Just thinking of her lips on him sent Pietro’s blood surging low, awakening a heavy tension in his groin.
He lifted his arm off the bed and shoved his hands in his pockets.
It was a relief he’d been able to comfort her. She’d clearly been frightened and trying hard not to show it, but his touch had helped.
He told himself he was doing the right thing. Of course he was. He’d had to act quickly and there’d been no other option. If he’d thought ahead, he’d have anticipated the complication that had forced his hand. But he hadn’t been thinking clearly for days.
Pietro Agosti prided himself on his ethics, his honour. Some accused him of ruthlessness, primarily those he’d bested in a business deal or, very occasionally, an ex-lover who hadn’t believed him when he’d declared he was only interested in a short-term affair.
He was honest, sometimes brutally so.
Which meant that what he did now, what he was about to do, cut across his personal code of behaviour.
Cut across! His mouth lifted in a cynical smile. Why not call a spade a spade? He was blatantly lying.
But it had to be this way, at least for now.
Pietro stifled the carping voice of his conscience. He refused to feel guilty about doing the right thing for all concerned.
It wasn’t as if he was going to harm her. On the contrary, his aim was to care for her, look after her, during a time when, surely anyone would agree, she most needed his help.
He did what he did because there was no alternative.
THE LIMOUSINE WAS sleek and almost silent as it glided away from the hospital and onto the city streets.
Molly avoided looking at Pietro sitting beside her. Doubt about their relationship filled her. She told herself it would cease with time and familiarity. Yet it was unnerving. She didn’t feel up to breaking the silence, especially after the wearing bustle of departing from the hospital. It was scary how weak she felt. How isolated from everyone.
She peered ahead of her, hoping for a sight of something, anything that might jog a memory.
There was nothing. Her heart sank as the car made its way through a city that was unfamiliar to her.
It’s too soon. They all said not to expect anything yet.
But she couldn’t push aside the unpalatable cocktail of excitement, fear and impatience. She’d hoped that once she got out of the hospital room, that had become both prison and refuge, memories would crowd back.
The sun shone and it was a warm day, judging by the clothes of the people on the street. In the air-conditioned car it felt cool. Or maybe that was because of the stilted atmosphere here behind the privacy screen that separated the driver from his passengers.
There’d been no ecstatic reunion with her husband. Nothing but a guarded kindness. Such as when he’d come to her bed last night and held her hand till she’d fallen asleep.
There hadn’t even been a kiss!
What sort of marriage did they have?
She wasn’t scared of Pietro. She’d never have gone with him if that were the case. But still he made her feel edgy.
Molly told herself he was simply a man who didn’t show his feelings in public, and there’d been staff fussing about them all morning. Even the head of the hospital had made an appearance, shaking Signor Agosti’s hand and all but bowing them out of the building.
Besides, Molly was injured. It was natural Pietro would treat her carefully rather than sweep her into his arms and kiss her senseless.
Her cheeks fired at the idea. How would it feel, being scooped up against that hard, lean body?
She’d dreamed of him in the night, of his hand holding hers as she lay in her narrow hospital bed. In her dream that hard, gentle hand had touched her elsewhere, exploring thoroughly, driving her wild with an urgent, carnal hunger. Molly had woken, damp between the legs and hot all over, in an empty room.
Was that memory or imagination? Pietro knew her body well enough to describe her appendix scar. Maybe what she’d considered an erotic dream was a memory. Perhaps it was part of her brain’s reawakening.
‘How are you doing?’ Pietro’s deep voice set off a shuddery response inside Molly, as if she was still in the grip of that erotic dream. ‘Is the temperature okay for you?’
Her blush intensified because he’d noticed it.
That was another thing: Pietro watched her continually. Molly told herself it was good that he was concerned for her comfort and so solicitous.
‘It’s just right. Thanks.’ Deliberately she made herself turn to the man beside her on the back seat.
In broad daylight he was just as dauntingly, devastatingly good-looking. Like one of the beautiful people you saw splashed on the pages of magazines and TV shows about the rich and famous.
Not that she’d describe him as beautiful. That arrogant nose and no-nonsense jaw were powerful rather than pretty, and his expression of reserve and cool consideration proclaimed he was nobody’s fool.
Yet Pietro had sat holding her hand last night till she’d fallen asleep. He’d been uncomplaining this morning as they’d waited for the results of yet more tests. Then he’d sat through a long consultation with every doctor on the premises, it seemed, plus senior administrators. Molly was convinced so many staff had appeared because Pietro Agosti had been there.
He was a VIP yet she knew nothing about him. He’d kept the conversation focused on her, her chances of recovery, symptoms and care. There’d been no chance for private conversation. There had been too many people around.
‘How did you find me?’ She fixed on those golden-brown eyes looking back at her.
‘My people were searching for you.’
‘Your people?’
‘My staff.’
‘You have staff?’ As soon as the words spilled out, she felt foolish. Of course he had staff. This was a private limousine and Pietro knew the driver’s first name. Plus there must be someone keeping his clothes in such pristine order. Molly couldn’t picture him pressing his shirt and shining his own shoes to that mirror gloss before stepping out of the door.
He shrugged. ‘I run a company. I assigned some trusted staff to help.’ Not a small company, then.
‘You didn’t just look for me yourself?’ She’d pictured her partner scouring the city for her.
Pietro’s expression turned grim. ‘You disappeared. It wasn’t a one-man job. I employed an investigation firm too.’ His voice grew even more clipped and Molly realised with a burst of relief that must be how Pietro dealt with emotion, by keeping it tightly leashed.
Maybe she’d been influenced by that popular image of Italians as extroverted about their feelings. Clearly Pietro wasn’t. He did that whole controlled, macho thing to perfection. But it warmed her heart to know he’d been worried about her.
‘How did I disappear?’
‘Sorry?’ His eyes narrowed, as if taken by surprise.
‘How come you didn’t know where I was?’ Pietro stared back silently. ‘I take it I didn’t just pop out for a carton of milk?’
‘You went to Rome and—’