‘Probably the same way it made me feel,’ she said, trying to keep her temper. ‘I hated it.’

‘But you did it.’

Icy fingers were going up and down her spine, and suddenly the air was full of threat.

‘You know why I did it,’ she said. ‘Vittorio, how dare you start getting possessive about something that happened before we met? In those days I didn’t know you existed. I didn’t owe you anything, and I don’t owe you explanations now.’

His eyes were dark, unfathomable, but there was no doubting the cold bitterness in his voice.

‘I shouldn’t be possessive? What do you think I am? An Englishman, saying, “Yes, dear-no, dear-just as you please, dear”? If you belong to me, you belong to me. Do you understand?’

‘I understand that you’re starting to act like Joe,’ Angel said, her temper flaring. ‘And I don’t like it. I had eight years of being a piece of property, dancing to the tune of a man who thought he could own and control me, and it’s not going to happen again. I don’t belong to you, or any man, and I never will. That wasn’t me back then. I was a different person.’

‘You pretend it was-’

‘It’s the truth-’

‘In your mind, maybe, but there’s one part of you for which it can’t be true.’

His eyes travelled slowly over her body that the minute bikini left almost naked, his meaning unmistakable.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she choked.

‘I have loved looking at you. You body is more beautiful than I could have believed possible, and I guess the others thought so too, because it’s the same b-’

‘Don’t,’ she said swiftly, putting her hand over his mouth. ‘Don’t say that.’

‘Will not saying it make a difference?’

Angel stared at him, sickened by this sudden development that had happened without warning. They had made love in peace and joy, and then she had lain, innocently naked, before his adoring gaze. The aftermath should have been beautiful. Yet a moment had transformed him into an ugly, judgemental stranger.

‘You’re right,’ she said in a stony voice. ‘It’s thinking it that makes a difference, and I’ll never forgive you for that. My God, it’s only an hour or so ago that you said those men were in the past, that they couldn’t get me again because you’d protect me. But they will get me again, because they’ll come through you, and every man like you. They are you.’

Her voice cracked with anguish as the full horror of the truth burst on her. ‘Do you see what you’ve done? You’ve shown me that there’s no way out for me. I am what Joe Clannan made me. I thought I could escape, but I never can as long as men see me through that distorting prism. And you’re a man like any other. I thought you were different, but you’re not. The truth is that no man is ever different. It’s lucky we found out now, isn’t it?’

Vittorio could neither answer nor look at her. His face was dark, heavy with the thoughts he couldn’t bear to utter. She picked up her clothes and went into the little cave. Now she only wanted to hide her body from him. He made her feel ugly and ashamed.

When she came out he was dressed and putting things into the boat. In silence they pushed it into the sea, and got aboard.

Not a word was spoken as they sailed back to Amalfi. At any other time she would have rejoiced in the journey, with the sun turning the sea to fire. It was a scene to make lovers rejoice, but they were no longer lovers. A black shadow had fallen between them, and Angel had a terrible fear that it would stretch over the rest of her life.

CHAPTER NINE

STILL in silence they got into Vittorio’s car and finished the journey back to the estate. Bitterness seethed in Angel. She wanted to rend him and break his heart as he had broken hers.

After this, she would be as calculating as he clearly thought that she was. She would dismiss him from her employment, but not at once. First she must learn everything he could teach her. She would pick his brains clean. Then, when she was strong enough to manage without him, she would throw him out.

He thought she’d been marked by her previous life. Fine! He would discover that she really had been marked, but not in the way that he thought. Revenge would be sweet, she promised herself, and the thought sustained her the rest of the way.

When the house came into sight she said quietly, ‘I’ll get out here.’

‘It’s getting dark. Let me take you a little closer.’

‘Stop the car, right now.’

He did so, and watched as she got out and walked away. She didn’t look back until she was nearly at the house, and then his tail lights were already vanishing into the distance.

In her room she stripped off and showered, scrubbing herself repeatedly, as though she could scrub off the day and everything that had happened. But there was no way to wash away the feel of Vittorio holding her, or the look in his eyes when he’d turned against her. She would remember that look all her life, and hate him for it until the last moment.

