The Cost of Her Innocence

‘You really do like Tony?’ he prompted.

‘Yes, I do. He is so easygoing, happy and carefree,’ she said with a wistful smile. ‘It must be nice to be so uncomplicated. What you see with Tony and Mike is what you get, and they make me laugh. I can’t remember when I felt young like that—if ever.’

Dante heard the hint of sadness in her tone and could have kicked himself for reminding her of the past; the present and their baby was all that should concern him. ‘No wonder they are a carefree pair, with you helping them out all the time.’

‘I told you—we’re good friends. Though sometimes I think I was more like a house mother to the pair of them.’

Dante shook his head. ‘You are far too soft for your own good, Beth.’

* * *

Where Dante was concerned Beth knew she was.... This morning she had awakened in his arms and they had made love again. Bedazzled in the aftermath, she had told him he was a perfect lover. But Dante’s response—‘I always aim to please, cara!’—had struck a discordant note in Beth’s mind. Just how many women had he pleased? she’d wondered, and it had brought her back to reality.

Dante didn’t make love—love never entered his vocabulary. He was a sophisticated man of the world and he must have had sex with dozens of women. The only reason Beth was in his bed was because she was pregnant with his child. She must never think it was anything more than a convenient marriage for the good of her child and herself.

But it was hard when a smiling, tactile Dante was so irresistible as they’d shared breakfast in their hotel suite. He had fed her food from his plate and planted kisses on her mouth between bites. He only had to look at her and she wanted him, and she had to keep reminding herself it wasn’t going to last....

She cast Dante a sidelong glance. His focus was on the narrow, twisting country road, but nothing could detract from the sculptured perfection of his profile and her heart skipped a beat.

As if sensing her scrutiny, he slanted a knowing smile her way.

‘Not long now.’

Her tummy flipped.

‘It’s a shame I can only stay one more night. When I get back next weekend we need to discuss more permanent living arrangements.’

Later Beth would wonder if she’d had a premoni

tion that night, when she’d decided to share the main guest bedroom with Dante instead of her own room, the master suite.

CHAPTER TEN

THE LAST DAY of September, and for the past week England had been basking in an Indian summer. The temperature was balmy as Beth walked out of the sea, a smile on her face.

The marriage deal she had struck with Dante that had filled her with such trepidation was turning out to be nothing like what she had feared. The two nights they had shared had been a revelation; he was an incredible lover and generous in every way. Walking up the beach still smiling, Beth realised she actually felt the happiest she had in years.

‘On a day like today it makes you glad to be alive,’ Beth said, and stopped and grinned down at Janet, who was showing Annie how to build a sandcastle. ‘I really enjoyed my swim.’ She reached for a towel from her beach bag on the sand and saw her phone flashing. She picked it up and read the text. ‘Dante’s in a meeting that looks like it’s running late. But he will be back here tomorrow evening.’ She dropped the phone back in her bag. ‘I’ll reply later. The waves are rising and I’m going to get my surfboard....’

‘No, you won’t. A swim is okay, but surfing is definitely out in your condition. And from the black clouds on the horizon it’s not going to matter anyway,’ Janet said, and rose to her feet. Looking past Beth, she exclaimed, ‘Will you look at that? Oh, my God!’

Beth turned to see what Janet meant, and to her horror at the end of the beach she saw a child with a pink plastic ring around her waist, being swept from the shallows by the fast-rising tide.

Beth didn’t stop to think—she ran.... A man dashed into the sea and then stopped. Frantic, he yelled that he could not swim, and without hesitation Beth dived into the waves.

What followed was the stuff of nightmares. She managed to reach the child and grab hold of her, but when she tried to turn back the rip tide caught her and they were both swept farther out.

Battling to stay afloat, Beth felt another large wave crash over her, then another, and another. However hard she fought, she could not beat the current, and was being dragged farther out towards the rocky headland. A massive wave submerged them, and for a heart-stopping moment Beth was convinced the end had come. With that came the thought she would never see Dante again....

Suddenly she could breathe again, and with the terrified child’s arms locked tightly around her neck Beth twisted to protect her as they were flung against the rocks. She felt a stabbing pain in her back. But the pain in her heart was worse than any gash from the rocks as she realised that against all rhyme and reason she loved Dante.

Clutching the child with the last of her strength, she managed to scramble up onto the rocks. A backward glance told her the tide was coming in fast, and she could not swim back to the shore with the child.

She sat down on a flat rock before her legs gave way completely, cuddling the sobbing child to her chest and breathing great gulps of air into her oxygen-starved lungs in between murmuring words of comfort to the little girl—whose name, she discovered, was Trixie. She had no idea how long she sat there, soothing the child and anxiously watching the water rise. Then she saw the coastguard rescue boat ploughing through the waves and heard someone shouting her name. She rose to her feet, handed Trixie into the outstretched arms of a man in the boat, and almost collapsed with relief—the child was safe.

The rest was a bit of a blur.

She remembered being hauled into the boat, having a blanket wrapped around her and Trixie placed in her arms again. At the harbour an ambulance waited, and Janet had brought her clothes and her bag from the beach. The ambulance crew were insisting on taking them to the hospital.