The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection. Кейт Хьюит

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ ever had before, and if that made her pathetic, fine. She was pathetic. But for the first time in her life she could almost glimpse happiness.

      But could he? Could they have something other than a marriage of convenience, even if they wanted it? Her own emotions and desires were a confused tangle, and she had no idea what Sandro’s were. What he thought. What he felt. She didn’t want to ask.

      ‘What are you thinking about?’ Sandro asked as he popped a strawberry into his own mouth.

      ‘Lots of things.’

      ‘You’re all sunlight and shadows, smiling one minute, frowning the next.’

      ‘Am I?’ She laughed a little, tried for some more of this hard honesty. ‘I guess I’m trying to figure out what I think. What I feel.’

      ‘Maybe,’ Sandro suggested softly, ‘you should stop thinking so much. Just run with it.’

      She nodded. Yes, that seemed like a good idea. Stop analysing. Stop worrying. Just...feel.

      She’d spent half a lifetime trying not to feel, and now that was all she wanted to do. She laughed aloud, the sound soft and trembling, and Sandro smiled.

      ‘Good idea?’ he asked and she nodded again.

      ‘Yes,’ she answered with a smile. ‘Good idea.’

      * * *

      They arrived in Los Angeles tired and jet-lagged, but Liana was still euphoric. This was a new place, a new day. A new life.

      A limo was waiting for them at the airport, and Liana kept her nose nearly pressed on the glass as they drove through the city to Sandro’s beachside villa in Santa Monica.

      ‘I’ve never been to the US before, you know,’ she said as she took in the impressive elegance of Rodeo Drive, the iconic Hollywood sign high above them.

      ‘Consider yourself a tourist. I have some work to do, but we can do the sights.’

      ‘What are the sights?’

      ‘The usual museums and theme parks. The beach. I’d like to take you to a spa resort out in Palm Desert and pamper you to death.’

      She let out a little laugh as a thrill ran through her. ‘That sounds like a pretty good way to go.’

      ‘I don’t think you’ve ever been pampered,’ Sandro said quietly. ‘Spoiled.’

      ‘Who would want to be spoiled?’

      ‘I mean...’ He shrugged, spread his hands. ‘Treated. Indulged. Given an experience just to enjoy and savour.’

      No, she’d never had any of those things, not remotely. ‘Well, good thing I’m with you, then,’ she said lightly. ‘Pamper away.’

      Sandro smiled and let it drop; she knew he knew there were things she wasn’t saying, things she was afraid to say. And would she ever tell him? She thought of his fingers stroking her back, her hip, softening her. Slowly, slowly.

      The limo pulled up to Sandro’s gated mansion and they spent the next hour walking through it. He showed her the voice-controlled plasma-screen television, the shower stall big enough for two people that was activated by simply placing your palm on the wall.

      ‘This place is like something out of James Bond,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I had no idea you were a gadget guy.’

      ‘I worked in IT.’

      ‘And Leo does too, doesn’t he? I remember someone saying at our reception that he’s drafting an IT bill.’

      ‘He is.’ Sandro’s expression seemed to still, everything in him turn wary. ‘He’s worked hard in my absence.’

      She heard the note of recrimination in his voice that she’d sensed before and she wanted to ask him about it. Wanted to know if he struggled with guilt the way she did. But the sun was so bright and they’d been having so much fun exploring his house that she didn’t want to weigh down the lightness of the moment.

      And, she knew, she was a coward.

      They had lunch out on the private beach in front of the house, although Liana’s body clock was insisting it was some impossible, other time. She stretched her legs out on the sun-warmed sand and gazed out at the Pacific, started to fall halfway asleep.

      Or maybe it was all the way asleep, because she startled to wakefulness when Sandro scooped her up in his arms.

      ‘Time for bed, I think,’ he murmured, and carried her across the sand and into the house. She sank onto the silk sheets of his king-size bed and felt the mattress dip as Sandro lay next to her, his arm still around her.

      He drew her against him so her head rested on his shoulder, the steady thud of his heart under her cheek. Liana let out a little breathy sigh of contentment. How had she gone without this all of her life?

      She must have fallen asleep, because she awoke in the middle of the night, the room drenched in darkness save for a sliver of moonlight that bisected the floor. The space in the bed next to her yawned emptily.

      Liana shook her hair out of her face and glanced around the bedroom, but Sandro was nowhere to be seen. On bare feet she padded through the upstairs looking for him, wondering where he’d gone—and why he’d left her in the middle of the night.

      She finally found him downstairs in his study, dressed only in a pair of black silk pyjama bottoms, just as he had been on their wedding night. He had his laptop in front of him and papers were scattered across his desk. He worked so hard, she thought with a twist of guilty regret. She’d accused him of neglecting his royal duty, of being someone she couldn’t respect, but she was beginning to see just how far from the truth that accusation had been.

      ‘Can’t sleep?’ she asked softly and he glanced up, the frown that had settled between his brows smoothed away for a moment.

      ‘My body clock is completely out of sync. I thought I might as well get some work done.’

      ‘What are you working on?’

      ‘Just tying up some loose ends with DT.’

      ‘DT?’

      ‘Diomedi Technology.’

      She came into the room, driven by a new and deeper curiosity to know this man. To understand him. ‘You founded it, didn’t you? When you...moved?’

      The smile he gave her was twisted, a little bitter. ‘You mean when I abandoned my royal duty to pursue my own pleasures?’

      She winced. ‘Don’t, Sandro.’

      ‘It’s true, though.’

      ‘I’m not sure it is.’

      ‘And how do you figure that, Liana?’ His voice held a hard edge but she had a feeling for once it wasn’t for her. He was angry with himself for leaving, for somehow failing. She knew because she understood that feeling too well. The churning guilt and regret СКАЧАТЬ