Chapter Nine #2
Even so, he let her daughter down again and watched her stumble like a determined little drunk across a flower bed.
There was a chorus of complaint from her when they put her back in the stroller.
Tore bought her a wooden train in one of the workshops and she made a fair approximation of the choo-choo sounds he taught her before she dropped into a nap.
Tore exchanged greetings with various acquaintances, stopping occasionally to introduce Violet and chat for a few moments.
In the faded denim jeans that fit his lean, powerful frame like a glove and a casual blue linen shirt, his silver hair glittering in the sunshine, which accentuated his classic features, Tore looked heartbreakingly beautiful.
Just glancing at him quickened Violet’s heartbeat and sent the blood racing through her veins as a wicked pulse of arousal assailed her.
They strolled back to the villa in the sunshine, although Tore was the one strolling with Violet walking at a faster pace than normal to keep up with his impossibly long legs. ‘Slow down…it’s too warm for this much exertion.’
Tore sent her a smouldering look from hooded eyes. ‘I’m sad to hear that. Possibly, I was looking forward to a little afternoon delight,’ he teased.
A flush warmed her already warm body. They had been intimate every day and in every place possible.
Nobody could say she had been half-hearted or less than adventurous.
Tore seemed to want her round the clock and she found him equally irresistible.
More and more she appreciated that the moment she recognised the beginning of her emotional attachment should have been the same moment that she told him that sex should be taken out of their marriage.
For her sake, not for his. But she couldn’t have admitted that, could she have?
Even she had her pride and preferred to conserve some mystery.
Tore Renzetti, however, was charming, consistently courteous and respectful.
Always entertaining, great sense of humour, amazing in bed and in the shower and in all the other locations he had seduced her.
He was no innocent but there was nothing fake about him.
He gave her gifts all the time. They couldn’t go out without him buying her something he believed she lacked, whether it be a new watch, a bigger handbag or the pool lounger of her dreams.
But she didn’t think that emotions came into their marriage at all for Tore.
Which reduced her status to one of convenience, she acknowledged unhappily.
He held her in his arms most nights, though.
He was surprisingly cuddly and a fabulous father figure for Belle.
He had barely worked since they’d arrived in Tuscany.
He had made time for her. He gave both her and her daughter his full attention.
A lot of women would kill for what he was already giving her in the husband stakes.
Unluckily for her, she wanted love and longevity.
She wanted him forever, no take-backsies, no divorce and he hadn’t signed up for that.
And she was the total idiot who had invited him into bed and ensured that they got much, much closer in every way!
‘Have you ever been in love?’ she had asked one night, lying entwined in his arms in the shelter of darkness, asking one of those questions women always want to ask.
‘I thought I was when I was a teenager and it creeped me out,’ he had admitted.
‘Why did it repulse you?’
‘Just think about it. Having to trust someone to that extent. Fortunately for me, she slept with someone else before I got in too deep,’ he had explained.
‘I dodged a bullet. I still see her around occasionally. She’s already on her third marriage and she’s been faithful to none of her lovers.
At heart, she’s reckless, changeable, disloyal and not my type at all. ’
‘But you must’ve met someone more appealing since then,’ she had persisted.
‘I didn’t want to. I like my focus on work and if you have the kind of brain that focuses on a woman’s flaws rather than her virtues, it’s easy to avoid entanglements.
I expect too much from people but at heart, I think I’m too cold and logical to fall in love.
I mean, there’s nothing logical about love. ’
And she hadn’t slept that night for ruminating on what he had told her, thinking of the fiery arguments they still had over silly things, of her own many flaws and the truth that she came with a dependent child.
So she had suppressed her fears, had tried to lower her expectations and had attempted to just make hay while the sun still shone.
Only now the sun was about to go down on their intimacy.
As they crossed the inner courtyard of the villa, Tabitha phoned her.
‘Just thought I should say…’ she began. ‘You know that social worker in charge of your adoption thingy. Catriona? She’s visited a couple of times, wanting to know where you were.
