Unguarded Moment (17 page)

She was wearing a cream cheesecloth tunic over a bikini, and her hair gleamed in the sunshine.

'
Buon giorno
, Alix! Did you sleep well? I've been looking for you. I thought you might be here. It is a romantic place, and you, I think, are a romantic person.'

Alix returned her smile, shaking her head in slight confusion.

'I don't think so. If anything, I'm too prosaic.'

'I think you do yourself an injustice.' Paola looked her over. 'But not, however, this morning. You look very beautiful. You should not be walking here alone.'

'I enjoy my own company,' Alix returned defensively. 'I came here because my window overlooks this part of the grounds, and I wanted to explore it.'

Paola gave a little shrug. 'It is old, of course. Older than the house. Carlo's wife loved this garden, and persuaded him to buy the property, even though it was little better than a ruin. He built the house for her, but sadly she died not many years after it was finished.'

Alix gave her a quick glance. 'I'm sorry, I didn't know.'

'Why should you? Carlo does not often speak of it.'

'And he's never considered—remarrying?' Alix asked.

Paola's eyes twinkled. 'Do you mean—will he marry me? No,
cara
. It is not what either of us wish.'

'I didn't mean to pry,' Alix said ruefully, but Paola's expression remained friendly and smiling.

'It is natural you should be interested, as we are all living under the same roof. One would have to be a saint, probably, not to ask certain questions.'

'I lay no claim to sanctity,' Alix laughed. 'But I really hadn't the least idea. In fact I thought…' She stopped in some confusion as she remembered exactly what she had thought.

'If you didn't guess, then someone must have told you.' Paola gave her a mischievous look. 'I am no saint either, and I also like to ask questions, therefore I don't think it was Liam. When Carlo and I came down to the pool yesterday, I picked up certain—vibrations which led me to believe you were discussing no one but yourselves. Well, am I right?'

Alix flushed. 'Partly,' she admitted with constraint.

'And I do not think it was your aunt,' Paola continued serenely. 'Because all she is concerned with is who is going to play Francesca.'

'Why do you call Bianca my aunt?' Alix asked apprehensively.

Paola shrugged gracefully. 'Isn't that who she is? She said you were her cousin, but that's what Carlo calls me, so I assumed it was a fiction also. Yet you must be related, because you are so like her—so the obvious answer seems to be that you're her niece. Why? Is it a closely guarded secret?'

'It used to be,' Alix said with a sigh. 'Now it seems to be common knowledge. But I'm not really like her.'

'No? Haven't you seen any photographs of her when she was a young girl? Carlo was showing me some stills from some of her earliest films, and she wore her hair very much as you do now. The bone structure too is unmistakable.'

'But Bianca is beautiful,' Alix said, half to herself.

Paola's eyes widened. 'And you think you are not? Bianca has glamour, that's true, but she is no more beautiful than you are—except when you wear a hideous dress as you did last night,' she added candidly. 'I don't want to hurt your feelings, Alix, but I'm surprised she has never given you advice on how to dress.'

'Oh, but she has,' Alix said drily. 'Only not quite on the lines you seem to think. In fact she thoroughly approved of the dress I wore last night.'

For a moment Paola stared at her, then her smile widened. 'Then that proves that you are beautiful,' she said gently. 'And that she realises it too. Poor Alix, or perhaps I should say poor Bianca—to be so frightened of her own flesh and blood.'

'She has nothing to fear from me,' said Alix. 'In any way.'

'You love her,' Paola said. It was more a statement than a question.

Alix spread her hands helplessly. 'I suppose I must, although God knows there've been times when I felt I hated her. I've been all set to walk out several times— now is one of them. I don't think I can take any more, and yet in an odd way I feel she needs me.' She laughed bitterly. 'That's nonsense, of course. She has Monty. I've always had to walk on eggshells to avoid poaching on her preserves too.' She made herself smile. 'I'd like a simple job without personality problems and complications. Do you think Carlo could help me find one?'

'In the film industry?' Paola asked derisively. 'No way,
cam
. They are all lunatics. You're a person who needs to be stable, Alix. To be secure. I think you should stop thinking about other people and their needs, and start considering your own. Do you want to be married?'

The question caught Alix on the hop, and flustered her. 'Yes—no—I suppose—eventually. I haven't thought about it that much.'

'Then you should.' Paola was watching her. 'Find a guy, fall in love with him, and spend the rest of your lives making each other happy.'

'You make it sound like bliss,' said Alix after a shaky pause.

Paola grinned. 'It probably could be. Marriage isn't for me, but I still believe in it. I'm either a fool or an idealist—probably both. Now, we've been serious long enough. Let's go and swim. It's too hot for tennis.'

As she turned, Alix said softly, 'Paola, supposing you found the man you wanted, only he didn't want you. -What then?'

Paola's voice was gentle. 'Then you find someone else,
cara
. Someone who can love you as you need to be loved. Because for someone like you, nothing less will do.'

