Page 14 of His Royal Bride Replacement

‘The cabin should have been built on this side of the mountain,’ Alessio opined. ‘The views would’ve been spectacular, but my grandmother chose the land side because she was a gardener and the site she chose was more protected from the wind.’

‘There was a garden?’ Rosy asked in surprise.

‘Once upon a time at the front. It’s now run wild.’

As they stepped into full sunshine, Rosy found herself at the edge of a small cliff looking down into a sunlit rocky cove composed of white sand and glimmering blue water.

‘It’s magical,’ she whispered in wonderment.

CHAPTER FIVE

In advaVAnce of her,Alessio moved down the worn, steep, twisting steps to the beach, one hand on hers to guide her every step of the way.

Rosy heaved a sigh but made no complaint. If he wanted to behave as though she would trip over her own feet, she would let him. Even so, it was rather uplifting to be the source of that much care and attention from a guy. Alessio, in fact, bent his entire concentration on her and it was a new and rather intoxicating experience for Rosy, who was much more accustomed to men who elbowed her in the ribs and treated her with hearty sexlessness as though she were a mate. But Alessio, it only slowly dawned on her, was herhusband, which presumably explained why he was so over-the-top protective of her.

They arrived on the sand and she immediately kicked off her shoes, letting her toes flex as they walked towards the blankets already spread across the sand in the shelter of the cliff. He took her hand and guided her over to a rocky outcrop that jutted out to point out the shallow cave behind it. ‘You can change in there if you need to.’

A heap of towels sat beside the blankets. ‘How did these get here?’ she asked.

‘Security put them down for us and delivered lunch and drinks for us.’

‘I brought snacks for lunch.’

‘But this is supposed to be a honeymoon and I don’t want you feeling that you have to do all the catering,’ Alessio responded smoothly, watching as she whipped off her tee shirt and dropped her shorts with a remarkable lack of self-consciousness before racing down to the shoreline, a lithe, slender silhouette captured against the bright sunlight.

He watched her walking through the surf and then dancing into the waves like a water sprite, her glorious hair fanning round her and glinting in every shade from red to copper to gold. Absolutely gorgeous. No supermodel could have held his attention more closely. He breathed in deep and slow and shed his tee, watching her wade deeper into the water with an obvious sense of freedom and assurance. He wanted her, no doubt about that, but he wasn’t an idiot with women either. He assumed that they had to learn how to function as a couple before he let his libido control him.

He joined her to wash away the heat of the day and waved her away from the rocks where the currents were strong until she finally turned back towards the shore. Clambering upright, she stumbled as a wave hit her legs and Alessio laughed and closed his hand over hers to raise her up and steady her.

‘I forgot how much I loved it here,’ he admitted, disconcerting her.

‘Then why did you wait over twenty years to come back?’ she asked, watching water stream down his lean, broad, bronzed chest, trickling through the smattering haze of black hair, noting almost involuntarily the intriguing arrow of dark hair heading down from below his navel to disappear beneath his waistband. Cheeks burning, she raised her gaze guiltily to collide with glittering green eyes.

‘Firstly, my parents only came here to please my grandparents. They didn’t do rustic and the simple pleasures. And secondly…’ Alessio’s expressive mouth tightened as he changed tack on a raw note. ‘Don’tlook at me like that if you don’t want me to touch you.’

Flames of mortification and a stricken conscience forced Rosy to drop her gaze again. Inwardly she squirmed because she knew she was sending out confusing signals and naturally he could read her much better than she could read him. Alessio, after all, had the reputation of a heartless womaniser. He had quietened down as he’d moved into his late twenties but he hadn’t acquired his rakish image by accident. Before their wedding, she had done her share of online snooping over that phase of his life and she had seen the pictures of him at parties, on yachts and in exclusive clubs filled with celebrities and socialites. Accompanied by a parade of gorgeous women and often more than one.

‘It’s not that I don’t want you to touch me,’ she said clumsily. ‘It’s just that I wasn’t expecting it at first and I can be a bit awkward with…er…men. Not a lot of experience. So, you were saying about why you haven’t been back here?’ she encouraged, forcing herself to stand her ground in the surf and lift her eyes to his again, pride and determination straightening her spine.

His glorious green eyes glinted in the sunshine and he bent down suddenly to drop a teasing kiss on the tip of her pert nose. ‘You’re not awkward with me, possibly a little shy. Nothing wrong with that except I’m not used to it. But I think I’m beginning to like it,’ he said, directing her back towards their picnic spot and tossing her a towel.

With hands that trembled a little, Rosy towelled herself and gulped down cool water. He liked it? What was she supposed to make of that comment? Deeply self-conscious again, she breathed in deep and slow.

‘I didn’t return because my grandmother had a stroke and passed away here on that last holiday,’ Alessio explained grittily, his lean strong features taut. ‘I was heartbroken. She was the only softness in my life and I still remember my grandfather crying. They were a sincerely happy couple…and then I went upstairs and my parents were having a screaming row.’

‘A…row?’ Rosy queried in surprise.

‘Yes. The Queen’s death put the whole family into official mourning and it meant that my mother couldn’t go to her fashion shows and my father wouldn’t be able to race his yacht that season.’

‘Oh.’There was a wealth of comprehension in Rosy’s shaken response to those admissions and she reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘That’s very sad.’

Thinking fondly back to his grandparents’ happy marriage, Alessio closed his much larger hand round hers. ‘I think it was the first time I saw my parents as they really were. Two very selfish, shallow people. My father didn’t even attempt to comfort his distraught father. I suspect he saw my grandfather as being in his way by then. He was forty-five and he wanted the throne.’

Rosy winced.

Alessio frowned. ‘But when he took his place a few years later, he was very reluctant to allow his official duties to get in the way of his playboy lifestyle. I don’t intend to follow his example.’

Rosy lay back to enjoy the sunshine, slathered on a little more sunscreen and eventually drifted off into a doze, only to wake up to find Alessio unfurling a parasol over her. ‘Are you ready for some lunch?’ he asked.

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