The Italian’s Baby

CHAPTER SIX

SHE came down from the heights to find herself held tightly in Luca’s arms. Perhaps a little too tightly, but she missed the threat of possessiveness because the shattering feeling of sexual release was so powerful, so welcome.

She knew now what she had always suspected, that the reason she was so unresponsive to any other man was that there had always been one man for her. And this was the man.

Luca, blunt, harsh, vengeful, unforgiving: everything she found hard to like. Yet he was the one, because he always had been, and part of her had never changed.

Then he said the wrong thing.

‘That was good.’

The hint of calculation chilled her.

‘Wasn’t it?’ he demanded.

Inwardly she withdrew a little, feeling bullied.

‘Yes,’ she said politely.

‘What’s the matter?’ he asked, just clever enough to know that he’d lost ground, not subtle enough to know why.

‘Nothing. I’d like to get up, please.’

‘Tell me, first.’

‘I want to get up.’

‘Tell me!’

‘Luca, if you don’t release me right now you’ll never see me again.’

He released her at once. She was surprised. She hadn’t expected the threat to work on this hard man, let alone instantly.

‘What is it?’ he demanded as she rose and quickly covered her nakedness with a robe. ‘What changed?’

‘I guess we shouldn’t expect too much all at once. Let it go for now.’

Her tone contained a warning and, again to her surprise, he heeded it. After a few moments the silence made her look at him and what she saw melted her heart.

His face showed confusion, and the hurt bewilderment of a child who didn’t know what he’d done wrong. It sent her back into his arms.

‘Yes, it was good,’ she reassured him.

‘I still know how to please you?’

‘Yes, like nobody else.’

It was the wrong thing to say. His face darkened.

‘I don’t want to hear about other men.’

‘And I’m not going to tell you, but my husband existed. I haven’t lived on the shelf all these years, any more than you have. I’ve been married, so have you.’

‘That’s enough!’ he shouted. ‘I don’t want to hear it.’

‘Fine, you don’t have to. You don’t have to hear anything you don’t want to.’ She pulled away from him, looking around for her clothes. Instantly he was beside her.

‘Don’t go, Becky. I don’t want you to go.’

‘I think I should,’ she said, starting to pull on garments.

‘No, you mustn’t.’ He put his hands out to restrain her, then snatched them back again.

‘Don’t tell me what I must and mustn’t do,’ she told him.

‘No, I didn’t mean that,’ he said hurriedly. ‘Look, I’m not touching you, but please don’t go. Please, Becky. I’ll make it right, just tell me what to do, but stay, I beg you.’

His words softened her again. Suddenly they were back in the old days, when this fierce man was putty in her hands, but only hers.

She stopped what she was doing, went over and put her arms around him in consolation. He hugged her back, but gingerly, as though afraid of offending again.

‘If you go away, I’m afraid you won’t come back,’ he said gruffly.

‘I will come back. I want to see you again. But take it slowly.’

‘I can’t,’ he admitted. ‘I want all of you at once. Stay with me. Come back to bed.’

‘No, the hotel will be getting up soon and I don’t want to risk being seen.’

‘Spend today with me.’

She mentally reviewed the day she’d planned. There were important appointments that she simply couldn’t cancel.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to make a few calls but-I can do it.’

‘We’ll go somewhere that we won’t be seen by anyone who knows either of us. But you’ll have to say where that is. I don’t know London.’

‘Have you never been here before?’ she asked.

‘Oh, yes, brief visits, business deals, hotel rooms, travelling in the back of a car to conferences, never seeing anything through the car windows because I was always on the phone. I couldn’t tell you how London is different from New York or Milan. If it is different.’

‘That sounds really dreadful.’

‘It’s your world too, Becky.’

‘Yes, but I get away sometimes.’

‘On long country weekends with Jordan?’

‘Jordan’s a forbidden subject.’

‘Suppose I say he isn’t?’

‘Only a minute ago you told me you didn’t want to hear about anyone else.’

‘I’ll make an exception for Danvers Jordan.’

‘But I won’t,’ she said quietly.

His lips tightened with anger. ‘So it has to be on your terms, does it?’

‘You said we weren’t to talk about the past. They were your terms. I agreed to them. Do you think you can just change them when it suits you? Think again. I’m not dancing on the end of your string.’

‘All right, all right,’ he said quickly. ‘I give in. Your terms.’

She touched his cheek, smiling with rueful tenderness. ‘You don’t have to give in. That’s not what it’s all about. But let’s not spoil it.’

He took her hand and kissed the palm. ‘Anything you say.’

It was like driving at speed around a sharp corner, and only just avoiding the wall. You were left with a desperate sense of relief and a need to rediscover the road you were supposed to be taking.

