It was only a little deceit. Was it necessary to announce before she had her first proper sexual encounter that she was a virgin? Would Luca even care? She felt stupid at her age, anyway, admitting to something like that. There was no law that said you had to have sex by a certain age, and she’d always been so busy trying to set a good example to Lyddie that sex had kind of passed her by. And then she had convinced herself she could get by without it, and that it wasn’t necessary to fill her life with all the angst and drama associated with an affair.
A little deceit was surely allowable under those circumstances. After all, what harm could it do?
CHAPTER TEN
JEN WAS STILL lying in Luca’s arms when she remembered Maria would be waiting for her in the town. ‘I should go back. Maria might be worried about me. Luca? Luca...?’
He was lying with his arm over his eyes, not trusting himself to look at Jen. He had thought that making love to her would ease the ache inside him, but instead it had only grown. He wanted her, and for more than just sex. He’d been starved of feelings—had starved himself of feelings—for far too long, and now he was overwhelmed by them.
Emotions hadn’t troubled him since he was a boy. He’d learned to live without them after his mother died, and he had never let them in again. Why would he? His father didn’t want them, and Raoul had decided to align himself with his father. Wanting Jen like this had never been part of his plan. It certainly wasn’t part of his father’s plan, and, however tenuous their relationship, Luca had never broken a promise to his father yet.
‘I’ll come with you,’ he said as Jen reached for her clothes. ‘There are dangers in town during this special holiday.’
‘Worse than you?’ she said. ‘Seriously. I need to go. I don’t want Maria to be worried about me.’
He reached for her and held her wrist. ‘You’ll stay with me tonight.’
‘Will I?’ she said. A smile crept onto her mouth as if she had tried to keep it away, but couldn’t. ‘You must be feeling very confident,’ she said as she fastened her bra.
‘I am,’ he confirmed.
She laughed as he grabbed his clothes and tugged them on. He adjusted the straps on her sundress. She looked so beautiful. Flushed from their lovemaking with her hair in disarray and her lips red and swollen from his kisses, she somehow managed to look younger and more vulnerable than ever.
‘So I’m to stay in the big house?’ she said.
‘That’s the plan,’ he confirmed.
Her cheeks pinked up like a child given a special treat.
‘How old are you, Jen?’
‘Old enough,’ she said. ‘Anyway, you should know—you must have studied my CV.’
‘I have, but it didn’t tell me how experienced you are.’
‘Experienced enough,’ she teased him.
‘There were quite a few gaps in your résumé,’ he recalled as questions started to grind away in his head.
‘I’m twenty-four,’ she said. ‘Does that reassure you?’
Not really. She was very young.
‘How old are you?’ she demanded.
‘Thirty-two.’
‘Old Father Time.’ She laughed as she ran her fingers through her hair to comb the grass strands out of it. ‘But you’re not married, and you don’t have any children—so, seeing as we’re playing the truth game, why’s that, Luca?’
Could anything tempt him to bring a wife and children into the complicated world he inhabited? ‘Don’t let your imagination run riot,’ he warned without answering her question.
‘Why not?’ she demanded, bundling her hair back up again. ‘I’m sure you speculate about me.’
She was shrewd and covered her question in more smiles. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he turned her in the direction of the town. ‘You need to be somewhere?’ he reminded her.
She must have been intoxicated by the light mood that had sprung between them, and grabbed hold of his hands. ‘So we have a future together?’ she demanded, teasing him mercilessly.
‘It will certainly extend into tonight,’ he confirmed.
‘Again, you’re very confident, Signor Tebaldi.’
His mouth tugged in a half-smile. ‘If you don’t want to spend the night with me...’
Her blush gave her away. ‘Unless I get a better offer,’ she said, shooting him a provocative look.
He knew she was joking, but even the thought of another man looking at Jen was enough to stir his warrior genes. Sexually, she had been a revelation to him. She was fiery and passionate, but at the same time vulnerable. He had never found a woman like that. The closer he came to Jen, the more he could understand what his brother had seen in her—and even the thought of their friendship was enough to provoke a stab of jealousy inside him.
As soon as they were back in the town square Maria spotted them right away. Jen greeted his housekeeper with a hug. That suited him. The happier she was in Sicily, the more likely she was to stay. And he wanted her to stay, he realised, and for no other reason than he couldn’t bear for her to go.
Shortly after Jen had found Maria, the friendly housekeeper left them to re-join her friends. Her first full day on the island had been incredible, Jen thought, smiling up at Luca. Being the sole focus of Luca’s attention had been incredible. She would never forget the day when she made love with a hot Sicilian on a tiny island during a festival. If excitement never returned to her life again, she had that to cling on to.
She had more than that, Jen concluded as Luca turned to look at her. As his eyes locked with hers and they shared an intimate smile, she was ready to believe anything was possible. ‘Tonight,’ she whispered.
His faint smile set her heart racing. Then he turned away to speak to some people who had recognised him. She was a bystander, happily watching, when the elderly man leading the small family group reached for Luca’s hand and kissed it.
‘You are Don Tebaldi now,’ he said in a loud, quavering voice that brought several murmurs of agreement from the crowd. ‘Your father has earned his retirement. We look to you now, Luca.’
And then the man upon whom she had bestowed her long-preserved chastity patted the old man on the shoulder before drawing him close in an embrace to say, ‘I will never let you down, Marco.’
There were tears in the old man’s eyes by the time Luca released him. But even those tears, genuine though she knew they must be, couldn’t make up for Jen’s shock. She had managed to conveniently divorce Luca in her mind from his father, but now reality was staring her in the face.
She’d been so confident she could handle anything that she had walked willingly into a world she knew nothing about. How was she supposed to relax when everyone on the island treated Luca like a king? The elation of the day vanished, and was quickly replaced by concern.
‘You two should dance,’ the old man said
, drawing Jen into the conversation with a warm smile. ‘Go on,’ he encouraged her. ‘You have to dance for me now. My feet won’t work!’ He laughed with glee as he glanced around their little group, as if the warmth of his family and the protection of Luca made him happier than anything else on earth.
‘What’s wrong?’ Luca asked, feeling Jen’s tension as he brought her into his arms.
‘Nothing,’ she lied, smiling reassurance at the old man, who was watching them as he’d promised. Everything was wrong. Luca and Jen? The penniless student who’d had a thesis on right and wrong drummed into her by her mother, and the man who seemed to have inherited some sort of feudal fiefdom? How was that going to work? Just for a few fabulous hours, she had allowed herself to believe that it could.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Luca said, drawing her close to stroke her hair. ‘You’re very tense.’
‘Self-conscious,’ she argued, which was true; there were a lot of people watching them. ‘Don’t worry, it’s nothing,’ she said as Luca wrapped his arms protectively around her.
‘The parade’s about to start,’ he said as the music faded. Bringing his face close, he smiled into her eyes and kissed her.
‘We shouldn’t miss that,’ she agreed, wishing she could lose the sense of an egg timer with the sand running out on their time of being as close as this.
She welcomed the distraction as Luca led her through the mass of people. She remembered Maria telling her to collect as many bead necklaces as she could when the parade passed, as they brought good luck.
She needed a barrel full, Jen mused ruefully. She had to stop wanting things she couldn’t have, she thought, glancing at Luca.
They hadn’t even reached the main street when Luca drew to a halt, and pulled her into a shaded alleyway. ‘Why?’ she whispered.
‘Because I want you?’ he said with shrug.