Page 41 of A Winter Wedding Adventure
‘Don’t worry, I’m getting used to the sight of you in a towel,’ she joked, willing her gaze to stay where it was and not undermine her words by taking a trip down his chest. It slipped to his big, bony shoulders, making a daring slide along his collarbone, but she pulled up just in time.
He opened his mouth to speak, pausing to lick his lips and swallow heavily, as though he’d seen in her gaze how much she wanted to skim her fingers over him. But when he managed to get some words out, she realised she’d misinterpreted. ‘Do you have any water?’
When she handed him her bottle, he drank half of it without stopping and sighed with relief.
‘Grazie, carissima.’ He leaned back on his arms, which unfortunately showcased the great expanse of skin. ‘I don’t think I like saunas.’
That at least explained the towel and his state of undress.
‘You have to keep your fluids up.’
Confident he’d recovered, she stood to fetch her hoodie and slip it on, now the strain of climbing was no longer keeping her warm. Mattia’s eyes followed the action intently enough to make the hairs on her arms stand on end. As though realising too late what he was doing, his gaze snapped away again as she joined him, cross-legged on the mat.
‘Did you run up all those stairs just to drink my water?’
He straightened so quickly, the towel shifted. ‘I have to warn you about the wedding!’
‘What? Is there an assassin? Or even worse: a lack of canapés? Ginny seems to think that would be a disaster.’
‘No.’ His hesitation and pained look made her uneasy. ‘There are other guests who are only coming to the ceremony and not staying here with us.’
She nodded. ‘I think Ginny said there will be about thirty at the ceremony. She’s got it all under control. What are you so worked up about?’ It was killing the buzz she’d just achieved on the bouldering wall.
‘You know Rav met Joe at university?’
‘Mattia! Can you get to the point?’
‘Sorry,’ he muttered, giving himself a shake. ‘I just wanted to tell you gently.’
‘Tell me what?’
‘It’s Christian. He’s coming. He’s here – in the valley.’
The exact information she’d been trying to process by shoving it out of her mind with physical strain. She gritted her teeth.
‘You were talking about me with Rav.’
He drew back, obviously surprised by her bitter accusation. ‘I’m sorry? I was worried about you.’
She didn’t want to be touched, but everything he did seemed to dig too deep. ‘Worried about me? You’re the one who required first aid on two occasions today!’
‘I know, but I could see something was bothering you.’
‘Nothing is… bothering me,’ she lied, stubbornly ignoring the fact that Mattia obviously knew she was lying. ‘And I already knew he was coming.’
He winced. ‘Ah, I probably should have assumed… that you would have everything under control and you wouldn’t need my help.’
Her throat was thick when she belatedly appreciated that he’d rushed up here half-dressed for her sake. ‘Why do you even care?’ she blurted out.
A rueful smile touched his lips. ‘I didn’t think it was such a mystery that I like you!’ He punctuated his sentence with a loose hand gesture full of frustration and discouragement.
A hot blush rose to the surface of her skin, even though it was only attraction, this hugging-kissing-closeness kind of ‘like’ that she was also resisting.
With that glint in his eye, he reminded her of a cheeky sprite – a faun or an elf – that lived on a slightly different plane where the world was more colourful. Certainly, he was so beautiful, he seemed to glisten in and out of focus in her world of rock and dirt and violent nature.
As though he sensed he’d disarmed her, he continued in a smooth voice. ‘This guy Christian hurt you when you were still young enough to feel it.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ she insisted, more out of habit than anything else. ‘I was only seventeen when we got together – too young to feel much of anything except confusion.’
