He gave a half-smile and removed his shirt. “All seemed to be going well… Champagne?”
“That would be nice, thank you.”
He soon returned with a bottle from their bar’s fridge and two champagne glasses, and stretched across the bath to place them on the deep window ledge.
And then he stripped the rest of his clothes, as nonchalant about his nudity as he’d been when she’d watched him dress through the mirror’s reflection.
Her heart bloomed, the beats exponentially increasing in tempo and clashing with the tempest of excitement churning in her stomach. He was just so utterly and unashamedly masculine that it made her feel the essence of her femininity in a way she’d never done before; made her feel not just human but entirely female.
“Are you going to make room for me?”
Still feeling inexplicably shy, she hid her foam-covered breasts with an arm and lifted herself from her lying position to a seated one.
The water moved as he stepped into it, then rose above her breasts as he sat himself at the other end of the bath facing her, his long legs bending at the knee, calves resting by her thighs.
While Luisa tried to emulate his nonchalance and act as if sharing a bath with him was no big deal, Gennaro poured them both a glass of champagne.
After handing her one, he raised his. “To the end of our marriage.”
She lifted hers in acknowledgement and took a small drink.
Settling back, his feet pressed into her sides as he observed her for the longest time. “You really are extraordinarily beautiful.”
Her heart was thumping too hard for her to form more than the tiniest of smiles.
Luisa had run the bath with the full knowledge she would still be in it when Gennaro returned, but the fantasy in herhead and the reality playing out were proving very different. In her fantasy, she’d been cool and seductive, a Hollywood siren from the bygone age The Bianchi’s lobby so strongly reminded her of, a woman ready to embrace the carnal side of her nature… And then she’d heard his footsteps approaching the bathroom and her pulse points had gone into overdrive and now she was feverishly aware of his naked body and of his long legs practically enveloping her.
But it was more than carnal desire making her heart beat so hard.
She shouldn’t have been relieved that he hadn’t reverted to an android ice-block. She shouldn’t have cared at all. Not with her heart. She shouldn’t be faking nonchalance. Shouldn’t be feeling shy.
She had a large drink of her champagne and let the bubbles play on her tongue and slide down her throat before saying, “Is that really why you’ve spent our marriage treating me like a carrier of the plague?”
His eyes glimmered and he inclined his head slowly. “There’s something about your particular beauty that affects me in ways that are dangerous.”
And there was something about him that was affecting her in a way she was starting to fear was dangerous too. She shouldn’t have cared that he hadn’t returned from the ball as an android ice-block. She shouldn’t have. “Beauty is only skin deep. I had to grow into my looks – I was an ugly child, as you must remember.”
His smile was rueful. “I do remember. That was the Luisa I thought I was proposing marriage to. That’s why I asked for you.”
Her hurt at this was instant. “You wanted to marry me because you thought I was ugly?”
“Yes. By the time I realised the ugly duckling had turned into a swan, it was too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“To back out. Once I’d made the proposal, the genie had been unleashed and could not be returned. I either went ahead with it or risked your family talking, which could have killed the business deal I needed to marry for.”
Luisa thought of their numerous visits to the Middle Eastern kingdom Gennaro’s business had expanded into. Knowing that if she did anything to cast doubt on the validity of their marriage it would result in the loss of his multi-million investment had made them the hardest trips to endure.
“You were taking a risk even suggesting the marriage. How did you know my family would go along with it?”
“Because your parents had been desperate enough to turn to my father for help. The biggest risk was in securing your agreement. I had to trust the young girl I remembered who’d always clung to her mother’s skirt still loved her family.”
“The ugly young girl,” she reminded him pointedly. She couldn’t understand why that admission hurt so much.
“Yes,” he agreed without shame. “The ugly young girl. That’s who I’d imagined had grown into the woman I would marry. It was both our bad fortune that you’d blossomed into a beauty because it meant I had to keep you at a distance.”
“So if I’d never had dental treatment, you’d have been nice to me?”