No, Alix thought achingly, as she followed the other girl out of the garden and towards the pool, nothing less would do for her.

When she had begged Liam to love her at the pool-side, he had read it as an invitation to a brief sexual encounter, a satisfaction of the desires he had so deliberately aroused. That had been humiliating enough, so she could only be thankful he hadn't guessed she was offering her heart and soul, as well as her body.

That would be the painful secret she would carry within her for as long as she lived.

When Alix let herself in to Bianca's suite that afternoon, it was to find the room almost in darkness. The shutters had been pulled across the windows, and Alix stood hesitating, wondering whether Bianca who had lunched in her suite was asleep on one of the sofas, and if she should return later.

As she stood, peering through the gloom, she sensed a movement, and said, 'Bianca?'

'No,' Liam answered, and began to open the shutters. He had been missing most of the morning, and had not joined the party in the dining room for lunch. Perhaps that meant that he had been here with Bianca all the time, Alix thought.

She said hurriedly, 'Is Bianca resting? I'll come back in half an hour and…'

'I've no idea what she's doing,' said Liam with something of a snap. 'I only got here moments before you did. However, run away if you want to.' He wrenched at the shutter, folding it back into place, and sunlight spilled into the room.

Alix felt selfconscious standing in the middle of the room clutching her notebook and a supply of sharpened pencils, and she moved over to a small writing desk in one corner. She put the book down, and arranged her pencils meticulously beside it, then opened one of the drawers in the desk at random as if she was looking for something. It was only a ploy—an attempt to look busy so that she would not have to look at Liam or talk to him—but it was a total failure, because the drawer was empty. With a little furious grimace, she tried to push it shut, but the desk was old and the drawer jammed.

'Oh hell!' Alix muttered under her breath.

'Here, let me.' Liam sounded exasperated. His hands descended on her shoulders, moving her out of the way. He removed the drawer, examined it, his fingers exploring the wood for snags, then fitted it back deftly, and without the slightest trouble.

He stood back and looked at the desk. 'You shouldn't lose your temper with a piece as nice as this,' he commented.

'I did not lose my temper,' Alix contradicted, her teeth almost grinding as she considered the contrariness of inanimate objects.

'Then I'd hate to be around when you do,' he said sardonically. He looked her over, absorbing the crisp lines of the button-through denim skirt, and the white shirt blouse with the sleeves rolled back to the elbow.

'Very neat,' he said. 'But I prefer the gear you had on this morning.'

'I don't dress to please you,' Alix said tautly. 'And I am sick and tired of this constant stream of comment about everything I wear.' She snatched up one of her pencils as if to examine the point, and snapped it. 'Oh blast!' she exploded. 'Now look what you've made me do!'

'Just a minute.' Inexorably he turned her to face him, his eyes searching her face. 'I haven't made you do anything. You've been like a cat on hot bricks ever since you entered this room. Calm down, or do you want Bianca to see you like this?'

'Leave me alone,' she pleaded raggedly, and heard him laugh huskily deep in his throat.

'Do you think I don't wish I could? Oh God, Alix!' He pulled her roughly into his arms and his mouth came down on hers, hard and forceful, shocking her into an uncontrolled and total response. She pressed her body against his as if she was attempting to be absorbed into his bloodstream, her lips parting beneath the onslaught of his kiss. His hands were moving almost convulsively against her shoulderblades, drawing her closer.

In some dim recess of her mind, she was aware how much she was betraying by her eager surrender, but it no longer seemed to matter. In whatever wilderness awaited her, she would cherish these moments when Liam kissed her as if she was his woman, as if this passionate joining of their mouths, this sweet invasion was only a preliminary to the pleasure to come.

His hands were on her skin now, moving gently but surely, bringing every nerve ending to singing life. Little sparks seemed to be exploding behind her closed eyelids, and she heard a whimper burst from her throat as his lingers cupped her breast, his thumb stroking caressingly across the sensitive dusky tip. She was dizzy with desire for him, her body one sweet sensuous ache of longing.

His mouth left hers to travel down her throat, lingering to press kisses on her pulse, then take a leisurely trail to where the prim white collar of the blouse halted any further progress. He gave a short unsteady laugh, and said, his voice muffled against her skin, 'Unfasten it.'

That was how it had begun, she recalled as if she was in a dream. An unfastened button had been the start of her beguilement. Only she hadn't known it then, although she'd scented danger. Her only thought had been to keep him away from Bianca…

Bianca! The dream was over, and she was struggling suddenly, trying to push him away, swaying as she fought to keep her balance.

'What's the matter?' Liam stared down at her, a faint flush along his cheekbones, his eyes glittering.

'Oh, nothing,' she said bitterly. At any moment the door which led to the bedroom could have opened and Bianca could have seen them, she thought with shame. She turned away catching a painful glimpse of herself in an ornate gilt-framed mirror on one of the walls. Her hair was dishevelled, the once neat blouse hung tipsily over the waistband of her skirt, and her mouth looked blurred and swollen.