About the Authors

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form asking for her job title. Thrilled to be able to put down her answer, she put ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation, and she put down the truth—‘writing’. The third question asked for her hobbies. Well, not wanting to look obsessed, she crossed her fingers and answered ‘swimming’—but, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

After spending three years as a die-hard New Yorker, KATE HEWITT now lives in a small village in the English Lake District, with her husband, their five children and a golden retriever. In addition to writing intensely emotional stories, she loves reading, baking and playing chess with her son—she has yet to win against him, but she continues to try. Learn more about Kate at kate-hewitt.com.

Also by Carol Marinelli

Their One Night Baby

Claiming His Hidden Heir

Claimed for the Sheikh’s Shock Son

Billionaires & One-Night Heirs miniseries

The Innocent’s Secret Baby

Bound by the Sultan’s Baby

Sicilian’s Baby of Shame

Ruthless Royal Sheikhs miniseries

Captive for the Sheikh’s Pleasure

Christmas Bride for the Sheikh

The Ruthless Devereux Brothers miniseries

The Innocent’s Shock Pregnancy

The Billionaire’s Christmas Cinderella

Also by Kate Hewitt

A Di Sione for the Greek’s Pleasure

Inherited by Ferranti

Moretti’s Marriage Command

Demetriou Demands His Child

Engaged for Her Enemy’s Heir

The Innocent’s One-Night Surrender

Desert Prince’s Stolen Bride

Princess’s Nine-Month Secret

The Secret Kept from the Italian

Greek’s Baby of Redemption

Seduced by a Sheikh miniseries

The Secret Heir of Alazar

The Forced Bride of Alazar

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child & Claiming My Bride of Convenience

Carol Marinelli and Kate Hewitt

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08832-9

THE SICILIAN’S SURPRISE LOVE-CHILD & CLAIMING MY BRIDE OF CONVENIENCE

The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child © 2019 Carol Marinelli Claiming My Bride of Convenience © 2019 Kate Hewitt

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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Table of Contents

Cover

About the Authors

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child

Back Cover Text

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Claiming My Bride of Convenience

Back Cover Text

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

About the Publisher

The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child

Carol Marinelli

His forbidden innocent…

And the consequence of their surrender!

Aurora Messina is everything cynical tycoon Nico Caruso shouldn’t want. Impulsive and far too innocent, she’s trouble…and temptation. Especially now that she’s working at his new hotel. But Nico’s infamous control isn’t a match for their combustible chemistry, and it soon ignites in a sizzlingly illicit encounter…

Then Aurora discovers she’s pregnant! She knows Nico has never wanted a family—he still bears the scars of his own childhood. But will Aurora’s revelation give this proud Sicilian a reason to risk everything?

For my great friend, Frances Housden.

Love you, Cuzzy.

C xxx

CHAPTER ONE

‘AURORA WILL BE shadowing me today.’

Nico Caruso did not look up from his computer as Marianna, his PA, walked into his opulent Rome office. Instead he frowned.

‘Aurora Messina from the Sicilian hotel,’ Marianna elaborated, clearly assuming from Nico’s frown that Aurora’s was a name he did not know.

Oh, but he did.

Aurora Messina. Aged twenty-four—six years younger than him.

Aurora Eloise Messina, with her velvet brown eyes and thick dark hair that was not quite raven, though too dark to be called chestnut. Ah, yes… Aurora, with her olive skin that went pink in the sun.

‘Don’t you remember me, Nico?’

There was a tease in that familiar rasp to her throaty voice, and she brought with her the scent of home. The white crochet dress that she wore must have been hung out on the washing line, for it had caught not just the hot Sicilian sun but also the breeze from the ocean and the sweet scent of jasmine from her parents’ garden.

‘How rude of you to forget me,’ Aurora continued, ‘given that you have slept in my bed so many times.’

Marianna sucked in her breath at Aurora’s cheeky implication, but Nico didn’t miss a beat with his dry reply, ‘Ah, but never with you in it.’

‘True…’ Aurora conceded with a smile.

She had trained herself not to blush when Nico was near, but it was a struggle not to now. The stunning view of Rome panning out behind him went almost unnoticed and the lavish, expensive surroundings barely registered, for Nico, on this Monday morning, was proving more than enough for her senses to take in.

His thick black hair had been cut with skill and his strong jaw, with that slight dent in the centre, was so clean-shaven that she was actually anticipating the brief brush that would come when they shared a light cheek-to-cheek kiss.

Aurora came around the desk to greet him properly.

Of course she did.

After all, the two of them went way back.

But when Nico raised his hand to halt her approach, when his black eyes warned her not to come any closer, Aurora stepped back as if she’d been slapped.

She knew she was bolshie, and often came across as too forward, but after a lot of soul-searching as to how best to face him, she had decided to greet him as she would any old friend.

But Nico had halted her and that had hurt Aurora.

She tried not to let it show.

‘Take a seat,’ he told her, and then turned to his PA. ‘Marianna, let’s get started. We have a lot to get through.’

‘First, though…’ Aurora said. And instead of taking a seat, as instructed, she removed a large leather bag from her shoulder, took out a bottle of tomato sauce, and placed it on his immaculate, highly polished walnut desk. And then she took out another bottle.

‘Homemade passata from my mother,’ Aurora said, ‘and here is some limoncello from my father.’

Nico glanced over to Marianna, who was trying to keep the shock from her expression as Aurora turned his gleaming desk into a market stall. And then his black gaze returned to Aurora.

‘I don’t need these,’ Nico said, and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘You can take them back with you.’

‘No!’

He had rejected her greeting. And now this!

Nico was not doing as he should. He was not saying that he missed the taste of that homemade sauce, and nor was he inviting her to join him in sharing the feast that the sauce would create.

He was not playing by the endless ingrained codes of home.

But then, she reminded herself, Nico never had.

For if that were the case then Aurora would be his wife.

Aurora Eloise Caruso.

As a teenager she had practised writing that name in her journals and saying it out loud. Now her cheeks flushed, just a little, as she tried to keep the note of anger from her voice. ‘You know very well that my family would never let me visit you without gifts.’

‘This is work—not a visit,’ Nico snapped. ‘You are here for five days to train for the opening of a new hotel; it is not a social occasion. Now, get these things off my desk.’

Nico knew he was being harsh, but he had to set the tone—and not just with Aurora.

The Silibri contingent had been in Rome for just eighteen hours and already he was fed up with the lot of them.

Francesca, who was to be Regional Manager, had brought, of all things, a salami, and left it for him at the reception desk. Did she assume that Nico could not get salami in Rome?

