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‘We don’t have a relationship, Alessio,’ she breathed, kissing him again before he could say anything else. ‘We’re just having sex.’
And she wasn’t going to think about that now.
Wasn’t going to think what the future held for her.
‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ He sank his hands into her tangled blonde hair and kissed her mouth again. ‘I could play that back to the television networks and make a fortune. Lindsay Lockheart, relationship counsellor, just having sex.’
‘I never said that there was anything wrong with sex,’ she protested lightly, gasping as his warm skilled hand curved over her bottom. ‘Just that it was important not to confuse sex with love and use it as a basis for marriage—Alessio, please—I can’t think when you do that—’
‘I don’t need you to think.’ With a powerful movement he rolled her underneath him and looked
at her with raw masculine appreciation. ‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you.’
And that, she thought to herself, her eyes closing as he lowered his head and started to perform yet another miracle on her body, was as big a compliment as any woman was ever likely to hear from the lips of Alessio Capelli.
CHAPTER NINE
‘SO HAVE you called your sister?’ Alessio passed Lindsay a plate of fruit and some tiny pastries.
It was late morning and they were enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the wooden deck that stretched over the water. Exotic fish darted beneath them, sending flashes of dazzling colour through the clear blue water. The only sound was the occasional muted splash as a hummingbird skimmed the water.
‘I haven’t called her. I haven’t switched my phone on since yesterday.’ Lindsay hesitated for a moment and then glanced up at him. ‘I’ve done a lot of thinking about what you said. And you were right.’
‘About what, exactly?’
Lindsay lowered her gaze and poked at the food on her plate. ‘About a lot of things. I am too controlling. I’ve been treating her like a little girl and she isn’t a little girl anymore.’ She gave a twisted smile. ‘To me she’s still the vulnerable toddler that used to crawl into bed with me and sleep with her thumb in her mouth. I haven’t noticed that she’s grown up. Or maybe I did notice and I just didn’t want to see it.’
‘Stop analysing everything.’
‘It’s hard not to when you know you’ve done everything wrong. I’ve made it difficult for her to turn to me.’ She felt a lump in her throat and a sense of helpless frustration because she’d tried so hard to get it right—to give Ruby the love she hadn’t had from their mother. ‘In fact, I’ve made a real mess of things.’
Alessio didn’t respond immediately. When he did, his voice was gruff. ‘Lindsay, if this is about what I said to you during the storm—I’m the first to admit that I know nothing about emotions. You shouldn’t listen to me. I was probably wrong.’
She couldn’t hold back the smile. ‘Wrong? You think you might have been wrong? Wow. That’s quite an admission coming from you. Shall I tell the press?’
His eyes gleamed. ‘You want to tell the press how well you know me?’
Lindsay blushed. ‘Maybe not. And anyway, you weren’t wrong. You were right about everything you said.’ She gave a tiny shrug and a painful smile. ‘You were honest. Was that difficult to hear? Yes, it was. But it was also important. You’ve made me see things more clearly.’ She was thinking not only of Ruby, but her mother. ‘I need to do things differently. And one of those things is not calling Ruby every five minutes. My hands are itching to pick up that phone and just keep dialling until eventually she picks up, but I know I’ve got to let go. She’ll phone me when she’s ready. And when she does, I’ll just listen.’
‘Why don’t you try encouraging your sister and see if that helps?’
‘You mean tell her that it’s fine to have an affair with Dino? I’m not sure I can go that far—’
‘She’s having one anyway,’ Alessio said dryly, ‘with or without your consent. I’m no expert on human behaviour, but it seems to me that the more you try and rein her in, the more she rebels.’
‘You’re probably right,’ Lindsay said humbly. ‘I’m just worried about her. Worried that she’ll be hurt. I don’t want that to happen.’
‘Being hurt is part of growing up,’ Alessio said unsympathetically. ‘She’ll be hurt—then she’ll toughen up.’
Lindsay hesitated, wondering how much to tell him. ‘Not everyone is as strong as you.’
‘She won’t discover how strong she is with you protecting her all the time. Learning how to get yourself out of the trouble you’ve created is part of growing up. Why do you feel so responsible for her?’
Lindsay picked at her fruit. ‘I’m older than her.’ And she knew what Ruby was capable of doing.
‘And being older than her means that you have to act like her mother?’
‘Not just because I’m older.’ Lindsay picked up her coffee cup and took a sip, too confused in her head to try and articulate her feelings about her parents. ‘Ruby—trusts me. She talks to me. Or she used to. And I’ve seen her in this situation before. I’ve seen her so head over heels in love with someone that she can’t think straight—that the whole of the rest of her life just seems to go out of the window.’
