Italian Tycoon, Secret Son

CHAPTER FOUR

WHEN Mandy awoke she was alone. With the window blocked by snow, she had no idea of the time and groped her way cautiously out of the room and across the hall until she could see the open door that led to the ‘forbidden’ room, the one whose far wall was missing, and the only place where there was any light.

There she found Renzo, looking out onto the snow that was still falling heavily.

‘If a helicopter comes up here, this is the best place to wave,’ he said as she edged cautiously close to him.

‘Has there been any sign of a helicopter?’

‘No, and even if there were-’

‘They couldn’t see us through that snow,’ she finished.

‘Let’s get something to eat. Then we’ll come and stand guard.’

They spent the day in the forbidden room, sitting well back, listening for the sound of a helicopter that never came. By the time the snow stopped, darkness had fallen and they moved back to the safe part of the house to find something to eat by torchlight.

‘You’re cold,’ he said as she shivered. ‘There’s only one place to keep warm, and the sooner we’re there the better.’

Before they got under the blankets, he tried his cellphone again, then hers. Neither gave any response. Mandy sensed his despair, and put her arms around him.

‘It doesn’t change what we already know,’ she said softly.

‘I wanted to make you safe. Some guide I am!’

‘I am safe.’

He turned his head. ‘I wish I could see your face,’ he murmured.

‘It’s the same as always.’

‘No, it’s changed. You’ve changed.’

‘Perhaps. Let’s get warm.’

They lay down, pulling the blankets up and lying wrapped in each other’s arms, as close as possible, to share their bodies’ warmth.

‘If we could have got through on the phone,’ he said at last, ‘do you have anyone to call? I mean, anyone who’ll worry about you.’

‘Not really. I’ve only got distant family, that I never see. I don’t mean that we’ve quarrelled, but they’re scattered all over the country.’

‘Friends? Lovers?’

‘Lovers, plural? Don’t be cheeky.’

She imagined him giving her a quirky grin. ‘Just one, then?’

‘No, I’m done with love. It’s a bore and a waste of time.’

‘Ah, yes, you mentioned him before, the one who wanted “something to get hold of”.’

‘I thought he was delightful at first. He could make me laugh, and that’s a big plus.’

‘Yes, it is,’ he said thoughtfully.

‘And you’d know, wouldn’t you? Make ’em laugh and then it’s off to bed. I used to watch him at parties, looking around him like the beacon from a lighthouse, calculating how long it would take to bring them under his spell.’

‘And that-’ In his indignation he propped himself on his elbow. ‘You think I’m like that? It’s what you’ve always had against me, isn’t it? He treated you badly and I get the blame. Woman, may you be forgiven! But not by me.’

‘Don’t give me the innocent act,’ she chided. ‘You and him might have come from the same mould. I’ve seen you look around the room in the same way.’

‘I won’t deny that I’ve had my moments-’

‘Ahh!’

‘But not on this kind of trip. Believe what you like, but I don’t try to seduce the girls in a party that I’m leading. For one thing, it would be unprofessional, and for another, their boyfriends would kill me. I’d end up down the nearest crevasse.’

‘You prefer a balcony to swing from?’

She heard his laugh in the darkness, and felt the vibration of his body.

‘All right, all right,’ she conceded. ‘You’re Mr Virtuous.’

‘Not entirely. There is one girl I had trouble being virtuous with. She always left me wondering, you see, and I could never work out whether she was tantalizing me on purpose, or just didn’t know how she was getting under my skin.’

She felt his lips close to her ear as he murmured, ‘I’ll never know, unless you tell me.’

‘What did you-’ Astounded by what she’d heard, she turned her head and found his lips brushing her cheek. Coming unexpectedly, it was like an electric shock. ‘What did you say?’

‘Did you know what you were doing to me? It’s kind of important to me to know.’

‘What I did to you? Haven’t you got that the wrong way round?’

‘Not at all. From the start, you set out to be a thorn in my side. The first day was all right. We had that chat in the evening and I thought, This is great. Here’s someone I can talk to. But after that you were possessed by the devil, and I think you did it on purpose.’

She recovered her poise enough to say, ‘Couldn’t you tell?’

‘No, that’s what I meant. I never knew. I still don’t know and it’s driving me wild. You’re such a little tease-’

‘I am not!’

‘Really? So it was just accident that you danced like that with Marcel, knowing it would put everything you have on display.’

‘I was decently dressed in trousers.’

‘It wasn’t your clothes, it was the way you moved-slinky, sensual, in tight trousers that showed you off to every man.’

‘Including you?’

‘You’re damn right, including me. And when we were outside you lured me on to kiss you, then backed off, leaving me looking a fool-and feeling one.’

‘Now wait a minute! It was you who lured me on, just to prove that no woman was immune to you, not even me. You admitted it.’

‘I did what?’

