Love Play by Rosemary Rogers (44 page)

Sara almost flinched at the note in his voice before he smoothed it into
a threatening, growling purr. 'And have you any more excuses left, diletta
mia?'

'Don't call me that! Oh! how dare you, especially now? When you - I
won't be married to a man who . . . who doesn't l-love me even if that is a
hopelessly old-fashioned way of thinking! And you've never ... you're so damn
high-handed you wouldn't think of ... of asking me if I - '

'Per Dio!' The words sounded like an explosion, making her try to
wriggle free in sudden panic; only to find his arms tighten around her until
she thought he meant to crush every bone in her body. 'Do you realise what an
impossible, stubborn spitfire you are? Ask you - hah! First you nag and taunt
me into leaving you and that sharp tongue of yours and by some lucky
coincidence I then find out what my stepmother later confirmed. After I had
returned, meaning to - look at me, do you hear?' With her head pulled back by
rough fingers entangled in her hair, Sara had no choice but to obey; only to
find that he had lowered his head so that his mouth hovered far too closely
over hers as he grated between clenched jaws: 'I wonder if you knew, and
perhaps enjoyed in your female, fickle, calculating mind, what my reaction
might be? For you must have known . . . maliarda, triple-damned enchantress ...
mi diletta, mi tormento ,.. how could you not have known?'

'Marco-- !'

'No, damn you, will you listen for once without Interruption? I have
been driven half mad! And all because of you - I was ready to kill you when I
came looking for you, and when I found you gone and everything so empty and so
silent ... I think I went a little crazy then, and perhaps I am more than a
little crazy now, to be saying all this
 
into those wet green eyes of yours that stare at me like green stones
and your mouth that makes me want to – why in hell do you think I want to marry
you? Must you know?

It
 
is because I want you and I
will have you, and
 
because no
matter
 
who I thought you were and what I
thought you were
 
and all of my efforts
and my cruelties and my words I had begun to love you, my delight, my torment,
my heart-
mio
cuore
... is that enough for you? Eh?' He almost
snarle the last
 
words at her before his
storm-black glance caught the almost beatific smile that had suddenly curved
her lips, parting them in a ragged sigh.

'Oh, Marco! Why... you didn't really have to shout at me,you know! I
mean ... I didn't want to fall in love with you either - and especially under
the circumstances - and anyway unrequited love is such a silly, stupid . . .
and I didn't feel I
 
could stand it any
morel So I ..."

He never did give her a chance to finish saying what she had begun, Sara
reflected dreamily some moments later, but it didn't matter at all, and
especially when he kept kissing her in that deliciously, fiercely possessive
manner that made her go weak at the knees. So weak that he had had to lift her,
quite naturally . . . and carry her just as naturally and as inevitably to the
big, canopied
 
bed.

And once they had arrived there, it seemed so much easier to put off
questions and answers and explanations and ... even thinking itself, for a
while. After all, they were going to spend lots more time together. Time enough
for her to think of all kinds of ways to keep him so busily occupied that he
wouldn't have time for any other woman. Just his.