She pulled on a towel robe and returned to the bedroom, switching off the light so that she could go and stand at the window. The moon had risen high, casting a silver sheen on the ocean beneath, giving it a look of unearthly peace.

It was no different from any other night, Angel thought wretchedly. That chill, indifferent tranquillity would endure no matter whose heart broke. And perhaps it was better to let her heart break now than put off facing the truth until later. What had happened today had always been bound to happen.

A movement from below made her look down, wondering if Toni had been locked out. But he was there beside her, paws on the window sill.

Who, then, was below?

When she looked out again the moon had gone behind a cloud, filling the garden with darkness, until the cloud passed and she saw who was standing there. Vittorio was gazing up at her and, even in this light, she thought she’d never seen so much misery in a human face-greater, even, than her own.

‘I thought you’d gone home,’ she called down softly.

He simply shook his head.

‘Go to the kitchen door,’ she said.

He was there by the time she reached it and pulled back the bolts. But when she pulled open the door and stood back for him to pass he made no move. She couldn’t see his face, but the tension was there in every line of him.

‘Come in,’ she said, turning to lead the way, and leaving him to lock the door.

Outside the bedroom door he stood back, again refusing to enter until she summoned him, and even then asking, ‘Are you sure that I may?’

‘Come in,’ she said.

He came across the threshold as though fearful, and when she’d closed the door he made no move to touch her.

‘How long had you been out there?’

‘I got halfway home before I turned around. I had to come back and ask-beg your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I don’t know what I was thinking of…’

The moment he said ‘beg your forgiveness’ it was all over. Angel placed her fingers over his lips, feeling all pain and anger dissolve, and drew him further inside the room, so that she could sit down on the bed. But instead of sitting beside her he dropped to his knees.

‘Forgive me,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I never meant to speak to you so. I know you are innocent, but inside me I am insane with jealousy. I try not to be. I know that none of it was your fault, but reason has no place in the way I feel about you. Nothing and nobody in the world has ever mattered to me as you do. It frightens me how much you matter. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Must you do anything?’ Angel whispered. ‘Is it so terrible for me to matter?’

‘In a way it is,’ Vittorio said sombrely. ‘Love isn’t simple for me. Today-with you in my arms-such joy, such beauty…greater than I have ever known. You seemed to have taken possession of me, as though my soul were no longer my own.’

A tremor went through him, and she guessed that this was what he feared so much that it tinged love with dread.

And perhaps he was right, Angel thought sadly. She had felt the same, as though he had taken possession of her, and it had made the pain of his hostility all the greater. Wouldn’t it be better to do as he did, and retreat to safety?

But the next moment she knew better. There was no safety for either of them.

‘I turned on you to protect myself.’ He sighed, resting his head against her. ‘It’s the only way I knew to escape you.’

‘If you want to escape me that much, perhaps you should.’

He looked into her face. ‘You would send me away?’

‘I wouldn’t keep you against your will. Vittorio, one part of you still hates me-’

‘No!’ he said violently.

‘Yes. It’s the truth. If I can admit it, why can’t you?’

He gave a wintry smile. ‘Because you have more courage than me. Do you think I don’t know that? I could never truly hate you, not now. But I want so many different things at once-to flee from you, to lose myself in you. Sometimes I think it can never be right for us. There’s too much holding us apart. But then I look at you and I know that nothing must come between us.’

‘I guess we both have our demons,’ she said. ‘And they’re always lying in wait. But just now, let’s forget them.’

‘Say that you forgive me,’ Vittorio whispered.

‘There is nothing to forgive.’ Angel stroked his face. ‘We have to be generous with each other. There’s no other way for us.’

Angel took his face between her hands and kissed him tenderly. ‘We can make it right now,’ she murmured.

But when she tried to put her arms around him he drew back and rose to his feet.

‘Not now,’ he said. ‘It’s too soon-I don’t trust myself…’

‘But if I trust you?’