Chapter Six #3
Alessandro looked at Georgie and shrugged. His eyes dipped to register how comfortably Flora was holding her hand.
‘I haven’t moved from bed except to eat the breakfast you ordered and have that bath.’
Was he feeling sorry for himself? Surely not!
He scowled. ‘Flora, darling, you must be exhausted after your long day. I expected that you would be back after lunch in accordance—’ he looked at Georgie, smiling and affectionate although the affectionate smile was pointed ‘—with the routine we previously discussed.’
‘I know.’ Her voice was rueful and sympathetic. ‘But sometimes routines get tossed out of the window when circumstances change. Have you taken some more tablets? What time?’
‘Of course I’ve taken more tablets,’ Alessandro said irritably. ‘Time? No idea.’
He looked at her from under his lashes. If Flora was pink-cheeked and dishevelled, then so was Georgie.
They both looked overexcited.
Had he ever seen Flora like that? Certainly never when she’d been with him and no one could say that he didn’t treat her to the best that money could buy, including a day out at a toy store with the promise that she could have anything she wanted.
‘I’ll settle Flora,’ Georgie was saying now although she’d stiffened, reading his expression and correctly interpreting it. ‘I can order up some more stuff for you to eat if you let me know what you’d like.’
He nodded curtly but was now wide awake and alert to her returning to his room.
He felt strangely out of sorts, as though he’d lost control of the reins of his life.
Was it because he still felt ill? Because germs that he had successfully managed to keep at bay for thirty-odd years, bar one or two childhood infections, had decided to make up for lost time?
She was forty-five minutes and by the time she pushed open the bedroom door, she’d showered and changed into some loose grey culottes that fell softly to her calves and a white vest that showed off her slim arms and small breasts.
He allowed the silence to swirl around them for a few minutes as he stared at her, eyes narrowed, restless and edgy and not knowing how to tackle those unusual feelings. Eventually he asked whether Flora was asleep.
‘Out like a light. It was a big day for her. Shall I get you something from room service? Have you thought about what you’d like to eat? I might…venture down and have something in the restaurant…’
‘Why are you hovering by the door? Come in. You can close it. Not fully, but I don’t want Flora to wake up.’
Georgie hesitated.
She sensed the atmosphere and she knew why it was there, but was it her fault that she’d had Flora for the day? Was it her fault that she’d completely stampeded through Rule Number One…make sure you keep a distance from my daughter?
She took a step into the bedroom and shut the door behind her.
‘I know exactly what’s going through your head, Alessandro!’
‘Do you? Isn’t that the second time you’ve said something like that to me? You must have been a mind-reader in another life.’
She was relieved that he was wearing a tee shirt and that the covers were pulled up to his waist, nicely concealing anything that might get her blood pressure soaring, but it was still suffocatingly intimate in his bedroom.
This even though he’d opened the windows and pulled back the curtains so that a nice cool breeze blew through the room.
Self-righteous anger built the closer she got to the bed and she was fuming by the time she’d pulled a chair over so that she was sitting next to him.
‘It’s not my fault that I spent the day with Flora.
I know what you said about making sure I kept my distance and, believe me, I understand completely why you said that, but what was I supposed to do?
You were bedridden and you still are! Whatever bug you’ve picked up is probably going to take days to clear.
These things can linger and if you try and get out there too soon, they just come back with a vengeance!
So go right ahead and start preaching to me about those ground rules of yours, but I still won’t have a choice because Flora’s having a ball and I don’t see why she should pay the price of having her fun curtailed because you don’t want me taking her out! ’
She looked at him with narrow-eyed, thin-lipped defiance.
Alessandro had never seen any sight so riveting. Her hair was all over the place, long and blonde and unruly, and her face was scrubbed clean of all make-up.
He had a fierce desire to reach out and touch and kiss the stubborn, pouting mouth.
What the heck was happening to him?
He ran a distracted hand over his forehead and then felt her own small hand push his away so that she could feel him.
‘You still have that fever and I’m worried now. I think I’ll call Reception and ask them to send up a doctor.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ He missed the feel of her cool hand when she removed it.
‘I’m not being ridiculous, Alessandro! You’re still in bed and I’m betting that’s a one-off for you and you’re not bothering to look after yourself. You can’t even tell me when you last took any medication!’
‘I’m not sure I took any after you left.’
‘And you want to get better?’ She clicked her tongue and softened. ‘You’re worse than some of the kids I look after when they get ill.’
She popped two tabs from the packet and handed them to him with the glass of water by the bed and watched with a bemused expression while he swallowed them.
He appeared so strong, so powerful, so invincible that it was disorienting to see him like this and she liked it. Why? That made no sense. But…
It was endearing, which wasn’t something she’d thought she’d ever associate with him.
Her thoughts blurred over and she blinked away a crazy weakness to run the back of her hand across his cheek, to caress him.
‘What do you want me to do tomorrow if you still can’t make it out?’ she asked gruffly.
‘Of course I want you to take my daughter out. I…when you got back here, I could see that she’d had…a wonderful time…’
‘It was an amazing day and it wasn’t just Flora who had a great time.
I did as well. I’m afraid I ignored your schedule of events.
We just went where the urge took us. Honestly, Alessandro, you wouldn’t believe what you were missing.
The rides! Of course, we just went on the small ones suitable for Flora, but she’s tall enough to go on bigger ones so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. If, that is, you’re still bedridden.’
‘Have dinner with me.’
‘Sorry?’
He nodded to the circular table by the window.
‘I had breakfast there. Comfortable. Nice views out. We can have dinner together. You can tell me all about what you and Flora did.’ He shot her a crooked smile.
‘Whatever it is I have, you’ve either caught it already or else it’s going to pass you by so sitting opposite me to eat won’t alter that. ’
‘I’m robust. Don’t you remember? The healthy outdoor life? Not cooped up behind a big, dusty ledger making lots of money?’ Georgie smiled and felt something warm inside her, a feeling of kinship. ‘Okay. I’ll bring the menu in and we can decide.’
She walked out into the sitting room, went to check on Flora to find that she was sound asleep and, walking past the floor-to-ceiling mirror by the door that led to the wide landing outside, she paused and looked at her reflection.
She’d dressed in a hurry, had thrown on one of the outfits she had bought when he had stuck money into her account with instructions to buy suitable clothing.
At the time, she had thought about the sort of suitable clothing he had meant, going on what she had seen of the women he dated, but hadn’t been able to bring herself to buy anything involving sequins, leather or prints mimicking animal skins. Too short was also out and too revealing.
Which had left her with just a few more expensive versions of the sort of stuff she usually wore.
She wasn’t going to let her own insecurities worm their way into her head.
This wasn’t some kind of date. In a way, you could almost say that it was a meeting of sorts, an opportunity to debrief on her day with his daughter.
Shame she didn’t have a nice debriefing outfit like a suit. She would have felt a lot more comfortable. But she was wearing what she was wearing and it wasn’t as though he was interested in her that way at all, anyway.