And Pino, who would be chief concierge at the new hotel, had somehow found his private number. Nico guessed he had got it from Aurora. He had given it to her once.

Once…

Nico refused to think of that time now.

The fact was, on their arrival yesterday evening Pino had called and asked Nico where they should go for dinner and what time he would be joining them!

Nico had rather sternly declined to do so.

The village of Silibri had come to Rome, and it seemed determined to bring him several slices of home.

Except Nico had been trying to run from home since he was sixteen.

Was it guilt or duty that always pulled him back?

He truly did not know.

‘Get these off my desk, Aurora,’ he repeated. It was a warning.

‘But I don’t want them.’ She shook her head. ‘I have shoes to buy, and I need the space in my suitcase.’ She fixed him with narrowed eyes. ‘Assuming I’m allowed to shop during non-work hours?’

He almost smiled at her sarcastic tone, but did not.

A smile.

A kiss.

When combined with Aurora, Nico knew full well the trouble they made…

So he met her glare with one of his own and hoped she’d hear the message in his veiled words. ‘When you’re not working, Aurora, I don’t care what you do.’

‘Good.’

‘For now…’ Nico flicked his hand at the desk. ‘…can we get rid of these and start work? We’re already running behind.’

‘I’ll take them.’

Marianna was rarely flustered as she was now. Aurora had that effect on people.

‘And I’ll get the swatches for the meeting…’

‘Swatches?’ Nico checked.

‘It’s decision day for the Silibri uniforms.’

‘What decision?’ Nico inhaled deeply and tried not to show his irritation. Really? Since when did he get involved in orders for uniforms?

‘They don’t like the green,’ Marianna said.

‘But it’s the same as in all my hotels. I want continuity—’

Nico halted himself, deciding that he would save it for the meeting. He nodded to Marianna, who gathered the bottles and, with Nico’s desk back to its usual order, headed out.

He was surprised when Aurora did not follow, and instead took a seat. ‘I thought you were supposed to be shadowing Marianna?’

Aurora could hear the irritation beneath the silk of his low tone and she spoke hurriedly. ‘I wanted a moment alone to apologise for being indiscreet. I was making a little joke about the times when you used to stay at our house.’

She grimaced then, because despite her best efforts that hadn’t come out right. There really wasn’t anything to make a joke about. Her father had used to find the young Nico asleep in the park after a beating from his father and had insisted he come and sleep at their home. Aurora would be moved to a made-up bed at the foot of her parents’ and Nico would be given her room.

‘Apology accepted,’ Nico said, and got back to his spreadsheets.

He was still angry, though, Aurora knew, and she was cross with herself too, for she had been so determined to be serene when she saw him.

Nico did not make her feel serene.

‘Anyway…’ Aurora continued, and under the desk she gave his knee a playful little tap with her foot. ‘We were never in bed together—you took my virginity on the couch!’

Her breath hitched as he caught her ankle with his hand and gripped it tight for a second. She wished—how she wished—that he would run that hand up her calf, but he scolded her instead.

‘I didn’t take it, Aurora. You very willingly gave it to me.’ He pointedly removed her foot and released his grip. ‘You pleaded with me, in fact.’ He turned back to the computer. ‘It’s forgotten now.’

Liar.

For Nico, sex was necessary and frequent—if a touch emotionless. And it was always a smooth and controlled affair, taking place in his suite at the hotel, never at his home.

It did not compare to the panting, hot, sweaty coupling that had taken place with Aurora.

Nothing could ever compare.

‘Forgotten?’ Aurora checked.

‘It happened just the once and it was a long time ago.’

‘Four years, Nico.’

Yes, it had been four years since that night, and Nico had been paying for it ever since.

That one slip had cost him millions.

Tens of millions, in fact.

Though the cost of a new hotel had been preferable to another night under the Messina roof.

He did not glance up as she stood and walked to the window.

This was hell.

Nico was aware he had treated her terribly.

He should never have slept with her.

They had been supposed to marry. Of course they had never had a say in it, but as they’d grown up it had become a given. Her nonna’s house had been left to her father, Bruno, and he had kept it for them to reside in after their wedding day.

Nico had been able to think of nothing worse. Stuck in that damned village, living opposite the in-laws and working all day on the vines.

Aurora had taken it well when he’d told her they would never marry. She had laughed and said something along the lines of Thank God for that.

It had been the sun that had made her eyes sparkle, Nico told himself. She had been sixteen then, and a skinny, slip of a girl. He hadn’t seen her for a few years after that.

Oh, but when he had…

He glanced over to where she stood, looking out towards the Vatican City, and though he wanted to turn back to his computer screen he could not resist a double-take.

There was nothing, Nico thought, more beautiful than a beautiful Sicilian woman.

She was dark-eyed and dark-haired, with voluptuous curves that had never seen a gym let alone a scalpel or silicone. Beneath her full bust in the white crochet dress there was a thin strap of leather, tied in a bow. He could think of no other woman who might look so sexy in such a dress, but she certainly did. He wanted to pull on that bow…he wanted to bare her breasts and pull her onto his knee. To kiss that mouth and properly welcome her to Rome.

His eyes drifted down to her shoes, which were neutral. Her legs, though, were not—their olive skin was bare and her calves were toned. His gaze followed the line of her long limbs until it rested where he knew he would find dark silken curls; he knew, too, the grip of those thighs.

She was fire. And he must do all he could not to let it catch him. For what Nico craved in his life was order.

Aurora could feel his eyes on her and she liked the vague, unsettled feeling that tightened low in her stomach and brought a hot and heavy sensation between her legs.

She had seen him since that fateful night—of course she had. But since the morning after they had never been alone.

Now, for a few precious moments, they were.

Aurora had practised this moment in her head and in the mirror so many times, and had sworn to rein herself in. But what had she gone and done?

Teased and cajoled and tried to draw a reaction from this cold immutable man, who had ruined her for anyone else.

Yet she could not bring herself to regret losing her virginity to him. Aurora would never regret that.

She attempted a more bland conversation. ‘I like Rome…’

‘Good.’

‘Though I love it in the early morning. I went exploring this morning…’

Nico looked back to his computer screen.

‘I felt as if I had the city all to myself. Well, not quite…’

She thought of the cafés and markets opening, and the street cleaners she had encountered on her early-morning walk—the walk during which she had promised herself that when she saw Nico later she would be serene and controlled. Sophisticated. Like the slender beauties he dated, whom she read about while bile churned in her stomach.

‘Tonight we’re all going on a bus tour…’ She halted, thinking how touristy and gauche she must sound to him. ‘Are you excited about the Silibri opening?’ she asked, because that seemed safe.

‘I will be glad when it’s done.’

