Veretti’s Dark Vengeance (15 page)

That drove him mad, she was glad to see. She might be taking a risk, provoking him, but she didn’t care. She was high on excitement, dizzy with power, desperate to provoke him further and then further. It had been too long.
‘Of course,’ she added, nudging him on, ‘you have to know exactly how to do it-subtly is best.’
She was pulling at the fastening of her skirt, which was separate from the top. It came away easily and she tossed it aside-perhaps it had been designed that way. Salvatore was watching her, breathing hard. She backed further, reaching for her top.
But he beat her to it, reaching out to grasp the black silk and yank it away. A ripping sound, and it was gone. Then he was throwing off his own clothes, seizing her and tossing her down onto the bed.
‘Suppose I asked you to leave?’ she demanded.
‘How are you going to insist?’ he echoed her words from earlier.
His fingers were working at her black slip, tearing it off, revealing the naked breasts. Her delicate panties went the same way and at last he was there, between her legs, inside her, not seeking permission, just entering, completing her, owning her.
Something that had been raging inside her during the days apart came up to meet him, exploded then yielded, melting but ready again at once. Later she would regain her independence, challenge him, defy him. For now this was all that mattered.
‘So now,’ he growled in her ear, ‘now what do you say?’
Slowly she turned her head on the pillow, meeting his eyes, her own full of mocking humour, murmuring, ‘I say-what took you so long?’
CHAPTER TEN
‘HOW did you get away so soon?’ she murmured. ‘I thought it would take you much longer.’
‘One of my aunts took pity on me and told me to clear off because I was useless.’
They were lying in the dark. It was almost dawn and they had loved each other to exhaustion. Now they simply lay together, naked, resting.
‘I’ll have to go back soon,’ he groaned, ‘and spend today being a host. But the last of them will leave early tomorrow, and then I’ll come straight here. I want to be alone with you.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ she said. ‘But is it possible to be alone in Venice?’
‘It is where I’m going to take you.’
‘Where’s that?’
He grinned. ‘Wait and see. All I’ll tell you is-wear sensible clothes.’
‘Define sensible.’
‘Shirt and trousers.’
Reluctantly he got out of bed and began picking up his clothes from the floor. When he’d finished dressing he sat on the bed and took her hand, gazing down at it.
‘What I said about “your cut,”’ he said awkwardly. ‘You know I-’
‘I know,’ she said gently.
‘I’d have said anything to hurt you. I’m afraid I’m like that.’
‘So am I,’ she admitted.
‘I don’t believe that. But sometimes a cruel devil comes over me and I give in to it.’
She sat up and rested her cheek against his shoulder.
‘Sometimes the urge to make a dramatic effect is just too strong,’ she offered.
‘Thank you. That’s very generous.’
She chuckled. ‘Let me give you a tip about making an effect. When you get home, don’t creep in. Make sure everyone knows that you were away for hours.’
He stared at her, his eyes gleaming.
‘You mean-?’
‘Then those eager young lads will know that you achieved what they couldn’t,’ she finished triumphantly.
‘You’re a wicked, wicked woman,’ he said fervently, kissing her.
‘I know. Isn’t it fun? Now be off. I need lots of sleep before I can be wicked again.’
She spent most of that day dozing in perfect contentment. Next morning there was a message from Salvatore to be ready on the dot of ten. He was there promptly, driving a large white motor boat. His eyebrows rose when he saw her attire.
‘You said trousers,’ she defended herself.
‘I also said sensible, not trousers that hug your waist and hips so tightly that-well-’
‘They’re the only ones I have.’
‘Yes, I suppose they are. Get in, and I’ll try to keep my mind on my driving. It won’t be easy but I’ll try.’
It was a glorious day, full of the sparkling delight of early summer. As the boat headed out over the lagoon she stood beside him, rejoicing in the feel of the wind in her hair.
‘Where are we going?’ she yelled above the noise of the engine.
‘To one of the islands.’
She knew there were about a dozen small islands in the lagoon, places so small that nobody lived there, and as they went further out she guessed they were heading for one of these. Even so she had a surprise when Salvatore finally drew into a tiny cove. There was a small landing stage and a post with a metal ring to which he tethered the boat.
‘It’s so tiny,’ she said, astonished. ‘At least, what I can see of it is tiny.’