‘You said, “since you saw through me so easily…I might as well give up.”’

‘Well, of course I did!’ he exploded. ‘I had to say I hadn’t been serious, to save my face. I was going crazy wanting to kiss you, but you’d just been leading me up a blind alley and having a good laugh.’

‘And that’s just what you were doing. Making a point.’

‘Give me patience. I was the victim there.’

‘Well, you got your revenge, didn’t you, the next night,’ she countered.

‘What in heaven’s name did I do the next night? You were poorly, I massaged you to make you better. And I never put a hand out of place, so why are you complaining?’

‘Because you never put a hand out of place,’ she said furiously.

‘Did you want me to?’

‘Give me patience! It’s like trying to get through to a brick wall. Something stares you in the face and you can’t see it. And what’s funny?’ Renzo had given a snort of laughter.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a shaking voice. ‘It’s you talking about seeing what’s staring me in the face. Can you see anything?’

The darkness was black around them, but in her indignation she’d actually forgotten it. Now she was seized with longing to see him, but all she could do was reach out, touching his face, feeling the amusement that shook his body.

Had there ever been a man like this one? They were teetering on the edge of annihilation and he was laughing.

‘I don’t need to see you,’ she said. ‘I know you’ve got that wicked look, and you’re making fun of me-’

‘Making fun? After what you’ve put me through? Mandy-’

His voice changed as her fingertips brushed his lips.

‘Mandy…Mandy…Mandy!’

The last word was muffled as his lips touched hers in the kiss that had always been waiting for them, and had taken too long. Now she could be honest with herself and admit how badly she’d wanted this. His mouth was just as she’d known it would be-strong and generous, teasing, coaxing, silently imploring her to respond wholeheartedly.

There was no resisting that plea and she yielded to it with joy, moving her lips against his until his urgency overwhelmed her and she opened to him, letting him entice her with his tongue. He was as skilled as she’d known he would be, and at one time-a few days and a thousand years ago-she would have resented that skill. Now she revelled in it, answering with flickering movements of her own tongue, in an echo of the duelling that had always been how they communicated.

They were moving their hands, touching each other wherever they could reach, frustrated by the thick clothes they were wearing. But the need to be naked with him was greater than any cold, and she began pulling open her zips and buttons.

‘Careful, it’s freezing,’ he muttered, but he was fumbling with his own clothes as he spoke.

They helped each other undress and went completely under the blankets to escape the icy air. She could feel him beneath her fingers, lean yet muscular, full of tensile strength, exploring her as she was exploring him.

At first she was tentative, learning about the man even as she learned about his body. But suddenly she discovered that everything she did was right, because a thrill went through him, so intense that she felt it herself, and he said fiercely, ‘Do that again, don’t stop-don’t stop!’

‘I’m not going to,’ she said joyfully, redoubling her efforts and feeling him respond with vigour.

Mandy had known desire before but never like this, the feeling heightened by the fast approach of the unknown, sweeping her up, filling her with the desperate desire to experience this while there was still time.

And it was the same with him, she knew beyond a doubt. Life couldn’t end until he’d known this pleasure, this joy. From the start there had been a connection between them, starting in their minds, reaching out to their emotions and finishing with their sensations, where it clamoured for release. Now it was having its way, driving them like one entity hurtling towards the same end.

She never knew if he moved over her or if she pulled him over. She knew only that she had to have this, to have him, inside her, filling her, encompassing her, offering her the last gift she would ever know. She returned everything with all her heart, seeking to give him even more than he gave her, but knowing it was impossible, because he gave everything from a generous heart. And she should always have known that this was the truth about him, but she hadn’t, until it was too late.

Then they lay together, arms entwined, basking in the warmth of each other’s bodies, but even more in the warmth of the heart.

‘Are you all right?’ Renzo whispered, but then gave a suppressed choke. ‘Listen to me. I’m going off my head. In a few hours-well, anyway, it was a stupid question.’

Mandy tightened her arms about him. ‘You’re not going off your head. Not while I’m here. And, if you are, we’ll go off together. Now I’m talking nonsense.’

She too began laughing wildly, clinging to him, feeling him holding on to her as though she was all that was left in the world. And it was true. There was nothing but this; no snow or danger lurking in wait. Just warmth and joy because he was there, and he was hers.

But then prosaic matters intruded and she muttered, ‘Let’s do something before we freeze to death.’

They scrambled back into their clothes before groping their way to the cupboard, yanking out every blanket they could find and tossing it all on the bed. Then they dived under the covers again and huddled together.

‘You know,’ she mused, ‘in the fantasies he seduces her on satin sheets. She’s wearing diaphanous lingerie and he draws it slowly away, piece by piece. Then she does the same for him, overwhelmed by his perfect taste in clothes.’

