His Final Bargain

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  Their first walk outside the villa grounds was slow, but Eliza took comfort in the fact that Alessandra seemed to enjoy the different smells and sounds the further they went. She couldn’t help feeling incredibly sad as she looked down at the exquisite beauty of the scenery below. The bluey-green water of the ocean sparkled in the sunshine, boats, frightfully expensive-looking yachts and other pleasure craft dotted the surface, but Alessandra could see none of it. It seemed so cruel to be robbed of such pleasure in looking at the glorious array of nature. But then, if Alessandra had never seen it, would she miss it the way a sighted person would if their vision was suddenly taken away?

  Their second outing was a little more adventurous. Eliza got Giuseppe to drive them down to Spiaggia Fornillo, the less crowded of the two main beaches in Positano. It had been quite an achievement getting the little girl to walk on the pebbly shore with bare feet but she seemed to enjoy the experience.

  ‘Have you ever been swimming?’ Eliza asked Alessandra as they made their way back to the villa in the car.

  ‘Kathleen took me once but I didn’t like it.’

  ‘I didn’t like swimming at first either,’ Eliza said, giving the little girl’s hand a gentle squeeze. ‘But after you get over the fear part and learn to float it’s one of the nicest things to do, especially on a hot day.’

  That very afternoon Eliza took Alessandra down to the pool in the garden for a swimming lesson. With plenty of sunscreen to protect the little girl’s pale skin, she gently introduced her to the feel of the water by getting her to kick her legs while she held her, gradually working up to getting used to having water trickle over her face. Alessandra was frightened at first, but gradually became confident enough to float on her back with Eliza keeping her supported by a gentle hand beneath her shoulder blades and in the dish of her little back.

  ‘Am I swimming yet?’ Alessandra asked, almost swallowing a mouthful of water in her excitement.

  ‘Almost, sweetie.’ Eliza gave a little laugh. ‘You’re getting better all the time. Now let’s try floating on your tummy. You’ll have to hold your breath for this. Remember how I got you to blow bubbles into the water before?’

  ‘Uh huh.’ Alessandra turned on her stomach with Eliza’s guiding hands and gingerly put her face in the water. She blew some bubbles but soon had to lift her head to snatch in a breath. She gave a few little splutters but didn’t seem too fazed by the experience.

  ‘Well done,’ Eliza said. ‘You’re a right little water baby, aren’t you?’

  Alessandra grinned as she clung to Eliza like a little frog on a tree. ‘I like swimming now. And I like you. I wish you could stay with me for ever.’

  Eliza’s heart contracted sharply at the unexpected love she felt for this little child. ‘I like you too, darling.’ And I wish I could stay for ever too.

  A tall shadow suddenly blocked the angle of the sun and she turned and saw Leo standing there with an unreadable expression on his face. ‘Oh…I didn’t realise you were back…Alessandra, your father is home.’

  ‘Papà, I can swim!’

  ‘I saw you, mia piccola,’ Leo said, leaning down to kiss her on both cheeks. ‘I’m very impressed. Is there room in there for me?’

  ‘Yes!’

  Eliza didn’t say a word. She wasn’t sure it was wise to share the pool—even as big as it was—with that tall, intensely male, leanly muscled body. Wearing a bikini when accompanied by a blind toddler was quite different from wearing it when there was a fully sighted, full-blooded man around, especially one who had seen her in much less. She felt the scorch of his gaze as it went to the curve of her breasts, which were showing just above the line of the water she was standing in. She felt her insides clench and release with that intimate tug of need she only felt when he was around.

  A silent message passed between their locked gazes.

  Eliza gulped as he stood back up and tugged at his tie, pulling it through the collar of his shirt to toss it to one of the sun loungers on the sandstone terrace beside the pool.

  His shirt was next, followed by his shoes and socks. The sun caught the angles and planes of his taut chest and abdomen, making him look like a statue carved by a master of the art.

  Marella came out on to the terrace at that point with a tray of iced drinks. ‘I think it might be time for Alessandra to get out of the heat, sì?’ she said with a twinkling and rather knowing smile.

