Chapter 9.1

Alex woke slowly, conscious of a deep sense of well-being he didn't want to lose. It was only as he vaguely searched for the reason behind it that the memory of being with Gina filtered into his mind.

Gina...

Hadn't she been nestled against him when he'd fallen asleep?

Suddenly aware of being nakedly alone in the bed, he whipped around to check where she was, his eyes very sharply open.

Gone. And not one sign of her left in the room anywhere he could see. A glance at his watch showed a few minutes past nine o'clock. No wonder she was gone. Her son would have woken hours ago. And what had felt so very right to both of them in the darkness of the night might not have felt so right to her in the light of the morning. If Marco had found them together... highly probable in the circumstances...how had she explained it?

Alex frowned over that thought. He wished she hadn't excluded him from any responsibility over what had happened. Easier, perhaps. Less awkward. But he was responsible. More so than she, since he had come to her. Though not intentionally. After the break-up with Michelle, he'd been brooding over what kind of marriage he did want—a wife who shared his values, children...

Shock hit him. Had he told Gina his engagement was over? What had he said in the heat of the moment? He remembered her protesting his presence in the nursery, more or less asking why he wasn't with Michelle...and he'd replied...

Forget Michelle!

Damn it! That wasn't enough. God only knew what Gina was thinking this morning but it wouldn't be good. His fault. His blind fault for not communicating his situation clearly. He'd lost himself so fast in the seductive promise of all he'd sensed coming from her—all she gave— nothing else had mattered to him.

But it mattered now.

Alex hurled off the bedclothes, galvanised into action by the hope that Gina was still at the castle, lingering over breakfast with his grandmother. It was an outside chance. The doubt instantly arose that she would have stayed on in these circumstances, yet maybe the need to gauge his reaction to what had happened was strong enough to hold her here.

He grabbed his clothes and sprinted to his own quarters, reasonably confident he wouldn't meet or be seen by anyone along the corridor at this hour on a Sunday morning. A quick shower and shave, fresh clothes, and he was downstairs by nine-thirty, his mind having raced through various scenarios and his responses to them, though he could be faced with something entirely unpredictable.

Trying to reduce his inner tension before he reached the breakfast room was difficult. He didn't want his grandmother latching onto the situation between him and Gina before he had resolved it himself, or at least gone some way towards sorting out where they stood with each other this morning.

An upfront announcement that his marriage to Michelle was off seemed the best way to soothe any distress Gina was feeling on that score, as well as distracting his grandmother from the more sensitive area he'd have to negotiate with her guest and protégée. There was Marco to consider, as well. Had the little boy seen him in bed with his mother?

Keyed up to meet and deal with multi-level problems, Alex's mental train was thrown off course again when he reached the breakfast room and found only his grandmother occupying it. He paused in the doorway to re- gather himself. Luckily her gaze was turned towards the windows at the end of the room. They faced east to give a view of the sunrise over the ocean, if one was up early enough to watch it.

The sun was long risen this morning but the rolling ocean sparkled in its endless movement, almost a hypnotic view if one looked long enough. A coffee cup sat on the table by her hand which was resting idly next to it.

Breakfast had obviously been cleared away. His grandmother wouldn't have been expecting him to join her. His usual practice was to stay with Michelle on Saturday nights. If Gina and Marco had been here, they'd eaten and gone before he'd even woken.

Caught in the dilemma of what best to do now, he was still standing in the doorway when his grandmother drew herself out of her private ponderings and looked at her coffee cup. As she reached for the bell to summon Rosita, Alex knew the option of simply absenting himself at this point was gone. Before he could move, her sharp gaze flicked to him.

"Alessandro...this is a surprise," she said with an air of expectation that couldn't be denied.

"Good morning, Nonna," he replied, forcing himself into a casual stroll forward and an even more casual inquiry, "Your guests are gone?"

"If you mean Gina Terlizzi and her son...?" A raised eyebrow because she had not given him that information.

"Gina told me last night you had invited them to stay overnight," he quickly supplied.

"Ah! I did expect them to stay for breakfast but they left early this morning."

Her displeasure was obvious. Guilt knifed through Alex. It was clear now that Gina had fled the castle, fearing major embarrassment. Or worse, humiliation. She had even risked offending his grandmother in her need to escape any unacceptable reaction to their intimacy. He had unwittingly put her in a highly equivocal position and it was up to him to make some amending move.

His grandmother rang the bell and gestured to the chair directly across the table from hers. "Would you like Rosita to bring you some breakfast?"

Odd that she didn't immediately inquire what he was doing here.

Needing information, Alex sat down, prepared to chat long enough to find out what he wanted to know. "No breakfast." That would take too much time. "Though I'd welcome a cup of coffee if you're having one."

Rosita promptly appeared and his grandmother ordered coffee for two, not bothering to try pressing any food on him, which was also odd. For some reason she always assumed Michelle never fed him properly and she must be thinking he'd just come from his fiancée's apartment.