Glad when he would be able to hand it over to his executive and the managers. When it would be up and running and no longer at this intense stage.

Right now, though, the tension was all in his office.

It was a relief when Marianna appeared and, with Aurora observing, they began to go through his schedule.

Nico was to meet with the Silibri hotel staff in fifteen minutes, and after that his day was back-to-back meetings with accountants, financiers and lawyers—and, no, Nico said, he would not be staying at the hotel that night.

‘You have a breakfast meeting at seven and the helicopter is booked for nine…’ Marianna frowned at this slight anomaly. ‘Usually you stay here if you’re flying out.’

‘I’ll be residing at home tonight,’ Nico said. ‘Now, can we check my Silibri schedule? I want to see my father’s doctor as soon as I arrive.’

‘You’re going home…?’ Aurora blinked. ‘Why are you going home when we are all here?’

‘Again…’ Nico sighed. ‘You are here for staff training.’

He looked to Marianna and was grateful when she stepped in.

‘Signor Caruso and I run through his schedule each morning, Aurora. This is not a meeting, and nor is it a discussion; it is to ensure that everything is in order and that we are both clear on timings.’

‘Of course…’ Aurora attempted, but there were a million questions in her eyes about why he was leaving Rome so soon after they had arrived.

Nico answered none of them.

Instead, having gone through his impossibly busy week, they headed out of his office, with Nico holding the door for both the women.

‘After you,’ Nico said.

He wished his good manners were not quite so ingrained, and that he did not have to hold open the door, for the scent of her reached him again. The chemistry that flared between them was undeniable, and the want was still there.

Nico, though, was first to walk into the boardroom.

The Silibri contingent were there, waiting, and they greeted him warmly.

Too warmly.

‘Hey, Nico!’

And there were more gifts set out on the table.

Amongst other things, Francesca had brought homemade biscotti to go with the coffee being served. Only Vincenzo, his marketing manager, sat rigid, clearly taken back by the party-like atmosphere in the room.

He smoothed his auburn hair nervously and cast a slightly aghast look at Nico. Bizarrely, for the briefest of seconds, Nico wanted to tell Vincenzo to relax. Did he not know how things worked in Sicily? Did he not know that humour and conversation were an art form there, especially in Silibri?

Of course not. Vincenzo had been brought in from the Florence branch.

‘Let’s get started,’ Nico said.

It would hopefully be a quick meeting.

Aurora was to be assistant manager of marketing. It was not something she had studied for, but she knew the area well and loved taking photos—and she had ideas. Many of them.

Nico hadn’t actually got her the job; she did not need him to succeed.

Well, maybe a bit…

For without him there would be no hotel.

Vincenzo was speaking of the excitement locally, and said there were a few interviews nationally, for various tourism shows and breakfast television and the like.

‘I shall handle those,’ Vincenzo said.

‘You can take turns with Aurora,’ Nico interjected.

‘But I have had media training,’ Vincenzo pointed out. ‘Aurora can be a touch…forceful, and we want to extend a gentle invitation.’

‘Vincenzo,’ Nico said. ‘I wasn’t offering a suggestion, I was telling you to take turns with Aurora.’

He was not doing her any favours. Vincenzo was vain and self-serving—and, though he was brilliant at his job, it was as clear as day to Nico that Aurora, with her passion, her low throaty laugh, with her sheer love of Silibri, would be more enticing for potential guests.

‘Next,’ Nico said, and nodded to Francesca.

‘The fittings for the uniforms have been delayed.’

‘Then get them done,’ Nico said, even while knowing it wasn’t going to be as easy as that.

‘I have tried, but the staff have issues with the colour.’

‘And the fabric…’ It was the first time Aurora had spoken. ‘The wool is too heavy and the green makes us look like…’ She snapped her fingers. ‘That Englishman’s Merry Men.’

Nico had to think for a moment. But then he always had to think when Aurora was around—she brought him no peace.

He thought of the dark green uniforms that looked so elegant against the old Roman and sophisticated Florentine buildings, and worked well in both England and France, and then he joined the dots she had led him to with her mention of ‘the Englishman’s Merry Men’.

‘You mean Robin Hood?’

‘Who?’ Aurora frowned, and then she gave him a tiny smile to say of course she knew who he meant and was teasing him.

Their minds jostled, and she could see he was fighting not to return her smile. She was still looking at Nico’s full mouth, with a smile on her own, when Vincenzo cleared his throat and spoke up.

‘We think that Silibri should have a more casual feel.’

‘It’s a five-star hotel.’ Nico gave a shake of his head. ‘I do not want my staff looking casual.’

‘Of course not,’ Vincenzo agreed. ‘But there is a stunning French navy linen, and teamed with crisp white shirts…’

‘We would look like sailors,’ Aurora sulked.

Nico pressed the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb. What the hell had he been thinking? What had possessed him to venture into Silibri? He should have sold the land there and been done with it…

Yet as he sat there he recalled Aurora’s emphatic no when he had suggested that the night after—

Damn, no matter how he tried to avoid it, all roads led to that night.

Nico forced himself back to the moment: What in God’s name was he doing, sitting here discussing fabric? It was his hotel and it had been four years in the making.

The trouble with the Silibri venture was that the staff considered it to be their hotel too. They were all so involved and took it all so personally.

‘What about the same green as the other hotels, but in linen?’ Francesca suggested.

Aurora shook her head.

‘That just takes us back to the Merry Men,’

‘So what do you suggest, Aurora?’ Nico threw down his pen in exasperation.

Of course she had an immediate answer. ‘Persian Orange.’

From her seemingly bottomless bag she produced several swatches of fabric and proceeded to pass them around. It was a linen blend that wouldn’t crease, she assured them, and with one look Nico knew she was right.

‘It is the colour of the temple ruins and the monastery just before sunset,’ Aurora said. ‘And you know how beautiful Silibri looks at that time of night. Mother Nature chose her colours wisely.’

‘It is a bold colour,’ Vincenzo objected. ‘A touch too bold, perhaps?’

‘I don’t agree that it is too bold; it is, in fact, quite plain,’ Aurora refuted, then cocked her head to the side.

Nico watched as her knowing eyes weighed up Vincenzo.

‘Are you worried that it might clash with your red hair?’

‘Of course not…’ Vincenzo was flustered and smoothed said red hair down.

‘Because,’ Aurora continued, ‘we could have bespoke shades on the same theme, with Persian Orange being the main one.’

‘Bespoke shades…?’ Vincenzo checked.

And Nico watched silently as his marketing manager warmed to his new assistant’s idea, and watched, too, Aurora’s small, self-satisfied smile as of course she got her way.

