Prelude to Enchantment, page 16
‘Oh, yes, please,’ murmured Sancha, huskily.
They spent their honeymoon on an island in the Aegean that belonged to a Greek friend of Cesare's. Nicos and his family lived in Athens and only used the villa very occasionally, and Sancha and Cesare spent two idyllic months there just soaking up the sun.
By the time they returned to Venice they were both tanned and healthy, and Cesare had restored the weight he had lost. Sancha had done most of the cooking herself and she felt a natural delight in seeing him so strong and well again.
He had proved to be the most satisfying lover and his undoubted experience had added to their delight in each other. Sancha would never have believed she could be so utterly abandoned in his arms, and she made him laugh when she feigned modesty.
‘You have a beautiful body,’ he told her once when she expressed her anxieties. ‘But it's your mind that I possess now, and that's the way it should be.'
They returned to Venice at the beginning of September and found Sancha's father and stepmother staying with the Tessiles. Sancha's father had come over for the wedding and Elizabeth had suggested that he and his wife might like to spend a holiday at the villa.
Sancha and Cesare agreed to have dinner with them on the evening after their return and Sancha was sitting at her dressing table spraying perfume over her hair when Cesare came into their bedroom from the bathroom. His hair was damp from his shower and he was wearing only a towelling bathrobe.
He came to stand behind Sancha and said: ‘I wish we weren't going out.’ He bent his head suddenly and put his mouth to her bare shoulder.
Sancha quivered. He always had the power to disturb her intensely. ‘So do I,’ she confessed, standing up and turning into his arms. ‘But Irene is no doubt dying to meet you, and besides, I want to show you off.'
‘Irene is your stepmother, is that right?’ He smiled, and slid his finger across her shoulders, sliding the straps aside before bending to kiss her again.
‘Y—yes.’ Sancha moved in his arms. ‘Cesare, we must get ready.'
‘Hmm,’ he murmured against her flesh, ‘but not yet, hmm?'
Her fingers tugged at the cord of his bathrobe. ‘No, not yet,’ she agreed huskily.
Later, as she lay in his arms, she said softly: ‘Tell me something.'
‘Hmm?’ He was sleepy, and lying there with his eyes closed he looked younger and rather vulnerable.
‘That night you came to the villa to find me and you seemed so unwell—had you caught a chill that day you waited for me in the rain?'
Cesare's eyes opened lazily. ‘Yes, that's right,’ he agreed, turning his face into her scented flesh. ‘I could have died of pneumonia, and you would never have known.'
Sancha pressed herself to him. ‘Don't say such things!’ she exclaimed. ‘I shall never forgive Eduardo for keeping that from me!'
Cesare propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at her adoringly. ‘Don't be bitter,’ he said, touching his mouth to her throat. ‘We are so lucky. We have so much. Does he have that satisfaction?'
Sancha shook her head, remembering Eleanor and what he had told her about Elizabeth. She touched Cesare's cheek with her fingers. ‘Yes, you're right,’ she said gently. ‘I'm glad you feel that way really. I suppose he thought he was doing what was best for me.'
Cesare smiled. ‘Maybe he was right.'
Sancha narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you serious?'
Cesare gathered her close. ‘Oh, no,’ he murmured softly. ‘You know what you mean to me.’ Then he glanced reluctantly at his watch. ‘Do you realise it's after seven?'
‘Oh, no!’ He smiled at the consternation on her face. ‘We're going to be very late!'
‘Hmm, we are,’ he agreed unconcernedly. ‘Do you mind?'
Sancha smoothed her fingers against his tanned flesh. ‘Not in the slightest,’ she confessed drowsily …
ISBN: 978-1-4720-9727-9
PRELUDE TO ENCHANTMENT
© 1979 Anne Mather
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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Anne Mather, Prelude to Enchantment