‘That’s right. It’s about half a mile in one direction, and three quarters of a mile in another. When we’ve gone through those trees at the edge of the beach you’ll be able to see the whole place.’
The ground sloped up so that as they emerged from the trees Helena found that she did indeed have a perfect view of the tiny island, including how the shore curved away on each side, until it enclosed the island in the distance. Looking around, she discovered that she could just make out Venice far away across the lagoon.
She stood for a moment, revelling in the perfect peace of this little place, where the only sound was birdsong, and the soft lapping of the waves.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured. ‘Is it yours?’
‘Yes. It used to belong to my mother. She brought me here when I was a child, and promised that one day it would be mine. She said it was a place of refuge when the world became too much. And she was right.’
‘I can’t imagine you ever finding the world too much,’ Helena said. But she spoke without antagonism.
‘Of course. That’s the idea of a place like this. You can hide your weaknesses here, then emerge stronger, to confront people.’
It was as though he’d opened a tiny window into himself, giving her a glimpse of a different man. But he closed it again at once, saying, ‘Let me show you the house. You can just see it there beyond that clump of trees.’
She hadn’t even noticed it before, so modest was the building. No grandeur here, just a comfortable-looking bungalow with a couple of outhouses.
As they walked towards it he took her hand. It seemed a casual gesture, yet there was something pleasing about the warmth and firmness of his clasp.
‘Careful,’ he said, indicating a large stone in her path and steadying her as she crossed it. ‘We’re nearly there.’
Hand in hand they walked on to the house. Despite its isolation she found that it had everything necessary for comfort, including running water, light and warmth from its own generator.
‘So you can run a main-line computer,’ she said. ‘I’ll bet you do your best work here.’
‘No computer,’ he said. ‘I have a cell-phone so that I can be reached in case of emergencies, and a small radio, but apart from that, nothing.’
With delight she saw that it was a place where a man could retreat from the world and be alone with himself. Or perhaps one other.
He showed her the kitchen, the freezer stocked with food. Then he unpacked a large bag he’d brought with him on the boat, revealing fresh bread, potatoes, steak and salad.
‘Wait until you taste my cooking,’ he said.
‘A man who lives in a palazzo knows how to cook? I don’t believe it.’
‘Is that a challenge?’
‘If you care to take it that way.’
He got to work while she looked around the bungalow, which was modestly appointed with two bedrooms, one living room and a place that seemed like a small library. The furniture was sparse, little more than necessities, and she wondered if he preferred this after the luxury in which he normally lived. It almost suggested that the man who felt at home here must be a monk.
But that wasn’t so, she mused, remembering last night.
They ate on the terrace overlooking the sea. Far off she could just make out the shore of Venice, merely a thin line of buildings.
‘It’s good to get away before things start being noisy again,’ Salvatore observed.
‘Why are they going to get noisy?’
‘I’ve got a new line of glass coming out and it’ll be unveiled in a few days.’
‘Oh, yes, mine’s a bit later. Emilio’s getting excited about it.’
‘A lot of store buyers come down and half your sales will be made in that first week. You’ll be all right. Your line is good.’
‘I won’t ask how you know,’ she said wryly. ‘I haven’t forgotten how you walk in and out of Larezzo as though you own it.’
‘Walked, past tense. I wouldn’t dare do it now.’
‘Hm!’
He laughed. ‘You still don’t trust me, do you?’
‘Can we discuss this another time? I’m enjoying myself and I don’t want to spoil it.’
‘You’re right. Business should be kept well away from this place.’
‘I think it’s lovely, a perfect little world apart.’
Salvatore nodded.
‘I sit here some evenings and look over there where the lights are winking,’ he said. ‘It looks so close, it’s hard to believe it’s really so far away. And I can hear the bell in the campanile booming all the way over here. It’s like being alone and yet being in Venice at the same time.’
‘Living your life from within, and standing back to see yourself as other people do, all in one moment,’ she murmured.
He looked at her quickly. ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I was trying to say, but you put it better. And I suppose you know more than anyone about seeing yourself through other people’s eyes.’
His tone was friendly, without the defensive edge that usually tinged it, even in their lighter moments, and she nodded, happy to relax with him.
‘You’re right. Sometimes I feel as though there are fifty versions of me, and none of them are really me. Yet I suppose something of those terrible women must be inside me, or how did they grow?’
‘Why do you call them terrible when they’re known for their beauty?’ he asked. ‘Is beauty terrible?’
