met her father once or twice at social events and had never liked the man. He had cold, dead dark eyes, and the superior air of someone used to having everything he wanted.
He didn’t like to admit it, but the knowledge that he’d been violent didn’t surprise Luca. He could picture the man being vindictive. Malevolent. But to his own daughters? The blonde, blue-eyed heiresses everyone had envied?
Luca knew Serena was changing behind him. He could hear the soft sounds of clothes being taken off and dropped. And then there was silence for a long moment. Telling himself it was concern, but knowing that it stemmed from a much deeper desire, Luca turned around.
Her back was to him and her legs were revealed in all their long shapely glory as she stripped off her trousers. High-cut pants showed off a toned length of thigh. Firm but curvy buttocks. When she stripped down to her bra he wanted to go over and undo it, slip his hands around her front to cup the generous swells and feel her arch into him.
He was rewarded with a burgeoning erection within seconds—no better than a pre-teen ogling a woman dressing in a changing room.
The snap of her belt around her hips broke Luca out of his trance and, angry with himself, he turned away and pulled on his own trousers. The light was falling rapidly now, and Luca had been so fixated on Serena that he was risking not having the camp set up in time.
But when he turned around again, about to issue a curt command, the words died on his lips. To his surprise Serena was already unrolling the tent and staking it out, her long ponytail swinging over her shoulder.
He cursed her silently, because he was losing his footing with this woman—fast.
* * *
Serena was sitting on a log on the opposite side of the fire to Luca a short time later, after they’d eaten their meagre meal. The tent stood close by, and she couldn’t stop a surge of ridiculous pride that she’d put it up herself. He’d expected her to flee back to civilisation at the slightest hint of work or danger, but here she was, day two and surviving—if not thriving. The feeling was heady, and it made her relish her newfound independence even more.
However, none of that could block out the mortification when she thought of earlier and how close she’d come to betraying her desire for him...
She caught Luca’s eye across the flickering light of the fire and he asked, ‘What’s the tattoo on your back?’
She went still. He must have seen the small tattoo that sat just above her left shoulderblade earlier, when she’d been changing. The thought of him looking at her made her feel hot.
The tattoo was so personal to her, she didn’t want to tell him. Reluctantly, she finally said, ‘It’s a swallow. The bird.’
‘Any significance?’
Serena almost laughed. As if she’d divulge that to him! He’d definitely fall off his log laughing.
She shrugged. ‘It’s my favourite bird. I got it done a few years ago.’ The day she’d walked out of the rehab clinic, to be precise.
She avoided Luca’s gaze. Swallows represented resurrection and rebirth... Luca would hardly look that deeply into its significance, but still... She had the uncanny sense that he might and she didn’t like it.
She really wanted to avoid any more probing into her life or her head. She stood up abruptly, making Luca look up, his dark gaze narrowing on her. ‘I’m going to turn in now.’ She sounded too husky. Even now her body trembled with awareness, just from looking at his large rangy form relaxed.
Luca stirred the fire, oblivious to her heated imaginings. ‘I’ll let you get settled.’
Serena turned away and crawled into the tent, pulling off her boots, but leaving her clothes on. Then she felt silly. Luca hadn’t given her the slightest hint that he felt any desire for her whatsoever, and she longed to feel cooler. She took off her shirt and stripped down to her panties, and pulled the sleeping bag around her.
She prayed that sleep would come as it had last night, like a dark blanket of oblivion, so she wouldn’t have to hear Luca come in and deal with the reality that he slept just inches away from her and probably resented every moment.
* * *
Luca willed his body to cool down. He didn’t like how off-centre Serena was pushing him. Making him desire her; wonder about her. Wanting to know more. She was surprising him.
He’d been exposed to the inherent selfishness of his mother and women in general from a very early age, so it was not a welcome sensation thinking that he might have misjudged her.
Lovers provided him with physical relief and an escort when he needed it. But his life was not about women, or settling down. He had too much to do to undo all the harm his father and grandfather had caused. He had set himself a mammoth task when his father had died ten years ago: to reverse the negative impact of the name Fonseca in Brazil, which up till then had been synonymous with corruption, greed and destruction.
The allegations of his drug-taking had come at the worst possible time for Luca—just when people had been beginning to sit up and trust that perhaps he was different and genuine about making a change. It was only now that he was back in that place.
And the person who could reverse all his good work was only feet away from him. He had to remember that. Remember who she was and what she had the power to do to him. Even if she was innocent, any association with her would incite all that speculation again.
Only when Luca felt sure that Serena must be asleep did he turn in himself, doing his best to ignore the curled-up shape inside the sleeping bag that was far too close to his for comfort. He’d really not expected to have to share this tent with anyone, and certainly not with Serena DePiero for a second night in a row.
But as he lay down beside her he had to acknowledge uncomfortably that there was no evidence of the spoilt ex-wild-child. There wasn’t one other woman he could think of, apart from those whose life’s work it was to study the Amazon, who would have fared better than her over the past couple of days. And even some of those would have run screaming long before now, back to the safety of a research lab, or similar.
He thought of her putting up the tent, her tongue caught between her teeth as she exerted herself, sweat dripping down her neck and disappearing into the tantalising vee of her shirt. Gritting his jaw tightly, Luca sighed and closed his eyes. He’d accused her of not lasting in the jungle, but it was he who craved the order of civilisation again—anything to dilute this fire in his blood and put an end to the questions Serena kept throwing up.
* * *
A couple of hours later Luca woke, instantly alert and tensed, waiting to hear a sound outside. But it came from inside the tent. Serena. Moaning in her sleep in Italian.
‘Papa...no, per favore, non che... Siena, aiutami.’
Luca translated the last word: help me. There was something gutturally raw about her words, and they were full of pain and emotion. Her voice cracked then, and Luca’s chest squeezed when he heard her crying.
Acting on instinct, Luca reached over and touched her shoulder.
Almost instantly she woke up and turned her head. ‘Ché cosa?’
Something about the fact that she was still speaking Italian made his chest tighten more. ‘You were dreaming.’ He felt as if he’d invaded her privacy.
Serena went as tense as a board. He could see the bright glitter of those blue eyes in the gloom.
‘Sorry for waking you.’
Her voice was thick, her accent stronger. He felt her pull abruptly away from his hand as she curled up again. Her hair was a bright sliver of white-gold and his body grew hot as he thought of it trailing over his naked chest as she sat astride him and took him deep into her body.
Anger at the wanton