each one the worst and the longest in Shannay’s life.
Nothing else came close.
Then two things happened almost simultaneously.
Marcello’s cellphone rang … and seconds later he smiled.
Hope soared as she waited anxiously for him to relay news, and when he did it was all she could do not to subside in a heap.
Nicki was safe.
Carlo had her.
Their abductors had been forced to a halt at a police roadblock on the northern outskirts.
Nicki was in Carlo’s care, and their abductors were under arrest.
Reaction, immense relief … the emotional fall-out from a living nightmare began to have an effect, and tears welled up and spilled to run silently down each cheek.
Marcello took one look and cradled her face between his hands, easing the warm moisture with each thumb.
‘Nicki is fine. They’re on their way home in a police car. We’ll meet them there.’
She wasn’t capable of uttering so much as a word, and he lowered his head to hers and pressed his lips to each eyelid in turn.
A gesture which only increased the flow of tears, and his mouth closed over her own in a brief, evocative kiss before he lifted his head.
‘Let’s go home, hmm?’
Shannay was grateful for the arm he curved across the back of her waist as he led her to his car. Seated, he spared her a brief glance, glimpsed her still pale features and dark eyes fixed unseeing beyond the windscreen and he swore softly beneath his breath.
‘Let it go, querida,’ he advised gently, and she turned towards him with tear-drenched eyes.
‘How can I?’ Her mouth quivered with emotion. ‘What if Carlo—?’ She couldn’t say the words. Didn’t want to voice them.
‘From tomorrow, Carlo will have a partner, and they’ll both shadow your every move.’
If he meant to reassure, he failed miserably.
Two bodyguards.
The thought of always needing protection freaked her out. Never being able to make a spontaneous decision.
She didn’t want Nicki to grow up always on the defensive, intensely cautious and wary.
Heaven knew what effect this afternoon’s episode would have, or the long-term toll it might take.
‘I’ll ensure it will never happen again,’ Marcello vowed quietly, and she shot him a disbelieving look.
‘You can’t promise that. We both know Nicki has become a target.’
There were choices.
And she knew which one she had to make.
Nicki appeared subdued and clung to each of them in turn the instant they entered the foyer.
Carlo was there, so too was Maria, as well as a plain-clothes policewoman who spent considerable time talking with Nicki. A psychology tool which undoubtedly helped, and afterwards Marcello took Carlo aside for an in-depth rundown of the abduction.
Shannay couldn’t bear to let Nicki out of her sight, and she bathed her, then she picked at a salad while encouraging Nicki to eat.
Together with Marcello, they shared reading a bedtime story, and afterwards she remained at Nicki’s bedside long after her daughter fell asleep.
It was late when Marcello returned to the room and hunkered down beside the chair.
‘Come to bed,’ he bade quietly. ‘Nicki is perfectly safe.’
‘I need to be here if she wakes.’
‘The sensors monitor every sound. We’ll hear the instant she stirs.’
She looked at him in the dimmed lighting and slowly shook her head. ‘I can’t.’
He remained silent for several telling seconds, then he rose to his full height and walked from the room.
She wanted to cry, but she was all teared out, and she sat staring into space, living and reliving the afternoon from the moment before Nicki disappeared, trying to pin down something … anything that would provide a visual clue so she could correlate it in her mind with the facts Carlo had relayed.
Shannay wasn’t aware of falling asleep, only that she woke with a start, experienced a moment of disorientation before she recognised her whereabouts.
She checked Nicki, then turned towards the chair … only to hesitate. Her neck felt stiff, and she was cold. Not from the room’s temperature, but chilled and shaky from emotional exhaustion.
Even in bed she couldn’t get warm, and after what seemed an age spent tossing and turning she moved quietly out onto the gallery, contemplated going down to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, then changed her mind.
‘Unable to sleep?’
She hadn’t heard a sound or sensed any movement, yet Marcello was there, large and indomitable in the dim gallery light.
‘I looked in on Nicki, and decided to check on you,’ he offered quietly, and uttered a soft imprecation as a shiver shook her slim frame.
With an unconscious movement she wrapped her arms round her midriff in the hope it would minimise the shaking … without success, and the next instant he swept her into his arms and carried her to the master suite.
‘I’m fine,’ Shannay muttered as he slid into bed and drew her with him.
‘Sure you are.’ The soft oath whispered in the night air as he began smoothing his hands over her limbs, stimulating circulation with brisk sweeping movements, until the shivering slowly eased and warmth invaded her body.
She should leave, and she meant to … except she was reluctant to part from the compassion he offered, the security of being held in strong arms, and the touch of his lips against her forehead.
It felt so good to breathe in the familiar scent of him, the faint tinge of soap he’d used mingling with the muskiness of male.
It crept into her senses, as powerful as any aphrodisiac, stirring alive the hunger for his touch, and she murmured indistinctly as she pressed her lips into the warm skin, savoured a little, then slid her hand down his arm to rest on his hip.
Marcello tilted her chin and sought her mouth with his own, gently at first, taking it slow with an evocative slide of his tongue along her longer lip, felt her mouth part, allowing him entry, and the tentative welcome as her tongue moved to tease his own, sweetly cajoling in an elemental dance that could have only one ending.
He fought to control his arousal, knowing that if he didn’t it would be over before it began, and she needed a slow loving, a subtle, drifting touch that took