Heaven help Vincenzo, Nico thought, trying to manage her. Because Aurora could not be managed nor contained.

She was as Sicilian as Mount Etna, as volatile as the volcano it was famous for, and she could not be beguiled or easily charmed. She was perceptive and assiduous and…

And he refused to give in to her ways.

‘I’ll consider it,’ Nico said.

‘Consider it?’ Aurora checked. ‘But what is there to consider when it’s perfect?’

‘There is plenty to consider,’ Nico snapped. ‘Next.’

It had been scheduled as a thirty-minute meeting but in the end it took sixty-three—and of course it did not end there.

As Marianna disappeared for a quick restroom break, and Nico attempted to stalk off, Aurora caught up with him. ‘I wonder if we could speak? I have an idea.’

‘It has all been said in the meeting.’

‘This isn’t about the uniforms. I have another idea for the Silibri hotel.’

‘Then speak with Vincenzo, your manager.’

‘Why would I share my idea with him?’

‘Because I don’t generally deal with assistants.’

Aurora felt his cool, snobbish dismissal and told him so. ‘It is spring, Nico, and the sun is shining—yet you are so cold that when I stand near you I shiver.’

‘Then get a coat! Aurora, let me make something very clear—and this is a conversation that you can repeat to all your colleagues. You are here for a week of training to find out how I like things done and how I want my hotel to operate. You’re not here for little chats and suggestions, and catch-ups and drinks. I did not build a hotel in Silibri to expand my social life.’

Nico wanted this conversation to be over.

‘You are shadowing Marianna for the rest of the day?’ he checked.

‘Sì?’

‘Then what are you doing standing in mine?’

CHAPTER TWO

DAMN YOU, NICO!

How much clearer could he have made it that he did not want her near him? He could not have been more horrible had he tried.

As Nico stalked off Aurora wanted to be done with her feelings for him. To shed them. To discard them. To stamp her foot on them and kick them to the kerb. She was tired of them and bone-weary from this unrequited love.

‘Aurora.’ Marianna had found her. ‘We need to talk. Or rather, you need to listen.’

‘I already know what you’re going to say.’

But she was told anyway.

A little more decorum and a lot less sass, or she would be shadowing the bottle-washer for the rest of the week.

And while Aurora understood what was being said, she just did not know how to squeeze herself into the box demanded of her. Or how not to be herself when she was near Nico.

‘Hello, husband,’ she had used to greet him teasingly when, as a young girl, she had opened the door to him.

He would shake his head and roll his eyes at the precocious child who constantly fought for his smile and attention. ‘Your father says he wants some firewood chopped,’ Nico would respond.

Yet, as much as he’d dismiss her, she would still sit and watch him chop firewood, and her heart would bleed when he took off his top and she saw a new bruise or a gash on his back.

How could Geo do that to him?

How could anyone hate Nico so?

Then he would look over, and sometimes he would smile rather than scowl at his devoted audience. And her day would be made.

Nico hadn’t broken her heart when he had first left Silibri—after all, she had only been ten then—though for a while she had cried herself to sleep at night.

No, the heartbreak had occurred on one of his rare trips home, when Aurora had been sixteen.

Her heart had sung, just at knowing he was home, and then one afternoon he had spoken at length with her father behind closed doors. She had assumed they were drinking the grappa her father had saved for this very day.

And then Nico had come out and asked if she’d like to take a walk. She had quickly washed her face and hands and scrubbed her nails, so her hands would look pretty for the ring. And she had brushed her teeth for she had wanted to taste fresh for her first kiss.

They had walked down the hill and around the old monastery, but instead of heading to the ancient temple ruins, Aurora’s favourite place, Nico had suggested they take the steps down the cliff to the beach.

‘Our fathers are very old fashioned…’ Nico had said as they walked on the deserted sands.

‘Yes!’ Aurora had beamed, for she had known he had just been speaking with hers.

‘They try to make decisions for us.’

She’d felt the first prickle of warning that this conversation might not be going as she had long hoped. ‘They do,’ she had rather carefully agreed.

‘Aurora, I stopped allowing my father to dictate to me a long time ago.’

‘I know he is difficult. I know you hate him. But—’

‘Aurora,’ he broke in. ‘I can’t see myself ever marrying. I don’t want to have a family. I want freedom…’

It had been the worst moment of her life.

‘Aurora!’

Marianna’s voice broke in on her painful reminiscence.

‘Are you even listening to what I’m saying?’

‘Of course,’ Aurora said. She hadn’t been listening, but she could guess very well what Marianna had said. ‘Don’t worry, I…’ She gave a slow nod, took a deep breath and made a vow—not just to Marianna but also to herself. ‘I will not embarrass myself again.’

Aurora was done with Nico Caruso.

For eight years she had loved him in secret.

A whole third of her life!

Well, no more.

It was time to snuff out the torch she carried.

She would be calm and distant and professional if she ever saw him again.

‘I didn’t mean you to take it like that…’ Marianna gave her first kind smile. ‘Nico is a wonderful boss, but he’s no one’s friend. Just remember that when you’re working together.’

‘I will.’

‘Come on—the driver is waiting.’

‘The driver?’

‘So I can go and pack for Signor Caruso’s trip. Oh, and I must organise his driver for the morning, now he’s no longer staying at the hotel…’

Aurora just wanted the day to be over. She wanted to go back to her hotel room, throw herself on the bed and cry…and then emerge better and stronger and step into the future without him.

Instead, she had to step into his home.

It was beautiful, of course.

Nico lived in the Parioli district, and his residence was just a short drive from the hotel. It was elegant and tasteful and her heels rang out on the marble floors.

There was a huge gleaming kitchen, where Marianna deposited the limoncello and passata in rather empty cupboards. Then they went back to the main corridor, with its cathedral-high ceilings and a grand staircase which she climbed reluctantly—for surely Nico’s bedroom was not the best place to attempt to get over him?

The master bedroom had French windows and a balcony and looked out to Villa Borghese Park. And, had it not been Nico’s bedroom that she stood in, Aurora might have been tempted to step out onto the balcony and drink in the view. Instead she looked at the vast bed, dressed in white with dark cushions, and imagined Nico beneath the crisp linen.

His bedroom daunted and overwhelmed her, although Marianna was clearly very used to it and quickly pulled out a suit carrier and a case and started to select shirts and suits.

‘Aurora, could you please sort out underwear?’

Joy!

It was agony—sheer agony—Once, a long time ago, she had slipped her hand inside similar black silk boxers and felt his velvet skin…

Oh, it killed her to be in his bedroom, and to remember how it had been between them, but she tried hard to keep her vow and focus on work.

