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Authors: Trish Morey
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hands, almost worshipping the formal gown. ‘So beautiful,’ she said, slipping a cover over the dress before hanging it in the closet. ‘Maybe we could go shopping together while you are here?’
‘I’d love to.’
The other woman’s eyes lit up. ‘You would?
Bene
. Anyway, I told Marco he was wrong. A woman as beautiful as you, you would know men. You would be no unpicked flower who would become unsettled by a little nudity. Am I right?’
Gabriella looked around the alcove and wondered at the other woman’s definition of ‘a little nudity’, but she wasn’t about to debate that now. For, while it was nobody’s business but her own, she got the impression this was no time to act coy. She was no shy, retiring flower after all, even if she lacked the raw sensuality of this gypsy princess. ‘I’m no virgin, if that’s what you mean.’
Even if she could count the number of times she’d had sex on the fingers of one hand
.
The other woman’s eyes opened wide, her lush mouthin a broad self-congratulatory smile as she planted her hands on her hips and nodded. ‘You see? I knew that. A woman senses these things.’ She gestured to the walls around them. ‘Then you will understand this art. You will appreciate it for its true beauty.’ She glanced at her watch and then back at the suitcase. ‘And now I must start dinner, but …’
‘It’s okay,’ Gabriella said. ‘There’s not much to do. I’ll finish the unpacking.’
‘
Grazie!
And I promise you tonight I will make a feast fit for a king—and his queen, for that matter.’ She gave an abrupt nod, as if she’d just made up her mind about something. ‘Yes, it is good to see Raoul with a woman at last.’
‘Natania, please don’t think … It’s not like that. We’re old friends, that’s all.’
‘
Si
. Maybe for now.’ And with a toss of her beautiful head she spun on her heel and headed for the kitchen, the bangles on her hand jangling in time to the sway of her hips.
What was that supposed to mean? Was Natania a fortune teller as well as a cook? But, with her spine still tingling from the gypsy’s unsettling prediction, there was no way Gabriella was going to ask.
Not when she half-wished it could be true
.
Raoul stormed across the square behind the
palazzo
, sending pigeons scattering while he cursed the black tide inside him that threatened to rise up, bitter and turgid, from his gut like the thick, black sludge that stuck to the piles below the water. A black tide that would not lethim out of its clutches, that clogged his veins and would not let him think or act like a normal man.
He had never wanted this. He was in no position to keep anyone safe, not when he lurched from one dark mood to the next—not when he had been unable to save his own wife.
But he hated the way Gabriella had flinched back there in the library, as if he had physically lashed out and struck her—all because he was incapable of dealing with someone who saw light when he saw dark, who saw hope where there was none.
And afterwards she had withdrawn into herself, quelling her natural spirit until she had become a stilted and stunted facsimile of who she really was, and he hated himself for doing that to her even more.
If he could not repress that side of himself, he would surely frighten her away and she would never agree to marry him.
And he had promised to.
Damn himself to hell and back for it, but he had promised. What happened when you broke a promise to the dead? Did they rise up and come after you? Did they toss and turn in their graves and haunt your dreams and turn your days to nights?
He didn’t want to find out. He already had enough ghosts to last a lifetime.
So he would have to woo her, court her and let her zest for life wash over him. And then afterwards, when Garbas was safely locked away behind bars and could not touch her, he would let her go.
CHAPTER FIVE
M AYBE it was Natania’s cooking and the superb platter of
frittura
,
‘I’d love to.’
The other woman’s eyes lit up. ‘You would?
Bene
. Anyway, I told Marco he was wrong. A woman as beautiful as you, you would know men. You would be no unpicked flower who would become unsettled by a little nudity. Am I right?’
Gabriella looked around the alcove and wondered at the other woman’s definition of ‘a little nudity’, but she wasn’t about to debate that now. For, while it was nobody’s business but her own, she got the impression this was no time to act coy. She was no shy, retiring flower after all, even if she lacked the raw sensuality of this gypsy princess. ‘I’m no virgin, if that’s what you mean.’
Even if she could count the number of times she’d had sex on the fingers of one hand
.
The other woman’s eyes opened wide, her lush mouthin a broad self-congratulatory smile as she planted her hands on her hips and nodded. ‘You see? I knew that. A woman senses these things.’ She gestured to the walls around them. ‘Then you will understand this art. You will appreciate it for its true beauty.’ She glanced at her watch and then back at the suitcase. ‘And now I must start dinner, but …’
‘It’s okay,’ Gabriella said. ‘There’s not much to do. I’ll finish the unpacking.’
‘
Grazie!
And I promise you tonight I will make a feast fit for a king—and his queen, for that matter.’ She gave an abrupt nod, as if she’d just made up her mind about something. ‘Yes, it is good to see Raoul with a woman at last.’
‘Natania, please don’t think … It’s not like that. We’re old friends, that’s all.’
‘
Si
. Maybe for now.’ And with a toss of her beautiful head she spun on her heel and headed for the kitchen, the bangles on her hand jangling in time to the sway of her hips.
What was that supposed to mean? Was Natania a fortune teller as well as a cook? But, with her spine still tingling from the gypsy’s unsettling prediction, there was no way Gabriella was going to ask.
Not when she half-wished it could be true
.
Raoul stormed across the square behind the
palazzo
, sending pigeons scattering while he cursed the black tide inside him that threatened to rise up, bitter and turgid, from his gut like the thick, black sludge that stuck to the piles below the water. A black tide that would not lethim out of its clutches, that clogged his veins and would not let him think or act like a normal man.
He had never wanted this. He was in no position to keep anyone safe, not when he lurched from one dark mood to the next—not when he had been unable to save his own wife.
But he hated the way Gabriella had flinched back there in the library, as if he had physically lashed out and struck her—all because he was incapable of dealing with someone who saw light when he saw dark, who saw hope where there was none.
And afterwards she had withdrawn into herself, quelling her natural spirit until she had become a stilted and stunted facsimile of who she really was, and he hated himself for doing that to her even more.
If he could not repress that side of himself, he would surely frighten her away and she would never agree to marry him.
And he had promised to.
Damn himself to hell and back for it, but he had promised. What happened when you broke a promise to the dead? Did they rise up and come after you? Did they toss and turn in their graves and haunt your dreams and turn your days to nights?
He didn’t want to find out. He already had enough ghosts to last a lifetime.
So he would have to woo her, court her and let her zest for life wash over him. And then afterwards, when Garbas was safely locked away behind bars and could not touch her, he would let her go.
CHAPTER FIVE
M AYBE it was Natania’s cooking and the superb platter of
frittura
,
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