Her face tightened. "We don"t have that kind of relationship."
"What kind of a relationship do we have?" Vito shot back as she set down the tea and stood up, composed again.
"Fun, casual," she declared.
Dark colour highlighted his strong cheekbones. "I can handle problems."
"You couldn"t handle this one and why would you want to anyway?" Ava asked frankly. "It"s not like this is the romance of the century or serious or anything!"
Vito went rigid, his hard jawline clenching, his wide sensual mouth compressing into a surprisingly thin line.
"And now you"re of ended because I"m not supposed to be that blunt, and maybe you"d just like to say goodbye to me here right this minute!" Ava completed on a rising note of anger.
At that invitation, Vito"s eyes amed burning gold.
"Che cosa hai? What"s the mat er with you?"
"I"m giving you an escape route."
"I"m giving you an escape route."
"Shut up," Vito told her in a seethingly forceful undertone.
Ava drew herself up to her ful ve feet four inches.
"What did you just say to me?" she demanded.
"Zip it!" Vito bit out with unmistakable savagery. "Let me tel you what we are going to do. We wil complete the shopping trip and leave."
Ava parted her lips, ready to let loose another vol ey of the angry aggression that had come out of nowhere to power her mood. Without warning, a rush of screaming anxiety engulfed her next, when she belatedly appreciated that she was actual y trying to talk herself out of staying with him for what remained of the week.
To her horror, she couldn"t accept that prospect, couldn"t face the idea of saying goodbye there and then. That acknowledgement shocked her su ciently into clamping her mouth shut on her dangerously provocative tongue.
What the heck was wrong with her? What di erence this week or next week? But the threat of separation from Vito managed to ood her with such appal ing fear that she couldn"t answer her own question.
"I"l take you straight back to the castle when we"re finished," Vito p.r.o.nounced.
She caught a glimpse of them together in a tal mirror and reddened, thinking that she looked more like a messy teenager than a grown woman in her jeans and jacket. He had to be morti ed to be seen out and about jacket. He had to be morti ed to be seen out and about with a female that badly dressed and al of a sudden, in spite of the emotions stil bubbling inside her like a witch"s cauldron, she was ready to make concessions. Her birthday treat? She had thrown his generosity back in his face and wrecked the outing.
Concealing his surprise, Vito watched from a discreet distance as Ava selected lingerie, unwil ing to give her an excuse to lose her temper again. What the hel was going on with her? He wondered if he would ever understand her, wondered why he should even want to when he was usual y up and out at the rst sign of complications in an a air. But she had never been moody with him before.
She vanished into a changing room with a bundle of garments.
Ava stripped, glanced in dismay at a couple of tags marked with eye-watering prices and wondered if he was insane to be spending so much money on her when they only had another week together. But it could be a good week just like the rst if she could only stop thinking about the ending that would come with it. Her mouth down curved at the lowering thought that she was certainly in the mood to please as she put on a dress: he liked dresses, dropped hints like bricks around her about feminine clothes, loved her legs. And her bot om and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Just not her! Her eyes p.r.i.c.kled. She couldn"t even blame him. His brother was dead because of what she had done. What she had now with Vito was the most she could ever have because he would never be able to she could ever have because he would never be able to surmount that barrier between them.
Vito"s was not the only male head to turn in the vicinity when Ava reappeared, a slim chic beauty in a form-fit ing dress, jacket and high heels.
"Am I al owed to jump you in the limo?" Vito growled, hot golden eyes pinned to her face.
Ava laughed. She knew she looked good, hadn"t frankly known she could look that good in a new out t and was very aware that she had him and the helpful saleswomen to thank for it because she had virtual y no experience of either choosing or wearing more decorative formal clothes.
"No," she told him, suppressing the memories of Thomas Fitzgerald, her late mother and her wretched childhood. She would get over it, adapt to the new knowledge about herself, much as she had adapted to other things.
Having emerged from the shop, a procession of bags and boxes already piled into the limousine awaiting them, Vito closed an arm round her spine. Suddenly a man cal ed out Vito"s name and he halted in surprise. A blinding ash lit them up and a man with a camera shot them a cheeky smile before taking o into the depths of the mil ing crowds on the pavement.
