‘You have a serious health problem which will surely deteriorate if you return too quickly to the life you were living. No, my mind is made up,’ Rocco said firmly. ‘You and Josh will remain here in Sicily until Dr Vittorio pronounces you well enough to leave.’
Julie gasped. Well, honestly—of all the arrogant, high- handed things to do! But what could she say? She knew Rocco well enough now to know that there was no point in arguing with him. And he was right about her health and about Josh. She would never forgive herself if she insisted on returning to London only to find that Josh’s health started to deteriorate. How could she provide the kind of environment for him that he had here? And besides, if she stayed, then perhaps…
Perhaps what? Perhaps because Rocco had had sex with her it meant something? She would be foolish in the extreme to start believing that, Julie warned herself. He didn’t care about her at all. And what was more she didn’t care about him either. What they had shared had just been sex, and she had better not forget that.
Just? How could the word ‘just’ be applied to the wondrous life-changing experience she had had in his arms? But she must not admit to that. Not even to herself. In fact, she must not think about it at all.
* * *
It had been a tumultuously difficult morning, and Julie was relieved to finally be on her own with Josh, enjoying the sunshine in a sheltered part of the courtyard garden.
At least she had been enjoying it on her own. She grimaced, her heart sinking as she looked up and saw Rocco striding purposefully towards them. His shadow cast a long silhouette in front of him that touched her before he himself reached her, reminding her, if she had been in need of any reminder, that there was no part of her he himself had not touched—physically and emotionally.
‘This James,’ he demanded abruptly. ‘You were in love with him?’
Julie looked away from him. Now what did he want?
‘Yes,’ she acknowledged.
‘He was your first lover?’
Immediately she turned to look at him, the startled shock in her expression betraying her ahead of her reluctant, ‘Yes.’
Josh, lying on his rug on top of a comfortably padded throw Maria had found for them, crowed in triumph as he found his own toes, momentarily distracting them both.
‘Before you say anything, I’ve put sunscreen on him.’ Julie rushed into the silence to defend herself from the question she suspected might be coming—only to stop, torn between discomfort and an unwanted feeling of sharp grief as she realised that there was no reason for Rocco to care what happened to her nephew anymore.
Perhaps, though, he was as slow to recognise that fact as she had been, because he answered coolly, ‘Maria said that you had. It’s just as well that you are keeping him out of the direct sunlight, though. His skin won’t be used to it.’
He turned back to her, resting one foot on a stone tortoise close to where she was sitting so that he could lean closer to her and demand, ‘And he has been your only lover?’
Her heart jumped so much that it felt as though it had lodged in her throat.
‘I can’t see what relevance that could have to anything we might need to discuss.’
She’d been proud of the calm levelness of her voice, convinced that it hadn’t given anything away, until he stood upright and said, in a voice that seemed oddly to hold satisfaction, ‘So he has. And what happened? Obviously it wasn’t anything to do with your lack of willingness in bed.’
Julie was torn between chagrin and indignation.
‘What James and I felt for one other didn’t have anything to do with sex,’ she told him, only realising when it was too late, and one dark eyebrow had risen in a mocking gesture of cynicism, just how her defence could be interpreted. ‘What I meant was that we loved one another and…and our relationship wasn’t based merely on sex,’ she corrected herself.
‘You loved him but he didn’t turn you on?’
‘No! I mean, yes—I loved him and of course he turned me on.’
‘So what happened?’
When she looked uncertainly at him he sat down on the stone bench next to her chair. ‘What do you mean what happened?’ she asked.
‘You said that he was potentially Josh’s father, and that he had been your sister’s lover—which begs the question why? According to what you’ve just said, you loved one another and were already lovers.’
Julie looked at Josh. Watching him gave her a valid reason for not looking at Rocco.
‘My sister was extremely beautiful. She liked to boast that she could have any man she wanted, and she wanted James.’
‘Your sister was a tart, who traded sex for material possessions and a taste of the kind of life she lusted after more than she did the men foolish enough to find her attractive.’
‘James fell in love with her,’ Julie continued, refusing to argue with him. ‘I was dreadfully hurt at the time. Poor James—it must have been so difficult for him. He knew how much I loved him, and he didn’t want to hurt me, so…’