The Italian Millionaire's Marriage (Counts of Calvani-2) by Lucy Gordon

Author:Lucy Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

IN THE early morning light Harriet awoke suddenly and sat up, listening to the silence. Slipping out of bed she went to the tall window and pushed it open, looking out onto the quiet countryside, dotted with pine trees.

The memory of last night still seemed to live in every part of her, mind, heart and body. She’d seen a side of Marco she’d never dreamed of. She’d known that he was full of contradictory qualities, that he could be charming, seductive, calculating and ruthlessly determined. But she hadn’t known that he could be dangerous. She knew now. For the few moments that he’d held her in his arms, forcing bruising, desperate kisses onto her, the air had crackled with danger, and she had felt alive as never before. It was shocking, but it was true.

She tried to call common sense to her aid. Whatever tumult of feeling she’d thought she detected, the truth was that Marco had been trying to prove a point. She’d made a fool of him and he wouldn’t stand for it. He’d reclaimed her in front of their guests, but pride had driven him to give her a demonstration of power when they were alone. He’d wanted to show her that he could fire her with such passion that she was his, whether she liked it or not.

And he’d succeeded. She knew now what his touch could do to her. The lightest caress could melt her so that she could think only of more caresses, and more…

But his own thoughts were different, she guessed, summoning his face to her mind and trying to read his eyes. He wanted to show her that, while he wouldn’t allow himself to become hers, she had no choice but to be his. In the cold light of day there was no more to it than that.

But the light of day wasn’t cold. As she raised her eyes to Rome’s distant hills she could see the golden glow of the rising sun.

It was nearly six in the morning. Marco, the early-rising banker, would be up by now and she needed to hear his voice. But his phone was switched off and when she called his apartment she was answered by a machine. She didn’t leave a message. How could she when she didn’t know what she wanted to say?

She needed to be outdoors. Hastily throwing on jeans and a sweater she slipped down the stairs and into the grounds. For a while the trees pressed close together and she was able to get away from the house, moving down winding paths that led in several directions.

That was her life now, moving along winding paths to a destination she no longer knew. A voice inside warned her to go home, but there was a bittersweet ache in her heart that said stay. She was a mass of confused feelings, and she couldn’t have said where she wanted her path to lead.

She came to a small lake and began to stroll along the edge of the water, relishing the beauty of the day.

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