Was he using her? Maybe, but wouldn’t she likewise be using him if they did what their bodies were clearly urging them to do?
She’d been hurt by some man she’d met on a beach. Subconsciously, she wanted to be pieced back together. He could sense that from the little she had told him.
And, if he offered himself to be that helping hand for the job, then wouldn’t he be doing her a favour?
Wasn’t it, really, a mutually beneficial situation? Yes. It was.
‘It’s late,’ he murmured, fluidly rising to his feet and waiting for her to follow suit, watching as she scrambled up. He moved closer to her whilst maintaining a respectable distance and murmured sincerely, ‘And again, that kiss...not planned. It’s not like me to...’ He hesitated and then continued absolutely truthfully, ‘To allow my attraction to any woman get the better of me. But on this occasion, I lost the battle. You were beyond temptation.’
He drew back and began heading towards the door, very much aware of her alongside him, so slender, seemingly so fragile and, oh, so tempting. He turned and gave her a mock-salute.
‘I’m going to head to my office. I’ll have time to say goodbye to Rosa before I leave for Chicago, and I’ll see you when I get back day after tomorrow.’ He paused and crossed another of his self-imposed boundaries. ‘I’ll let you have my personal line. You’ll be able to get through to me any time you want.’
‘We’ll be fine.’ Izzy smiled reassuringly.
‘I know you will, and I can’t wait to see you when I return.’
He called. Of course, Izzy should have known that he would want to talk to her to find out how Rosa was doing, but she was still flustered when he phoned that first time, pretty much as soon as he landed in Chicago. The dark timbre of his voice sent shivers racing up and down her spine.
It brought to mind the devastating impact of his kiss, the way his mouth on hers had made her feel. It also brought to mind what he had said. He had put his cards on the table, told her that he was attracted to her and then he had walked away, leaving her thoughts in a jumble.
He didn’t pursue the conversation or make any suggestive remarks when he spoke to her on the phone. The fact that he was actingsonormal, as though nothing had been said between them, fuelled her fevered imagination like nothing else could have done.
He was on her mind to an extraordinary degree, even though she was as involved as always with Rosa, taking her to pick fruit in Evelyn’s garden and drawing pictures of flowers, while Evelyn studiously gave them both little lessons on their names and origins.
She found herself waiting for his debrief call, which duly came just before Rosa was to be settled for the night. He chatted to her while Izzy faffed and tried to subdue a rush of heady excitement and, when he did ask to be put on the line with her, she had to breathe deeply and count to ten before she could speak in a normal voice.
‘Yes, everything’s just great... We had a really busy day... Went to Evelyn’s for tea... Rosa ate all her dinner... Oh, I’m sorry to hear that Bella is going to be in a bit longer than expected. Yes, see you tomorrow... Oh, you’ll be back late? Never mind, have a safe trip...’
Afterwards, she replayed the conversation in her head and wondered whether there was anything to read between the lines. Had he completely forgotten about that kiss? About what he had said afterwards? He was a man of the world...maybe he was accustomed to that level of sophisticated, nonchalant flirting that didn’t necessarily go anywhere. She’d reassured him that a repeat performance wouldn’t be on the cards, so why was she so let down at the notion that he was simply doing as asked?
The more she thought about him telling her that he hadn’t been able to resist that kiss, the more she burned with the forbidden desire to take things further between them.
It contravened all her resolutions never to get wrapped up with the wrong man again. Gabriel Ricci could not bemore wrong. And yet...
The following day dragged. The skies were overcast but there was a dense humidity in the air that made both Rosa and her lethargic.
They had a light lunch and then, at a little after five, when at last the humidity was dying down a bit, Izzy suggested the pool. They had yet to go swimming, partly because the swimming pool, spectacular though it was, had lost it novelty when compared to Evelyn’s orchard and exploring her garden. Rosa had grown up with swimming pools and all the other accoutrements of extreme wealth. It was the simple stuff that intrigued her.
With Gabriel not due until well past the witching hour, they both got into their swimsuits, pulled out a few pool toys from the extravagant changing suite built under a canopy of trees by the side and splashed around for a while, playing silly games.
Rosa could swim like a fish. Izzy pretended she couldn’t. They laughed and chatted, and it occurred to Izzy that she was discovering a whole lot about Rosa’s life with her mother, things that made her wonder how on earth Gabriel could have fallen for the woman, who sounded monstrously selfish.
Post-divorce, he might admit that she was fond of playing games and used her daughter as a convenient pawn, but there must have been a time when he had been smitten, or else why would he have married her?
And yet she heard tales of Rosa being left to her own devices when there was no nanny around...of Rosa having to make herself scarce when her mother had her boyfriends over...of Rosa being removed from school without warning to go on inappropriate holidays or else being dumped with friends, awkwardly aware that at times she wasn’t entirely wanted.
Most damaging of all, as far as Izzy was concerned, was the revelation that Bianca had warned her daughter to keep quiet about what happened on the home frontor else.The pull to stay for the sake of Rosa, never mind Evelyn, was a powerful force in its own right.
In fairness, Rosa seemed blithely unperturbed, but surely, deep down, she was? Izzy knew from her own painful experiences just how fast and far a disjointed background could travel, screwing up your life for years to come.
The sky had darkened without Izzy noticing and it was only when there was the sharp crack of thunder overhead that she grabbed Rosa and began making a sprint for the house.
The heavens opened. Thunder rumbled, and the rain pelted down with such ferocity that by the time they hit the side door they were drenched.
She didn’t have time do anything with her towel. She didn’t have time to fling on her T-shirt. Nor did she have time to see anything in front of her because she was one hundred percent focused on both she and Rosa making it back through that side door into the kitchen without slipping on the suddenly treacherous paving.
So colliding slap, bang into an immovable object holding the kitchen door open was a shock, and she recoiled back in confused panic.