‘So,’ she said, determinedly bright, ‘you were saying about cities looking the same. Didn’t you ever long for the hills of Tuscany?’

He nodded. ‘Or any greenery at all. In New York I always tell myself I’ll go to Central Park, but I’ve never been yet. Once I saw some trees as I was driving through London, and told the driver to stop the car. But then the phone rang. I was late for a meeting, so I told him to start it again.’

‘Where were you when this happened?’

He thought for a moment. ‘We’d just passed a huge round red building. I think the driver said they gave concerts there.’

‘The Albert Hall. The trees you saw were in Hyde Park. Let’s go there, then.’

‘Fine.’ He reached for the telephone.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Calling my driver.’

She placed her hand firmly over his. ‘We’re not calling your driver, or mine.’

‘Aren’t we?’

‘Nope. We’re going to go out and hunt for a taxi, and then nobody will know where we’ve gone.’

That turned it into a conspiracy, and suddenly everything was fun. They took the elevator down almost all the way, and Luca got out one floor from the last. Anyone who happened to be in the lobby saw him walk out of the hotel alone. None of them saw him turn the corner and meet up with Rebecca, who’d gone down the back stairs, left by the kitchen entrance, and was already hailing a taxi.

It was little more than a mile to Hyde Park, but the congestion had already started, and it was three-quarters of an hour before they arrived.

‘Green,’ Luca said, looking around him with joy. ‘Grass. Trees.’

He took her hand and began to walk, across the grass, and she hurried with him. It touched her that Luca, reared amidst savagely beautiful scenery, could still find pleasure in this place with its manicured lawns. It told a whole story about how cut off he’d become from his roots.

‘What’s that?’ He had stopped abruptly at the sight of a large stretch of water, snaking out of sight in both directions. ‘A river?’

‘No, it’s a long, thin lake,’ she laughed. ‘It’s called the Serpentine.’

‘And we can take a boat. I see them over there.’

‘Come on, then. I haven’t been on a boat on the Serpentine for years.’

They hired a rowing boat, big enough for her to sit facing him in a cushioned seat. Luca took the oars and began to pull on them strongly, while Rebecca leaned back, enjoying the chance to relax and simply watch him. After the turmoil of the last few days it was good to think of nothing but the beautiful day, and the pleasure of being on the water. She fixed her eyes on him and let her thoughts drift.

But this was a mistake because in a haze of drowsy contentment she found herself looking at his hands, remembering last night. He had touched her in so many ways, sometimes gently, intimately, sometimes fiercely, and she had responded ecstatically to all of them.

And the way she’d touched him back-she found it hard to recall details now. She had explored and celebrated him with reckless joy, revelling in his instant response, demanding more. She had not known herself capable of such vigorous possessiveness.

Her mind drifted back to her ex-husband, the man she thought of as ‘poor Saul’. He’d been entitled to pity because she’d had less than half a heart to give him, and almost no passion. He’d been infatuated and she’d yielded to his eagerness from hope of finding a purpose in her life.

But she had disappointed him, and in his bitterness he’d called her ‘the iceberg’. The kindest thing she had ever done for him was to leave him.

She returned from her reverie to find that Luca’s eyes were on her, and he was smiling faintly.

‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘I’m trying to behave like a gentleman, and not succeeding. The truth is that all I can think of is how badly I want to make love to you.’

The words ‘make love’ were like a signal, starting a slow-burning fuse inside her. It was only a few hours since she’d risen, satiated, from his bed, yet with just two words she’d become ready for him again. It was shameless, and slightly shocking. It was also thrilling, and deeply, searingly enjoyable.

‘You’d better start rowing back, then,’ she said. ‘Careful! Don’t upset the boat.’

They rocked violently all the way back to the shore and climbed out with such urgency that they nearly ended up in the water.

‘Where’s the nearest exit?’ he demanded.

‘Over there.’

They made it in double-quick time, but when they reached the street an obstacle met them.

‘Oh, no!’ Rebecca groaned. ‘Isn’t the morning rush over yet?’

‘Your traffic jams are as bad as Rome,’ Luca complained. ‘Nothing’s moving.’

‘It’ll take hours to get back to the Allingham,’ Rebecca said.

He gripped her hand tighter. ‘We don’t have hours,’ he said firmly. ‘Where is the nearest hotel?’

She began to laugh. ‘Luca, we can’t-’

‘Becky, I swear to you that if you don’t direct me to an hotel I shall make love to you here and now, on the grass.’

There was a note in his voice that told her he might actually mean it. There was simply no knowing what this determined man might do. It made him thrilling.

