from the one good lesson her father had ever taught her, could she? That the smart princess should always use her brains.
And it was her brains as well as her heart that were telling her, had been telling her from the beginning, whispering, shouting - here's the one! The one worth risking it all for. The one who she didn't have to fear would discover her secrets and her shame because he was the one man who could understand them.
The man who loved her. She looked at the Loanshark book, burning in the fire. The man I can trust.
She thought she leaped over the sofa to find her way to Johnny's arms.
It didn't matter how, because she was there, in his embrace, feeling his heart pounding against hers. "I trust you, I trust you. I do trust you."
"Tea," he said against her mouth. "Be my love. Be my life."
And oh, she would. She'd be his love, his life, his contessa, his princess, his queen.
Varsity men deserved no less.
They couldn't get enough of each other. Or close enough. She popped the buttons on his shirt to get to his naked skin. He pulled pins from the updo until her hair swept her shoulders. His chest was bare and his pants unfastened when he pushed her a little away. "How do we get you out of this dress?" he said, his voice rough.
"Right here, right now?" Tea glanced over at the fire. Oh yeah, right here, right now. The gypsy girl was going to dance right here, right now, with the man she loved. Already the violins were singing, their voices rivaling the angels'. She smiled at Johnny. "It's sort of a peel and eat kind of gown."
He groaned. 'Then show me where to start peeling, Contessa."
He was very efficient, until he realized what was missing. "No panties?" he croaked out, his hands stilling. "You're not wearing panties?"
She shrugged. "Where was I going to put them?" she said, as she arranged herself on the rug before the fire.
He dropped down beside her. "I love you," he said. "Oh God, how I love you." His body joined with hers.
All playfulness evaporated in the heat of the fire and the heat between them. This wasn't sex, but lovemaking - life-affirming, love-securing, love the way she'd always dreamed it would be. Tea closed her eyes against the rush of tears that burned in them.
They were tenderly moving against each other when something made her eyelids rise. Johnny's golden face was above hers, but then her gaze caught on the scene outside the glass windows. A knot of people stood by the pool, apparently transfixed by the sight of them entwined before the fire.
Her fingers tightened on Johnny's shoulders as embarrassment washed over her. What would people think? What would people think about how this looked? Punctual, proper, puritanically dressed Tea Caruso now naked and doing the wild thing for all to see!
But then she remembered.
She was beautiful.
She was loved.
And she was wicked too, or at least very, very bad, because it occurred to her that in their position, the audience had a clear view of only one person. Johnny. Johnny and his bare naked, quite outstanding butt.
So, assured her own privacy was semi-safe, she smiled to herself.
And drew Johnny's mouth to hers, closing her eyes to everything but their future.
Epilogue
"More" Bobby Darin From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie (1964)
A week after the big birthday bash, two of Salvatore Caruso's three daughters sat on plush chairs in the elegant spa waiting room at the Kona Kai. Wrapped in luxurious robes, their new pedicures drying, they were lost in thought.
Men were on both their minds, Eve Caruso guessed. Her older sister Tea might be mooning over her Johnny, who was on business in Las Vegas for a few days. Or maybe she was thinking of Beppe Cirigliano. His daughter, Rachele, had stopped by earlier and told them it was definite - her father was cleared of anything more than an accidental involvement in the death of Salvatore.
It was a relief, Eve thought, just as she was probably supposed to feel relieved to finally know, once and for all, what had happened to their dad. So what that she'd always been secretly convinced he was safe and alive in the witness pro-tection program somewhere? It had been a childish fantasy, she saw that now.
"You're brooding," Tea suddenly said. "That's not like you."
"Brooding?" Eve tried to scoff. "I don't brood. I'm the party girl, remember?" Palm Springs's favorite society