‘Should I pack these?’ Aurora asked, holding up a pair of black lounge pants. To her surprise, Marianna laughed.

‘No, I bought those just in case he has to go into hospital or something.’

‘Oh…’

‘You have to think of all eventualities if you’re a PA.’

Except Aurora didn’t want to be one. ‘Marianna, why am I shadowing you today? I’m enjoying it, of course, but I thought I would stay with the marketing team.’

Marianna put the suit she was holding down on the bed before answering. ‘Well, I don’t always travel with Signor Caruso and, given that he’ll presumably be spending some considerable time in Silibri, I thought it might be prudent to train someone to assist me when he’s there. I have someone in each of his hotels with whom I liaise. I spoke with Francesca and she suggested you.’

‘I would be Nico’s PA?’

‘No. But I want someone in the Silibri hotel that I can liaise with directly regarding him.’

‘Does Nico know about this?’

‘No, it’s just something Francesca and I have discussed. I would not trouble Signor Caruso unless I considered it viable…’ She gave a thin smile, which told Aurora that she was already having her doubts as to her suitability for the role.

Aurora had doubts of her own.

Getting closer to Nico wasn’t going to snuff out the torch. Instead it would fan the eternal flame that burned for him. So Aurora said the bravest thing she could. ‘It is very nice of you to consider me—but, no.’ Aurora shook her head. ‘I don’t think that role would be for me.’

Tonight, when she was back in the hotel, she would cry one final time over him, Aurora decided.

There would be no bus tour.

She was a little tired of being with her friends. They saw each other every day and they were all so much older than she.

No, tonight she would recall with shame her own behaviour earlier with Nico and then she would weep into the pillow. And then…

Well, it was time she moved on—time she started dating.

Time to flirt.

To be twenty-four and single in Rome.

She might even download the dating app that Chi-Chi and Antonietta had told her about!

To hell with you, Nico Caruso, because I want to be with a man who wants me. I am finally out of your shadow.

And she was soon to be out of Marianna’s.

‘Where’s Aurora?’ Nico asked late in the day.

‘Oh, she’s with the marketing team,’ Marianna said and then glanced at the time. ‘Though they’ll all be off on their bus tour now.’

Nico gave a small eye-roll, though not with any malice. It was more in amusement that Pino had called and invited him to join them.

Again he had declined.

‘Do you know?’ Marianna said. ‘I have never met a more enthusiastic lot of people. With their energy and exuberance I’m sure the new hotel is going to be amazing.’

‘If you like Persian Orange,’ Nico said, and he pushed over the uniform order he had signed off on. Persian Orange! With bespoke tones of Butterscotch and Burnt Caramel for those who felt the shade might not suit their colouring.

Nico had a headache from looking at so much orange.

And he had another question. ‘Why was Aurora shadowing you today? I thought her role was in marketing.’

‘Correct,’ Marianna agreed. ‘But presumably you will be spending a lot of time in Silibri…?’

‘Not once the hotel is up and running.’

‘You are always between hotels. I have Teresa in Florence, Amelie in France… Francesca thought that Aurora might be suitable—’

‘No.’ Nico said it too fast, and with too much force, and he attempted a quick recovery. ‘Look, I’m sure Aurora will be excellent in her marketing role, but I don’t think she would work out as—’

‘It’s fine,’ Marianna cut in. ‘Aurora said the same.’

‘She did?’

Why did that feel like a punch to his guts rather than spread relief? And why did the thought of working closely with Aurora unsettle him so?

Nico grabbed his jacket and took the elevator down to head for home.

He did not need to ponder further to know the answer: there was way too much history between them.

CHAPTER THREE

The night that neither can forget…

‘YOU CAN TELL Nico that I’m not leaving my home.’

Just hearing Nico’s father say his name had Aurora’s heart both soaring and shattering anew.

It was a regular occurrence in Silibri. Nico Caruso’s name was mentioned often.

‘Since when did I have a direct line to your son, Geo?’ Determined not to give herself away, Aurora responded light-heartedly as she plumped the old man’s cushions behind him. ‘I haven’t spoken to Nico in ages.’

‘He’s sending his helicopter to take me to Rome.’

Aurora’s cushion plumping was paused for a moment.

Geo got confused at times, and was also known to exaggerate, but even by Geo’s standards this was too far-fetched to be believed.

‘Who told you that?’ Aurora asked as he rested back in his chair and she straightened up.

‘The doctor did.’

‘Oh? And is this the same doctor who told you that your drinking would kill you?’ Aurora checked.

Geo gave a reluctant smile.

‘The same doctor who said that you couldn’t manage here alone and needed to be in a nursing home?’ she continued. ‘Because I thought you told me that that doctor could not be believed.’

‘Perhaps,’ Geo conceded, ‘but he was telling the truth this time—Nico is sending a helicopter to fetch me.’

Wildfires had been ravaging the south coast of Sicily and steadily working their way towards their small village for more than a week. They had been told to get out—of course they had—but, like Geo, her father had refused.

She didn’t doubt that Nico wanted his father away from the fires, but a private helicopter was way beyond a boy from Silibri—even a successful one!

Geo’s lies were becoming more and more extreme. A few weeks ago, when Aurora had dropped off his shopping, he had told her that she had just missed seeing Maria. Maria, Geo’s wife and Nico’s mother, had died the year Aurora had been born—some twenty years ago.

Last week he had said that Nico owned three hotels across Europe. When Aurora had refused to believe him, Geo had corrected himself: Nico owned four!

‘He stole from me!’ Geo said now, and cursed. ‘He took what was mine.’

‘You tell tall tales, Geo,’ Aurora said gently.

‘Well, he can stick his nursing home in Rome. I hate him. Why would I want to live closer to him?’

Aurora knew that father and son did not get on. She knew it very well.

But, though she loathed Geo’s treatment of Nico, she could not walk past the old man’s house and not drop in. It was worth it if it made things a little easier on Nico to know that his father was being cared for.

‘Now,’ Aurora said. ‘Is there anything else that you need me to do?’

‘Take some money from my dresser and run down to the store.’

‘I’m not getting you whisky, Geo,’ Aurora told him.

‘Why not? We’re all going to die in these fires!’

Aurora beamed. ‘Then you will meet your maker sober.’

‘Take the money and get me my whisky.’

‘Don’t.’

The very deep voice caused Aurora’s stomach to flip over, but even before she turned to face its direction she knew its source.

‘Nico…’ she said. ‘You’re here?’

‘Yes.’

He wore suit trousers and a white shirt—which somehow, despite the ash floating in the air, looked fresh. His hair was black and clean, unlike hers, which felt heavy after a day spent sweeping leaves outside Geo’s home and trying to get his house as safe as possible.

