style="font-size:15px;"> She turned to him. “How would you like to do something fun?”
He cocked his dark head. “What kind of a ridiculous question is that to ask a man alone with a beautiful woman?”
“Just checking,” she teased and got back in the boat with her heart thudding in her chest. “If you’re game for a bumpy ride, I know a place where the food is divine. By boat it will take us about an hour and a half. When we get there we’ll enjoy an early dinner and stay overnight.”
“That good, hmm?”
“Yes.”
“Only if you’ll let me drive us. So far you’ve done all the work.”
“I don’t mind, but if that’s what you want.”
“It’ll relieve my guilt.”
“Over what?”
“I like to feel useful.”
“You were amazingly useful when you pushed all the boats off the sand. You reminded me of Hercules.”
His deep laughter resounded in the air.
“I’m not kidding. They would have had a terrible time in this wind without your help.”
“If I impressed you, then it was worth the pain.”
Her eyes scrutinized him from head to toe. “You did it so effortlessly, I doubt there’s a sore muscle in your body.”
He returned her gaze, sending the color flooding into her cheeks. “I guess it comes from both of us living in and out of the water.”
She looked down. “Would you believe I still need to get out of my wet suit?”
“Do you need help?”
She felt the blush break out on her face. “I think I can handle it.”
“While you do that I’ll push us off and we’ll get going.”
Her chest fluttered as she hurried below deck to change and freshen up. After ascertaining that her parents had left her aunt’s and had gone back to the castle, she joined Rini. He’d changed clothes and was seated in the captain’s chair wearing his life preserver. “Tell me where to go.”
Alessandra reached in the cubbyhole for her regular map and opened it, but the wind made it difficult to keep steady. “We’re here. Keep following the coast past Metaponto, then we’ll cut a diagonal and head straight for Taranto.”
“That’s where your aunt lives?”
“Yes. Our mother’s titled family descends from the Duca di Taranto, although the title is now defunct, like my father’s.”
“Ah. It’s all making sense.” He put the map back and handed her a life preserver. “Sit across from me so we can talk.”
She grinned. “Aye, aye, sir, but I don’t think we’ll be able to hear each other.”
“As long as we’re together, I don’t care.”
The man could read her mind. She sat on the banquette and stared out at a sea full of white caps. The moderate swells slowed them down, but she was having the time of her life. Since he hadn’t vacationed in a year, Alessandra suspected he was happy, too, especially after he was the one to have picked the area where they’d made an underwater find. Every time he looked at her, his dark eyes burned with charged energy, melting her to the spot.
Outside Metaponto he stopped long enough to switch gas tanks. “I remember seeing Taranto’s naval base and shipyards from the air.”
“Then you know it’s a big commercial city and port. Our Taranto relatives live in one of the eighteenth-century palazzi in the old town center. I’ve let my aunt know we’re coming to see her. She broke her hip and has a nurse around the clock, but she loves visitors. Be warned she’ll insist we eat dinner with her before we leave.”
“I don’t want to impose.”
“She’ll love it, Rini. Since you’re a seafood lover, get ready to enjoy the most luscious roasted oysters you’ve ever eaten in your life. The cook prepares them in a special sauce followed by sea-bream-and-mussel soup. It’s out of this world. Mother would steal her if she could.”
He eyed her speculatively. “What’s the other reason you’re taking me there?”
You could never fool a man like Rini.
“She’s mother’s brilliant older sister by nine years and was married to a general who died two years ago. When Mamma was thirty, she almost died giving birth to me and Dea. Fulvia couldn’t have children and was there to do everything. She won my father’s devotion. As I told you earlier, her opinion goes a long way with both of them. I’d like you to tell her your business ideas for developing the property.”
His features sobered. “Are you saying your mother doesn’t approve?”
“I’m afraid not. Both of them were raised to be purists and believe that the former papal legacy should remain untouched.”
“What about your opinion, Alessandra?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve listened to my father and think your idea is an important one. If a lot of oil is found, it will help the economy. But what’s important is what Zia Fulvia has to say.”
Those dark eyes searched hers. “Why are you trying to help me?”
A good question. “I believe in you and an even playing field.”
“I’m humbled by your faith in me.” He rubbed his jaw where the shadow of his beard was showing. She thought him irresistible. “Will I find her difficult?”
“Yes.”
She loved the bark of laughter that came out of him.
“But you told me you like snags because they make life more exciting.”
When he smiled, she felt herself falling toward him. “I did say that, didn’t I? Let’s go and get this over with. It couldn’t be worse than a visit to the dentist.”
Alessandra kept chuckling as the cruiser pounded the white water on its way to Taranto. She’d never met anyone with a sense of humor like his. He was getting to her with every minute they spent together.
Due to the wind they made slow progress. It was after five when they passed through the outer and inner sea to pull into the private dock reserved for her aunt’s family. Alessandra called for the limo that drove them to the Taranto palazzo in the old town.
“Tarantos have lived here for over four hundred years,” she explained as they turned into the courtyard with its fountain supported by Taras, the son of Poseidon from Greek mythology. “You’ll think you’ve entered a fabulous museum. Fulvia and Mamma were raised princesses and Fulvia still lives like one.”
“She won’t shudder
