The Vengeful Husband(20)

He stilled, wide shoulders tautening, and then unexpect­edly he laughed, a shiveringly sensual sound that sent a curious ripple down her taut spine. 'Not at present.'



His easy humour shamed her into a blush. ‘I’m not in a very good mood.'



'I will change that.'



'Not could, but will,' she noted out loud. 'You're very sure of yourself.'



'Aren't you?'



In that instant, her own sheer lack of self-confidence flailed her with shamed bitterness, and she threw her head back with desperate pride and a tiny smile of wry amuse­ment. 'Always,' she murmured steadily then. 'Always.'



He moved forward, and as an arrow of light from the great chandeliers in the ballroom fell on him she saw an indistinct image of the hard, bitingly attractive angles of his strong bone structure, the gleam of his thick black hair, the brilliance of his dark eyes. And her heart skipped a startled beat.



'Dance with me,' he urged softly.



And Darcy laughed with undeniable appreciation. Only she could gatecrash a high society ball and end up being chatted up by one of the waiters. 'Aren't you scared that someone will see you and you'll lose your job?'



'Not if we remain out here...'



'Just one dance and then I'll leave.'



"The entertainment doesn't meet with your approval?' he probed as he slid her into his arms, his entire approach so subtle, so smooth that she was surprised to find herself there, and then flattered by the sensation of being held as if she were fashioned of the most fragile and delicate spun glass.



'It's suffocatingly formal, and tonight I feel like some­thing different,' she mused with perfect truth. 'Indeed, to­night I feel just a little wild...'



'Please don't let me inhibit you,' he murmured.



And Darcy burst out laughing again.



'Who did you come here with tonight?' he queried.



'Nobody...I'm a gatecrasher,' she confided daringly.



'A gatecrasher?'#p#分页标题#e#

'You sound shocked...'



'Security is usually very tight at the Palazzo d'Oro.'



'Not if you enter just in front of a party who require a great deal of attentive bowing and scraping.'



'You must've had an invitation?'



'It landed at my feet in the Piazza San Marco. A beautiful brunette flung it at her boyfriend. I thought you asked me to dance,' she complained, since they had yet to move. 'Are you now planning to have me thrown out?'



'Not just at present,' he confided, folding her closer and staring down at her with narrowed eyes. 'You are a very unusual woman.'

'Very,' Darcy agreed, liking that tag, which hinted at a certain distinction.



'And your name?'



'No names, no pack drill,' she sighed. 'Ships that pass and all that—'

'I want to board...'



'No can do. I am not my name...my name wasn't even chosen with me in mind,' she admitted with repressed bit­terness, for Darcy had always been a male name in her family. 'And I want to be someone else tonight.'



'Very unusual and very infuriating,' he breathed.



'I am a woman who is very, very sure of herself, and a woman of that stature is certain to infuriate,' she returned playfully, leaning in to his big powerful body and smiling up at him, set free by anonymity to be whatever she wanted to be.



And so they danced, high above the Grand Canal, all the lights glittering magically in her eyes until she closed them and just drifted in a wonderful dreamy haze...



CHAPTER FOUR



A burst of forceful Italian dredged Darcy out of that sleepy, seductive flow of memory. Eyelids fluttering, she returned to the present and frowned to find the Land Rover at a standstill, headlights glaring on the high banks of a narrow lane.



'What...where—?' she began in complete confusion.



'We have a flat tyre,' Luca delivered in a murderous aside as he wrenched open the rattling driver's door.



Darcy scrambled out into the drizzling rain. 'But the spare's in for repair!' she exclaimed.



Across the bonnet, Luca surveyed her with what struck her as an overplay of all-male incredulity. 'You have no spare tyre?'



'No.' Darcy busied herself giving the offending flat tyre a kick. 'Pretty far gone, isn't it? That won't get us home.' She looked around herself. 'Where on earth are we?'



'It is possible that in the darkness I may have taken a wrong turn.'



Considering that they were in a lane that came to a dead end at a field twenty feet ahead, Darcy judged that a miracle of understatement. 'You got lost, didn't you?'



Luca dealt her a slaughtering, silencing glance.



Darcy sighed. 'We'd better start walking—'



'Walking?' He was aghast at the concept.



'What else? How long is it since you saw a main road?'



'Some time,' Luca gritted. 'But fortunately there is a farmhouse quite close.'