The Italian’s Miracle Family

CHAPTER TEN

‘IT’S a pity you only saw the mountains under snow,’ Drago said as they headed out of Florence next morning. ‘I’ve wanted you to see them now, when everywhere is at its best.’

The journey was magical. Their last trip had been made in the chill of winter. Now they climbed higher into the sunlight, the trees glowing around them in the green of summer.

Again they stopped at the village to stock up on groceries, but slowly this time, while he asked her preferences and promised her a whole series of dishes to make her rejoice.

‘Does this mean I can help with the cooking?’ she asked as they got back into the car.

‘Not at all. Stay out of my kitchen. A woman’s place is laying the table.’

When they had driven on a little way, she said, ‘Stop the car. I want to look.’

He pulled in just off the road, and they left the car behind to wander among the trees.

‘You’d hardly know it was the same place,’ Alysa said in wonder.

‘Thank you for coming,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve thought of you all the time. Say it was the same with you.’

‘Oh yes. You were always with me.’

He took her hand and they wandered higher. The trees grew more luxuriantly here, blocking out much of the light so that the sunbeams slanted down like arrows piercing the shadows.

‘Do you recognise this place?’ he asked, stopping suddenly by a tree.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I guess you wouldn’t. The last time you were here it was dark and snowing.’

‘Is this where you found me that night?’

‘That’s right. You were curled up under this very tree.’

‘I can hardly believe it. It’s so beautiful now, and then it was-’

‘Another world,’ he said.

Leaning against the tree, he raised her hand so that he could brush the back of it against his cheek, hold it there for a moment, then press his lips against it.

‘I’ve been back here often since you went away,’ he said. ‘It’s where I come for peace, and even happiness.’

‘Can there be happiness?’ she asked wistfully.

‘There might be.’

‘It takes time.’

‘Do you know the first lesson a builder has to learn?’ he asked. ‘Not to go too fast. Let things happen in their own time, or you’ll make a mess of the whole project.’

‘And we mustn’t make a mess of the project,’ she agreed.

His smile was fond and warm.

‘Some projects are more important than others,’ he said. ‘Right, let’s go. I’m getting hungry.’

She nodded at his abrupt change of tone. Having moved cautiously to the edge of the precipice, he’d backed off before asking her to look over. And he was right, of course, she thought as they hurried down to the car hand in hand. They had all the time in the world to find out what lay past the precipice.

The sun was setting on the little villa as they drew close, turning the roof to red. Drago parked his car in the garage where he’d once found her standing in the cold and lost his temper. Together they went upstairs to where a fire was already laid in the grate, waiting to be lit.

‘Even in summer it gets a bit chilly when the light goes,’ he said. ‘So I came here a few days ago and got everything ready for you.’

Despite what he’d said, he allowed her to help with the meal that evening. They ate it in virtual silence, but it was silence with a special quality. She could see ahead now, just a little way, but it was enough for this evening. After that, who could tell?

This visit had already shown her that there was more to Drago than she had discovered last time, inspiring her with a passionate desire to explore him further-heart, mind and body.

When the meal was over, by mutual consent they settled down on the thick rug before the fire, leaning against each other.

‘You’re so different,’ he said. ‘You’ve flowered.’

‘Yes, you told me I’d got fat, you cheeky so-and-so,’ she murmured contentedly.

‘I didn’t say that and you know it. When we were here before you were on the same slippery slope that I was. Do you remember that day at the waterfall? If anyone had told me then what you would become to me I wouldn’t have believed them.’

‘Nor me. I just wanted to fight you, and then when you turned up at the airport and tricked me into coming up here-’

‘I never tricked you.’

‘May you be forgiven! That defeated air!’

‘I was frightened. You were a very scary lady.’

‘I scared myself sometimes. It scares me even more to look back at what I was becoming. I put you through it too, I remember-getting lost in the snow and you had to nurse me.’

‘I didn’t mind nursing you.’

‘You did. You suddenly became very bad-tempered,’ she remembered. ‘You kept barking at me.’

‘After finding you in that garage-’

‘No, it was before that.’

‘Oh yes, I remember.’

‘What do you remember? Go on, tell me.’

He hesitated, then said wryly, ‘All right, I’ll confess. When you got that heavy cold I was worried, so I stayed with you.’

‘That’s right.’

‘I actually slept on the bed.’

‘Outside the bedclothes, of course.’

‘Of course!’

Alysa chuckled. ‘How charming and old-fashioned. Positively nineteenth-century.’

‘It’s all very well to laugh, but you were ill, you were trapped with me, relying on me to look after you. Of course I was old-fashioned. At least, I meant to be, but I awoke to find that somehow I’d put my arm over you.’

She gasped. ‘Shocking! How could you?’

‘I was asleep, I didn’t know-are you making fun of me?’

‘Do you think I am?’