"My word, why did he want to take a picture of us?"
Ava asked as Vito tucked her into the car.
"He"s probably paparazzi." But the incident sent a "He"s probably paparazzi." But the incident sent a vague sense of unease ltering through Vito because he was not accustomed to that kind of press intrusion in his life. "I can"t imagine why he wanted a photo of us."
"He knew your name. You must get a lot of that sort of at ention," Ava a.s.sumed.
"Usual y only in the business papers and if I have a celebrity on my arm, which is rare these days," Vito confided, a frown drawing his fine ebony brows together.
"I"m a very private person. I don"t know what the source of his interest might have been."
"I hardly think it was me."
"You do look stunning," Vito countered reflectively.
Self-conscious colour lit her fair complexion. In her fancy feathers, she felt ridiculously vulnerable. "Where are we going now?"
"You look stunning. I shal keep on saying it until you acknowledge it, bel a mia."
Ava ignored him. She had earned very few compliments in her life and never knew how to handle them. Deep down inside she thought he only said such things because he believed al women expected it and she despised insincerity.
"I original y planned for us to spend the night in my city apartment."
"Didn"t know you had one."
"It"s handy when I"m ying in late from abroad or "It"s handy when I"m ying in late from abroad or working through the night. But you"re not in the mood for dining and clubbing, are you?" Vito murmured lazily.
"I"m in ful party-p.o.o.per mode," Ava admit ed with a grimace. "Sorry. I"d just like to go-"
"Home," Vito slot ed in. "When situations change, I adapt quickly."
Her ngernails curled in silent protest into the wool jacket on her lap. His home, not hers. The locality had nothing to o er her now. She no longer had a home base. So what had changed? she asked herself irritably, angry that she stil felt so bruised and alone. The people she had believed were her family until earlier that day had long since made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with her anyway, consequently it was over-sensitive to stil be feeling so gut ed about it. Suck it up, she told herself irritably.
Studying the tension etched in her delicate pro le, Vito wanted to shake Ava like a money box the way you do to extract the last stubborn coin. What was wrong with the rational approach of tel ing him what the problem was so that he could sort it out? That would set le things and she would return to normal and stop being so polite and silent. Maybe he should have let her dump him. He had never been dumped. Was that why he was stil with her even though she was being an absolute pain? She was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with his head. He knew she was doing it but had yet to work out how.
she was doing it but had yet to work out how.
Dusk was fal ing by the time Ava mounted the steps to the entrance of Bolderwood Castle. She walked in the big front door and was instantly enfolded in a ridiculously soothing sense of security. A log re was crackling in the huge hal grate, ickering warm inviting shadows over the ornamented garlands and the tal ivy-draped gla.s.s candle vases on the mantelpiece. It looked beautiful and painful y familiar at one and the same time. She could remember roasting chestnuts by the re with Ol y, laughing when he sang a Christmas song o - key. While she was thinking, Harvey hurtled past her and bounced up to greet Vito rst with fawning enthusiasm.
Ava looked on without comment, having already accepted that Harvey was, at heart it seemed, a man"s dog, for as soon as Vito had become a regular xture in Harvey"s life Harvey had firmly at ached himself to him.
"Don"t put hair on me," Vito warned the dog, pat ing his head to make him go away again, but Harvey was a needy dog and he kept on pushing for more.
"He doesn"t shed hair-we think it"s the poodle in him."
"Poodle?" Vito repeated in disbelief, surveying Harvey, who was a large animal by any standards and very disreputable in appearance with his oppy ears and messy curly coat. "Aren"t poodles lit le and fluf y?"
"There are big ones too but ... Harvey is a mongrel."
Harvey looked up at Vito with round brown pleading Harvey looked up at Vito with round brown pleading eyes and nudged his thigh again. Vito sighed heavily. "Al right. He can stay."
Shaken, Ava stared up at him. "For good ... here? Are you serious?"
"I wouldn"t have said it if I wasn"t," Vito imparted wryly.
