Rigo’s concern for his driver had obviously delayed their departure, so this was her chance.
‘I would not allow those people near the swimming pools,’ the housekeeper confided in Katie, ‘and the new master has chosen to swim in the indoor pool today.’
The new master? Katie thought of the crest on the arch and on the ring. Here, Rigo wasn’t Signor Ruggiero, the infamous international playboy, but someone else entirely. ‘The new master?’ she prompted.
‘Sì the housekeeper said with pride. ‘Principe Ruggiero. Principe Arrigo Ruggiero.’
Arrigo? Prince Arrigo? ‘Ah, yes, of course,’ she said. The housekeeper might think her a little slow on the uptake, but it was better to be sure of her facts. And never mind that he was a prince, it was Rigo’s state of mind Katie was most concerned about.
Thanking the housekeeper and the rest of the staff for all their help, she left the hall in search of him. She had to know he was all right. She had to let Rigo know he wasn’t alone and that she’d stay by his side until he sorted this mess out.
Katie stood in the shadows, watching Rigo power down the length of the pool. He had dropped his clothes on the side and hadn’t even stopped to turn on the light, though there was lighting in the pool. The luminous ice-blue water was a perfect frame for the dark shape slicing through it and she was fascinated by Rigo’s strength and by his magnificent body. His powerful legs pounded the water into foam, while his sculpted shoulders gleamed bronze as they broke the surface. They were the powerhouse for his punishing freestyle stroke, though every part of him was involved.
And every part of him was naked.
She should turn and walk away, but she couldn’t; she didn’t want to. She remained motionless, watching, until Rigo finally cruised to the end of the pool.
Now she really must go…
But the moment came and went and she still hadn’t moved.
Rigo sprang out. Water fell away from his hard-muscled frame. Every inch of him was in gleaming, spectacular focus. She remained riveted, staring, learning more about a man’s body than she could have imagined. Rigo naked was even more perfect than Rigo clothed…so perfect Katie’s scars tingled a reminder that she was not.
‘Signorina Bannister?’
His husky voice surrounded her. She shrank as he padded towards her. She couldn’t move. She was trapped in the beam of his stare.
‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded.
She lacked the guile to lie. ‘Watching you.’ She was careful to stare straight into his eyes, but she could feel his sexual energy invading her. She wasn’t afraid. If he had caught her without her clothes she would have been terrified, Katie realised. But shouldn’t Rigo be making some attempt to cover up? Was it possible to lack all inhibition? Her body thrilled to think all things were possible for him. But not for her, the scars on her back gave her a stinging reminder.
‘Forgive me,’ he mocked softly as he came to stand in front of her. ‘I would have worn swimming shorts had I expected a visitor.’
‘I’m sorry to intrude…’
She was about as sincere as he was. She would never forget these few minutes at the side of an unlit swimming pool. Every craving nerve she had was on fire. She would try to store that feeling. Before this she hadn’t understood that such levels of arousal were even possible. The pool lights were reflected in Rigo’s eyes, casting forbidding shadows on his rugged face. ‘I was worried about you,’ she confessed awkwardly.
‘Worried about me?’
He sounded amused. Heat grew inside her as he continued to stare at her. Why didn’t he walk away? Why didn’t she?
Because her bones had turned to honey…
She was slow to react when he moved and her heart drummed a warning, but all he wanted was the towel he’d left on a chair. Relief coursed through her when he snatched it up, but he only used it to wipe his face and left his naked body on full view.
Having dried his face, he drew the towel back over his hair and rubbed it with fluid, lazy strokes. Water-heavy hair caught on his stubble and meshed with his eyelashes, and it seemed forever before he looped the towel around his waist.
‘You were watching me for quite some time, worried signorina,’ he murmured. ‘Did you learn anything?’
His eyes were challenging and amused. It came home to her then how much older Rigo was, and how much more experienced and sophisticated. She was little more than a trembling wreck, and had no idea how to behave in these circumstances. ‘You swim well,’ she ventured.
His short laugh displayed strong white teeth and one inky black brow peaked, but his mouth remained hard and his eyes were watchful. He was fresh from the shock of discovering what had happened to his childhood home, she reminded herself, and had been swimming to exorcise those demons.
But he still had energy to burn…
‘You’re blushing,’ he said.
‘How can you see in this light?’
Reaching out, he traced the line of her cheek. ‘I can feel the heat coming off you…’
Her swift intake of breath sounded unnaturally loud. ‘It is very warm in here…’ She gazed about in a pathetic attempt to distract him.
Rigo’s low voice pulsed with intent. ‘I don’t think it’s that sort of heat I can feel. Well, signorina?’ he pressed. ‘There must be something other than my swimming technique that kept you fascinated…’
Mutely, she shook her head. It was blood heat in the leisure suite and almost dark. Just the pool lights shimmering behind her like dots of moonlight on a lake. She felt cornered by a powerful predator, a predator she had sought out, and now her reward was to be wrapped in a cloak of arousal as she waited to see what would happen next.
The darkness concealed her flaws, and with Rigo’s powerful body changed to shadowy imprecision in that darkness they could almost be two equals meeting here. It was a compelling fantasy in which she longed to lose herself, and as the pool room shrank around them she swayed towards him.
‘Careful,’ he murmured, putting warm palms on her upper arms, but only in a steadying gesture, ‘you’re very close to the edge of the pool…’
Still the child. Ever the innocent. Would he never see her any other way?
And shouldn’t she be relieved about that?
She made light of it. ‘Sorry…I didn’t realise—I can hardly see anything in this light.’
Lies. All of it. She had seen every part of him, including the tattoo on his hip. ‘I only came because I’m worried about you,’ she said again. ‘I called the meeting.’
‘Good,’ Rigo murmured.
His concentration on her hadn’t wavered and his watchful eyes bathed her in heat. As he eased onto one hip she was consumed by the longing to touch him.
‘Why don’t you—?’
‘Why don’t I what?’ she blurted guiltily.
‘Why don’t you tell me the real reason you came here?’
She heard the faint amusement in his voice. If only he would stop staring down at her. ‘I already said—you had a shock…the will—’
‘My brother and I were practically strangers.’
Katie’s mouth felt dry as Rigo continued to stare down at her. ‘The palazzo…’ She was grasping at straws, they both knew it. She gasped as Rigo coiled a long hank of her hair around his finger. It must have escaped her bun while she was cleaning.
‘The only distress I feel,’ he assured her, ‘is knowing my stepbrother wasted his life—’
‘It doesn’t have to be a wasted life.’ She gazed up. ‘You could change that.’
He laughed and let her go. ‘You will learn that it is pointless looking back and wishing things might have been different. They are as they are.’
She had not expected him to move so fast, or to slip his hand into her hair again, and to make the next move cupping her head. ‘The knack is in learning to move on, Katie…’
Their faces were very close and he was staring at her intently. ‘Rigo…’
‘W
hat?’ he murmured, drawing her gaze to his lips.