‘I’m not sure,’ he said cautiously. ‘I don’t have much sense of humour, but I think perhaps you are laughing.’

‘It took you long enough to realise that,’ she said gently, touched by the humility in his voice. ‘Shall I promise not to laugh at you?’

‘No, I don’t mind if it’s you. Make fun of me if you like. I might even come to understand.’

‘Yes, I guess you might,’ she said.

‘It’s just that I felt awkward next day, which is why I was a bit offhand. Anything was better than have you suspect. What is it?’ Alysa had begun to laugh helplessly.

‘You never guessed?’ she crowed. ‘Oh, I can’t believe this.’

‘What’s so funny?’

‘It was me. I slipped out to the bathroom, and when I came back you’d stretched your arm across the empty space. I eased myself in under it, being very careful not to disturb you, so that you didn’t take it away.’

‘You-?’

‘I made it happen. It wasn’t you, it was me.’

‘But I felt so guilty because-And you let me suffer.’

‘I didn’t know you were suffering,’ she chuckled. ‘But I wish I had.’

‘Yes, you’d have enjoyed it,’ he said, chagrined. ‘You-you-’

‘Come on, you were going to develop a sense of humour.’

‘I guess I’ll need a little time for that. I can’t take this in. I was feeling ashamed all that time and I didn’t need to?’ His tone was outraged.

‘Something like that.’

‘Well, I’ll be-’

There was a light in his eyes that she was beginning to know. She’d seen it across the room on the night she’d arrived, and wanted to know more. Since then her curiosity had grown, and now she urgently needed to pursue it to the end. So when the words failed him, and he jerked her towards him with a grunt of frustration, she went into his arms willingly, and sighed with pleasure as his mouth touched hers.

It was he who was tentative, caressing her lightly with his lips, waiting for her response, then embracing her eagerly as he sensed the desire that she had no wish to hide. He’d been almost afraid of taking her by surprise, but now he knew that she’d been waiting for him, ready for this moment.

She was returning his kiss, her lips moving slowly but with determination, teasing and testing him, asking a question which he answered readily. Lightning seemed to streak through her. It was so long since she’d known the physical yearning for release that now it had the delight of the unexpected, as well as the pleasure of anticipation.

Now she knew that the flash of desire-so briefly sensed, so swiftly controlled, that she’d felt on the day months ago when he’d carried her home and their mouths had almost touched-had been no illusion. It had been both a promise and a warning: think carefully before going beyond this point.

She’d had months to think carefully, becoming more confused all the time. But suddenly everything was clear, and from now on there would be no more thinking.

Drago felt her reaching towards him, not just with her mouth but her whole being. He lacked the words to tell her how the hope of this moment had lured and tantalised him through the weary time apart, but movements, tender and urgent together, were saying everything for him.

Then he was laying her gently back against the thick carpet, opening her buttons, pulling her clothes away, dumbstruck as he discovered that she was already naked underneath. His astonishment delighted her, and she gave a slow smile that told him everything, relishing the dawning look of complicity in his eyes.

‘You’re a wicked woman,’ he whispered.

‘Have you only just learned that?’

‘I never know what to think with you.’

‘I could help you find out.’

After that nothing could have held him back. He touched her face with reverent fingers, then let them trail down her neck and onwards between her breasts while she lay trembling with the sensation, so sweet and so long-forgotten.

No, not forgotten: never known. James’s love-making hadn’t been like this. He’d known that she adored him and had accepted it as a right, never looking at her with the feeling bordering on awe that she saw now in Drago’s eyes.

Her nights with James had been physically thrilling, but always with some element missing, because the emotion had been largely on her side. But Drago’s heart was open to her own, filling her with joy, so that she lay back, her arms above her head, luxuriously spreading herself for his delight.

He moved his hands outwards, cupping her breasts in a gesture of tender possessiveness, then lay down so that his face was between them, his lips continuing the work of his fingers while she clasped her hands behind his head and arched up against him.

When he raised his head she began to open his shirt, and he helped her, moving feverishly, as though responding to a signal for which he’d been waiting too long.

When he too was naked, she had one moment of doubt. This was the first man for a year and a half. But, looking into his face, she saw the understanding that had never yet failed her.

‘Me too,’ he said softly. There was no need to say more.

His movements became more urgent. Request became demand. Plea shaded into insistence. His hands explored further, tracing a path on the inside of her thighs, until he reached the heart of her sensation and felt her tremble. In a moment he was over her, seeking, finding. Then he was inside, inviting her to enclose him.

She received him happily, knowing now that this was right in every way, feeling their bodies move together as though they had been made for each other. They were both so eager that their moment came quickly, almost taking them by surprise, before they had time to enjoy the pleasure to the full.

His skill and urgency were driving her on until she arched against him with a cry, and pulled him hard against her while his own release took hold of him. In the last seconds her movements were almost as wild as his own.

