Yet she had given herself to him with absolute trust and told him she wanted him to be the first man to make love to her. He couldn’t believe that had meant nothing to her. She had chosen to give her virginity to him, and every time they had made love these past weeks she had given herself so sweetly. so lovingly—as if she wanted to show him with her body what she did not have the courage to say in words.
So why had she left? He raked a hand through his hair. It didn’t make sense. He must be wrong. Maybe he’d imagined that soft look in her eyes because he’d wanted to see it.
‘You make me happy,’ she’d once told him. Surely she wouldn’t have said it unless she’d meant it? Beth was fiercely honest; it was one of the qualities he loved most about her—that and her gentle smile and her beautiful green eyes, the way she stroked his hair in those moments of sweet lethargy after they had made love.
Love! Cesario gave a hollow laugh. It was an emotion he had been denied during his childhood and it had been missing for most of his adult life. He had loved his son, but Nicolo’s death had nearly destroyed him and he had vowed never to love anyone again when he knew how much pain it could bring.
He was in pain now; there was a terrible ache in his chest, a wrenching sensation of loss. But one thought drummed in his head. He had made Beth happy once and he was not going to let her go without trying to find out what had gone wrong. Determination replaced his despair and he jumped to his feet and strode to the door to call Teodoro.
‘I need to fly to England tonight. See if you can book me onto a flight, and arrange for the helicopter to take me to the airport.’
* * *
The road that twisted up the mountainside was dappled gold from the setting sun, and the great jagged peaks all around were stained fiery orange. As the taxi turned a bend the Castello del Falco appeared, ancient and mellow in the fading light, its gates flung wide open as if they were welcoming Beth home.
The taxi drew up in the courtyard and the driver unloaded her bags while she lifted Sophie in her baby-carrier from the car. He was the same man who had driven her from the castle down to Oliena the previous day, and he was clearly intrigued.
‘You will stay here for long?’ he queried in broken English.
Beth gave him a tremulous smile. ‘I hope so.’ She did not add that if the master of the Castello del Falco refused to see her she would need the taxi driver’s services again. There was a good chance that Cesario would not want to listen to her, but she had to try.
Waiting for her flight at the airport yesterday, she had finally faced up to why she had left him. She had been too scared to stay. The job opportunity had provided a good excuse for taking Sophie back to England. But the real reason she had run away was because she was afraid to accept the relationship Cesario had offered her, with all the uncertainty that being his mistress would mean.
Like a spoilt child, she had been disappointed that he hadn’t offered what she had secretly hoped for. He hadn’t acted like Prince Charming in the fairy tale and declared his undying love for her, then swept her off to a church to put a ring on her finger. But he was a man, not a fantasy character. A man, moreover, who had known pain and loss and who had been taught to hide his emotions.
Despite his past and his self-acknowledged difficulty in revealing his emotions Cesario had admitted that she made him happy. He had said he wanted a relationship with her, and just because he hadn’t said it with hearts and flowers she had put her pride before her love for him and gone away to sulk.
She had never told him how she felt about him, Beth thought guiltily. Maybe he wouldn’t want to hear her confess her feelings for him, and maybe he would tell her he did not want a mistress who was in love with him, but that was a risk she would have to take—because she wasn’t ashamed of loving him and she was no longer prepared to hide her feelings.
* * *
Teodoro could not hide his surprise when he opened the front door and saw Beth. ‘The master is at the stables,’ he told her as she handed him the baby carrier in which Sophie was fast asleep. ‘You should hurry to find him,’ he called after her as she ran down the castle steps. ‘He is due to leave for England this evening.’
The way to the stables was familiar to her now, but when she arrived Cesario wasn’t there. Heart thumping, she continued up the mountain path—but stopped dead when a figure hove into view.
He was astride his great black horse, a dark silhouette against the setting sun. But as he approached his features became visible; his face was as hard as if it had been carved from granite, the scar running down his cheek half hidden by his long dark hair. From the proud set of his shoulders and the arrogant angle of his head he might have been a king from ancient times, powerful, inscrutable and as uncompromising as the mountains behind him.
He halted on the path a little way ahead of Beth, and even from a distance she could see the fierce tension that gripped him.
‘You came back.’
The words sounded as though they had been torn from his soul. For a few moments he regarded her silently, before he dismounted and strode towards her.
Beth watched him—the master of the Castello del Falco, the only man she would ever love. She had planned to remain calm and discuss their relationship sensibly. But as Cesario came closer and she saw the haunted expression in his eyes her composure cracked, and with an agonised cry she flew along the path and into his arms.
‘Dio, if you ever leave me again.’ Cesario’s voice broke as he crushed her against his great chest and threaded his fingers in her hair.
His eyes blazed with an expression she was afraid to define. How had she ever thought them cold? she wondered. But then all her thoughts were obliterated when he claimed her mouth with savage possession and kissed her endlessly, passionately, and yet with such exquisite tenderness that tears slid down her face.
‘Tesoro…’ He tasted salt on her lips and his hands shook as he brushed away the trails of moisture from her cheeks. ‘Why did you leave? I was about to fly to England tonight to find you.’
His words brought Beth crashing back to reality and she pulled away from him. It was time to be honest. But her voice faltered when she spoke.
‘I got to the airport before I realised I couldn’t run away,’ she admitted.
‘Why did you feel you needed to run from me?’ Cesario demanded in a driven tone. ‘You told me I made you happy, and we both know you are incapable of lying, carissima. Are you really interested in the job as a nanny, or is there another reason you want to go back? Tell me, is there some man in England you care about?’ He voiced the jealous thought that burned like acid in his gut. ‘If so, then why did you choose me to be your first lover?’
Beth’s heart ached at the raw emotion in his voice. She stared at his scarred, beloved face and could not deny her feelings to herself or to him.
‘There is no one else. And there never will be—because I love you,’ she told him fiercely, ‘with all my heart. For the first time in my life I have felt special. I was always the care home kid—unimportant, unloved. But since I came to the Castello del Falco you’ve treated me with kindness and respect and trust. You made me feel beautiful and. and proud of who I am.’ Her voice shook. ‘For all those things, and more, I will love you for ever.’
Whatever else she might have said was lost beneath the pressure of Cesario’s mouth on hers as he held her so close that she could feel the thunderous beat of his heart echoing in time with her own. He kissed her until she sank weakly against him, parting her lips beneath his and kissing him back with beguiling sweetness, so that Cesario did not know if it was her tears he could taste or his own.
‘Ti amo, Beth. I love you with my heart and soul and everything I am,’ he said roughly, his voice