A Sicilian Husband - Kate Walker [53]
‘You made the rules, carina, so you have only yourself to blame if you don’t like the way things work out. While I’m gone, perhaps you might like to rethink the way you want to play this.’
A moment later he was gone, and, released at last from the tension that was all that had been holding her upright, Terrie gave a raw, choking gasp and let go, sliding all the way down the wall to collapse in a weak, shaken heap on the floor. Too exhausted, too shattered even to cry, she could only bury her face in her hands and moan aloud as she gave herself up to the pain of her despair.
CHAPTER TEN
‘TREEZA! Treeza! Looka me!’
Obedient to Paolo’s shrieked command, using his own personal version of her name, Terrie looked across to the opposite side of the swimming pool to where the little boy was poised on the edge of the tiled surround.
‘Go on, then!’ she encouraged. ‘Jump!’
Tanned arms and legs waving frantically, Paolo launched himself into the air and landed, with the maximum amount of splashing, in the cool blue water just a short distance from her. Laughing, Terrie slid back into the cool water and made her way in a leisurely breast-stroke to the spot where he had surfaced, spluttering wildly, a wide, brilliant grin on his face.
‘See me?’ he spluttered, wiping the streaming water away from his eyes and nose. ‘See me jump?’
‘I saw you,’ Terrie told him. ‘I don’t think anyone could miss you.’
It really wasn’t fair, she reflected. Surely nature could have arranged it so that Gio’s son hadn’t been quite such a perfect replica of his father. His hair, his eyes, his features, all were a smaller, younger copy of his father’s, so that even when Gio wasn’t actually around at the villa then Paolo was always there to remind her of him, the man faithfully reflected in the boy.
Not that she could ever forget what Gio was like, she admitted ruefully. It seemed that he was always in her mind, always at the forefront of her thoughts, and she had only to close her eyes, or simply to think of him, and an image of his dark, stunning features rose before her, clear as life, without a second’s hesitation.
‘Ride! Ride!’
Paolo was bouncing up and down in the water, sending rippling waves radiating out towards the sides. Gio had insisted that his son be brought up speaking both English and Italian, and he managed to communicate well enough in Terrie’s own language when he was with her.
‘Treeza—pleeese!’
‘A piggyback ride? Again? Oh, OK…’
She couldn’t deny this little boy anything. From the first moment that she had been introduced to him, Paolo had stolen a part of her heart away, and she knew she would never get it back. And it seemed that he felt the same about her. Certainly, he loved to be in her company, and after only a moment or two’s wary shyness he had taken to her as if he had known her all his life.
She turned her back on him, lowering herself until her shoulders were covered in the water, and he could climb onto her back. When Paolo’s arms were tight around her neck, his sturdy legs clamped about her waist, she kicked off and swam, slowly and carefully because of her precious burden, from one side of the pool to another.
From the far side of the terrace, hidden in the shade of the house, Gio stilled on his way to the pool, and watched the scene before him in unmoving silence.
Terrie’s blonde hair was slicked wetly against the fine bones of her skull, and her long, slender arms stroked through the water with smooth, powerful movements. Clinging on to her shoulders like a limpet, his son was beaming in total delight, his wide, bright smile as brilliant as the afternoon sunlight.
‘Go, Treeza, go, go!’
The little boy’s voice, shrill with excitement, echoed all around the wide, high terrace, and as he heard it something clenched inside Gio’s heart, twisting it sharply and painfully.
Madre de Dio, just what was happening to him? Was he jealous of his own