It was terrifying to realise the girl I thought had been lost long ago might still be lurking inside me somewhere, still yearning for Alexi’s touch...and his affection.
As the helicopter circled Villa Galanti, the emotions rushing towards me were as strong, if not stronger, than the downdraft from the blades.
Nothing could have prepared me for the hard hit of grief as the big black machine drifted over the estate’s private beach and the landscaped gardens. The marble statues and elegant follies, the enchanting water features and ancient woods, the beds overflowing with shrubs and flowers, all morphed into pirate ships, cowboy forts and haunted hideouts in my mind’s eye as I imagined Remy and I running through them together as children and then teenagers.
As the helicopter flew over the fifteen-bedroomed Belle Époque mansion at the centre of the estate, and the small housekeeper’s cottage behind where I had lived with my mother, the villa’s swimming pool on the garden’s lower terrace came into view.
My already pounding heart jumped into my throat then sunk deep into my abdomen as another memory blazed through my body. The blast of heat made my thighs tremble and my nipples pebble into hard peaks.
I had known my mind and my body would play tricks on me, but as I stared at the marble pool below, the sunshine glinting off the crystal-blue water, the whirring blades making the palm trees ruffle and bend, I knew I hadn’t factored in the power of those recollections as they reared out of my subconscious and struck me like a bolt of lightning, searing and devastating...
My heartbeat accelerated as I imagined myself, aged nineteen in the green cocktail dress I had donned after I had spotted Alexi heading towards the pool terrace...and raced after him...
My heart rammed into my throat as I crept past the pool house, the sultry night air settling around me like a blanket. My gaze landed on the pool perched on the clifftop overlooking the sea. The underwater lighting gave the water a turquoise glow and illuminated the even more breathtaking figure of a man slicing through the pool in powerful, efficient strokes.
I stumbled back to shield myself, my eyes going so wide it was a wonder my eyeballs didn’t pop right out of my skull.
My heart swelled, beating so hard and fast it started to gag me.
Was Alexi naked? I wondered as I spotted a pile of clothes on one of the loungers. I studied his strong shoulders, powerful arms and tanned back ploughing through the water and tried to focus on what lay beneath the surface.
The butterflies in my stomach formed into a boulder. A hot, heavy boulder that got wedged between my thighs and made my sex beat with the same furious, erratic rhythm as my heart.
The figure powered to the end of the pool then executed a perfect backflip to thunder back towards me.
I spotted his boxer shorts clinging to the bunched muscles of his backside.
Not naked.
My galloping heartbeat slowed. A little. And my breath gushed out of constricted lungs.
But my relief was short lived when Alexi levered himself out of the pool only a few feet from where I stood.
I flattened myself against the wall, trying to be invisible as the water cascaded off his broad shoulders. He stood on the pool patio, the wet boxers clinging to the long muscles of his flanks as he scooped up a towel from the lounger. Water glistened on his tanned skin in the moonlight as he scrubbed his hair, making it stick up in tufts.
I should have left, given him his privacy. But I stood transfixed, trapped by the sensations rioting through my body as he slung the towel around his neck, slid his thumbs under the waist band of his wet shorts and bent to shove them down his legs. He kicked them off and straightened, rubbing the towel over his groin.
My heart hammered my ribs so hard it was a miracle I didn’t pass out.
Alexi Galanti naked was more beautiful than anything I could ever have imagined. And I’d imagined a lot.
He stood silhouetted against the pool glow and the twinkle of lights from Monte Carlo across the bay, spotlighted like Adonis against the night.
No, not Adonis.
Poseidon.
This was not a boy. This was a man. A god-like man.
He flung down the towel and reached for his jeans, leaving him standing completely naked in front of me. I could see absolutely everything now.
Oh. My. Good. God.
My breath released in a shattered gasp.
His head shot up and he pinned me with that searing blue gaze. Heat exploded in my cheeks like a volcano, the hot lava of mortification spreading over my face and flooding across my collarbone.
He held his clothing over his groin, his dark brows drawn in a sharp frown. But he didn’t look embarrassed, just annoyed.