Tall, Dark... Collection. Кэрол Мортимер

half an hour or so after she had gone to bed. That Gabriel had fallen asleep within minutes of his head resting on the pillow had made absolutely no difference to her own feelings of tension, and Bella had lain awake for hours after the even tenor of Gabriel’s breathing told her he remained fast asleep beside her.

      Bella’s only consolation was that Gabriel was already up and making breakfast when she finally woke up shortly after nine o’clock. But her eyes still felt gritty from lack of sleep, and all she really felt like doing was going back to bed!

      ‘I would hardly have asked otherwise,’ Gabriel pointed out before taking a sip of his coffee. ‘Would you like to learn?’

      He looked disgustingly well rested this morning in a white short-sleeved shirt and white trousers, Bella noted, disgruntled. Much more relaxed than he had a right to be, as far as she was concerned.

      ‘I suppose I could try,’ she agreed irritably. ‘As long as you aren’t one of those awful teachers who gets cross with their student.’

      ‘I have no doubts you will be a very attentive pupil, Isabella,’ Gabriel teased, knowing by the heavy look to her eyes and the weary droop of her mouth that she hadn’t slept well.

      Gabriel had known she was still awake when he joined her in the bed the night before, her back firmly turned towards him as she had tried to give every appearance of being asleep. A deception Gabriel had allowed her to keep; it was enough for the moment that she accepted that they would be sharing a bed in future.

      She gave him a sharp glance. ‘I sincerely hope you were referring to scuba-diving!’

      ‘What else?’ he taunted.

      Bella continued to eye him suspiciously for several long seconds, and then she gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Why not? I obviously have nothing else to do today.’ She stood up suddenly.

      Gabriel looked up at her searchingly. ‘Perhaps you would have preferred to go somewhere a little more…entertaining…for our honeymoon?’

      Bella raked him with a scathing glance. ‘Oh, I think this is entertaining enough, don’t you?’

      He laughed softly. ‘Let us hope so.’

      Bella refused to meet the challenge in his gaze. ‘I’ll go and get changed.’

      Although she wasn’t too sure about that once she saw the skimpiness of the bikinis that Claudia, obviously in on the secret of their honeymoon destination, had packed for her!

      There were two of them. A black one that consisted of two very small scraps of material that barely covered anything, top or bottom. And a pink one, which admittedly had a little more material in the bottom half, but unfortunately the top plunged deeply at the front, meaning that when she put it on her breasts spilled over it revealingly.

      Quite what Claudia had been thinking of when she chose them, Bella had no idea—but she could take a good guess.

      Bella forgot her own self-consciousness in the pink bikini the instant she came out onto the terrace and saw that Gabriel was wearing the briefest—and sexiest—pair of black swimming trunks she had ever seen!

      Fitting low down on his hips, the material barely covered that revealing bulge in the front of the trunks. A bulge Bella found it difficult to look away from…

      Gabriel looked up from checking the scuba gear, his expression hardening as he saw the way Bella was staring at him. ‘Do my scars bother you, after all?’ he ground out harshly.

      ‘Scars?’ she repeated vaguely, trying to concentrate on something other than those skimpy bathing trunks. ‘Oh. Those scars.’ She nodded as she took in the revealing criss-cross of scars that marked his chest and back, several deeper marks that looked like surgical incisions on his left leg, both below and above the knee. ‘I’ve already told you they don’t bother me, Gabriel,’she said with a frown.

      ‘That was before you had seen the full extent of them,’ he said stiltedly. ‘Some women would be bothered by their unsightliness.’

      Some women would? Or they already had? Perhaps Janine Childe, for instance…?

      Bella stepped outside. ‘We all have scars, Gabriel. It’s just that some of us have them on the inside rather than the outside. Besides,’ she continued as he would have spoken, ‘what does it matter to you how I feel about them?’

      Gabriel’s eyes were narrowed to dark slits. ‘You are the woman who will have to look at them for the rest of your life.’

      The rest of her life?

      She took a deep breath as she realised she hadn’t actually thought about her marriage to Gabriel with exactly that time-frame in mind before…

      She suddenly realised she hadn’t said anything and Gabriel was still waiting…‘I wouldn’t worry about it, Gabriel. All men look the same in the dark—’ She broke off as Gabriel’s hands suddenly closed firmly about her upper arms. ‘Let go of me!’ she gasped.

      His grasp didn’t relax in the slightest. ‘I am not interested in what you think of other men, Isabella. In the dark or otherwise!’ He shook her slightly, his expression now distinctly dangerous.

      Bella stared up at him, unable to see anything but the darkness of his anger as he glared down at her. ‘Your scars don’t bother me, Gabriel, and that’s the truth,’ she finally said evenly.

      His gaze remained dark and stormy on her face for several more seconds before he released her so suddenly that Bella stumbled slightly. ‘I will be several more minutes checking the scuba equipment, so perhaps you would like to go for a swim while you are waiting,’ he suggested abruptly.

      Bella gave one last, lingering glance at the stiffness of his scarred back before turning away to walk in the direction of the beach.

      Another day in paradise…

      ‘That was the most wonderful experience of my life!’ Bella gasped excitedly once she had waded out of the sea and removed her breathing mask.

      ‘The most wonderful?’ Gabriel arched mocking brows as he removed his own scuba gear before sitting down on the blanket spread on the white-gold sand, the long darkness of his hair pushed back from his face, rivulets of sea-water dripping enticingly down his shoulders and back.

      ‘Well…one of them,’ Bella corrected hastily. ‘Holding Toby in my arms seconds after he was born was probably the most wonderful,’ she added huskily.

      A frown darkened Gabriel’s brow. ‘I would have liked to have shared that experience with you.’

      ‘It’s been a lovely day, Gabriel, let’s not spoil it with another argument.’ Bella sighed as she dropped down onto the blanket beside him before slipping her arms out of the straps of the scuba gear and dropping it back on the sand behind them. She pushed the dampness of her hair back over her shoulders and sat forward to clasp her arms about her knees and rest her chin on her bent knees. ‘Besides, I very much doubt even you would have been allowed into the delivery-room.’

      Gabriel arched one dark brow. ‘Even me…?’

      She nodded. ‘Not even the Danti name would have got you in there,’ she teased. ‘There was a bit of a scare at the last moment,’ she explained as Gabriel continued to look at her enquiringly. ‘My blood pressure went off the scale, Toby became distressed, and they had to rush me off to Theatre to deliver Toby by Caesarean section.’

      Gabriel tensed. ‘Your life was in danger?’

      ‘I think both our lives were in danger for a while,’Bella admitted. ‘But luckily it all turned out okay in the end.’

      The frown between Gabriel’s eyes didn’t lessen. ‘Is that likely to happen with a second pregnancy?’

      Bella gave him a surprised glance. ‘I don’t know. It never occurred to me to ask. Gabriel?’ She stared at him as he stood up abruptly to walk the short distance to