Ava gave a yelp of delight, hurled herself at Vito and locked her arms round his neck in a display of natural exuberance. "You won"t regret it, Vito. He"s very loyal and loving and he"l protect you if anyone ever threatens you."
Vito stared down at the animated triangle of her face, trans xed by the complete transformation that had taken place. "n.o.body has ever threatened me."
"He"l want to sleep beside your bed."
"That"s an undesirable trait, Ava." But he locked his arms round her slim supple body and drew her up to his level to extract a pa.s.sionate kiss, noting that her bright blue eyes were almost laughably disconcerted by his sudden unexpected a.s.sault. "Of course you can sleep beside my bed any time you like ... but I"d prefer you in it, gioia mia."
In that instant being wanted felt unbelievably wonderful to Ava"s bat ered emotions and in response her own hunger consumed her in a great greedy ood.
As Vito toyed with her soft ful lower lip, teasing, stroking the delicate interior, she angled her head back, stroking the delicate interior, she angled her head back, shamelessly inviting more. With an appreciative growl, he curved his strong hands round her bot om and hoisted her up against him, making her violently aware of the ful ness of his erection.
"Bed ... now," Vito husked against her lush mouth as he carried her upstairs. "I can"t wait ..."
And secure in his arms, Ava wondered when the at raction between them had become so powerful that her body simply reacted without her awareness, the peaks of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s straining ful and tight with arousal, the secret place at the heart of her intensely hot. She could no longer control the desperate urgency and need eating her alive from inside out. He set her down on the bed, where she peeled o her jacket, kicked o her high heels and shimmied out of her dress like a shameless hussy eager to meet her fate. He stood in front of her, stripping, and he didn"t stop until he was naked, a lithe bronzed vision of muscular male perfection, uninhibited in his urgent arousal. He leant over her, crushing and tasting her luscious mouth, his tongue dal ying, delving deep to ramp up her yearning. And throughout that exercise he was undressing her with deft hands, peeling away her new and delicate oral underwear. Long ngers playing with the protruding pink buds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, he made her gasp and part her slender thighs, hips digging into the mat ress beneath her.
"You"re so s.e.xy," he groaned against her swol en mouth when he lifted her up against him, the long thick column when he lifted her up against him, the long thick column of his erection hot against her stomach. "I"ve never wanted a woman like this ... I"m burning up."
He brought her down on her knees on the bed in front of him, reaching down to stimulate the tiny, unbearably sensitive nub at her core. An almost anguished whimper of sound was wrenched from her tight throat. Her breath was coming in shal ow pants, her whole body poised on the edge of an antic.i.p.ation so intense it hurt. He stroked her and she inched, aching and hypersensitive to the caress.
"You"re so ready for me, bel a mia. That real y res me up," Vito growled in her ear as he nudged her thighs further apart, his hands running up and down her slender spine and dropping lower to touch the swol en buds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"Please ..." she moaned, wild with impatience, twisting her head round, catching a glimpse of the smouldering dark golden eyes fixed to her.
His hands rm on her hips Vito thrust into her hard and deep and groaned with earthy satisfaction. Her inner muscles gripped him as a shockwave of amazing sensation engulfed her. She threw back her head and moaned. As he sank into her raw excitement made her heartbeat race. She quivered, insanely receptive to his dominance, and then sobbed as the melting waves of delirious pleasure engul ng her swept her up higher and higher until she reached the ultimate peak. While Vito higher until she reached the ultimate peak. While Vito thrust into her with a nal forceful twist of his hips and a savage shout of release, Ava was shat ered by the power of her own climax. An ecstatic cry tore from her lips and she slid forward onto her stomach, al strength drained from her satiated limbs.
"Your pa.s.sion is the perfect match for mine," Vito breathed with satisfaction, kissing the nape of her neck with lingering appreciation and slowly pul ing back to release her from his weight. Just as suddenly he fel stil again.
Recognising the change in the atmosphere, Ava turned over to stare up into his stunned dark eyes. "What?" she pressed with a frown.
