Luca looked at her. Her expression was open and quizzical. No agenda there. She was so much a part of this wild, beautiful, Cornish slice of land and yet as trapped in it as he was trapped in his own privileged, rarefied world, if only she knew.
He experienced a moment of such perfect oneness that he had to clear his throat and make a conscious effort to gather himself.
‘I don’t...’ Don’t talk about my private life to anyone, ever. ‘I don’t know what happened, but I’ve figured out over the years that my father’s disastrous personal life had something to do with it.’ He paused. There was an odd, swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach that he had never experienced before. She was quietly working her way through her sandwich and thoroughly enjoying it. He’d brought champagne but he figured she would be the sort of girl who wouldn’t mind a pint now and again. He had an insane desire to introduce her to his wines, watch her taste the soft subtleties on her palate and, again, he had to shake himself back into the moment and remember, with relief, that in the blink of an eye he would walk away, back to reality, never to see her again.
‘I know how that feels.’ She smiled ruefully, prompting him to do the unthinkable and continue.
‘My mother died when I was young.’ His smile matched hers. ‘We may have more in common than you think because her death blew a hole in my father’s life and he was never the same since. Unlike your father, though, he didn’t emotionally retreat from the world and he certainly didn’t become overprotective of me. The opposite. My father has made a career out of trying to find a substitute for what he lost. Never succeeded.’
‘Do you have siblings?’
‘No. There’s just me.’
No twin, as you had, to share the loneliness and grief, just a father walking away as he tried to carve a life of his own to fill his own void, leaving his only son to work things out for himself.
‘Holding the fort, so to speak.’ He thought of those vast acres of vineyards and the incomparable wealth, growing daily under his studious, watchful eye. Her idea of the fort in question would bear no resemblance to reality, that was for sure.
‘Working to keep things ticking over. Like me.’ She had a vision of him, so strong, labouring under the sun, watching out for his father the way she watched out for hers. ‘Do you live with your dad? You should count your blessings that your father has allowed you to get on with living your life. An overprotective dad can be more of a curse than a blessing sometimes.’
‘He lives nearby,’ Luca murmured.
‘Close enough to be a problem?’ She raised her eyebrows and grinned.
‘Close enough for me to keep an eye on him.’ Luca’s mouth twitched and he smiled back at her. The sandwiches, he thought, were bloody good. Wholesome. ‘The truth is life might have been better if he’d done what your father did, and retreated, at least for a decent amount of time. Instead, my father has entered into marriages with alarming regularity and none of the endings have been good ones.’
‘I’m getting the picture.’ No wonder he was jaded, she thought with a spurt of sympathy. She rested her hand on his wrist and gave it a little squeeze. The feel of that touch sent an electric charge racing straight from his wrist to what was visibly stirring underneath the swimming trunks. He shifted uncomfortably, adjusting himself in the process.
Whatever picture she was getting, it certainly wasn’t a complete one.
‘It must have been a lonely time for you.’
Luca shrugged. ‘I’ve never been lonely in my life.’ He thought back with some fondness to the English boarding school he had attended for so many years. No, there had been no shortage of people in his life. Had he been lonely? He frowned, unwilling to give house room to that notion, which smacked of the sort of weakness he despised.
‘Were you close to any of your...er...stepmothers? How many were there?’
‘A few and no.’ He settled back on his elbows and stared up at a blue, blue sky. ‘I don’t believe there was a stepmother who didn’t turn out to be a piece of work. It’s a blessing my father’s been on his own for a couple of years now, although it might be a bit premature to say that he’s seen the light.’
‘You really love him, don’t you? For all his failings. Just something else we have in common!’
Luca looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Amazing,’ he murmured, ‘given the circumstances, that you are as upbeat and romantic as you are.’
‘You think I should be cynical and jaded?’
‘I’ve seen the trail of misery love has a habit of leaving in its wake. You call it cynical and jaded but I call it realistic. As far as I’m concerned, you look at life with your eyes wide open and you can escape most of its predictably unpleasant fallout.’
‘Which is why you like the thought of an arranged marriage...’
‘A suitable union between two people whose outlook on life is similar. Remind me why we’re talking about all of this...?’
‘Because it’s nice getting to know someone else. I know you won’t be around for much longer, but it’s still nice getting to know you.’
When was he actually going to go? He’d extended this visit far longer than was technically acceptable. He was a workaholic and, of course, this unforeseen break in the normal course of events had been fun, but it couldn’t continue.
And yet...he remembered the feel of her against him and his explosive reaction to her body, and the thought of
