Angel of Darkness

‘Didn’t you even suspect?’

‘I thought your father was behind them!’ Kelda groaned. ‘I never would have dreamt that they were from you...not after the way we parted at the cottage.’

‘You were so thin.’ One of his hands clenched and he shrugged jerkily. ‘I wanted to be sure you ate properly...’

She was unbearably touched that he had been concerned about her even when he’d believed that her child was not his. Her whole face glowed. ‘I love you, Angelo.’ It was extraordinary how much courage it took to say it.

His brilliant eyes narrowed, his hard, dark features tightening, and then suddenly he reached for her, his lean hands bruising. ‘You don’t need to say that!’

‘I fell in love in Tuscany. Maybe it was the emeralds that did it,’ she teased, pressing her lips against his throat, breathing in the gloriously familiar scent of him with sensual pleasure. ‘Or being flung in jail. Or maybe it had been brewing for six years and it was just waiting for an opportunity to blaze. But the fact is, Angelo, I am absolutely crazy about you too!’

‘I thought the only thing you wanted was my body—’

‘I hope it’s included in the package.’ She ran a flagrantly possessive hand over the breadth of his chest. ‘And by the way,’ she added, in a uniquely generous mood, letting her whole body rest against him, ‘I haven’t had any other lovers...’

He tensed, collided with her amused gaze and suddenly crushed her mouth hotly beneath his. It was a couple of hours before a sensible word was spoken again. Curved round Angelo’s sprawling length, Kelda suddenly jerked and gasped, ‘Alice! I forgot about her!’

‘Inga will be with her.’ Angelo trapped her with a powerful arm before she could move.

‘Inga?’

‘I brought her back from Geneva. I dined with friends last night. Inga had been with their children for several years. They don’t need her any more and she was working out her last week, so after I’d heard a glowing testimonial and talked to her, I engaged h

er on the spot and brought her home with me.’

‘Inga. Swedish?’

‘Her English is excellent.’

‘Danny Philips ran off with his children’s nanny,’ Kelda couldn’t help remarking. ‘I suppose she’s blonde.’

‘Jealous little cat,’ Angelo breathed in her ear. ‘She’s fifty and built like a tank.’

‘Oh.’ Kelda relaxed.

‘I’m sorry about your father,’ he murmured. ‘But he wasn’t the hardened criminal the newspaper made out. He was never involved in any form of violence—’

‘But the bank robbery—’

‘He was the driver and he was unarmed. He put a stocking mask over his face, double parked in the wrong street just round the corner of a police station and blew the whole show for his partners in crime. A bit inept, your father.’

Kelda found that she was trying not to laugh. It still hurt, but reality was better than a fairy story. If Angelo could live with it, she could still hold her head high. ‘I love you,’ she told him fiercely, staring down at him.

‘Enough to stay forever and ever?’ Angelo enquired silkily, running a lean hand possessively over one slanted cheekbone.

‘Are you likely to be a good investment?’

‘Highly profitable,’ he promised, sensually capturing her parted lips with his. ‘As well as loyal, loving and constantly in a state of arousal round you,’ he virtually completed on a groan.

‘And the next time I have a baby you’ll—’

‘Be there, share everything.’

‘You learn fast.’ Kelda slid a provocative hand over his flat hard stomach and smiled at his instantaneous response.

‘Move fast too.’ With a husky laugh, he pinned her flat. ‘How does the idea of six weeks in Tuscany appeal to you?’

‘The peach and cherry orchard.’ She sighed luxuriously.