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Strong, powerful legs that propelled his tall, black trunk-clad body past the admiring glances from women and the envious stares of men toward Greer.
His total disregard of the surroundings testified to his inbuilt radar system which had targeted its next victim. How easy her subconscious had made it for him by sending out the message that she wanted to see if all of him lived up to her image of the quintessential playboy.
All of him did…
From an aquiline face, whose Italian bones had been refined and molded down through the centuries, gleamed a pair of black eyes that resembled volcanoes erupting in the night sky. One intimate look from them beneath expressive black brows and she felt as if her body had come too close to the mesmerizing magma.
Burned alive would be the more accurate description.
The pulse in her throat throbbed so violently, she could feel it move the pendant she wore around her neck like a choker.
She watched him watching it. He’d taken the bait.
Piper would be especially pleased to find out her suggestion to wear the family heirloom had proved to be a winner their first night in Italy.
“I saw you walking on the grounds earlier, signorina.” His heavily accented English delivered in a deep masculine voice, vibrated to her insides. Its cadence sent a delicious tremor through her system even though the night was warm. “I hoped you would come to the pool.”
Of course he did.
“I noticed you, too,” she responded boldly, for once throwing her innate caution to the wind. “That’s why I didn’t go upstairs with my sisters.”
It was a lie. She hadn’t seen him. He was too much of a predator to have given himself away beforehand. Like his species, he’d lurked in the depths until it was time to make his attack.
“Swim with me.”
His ardent demand, whispered with a pulsating urgency that said his life wouldn’t be worth living if she didn’t consent, decided her.
“I’m not wearing a suit.”
“Does it matter?” came the breathtaking question.
She could have toyed with him a trifle longer and enjoyed every provocative minute of it. But in the end she decided not to tempt fate.
“No.”
The second she said the word, she saw something flare in the dark recesses of his eyes.
Had she surprised him with her answer? To her knowledge sharks didn’t have human emotions, only instincts that led them to their nearest prey.
Well, here I am… Let’s see how long it takes you to swallow me.
With great daring she slipped off her gold sandals, left her gold watch and gold lame clutch bag on a table near the deep end of the pool, then dove in headfirst.
Having lived along the Hudson River all their lives, their father had taught Greer and her sisters to be strong swimmers. As a result, it was their favorite sport which they enjoyed on a regular basis.
The bottom of this pool was tiled in a fabulous design. She swam lower to get a better look, but was halted in her quest when a strong pair of male hands found her hips and brought her swiftly to the surface.
She emerged with her neck-length hair plastered around her head, no longer the picture of classic royal grace. Unfortunately that wasn’t what disturbed her. It was the fact that her dress had ridden up to her waist, which meant nothing was separating his hands from her skin except her underwear.
With his arresting face only centimeters from hers, she would have to put on the performance of her life not to let him know how alarmed she was by this shocking turn of events.
“We haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Greer Duchess.”
“Greer,” he repeated softly. The way he pronounced it made even the hard “G” sound beautiful. His slow white smile dazzled her. “Your name is as unique as you are. What brings a beautiful American woman like you to Italy?”
It was time to try out the story she’d rehearsed. “My sisters and I are here to visit relatives.”
“Ah, yes?”
“Yes. My ancestor was the Duchess of Colorno.”
His black eyes flared in recognition. “You’re referring to Maria-Luigia of Austria of the House of Parma-Bourbon?”
So he knew his Italian history well enough to recognize the Duchesse pendant! This was so easy it was scary!
She couldn’t wait to tell Olivia and Piper she’d caught a real playboy on her first night! Now all she had to do was play him for a while before she reeled him in and got him to propose marriage.
When she unmasked herself, he would slip off the hook and swim away. Then she would be able to enjoy the rest of this fabulous vacation knowing she’d followed her father’s stipulation about the Husband Fund to the letter.
“Yes. That’s right. My sisters and I are the American descendants from her Duchesse line.” No need to add “the illegitimate line” at this juncture. “Now that I’ve told you something about myself, I’d like to know who you are,” she said in the most seductive tone she could produce.
