The Tuscan Tycoon’s Wife

CHAPTER SIX

REACHING the rodeo site was like entering a village. There was the arena where the events took place, the area where the horses were delivered and kept until ready, and the shopping mall where Delia and dozens of others set out their stalls.

Leo had driven to the arena with Selena and together they delivered Jeepers to his stall. When he was settled they headed for Delia’s stall and Leo promptly embarked on another spending spree.

‘Who are they for?’ Selena asked as he paid for a pair of extremely glamorous and impractical spurs.

‘My cousin Marco.’ Leo grinned. ‘Never sat on a horse in his life. They’ll really annoy him.’

‘You’re wicked in your own way, y’know that?’

‘Proud of it. Now this-’ he held up a figure of a cowboy on horseback made of painted stone. It was exquisite, full of life. ‘This is for my brother Guido,’ he said. ‘He sells souvenirs in Venice. This’ll show him how it’s done.’

‘What kind of souvenirs?’

‘Venetian masks mostly. And gondola lamps. They go on top of television sets. Some of them play “O sole mio” when you switch them on.’

‘You’re kidding me!’

‘Nope.’

‘Well, you shouldn’t be hard on a man trying to earn a living.’

‘He-certainly-does very well out of souvenirs,’ Leo said cautiously. ‘Perhaps it’s time we were going. They’ll be starting soon.’

Leo had arranged to do his bull riding on the first day, in order to ‘get the disaster over fast,’ Selena had cheekily observed.

As he’d expected, there was a great deal of difference between Old Jim and the huge, furious animal he encountered now. Nothing in the previous few days with the machine had prepared him for it. It felt as though the bull had personally decided to smash him to fragments as a punishment for his impertinence in even trying.

And he must try to endure this for eight seconds, he thought fuzzily as his brain was bounced around in his skull.

But it was a considerate bull.

It had him off him in three.

He landed hard but he survived. By that time he was getting good at falling off, having had so much practise.

As he limped out of the ring he heard the kindly applause of the crowd, a tribute to his guts at doing something he was so hopelessly bad at, and saw the Hanworths clapping for him with the warmth of friends. All except Paulie whose sneer of pleasure was unmistakable.

But Selena wasn’t sneering. Her eyes were bright with pleasure that he’d made the attempt, and her smile was a promise and a reminder. Leo grinned back at her, happy and content. Paulie could go stuff himself up a drainpipe!

Behind her smile Selena felt wrung out. When Leo had gone flying over the bull’s head she’d ground her nails into her palm until he picked himself up. He hadn’t broken his neck. He was alive. The world could start again.

She chided herself for making a fuss about nothing. How many men had she seen thrown? But none of them had been Leo.

She slipped away to get ready. Jeepers was there, calmly waiting for her. They’d done well together in the practise ring, but this was different. This was opening night. She adjusted her stetson, making sure it was firmly fixed on. Losing a hat could cost valuable points. Not as many as knocking over a barrel, but enough to do damage.

There were five riders going before her, and they all did well.

‘All right,’ she told Jeepers. ‘The trick is not to let them scare you. You’re-we’re as good as they are. C’mon boy! Let’s show ’em.’

As the bell rang she went flying over the starting line heading for the first barrel inside the triangle, a sharp turn, but not too sharp, allowing Jeepers space to move. They were around, then on to the next, neat turn, on to the last, then over the finishing line to cheers as the clock showed her in the lead.

Leo was waiting for her just out of the ring and together they watched the next rider.

‘She’s not a patch on you,’ he said loyally. ‘None of them are.’

‘The next one’s good though. Jan Dennem. I’ve raced against her a lot and she’s always been just ahead of me.’

‘This time you’ll beat her,’ he said confidently.

They held their breaths while fourteen interminable seconds ticked away and Jan swept across the line one-tenth of a second outside Selena’s time.

‘Yeeee-eeess!’ they roared from the sanctuary of each other’s arms.

Next competitor. Very fast. A real threat. Ahead of Selena by half a second as she approached the final barrel, but then-

A roar went up from the crowd as the barrel was knocked over.

The next two were slower. No question. Selena was still ahead.

‘One more,’ she said. ‘I can’t bear it. Leo?’