Oh, why couldn’t he have arrived in a couple of hours, when she was all washed and dressed up for Antonietta’s party?

But, really, what did it matter? Nico would never look at her in that way.

‘How did you get here?’ Aurora asked. ‘The road from the airport is closed.’

‘I came by helicopter,’ Nico said.

‘Told you,’ Geo declared to Aurora, but then he addressed his son. ‘I’m not going anywhere and you’re not welcome here. Get out!’

Here we go, Aurora thought, and sure enough, within two minutes of Nico arriving, Geo was shouting and waving his stick at his son.

‘Get out!’ he raged.

‘Pa…’

‘Out!’ Geo shouted. ‘I want you gone. You bring nothing but trouble. You’re not welcome in my home. You’re a thief and a liar and you ruined me.’

It was Aurora who calmed things down. ‘I’ll take Nico outside and show him what has been done to prepare for the fire,’ she suggested.

They stepped out of the small house, but there was no reprieve—Geo’s words followed them out into the oppressive heat, where the air was smoky.

‘He won’t leave willingly,’ she said.

‘I know he won’t.’ Nico sighed.

He had his chopper waiting, and a care facility in Rome ready to receive Geo, but even as Nico had asked Marianna to put the arrangements in place he had known it was futile.

‘You could carry him out,’ Aurora suggested.

‘I could,’ Nico agreed, ‘but then he would die on my shoulders just to spite me. What about you?’

‘Me?’

‘Yes, why are you staying, Aurora?’

‘Because we have to protect the village.’

‘And what can you do against the might of a wildfire?’ Nico asked.

All five-foot-three of her. She was tiny—a stick.

Except she wasn’t a stick any more.

They had avoided each other as much as possible since that awkward walk four years ago, and he had watched her blossom from a distance. The child he had rejected was now all woman. The cheeky, precocious brat who had hung on his every word was a forthright, assertive woman who, to Nico’s cold surprise, completely turned him on.

Not that he showed it. For one thing had not changed. Nico did not want a family and he did not want the responsibility of another heart.

‘Aurora, you can’t do anything to stop the fire.’

‘I can feed the firefighters,’ Aurora responded. ‘Anyway, Pa says the village is safe.’

‘Aurora…’ Nico kept his voice even, but fear licked at his throat at the thought of her staying here.

The village was not safe. Far from it. Nico had, after all, just viewed the fires from the sky, and heard the worrying comments from his pilot, who was ex-military. Bruno, Aurora’s father, was probably regretting his foolish decision and just putting on a brave face.

‘Leave.’

‘No.’

He persisted. ‘Come with me now and get out.’

‘I already told you—no.’

‘I could insist…’ Nico said, and it angered him when she snorted.

Did she not get that the village was going to go up in smoke and that the fire would destroy all in its path?

‘I could just put you over my shoulder—the same way I am tempted to do with my father.’

‘And then what, Nico? What will you do with me in Rome?’

He gritted his teeth.

‘My father would not object,’ she said. ‘In fact, all the villagers would come out and cheer if you carried me off.’ She gave him a smile that did not quite meet her eyes. ‘But then you would surely return me, Nico, and that would not go down very well.’

No, Nico thought, it would not. ‘Don’t you ever think of leaving?’ he asked.

‘Why would I?’ Aurora shrugged. ‘La famiglia is everything to me. Give me good food and family and my day is complete. What more could I want?’

‘You should deepen your voice, Aurora,’ Nico said, ‘when you impersonate your father.’

‘But I wasn’t impersonating him.’

‘No? You’ve heard it so often you believe it to be your own thought.’

‘Why do you have to criticise?’

‘I’m not.’

‘Oh, but you are.’

Nico took a breath. Aurora was correct. He was criticising—and he had no right to. Especially when she did so much for his father.

He addressed that issue. ‘You still haven’t sent me your bank account details so that I can pay you for the time spent with my father.’

‘I don’t count it as work.’

No, she saw it as duty. Nico knew that.

Even though he had not married her, she had taken on the role of caring for his family.

‘Aurora…’

‘I don’t have time for this, Nico. I want to move the firewood away from your father’s home. I thought my brother had done it…’

‘Give me a moment,’ Nico said.

Walking away from the house, he took out his phone and made a call to his pilot.

He could get out.

Perhaps he even should get out.

As he and the pilot both agreed, it would be a waste of vital resources to have a pilot and helicopter sitting idle, just in case Geo changed his mind.

But Nico could not leave his father to his fate alone.

And neither could he leave Aurora behind.

He looked over to her, lifting logs, doing all she could to keep the old man safe.

‘Right,’ he said walking towards her. She was filthy from the effort and he watched the streaks of ash grow as she wiped her forehead. ‘Leave the firewood to me. What else needs to be done?’

‘Aren’t you leaving?’

‘No.’

Their conversation was interrupted with the arrival of Aurora’s father. ‘Nico!’

Bruno greeted him warmly, as he always did—and that consistently surprised Nico. The fact that he had refused to marry his daughter should have caused great offence, yet Bruno had confounded Nico’s expectations and still treated him as a future son-in-law.

‘You will stay with us,’ Bruno said.

‘No, no…’ Nico attempted, for he did not want to be under the same roof as Aurora.

Or rather, he wanted to be under the same roof alone with Aurora. He wanted to strip her off in the shower and soap those breasts that now had sweat dripping between them.

He was trying to hold a conversation with Bruno even as filthy visions of the man’s daughter flashed in his mind. What was wrong with him?

‘So you’re too good for us now?’ Bruno demanded.

They all spoke from the same script, Nico thought as he dragged his mind from Aurora’s breasts. To refuse Bruno’s hospitality would be an insult, and although in his professional life Nico did not care who he offended, he attempted to do things differently here.

Like it or not, while his father was alive, he still needed these people.

More, though, he wanted to do the right thing.

‘You can have Aurora’s bed.’

‘No. Absolutely not!’ Nico would not hear of it.

‘She will be out tonight, at Antonietta’s birthday party.’

‘Aurora should be at home,’ Nico said. ‘With the threat to the village I thought the roads would be closed.’

‘The main one is, but some are open between the villages, and the threat has been here for weeks,’ Bruno said. ‘Life goes on, and Antonietta’s father is the fire chief. The firefighters are camping on his grounds so it is the safest place for her to be.’

Nico wasn’t so sure of that—and it had nothing to do with the fire!

‘I could be on lookout,’ Nico said, but Bruno shook his head.

‘It is Pino’s turn tonight. I did it last night. You shall stay with us.’

