A Fever In The Blood Read online

  'Hell, Cass!' he groaned, turning in her arms, and ob­viously intent on getting her out of there, but Cass was ready for him.

  'Daddy knows,' she said simply, winding her arms around his neck and pressing herself close to the lean strength of his thighs. 'Hmm, Ben, don't talk. Just love me!'

  Whether Ben truly understood her at that moment was debatable, but the moist warmth of her tongue darting between his lips was too great an enticement. His mouth opened on hers, his tongue plunging intimately into that dark, sweet cavern, and Cass felt his growing hardness against her stomach as his hands curved over her bottom.

  They were on fire for one another, and each kiss was more sensual than the one before, until at last Ben lifted her to meet his swollen need, and she wound her legs around him in sexual abandon.

  With the water still bathing their sweating bodies, it was a shamelessly erotic experience, and Cass cried when at last he lowered her to the tiled floor. 'I love you, I love you,' she breathed, covering his damp chest with kisses, and then, taking the soap from its dish, she began to massage his body with innocently exploring hands.

  'Do you have any idea what you're doing?' Ben de­manded unsteadily, his need for her seemingly endless.

  'I think so,' she murmured, tilting her face up to his before continuing her massage, and when his masculin­ity filled her hands she bent to kiss him.

  'Cass,' he choked, snatching the soap from her hands, and then, swinging her up into his arms, he carried her out of the bathroom and into his bedroom.

  'The covers,' she protested, as he lowered her on to the bedspread, but he was already coming down on top of her.

  'They'll dry,' he said huskily, burying his face be­tween her breasts. 'Hmm, you taste wonderful!'

  'So do you,' she told him unevenly, as his tongue probed one button-hard nipple. 'Oh, Ben, do it! Do it again! Do it now!'

  It was over an hour—and a bottle of Chianti—later, that Cass was able to describe the events of the past two weeks in more detail. They had made love and slept and made love again, before she could rouse herself suffi­ciently to explain the whole story. But when she did Ben was naturally staggered.

  'So you're not married to Roger? You've never been married to him?' he exclaimed yet again, and she sighed.

  'No.'

  'Dear heaven!' Ben, who was propped on his elbow beside her, bent to cover her lips with his. 'When I think of all the energy I've expended on that bastard!'

  'What energy?' Cass was intrigued.

  'Well,' Ben's tongue stroked the contours of her ear, 'I have to admit, I have spent sleepless nights planning ways of getting rid of him. The Borgias had some very original methods.'

  Cass's lips parted. 'You were jealous.'

  'No.' She pouted, and he smiled. 'Paranoid,' he amended drily. 'You have no idea of the torment you've put me though.'

  'Haven't I?' Cass touched his cheek. 'I wouldn't be too sure about that, if I were you—'

  Ben stopped her protest with his mouth, and for sev­eral minutes there was silence in the apartment. Then he said unsteadily, 'So, tell me again about your father.'

  'What about him?' Cass was drowsy now.

  'You mean, he knew I wasn't his son when he wanted me to go and work for him?'

  'Mmm.' Cass burrowed against him. 'He still regards you as his son. After all, it's the person who brings someone up who's their real father. Except biologically, of course.'

  'Thank heaven for that!' said Ben fervently, gathering her into his arms. 'I wonder what my mother really said.'

  'Daddy said we might still have some trouble from that quarter.'

  'Nothing I can't handle,' declared Ben firmly, confi­dent now. And then, 'Are you hungry?'

  'Only for you,' said Cass simply, and he couldn't ar­gue with that.

  They were married two months later, in London, despite Sophia's objections that they ought to have taken their vows at the church in Calvado. Still, as that had been her only voiced objection, Ben and Cass weren't too worried. The fact that Cass was already six weeks preg­nant at the time of the wedding might have had some­thing to do with it. Sophia was quite excited at the pros­pect of becoming a grandmother herself at last.

  The delay before the wedding had been to allow the Press coverage concerning Roger's disclosed bigamy to subside, though there were still journalists willing to couple the two events in their front-page stories. However, Cass and Ben's happiness was unmistakable, and Guido made sure no journalist gatecrashed the pri­vate party the family held afterwards.

  Roger himself seemed to have disappeared. Certainly he had never been arrested for his crime, and Ben guessed Guido had had something to do with that, too. Without the leading protagonist, the story was infinitely less newsworthy, and Ben no longer felt any real ani­mosity towards the man who had tried so hard to keep his secret. They had all had secrets, Ben reflected wryly. Not least himself.

  For his part, he felt he must be the happiest man alive. He had loved Cass for so long, and now she was his. And, what was more, she had declared her intention to become the perfect academic's wife.

  'You do realise your father is expecting me to change my mind about joining the company now?' he asked her one morning, about a week after the wedding, coming into the bedroom of their honeymoon suite in Hawaii, and finding his wife sitting naked in the middle of the sheets. She was munching shamelessly through the tray of croissants he had had delivered earlier, and she looked up at him mischievously, wiping a smear of butter from her lips.

  'I hope you're not hungry,' she said, as he wrapped a towel about his hips and sank down beside her. 'Have some coffee. It's delicious! It's almost as good as ours. Are you looking forward to getting back home?'

  Ben regarded her with unconcealed emotion, his eyes dark with the passion she could so effortlessly set alight. 'Home,' he said softly. 'Are you sure you want to go back to Italy? We can buy a bigger house, of course, but is being a professor's wife going to satisfy you? I mean…' He sighed. 'It's going to be very different from living in London.'

  'I hope so,' said Cass fervently, putting the tray aside, and leaning back against him. 'Mmm…' She sighed con­tentedly as his hand closed round her breast. 'Can we talk about this later? We have better things to do right now.'

  'No, we don't,' said Ben firmly, propelling her away from him, and looking at her with earnest eyes. 'Is that really what you want? Or would you rather I changed my mind?'

  'I want to do what you want,' said Cass steadily. 'And you want to stay a teacher, don't you?'

  'Well…'

  'You see.' Cass was triumphant. 'Don't worry about Daddy. He'll have a grandson soon to inherit his money. He's not old. It'll be years before he retires, and when he does, we'll think about it then.'

  Ben pulled her close. 'You're sure?'

  'I'm sure.'

  'I love you.'

  'I hope so.' She dimpled. 'Now, are you going to make love to me or not?'

  Ben groaned. 'In your condition—'

  'In my condition, I'm very sexy,' declared Cass hap­pily, falling back against the silk sheets and taking him with her. 'Hmm, this towel's wet. You don't need it, do you? Oh, no, that's much better. Don't you agree?'

  And he did.