didn’t have to wait long. She wanted him, wanted more of the shattering sensation that pervaded her, wanted everything.
When her moment came Alex drove back against him, urging him on with all her strength until they reached fulfilment together. She saw his face in that instant, and wondered at its mixture of awe and surrender.
He fell asleep first, and she propped herself up on her elbow, watching him with eyes that were passionately protective, but also curious. The chance to study him unaware did not come often.
His face was scarcely softer in sleep than in waking. The chin was still stubborn, the nose too strong for comfort. They would still fight. He’d warned her of that, and the starkness of his face told her that it was true. But that was all right. Fighting wouldn’t suit everyone, but to them it would merely be an aspect of their love. And she could give as good as she got.
But she would be careful, because deep instinct warned her that he was more vulnerable than she, more easily hurt, less able to show it, and therefore more at risk.
His mouth intrigued her the most. It was not, at first glance, a sensual mouth; too firm, too wary, even in repose.
But she was no longer fooled by the look. She had kissed that mouth and felt it soften against hers. She had shared passion with that big, lanky body with its longs legs, powerful arms and skilful hands. No woman who had experienced that sensation could mistake his essential nature. He was a man who could love with every part of him, mind, soul and body.
After a long while she lay down, gazing into the darkness, looking back along the road that had brought her here.
Since coming to Italy she had discovered that the country had two faces. There was Italy of the smile and the song, of the rich colours, flowing wine and bright laughter. This was romantic Italy. This was Gino.
And there was another country whose past had been steeped in blood and vengeance, a dark, sombre place, full of sullen shadows, deadly feuds, anger, bitterness, danger. This was Rinaldo.
If a woman had once been delighted by the smile and the vibrant youth, why should she turn away from that to the other land, where a man with a face like granite and a soul to match offered only his darkness, and his need?
Why? Because she could not help herself. That was why.
She raised herself again and touched his face with her fingertips. Then she kissed him so softly that he did not awaken. He was hers, to have and to hold, to love and cherish. Because he needed her. And that was all there was to be said.
Rinaldo was in a mysterious place, one where he’d been before, but which had no name. He knew that he was waiting for something, but he did not know what.
His father was there again, looking at him with troubled eyes. But this was the moment when he always awoke, and the message was never delivered.
With a shudder he sat up in bed, his eyes open and staring. His whole body was shaking.
‘What is it?’ Alex said from beside him. ‘Rinaldo,
She shook him gently. At first she thought he was too far lost in his unquiet dream for her to reach him, but at last, to her relief, she felt him relax.
Still she could not be certain that he was awake, although his eyes were open. She touched his face gently.
‘Rinaldo,’ she whispered, ‘talk to me.’
At last he seemed to focus on her. He looked drained, and when she put her arms about him he clung to her.
‘Was it a bad dream?’ she asked.
‘No. Something came back to me at last. It’s been there all this time, hovering just out of sight. I’ve tried so often to remember-’
‘And now you have?’
‘Yes. It was the day my father died. I got to the hospital before Gino and I had a few moments alone with him.
‘When he saw me, he tried to say something. His face was swollen and he couldn’t get the words out-just the words, “Sorry”. He said that over and over. I can still see his eyes-they were desperate. He wanted so much to tell me something, but he couldn’t manage it.
‘I kept waiting for him to tell me, but then I realised that it wasn’t possible. So I took his hand between mine and told him everything was going to be all right. He seemed quieter. And then he died.’
‘What do you think he wanted to say?’
‘I think it was the mortgage. He knew what was going to happen, and he was trying to tell me that he was sorry.’
Rinaldo shook his head as though trying to clear it.
‘I don’t know how I could have forgotten that,’ he said. ‘It was as though my mind just blanked it out.’
Alex took him in her arms, speaking gently.
‘With all that happened that day, and the state you must have been in, it’s not surprising. You needed to be ready to remember.’
‘And I’m ready now, here in your arms. All this time-I blamed him-but he did try to warn me.’
‘He never meant you to find out the way you did,’ she said.
‘That’s right. He didn’t just abandon us without a word, the way I felt he had. That might have been unreasonable, but it was how I felt. Now it’s different. It’s as though I’d got my father back again. You did that.’
Her heart sang at his praise, but she said, ‘It would have happened anyway.’
‘No, it happened because I found peace with you. That peace had to come first, before I could be reconciled with him. Now I am. He’s in my heart once more, and I’ll never lose him again-because of you.’
Suddenly he clung to her. ‘Don’t leave me,’ he said desperately.
‘Never in life. As long as you need me, I’ll be here.’
‘I’ll always need you. There was no warmth or light before you came.’ He rested his head against her. ‘Suppose you’d never come here, and we’d never met?’
‘But we did,’ she murmured. ‘Maybe we were always bound to meet. Do you remember that first day?’
‘At Poppa’s funeral? Yes.’
‘I think I knew then that you were going to be something important in my life. I didn’t know what, but I knew it wasn’t going to be indifference.’
‘No, we could never have been indifferent to each other,’ he murmured.
‘And in those days it looked like we’d be enemies.’
‘Is that what we were?’ he whispered.
‘Oh, yes.’ She smiled tenderly. ‘We had to be enemies first before we could be anything else. It’s not a bad way of getting acquainted.’
‘Yes, we did that,’ he agreed with a faint smile. ‘Now we have to get to know each other in another way.’
‘You think we don’t know each other?’ she asked softly.
He didn’t answer at once, but he raised his head and their eyes held, full of deep, shared knowledge. They knew each other.
‘I’m looking forward to the rest,’ he said. ‘Being with you every day, learning all about you, the things you like, dislike. Growing old with you, becoming part of you, making you part of me.’
‘I
‘I feel as though I’ve spent the last years wandering in a desert. And you’ve brought me home.’
She kissed him repeatedly, not in passion but in tenderness. There had been passion and there would be passion again, but for now their embrace was an assertion of profound peace and trust between them. At last they slept again, still holding each other.
When Alex found herself drifting back to the surface she wasn’t sure whether it was happening naturally or because of some other reason. Despite her feeling of fulfilment she was pervaded by an uneasy awareness of something wrong.
Slowly she opened her eyes.