‘That’s true,’ he said gravely. ‘Yanking off three layers of flannel and a pair of long woollen underpants doesn’t quite do it.’

‘It did it for me,’ she said contentedly, snuggling against him.

Mandy nodded off almost at once and slept without nightmares, only peace.

In the morning they took some breakfast from the fast declining food stock and ate it the forbidden room where they could watch the falling snow. There was a little light, so that they didn’t have to waste the torch batteries.

‘The snow’s hypnotic, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘It almost sends you back to sleep.’

Dreamily she began to recite a few lines from a poem about snow.

‘Did you write that?’ Renzo asked.

‘No, I learned it at school when I was ten.’

‘And you still know it? What a memory. I can’t get over you being an academic.’

‘Because I don’t look like one? Don’t you know by now not to judge by appearances?’

‘Are you going to throw “delicate” at me again?’ he asked warily.

‘No, I promise. Actually, at one time I wanted to be a dancer. I took lessons, but I wasn’t good enough to make a career of it, so I found something else.’

‘So that’s why you move as you do, like a pretty little cat?’

She smiled. ‘That’s what you say now, but the first time you called me a cat it wasn’t a compliment.’

‘Not entirely, but I’ve always been fascinated by your movements, and I don’t just mean when you were dancing. Everything you do is graceful, like an elegant feline, insinuating herself wherever she wants to be. You insinuated yourself into my mind. At first I didn’t want you there, but you wouldn’t go away.’

‘That’s me. Awkward. Never did what I was supposed to do.’

‘I’ll second that.’

‘Cheeky!’

He hugged her, resting his cheek on her head.

‘You’re so tiny,’ he complained. ‘I keep being afraid you’ll slip through my fingers.’

‘You’ll have to hold on to me tightly then, won’t you?’

‘Let’s get inside. There are easier ways to hold you tightly.’

Once under the covers, they went on talking.

‘Do you really not have any family?’ he asked.

‘Only the distant ones I told you about.’

‘Cat? Dog?’

‘Nope, just one very good friend. Her name’s Sue. We were at school together and we’ve stayed close, although we don’t meet much. She’s a nurse, working in the north. Sometimes she gets down to London and stays with me.’

‘And that’s all? It sounds lonely. Is it enough for you?’

‘In many ways, yes. I love my work, and sometimes it feels like all I need.’

‘But not always?’

‘Well, I’d like more eventually…one day…’

Mandy fell silent as she realized what she was saying. ‘One day’ would never come. With every passing moment that grew more certain.

‘What would you like-one day?’ he asked gently.

‘Someone of my own, who was just mine, who saw only me, thought of only me, wanted only me.’ She made a sound of impatience with herself. ‘That sounds so self-centred.’

‘No, it’s what we all want, if we’re honest. It’s just so hard to find, even impossible.’

‘Impossible? You really think that?’

‘I don’t know. I always used to, but that was then. Now it’s different. I don’t know what I believe any more, except that I believe in you.’

‘What about family? Is there anyone who’ll worry about you?’

‘Only my grandfather, but he’s very old and he’s mostly lost contact with the world.’

‘No parents?’

‘My mother left when I was about six. She and my father were a happy couple-so everyone thought. Then she fell in love with someone else and next thing, she was gone.’

‘Leaving you behind?’ she asked, aghast.

‘I came home from school one day and she wasn’t there.’

‘What? She didn’t explain or say goodbye-’

‘She wanted her freedom,’ Renzo said simply.

‘Did you ever see her again?’

‘Now and then. She eventually married her lover and they had three children.’

In her anger on his behalf she spoke without thinking. ‘So she didn’t want to be free of them?’

It was a moment before Renzo said quietly, ‘No, just me.’

There was a lifetime of desolation and rejection in those three words.

Appalled, Mandy realized that she’d touched a nerve that still hurt after so many years.

‘Bitch!’ she exploded. ‘I could kill her.’

Renzo’s voice was shaky as he said, ‘Hey, it’s all right. It’s all in the past.’

‘Is it really in the past?’

‘No, I guess not. It stays with you, but at this moment it doesn’t seem important. Nothing that ever happened to me before counts beside you.’

She stroked his face. ‘If we get out of this-’

He kissed her. ‘You must stay with me, always.’

‘Always and for ever.’

She held him tight and, after a moment, said, ‘And your poor father. It must have broken his heart.’

‘At first. After that, he embarked on what he called “a new life”. I went to stay with Nonno as soon as I could.’

‘Nonno? That’s grandfather, isn’t it?’

‘That’s right. Every time I visited my father, he seemed to have a different woman. He said variety was the spice of life. Once I reminded him of how crazy he’d been about my mother, and he didn’t know what I was talking about. He’s dead now.’

‘And your mother?’

‘Living in Australia-I think. I sensed that she felt uncomfortable when I visited, so I stopped bothering her.’

