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a moment, then, pulling herself together, she said, 'I
don't know! Quite a few, I suppose!'
`Which means what? One or two? Half a dozen?'
`I didn't make notches on my belt,' she declared
crossly.
HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
74
Was it ever serious?' He sounded quite dispassionate.
`Once or twice.'
Did you touch the depths, or reach the heights?' The
question came sharply, like a darting thrust of a rapier.
She shrugged, flushing. 'Don't we all at some time or
another?'
`It can be shattering, can't it?' He watched her cynic-
ally. 'Like being poleaxed you go down, stars whirling
round your head, and you don't know what's happened
to you at first.'
`Don't tell me you've ever felt like that, because I
wouldn't believe you if you swore it on a stack of Bibles
ten feet high. You're too cold-blooded to fall in love.
You've never lost control, you've never lost your head.
Piero and I are fools enough for that we're human
beings. But you are the Count of San Volenco and you're
above such human weaknesses.' She spat the words out
breathlessly, glaring at him, her face very pink.
He laughed. 'You really have a high opinion of me,
don't you? I ought to feel insulted, but oddly enough I
don't ...'
`Of course not. Your own opinion of you is so high!'
`Sheathe those kitten claws now, my dear,' he said
softly. 'Or I might retaliate!'
`Fling me off the balcony? Slap my face? Put me in
the castle dungeons in chains?' She mocked him angrily.
`What will you do to me, my lord Dictator of San
Volenco?'
He caught her by the wrists, his fingers iron links
around her fragile bones, and pulled her towards him.
HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
75
Too late Amanda tried to struggle away. His grip was
unbreakable. His dark face came down towards her like
a hawk swooping from the sky on a white dove. She was
first angry, then frightened, then, finally, touched into
response as his kiss burned along her lips, giving and
demanding sheer physical pleasure.
Her hands were released, he slid his grip along her
arms to her shoulders, then down her back to her waist,
bending her backwards, his pressure irresistible. She
flung up her hands and beat, unavailingly, upon the hard
muscles of his chest.
'Don't fight me,' he whispered, his lips travelling
slowly along her throat until they reached the small
hollow, just above the curve of her breasts, where a pulse
leapt wildly, testifying to the confusion of her senses.
`Let me go, Cesare,' she begged.
He laughed. 'Have you forgotten what the Counts of
San Volenco have always been called? The hawks who
never let go ... that is what they called us!' He looked
down at her broodingly, his mouth curved in a cruel
smile. 'How does it feel to be the prey of a hawk, cara?'
A half sob broke from her. 'Don't!'
`What did you say to me just now? That I never lost
my head? That I was above human weaknesses?' He
lowered his lips to her throat again, let them move
slowly, with a burning intensity, downwards until they
rested between her breasts, pushing aside the lapels of her
shirt to reveal her smooth white skin. 'I warned you I
would retaliate if you provoked me too far. Women are
never satisfied until they have provoked a man to the
76 HAWK IN A BLUE SKY
point of madness, are they? Did you think I was a
machine, bloodless, inhuman, that you came back here
flaunting your betrothal to Piero, my own brother?' His
voice was husky with emotion. Was it anger or pain? she
wondered urgently. She tried to read the dark mask of
his face, but it was still impossible for her, to decipher
what lay behind his hawklike features.
Tentatively, she said, 'But you only proposed to me to
please your mother. It can't have hurt you when I re-
fused!'
He raised his head reluctantly, as if he hated to look at
her. 'What do you know of me, Amanda? You talk
blithely about what I feel or cannot feel, but what do you
really know of me? You're a child, emotionally, unable
to recognise or understand any feelings deeper or more
complicated than her own. You aren't old enough to
marry anyone. You lack the maturity to comprehend
another person in the total fullness of marriage.'
`That isn't true,' she cried angrily. 'I've been in love
before, I know what it feels like ... and I do love Piero !'
`Do you?' he asked her savagely, his eyes on the
_ trembling curve of her red mouth. 'I've seen you to-
gether, remember, and I have seen you kiss him.' His
eyes flashed bitter mockery at her. 'The sweet childlike
kisses of adolescents ! They may satisfy Piero, but they
would not satisfy me!'
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