being discovered.
Immediately afterwards she felt like a complete idiot. What on earth was she doing? Creeping about like an inferior spy! She had to be crazy! But when, after a few seconds, she peeped round the wall and the street was empty, her nerves jolted violently. Where was he? Now she had to hurry down the street to the first junction and was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of his back turning a corner further down that street. Unfortunately, by the time she reached that corner and looked round, he had vanished from sight.
Sofie sank back against the wall and took several steadying breaths. She’d lost him and now she would never know! She closed her eyes, the old familiar impotent anger roiling inside her. This couldn’t be happening. How could he be here? How could he have known?
‘The picture in the newspaper didn’t do you justice, Sofie,’ the voice that had haunted her down the years declared, and her eyes shot open to see Gary Benson standing mere feet away, smiling at her.
‘Paper?’ she queried, momentarily distracted from her anger.
‘At the airport, behind that footballer,’ Gary explained, and Sofie groaned silently, never having given the possibility of her being in the photograph a thought.
Gary laughed delightedly at her stunned expression. ‘I know. It shook me, too. But as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to come and see you.’
‘How did you find me?’ The newspaper report would have said Nice, not this town.
‘I looked up the name Antonetti in the local telephone book when I got here,’ came the simple answer.
Sofie pushed herself upright and folded her arms angrily. ‘This has got to stop, Gary. You cannot keep following me around and invading my life. I’m not interested in you. Can’t you understand that?’
As always, Gary merely shook his head in denial. ‘I know you don’t really mean that. We love each other. You know we do.’
Sofie stared at him and wanted to scream. How could life be so unfair? Every time she believed he was gone for good, he turned up to haunt her again. Well, she had had enough. Without thinking about the result of her actions, she took a step towards him and poked him in the chest.
‘Go away, Gary, you little worm. I don’t love you. Understand?’ She poked him again to make sure he got the message. ‘I love my husband. You are just a nasty little annoyance, and you know what happens to nasty little annoyances?’ She poked him again, making him step backwards. ‘They get stepped on, that’s what! Now, go away and leave me alone!’ she ordered him coldly, then turned and walked away without a backward glance.
Gary Benson watched her go and he was no longer smiling.
Sofie felt remarkably buoyant after giving Gary Benson his marching orders. It felt good to have stood up for herself. Maybe she hadn’t been as tactful as she might have been, but tact had got her nowhere in the past. A light-hearted laugh escaped her as she retraced her steps and she was so perked up it was some minutes before she realised Lucas would be wondering where she was. When she did, she stopped dead. How on earth was she going to explain her absence? she wondered. Maybe she wouldn’t have to, though. She hadn’t been gone that long. Maybe he hadn’t returned yet.
However, the first person she saw when she got back to the place he had left her was Lucas. Hands on hips, he was scanning the crowd for her and, even at that distance, she could tell he was not happy. A few minutes later he spotted her and covered the distance between them in long, purposeful strides.
‘Where on earth were you? I was beginning to get worried,’ he declared, not unreasonably, and Sofie realised she should have thought of an answer before.
‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised swiftly, combing her hair away from her face with her fingers. ‘I thought I saw someone I knew,’ she said honestly, and wasn’t at all surprised to see incredulity writ large upon his face.
‘Here? You thought you saw someone you knew, here?’
She shrugged and spread her hands. ‘It’s not as crazy as it sounds. This is a holiday area, after all,’ she pointed out reasonably.
‘OK, I take your point,’ he conceded. ‘So, who was it?’
Sofie pulled a face, abandoning the truth. ‘That’s the problem, I never got close enough to make sure.’ She didn’t want to talk about Gary Benson now. She just wanted him to go away and leave her alone.
Lucas’s eyebrows rose. ‘Who did you think it was?’
‘Oh, just someone from the past. You wouldn’t know him,’ she dismissed the whole thing—or thought she had.
‘Him?’ Lucas queried rather sharply and, when she looked at him, his eyes had narrowed.
Amazed, and rather pleased, by these signs of male suspicion, Sofie laughed. ‘There’s no need to be jealous. It wasn’t that kind of relationship,’ she told him lightly, expecting he would move on, but he remained rooted to the spot.
‘Just what kind of relationship was it, exactly?’ he persisted, folding his arms across his chest and sticking to the subject like chewing-gum on a shoe.
Sofie widened her eyes at him, hardly believing what she was hearing. Her heart, though, was beating just a little faster. ‘A one-sided one. On his part, not mine. Look, can we please drop the subject? I’m hungry. Can we go and eat now?’
‘Are you sure that’s all it was?’
She had joked about him being jealous, but he was giving a first rate impression of being just that. ‘Of course I’m sure.’
One eyebrow quirked her way. ‘Then why did you go after him?’
The question floored her, because obviously she wouldn’t have wanted to go in search of someone she didn’t like. She had to think fast. ‘Because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t him. I didn’t want his presence spoiling our visit. Anyway, why does it bother you so much?’
He moved the
n, and his expression became shuttered. ‘It doesn’t. I was just curious. Let’s eat,’ he said, with a complete about-face, and gently turned her in the direction of the restaurant he had in mind.
Sofie’s mind was buzzing as they ate the delicious food. Could he really be jealous? Did that mean he still cared for her? More to the point, if he did, how did that make her feel? He was still the same man who had betrayed her, so could she trust him with her heart? Dared she? She honestly didn’t know, but she knew she wasn’t going to dismiss the possibility. Only a fool would do that, and she wasn’t a fool.
They spent the rest of the day strolling along the beach, finding a comfortable place to sit and simply lying back and watching the world go by. Finally they drove back to the villa in the late afternoon. Tom came running out of the house as they drew up and seeing him brought a smile to her lips and a glow to her heart. She jumped from the car and met him halfway, dropping to her knees to enfold him in her arms.
‘Hey, Mum! Mummy, you’re strangling me!’ Tom protested moments later, wriggling in her arms, and she was forced to let him go.
‘Sorry, darling,’ she apologised, ruffling his hair. ‘I missed you.’
‘I missed you, too,’ Tom responded brightly. ‘We built this really great race track. Come and see it,’ he urged her and, before she could say anything, he had turned and run back inside.
Sofie folded her arms and stared after him with a rueful sigh. A hand under her arm made her glance up to see Lucas staring down at her, his eyes dancing with amusement.
‘I take it he was more interested in cars than you?’ he teased as he helped her to her feet.
Sofie sent him a wry smile. ‘Children want you when they want you, but at other times you’re just a mother making a fuss,’ she explained, and he smiled back at her.
‘That I’m beginning to understand,’ he said wryly, and Sofie looked deeply into his eyes.
‘I really do love him so very much,’ she told him. ‘More than you could ever imagine.’
Lucas ran a gentle hand down her cheek. ‘I believe you, caro. I have a very good imagination.’
The Millionaire's Marriage Revenge Page 15
