The Count's Blackmail Bargain (25 page)

She said jerkily, ‘But you can’t—stay. You know that.’

He sighed, and kissed the top of her head. ‘Do you think I am totally devoid of decency or patience, mi amore? And do you also intend to turn me out of our bed each month when we are married?

I don’t think so.’ He paused. ‘I want to sleep with you, Laura. To take care of you. Nothing more. Don’t you want that too?’

‘Yes, I suppose—I don’t know,’ she said with a sob. ‘But I still can’t let you stay. I just—can’t.’

‘Why not, my angel?’ His voice was tender. ‘When it is what we both want.’

There were so many sensible and excellent reasons for sending him away for ever, yet she couldn’t think of one of them.

Instead, she heard herself say crossly, ‘Because I’m wearing really horrible pyjamas.’ And then she burst into tears.

When she calmed down, she found that they had somehow moved to the armchair, and she was sitting curled up on Alessio’s lap.

‘So,’ he said, drying her face with his handkerchief. ‘If I promise to buy you something prettier in the morning, may I stay?’

‘I can hardly throw you out,’ she mumbled into his shoulder.

‘And will you marry me as soon as it can be arranged?’

She was silent for a moment. ‘How can I?’ she asked unhappily.

‘We hardly know each other. And I don’t belong in your world, Alessio. If I hadn’t been forced on your attention, you’d never have given me a second glance.’

‘You are my world, Laura,’ he said softly. ‘Without you, there is nothing. Don’t you understand that, my dear one?

‘I want yours to be the face I see when I wake each morning. I want to see you smile at me across our dining table. I want to teach you to swim so well that you will dive off the side of our boat with me. I want to be with you when our children are born, and to love you and protect you as long as we both live.’

She said with a little gasp, ‘Oh, Alessio—I love you too, so very much. I wanted to stop—I tried hard to—and to hate you—but I—I couldn’t. And I’ve been so lonely—and so terribly unhappy. And I’d marry you tomorrow, if it was possible. Only it isn’t. I—I can’t just disappear to Italy with you.’ Her hands twisted together.

‘There’s my family to consider. That’s why I needed a decent job, so that I could help my mother with my brother’s education.’

She swallowed. ‘I only agreed to help Paolo because he was going to pay me, but then he didn’t.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘Because I have no wish for you to be obliged to such a creature.’ He stroked her hair back from her face. ‘Mia cara, I am going to be your husband, and I shall look after your mother and brother as if they were my own. How could you doubt it?’

‘But I don’t know that she’ll accept that.’ Laura’s face was troubled. ‘She has her fair share of pride.’

‘We will go and see her tomorrow,’ he said. ‘After all, I have to ask her permission to marry you. And I will talk to her—persuade her that it will be my pleasure to care for you all. I am sure she will see reason.’

Laura raised her head from his shoulder, and looked at him in quiet fascination. ‘I bet she will at that,’ she said, her lips twitching in sudden amusement. ‘Are you always going to expect your own way, signore, once we’re married?’

‘Of course,’ he said softly, and wickedly, drawing her close again.

‘But I will always try to ensure that your way and mine are the same, my sweet one.’

He bent his head and kissed her, his mouth moving on hers with a gentle, almost reverent restraint that made her want to cry again.

But she didn’t. And they held each other, and kissed again, whispering the words that lovers used. And were happy.

Much later, Laura was sitting up in bed finishing the tisana he had made her from Gaynor’s herb tea when Alessio came back from the bathroom, her refilled hot-water bottle dangling from his lean fingers.

She looked at him with real compunction. ‘Darling, I’m sorry. It’s all so—unromantic.’

‘Then maybe we should put romance aside for a while,’ he said gently. ‘And think only about love.’

He undressed quickly, and slid into the narrow bed behind her, wrapping her warmly and closely in his arms. Making her feel relaxed and at peace for the first time in weeks.

She was almost asleep when a thought came to her. ‘Alessio,’ she whispered drowsily. ‘Will you promise me one more thing?’

‘Anything, mia bella.’

She smiled in the darkness. ‘Will you still teach me to play strip poker?’

‘It might be arranged,’ he returned softly. ‘On some winter night, when we are safely married, and the fire is warm and the candles are lit.’ He paused. ‘But I must warn you, carissima. I cheat.’

Laura turned her head and aimed a sleepy kiss at the corner of his mouth.

‘So do I, my darling,’ she murmured in deep contentment. ‘So do I.’

ISBN: 1-55254-592-X

THE COUNT’S BLACKMAIL BARGAIN

First North American Publication 2006.

Copyright © 2005 by Sara Craven.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B

3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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