‘I’m warning you,’ he said, slipping his arms around her.

‘Stop it! Behave!’

‘Find us a hotel, then, quickly.’

‘If we cross the road and take that turning there are quite a few in that street up there.’

Crossing the road was easy, since none of the traffic was moving. They found themselves in a street of small private hotels, some of which had notices bearing the word ‘Vacancies’ in the window. Luca dashed into the first one they came to.

This was a different world from the whispering luxury of the Allingham. There was a small hall, with a cubbyhole for the receptionist, who was absent. Luca had to ring the bell twice, and the second time he did so with such force that a harassed-looking woman emerged from the rear, looking indignant.

‘I’d like a room, please,’ Luca said. ‘Immediately.’

‘It isn’t noon,’ the woman said, with a glance at the clock on the wall that showed half-past eleven.

‘Is that important?’

‘If you take possession before twelve I’m afraid I have to charge you for two days.’

‘How much is the room per night?’ Luca asked, breathing hard.

‘Seventy pounds, per person, per night. You would be requiring a double room, I take it?’

‘Yes,’ said Luca, almost beside himself. ‘We would like a double room.’

‘Then that would be a hundred and forty pounds for one night, so perhaps you would care to wait half an hour, and only pay for one night, which will be cheaper.’

‘That’s not a good idea,’ Rebecca said hastily. ‘We’ll take it now, thank you.’

‘Very well. Name?’

‘Mr and Mrs Smith,’ Rebecca said promptly.

The receptionist showed, by raised eyebrows, exactly what she thought of that.

‘I see. Well, we operate a liberal regime here, although it did seem to me that this was a foreign gentleman-’

‘He’s a foreign gentleman called Smith,’ said Rebecca, poker-faced.

‘Well, if one of you would sign here…’

Rebecca hastily seized the pen. Luca was in no mood to remember what name he was supposed to be signing.

The room, when they finally took possession of it, was basic but adequate. Luca shut the door firmly, locked it and turned to her swiftly.

But she was ahead of him, tossing her clothes aside, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Slow coach.’

He needed no further encouragement, matching her for speed, until they were both ready to fall onto the bed and claim each other with feverish intensity. No subtlety. No pretence that this was anything but frantic, exuberant lust, relished for its own sake, with no holds barred.

She wanted him inside her. She’d wanted that since he’d left her only a few hours ago, and when she had what she wanted she kept tight hold of him, arching against him insistently and looking up into his face with a smile that made him smile back.

It was she who decided that the moment had come, moving faster, and then faster.

‘Wait,’ he told her.

‘No,’ she said simply.

He tried to hold her back but his own desire was uncontrollable, and they finished triumphantly together, laughing and crowing with triumph.

When he had the strength to move, Luca sat up, and blew out his cheeks. ‘I’ve been thinking of this ever since-since I got up this morning.’

‘So have I,’ she said, relieved at being able to admit it. ‘Luca, I don’t know who I am any more. I have never been like this in all my life.’

He raised himself from his back, rolled over and looked down at her nakedness with appreciative eyes.

‘Shall I tell you who you are?’ he asked, sliding his hand over her breasts again.

She chuckled. ‘Does it involve vigorous exercise?’

‘It might. Unless you’re tired.’

‘Who’s tired? It’s early yet.’ She reached for him, letting him know with gestures what she wanted of him, and the pleasure was all given back to her, again and again.

As they lay together afterwards she said dreamily, ‘I’ll bet it’s past noon by now.’

‘It’s three in the afternoon,’ he said.

‘Ah, well, it can’t be helped,’ she said drowsily, not knowing what she meant by this.

‘Why did you tell them that we were Mr and Mrs Smith?’

‘I had to tell them something.’

‘But what did she mean about a liberal regime?’

‘In the old days, when people weren’t as free as they are now, people who wanted to be together used to book into a hotel under the name of Mr and Mrs Smith. So whenever you told a hotel that your name was Smith-well-’

‘They knew you were unmarried lovers,’ he finished.

‘Something like that.’

‘And that’s why she gave us such a funny look?’

‘Yes. She knew exactly why we couldn’t wait until noon.’

Luca began to laugh, burying his face against her neck and shaking. And she too laughed, because it was really incredibly funny. For years there had been no laughter in the world. Now there was nothing else but laughter and joy, pleasure and fulfilment, the one leading to the other, then back again, and round in an endless circle of delight.

All strain and tension seemed to fall away, leaving her relaxed and gloriously content. When Luca raised his head she saw that it was the same with him.

‘I could go to sleep now,’ he said, laying his head back on her shoulder.

‘Mmm, lovely.’