‘Well, thank you for your offer, ‘Nico said, ‘but I shall stay only if I sleep on the sofa.’

‘Up to you.’ Bruno shrugged.

Before dinner Nico checked in on his father, who had drifted off into a drunken stupor. Aurora was already there, and rolling him onto his side, making sure Geo would not choke should he become unwell during the night.

‘I told the store not to supply him with whisky,’ Nico said to her.

‘There is home delivery now.’ Aurora shrugged. ‘Even your father has worked out the Internet. And there’s always Pino stopping by, or Francesca. You can’t stop him.’

‘I send money, but then I wonder…’

‘If you didn’t send it he would drink cheap wine instead,’ Aurora pointed out. ‘Come on, it’s time to get back. Supper will soon be ready.’

‘I need to speak with the doctor first.’

The news from the doctor was the same.

Geo needed to stop drinking and he needed a more comprehensive level of care—except there was no staff to provide it in Silibri.

‘I have spoken to the agency,’ Nico said to him. ‘And I am looking to purchase the house across the street. That way—’

‘You could purchase ten houses,’ the doctor interrupted. ‘No one wants to live here. The village is dying faster than your father.’

Why did Aurora choose to remain here?

Nico thought of long-ago evenings at the Messina dinner table. She would talk of her photography, and how she would pester the manager at the winery to change the labels on his wine. To rename, rebrand. She had passion and dreams—but they had been smothered by this village, like the smoke that blanketed the valley now.

‘Come and sit down,’ Bruno said as Nico walked into the Messina home. ‘Good food and family and my day is complete. Come now, Aurora.’

But Aurora did not join them at the table.

‘No, Pa, there will be food at the party and I have to get ready.’

‘And will there be firemen at this party?’ Bruno checked. And though he spoke to Aurora, he looked over to Nico.

‘I think they are a little too busy fighting fires.’ Aurora smiled sweetly as she left the room.

Nico’s gut tightened.

‘Aurora has a thing for one of the firefighters,’ Bruno said, and rolled his eyes. ‘Per favore, mangia, mangia, Nico. Come on—eat.’

The pasta, though delectable, tasted like ash in Nico’s mouth.

Worse still, he could hear the pipes groan as Aurora turned on the shower…

It was bliss to have the hot day and all the grime slide off her skin and to feel the dirt and grease being stripped from her hair. This morning she had risen before six, and had worked every minute since, and yet though she ached, Aurora was not tired.

She looked down at her skin, brown as nutmeg, and saw her fleshy stomach and full breasts and all too solid legs.

She was too much.

Too much skin and bum and boobs.

Too much attitude.

Although as it had turned out for Nico she was not enough. Never enough for him.

How, Aurora pondered as the water drenched her, could Nico manage to turn her on even from the kitchen table?

Last week she had kissed a firefighter, and all she had felt was the tickle of his beard, and all she had tasted was the garlic on his breath, and all she had smelled was the smoke in his hair.

There was something so clean about Nico.

Even if his morals were filthy.

Oh, yes, she had heard the gossip about his many women!

But there was still something so clean about him—the tang of his scent and the neatness of his nails that made her shiver on the inside.

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body that was burning inside like the mountains that were aflame all around them.

She headed into her pink bedroom. It was too childish—she knew that—but then she should be gone by now.

Aurora thought now that she would either be the village spinster or perhaps she would marry one day.

But she would never know the bliss of Nico.

Never.

Ever.

And that made angry tears moisten her eyes.

Her nipples felt as if the surface skin had been roughened as she stuffed her breasts into her bra. And as she wrestled her dark hair into some semblance of style there was suddenly the snap of a chain, and her collana, the cross and chain she had worn for ever, fell to the floor.

It felt like a sign.

She felt dangerous and reckless and everything she should not be.

Oh, what was the point of being a good Italian girl when the perfect Italian boy didn’t want you?

And so she went to the special book on her shelf, out of which she had cut the middle and in which hid the forbidden Pill.

The Pointless Pill, she called it, for she could not imagine sex with anyone other than Nico.

Tonight she would drink wine and try kissing that firefighter again—and maybe this time when his hand went to her breasts she would not brush him off.

To hell with you, Nico Caruso. I shall get over you.

She put blusher on her cheeks and lengthened her lashes with mascara before sliding glossy pink onto her lips.

She dabbed perfume on her neck and wrists and then strapped on high heels. And she knew that she was not dressing for the fireman tonight, but for the one minute when she would pass Nico on her way out.

She wanted him to ache with regret.

Instead Nico ached with need when, mid-meal, Aurora teetered out in heels and a silver dress.

Nico tried not to look up.

‘Go and change, Aurora,’ Bruno warned.

‘Why? I would just have to put my dress and shoes in a bag and change in the street,’ Aurora said cheekily. ‘Because I am wearing my silver dress tonight, whatever you say.’

Nico could not help but smile. Aurora did not hide, or lie, she just was who she was.

The taxi tooted. The one taxi that ferried people between villages.

He had to ignore the effect of her and the feeling, a lot like fear, that rose when he thought of her out on those fiery mountains tonight.

As she bent and kissed her father, her mother, her brother, he found he had to stop himself from running a tense hand down his jaw and neck as he awaited the torture to come.

Torture for them both.

If she did not extend to him the traditional farewell it would give rise to comments. Her omission would be noted and it would be awkward indeed.

He sat at the head of the table, and as she bent she put her hand on its surface to make as little contact with Nico as she could.

His cheek was cool when her lips brushed it. His scent she tried to obliterate by not breathing in. But because her brother leaned forward to ladle out more pasta she had to move quickly and put out a hand on Nico’s shoulder.

It was solid and warm.

One cheek to go.

Both were holding their breath.

Their desire was like the cattails and the bulrushes, waiting to be snapped open and for a million seeds to fly out and expand.

‘Be safe,’ he told her, in a voice that was somewhat gruff.

She gave the tiniest unreadable smile, and in it was a glint of danger as she straightened up.

‘I’m not your problem, Nico.’

She was, Nico knew, looking for trouble tonight.

Hell.

CHAPTER FOUR

Later on the night that neither can forget…

‘WE SHOULD HAVE got out.’

Aurora turned and looked at Antonietta as the three friends sat on the hillside, watching the ominous glow.

‘We’ll make it,’ Chi-Chi said. ‘There is soon to be a storm.’

‘And with storms come lightning,’ Antonietta pointed out. ‘I wish I had left. I wish I had taken off to…’ She thought for a moment. ‘Paris.’

‘But you don’t speak French,’ Aurora said.

