The Forbidden Touch of Sanguardo

He nodded, taking another breath. ‘Yes, you are right. And I owe it to them—to their endless encouragement of me as a child to fulfil their dreams for me, which they worked so hard to enable me to realise—’

Rafael’s eyes rested on her. His parents had dreamed of a better life for their son—a life free of the endless toil they had spent their years enduring. But they had dreamed of something even more important for him, he knew.

They wanted me to find that special person—the one I could make my life with, the one I could cherish and care for, who would cherish me in return, with whom I would have the grandchildren they never lived to see...

His eyes drank her in, this beautiful, pale-haired woman sitting opposite him to whom he was so drawn, whose beauty was not just in her face, her graceful body, but was also in her temperament, her sweetness of nature, her sensitivity and kindness, in the determination he had witnessed when she had got the hapless Louise out of the ruthless clutches of Karl Reiner.

Emotion moved within him.

Is she that one? Is she the one my parents dreamt I would one day find? Is that why I am drawn to her as I have been drawn to no other woman?

Madeline, he thought bitingly, would never have been the woman his parents would have wanted for him. She would have half scared them, half repelled them. And, as for Madeline, she would have wanted him to discard them as she had discarded her own lowly parents.

She had made no secret of the fact that she had bought her working-class parents a luxury bungalow in Bournemouth, then never gone near them again. She would have expected him to do the same—to settle his parents comfortably, then cut them out of his globetrotting, glitzy life to spend his time exclusively with her, being a glittering, glamorous golden couple, living in Manhattan, frequenting only the most fashionable and expensive restaurants, jaunting about the world in a private plane, entertaining the rich and famous, making more and more and more money...

That’s not what I want! Not any more.

Once he had enjoyed that lifestyle, with Madeline at his side. But since they had parted—since she had opened his eyes to what she truly was—his outlook on life had slowly changed. Now he knew with a deep inner resolve that what he wanted was right here in front of him, around him. A beautiful place to be, nature in all its cultivated bounty, and the company of a woman who wanted it, too.

And who wanted him. Wanted him as he wanted her...

Celeste. The only woman in the world he wanted...

His eyes rested on her, met her gaze which had returned to him. He smiled at her and drank her in.

And she smiled back at him...

There was sympathy in her smile, and kindness.

And intimacy.

And promise...

Rafael felt his heart lift—lift and sing.

CHAPTER TEN

CELESTE DRESSED ESPECIALLY carefully that evening. Her body felt wonderful after the massage, and she seemed to have a glow about her. Her eyes looked more luminous to her tonight, her hair more lustrous. She’d left it loose completely, and it cascaded down her back in silken folds, feeling cool and sensuous on her skin. She slipped her dress over her head—layers of gauze-fine cotton in shades of blue...azure and cobalt and deepest turquoise in a haze of colour. It was worn off one shoulder, and fleetingly she remembered that the dress she’d worn that evening at the charity fashion show had been, too.

The first time she’d set eyes on Rafael.

A little tremor of emotion went through her.

I never dreamt then that I would be here, with him—now, like this!

Was it possible? Was it truly possible that she was here with him?

But as she joined him on the terrace for their customary pre-dinner drink she knew it was vividly true. The physical impact of his presence overwhelmed her, and his smile, as he saw her approaching, made her breath catch. He took her hands as she came up to him, stepping back from her to survey her.