In answer, Vito used his strong hands to turn her back over onto her stomach again. "You nal y took the plaster o ... I had no idea it was hiding a tat oo." A wondering fore nger traced the pat ern of the ink marking on her left hip. It was a heart pierced by an arrow with a name in the centre. His name.
Aghast at the news that she had lost the plaster, guessing it must have come o in the shower that morning, Ava turned over again so fast that she was breathless. "You saw it?" she gasped strickenly, swift hot colour washing up beneath her fair skin as extreme mortification gripped her.
Vito nodded slowly, thoughtful y. "As a rule I"m not into tat oos but I think I can live with you having my into tat oos but I think I can live with you having my name branded on one hip," he breathed tautly, wicked amus.e.m.e.nt ghting to pul at the corners of his rmly control ed mouth. "When did you get that done?"
Her face stil burning with the intensity of her embarra.s.sment, Ava sat up, hugging her knees defensively, her eyes shielded by her lashes. "I was eighteen on a girlie holiday in Spain. It was a drunken dare and I went for it because some of the other girls were get ing stu done and it seemed like a good idea at the time ... but it was very stupid."
"Eighteen?" Vito grimaced. "No, it wasn"t a good idea to have a name put on your body at that age."
"I"ve regret ed it ever since."
Vito closed his arms round her smal tense gure, a wol sh smile suddenly slashing his handsome mouth. "I like it. It appeals to something primitive in me, bel a mia."
"I"l probably save up and get it removed some day,"
Ava mut ered, ignoring his comment.
"You were so young in those days," Vito remarked rueful y.
"But I"m al grown up now," Ava reminded him, keen to drop the subject, that place on her hip stil burning as though she had been touched by a naked ame. As she turned to glance at the clock by the bed she froze and exclaimed, "Oh, no, I was supposed to meet Damien at lunchtime and I total y forgot about him!"
lunchtime and I total y forgot about him!"
"I"l take you to choose a tree tomorrow."
Ava"s mouth fel wide in shock. "You ... wil ?"
A fine ebony brow elevated. "Why not me?"
"Crashing about in the undergrowth looking at trees isn"t real y your thing," Ava chal enged.
Never having been a fan of the great outdoors, Vito didn"t argue with that a.s.sessment. He stretched out beside her in the tumbled sheets and folded her to him with determined hands. "I have no choice. Damien"s trying too hard to get with you."
Her bright blue eyes sparkled with amus.e.m.e.nt. "I can handle Damien. You can be very possessive."
"I"m not the possessive type. Easy come, easy go, that"s me," Vito told her with una.s.sailable a.s.surance and then he frowned, his black brows pleating as he suddenly sat up again to stare down at her in consternation. "I didn"t use a condom!"
Ava winced, unable to hide her dismay or her surprise that he could have been so careless. "I wasn"t thinking either," she sighed in grudging acknowledgement of their mutual pa.s.sion, already engaged in mental y working out where she was in her cycle. "We should be al right, though. It was the wrong time."
"Any time can be dangerous when it comes to conception," Vito countered, his face taut with disquiet.
"Accidenti! I was so excited I forgot-that"s never happened to me before."
happened to me before."
"There"s always a rst time. I think we"l get away with it," Ava rea.s.sured.
Too shaken by his oversight, Vito said nothing. He could not believe that even in the heat of pa.s.sion he had overlooked the need for precautions. He had never made that mistake before. There was something about Ava that destroyed his usual innate caution. Unlike her, however, he wasn"t an eternal optimist and he was already thinking, What if she"s pregnant? If it happened, he would deal with it. After al , he was not a panic-stricken teenaged boy.
The next morning, Ava looked in growing wonderment at the vast col ection of clothes that l ed the boxes, garment bags and carriers in one corner of her bedroom.
What on earth had come over Vito? She was only with him another week and he had bought her more clothes than she could wear out in several years of sustained use!
While she stowed away the garments she selected a pair of jeans, wool en sweater and a quilted jacket to wear and quickly got dressed to go down for breakfast.
"Happy birthday," Vito declared from his stance by the replace, where a crackling re took the chil from the room. "Are you sure you want to choose the tree today?