Tall, Dark... Collection

‘That was the most wonderful experience of my life!’ Bella gasped excitedly once she had waded out of the sea and removed her breathing mask.

‘The most wonderful?’ Gabriel arched mocking brows as he removed his own scuba gear before sitting down on the blanket spread on the white-gold sand, the long darkness of his hair pushed back from his face, rivulets of sea-water dripping enticingly down his shoulders and back.

‘Well…one of them,’ Bella corrected hastily. ‘Holding Toby in my arms seconds after he was born was probably the most wonderful,’ she added huskily.

A frown darkened Gabriel’s brow. ‘I would have liked to have shared that experience with you.’

‘It’s been a lovely day, Gabriel, let’s not spoil it with another argument.’ Bella sighed as she dropped down onto the blanket beside him before slipping her arms out of the straps of the scuba gear and dropping it back on the sand behind them. She pushed the dampness of her hair back over her shoulders and sat forward to clasp her arms about her knees and rest her chin on her bent knees. ‘Besides, I very much doubt even you would have been allowed into the delivery-room.’

Gabriel arched one dark brow. ‘Even me…?’

She nodded. ‘Not even the Danti name would have got you in there,’ she teased. ‘There was a bit of a scare at the last moment,’ she explained as Gabriel continued to look at her enquiringly. ‘My blood pressure went off the scale, Toby became distressed, and they had to rush me off to Theatre to deliver Toby by Caesarean section.’

Gabriel tensed. ‘Your life was in danger?’

‘I think both our lives were in danger for a while,’Bella admitted. ‘But luckily it all turned out okay in the end.’

The frown between Gabriel’s eyes didn’t lessen. ‘Is that likely to happen with a second pregnancy?’

Bella gave him a surprised glance. ‘I don’t know. It never occurred to me to ask. Gabriel?’ She stared at him as he stood up abruptly to walk the short distance to the water’s edge. ‘Gabriel, what’s wrong?’

Gabriel’s hands clenched at his sides. Bella could ask him that, when she might have lost her life giving birth to Toby? When they might both have lost their lives and he, Gabriel, Bella’s lover and Toby’s father, would not have even known!

‘The way I see it, both you and I have almost died and have the scars to prove it—’ Bella broke off abruptly as Gabriel turned, his expression fierce. ‘I was only trying to make light of the situation, Gabriel,’ she reasoned.

His eyes narrowed to steely slits. ‘You think the risk to your life is a subject for humour?’

She grimaced. ‘I think it’s something that happened four and a half years ago. It’s nothing but history now. We’re all still here, after all.’

Gabriel knew that Bella was right, but having just learnt that she might have died giving birth to Toby made him wonder—fear?—that a second pregnancy might be as dangerous…

‘May I see your scar?’

Bella looked up at Gabriel warily as he loomed over her and blocked out the sun, his face darkly intense.

He wanted to see her scar from the Caesarean section? Her below-the-bikini-line scar?

She swallowed hard. ‘Can’t you just take my word for it that it’s there?’

There was a slight easing of the tension in his expression. ‘No.’

‘Oh.’ Bella chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I would really rather not.’ Her arms tightened protectively about her knees.

‘Why not?’

Because it was far too intimate, that was why! Because she already felt totally exposed, vulnerable, in the brief bikini, without baring any more flesh!

‘Maybe later,’ she said, turning away.

‘Now.’

Bella frowned her irritation as she looked back at him. ‘Gabriel, we don’t have to literally bare all of ourselves to each other in the first few days of marriage!’

He gave a hard smile. ‘You have seen my scars, now I would like to see yours.’

‘I would rather not,’ she came back crossly.

‘Men and women all look alike in the daylight, too, Isabella,’ Gabriel murmured throatily.

No, they didn’t!

There was simply no other man like Gabriel. No other man with his broodingly dark good looks. No other man with the power to make Bella’s knees tremble with just a glance from the warmth of those chocolate-brown eyes. No other man who made her feel so desirable. No other man who could make her totally lose control at the merest touch of his hand…

There just was no other man as far as Bella was concerned.

Oh, God!

Bella felt her cheeks pale even as she stared up at Gabriel with a feeling of helplessness. She loved him. Loved Gabriel.

Had she ever really stopped loving him?

Probably not, Bella acknowledged with a feeling akin to panic. She had fallen in love with Gabriel that night five years ago, and even though she had never seen him again she had continued to love him.

That was the reason she had never been interested in even going out with another man for all these years.

That was the reason she had never felt even remotely attracted to another man in that time.

Because she was already in love with Gabriel Danti, and always would be!

And now she was married to him. Married to the man she loved, would always love, and yet could never tell him of that love because it wasn’t what Gabriel wanted from her. It had never been what Gabriel wanted from her, and even less so now. All Gabriel wanted was his son; Bella just happened to come along with the package.

She stood up abruptly. ‘I think not, thank you, Gabriel,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I’m tired. I’ll go back to the villa and take a nap before dinner.’

Gabriel remained on the beach, his gaze narrowed in thought as he watched Bella walk into the trees and up towards the villa, her hair a black silky cloud down the slenderness of her back, the gentle sway of her hips wholly enticing.

What had happened just now?

One minute Bella had been challenging him as she always did, just as he had been enjoying that challenge as he always did, and the next it seemed she had completely shut down all her emotions.

Perhaps that was as well when Gabriel knew he daren’t risk another pregnancy for Bella until he was sure she would be in no danger…

‘Tell me what happened five years ago, Gabriel.’

‘As in…?’ Gabriel’s expression was guarded as he looked across the dinner table at Bella.

‘As in the accident, of course,’ she said impatiently.

‘Ah.’ Gabriel sat back to take a sip of the white wine that he had opened to accompany the lobster and salad they had prepared together and just eaten.