Afterwards she held him tightly, feeling him tremble, then grow calmer as the storm passed. He lay against her for a long time before raising himself to look down on her. He looked shaken.

‘Are you all right?’ he whispered.

‘Mmm,’ she murmured contentedly.

‘I didn’t mean to be so-so-’

He fell silent, so clearly embarrassed that she wanted to hug him. He was saying that he hadn’t meant to be so fierce and nearly out of control. But that was what had pleased her most.

‘It’s just fine,’ she assured him. ‘I liked it that you were so-so-’

‘You’re on the floor, and it must be a bit hard.’

‘Not with this lovely thick rug. Still, there are other places-more comfortable.’

He rose, drawing her with him, and they made their way to his room, almost running in their eagerness to throw themselves onto the bed and revel in each other.

It was only a few minutes ago that they had made love, yet the desire was there again, eager and vibrant, so that they laughed with triumph and the joy of being alive and together. This time he cast aside restraint from the first moment, and she gave him a response that was almost violent in its lack of inhibition.

‘What happened to the light?’ she asked as they lay together afterwards. ‘I don’t remember it getting dark.’

‘We were thinking of something else,’ he said.

‘I guess we were. Something much more important.’

‘I wanted you so badly,’ he murmured. ‘But I was afraid in case I spoilt things.’

‘I know,’ she said lazily. ‘We had something so good, I didn’t want to risk it either. But I guess we couldn’t stand still. Maybe this was always waiting for us.’

‘How wise you are!’

He buried his face against her neck, relishing the scent of her.

‘Sweetness and spice,’ he murmured. ‘Adventure and peace. How do you manage to be everything at once?’

‘You’re a poet!’

‘Good grief, no!’ he said, shocked. ‘Oh, I see, you’re laughing at me again.’

‘Just a little,’ she said tenderly. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘I don’t, not any more.’

They lay for a while, half-waking, half-dozing, until he said, ‘Do you remember what I said when we parted at the airport, about being glad we hadn’t met earlier?’

‘Yes, I thought about it a lot, and in the end I knew you were right.’

‘In the end?’

‘I wasn’t quite ready at first. I think I began to see it when you had that accident, and I was so afraid that you might be dead.’

‘I was a bit ahead of you. I felt so close to you that it scared me. The first time I came back to this place, I left at once; it was so empty without you. I meant never to return, but then I found I had to write to you, just to keep some sort of contact. When you replied I came up here again. And you were here too. You’ve been here ever since.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I always knew I was in this place with you.’

‘Did you suffer much when you returned home?’

‘At first, yes. I cried a lot, but even then I knew that it was good to cry. Everything had been trapped inside me for a year, and it was destroying me. Very soon it would have been too late. When I stopped crying I knew that I’d come through it, and since then I’ve got stronger. The world doesn’t frighten me any more.’

‘I don’t believe the world ever frightened you,’ he said wryly. ‘More like the other way around.’

‘That was just the surface. I kept my armour in place to hide my fear. I don’t have to do that any more. What about you? Has anything been better?’

‘I haven’t your courage. I still feel easier wearing the armour, except with you. But, like I told you, I sleep better. Tina is happier.’

In the poor light she could just make out the scar on his forehead, and she reached up to touch it.

‘Is that where you got hit?’

‘Yes, it’s fading now.’

‘I thought you were dead. Everything went dark. The thought of you not being there any more-even if I didn’t see you, I knew you were there, and if suddenly you weren’t-I didn’t know how I’d manage without you.’

‘I can remember lying in the hospital and thinking about you, wishing you were with me. And then you called. I think that was when I began plotting to get you out here again. I had to see you, to reassure myself that it hadn’t been a dream.’

‘Well, I’m here now, but it does feel like dreaming. I don’t know what’s real any more. Was this always going to happen?’

‘Don’t you know the answer to that?’ he asked seriously.

The question pulled her up short. Hadn’t she always known that they would end up embracing, exploring each other on the only level they hadn’t yet discovered?

‘I guess, if you’d just let me go home, I wouldn’t have liked it. I wouldn’t have liked it at all. It would have meant that something had gone wrong.’

‘Me too. And I wasn’t going to let it go wrong.’

‘So you had this planned from the first moment?’

‘Not planned. Hoped. I didn’t know how it was going to work out until the other night at the villa, when I looked up and saw you standing there-so beautiful, so changed in the way I’d been hoping for. And then I knew.’

‘Yes,’ she said, remembering the moment when she’d seen him again, the king in his own domain. ‘That was when I knew too.’

‘Hmm,’ he said, leaning his head on her.

‘Hey, you’re nearly asleep.’

‘No, not really.’

‘Just the same,’ she said with a little chuckle, ‘you are. So I may as well join you. Goodnight.’

