“Is it?”
He was quietly watchful and something pricked at her skin, lifting goose bumps all over her.
“And you?” he moved deeper in the water, so her feet could no longer touch the bottom, so she lifted her legs, wrapping them around his back, the intimacy of that warming her even as their conversation was sharp and pointed.
“And me?” She asked, breathlessly.
“Do you want children?”
“I always thought I did,” she agreed with a small shift of her head.
“You’re not sure now?”
“No, I am,” she bit down on her lower lip, trying to find the right words. “When I was with Mich – my ex,” she recovered quickly, silently cursing the slip of the tongue. “It became a matter of survival. I would never have started a family with him.”
“Did he want to?”
Nausea shifted through her. “He mentioned it once or twice.” A shiver ran down her spine. It had been more like a threat – a way of tying her to him for the rest of their lives.
“When you go back to England,” he said after a moment, his expression distracted.
“Yes?”
“Do you think he’ll still want to see you?”
“Do I think he’ll be looking for me?” She bit down on her lip, moving it from side to side. “The truth is, it’s possible.” She swallowed, her delicate throat shifting with the involuntary action. “And on one level, that terrifies me, but on the other, I’m different now. Like getting away from him, taking some time to recover mentally and emotionally, has reminded me that I’m strong and independent, that I can handle him. Before, it was like I was drowning and every time I thought I could get my head above water, another wave would come and crash against me, so I would go under water once more. But I don’t feel that now.”
He nodded slowly, the look of pride in his eyes unmistakable. “You’re so strong, Maddie.”
“Yeah. I am. And you make me feel invincible,” she said honestly, and then she smiled, because from the ravages of her heartbreak she felt the kind of happiness she hadn’t believed possible, seven months earlier.
“You can come if you want.” He heard the offer and inwardly cringed. Maddie was leaving Ondechiara in a week’s time. Why in the world would he invite her to come to Villa Fortune with him, to eat with his family and Yaya? “Elodie and Fiero will be there. I know Jack would love to see you again.”
But Maddie shook her head, her hair blowing around her face so he wanted to ball it in his hands and hold her to him, kiss her until she was whimpering into his mouth and her body was soft against his. He wanted to kiss her surrender from her and he wanted to make her his. Again. And again and again. He was already leaving an hour later than he’d intended because getting out of bed had been an almost impossible feat.
Leaving her now, with her hair tousled and her body clad in just an oversized shirt of his that hung off one shoulder, was ridiculously hard.
“Your ankle’s definitely better?”
As if understanding his question, Dante, at her feet, nosed the delicate flesh there. Maddie smiled. “We’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be gone one night. If it wasn’t Yaya’s birthday…”
“Go.” She stood up onto the tips of her toes so her shirt lifted along her tanned thighs and he groaned.
“You’re killing me, Maddie.”
She grinned, batting her long dark lashes. “I hope so.”
When he was getting around the small coastline of Ondechiara, Nico drove. But going to the airport, he preferred to have his driver meet him. It meant he could work, and on this occasion, he was grateful not to have to navigate traffic when his mind was busy pulling apart the question of Maddie Gray and the part she’d started to play in his life, and his mind. What had started as a casual fling had quickly turned into something different, if only by virtue of the fact she’d basically moved in with him after her ankle injury. She was well enough to go back to La Villetta now, but he didn’t encourage that and fortunately, she hadn’t suggested it.
He liked having her around.
He loved waking up next to her.
Something like panic pushed all the air from his lungs, because he sensed the danger of this – of how much he could come to care for her. How much he already did care for her?
The countryside sped by his window and his eyes ran over it, barely noticing the vines and rolling hills, the glistening ocean in the distance.