When he didn’t answer she looked and found him standing with the fingers of both hands crossed, his eyes closed, his lips moving.

‘Just praying,’ he said when he’d opened his eyes. ‘You never know.’

She gave a shaky laugh. ‘Does God follow the rodeo?’

‘Never misses.’

There was a cheer as the last competitor came flying out into the ring.

‘I can’t look,’ Selena said, and buried her face against Leo’s chest. At once he put his arms about her. ‘What’s happening?’

‘First barrel, she’s fast but you’re all right, second barrel-now the third-’

The crowd’s cheers became deafening. Leo groaned as he tightened his arms and rested his head on hers.

‘Oh, no!’ she cried. ‘No, no, no!’

‘By a tenth of a second,’ Leo said. ‘I’m sorry carissima.’

She raised her head. ‘What did you call me?’

‘Carissima. It’s Italian.’

‘Yes, but what does it mean?’

‘Well-’

But while he wondered whether to risk telling her that the word meant ‘Darling’ they heard a bellow from Barton, congratulating and commiserating with her both together.

The moment passed, and Leo was left reflecting that he who hesitated was lost. Or if not actually lost, then forced to wait for another chance.

It was a cheerful party that drove home that night. Delia had done excellent business, Selena had picked up some prize money for coming second, and Leo had stayed on the bull for a whole three seconds. That was cause for rejoicing, so they did, far into the night.

Despite her defeat Selena was happy. The money for second had been better than usual. Leo found her sitting on the porch, contemplating it blissfully.

‘I’m rich, I’m rich!’

‘A hundred dollars is rich?’ he asked quizzically.

‘It’s a king’s ransom. Well, OK, maybe a very minor king. Who wants to ransom a king anyway? Do away with the lot!’

She was drunk with her little bit of success, laughing as she talked, going wildly, joyfully over the top.

‘So much for royalty,’ Leo observed. ‘Obviously you don’t believe in them.’

‘Who needs ’em? Or guys with handles.’

‘You mean titles?’ he asked, sensing the conversation taking a dangerous turn. ‘Down with the wicked aristocrats? Ouch!’ He rubbed his shoulder.

‘What’s the matter?’ she asked quickly. ‘You got a neck pain, shoulder pain?’

‘More of a whole body pain,’ he said ruefully. ‘But perhaps the neck more than the rest.’

‘Here, let me have a go,’ she said, getting behind him and rubbing his neck. ‘This is no good. Your collar’s in the way. Take your shirt off.’

She helped him off with it, then got to work on his neck, his shoulders, his spine, with deft, skilful fingers.

‘Thanks,’ he said gratefully. ‘Hey, you’re good at this.’

‘I do it a lot.’

‘You do this for all the guys? Aren’t there medical people whose job it is?’

‘Sure, but if you can’t afford them you do it for each other.’

He considered this, not liking the implications. But her fingers were spreading welcome warmth and ease, and he settled for counting his blessings.

‘You’ve got them in Italy, haven’t you?’ she asked.

‘What?’

‘Aristocrats. Careful, don’t jump like that or I might hurt you.’

‘Did I? Didn’t mean to.’ The word aristocrats had caught him by surprise.

‘Italy is a republic-but we’ve still got one or two of them,’ he said cautiously.

‘Ever actually met them, I mean talked to them, face to face?’

‘They’re not a species of reptile, Selena.’

‘That’s just what they are. They should be in a cage in a zoo.’

‘But you know nothing about them.’

‘Well, do you?’

‘I know that some of them aren’t so bad.’

‘Why are you defending them? You should be on my side-down the aristos, up the workers.’

‘So you’d like to send them all to the guillotine?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I’d make them get their hands dirty in the fields, with the workers, like us.’

‘You don’t know I’m a worker,’ he said. ‘Who knows what I do when I’m back in Italy?’

She left what she was doing and took one of his hands in hers. It was large and roughened.

‘Of course I know,’ she said. ‘This is a worker’s hand. It’s been battered and hurt a few times. It’s got scars.’

It was all true, but the fields were his own and they brought him a fortune larger than Barton’s. His innocent deception lay heavy on him, and suddenly he couldn’t bear it.

