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orno—good morning.’ His voice was huskily amused and his hold on her tightened. ‘That was an incredibly good way to be woken up.’

Slightly shocked by how uninhibited she was with him, Lindsay kept her face buried in his neck. She just adored his body and as for what he did to her body—

‘I could stay on Kingfisher Cay for ever.’ He smells fantastic, she thought dizzily, pressing her mouth against the bronzed skin of his shoulder.

‘You’re enjoying the watersports, tesoro?’ He was still teasing her and this time she lifted her head and looked at him.

‘Not just the watersports.’ It was her turn to tease. ‘Soft sand, turquoise ocean, rainbow fish—’

‘And what about the sex?’ Supremely confident, he flashed her a smile that melted the flesh to her bones. ‘I thought you didn’t want a relationship based on sex—’

Did he know how she felt?

Something shifted inside her, a tiny warning of danger, like a wispy white cloud suddenly appearing in an otherwise perfectly blue sky.

‘We don’t have a relationship, Alessio,’ she breathed, kissing him again before he could say anything else. ‘We’re just having sex.’

And she wasn’t going to think about that now.

Wasn’t going to think what the future held for her.

‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ He sank his hands into her tangled blonde hair and kissed her mouth again. ‘I could play that back to the television networks and make a fortune. Lindsay Lockheart, relationship counsellor, just having sex.’

‘I never said that there was anything wrong with sex,’ she protested lightly, gasping as his warm skilled hand curved over her bottom. ‘Just that it was important not to confuse sex with love and use it as a basis for marriage—Alessio, please—I can’t think when you do that—’

‘I don’t need you to think.’ With a powerful movement he rolled her underneath him and looked at her with raw masculine appreciation. ‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you.’

And that, she thought to herself, her eyes closing as he lowered his head and started to perform yet another miracle on her body, was as big a compliment as any woman was ever likely to hear from the lips of Alessio Capelli.

CHAPTER NINE

‘SO HAVE you called your sister?’ Alessio passed Lindsay a plate of fruit and some tiny pastries.

It was late morning and they were enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the wooden deck that stretched over the water. Exotic fish darted beneath them, sending flashes of dazzling colour through the clear blue water. The only sound was the occasional muted splash as a hummingbird skimmed the water.

‘I haven’t called her. I haven’t switched my phone on since yesterday.’ Lindsay hesitated for a moment and then glanced up at him. ‘I’ve done a lot of thinking about what you said. And you were right.’

‘About what, exactly?’

Lindsay lowered her gaze and poked at the food on her plate. ‘About a lot of things. I am too controlling. I’ve been treating her like a little girl and she isn’t a little girl anymore.’ She gave a twisted smile. ‘To me she’s still the vulnerable toddler that used to crawl into bed with me and sleep with her thumb in her mouth. I haven’t noticed that she’s grown up. Or maybe I did notice and I just didn’t want to see it.’

‘Stop analysing everything.’

‘It’s hard not to when you know you’ve done everything wrong. I’ve made it difficult for her to turn to me.’ She felt a lump in her throat and a sense of helpless frustration because she’d tried so hard to get it right—to give Ruby the love she hadn’t had from their mother. ‘In fact, I’ve made a real mess of things.’

Alessio didn’t respond immediately. When he did, his voice was gruff. ‘Lindsay, if this is about what I said to you during the storm—I’m the first to admit that I know nothing about emotions. You shouldn’t listen to me. I was probably wrong.’

She couldn’t hold back the smile. ‘Wrong? You think you might have been wrong? Wow. That’s quite an admission coming from you. Shall I tell the press?’

His eyes gleamed. ‘You want to tell the press how well you know me?’

Lindsay blushed. ‘Maybe not. And anyway, you weren’t wrong. You were right about everything you said.’ She gave a tiny shrug and a painful smile. ‘You were honest. Was that difficult to hear? Yes, it was. But it was also important. You’ve made me see things more clearly.’ She was thinking not only of Ruby, but her mother. ‘I need to do things differently. And one of those things is not calling Ruby every five minutes. My hands are itching to pick up that phone and just keep dialling until eventually she picks up, but I know I’ve got to let go. She’ll phone me when she’s ready. And when she does, I’ll just listen.’

‘Why don’t you try encouraging your sister and see if that helps?’

‘You mean tell her that it’s fine to have an affair with Dino? I’m not sure I can go that far—’

‘She’s having one anyway,’ Alessio said dryly, ‘with or without your consent. I’m no expert on human behaviour, but it seems to me that the more you try and rein her in, the more she rebels.’