Chapter Two“Why must you leave so soon?”
The voice, low and a little tired but caressing, came from the bed. Mark Stanton looked towards the first rays of sunshine coming through the open windows and replied,
“I dislike arriving back at my lodgings in full evening dress when the sun is up.”
“The Neapolitans think it proves their virility!”
There was a soft laugh.
“But you, my Man of the Sea, have no need to prove yours.”
Mark Stanton turned to smile at the speaker, his strong athletic body silhouetted against the mirrors on the dressing table with its profusion of lotions, creams and salves glittering on its painted surface.
From her pillows Princess Gianetta di Sapuano watched him with smouldering velvet black eyes that no man as experienced in women as Mark Stanton could mistake.
