Sins of the Past by Elizabeth Power - Sins of the Past

Author:Elizabeth Power - Sins of the Past [Power, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780263220070
Amazon: B004UH15L2
Barnesnoble: B004UH15L2
Goodreads: 11243113
Publisher: Gale Group
Published: 2011-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE soft sand was warm between Riva’s bare toes, a creamy blanket stretching down to the turquoise sea.

When Damiano had said he was coming home, she had automatically assumed he meant to his home in Italy. It was for that reason—as well as on other equally disturbing grounds like the way his intense masculinity affected her, not to mention leaving her job—that she hadn’t wanted to go. Italy was Chelsea, Marcello. And painful pathways that she didn’t want to journey down. Memories. Excruciating. Bittersweet. She should have known, though, that a man as wealthy as Damiano would probably have homes all over the world.

This ocean paradise and the large white Colonial house shaded by verdant foliage, set against a forested hillside above its own semi-circular cove, were neutral territory.

Perhaps he had given consideration to that, she thought, in bringing her and Ben here to the Seychelles, so that he could make these first days of getting to know his son as easy as possible for them all. Because there were no ghosts here.

They had been here three days now, and with Ben playing in the garden with his new friend, the five-year-old grandson of Françoise and André, the Seychellois couple who looked after the house, Riva had grabbed the chance of a few moments alone. Even so, this beautiful location, with its clear blue skies and dreamy white beach, weren’t doing much to ease her anxieties—particularly about her job.

‘I need some time off,’ she had told Olivia, two days before Damiano had whisked her and Ben out here. ‘I know it’s rather short notice, but I’ve got some personal problems to sort out.’ And then, feeling that she owed her boss some explanation—as well as being keen to safeguard the job she had worked so hard for—she had come clean and told the woman that she was having to sort some things out with Ben’s father, without actually spelling out who Ben’s father was.

‘Well, if you must—you must,’ Olivia had responded, not looking particularly pleased. ‘It’s just as well that you’ve been taken off the D’Amico job,’ she’d added—obviously already informed by Damiano that he was shelving the project, Riva realised, still piqued by the way he had used her, although she had refused to let it show. ‘Otherwise I might have taken a much dimmer view of the whole thing.’

Now, slipping onto one of a pair of matching sunbeds that a groundsman had put there earlier in the shade of the overhanging palm trees, Riva sat back against the pale padded cushions and, closing her eyes, tried to relax.

‘Dreaming of paradise, Riva?’

With her eyes shooting open, Riva felt her pulses start to throb.

Barefoot, and in light linen trousers, Damiano was coming across the sand, his bronze chest exposed by the equally light shirt he’d left to blow open in the balmy wind.

‘I hardly need to when it’s within touching distance, do I?’ she sent up at him dryly as he drew level with her, and realised from the way his mouth twitched in response how he might be choosing to interpret what she meant.

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