I forgot to mention it. I told her you were on holiday on her first visit and she was happy enough with that but I had to be more honest the second time. ’
‘Why? What did you tell her?’ Violet pressed worriedly as she paced and watched Tore carry Belle into the house.
‘Well, obviously, I couldn’t tell her the truth about the contract but I tried to be as honest as I could be,’ Tabitha explained.
‘I admitted that you’d got married and she was very taken aback that you hadn’t informed them of your changed circumstances.
I thought you were only waiting for the adoption order to be ratified by the court. ’
Violet flinched. ‘I am but this is my fault, my oversight. I didn’t once think of how this marriage would affect my standing with social services.’
‘I shouldn’t think it’ll be a problem. I mean, Tore’s young and loaded, perfect daddy material. But Catriona said they would have to vet him as well and see your new home.’
‘Vet him? Vet Tore?’ Violet exclaimed in horror. ‘I can’t ask him to go through all those intrusive questions and interviews on my behalf!’
‘Don’t think you’re going to have any choice,’ Tabitha groaned with sympathy.
‘Now that you’re married to the guy, he has to be passed as a suitable parent, too.
I’m sure he won’t be difficult about it.
The two of you are getting on like a house on fire, and going by the photos you’ve sent me he’s clearly fond of Belle, so there shouldn’t be a problem. ’
Violet flinched and muttered uneasily, ‘I don’t expect so but I’ll feel awful having to ask him because it’s not like it’s really any of his business when we’re not staying together. I don’t want him to feel obligated to do anything he doesn’t want to do.’
And how could she ask him to adopt Belle with her when they would only be in his life for such a short time? It wouldn’t even be fair to Belle to give her an adoptive father who would not be staying, she reflected wretchedly.
‘Tore doesn’t sound to me like a guy who ever does anything he doesn’t want to do.’
‘He agreed to marry when he didn’t want to,’ Violet protested defensively.
‘You’re getting so protective of him and you’re such a worrywart,’ her twin lamented. ‘If he’s halfway decent as you say he is, he’s not going to want you to risk losing custody of Belle. I’m sure he’ll help.’
Alfredo was hovering on the front steps awaiting the end of her phone conversation. As she returned the phone to her bag, he informed her that lunch was ready.
Tore was pacing the hall. Stella had taken Belle.
He wondered if Violet realised how clear her speaking voice could be surrounded by stone walls.
He had only caught a couple of phrases of her conversation.
When we’re not staying together, she had said.
I don’t want him to feel obligated. What didn’t she want him to feel obligated about?
Dio mio, was she pregnant? It was wondrous how calm he felt at that prospect.
The advent of another Belle didn’t seem like the end of the world, yet that is how he would have reacted to such a possibility just weeks earlier.
Even though he had taken no risks, protection was never fully guaranteed.
But would Violet already know if she had conceived?
Then he scolded himself for being unusually fanciful.
They had only been together a month. He supposed it was possible that a woman would know early.
He hoped she realised that if she was carrying his child, she would be going nowhere away from him any time soon.
A faint smile softened the tense line of his mobile mouth.
His grandparents would be ecstatic. Married young themselves and parents soon after, they could imagine nothing better at maturing a young man than the added responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood.
‘Sorry about that,’ Violet muttered as she joined him in the hall, looking shifty with her eyes averted and visibly uncomfortable. They walked out to the loggia to sit down for lunch. ‘It was Tabitha.’
‘Problems at the bakery?’
‘Nothing important,’ she answered dismissively, reckoning that she would leave the request about Belle until they had returned to London. That would be time enough, she reasoned unhappily.
A beautiful pasta salad was served. She was offered wine and demurred, having discovered that wine in the afternoon tended to give her a headache and simply make her sleepy.
But was it wrong of her to withhold from Tore what she had just learned about her adoption of Belle? Exactly how would she go about asking Tore if he would agree to being questioned as Belle’s potential adoptive father? Tore was a particularly private and reserved man.