“Why don’t you guess my name?” he came back in a deep voice that was equally tantalizing.
As if to emphasize his remark, she felt his thumbs making lazy circles against the nylon, increasing her awareness of him while they tread water. Her insides turned to liquid.
She gazed at his incredible male beauty through veiled eyes and said the first thing that popped into her head. “Luigio?”
His lips twitched, as if what she’d said had truly amused him. “No.”
Greer had never been this daring in her life. But something about the man was like an elixir in her veins, increasing her bravado. She flashed him a brilliant smile. “This might take a long time.”
He gave an elegant shrug of his broad Italian shoulders before drawing her closer. “I’ve been in London on business. Now I’m on vacation for the next week and would love nothing better than to spend every second of it with you, bellissima.”
Every second? That meant day and night. She just bet he would!
To her consternation she realized she would love the same thing. A shiver of delight ran through her body.
She’d always heard the expression “carnal thoughts,” but she’d never understood their true meaning until now…
Greer could find no fault in this Italian heartthrob who had it all down pat. Most likely he’d just left a woman in London and was now on the lookout for his next conquest.
As long as she was the bait with jewels and a title, why not tease him for a while longer first. She had an idea it would be a new experience for him.
“Unfortunately my sisters and I are leaving for Vernazza in the morning and won’t be back.”
“I know it well. Since you show no fear of the water, I would be happy to take you to a secret grotto which can only be reached by swimming a short distance beneath the sea.”
She flashed him an artless smile. “Like Edmond Dantes who found Abbe Faria’s treasure on Monte Cristo, will I discover gold and silver and precious pearls?”
His hard-muscled body stilled before he cocked his dark, handsome head. Even wet, his vibrant hair had a tendency to curl. “Is that what you’re looking for?”
Again she had the oddest sensation that she’d said something unexpected, something that puzzled him. “Isn’t everyone searching for treasure that will bring them ultimate happiness?”
“Ultimate happiness?” he murmured the words as if to himself, but his gaze was playing over her features, dwelling on each feminine attribute for heart-stopping seconds. “What is that I wonder?”
The philosopher emerging from the adventurer. He was a better actor than she’d first supposed.
“Thanks to Alexandre Dumas, we do know one thing…”
“That’s right,” he whispered. His lips were so close she could feel the warmth of his breath on hers. In reaction her toes curled against his hair-roughened legs as their limbs tangled beneath the water. “Though the Count of Monte Cristo had his revenge against his enemies, he didn’t find happiness after all.”
“Except that Dumas’s book was a tale of fiction,” she countered.
Again his eyes glimmered like black fires burning on a distant hill. “If you wish, I will take you to the island of Monte Cristo. It’s not far from Vernazza. Perhaps there you will find what you’re looking for.”
You mean you, of course.
She struggled not to laugh at the pure conceit of the man. “Perhaps.”
“Does that mean—”
“It means…perhaps,” she interrupted with a flirtatious smile. “Now I’m tired and must say good night.”
His hands remained fastened on her hips. “But it’s not late, and you’re too young to be tired.”
“True, but we just flew in today, and were detained by the police while we were going through customs. Three hours to be exact. It was very exhausting.”
“I’m sorry such a terrible thing happened to you in my country. Why would the police do this?”
“The head of security said there was a suspicious person on board our jet. He and his men took statements from the passengers who sat near this person.”
“Were you able to help?”
“I don’t know. We tried to remember the people seated around us, but no one looked suspicious to me. When we were finally let go, all we wanted was to reach our hotel and go to sleep.”
“Of course,” he whispered with compassion. His eyes wandered over her in intense appraisal before he said, “Momento—”
With one hand still possessively molding the curve of her hip, he signaled a waiter, rapping out something in rapid Italian. The other man nodded and disappeared.
Reading the question in her eyes, her captor explained, “I asked him to bring you a robe to wear back to your room. Such a delectable sight should not be for everyone’s eyes.”