‘It can be, when people look at you and see nothing else. It can be a curse.’ Then she made a sound of impatience with herself. ‘Oh, listen to me! There are millions of women who’d give the earth to have what I have. My life’s easy compared to what a lot of them have to put up with. It’s just that sometimes-sometimes I think of their nice ordinary lives with children and men who work at unexciting jobs and come home every day, and love them for their own selves, not because of their looks, and I think how lucky they are.’
He didn’t speak, but took her hand, caressing it softly with his own. Dreamily she wondered if this gentle, peaceful man could be the same one who enjoyed tormenting her to climax.
But he too had many faces, as she was discovering, and the knowledge bred in her a longing to explore further and discover the others.
‘You must sense it too,’ she said. ‘People who think they know you, but actually they haven’t the first idea.’
‘True, but I can’t blame them. I show them what I want them to see, and if they believe it, well and good.’
‘But where does that leave you?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘Safe, I suppose.’
‘But what price are you paying?’
‘Perhaps the same as you.’
‘Is it worth it?’ she asked curiously.
‘Sometimes it is. There are times when I know I’ve done the right thing in standing guard over myself. At others…’ He shrugged again.
‘But why do you have to stand guard? Would the world come to an end if you eased up, trusted people a little?’
‘I’ve seen other people’s worlds come to an end like that,’ he said slowly, ‘because they trusted, and then found that their fate wasn’t in their own hands. That’s something I’ll never let happen to me. My fate will be in my hands and nobody else’s, as long as I live.’
He spread his hands out before him, as though seeing them for the first time. They were large and powerful, but something made Helena take one of them in hers and hold it gently. He became suddenly still and she had the feeling that she’d taken him by surprise.
She too was surprised. Her own fingers were delicate compared to his, yet his hand lay in hers, unresisting, as though, just for a moment, all the power was with her.
Memories of their times together came back to her as she turned his hand over. So fierce, yet so gentle, imprisoning her, caressing her, doing whatever he pleased but making sure it pleased her too.
On impulse she tightened her fingers on his.
‘Come with me,’ she said.
He rose to his feet and let her lead him inside, to the larger bedroom.
They undressed quickly and fell onto the bed together. In contrast with last time he now seemed almost hesitant.
She put her arms above her head and stretched out blissfully, with a sigh that might have been contentment or expectation. At once he reached out, laying one hand between her breasts, and resting it there as though awaiting her reaction. Her pulse quickened but she stayed still.
Very slowly his fingers moved, inching their way towards her right breast, pausing, venturing further, pausing again. Helena smiled, daring him. Further, further, until his fingertips reached one nipple, already reacting, and teased it until it grew harder still.
‘Do you want me?’ he asked softly.
‘Do you think I do?’
‘Little tease. Answer me.’
She laughed. ‘Don’t tell me a man as experienced as you needs to ask.’
He shifted his hand to the other breast.
‘A woman can say one thing with her body and another with her lips,’ he remarked. ‘She does it deliberately to confuse a man.’
‘Then, since my lips can’t be trusted, you don’t need to hear from them,’ she pointed out.
It was hard to speak through her rapid breathing, but she was enjoying this too much to let it go.
‘True, I have another use for them,’ he said before his mouth came down on hers.
His kiss was long and had a soft urgency that thrilled her. She yearned against him, inviting him to go on, but he seemed reluctant to do that, touching her softly with his mouth, then retreating at once, refusing to deepen the kiss with his tongue.
She felt his lips against her neck, just below her ear, where he knew she was especially sensitive, and shivered with delight. The sensation moved slowly down her neck to the little hollow at the base of her throat. There he lingered, now using the tip of his tongue to torment her deliciously.
‘Aaaa-aaah!’ The soft cry broke from her. ‘Don’t stop.’
‘I’m not going to stop,’ he whispered against her skin. ‘I’m going to kiss you all over. Then perhaps I’ll stop-or perhaps I won’t.’
She could almost hear him smiling as he spoke, and her own smile seemed to rise from deep within her.
Now he’d moved on to one breast, concentrating intently as he kissed it, now here, now there, now with his lips, then with his tongue. A fire was glowing within her, mounting slowly until she feared that she would climax too soon, but he never let that happen, always drawing back just before she was overwhelmed, then renewing the soft assault. It was a kind of torture, but one that left her dizzy with exquisite delight.