At breakfast he said, ‘I thought today we’d go out, and I’ll show you how lovely this place can be. Then we’ll eat in a tiny restaurant in the village.’

‘Wouldn’t it be nicer to eat here? Just the two of us?’

‘You’re right. We’ll come straight back.’

The walk up the mountain was magic. As they climbed the gentle slope the sun glinted through the trees, so that they passed from shadow to sunlight to shadow again. Now and then he would take her into his arms and they would stand locked together in silence.

It seemed that there was nobody else for miles, as though they were alone in all the world, with nothing to think of but each other. When there was a gap in the trees they stood looking up at the birds flying overhead, transfixed by the beauty.

‘I love you,’ he said.

Alysa turned her head slowly, wondering if she’d imagined it. He looked back at her, answering her thought.

‘Yes, I love you. Why do you look surprised? You shouldn’t be.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said, dazed.

‘You said you could see where we were heading,’ he reminded her.

‘Yes, but-I guess I only saw a little way ahead.’

As she said it she couldn’t help smiling as she thought of their time in bed.

‘I know,’ he said. ‘There was a time when I too only saw that much. But it’s not enough. Without love it’s nothing.’

‘But you’re going too fast for me. I think I’ve lost faith.’

‘In me?’ he asked quietly.

‘No, in me. Love costs so much, and I can’t pay that price any more. I guess that makes me a coward.’

‘You? Not in a million years.’

‘Yes, me. When I think of how I loved before, throwing myself into it heedlessly, I know I can’t be like that again.’

‘Of course not. No two loves are the same any more than people are the same. I love you differently from Carlotta, but not less. Or is this your way of saying that I’m fooling myself and you don’t love me?’

She took so long answering that his brow darkened. ‘Is it that?’

‘I don’t know. How can I tell? You’re dearer to me than anyone else on earth, but-How can I explain? Part of me doesn’t want you to be.’

‘So you’re going to fight me until you’ve driven me out? I’m stubborn, Alysa. I won’t go easily. I’ll haunt your mind and heart until you turn to face me. Night and day I’ll be with you every moment.’

‘Yes-yes,’ she whispered.

‘Stay with me. Marry me. Love me.’

‘You make it sound so easy,’ she said with a touch of anger. ‘It isn’t. Love’s more dangerous than you know.’

‘You really believe I haven’t learned that?’

‘You think you have, but you don’t know-’

She stopped, horrified at what she’d nearly revealed. She’d been on the verge of telling him about the letter, the one thing she must never do. Too late she saw the trap she’d laid for herself.

‘What don’t I know?’ he asked, looking at her keenly.

‘You don’t know anything,’ she improvised hastily. ‘We think we know, but we never really do.’

‘What don’t I know, Alysa?’

‘Stop pressurising me,’ she flashed. ‘I only meant that nothing is how we think it is, and that’s why nobody ever learns from experience. They never recognise the experience when it comes around the second time.’

He was giving her a curious look.

‘I wonder what you really meant to say,’ he mused. ‘You’re doing what my daughter calls talking “itty-bitty”. It means floundering for words just to change the subject.’

‘It’s only that we’re going too fast,’ she pleaded.

‘How can you say that after last night? We made love.’ He eyed her uncertainly. ‘Didn’t we?’

‘I don’t know what we did. It was beautiful, but-’

‘Yes, it was beautiful. You’re not trying to say that it was only sex, are you?’

‘No, but-’

‘We’ve wanted each other. Don’t tell me it was all on my side. Not after the way you came to life in my arms, and the things you whispered to me.’

‘I’ve wanted you as well, but it doesn’t have to be love. I won’t go through that again.’

‘Alysa, listen,’ he said seriously. ‘I don’t want to love you any more than you want to love me. Do you think I haven’t fought this? I have, day and night. But we may have no choice.’

‘We’re free beings. We make our own choices.’

‘Nobody is as free as that. I thought I’d always be hounded by Carlotta, and everything that happened. But you set me free. Now it’s you that I need.’

‘Drago, please, don’t rush me.’

‘You mean I should stand back while you return to that life you’ve made a refuge because you think it’s safer than love?’ His voice became grimly ironic. ‘A partnership in a firm of accountants! How can I compete with that?’

‘You’re not being fair.’

‘Maybe not, but that’s another thing about love-it isn’t fair. Or is there something else that you’re hiding?’

‘Stop trying to steamroller me,’ she cried. ‘Give me a chance to think.’

‘I didn’t mean-’ He checked himself with a groan. ‘I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Coming on strong, trying to pressurise you.’

‘Does it work well with business negotiations?’ she asked wryly.

He nodded. ‘I’ve bullied people before,’ he sighed. ‘But I should have remembered that it doesn’t work with you.’

‘No, I bully back too well,’ she said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. ‘Why don’t we go back now?’