Page 37 of Expecting His Billion-Dollar Scandal
He repeated the mantra about this not being a normal situation because she was the mother of his baby. It worked for a while but when he discovered that he had been staring at the same page of the report he had been reading on his email for fifteen minutes, he was forced to concede that the mantra, while it made sense, wasn’t having the desired effect.
Like it or not, his head was crammed with a variety of possible dangers she might encounter because she felt she needed some exercise and fresh air.
He couldn’t squash his fears even though there was nowhere on earth safer than the shores of this stunning lake. For a start, there were endless tourists around. It wasn’t one of the smaller, quieter lakes. If she slipped or fell or fainted or urgently needed to lie down, there would be people around to help and she’d call him, but none of those things would happen anyway because all she would do was stroll and maybe stop and have something to drink at one of the cafés. You couldn’t walk five metres without colliding into a packed café.
Not that she was going to slip. Or fall. Or faint. Or urgently need to lie down.
But what if she did?
He would never forgive himself. Protecting her was his duty. The place for him right now wasn’t in front of his computer trying to focus. It was by her side...making sure she didn’t slip.
Mind made up, he left his villa at speed. He hadn’t been to the villa for a hundred years, or so it seemed, but he knew this lake like the back of his hand. Just one of the many exotic destinations he had frequented in his early days. It was muggy outside. Grey skies and the lake wearing an angry look, as though thinking about getting choppy.
Luca ignored the crowds. How far had she walked? He was approaching at pace by the time he spotted her, laughing on one of the rental boats, of which there were many. This one was a small, sleek, mahogany little number, your basic speedboat made for two.
And she was with a guy, which made him pull up short.
Blond hair in a ponytail, tanned, wearing a shirt that was stupidly unbuttoned all the way down and surfer shorts.
Something wild and primitive ripped through Luca and he had to take a few seconds to gather himself.
They were laughing.
He thought back to that tight smile she had given him before stalking out of the villa earlier and he saw red. Fists bunched, he breathed in deep and by the time he made it to the boat, he was in control.
‘Having fun?’
In the midst of trying to make herself understood, in Italian, to the very pleasant guy from whom she was trying to rent the boat, Cordelia took a few seconds to register that Luca had shown up, far earlier than she had expected.
She turned around and, smile fading as she took in his glowering expression, she tentatively said, ‘You’re early. I didn’t think you’d be here for a couple of hours.’
She was standing on the deck of the small outboard motorboat, and she leapt off with the surety of a gazelle.
She knew boats as well as she knew the changing moods of the ocean.
Shading her eyes with one hand, she turned around and offered a very poor goodbye in Italian to Elias, the young guy who was now not going to get the rental he wanted.
‘What are you doing?’ Luca enquired coolly, having restrained himself from being just too aggressive for no reason towards a perfect stranger.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I thought you were going to have a stroll and maybe grab some lunch somewhere. Instead, you’ve decided that that’s all too tame and you’d rather risk life and limb on a speedboat...’
Cordelia’s mouth dropped open. ‘Luca, there’s no need for you to be overprotective! Are you forgetting that I rescued you from the sea? I’ve been handling boats faster and bigger than this since I was ten.’
‘You’re pregnant. You shouldn’t be thinking of doing anything as reckless as sailing. Of course, if I’m with you, then that’s a different story.’
They were heading towards the centre of the village, a charming honeycomb of small winding streets jam-packed with attractive, expensive shops, cafés and restaurants. Tables set out on the pavements were filled with tourists playing people-watching.
Luca veered off the main thoroughfare down one of the smaller avenues and eventually they managed to find themselves a quiet corner in one of the restaurants.
‘And who was that boy you were laughing with?’ he asked with a scowl.
‘Elias?’
Luca nodded and shrugged and looked away for a few seconds before scrutinising the menu and ordering nothing more than a double espresso from the waiter who had sidled up to the table.
‘He was the guy in charge of the boat rentals.’ Cordelia broke off to order a selection of little cakes, irresistible, before returning her gaze to his face with a frown. ‘Why?’