‘Selena-’

She didn’t seem to hear him. She was turning his hand over, holding it gently. Then she looked up and her gaze shocked him with its innocent candour. There was a glow in her eyes that seemed to dazzle him, and he looked quickly away.

‘What is it?’ she asked quietly, laying down his hand.

‘Nothing, I-’ He gave her a bright, forced smile, and spoke hurriedly. ‘I’m just aching all over. Tomorrow I’ll see a bone-setter. Well, now, I reckon it’s time to turn in. You too. You’ve had a long, hard day.’

‘Yes, I have,’ she murmured bleakly. ‘Very hard.’

The last night of the rodeo was to be marked by one of the barbecues that Barton gave at the drop of a hat. There was no hospitality like that to be found at the Four-Ten, and as they drove back they were followed by a procession of vehicles.

Leo knew a curious sense of dissatisfaction. He would be leaving next day, but he wasn’t ready for that. Something had started here but not finished, and he couldn’t make things happen because he didn’t know enough about his own feelings.

Selena tugged at his heart as no other woman had ever done, but there were chasms between them, chasms of lifestyle, country, language. They didn’t even believe in the same kind of future. Only the most overwhelming love could overcome such problems. And how could he hope for such love from a woman who seemed not to believe in it?

The thought of saying goodbye hurt badly. He’d hoped she minded as much, but she made it impossible to tell. And perhaps that was his answer.

They’d seen little of each other since the night she’d rubbed his back and he’d nearly been overwhelmed by his longing for her, and his conscience-stricken awareness that he was treading a fine line.

The next day he’d been to a chiropractor, who pulled and pushed him, told him not to be such a darned fool another time, and left him a hundred dollars poorer. He’d still ached afterward, although whether it was from the fall or the treatment he couldn’t say, but he felt a good deal better now.

He dressed quickly for the evening. From down below came the sounds of music and laughter and he looked out on the pleasant scene. Sweet-smelling smoke came from the barbecue, lights were strung between the trees and the music seemed to beckon him.

Selena was already there. He could see her in the centre of a small crowd, and guessed she’d done herself some good with her fizzing performances. Her future would be brighter now, and the help he’d given her would bear fruit, even if she didn’t know it; even if she forgot about him completely and never gave him another thought for the rest of her days.

On that gloomy reflection he went down to join the party.

There was plenty to distract him, great food, fine whisky, smiling ladies. But suddenly his appetite had gone and he didn’t want to drink. He followed her jealously with his eyes, dancing when he had to, but always trying to keep her in view.

Barton, good host that he was, made much of his guests, calling for toasts and rounds of applause. Leo joined in the applause for Selena and raised his glass to her. She raised hers back.

As everyone broke into another boisterous dance he made his way through the crowd to her and saw that her eyes were shining.

‘I feel so good,’ she said happily. ‘Oh, Leo, if you only knew how good I feel!’

‘That’s great,’ he said tenderly. ‘That’s how I always want you to feel.’

‘I’ve just been interviewed by the local paper about my “successes”-both of them.’

After being narrowly beaten in the first barrel race, she’d won on the following day, and achieved another second on the day after. On the final day there had been a big event for the best ten competitors from the previous races. And she’d stormed to victory.

‘Do you know how much money I’ve got now?’ she asked in wonder.

‘Yes, I do. You told me. And take care of it.’

‘It’s more than I’ve ever had before at one time.’

‘What are you going to do with it?’

‘Enter more events. This could see me through my next six months.’

‘And then?’

‘By then I should have enough for the next year. I’m on my way.’

Which didn’t sound much as if she was planning to pine for him.

He chinked glasses with her, then walked away to sweep Carrie into the mêlée. They danced until they were both breathless and laughing, then went into the waltz together.

‘Did you manage it?’ Carrie asked.

‘It?’

‘Selena. Is she as nuts about you as you are about her?’ Since the day Leo had appealed to her in the discussion about bull riding she’d settled into the role of the understanding sister.

‘She sure isn’t nuts about me.’

‘But you are about her.’

‘Carrie, please!’

‘OK. Only I think I saw her looking for you, and I was planning to melt tactfully away, but if-’

‘You’re a darling.’

