Rival's Challenge

Antonio arched a brow.

Orla felt like squirming but she went on. ‘Sometimes, on my days off—’

‘You have days off?’ came Antonio’s mock-incredulous tone.

Orla stuck her tongue out at him and started again. ‘As I was saying, sometimes on my days off I’ll look up properties for sale and request a viewing. I know it’s not really fair to make the agents think I’m an interested buyer….’ She shrugged, feeling stupid now.

Antonio’s voice was slightly husky. ‘And what do you do?’

Orla glanced at him suspiciously in case he was laughing at her but the serious expression in his eyes almost made her feel more self-conscious. Reluctantly she revealed, ‘I go and look around, mentally decorating the house, figuring out what rooms I’d use for what. Where my furniture would go.’

Desperate to get Antonio’s focus off her, Orla asked quickly, ‘What about you? Don’t you want to return to your house?’

Antonio practically shuddered and went tight-lipped. ‘No. I left that house a long time ago. My brother Nicolo, the one who was injured in a fire, he

lives there now, and he’s welcome to it.’

‘And what about your brothers and sisters? Are you going to see them?’

Antonio stared at Orla and he wondered how it was that she was able to slice right into him with her soft questions, more accurately than a blade seeking a vital artery. And then he thought of how she’d squirmed to admit to looking at houses in her spare time. He still felt tight inside to think of her walking around those empty houses, dreaming.

‘The truth is,’ admitted Antonio, ‘I’ve been in touch with all of them periodically over the years. I just haven’t actually seen any of them, apart from Lucilla and Cara. And Orsino when he was in Afghanistan to do some crazy extreme skydive.’

‘You shouldn’t feel guilty for leaving them.’

‘I don’t,’ Antonio snapped back, so fast that he saw Orla flinch slightly.

Immediately remorse filled him and he cursed softly. ‘I’m sorry…. I just … Well, maybe I do feel guilty.’

‘Your father is still alive,’ Orla pointed out. ‘He should have been there and he had no right to turn around and lambaste you just because you were doing his job for him.’

Antonio smiled at the touch of defiance in her tone. He’d like to see her meet his father one day; his arrogant old man wouldn’t know what’d hit him. Realising how incendiary that thought was, projecting Orla into a future situation, Antonio stood up and cleared the plates.

He said over his shoulder, ‘I cooked, so you can wash the plates.’

He heard Orla’s chair against the flagstoned floor and then a cheeky, ‘Aye-aye, sir.’

He looked behind him to see her standing to attention, hand angled at her forehead in a salute, and had to bite the inside of his cheek to repress a smile. When the urge had passed he said with lethal softness, ‘Are you looking for punishment for being so cheeky?’

Orla blushed prettily and came over to the sink. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. ‘Yes, please. Sir.’

He took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and had to stop himself from plundering that soft mouth. He could control this rampant desire. He could.

‘Very well then, Private Kennedy. It’ll be a three-mile swim in the ocean as soon as you’ve finished washing up.’

Already he could feel her breath quickening against his hand which wasn’t helping his resolve.

‘Very well, sir. I’ll get this out of the way and get my bikini—’

Antonio shook his head, cutting her off, and smiled wolfishly. ‘No bikini required, Private Kennedy. You’ll be swimming naked.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

ORLA FELT THE SWEAT dripping into her eyes and wiped it away. Her chest hurt with her laboured breathing and her heart was like a piston in her chest. It was all she could do to keep her eyes on the feet and legs in front of her and follow their steps.

When she could spare more than a breath she said, ‘Has anyone ever told you you’re a sadist?’

A faintly humorous-sounding ‘Too many times to recall’ came back to her on the warm breeze. And then a hand came into her vision and Orla grabbed it with the both of hers and let Antonio pull her up beside him at the summit of the hill.