The Italian’s Baby

‘No, Becky-please-’

But the words were drowned by her lips on his, and then it was too late. It had always been too late.

He kissed her tenderly, then with increasing urgency, while his hands explored her and hers explored him. He was wearing a shirt, the front partly unbuttoned. It took her only a moment to rip open the remaining buttons so that she could press her breasts against his body. Inexperienced though she was, she knew at once that the sensation was too much for his self-control. When she moved to pull the shirt right off, he did it for her.

She was completely trusting, without caution or defences, and he seemed to know it even through his passion, for his movements were as controlled as he could make them.

At first all she felt was his tenderness, leading her forward gently. She was already in a fever for him, helping him remove the last of her clothes, then his, following his every move, trying to anticipate, so that he gave a shaky laugh, saying, ‘Don’t be in such a hurry.’

‘But I want you, Luca, I want you.’

‘But you don’t know what you want, piccina,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I have no right-we must stop-’

‘No! I’ll thump you in a minute.’

‘Little bully,’ he whispered.

‘You’d better let me have my own way, then, hadn’t you?’ she teased.

That was the end of his control. After that, no power on earth could have stopped him exploring her, enchanted by her sweetness and her young, blazing passion for himself.

As soon as he entered her she gave a little cry of excitement and began to move against him, urging him on. Her frank eagerness to make love and her lack of false modesty delighted him, and he gave everything without holding back.

It was a swift, unsubtle mating which came to a climax almost at once. Becky felt dizzy. One moment she was simply enjoying herself, and the next moment something tossed her up to the stars in a fine frenzy of pleasure, before sending her swooping back to earth, wondering which planet she’d landed on. Because it wasn’t the same one that she’d started on.

‘Oh, wow!’ she said breathlessly. ‘Oh, wow!’

The next moment she leapt on him again, ignoring his laughing protests. This time he loved her more slowly, or at least as slowly as she would let him, teasing her breasts with lips and fingers, until she wrapped her legs about him, demanding fulfilment, and he could do nothing but yield.

Afterwards they lay entwined while they drifted down from the heights, rejoicing to find each other still there.

‘Why did you try to warn me off?’ she whispered. ‘It was beautiful.’

‘I’m glad. I want everything to be beautiful and wonderful for you, always.’

‘It is wonderful, and you’re wonderful, and everything in the world is wonderful, because you love me.’

‘I didn’t say I loved you,’ he growled.

‘But you do, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I do.’ He tightened his arms, pulling her naked body hard against his. ‘I love you, piccina. I love you with my heart and soul, with my body-’

‘Yes, I know that.’ She giggled, letting her fingers run races over his skin.

‘Don’t tease me,’ he groaned. ‘I can’t endure it.’

‘I don’t want you to endure it, I want you to give in.’

‘Don’t I always give in to you?’ he asked with a touch of sombreness in his voice.

But that mood couldn’t last. She wanted him to make love to her again, and he could never deny her anything.

On the day of Frank’s return Becky drove to Pisa Airport to meet him in her own car, delivered as an early birthday gift during his absence.

‘I thought you wouldn’t want to wait,’ he explained now as she thanked him.

‘You spoil me, Dad.’

‘That’s what daughters are for,’ he said cheerfully. He was on a ‘high’ of success, as he told her during the drive home.

‘Got everything I wanted at less than I expected to pay. Yessir!’

Becky had heard him talk like this many times before, but now the memory of the Englishmen, and their desperation, made it sound different.

‘Will anyone be put out of work?’ she asked.

‘What was that?’

‘If you’re making such a profit, someone has to lose out, don’t they?’

‘Of course. Someone always loses out, but they’re the wimps, the people who deserve to lose because nature made them losers.’

‘But is it nature that makes them losers, or you?’

‘Becky, what is this? You’ve never had such ideas before.’

The thought flashed across her mind, Or any ideas at all! But all she said was, ‘You closed down a place in England, and some of the people who lost their jobs came out here to find you.’

‘The devil they did! What happened?’

‘They found me instead. I was out riding alone and three men appeared from nowhere.’

‘Did they hurt you?’

‘No, but only because a man appeared and saved me. His name’s Luca Montese and he lives near by. He was working on his cottage when he heard them shouting. He squared up to them, knocked one of them down and after that they all scurried away.’

‘Then I must meet this man and thank him. Where exactly did this happen?’

She described the spot and he frowned.

‘I didn’t know I had any tenants there.’

‘He isn’t a tenant, he owns that bit of land. He says you tried to buy him out but he wouldn’t sell.’

‘Montese?’ he muttered. ‘Montese? Good grief, that’s him? Carletti, my agent, told me of some fellow who’d been making trouble.’

‘He’s not making trouble, Dad. He just wants to keep his home.’

‘Nonsense, he doesn’t know what’s good for him. Carletti says the place is little more than a hovel. Squalid, unsanitary.’

‘Not any more. He’s done a wonderful job of rebuilding it.’

‘You’ve been there?’

‘He took me there after he rescued me, and made me some tea. It was nice and cosy. He’s worked so hard on it.’

‘Well, he’s wasting his time. I’ll get it in the end.’

‘I don’t think so. He’s determined not to sell.’

‘And I’m determined that he will, and I reckon I’m stronger than some peasant lad.’

‘Dad!’ she cried in protest. ‘A moment ago you were going to thank him for saving me. Now you’re planning to bully him.’

‘Nonsense,’ he said with his easy laugh. ‘I’ll just show him where his best interests lie.’

He visited Luca that same day, full of bonhomie, thanking him for his care of Becky while contriving to patronise him in a way that embarrassed her. Luca’s response was a quiet dignity.

Then Frank looked around.

‘Carletti tells me you’ve been holding out for more than this little place is worth,’ he said.

‘Then your agent has misinformed you,’ Luca said quietly. ‘This place is worth everything to me, and I will not sell.’

‘All right, look, here’s the deal. Because you helped my daughter I’ll double my last offer. I can’t say fairer than that.’

‘Signor Solway, my home is not for sale.’

‘Why make such a fuss about this tatty little place? It’s barely half an acre.’