  Eliza felt a blush rush over her face and travel to the very roots of her hair. ‘It’s my job to see to her—’

  ‘Grazie, Marella,’ Leo said smoothly. ‘I think Eliza could do with some time to relax.’ He bent and scooped Alessandra out of her arms. ‘I will be up later to tuck you into bed, tesorina. Be good for Marella.’

  Once Marella and the child had gone Eliza was left feeling alarmingly defenceless. She covered her chest with her arms, shivering even though the sun was still deliciously warm on her neck and shoulders. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

  His hands were pulling his belt through the lugs of his trousers. ‘I’m joining you in the pool.’

  ‘But you’re not wearing bathers…are you?’

  A dark brow lifted in an arc. ‘I seem to remember a time when you didn’t think they were necessary.’

  ‘That was before. It was different then. This place is like Piccadilly Circus. There are staff about everywhere.’

  He unzipped his trousers and she watched with bated breath as he stood there in nothing but his black underwear. He already had the beginnings of an erection, which was no surprise given how her own body was reacting. ‘Have you missed me, cara?’

  She gave her head a haughty little toss. ‘No.’

  He laughed and slipped into the water beside her, cupping the back of her head with one of his hands as he pressed a hot kiss to her tight mouth. It didn’t stay tight for long, however. All it took was one erotic sweep of his tongue for her to open to him with a sigh of bliss. He tasted salty and male with a hint of mint. It was ambrosia to her. She responded greedily, giving back as good as he gave, her tongue tangling, duelling and seducing just as his was doing to hers. Her breasts were jammed up against his chest, the water-soaked fabric abrading her already erect nipples.

  His other hand ruthlessly undid the strings of her bikini top and it floated away from her body like a four-legged octopus. He cupped her free breasts with his hands, caressing her, teasing her with his warm, wet touch. He took his mouth off hers to feast on each breast in turn. Eliza arched back in pleasure as his teeth and his tongue grazed and salved in turn. Her nerves went into a sensual riot beneath her skin. They jumped and danced and flickered with longing. That deepest, most feminine ache of all pulsed relentlessly between her legs. She could feel his hard erection pressing against the softness of her belly. It awoke everything that was female in her. She rubbed against him to get more of that wonderful friction.

  He made a guttural sound in his throat as he undid the strings of her bikini bottoms at her hips. The scanty fabric fell away and his fingers went to her, delving deep.

  It wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted all of him.

  She pulled at his underwear to free him to her touch. She wrapped her hand around him, rubbing him, teasing him, and pleasuring him as his mouth came back to hers in a passionately hot kiss that had undercurrents of desperation.

  He suddenly pulled back from her, breathing hard, his eyes glazed with desire. ‘I haven’t got a condom.’

  ‘Oh…’ Disappointment was like an enervating drug that made her sag as if all of her muscles were weighted by anvils.

  His eyes gleamed at her as he backed her against the side of the pool. ‘Why the long face, tesoro mio? We can be creative, sì?’

  Her body tingled at the thought of just how creative his lovemaking could be. But then, she too could be innovative when it came to giving him pleasure. She slithered against him, from chest to thigh, ramping up his need for her with the same merciless intent he had been using on her.
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br />   He took her by the waist and lifted her up to a sitting position on the edge of the pool. It was shamelessly wanton to open her legs in full view of the villa but she was beyond caring.

  The first stroke of his masterful tongue made her shudder, the second made her gasp, and the third made her cry out loud as the ripples started to roll through her. ‘Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop…’ She clung to his hair for purchase as her body shattered around her.

  He gave her a sexy smile as she came back to her senses. ‘Good?’

  She gave a little shrug that belied everything she had just felt. ‘OK, I guess.’

  ‘Minx.’ He pulled her back into the water to hold her against him. ‘I should punish you for lying. What do you think would be a suitable penance?’

  Send me back to my old life. Eliza gave herself a mental shake and forced a smile to her lips. ‘I don’t know…I’m sure you’ll think of something.’

  His brows moved together. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  He cupped her cheek, holding her gaze with his. ‘Are you still angry with me?’

