‘What are we having?’ she asked, wrenching her mind away from the interlude in the rain.
‘A special dinner for a special guest. I hope you will enjoy it.’
‘I’m sure I will. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten here, right down to the ham panino in a bar near the Rialto.’
‘I trust that you ate this standing up! Otherwise the cost is doubled.’
‘I knew that.’ She chuckled. ‘I can’t tell you what a relief it was to sit down when we had breakfast together.’
He laughed. ‘I enjoyed this also in your company. Normally I breakfast alone.’
‘In London I don’t have any at all.’
‘That is not good for one who works hard, cara,’ he said, frowning.
‘I know, but I get up early and just can’t face anything at that hour.’ She turned to smile up at him. ‘But I can face dinner tonight any time you like.’
‘Then we shall eat at once.’
Revelling in the domesticity in the situation, Laura followed behind with bread and salad while Domenico transferred an enormous platter of seafood from his refrigerator to the dining room table.
‘A smaller version is served as antipasti,’ he informed her, ‘but I thought you would like it as a main course.’
‘I certainly will!’ Laura watched in awe as he dressed the impressive array with olive oil and lemon juice. ‘Lobster, prawns, crab, mussels—but what are the other things, Domenico?’
‘Small squid, also various shellfish found only here in the lagoon.’ He held a chair for her. ‘Sit, signorina.’ He flicked out one of the linen napkins and laid it over her lap, then filled their wineglasses, and as the final touch lit the candles.
Laura smiled ruefully as he took the seat opposite. ‘I’m going to miss all this when I’m scrambling eggs back in London. Think of me now and then at dinner time, Domenico.’
‘I shall think of you a great deal more than that!’ He looked into her eyes. ‘I hope you also will think of me.’
She held his gaze steadily. ‘You can safely count on that.’
‘Bene.’ He smiled. ‘Now, let us think no more of meals apart and enjoy the one we are eating together.’
Laura enjoyed it all the more for eating it alone with him as they lingered over the meal. ‘This is so much better than a restaurant,’ she said with satisfaction. ‘Give my compliments to your friend the chef.’
‘I will. Though it is not the food that makes the evening special for me, Laura.’ Domenico got to his feet, holding out his hand. ‘Come, let us sit in the salotto.’
‘First we clear away,’ she said sternly, ‘and this time I help.’
‘You know I have a machine to wash dishes,’ he protested.
‘All we need do is load it, then!’
‘Are you happy now?’ demanded Domenico, when they sat down together later.
She turned to him with a lazy smile. ‘Right now I’m very happy indeed.’
He gave a sigh of deep satisfaction. ‘I, also. This has been a very good day.’
‘Was it strange for you, Domenico? Doing so many tourist things?’
‘I enjoyed it very much. With you for company, Laura, how could I not?’
‘You say the nicest things!’
He was silent for a while, staring down at his handsome shoes, but at last he drew in a deep breath and turned to her. ‘I have something else to say, but perhaps you will not think it so nice.’
‘What is it?’ she said apprehensively.
His eyes darkened. ‘I am in love with you, Laura.’
She sat very still, her heart thumping so loudly she was sure he must be able to hear it.
‘Say something, tesoro,’ he said urgently.
‘We’ve only just met,’ she said at last.
‘This matters?’
‘You can’t say it was love at first sight!’
‘E vero! You were not impressed by me.’
‘I was, really,’ she confessed. ‘When a handsome Italian spoke to me at the airport I was quite excited for a moment—until I realised he was desperate to get rid of me.’
‘I came to seek you out afterwards,’ he reminded her.
‘Only to impress me with your charm and good looks!’
Domenico leaned nearer. ‘Did I succeed, carissima?’
Her eyes dropped. ‘It was good to have company on my first night in Venice.’
‘Yet you did not allow me to escort you back to the hotel.’
‘You were so sure I’d say yes, I just had to say no,’ she said frankly.
He laughed. ‘So. I admit I did not fall in love with you at first sight, but I can tell you the exact moment when I did.’
Laura leaned closer. ‘When you kissed me that first time?’
‘That is when it began, perhaps. But the moment of truth came next morning at the hotel.’ He traced a finger down her cheek. ‘You ran down the stairs to me, flushed and smiling and so desirable it was a very good thing Signora Rossi was behind her desk.’
She took in a deep, unsteady breath. ‘Then why turn me down when I offered to kiss you last night?’
Domenico’s fingers tightened on hers. ‘I think you know this very well.’
They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then as though two giant hands had propelled them together they were in each other’s arms, his mouth on hers in a kiss she felt right down to her toes. At the touch of his tongue on hers she responded with such fire Domenico lifted her onto his lap, caressing the curve of her breasts through the thin black fabric, and Laura breathed in sharply, arching into the touch of his hands as his kiss grew fiercer. She shivered in delight when his fingers found bare skin and threw her head back in total abandon as his mouth moved down her throat. When his lips reached the warm hollow between her breasts Domenico was utterly still for a moment before his mouth returned to hers and crushed it with a kiss that made her head reel. Then he set her on her feet and strode to the window, his back turned.
‘I will not do this, Laura,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I want you. Dio, how I want you! But if I take you now you will believe I talked of my feelings only to seduce you.’
‘You mean you’re afraid Lorenzo Forli would sack you if he found out,’ she snapped, utterly mortified by another rejection. She caught her breath in dismay as Domenico turned on her, transformed in a heartbeat from lover into a cold, hostile stranger. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said penitently, backing away. ‘That didn’t come out the way I intended.’
His smile chilled her to the bone. ‘You made your meaning very clear. You are mistaken, however. I have no fear of losing my job. I simply believe it would be wrong to make love to a woman who is not only alone in Venice, but also placed in my care. You come from a different culture, so perhaps this is hard for you to understand. Come. I shall take you back.’
‘Domenico—’
He threw up a hand, silencing her very effectively, his eyes hard and cold, like ovals of translucent blue glass. After a tense moment Laura