"I thought the wedding went off very well last night," his grandmother commented while they waited for the coffee.

"Yes," he agreed. To him it seemed like a lifetime ago—a blur he didn't even want to remember.

"Antonio made a fine speech."

He nodded, belatedly remarking, "He enjoys entertaining an audience."

Tony was an extrovert, always fun company. Alex sometimes wished he had his younger brother's bright joie de vivre, his ability to simply let go and move with the flow. You try to keep control of too much, Alex, Tony often teased him, but control had gone right out the door last night.

"And my new find—Gina Terlizzi—sang beautifully," his grandmother went on.

"I thought so, too," he muttered, turning his gaze to the view, not wanting his grandmother to see how deeply her protégée affected him.

Her ensuing silence gave him the strong impression that she knew and was waiting for him to comment further. Of course she had seen him sweep Gina into dancing with him and probably watched their exit from the ballroom. Not exactly the action of a disinterested man. But she couldn't know what else had transpired between them.

Certainly he had to inform his grandmother that his wedding was now cancelled, releasing the date for a booking by some other couple. There was no possibility of any reconnection with Michelle. Even without the attraction to Gina, no way would he reconsider marriage to a woman who could be so blithely unfaithful.

Which brought him straight back to the impression Gina must have taken away with her—of him having cheated on his fiancée. It was intolerable. Never mind that the desire which had exploded between them last night had been mutual. He'd pushed it and taken what he wanted without clearing the way first.

Rosita returned with freshly percolated coffee and the accompaniments. He turned to smile his thanks but the smile wasn't returned. She seemed to evade looking at him, busily laying everything out on the table. It was not like the usually voluble Rosita to remain silent, and skipping out of the room the moment she was done.

Something was very wrong here. Rosita had been working at the castle since he was a boy and always had a smile for him. Alex directed a quick searching look at his grandmother. Her eyes were half veiled as she poured out the coffee, her facial expression giving nothing away. It struck Alex she appeared too calm, too composed, which was invariably her manner when faced with trouble.

"What's the problem, Nonna?"

She finished pouring, set the coffeepot down, then met his probing gaze with a very sharp directness. "You are the problem, Alessandro," she stated unequivocally.

He realised instantly that they knew—both Rosita and his grandmother knew he'd slept with Gina. Damage control leapt to the fore.

"I'm sorry you are distressed by my actions. I'll redress any problems I've caused very shortly," he promised.

"And just how do you propose to correct the situation?" came the pointed demand, her eyes biting with reproof. "I might remind you..."

"I broke my engagement to Michelle last night," he interjected. "As soon as the wedding was over. The parting was decisive before I came home."

Her eyes flashed some other strong feeling before she sat back with an air of relief. "It is good to know you have not acted entirely dishonourably."

"Nonna, I assure you..."

"Let me put it quite plainly, Alessandro," she interrupted, determination blazing at him. "Gina Terlizzi was my guest. She was entitled to the safe privacy of the suite given to her and her son. I do not believe for one moment that she invited you into it. Her hasty departure early this morning speaks volumes to me... if not to you."

He frowned. "Did she say anything?"

"Do you expect a young lady of any dignity to blurt out that my grandson had seduced her?"

"There was no seduction," he curtly protested.

"That he used her on the rebound from breaking up with another woman?"

"No!" His fist crashed down on the table as he pushed up from his chair. "Just stay out of this, Nonna! I'll fix it!"

"See that you do, Alessandro," she fiercely retorted. "I do not like to feel ashamed of my grandson."

Ashamed?

It stung him more than anything else she could have said, stung him into a more sober re-appraisal of his conduct, stung him out of the anger that had surged at her accusatory assumptions. His grandmother was trying to see through Gina's eyes, read her reasons for leaving as she had. The reasons weren't right. But it was clear his grandmother's sympathy was very much on Gina Terlizzi's side.

He stood still, understanding the attack on his character, though to his mind it wasn't warranted. "You like her," he said quietly.

"Yes, I do. She has solid worth. It pains me that she should be hurt through any association with my family."

He nodded. Solid worth. His grandmother had never really taken to Michelle. He'd excused it on the grounds that she was old, old-fashioned, not in tune with today's world and Michelle was very much the modern woman. As it had turned out, perhaps he was old-fashioned, too. Certainly solid worth now had more appeal to him than superficial glamour.

"It wasn't seduction, Nonna. Nor was it a rebound reaction on my part. It was mutual attraction. Which I intend to pursue," he declared, wanting the murky air between them cleared.

His grandmother closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh of relief. "You'll find Gina Terlizzi's telephone number and address in my office diary."

"Thank you. If you'll excuse me?"

She nodded. "Please take care, Alessandro." Her lids lifted, her eyes delivering an eloquent look of warning. "No one can sing like that without a feeling heart."

"Do you think I don't know it?" he answered with considerable irony. "My judgement may have been astray with Michelle but I'm learning, Nonna. I'm learning."

He left the breakfast room, intent on learning more.