Venetian Masquerade by Suzanne Stokes Page B

and the color flooded to her face.
    “It’s my lucky day,” murmured Gabriel.
    “Okay kids, that’s enough of that. I do believe tea is being served.” Flustered, Sonya extricated herself from Gabriel’s arms and rounded up the children.
    Tea was sumptuous, with a magnificent birthday cake in the shape of a train, which Sonya had made, and then Coco the Clown arrived. For the next hour, squeals of delight and laughter rang round the old villa. At six o’clock, parents arrived to collect their tired children, and James, flushed and happy, was finally able to ride his bike around the garden. It was almost dark, and Gabriel walked behind him protectively while Sonya and Donna cheered him on as he wobbled round the lawn.
    “He’s a good man,” said Alessandro as he and Amy watched from the landing window. “For that much, I am grateful.”
    “Yes, he is a good man. I love him dearly.”
    “Do you?”
    She knew that she was on very dangerous ground and close to telling an outright lie. “Alessandro, he’s kind and…and normal…and yes, he makes me happy.”
    “Does he, Amy?”
    Alessandro turned to her and pulled her round to face him. Before she could protest, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. She tried to protest, but her traitorous body was having none of it. As her lips parted and he invaded her mouth so sweetly, she slipped her arms around his neck, and he pulled her tightly to him so that she was pressed along the length of his body and able to feel how much he wanted to possess her. Finally, he pulled away and looked into her eyes, his own full of anger.
    “So, he makes you happy, does he? Well, I think the poor man is in for a lot of pain, and I feel sorry for him. No doubt, one day, you will run away from him too. I’m leaving now, Amy. Say goodbye to James for me. I am returning to Rome tomorrow, but my secretary will contact you next time I am due to be in Venice. I hope you might then let me take my son out for the day.”
    He turned on his heel and left, and Amy pressed her head to the window, eyes squeezed tightly shut, in an agony of remorse. When she finally opened them, she realized Sonya was staring at her from the garden, having seen the whole episode, and the expression on her face was one of disdain.
    The exhausted children came into the house a few minutes later and Sonya gathered her sweater and handbag. “We must go, Amy. I’ll come by in the morning to help you clear up.” There was a coolness in her voice and a tight smile on her face.
    “Sonya, I’ll walk you home before I go back to the island,” volunteered Gabriel.
    “Thank you.” She smiled at him.
    “Goodbye, Amy. I’ll see you in a few days.” He gave her squeeze and kiss on the cheek.
    James came yawning to the door and kissed everyone, including a blushing Donna. “Thank you for my lovely day,” he said sleepily, and Amy picked him up and cuddled him as they watched their friends walk down the road.
    In the streetlights, Amy saw Donna move between Gabriel and Sonya and take a hand of each. They suddenly looked like a family, and the image made Amy feel so lonely and wretched, she buried her face against James, breathing in the warm scent of him.
    “Mama?”
    “Sorry, James. I just needed a hug,” she whispered. “Let’s go and find Teddy and get you both to bed.”
    Once he was settled, she showered and flung herself naked into her own bed, weary but unable to sleep. Alessandro’s kiss replayed in her mind; her lips grew warm remembering his touch, and her body ached with longing for him. But in her head, as she had so many times before, she heard his father, Giovanni, telling her, “He’s a heartbreaker, my dear. You are one of many. If you have any instinct for self-preservation, you will leave…” and knew that she had to be strong. She would have to maintain a cool, polite relationship with Alessandro for James’s sake and keep her own emotions severely under lock and key. He was a