  Eliza was starting to wonder where her anger had gone. As soon as he had appeared on the pool deck she had forgotten all about their tense little battle of wills the day he had left to go to Paris. Her feelings about him now were much more confusing…terrifying, actually. She couldn’t afford to examine them too closely.

  ‘Does it matter to you what I feel?’ she asked. ‘I’m just an employee. I’m not supposed to feel anything but gratitude for having a job.’

  His expression became brooding as his hand dropped away from her face. ‘So we’re back to that, are we?’

  ‘You’re the one who engineered this,’ she said, struggling to keep her emotions in check. ‘You come marching back in my life and issue orders and stipulations and conditions. I don’t know what you want from me. You keep changing the goalposts. I just don’t know who I’m supposed to be when I’m with you.’

  He looked at her for a lengthy moment. ‘Why not just be yourself?’

  She gave a little cough of despair. ‘I don’t even know who that is any more.’

  His hands came down on the tops of her shoulders, a gentle but firm hold. His eyes were very dark as they meshed with hers, but not with anger this time. ‘Who was that girl in the bar four years ago?’

  Eliza twisted her lips in a rueful manner. ‘I’m not sure. I hadn’t met her before that night. She came as a bit of a surprise to me, to be perfectly honest.’

  He started massaging his thumbs over the front of her shoulders, slowly and soothingly. ‘She came as a bit of a surprise to me, too. A delightful one, however.’

  She felt a wave of sadness wash over her. How very different things would have been if she had been free to commit to the relationship he had wanted. ‘Did you really fall in love with me back then?’ She was shocked she had asked it but it was too late to take the words back. They hung in the silence for a beat or two.

  ‘I think you were right when you said I was looking for stability after my father died. Losing him so suddenly threw me. I think it’s hard for an only child—no matter how young or old—to deal with the loss of a parent. There’s no one to share the grief with. I panicked at the thought of ending up like him, all alone and desperately lonely.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  He gave her shoulders a little squeeze before he dropped his hands. ‘You’d better get some clothes on. You’re starting to get goose bumps.’

  Eliza watched as he effortlessly hauled himself out of the pool. He was completely unselfconscious about being naked. He stepped into his trousers and zipped them up without even bothering to dry himself. He bent to pick up his shoes and, flinging his shirt and tie over one shoulder, walked into the villa without a backward glance.

  When Eliza came down to the salone later that evening Leo was standing with his back to the room with a drink in his hand. There was something about his posture that suggested he was no longer in that mellow mood he’d been in down by the pool. He turned as she came in and gave her a brittle glare. ‘Alessandra informed me you’d taken her outside the villa grounds on not one, but two occasions.’

  She straightened her shoulders. ‘We didn’t go very far. She’d never been to the beach before.’

  ‘That’s completely beside the point.’ His eyes blazed with anger. ‘Do you have any idea of the risk you were taking?’

  ‘What risk is there in allowing her to walk down the street or put her feet in the ocean, for God’s sake? I was with her the whole time.’

  ‘You went expressly against my instructions.’

  Eliza frowned at him. ‘But you said we’d go to London next week. I thought it would be good preparation for that.’

  ‘I said I’d think about it.’

  ‘That’s not the way I heard it. You said if I thought Alessandra would cope with it then we’d make a little holiday out of it. I was preparing her to cope with it and she did very well, all things considered.’

  Anger pulsed at the side of his mouth. ‘Did anyone see you? Were there paparazzi about?’

  ‘No, why should there be?’ she asked. ‘No one knows who I am.’

  ‘That could change as soon as we are seen in public together.’ His eyes pinned hers. ‘Have you thought of how you’re going to explain that to your fiancé?’

  Eliza raised her chin defiantly. ‘Yes, I have thought about it. I’ll tell him the truth.’

  His brow furrowed. ‘That I’m paying you to sleep with me?’

  She gave him an arch look. ‘It’s the truth, isn’t it?’

  He shifted his gaze and let out a gust of a breath. ‘It wasn’t why I asked you to come here.’

  ‘So you keep saying, but it’s pretty obvious this is what you wanted right from the start.’