But the shrill of his cellphone brought them back to reality. With a grimace he swung himself off the bed.

‘I should have switched it off,’ he said. ‘Hello, Sonia-no, I’m not at the hotel for the moment-nothing wrong, just a change of plan. Anything urgent?’

He yawned as he listened. Rebecca too yawned. It felt pleasant to lie here, drifting into a light doze. Luca’s voice reached her faintly.

‘All right, there’s no problem, but he’s got to come down on the price, or no deal. Sure, I know what he was hoping for, but he’s not going to get it. I can go elsewhere, but he can’t.’

For half an hour she floated happily in and out of consciousness.

‘There’s no point in talking any more, Sonia. He and I have done business before. He knows I mean what I say. Now, about the future-I won’t be at the Allingham for a few days. You can reach me on this phone, but not too often, OK?’

He hung up. Rebecca slowly sat up in the bed.

‘Where are you planning to be for the next few days, Luca?’

‘Here. With you.’

‘And what about my appointments? My job?’

‘Becky, I can imagine how your appointments read. Lunch with this one, drinks with that one, supervising some hotel function, attending a conference. How am I doing?’

‘Pretty good.’

‘And how vital is any of it? Nobody needs that lunch, that social occasion. Conferences are hot air. The deals depend on cold cash, nothing else, and they’re all sewn up before anyone arrives.’

‘You’re saying that I’m just playing at doing a job,’ she said indignantly.

‘No, I’m not. My own job is just as full of froth. It’s the way of the world these days. I escape it whenever I can, and the skies don’t fall. Will they fall if you take a few days off?’

She was about to say that it was impossible when she realised that he was only voicing her own recent thoughts. Golden, glittering and hollow; that was how she’d seen her life as she arrived at Philip Steyne’s house that fateful night.

‘I could have a word with my assistant,’ she said. ‘She’s very good.’

She didn’t mention that she would have to break a date with Danvers, but that would have happened anyway. After what had occurred between her and Luca there was no way she could maintain the pretence that she and Danvers were an item.

All the way back to the hotel she thought about what she would say to him. Entering the Allingham alone, she went to her office and made the necessary arrangements with her assistant, an efficient young woman who could hardly contain her delight at being left in charge.

‘By the way, there’s a message from Mr Jordan,’ she said. ‘He has to be away for a few days, maybe a week, he wasn’t sure. He says he’ll call you when he gets back.’

‘Fine,’ Rebecca said, torn between relief that she could defer the problem, and dismay that it was going to drag on.

But perhaps this was best, she thought as she slipped out into the street with a suitcase. Now she could forget everything but enjoying a holiday.

The next few days felt like the first true holiday of her life. Hidden away with Luca in the shabby little hotel, she felt as though she were living in the sun.

He was a tireless lover, who could bring her to the heights again and again, and still want her. And she, who had long ago decided that the traumas of her youth had left her cold and unresponsive, could be ready for him at any moment of the night or day, except that night and day were indistinguishable.

The hotel had no Room Service so they ate burgers at a café around the corner, always hurrying back to fall into bed. For four days they loved and slept, slept and loved. In fact, they did everything except talk. But at the time that didn’t seem very important.

One morning Rebecca came out of the shower to find Luca just hanging up the phone, looking exasperated.

‘I’ve got to go back to Rome,’ he said. ‘One of my deals is unravelling, and I need to be there.’

She tried to smile, but the turmoil inside her was alarming. He was going away, and she couldn’t stand it.

‘Oh, well,’ she said lightly. ‘It’s been great, but we knew it couldn’t last forever.’

‘We have to give up this room,’ he agreed, ‘but I’ll be back in a few days.’

She’d got her second wind now and could smile.

‘Hey, I won’t count on it. You may need to stay.’

He was still sitting on the bed, and as she passed him he caught both her hands in his, looking up into her face.

‘I’ll be back in a few days,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I could stand it for longer.’

‘I suppose I should be glad you’re going,’ she said with a faint smile. ‘It’ll give me a chance to catch up with real life.’

‘Real?’ He regarded her with raised eyebrows. ‘This hasn’t been real?’

She caressed his hair. ‘You know what I mean.’

He grinned. Laughing, she leaned down and kissed him.

‘I must try to get my mind back on my job,’ she said a few moments later. ‘And I suppose I ought to speak to Danvers, just to tell him that what little there was between us is all over. Don’t worry about him.’

‘I won’t,’ he said simply. Then he gave a broad grin. ‘Danvers Jordan doesn’t worry me at all.’

She thought he meant that after the last few days he was riding high on pride and sexual confidence.

Afterwards she was to wonder how she could have been so stupid.