‘Well, I guess it’s no mystery why you don’t think ties are the greatest thing in the world,’ she seethed.

He grinned in self-mockery.

‘I thought of a clever plan. I’d live as I pleased, do everything I wanted to do first. Then I’d get married and have children when I was too old and decrepit to do anything else.’

‘There’s a flaw in that plan,’ Mandy said gravely.

‘Yes, I’m beginning to see that. Besides, I soon realized that a man who takes such a jaundiced view of families as I do had probably better not have children.’

‘But you might be a better parent because you’ve seen the other side,’ she suggested.

‘That’s a nice theory, but I don’t believe it. There’s too much in there-’ he laid a hand over his heart ‘-that had better stay well hidden.’

Silence: the contented silence of two people at ease with each other. Soon they would sleep, make love, rise again to eat, then return to bed and talk. And it dawned on her that this was how people behaved on honeymoon, which was the ultimate madness.

Going to the kitchen again was a worrying experience. The bottled water was running out. There was still the water in the tank, which wasn’t really for drinking. Otherwise there was only a bottle of whisky. They surveyed it in silence.

‘Not for me,’ Mandy said. ‘I don’t want to hide. I want to be there and know about it-whatever happens.’

‘You might find it easier…’ he ventured.

‘I don’t want it to be easy. It matters too much.’

Renzo leaned forwards and kissed her tenderly. ‘I knew you’d say that. You’re right. Just us. That’s all we need.’

When they’d eaten their meagre rations there was nothing to do but seek the warmth that only the bed could offer. They made love again, knowing that time was slipping away, and it was as sweet and pleasurable as before, but now there was an added resonance. With every tender gesture, every invitation given and received, they said goodbye.

There was desire in each caress, but softened by infinite tenderness.

‘I wish I could see your face,’ he murmured. ‘I want to see how you look at me.’

‘But you know my face,’ she whispered. ‘You don’t need to see it.’

‘But which face? The one that teases me-’

‘No, not that one.’

‘Tell me.’

‘Kiss me first…again…again…’

Her voice trembled into a soft moan as his lips moved from her mouth to her jaw, her neck, her breasts. She entwined her fingers in his hair, drawing him closer, the more deeply to relish the feel of his tongue flickering against her skin. She was drowning in sensation, as warm and comforting as it was passionate.

With all her being she tried to do the same for him, giving from a full heart, taking perhaps the last chance to show him what he was to her, although even she didn’t truly know that. What they might have shared would have been revealed over years together-fighting, making up, having children. Now it must all be experienced in a few moments, and she gave herself up to the sensation with all her heart.

Renzo sensed her feelings deep in himself and moved up to where her face was, just below his, still seeking something he needed to know. He found it in her eyes that glittered brightly enough for him to see and heard it in the long sigh of satisfaction that broke from her, telling him that she was ready, eager for their union.

As he entered her, she arched up against him, claiming him as her own and becoming his in the same moment. No matter what would happen tomorrow, they would have this one last triumphant assertion of life.

‘I love you,’ he said softly. ‘It may be the last time I ever say it, and if so, I’m glad it’s to you and nobody else. You are everything to me, and you will be everything, for however long we have-and afterwards.’

‘I’m glad too,’ she told him. ‘I love you and, whatever happens now, I can take it because we had this, and it matters more than anything else ever has.’

‘More than anything ever will,’ he whispered.

He slept first, holding her against him, her head against his heart, listening to the soft beat, until finally she too slept.

Mandy awoke to find herself alone and went to find Renzo in the forbidden room, watching the falling snow. He turned and smiled at her, and she remembered that smile afterwards because it was almost the last she saw of him. As she moved towards him the building began to shake and a thunderous grinding roar came from beneath their feet.

‘Get back,’ he yelled.

But she was petrified, staring at the floor that began to disintegrate under her feet. The next moment she felt a violent push that sent her flying to the back of the room so that her head hit the wall.

Now she knew what was happening. The ground beneath them had collapsed again, taking with it the place where Renzo had been standing. But he was no longer there. His lunge towards her had taken him almost to safety, but not quite. The floor was slipping away, sloping too steeply for him to be able to fight it. He fought to grab hold of something, but everywhere was too slippery.

‘Renzo,’ she screamed, stretching out her arms desperately.

But it was too late. He was vanishing faster every moment.

‘Renzo! No-’

His face was turned up to her, tortured with strain and horror as he reached vainly for her.

‘Mandy!’

The sound faded even as he uttered it. He was going down, down, until she could no longer see him. From somewhere in the distance she heard a long agonised cry that faded as it sank into the depths, like a man descending into hell.

‘No-please, God, no!’

Forgetting safety, she crawled back to the new edge, looking down into the abyss where there was only deadly whiteness. Scream after scream burst from her, echoing down into nothingness, and more screams until all the world echoed with them, and then it was over.