He kissed her cheek and turned to find Selena eyeing him with a curious little smile on her lips.

‘You haven’t danced with me yet,’ she said.

Carrie melted, as promised, only taking a quick look back to see Leo and Selena go into each other’s arms like two halves of a whole.

They danced in silence for a while, each thinking that by this time tomorrow they would have gone their separate ways.

Selena was full of confusion. She’d said goodbyes before, but never like this. She tried to be practical. All she had to do was hold out until he’d gone, and then forget him. It should be easy forgetting a man half a world away. But her heart was telling her that he would never be far away from her again, because she would carry him with her every moment, for the rest of her life.

The music changed. Suddenly a lone violin was playing a melancholy strain of longing and farewell. She would never see him again. She held him close and her heart ached.

With her eyes closed, she didn’t see where he was taking her. She only knew that they were dancing, circling, circling, while the sounds faded. She danced on in a dream where there was only herself and him, circling around and around.

‘Selena…’

His voice whispering her name made her open her eyes to find his face close to hers.

‘Selena,’ he said again, his breath brushing her face, and her murmured, ‘Yes,’ was so swift that their breath intermingled.

Then his mouth was on hers, and he was kissing her with a fierceness born out of desperation. She was slipping through his fingers, and holding her was like trying to hold onto quicksilver.

She answered him with the same fierceness. From the moment they’d met something had been bound to happen between them, and it had taken too long. Now she wouldn’t let it go. She would have her hour, whatever it cost, and live in its glory all her days.

Her life had taught her little about love and tenderness. What she knew she’d discovered for herself. Something was happening inside her now that was totally new. She hadn’t known before that just being in a man’s arms could make her ache with joy and sadness together, so that she didn’t know which one was the greater. Nor did it matter. She was alive to feelings and sensations that she would never regret, no matter how much pain they might cost her. And there would be pain. Life had taught her that much.

She’d kissed other men, but none like this. He was a man whom, she guessed, had lived a full life with women, yet his touch had a curious innocence about it, as though he too was experiencing something for the first time. Through the driving urgency she could still feel the tenderness, as though caring for her mattered more to him than any other satisfaction.

Yet he wanted her to the point where it was driving him crazy. She could sense that through the trembling of his great, powerful body, the rise and fall of his chest. It excited her to know that she affected him so much. She wanted him as much in thrall to her as she was to him, and she teased him with her lips, urging him on to the point where they would meet.

It was he who ended the kiss, seizing her shoulders and pushing her back a few inches, so that he could look into her face. His own was wild.

‘We picked one heckuva time,’ he gasped. ‘Maybe we should-’

‘Maybe we should what? Be sensible? Who wants to be sensible?’

‘Well I sure don’t, but you-Selena, tomorrow-’ He stopped. The words of cool wisdom hung in the air and died unspoken.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Yes-’

From somewhere in the background a sound was growing closer. Cheering, laughing, singing, cheerful guests in the last yell of enjoyment before the party began to break up. Leo looked desperately to where light and noise were streaming towards him, engulfing him.

‘Hey, look who’s hiding himself under the trees!’

‘Who is she, Leo?’

He laughed loudly, trying to brush it off. Someone pressed a drink on him and he took it. Everyone was kissing everyone.

When he looked around for Selena she had gone.

It seemed an age before the goodnights were said, but at last the place was quiet and Leo could draw a long breath. Perhaps they could still have a moment alone together, and answer some of the questions that had been raised under the trees.

But there was no sign of Selena. So many promises in her kiss, and she’d just left him.

He made his way up to bed, frowning, trying to see a way through the confusion. Hell would freeze over before he would go knocking on her door. The next move had to be hers.

So he told himself. But he still went to her door and knocked softly. It was that or spend the rest of his life wondering. Getting no reply he knocked a little louder, and waited. Still no reply.

He went to his own room. At the window he looked out on the dark landscape, knowing it had been foolish to indulge in dreams when he was leaving tomorrow. Whatever happened now was too late. He stood there, telling himself it was best to be sensible, and trying to believe it.

