The Prince's Forbidden Virgin by Donald Robyn

Author:Donald, Robyn [Donald, Robyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-07T17:55:27+00:00

Chapter 7

Rosa spent that day with the team who’d oversee the monitoring after she left Niroli. She impressed on them why everything had to be done in a certain way, and why it was vital to keep records up to date, why double-checking any significant deviation from the norm was important.

Max stayed with her until mid-morning, when a call on his phone brought a frown to his face.

‘A business emergency,’ he told her curtly, snapping the tiny phone shut. He looked around. ‘Giovanni, I have to hand over to you. Make sure the princess doesn’t tire herself too much. If she does, you know how to find me.’

Chagrined, Rosa snorted, but her eager group of students grinned and some of the braver ones chorused that they’d monitor her as closely as they planned to check the vines.

Often during that long, hot day Rosa looked up to find Giovanni’s gaze on her. Each time he smiled and looked away, seemingly without embarrassment.

At first she thought it might be that he, like his fellow islanders, found the existence of a woman in charge oddly dislocating. Later it occurred to her that somehow he might be suspicious of the relationship between her and Max. Hot with shame, she wondered if someone had seen that forbidden kiss. Her mother used to say that servants knew everything…

That night she insisted she could walk up the first flight of stairs. Crisply, Max said, ‘Don’t be an idiot, Rosa. You’re exhausted. I’ll carry you up.’

‘Carrying me up will be harder than coming down.’ A quick survey of his formidable expression persuaded her to try for a compromise. ‘All right—I’ll go as far as I can, and you can carry me from there.’

She met his hard green scrutiny with a level stare. For a second she thought she’d lost, until his shoulders lifted in an abrupt shrug. ‘So. Try then.’

Relieved, she gritted her teeth and made it to the landing before her legs finally informed her they weren’t going any further. Stone-faced, Max picked her up and set off up the stairs.

Rosa kept her eyes fixed on the paintings up the staircase, an impressive collection of landscapes from the golden age of the eighteenth century. Halfway up she mustered her courage to ask, ‘Why does Giovanni watch me?’

Max’s frown was obvious in his tone. ‘I don’t know.’

So he’d noticed it too. In a low, troubled voice she said, ‘You don’t think that anyone saw us—the other night?’

‘No one saw it.’ This time his tone was even yet forbidding. ‘Giovanni knows me very well. He may suspect, that’s all.’

Alarmed, she caught her upper lip in her teeth. He didn’t look at her, and she didn’t take him up on the final sentence. Eventually she said, ‘I’ll leave as soon as I can. I just hope no more vineyards are affected.’

Was it her imagination, or did his arms tighten around her? At the top of the stairs she said, ‘Put me down, please.’

He didn’t object. Once on her feet she looked up and saw a gleam of sweat across his forehead.

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