Only yours, and you’ve been drinking your fill with un-abashed enjoyment, she thought. He played it just right. The lothario with a streak of chivalry to keep him from being a complete cad.
“Thank you, Signore…Mysterioso,” she improvised in her best Italian which, sadly, left a lot to be desired.
A bark of laughter escaped his throat, the first unorchestrated response to come out of him. In that millisecond of time she was allowed a glimpse of what lay beneath the polished veneer and felt an emotional tug totally foreign to her.
Not wishing to delve any deeper into her suddenly confused emotions, she arched backward to escape his grasp and struck out for the shallow end. That way she could use the steps and retain some semblance of dignity.
However he managed to get there first. In a surprisingly protective gesture, he placed the extended white toweling robe around her shoulders. She was quite amazed at the speed with which the waiter had obeyed the stranger’s command without question.
She raised violet eyes to meet the smoldering depths of his. “Thank you. I was feeling a little vulnerable.”
“Like Venus rising from the sea?” he suggested.
The second the words came out of his mouth, Greer could picture the famous painting of the Roman goddess of beauty awakening from a seashell without any clothes on.
Greer blushed at the shocking analogy and turned her head away. But he made the situation even more explosive and intimate by lifting the pendant and lowering his head to kiss the tiny pulse fluttering madly beneath it.
“One day soon when we have no audience except the sun on our skin and the sand beneath our bodies, I hope to see you exactly as Botticelli created her,” he murmured against her scented throat.
Between the sensuality of his remark and the brush of his lips branding her heated flesh, she drew in an audible breath before wheeling away from his grasp.
Trembling, she plucked her watch and purse from the table where she’d left them. Before she could decide whether to wear or carry her high heels, he’d looped his index finger through the gold straps.
“I’ll escort you to your room. Not even the Splendido can guarantee the safety of a woman on her own who looks like you. In your exhausted state you would be no match for someone who would like to spirit you away to some secret lagoon for the night…”
The image he’d created sent another shiver through her body, part ecstasy, part fright.
Before this trip, the playboys Greer had pictured in her mind were likable. Manageable. Easy come, easy go.
Maybe a little miffed to recognize they’d been conned, but gallant enough to salute the girls as worthy adversaries who’d pulled off a well-executed charade. No hard feelings as they made their charming retreat from the playing field.
Up until this moment she’d been enjoying a game that had its nascence back in Kingston two months earlier. But just now when he’d kissed her and whispered his daring remark, she’d sensed a power shift.
Now he was the one dangling her as surely as he dangled her shoes from his fingers.
Instinct told her this was a dangerous man, the kind you didn’t lure back to a youth hostel to tell him “sorry, wrong duchess.” He would be the one to decide when he was tired of playing, then he would move in for the kill. Until then he would keep her trapped in his sights, and there’d be no place for her to hide.
A thrill of alarm caused her to walk faster.
When they reached the elevator where other guests were coming and going, she was in a state of panic and used the brief interim to extricate the hotel room key from her purse.
However by the time they’d exited onto the third floor, reason had reasserted itself. She told herself it was lack of sleep that had made her so uneasy. She would be leaving the hotel tomorrow and since she had no intention of ever seeing him again, she was even able to smile up at him with renewed confidence.
After the long transatlantic flight followed by a grueling three hours detainment at the hands of the police, she hadn’t been herself at all. Otherwise she wouldn’t have given a perfect stranger the green light to pursue her.
For a woman to plunge into the pool with her clothes on in order to sink her hooks into him, what else was a man like him supposed to think?
Tonight had been an experiment. A dry run. Whoops. A wet one, she mused nervously to herself, realizing her emotions bordered on hysteria.
She’d blown it, but she’d learned from it. Tomorrow would be a new day filled with more playboys and fresh possibilities.
The hotel room door was in sight. With one fluid movement she unlocked it, but before she could slip inside, he left a kiss on the side of her neck that set her whole body on fire. “Until tomorrow.”
His promise sounded more like an avowal.
“Goodbye,” she announced through the crack in the door before shutting it hard and locking it.