He didn’t know what made him aware that he wasn’t alone in the room. It wasn’t even as definite as the sound of breathing, but something changed in the atmosphere, and when he stretched out his hand to the lamp a voice in the darkness whispered, ‘Don’t put on the light.’

‘Where are you?’ he said.

She didn’t answer, but the next moment two soft arms were around his neck, and a slim, naked body was pressed against his.

‘You were here all the time?’ he asked. ‘I just got back from-’

‘I know, I heard you.’ Her chuckle delighted him.

He’d remembered her from the first day as a gazelle, a nymph, so delicately built was she. Now in the darkness his hands discovered what his eyes had known, and found the beauty he’d dreamed of since that moment.

Her fingers were working on his shirt, opening the buttons, finding his chest, the slight rise and fall of his muscles, sliding her palms over them.

‘If you don’t mean to follow through, you’re doing something very dangerous,’ Leo groaned.

‘I never start what I don’t mean to finish,’ she murmured so that her breath fanned his face.

She was easing his shirt down his arms as she spoke, inch by inch until he couldn’t stand it any more and wrenched it off. Then he could pull her against him, revelling in the feel of her soft skin against his own. He closed his eyes, wondering how anything could feel so good and still leave him standing.

He stripped off the rest of his clothes as fast as he could. This had been too long in coming to waste any time. Holding onto each other they made their way to the bed and collapsed on it so that he fell on his back with her on top of him.

‘Remember when we were like this before?’ she asked.

‘The first day-I got you out of the bath-how can I forget?’

‘We didn’t end up like this though.’

‘We would have done if I’d had anything to do with it,’ he growled.

‘Me too.’

‘As soon as that?’

‘As soon as that.’

She was laughing like a siren who’d finally enticed her prey into her circle, and that was fine by him. He’d happily be the prey, or anything, as long it led to this.

His hands were all over her, enjoying her lithe strength, her fluid movements, and what she was doing to him.

‘I thought you were stiff and bruised,’ she teased.

‘My energy’s coming back by the minute.’

She began covering him with kisses. She seemed to know him already, understanding by instinct the little caresses that drove him wild. When Leo slowly sat up, holding her in his lap, her fingers immediately found the place on the back of his neck where the lightest touch could reduce him to shivers. From there it was just a matter of time before she discovered how vulnerable his spine was as well.

‘Witch,’ he growled.

‘Hmm!’

Suddenly he could stand it no longer. With a deep laugh he rolled over, tossing her onto her back with him on top of her.

‘I’ve been thinking about this until I nearly went crazy,’ he groaned.

Her whisper went through him like electricity. ‘Why did we waste so much time?’

‘Who cares?’ he said. ‘As long as we don’t waste any more.’

He kissed her everywhere, celebrating her breasts, her tiny waist, her long, slim legs. She was quickly ready for him, telling him wordlessly of her eagerness, and when he entered her she gave a sigh of fulfilment.

His loving was like himself, robust and full-hearted, short on subtlety but long on warmth and generosity, giving more than he took. His slow movements increased her pleasure, driving it forward, harder, more intense, beautiful, ecstatic. He had the control to hold back, giving her every last moment before letting himself go.

And then it was like nothing in the world had ever been or ever would be again. Just for a few moments. Not long enough. She wanted so much more, and she would never stop wanting him. She knew, even as she felt her heartbeat slow to contentment, that he could start it racing again with a word.

They shared a glance, eyes gleaming in the dark, and suddenly they clutched each other, not in passion this time but in joyous mirth. For it was the biggest and most exhilarating joke in the whole world. Arms about each other’s necks, they roared with laughter, knowing the joke was on them.

And then it wasn’t funny any more, but only beautiful and fulfilling, and they were no longer themselves, but something entirely different called ‘us’.

And tomorrow they were saying goodbye.

She’d known that Leo was a dangerously lovable man, but she was never more sure of it than when sex was over and he turned towards her, enfolding her in his arms and resting his face against her warm flesh, as though he needed more from her than physical pleasure.

That was a real dirty trick, she thought. How was a girl supposed to keep her independence of spirit with a man who behaved like that?

But when she was quite sure he was asleep she put her own arms around him, as far as she could, and stroked his hair, and kissed him again and again in a passion of tenderness and farewell.