are not?’
Her tongue appeared between her teeth and he felt the sudden tightness in his loins as she wet her lips. ‘You’re sure you’re not just saying that?’
‘No.’ He hunkered down beside her, one hand moving of its own accord to cup her cheek. He tilted her face to his. ‘Believe me, cara, at this moment there is no place I would rather be than here.’ His eyes darkened as they rested on her mouth. But only for a second. He was on dangerous ground, he realised, aware of what he really wanted to do. Withdrawing his hand abruptly, he got to his feet again, looking down at her. ‘Bene,’ he said tensely. ‘Enjoy the rest of your meal. I will not be long.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Where are you going?’
Rafe stifled a groan. He wondered how she would react if he told her the truth. That he was desperate to put some space between them before he did something unforgivable. He didn’t just want to stroke her cheek or make casual conversation as they’d done in the car. He wanted to put his tongue where hers had been a few moments ago, to cover her mouth with his and find a partial release of his frustration in a kiss.
‘I thought I might take a walk,’ he offered at last. ‘I need to stretch my legs.’ And cool my libido.
Tess’s eyes moved from his constrained features to the undulating water and he glimpsed the wistful look that crossed her face. But, ‘Okay,’ was all she said and it was left to Rafe to feel a heel for behaving so callowly. He’d brought her here, per amor di Dio. It wasn’t her fault that he couldn’t control his rampant desires.
‘Io—come with me. If you wish,’ he said, before he could stop himself, and she sprang eagerly to her feet.
‘You don’t mind?’ she asked, dropping the carton containing the remains of her salad onto the sand. He gave a faint smile of acquiescence. It seemed the decision had been made and he would have to live with it. It wasn’t as if he wanted to leave her alone.
Tess left her shoes with the rest of their belongings, practically skipping across the sand to dip her toes in the cooler waters of the gulf. She shivered dramatically, laughing as the incoming tide swirled about her ankles. She was like a child, he thought ruefully. As natural and uninhibited as his own children had been before adolescence, and their mother’s desertion, had had such an impact on all their lives.
‘Oh, this is heavenly,’ Tess said, linking her fingers together and stretching her arms above her head in obvious delight. ‘Thank you so much for bringing me.’
‘I am happy you are enjoying yourself,’ he said politely, forcing himself not to linger. He was quite sure she was unaware of the effect she had on him but it was far too easy to imagine his hands circling that deliriously bare midriff as he tumbled her onto the sand.
Unknowingly, he had quickened his step and by the time he realised it and glanced over his shoulder Tess was some distance behind him. She was following much more slowly, splashing through the shallows, her delight in her surroundings apparently dissipated by his indifference. Once again he felt the familiar pangs of guilt. It wasn’t fair of him to spoil the day for her.
Despite his reluctance, he waited for her to catch up with him, but now she wouldn’t meet his gaze. She halted beside him, her eyes seemingly glued to the yacht that was now disappearing over the horizon. She had obviously sensed his ambivalence and misread the reasons for it.
‘What is wrong?’ he asked, as if he genuinely didn’t know. ‘It is very hot, is it not? Have you had enough?’
‘Have you?’
Her retort caught him unawares and he didn’t have an answer for her. ‘It is—getting late,’ he said lamely, although it was barely three o’clock. ‘I would not want you to get burned.’
She lifted first one arm and then the other, looking at them as if she hadn’t considered them before. But she didn’t look convinced. Despite the fact that the skin of her shoulders looked slightly sore, she gave a careless shrug. ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ she said without conviction. ‘If it’s what you want.’
Rafe stiffened. ‘What I want does not signify.’
‘Oh, I think it does.’ He caught a glimpse of indignant green eyes, quickly averted. ‘I should have realised before. When you said you were going for a walk. You didn’t really want me to come with you, did you?’
‘Io—’ Rafe was nonplussed. He hadn’t realised he had been so transparent. ‘That is not true.’
‘I don’t believe you, signore.’ She used the term deliberately, he was sure, and it infuriated him. ‘All this—buying the food, bringing me down here—was just a way of appeasing your conscience.’
Rafe’s jaw dropped. ‘Appeasing my conscience?’ he echoed, stung by the accusation. ‘Why should I feel the need to appease my conscience? I have not done anything wrong.’
Yet.
‘You feel as if you have,’ said Tess doggedly, and for a moment he wondered if she’d read what he was thinking. He hoped not. And, to his relief, she seemed to confirm it. ‘You think you’ve upset both your daughter and me,’ she continued. ‘So you decided to pacify one of us with a peace-offering. In this case, an hour of your precious time, right?’
‘Wrong.’ He was annoyed by the objectivity of her reasoning. Not least, because it was so far removed from the truth. ‘When I invited you to have lunch with me, it was because I wanted to. Not for any other reason.’
‘So why do you want to cut the afternoon short?’ she asked impulsively. ‘Am I keeping you from some important previous engagement?’
‘No.’ His breath gushed out in a rush. ‘I am sorry if I have given you that impression.’
‘Well, what else can I think when you seem determined to avoid me?’ she countered, looking up at him now with a wary, uncertain gaze. ‘You seem to—to blow hot and cold in equal measures. I—well, I don’t know how you really feel’
Rafe’s good sense deserted him. ‘I was not trying to avoid you,’ he said huskily. ‘If it seemed that I was—and I am admitting nothing, you understand?—perhaps it was because I find you far too—appealing, no?’
He’d shocked her now. He could see it in the face that she turned up to him. But, what the hell, he’d shocked himself, and that was far more disturbing.
‘You don’t mean that,’ she said, and he knew that this was his last opportunity to escape the consequences of his outburst. He had only to tell her he was teasing and he might be able to get out of this unscathed.
But he didn’t do it.
‘I do mean it,’ he said, the words coming even though his brain was trying desperately to silence him. ‘You are—enchanting. And beautiful. And I would not be a man if I did not find you desirable, mi amore.’
Her lips parted then, and, although he sensed she was as uncertain of the good sense of what they were doing as he was, she didn’t move away. Instead, she came a little nearer, her toes brushing the front of his loafers, those clear green eyes keenly searching his face. Almost involuntarily, it seemed, she lifted her hand and stroked the roughening skin of his jawline,
