Swept Away!: Accidentally Expecting! / Salzano's Captive Bride / Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal. Lucy Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ down and laid his lips against it. Now she could feel his hair brushing her face and she ran her hand deliciously through it, sighing with satisfaction.

      But then she heard something that froze her blood: laughter, soft and merry, coming from a little distance away. The family was appearing in the garden, getting nearer.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘DANTE,’ she hissed. ‘Dante! Get up.’

      Frantically she pushed at him and he drew back, frowning.

      ‘They’re coming,’ she said. ‘They mustn’t find us like this.’

      Muttering a curse, he wrenched himself away and got to his feet, drawing her up with him. He would have run, but Mark’s voice came through the trees.

      ‘Ferne, Dante, are you there?’

      ‘I’m going to murder that boy,’ Dante muttered. ‘He’s doing this on purpose.’

      ‘Don’t be paranoid.’

      ‘I’m not paranoid,’ Dante said in a soft, enraged voice. ‘He fancies you.’

      Despite her jangling nerves, she nearly laughed.

      ‘Nonsense. His heart’s given to his dancing-girl friend.’

      ‘He’s twenty,’ Dante snapped. ‘He forgot her the minute he left England.’

      ‘You don’t know that.’

      ‘Of course I know. I’ve been twenty.’

      ‘So that’s what young men of twenty do. And thirty. And thirty-five.’

      Dante flung her the look of a man driven to madness.

      Now the others were calling them. There was no choice but to walk back into the light, looking as cheerful and natural as possible. Ferne had a worrying feeling that her voice was shaking and she was sure that her smile looked unnatural.

      But, more than that, she was shaking inside. She felt like someone who’d found herself unexpectedly on the edge of a cliff, and had backed off without knowing how she’d got there.

      The family settled down for final drinks under the stars. Mark tried to get close to Ferne but was deterred by a scowl from Dante. If Ferne’s nerves hadn’t been jangling, she might have felt flattered and amused.

      Hope ordered a pot of tea and Ferne drank it thankfully, feeling the warm liquid soothe her. Hope was looking at her kindly, and her eyebrows raised in surprise when Ferne took four sugar-lumps instead of her usual one. She needed them.

      ‘I’m feeling a little tired,’ she said as soon as she decently could. ‘You won’t mind if I go to bed?’

      ‘I’m tired too, after the flight,’ Evie said, and the party began to break up.

      Ferne escaped upstairs, unable to meet Dante’s eyes. Once in her room, she plunged into an icy-cold shower. That would soon put her right.

      It did, to the extent that it cooled down her flesh, but her mind remained as disturbed as before. She was accustomed to thinking of herself as calm and collected. Even in the throes of passion for Sandor she’d felt in command—something which their grande finale had surely proved.

      But Dante had upset that unruffled composure, making her wonder if it was really such a virtue. Had she perhaps become a trifle smug? If so, he was rescuing her from that danger, surprising her again and again.

      He insisted on haunting her mind, despite her stern orders for him to depart. But that was Dante: awkward. When she stepped out of the shower and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, he seemed to be there, eyeing her nakedness longingly, making her regret that she hadn’t allowed him to see her, because he would have liked her so much.

      She pulled on her nightdress and in her mind’s eye his face fell.

      ‘Get out!’ she told him. ‘Go away and leave me alone.’

      He obeyed, but not without a final glance over his shoulder.

      There was a soft knock at her door.

      ‘Who is it?’

      ‘It’s me,’ said Dante.

      She nearly said, ‘Are you back already?’ but stopped herself in time.

      ‘What do you want?’

      ‘Can I come in? There’s something I need to talk about.’

      She stood back to let him in, first making sure that her robe was securely fastened. Even so, she felt as though her garments were transparent.

      He was still in shirt and trousers, but now the shirt had been torn open at the throat, showing several inches of his chest. It was an attractive chest, she had to admit that, but now she was trying to be cautious. In his arms tonight she’d almost lost her head. There had been a moment in the grass when she would have done anything he wanted, because he could make her want it too.

      She was sure he knew it. This was one clever, manipulative man, and she must never let herself forget that.

      ‘What did you want to talk about?’ she asked demurely.

      ‘Us,’ he said at once. ‘And what you’re doing to me. I don’t think I can stand it much longer.’

      Now she was glad she’d taken the cold shower, for her body had regained its equilibrium and her mind was able to view him rationally.

      ‘If you can’t stand being with me, it was hardly wise of you to come here,’ she pointed out.

      ‘I didn’t say that,’ he replied, imitating her tone of reasoned argument. ‘It’s the “so near and yet so far” aspect that’s shredding my nerves. It should be one or the other, and I thought we might discuss it sensibly and come to a rational decision.’

      The bland innocence of his face might have fooled anyone less alive to his tricks than Ferne. But by now she was back in command.

      ‘I quite agree,’ she said seriously. ‘One or the other. And, since I’ll be gone fairly soon, I think it we should opt for the second choice.’

      ‘Pardon?’

      ‘It would be wise for you to leave my room.’

      He nodded. ‘It would be wise, wouldn’t it? If I were a wise man I’d flee and never look back. But I was never wise.’

      ‘Then this would be a good time to start.’

      He slid an arm around her waist.

      ‘I know I shouldn’t have come,’ he murmured. ‘But I had to. You were so wonderful tonight. I watched you and knew I had to dance with you—and then I danced with you and knew I had to hold you in my arms and kiss you and love you…’

      He drew her close as he spoke in a grip СКАЧАТЬ