  He took a large swallow of his drink and put it down, his muscles bunched and tight beneath the fine cotton of his shirt. ‘You haven’t forgotten you’re forbidden to speak to the press, have you?’

  ‘No.’

  He faced her with a steely look. ‘You’re not very good at obeying rules, are you, Eliza?’

  ‘You’re very good at making them up as you go along, aren’t you?’ she tossed back.

  His mouth started to twitch at the corners. ‘I wondered when she would be back.’

  She frowned again. ‘What…who do you mean?’

  ‘The girl in the bar—that spirited, feisty, edgy little temptress.’ His eyes glinted darkly. ‘I like her. She turns me on.’

  She made a huffy movement with one of her shoulders, trying to ignore the wave of heat that was coursing through her at that smouldering look in his gaze. ‘Yes, well, I liked the guy by the pool this afternoon much more than the one facing me now.’

  ‘What did you like about him?’

  ‘He was nice.’

  ‘Nice?’ He gave a laugh. ‘That’s not a word I would ever use to describe myself.’

  ‘You were nice four years ago. I thought you were one of the nicest men I’d ever met.’

  His dark eyes gleamed some more. ‘Even though I practically ripped the clothes from your body and had wild, rough sex with you the first night we met?’

  ‘Did I complain?’

  ‘No.’ His frown came back and the ghost of a smile that had been playing about his mouth disappeared. ‘Why did you come up to my room with me that night?’

  ‘I told you—I was tipsy and jet-lagged and feeling reckless.’

  ‘You were taking a hell of a risk. I could have been anyone. I could have hurt you—seriously hurt you.’

  ‘I trusted you.’

  ‘Foolish, foolish girl.’

  Eliza felt a shiver run up along her arms. She could see the desire he had for her. She could feel it pulsing like a current in the air between them. ‘The way I see it, you were taking a similar risk.’

  The ghost of a smile was back, wry this time as it tilted up one corner of his mouth. ‘I find it hard to see
what you could have possibly done to hurt me. I’m almost twice your weight.’

  But I did hurt you, she thought. Isn’t that why I’m here now?

  ‘Are you going to pour me a drink or do I have to jump through hoops first?’ she asked.

  ‘No hoops.’ He came to stand right in front of her. ‘Just one kiss.’

  She tilted her head back and held his dark brown gaze pertly as the blood all but sizzled in her veins. ‘Is that an order?’

  He tugged her against his rock-hard body, his eyes scorching hers. ‘You bet it is.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  WHEN ELIZA BROUGHT Alessandra downstairs for breakfast the next morning Leo intercepted them at the door. He reached for his daughter and held her close against his broad chest. Seeing such an intensely masculine man hold a tiny child so protectively made Eliza’s heart instantly melt.

  Was it her imagination that he seemed a little more relaxed this morning? It wasn’t as if he was particularly rested, but then, neither was she. Their lovemaking last night had been particularly passionate and edgy. She could still feel the little pull of tender muscles where he had thrust so deep and so hard inside her. It was such a heady reminder of the breathtaking mastery he had over her body. But as much as she loved the heart-stopping raciness of his lovemaking, there was a tiny part of her that secretly longed for something a little more emotional. Maybe he didn’t have the capacity to feel emotion during sex. It was just a physical release for him, like any other bodily need being attended to, like hunger and thirst. But it wasn’t like that for her…or at least not now…

  ‘I thought we could have breakfast out on the water this morning,’ Leo said. ‘Would you like that, mia piccola?’

  ‘In the pool?’ Alessandra asked.

  ‘No, on my boat.’

  ‘You have a boat?’ Eliza asked.

  ‘It’s moored down at the marina. I thought Alessandra might enjoy being out on the water. I’ve never taken her on it before. Marella’s packing us up a picnic to take with us.’

  Eliza could see he was making an effort to spend more time with his daughter. He was relaxing his tight control over where she could go. She could also see what a big step it was for him to take. A trip out on a boat might be a relatively simple and rather enjoyable adventure for a sighted child, but in Alessandra’s case there were many considerations to take into account. Her experience of the outing would be different but hopefully no less enjoyable. Besides, she would be with her father and that was clearly something that made her feel loved and special.