‘I think I should,’ she said, starting to pull on garments.
‘No, you mustn’t.’ He put his hands out to restrain her, then snatched them back again.
‘Don’t tell me what I must and mustn’t do,’ she told him.
‘No, I didn’t mean that,’ he said hurriedly. ‘Look, I’m not touching you, but please don’t go. Please, Becky. I’ll make it right, just tell me what to do, but stay, I beg you.’
His words softened her again. Suddenly they were back in the old days, when this fierce man was putty in her hands, but only hers.
She stopped what she was doing, went over and put her arms around him in consolation. He hugged her back, but gingerly, as though afraid of offending again.
‘If you go away, I’m afraid you won’t come back,’ he said gruffly.
‘I will come back. I want to see you again. But take it slowly.’
‘I can’t,’ he admitted. ‘I want all of you at once. Stay with me. Come back to bed.’
‘No, the hotel will be getting up soon and I don’t want to risk being seen.’
‘Spend today with me.’
She mentally reviewed the day she’d planned. There were important appointments that she simply couldn’t cancel.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to make a few calls but-I can do it.’
‘We’ll go somewhere that we won’t be seen by anyone who knows either of us. But you’ll have to say where that is. I don’t know London.’
‘Have you never been here before?’ she asked.
‘Oh, yes, brief visits, business deals, hotel rooms, travelling in the back of a car to conferences, never seeing anything through the car windows because I was always on the phone. I couldn’t tell you how London is different from New York or Milan. If it
‘That sounds really dreadful.’
‘It’s your world too, Becky.’
‘Yes, but I get away sometimes.’
‘On long country weekends with Jordan?’
‘Jordan’s a forbidden subject.’
‘Suppose I say he isn’t?’
‘Only a minute ago you told me you didn’t want to hear about anyone else.’
‘I’ll make an exception for Danvers Jordan.’
‘But I won’t,’ she said quietly.
His lips tightened with anger. ‘So it has to be on your terms, does it?’
‘You said we weren’t to talk about the past. They were your terms. I agreed to them. Do you think you can just change them when it suits you? Think again. I’m not dancing on the end of your string.’
‘All right, all right,’ he said quickly. ‘I give in. Your terms.’
She touched his cheek, smiling with rueful tenderness. ‘You don’t have to give in. That’s not what it’s all about. But let’s not spoil it.’
He took her hand and kissed the palm. ‘Anything you say.’
It was like driving at speed around a sharp corner, and only just avoiding the wall. You were left with a desperate sense of relief and a need to rediscover the road you were supposed to be taking.
‘So,’ she said, determinedly bright, ‘you were saying about cities looking the same. Didn’t you ever long for the hills of Tuscany?’
He nodded. ‘Or any greenery at all. In New York I always tell myself I’ll go to Central Park, but I’ve never been yet. Once I saw some trees as I was driving through London, and told the driver to stop the car. But then the phone rang. I was late for a meeting, so I told him to start it again.’
‘Where were you when this happened?’
He thought for a moment. ‘We’d just passed a huge round red building. I think the driver said they gave concerts there.’
‘The Albert Hall. The trees you saw were in Hyde Park. Let’s go there, then.’
‘Fine.’ He reached for the telephone.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Calling my driver.’
She placed her hand firmly over his. ‘We’re not calling your driver, or mine.’
‘Aren’t we?’
‘Nope. We’re going to go out and hunt for a taxi, and then nobody will know where we’ve gone.’
That turned it into a conspiracy, and suddenly everything was fun. They took the elevator down almost all the way, and Luca got out one floor from the last. Anyone who happened to be in the lobby saw him walk out of the hotel alone. None of them saw him turn the corner and meet up with Rebecca, who’d gone down the back stairs, left by the kitchen entrance, and was already hailing a taxi.
It was little more than a mile to Hyde Park, but the congestion had already started, and it was three-quarters of an hour before they arrived.
‘Green,’ Luca said, looking around him with joy. ‘Grass. Trees.’
He took her hand and began to walk, across the grass, and she hurried with him. It touched her that Luca, reared amidst savagely beautiful scenery, could still find pleasure in this place with its manicured lawns. It told a whole story about how cut off he’d become from his roots.
‘What’s that?’ He had stopped abruptly at the sight of a large stretch of water, snaking out of sight in both directions. ‘A river?’
‘No, it’s a long, thin lake,’ she laughed. ‘It’s called the Serpentine.’
‘And we can take a boat. I see them over there.’
‘Come on, then. I haven’t been on a boat on the Serpentine for years.’
They hired a rowing boat, big enough for her to sit facing him in a cushioned seat. Luca took the oars and began to pull on them strongly, while Rebecca leaned back, enjoying the chance to relax and simply watch him. After the turmoil of the last few days it was good to think of nothing but the beautiful day, and the pleasure of being on the water. She fixed her eyes on him and let her thoughts drift.
But this was a mistake because in a haze of drowsy contentment she found herself looking at his hands, remembering last night. He had touched her in so many ways, sometimes gently, intimately, sometimes fiercely, and she had responded ecstatically to all of them.
And the way she’d touched him back-she found it hard to recall details now. She had explored and celebrated him with reckless joy, revelling in his instant response, demanding more. She had not known herself capable of such vigorous possessiveness.
Her mind drifted back to her ex-husband, the man she thought of as ‘poor Saul’. He’d been entitled to pity because she’d had less than half a heart to give him, and almost no passion. He’d been infatuated and she’d yielded to his eagerness from hope of finding a purpose in her life.
But she had disappointed him, and in his bitterness he’d called her ‘the iceberg’. The kindest thing she had ever done for him was to leave him.
She returned from her reverie to find that Luca’s eyes were on her, and he was smiling faintly.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘I’m trying to behave like a gentleman, and not succeeding. The truth is that all I can think of is how badly I want to make love to you.’
The words ‘make love’ were like a signal, starting a slow-burning fuse inside her. It was only a few hours since she’d risen, satiated, from his bed, yet with just two words she’d become ready for him again. It was shameless, and slightly shocking. It was also thrilling, and deeply, searingly enjoyable.
‘You’d better start rowing back, then,’ she said. ‘Careful! Don’t upset the boat.’
They rocked violently all the way back to the shore and climbed out with such urgency that they nearly ended up in the water.
‘Where’s the nearest exit?’ he demanded.
‘Over there.’
They made it in double-quick time, but when they reached the street an obstacle met them.