‘I’m learning it.’ Antonietta shrugged, and then was silent for another moment before continuing. ‘Pa says we shall have a proper party after the fires. I’m getting engaged.’

Chi-Chi let out a squeal and jumped up in excitement.

‘To Sylvester,’ Antonietta added, and she looked to Aurora, who had to fight not to pull a face.

For Antonietta and Sylvester were second cousins, and Aurora was sure this was a match to keep money within the family rather than for love.

‘Are you happy?’ Aurora asked carefully.

Antonietta was silent for a very long time, and then she shrugged an odd response. ‘C’est la vie!’

Aurora didn’t really know what that meant, but she could hear the weary resignation in her friend’s voice and it troubled her.

‘I hear your Nico is back,’ Antonietta said.

‘He is not my Nico,’ Aurora said.

‘No,’ Chi-Chi agreed, and made a scoffing noise. ‘You should forget about him,’ she said. And then she nudged her as a fire truck turned into the hillside, bringing weary firefighters for a break, some food, and maybe a kiss…

But Antonietta caught Aurora’s arm. ‘If Nico is back, then what are you doing here?’

‘He doesn’t want me,’ Aurora said.

But Antonietta, though only newly twenty-one, had an old head on her young shoulders.

‘Go home,’ Antonietta said. ‘Fix what you can, while you still can. I heard my father speaking to his men about the direction of the fire…’

And hearing the solemn note in Antonietta’s voice, and watching the weary firefighters approach, Aurora no longer wanted to be out in the valley tonight.

This… Nico thought as he sat at the table with Aurora’s parents playing cards. This would have been my life.

Hard work out on the vines by day, and a tired body at night.

Except no amount of labour would be enough to tire his mind.

Yet, on the plus side, he would be sitting with Aurora in the now vacant house across the road, rather than looking at Bruno’s hairy arms as he shuffled the cards.

Just because Nico did not want to be married to Aurora, and just because Nico did not want to stay, it did not mean there was not desire. It did not mean he did not care.

And he loathed the thought of her out there tonight.

‘I’m going to check on my father,’ Nico said.

He found Geo deeply asleep, and as he came out Nico felt the hot winds lick his face. He looked at the glowing mountains, and the approaching fire spreading towards them, and in the distance he could see lightning strikes.

They were sitting ducks, Nico thought as he went back into the Messina house.

‘Bruno, can I borrow your car and go and get Aurora? The fire is moving fast…’

But Aurora’s work-shy brother had just taken it, Bruno said. ‘And anyway, Aurora will not thank you if you interfere with her plans for tonight. I’ve told you she is in the safest place. They’re not going to let the chief firefighter’s house burn.’

Dio! Nico wanted to shout. Do you really think the fire will give them a choice?

‘If it gets much closer,’ Bruno continued, ‘Aurora knows to come home and we will head to the beach.’

He wanted to shake Bruno and ask, Is it not better that we all die together? But then, he did not want to worry her mother.

‘Grab a cushion from Aurora’s room,’ Bruno said, ‘You know where it is.’

Oh, he knew.

The scent of Aurora lingered in the air. He looked down and saw her gold cross on the floorboards. He picked it up and held it in his palm for a moment.

He caught sight of the book on her chest of drawers and he was intrigued, because he knew that poetry was not her thing. Even before he opened it Nico almost knew what he would see.

The little packet of pills, half of them gone, had been left for him to see, Nico was sure.

He replaced the book in her top drawer.

Message received, Aurora. Loud and clear.

And tonight it was killing him.

The sofa was soft.

Nico was not.

He heard the taxi drop some people off in the street, followed by some chatter—but not Aurora’s throaty voice.

The taxi service stopped at midnight.

It was ten past midnight now.

He thumped the cushion and put it over his head to block out the sound of Bruno’s snores.

Signora Messina must have had enough, because she shouted for her husband to be quiet and for a short while silence reigned. Except for the drone of the firebombers, filling up in the ocean and then heading back to the hills.

Then, deep in the night, he heard the baker’s truck rattle past and stop. He knew that truck was the last chance to get home, for he had taken it many times—except in his case Nico would often leave Silibri in it, heading to the next village.

Anything to get away.

He ached from his calves to his groin to hear Aurora’s footsteps. From the small of his back to his chest, need gripped him tightly and fear for her choked him.

And then the door opened quietly, and Nico breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the pad of bare feet and guessed that she was carrying her shoes.

Aurora tiptoed past him.

She couldn’t really see him on the sofa—it was more she could feel that he was there.

She was so sick of Nico and his effect on her that it was all she could do not to spit in his direction.

Instead, she crept into the bathroom and stared at her streaked mascara and wild hair for a moment before she brushed her teeth.

She couldn’t even kiss anyone else.

The fireman was quite attractive.

Big and bearded, he was the type of man who would get on with her father. He lived in the next village and had said he was more than happy to come and meet her family, if that was what it took to get to know Aurora some more.

He was perfectly nice—but he was not Nico.

In every dream, in every thought, it was Nico she kissed, Nico who was her first, and she did not know how to change the grooves in which her mind was stuck.

Nico’s hands on her body.

Nico’s mouth on hers.

She washed her face, stripped off her clothes and pulled on a baggy old T-shirt that had seen better days.

But instead of heading to her bedroom it was the kitchen to which she headed, her choice fully made.

Nico would be her first.

He heard the fridge door open and water being poured, but feigned sleep as she stood over him.

‘I know you’re awake,’ Aurora said.

‘How come you’re back?’

She didn’t answer.

‘What have you been doing?’

‘I don’t answer to you,’ Aurora said, and then shrugged. ‘I was just sitting on the hillside, talking…’

‘With?’

‘You forfeited any right to ask, Nico.’

‘With?’ he asked again.

‘Chi-Chi and Antonietta.’

‘And your firefighter?’

‘He wants me. You don’t.’

‘So why are you here?’

‘I don’t want him. I want you.’

Nico could hear her despair and he took her hand, pulled her a little towards him, indicating for her to sit down.

‘Aurora,’ he said. ‘Me not wanting to marry has nothing to do with you.’

‘I would say it has everything to do with me, given our fathers agreed—’

‘Since when did I ever do as my father wished?’ Nico interrupted.

‘You rejected me.’

‘You were sixteen—and if you want to take offence that I was not attracted to some teenager who I looked at as a sister, then that is your choice.’

Aurora swallowed. She had never thought of it like that.

‘You think of me as a sister?’

‘I did.’

And now he did not.

‘Do you think of me the same way now? Or as a friend?’ she asked.

‘We can never be friends Aurora.’

Some might take that as an insult, Aurora thought, but it was true. She did not want to do the things she wanted to do to Nico with her friends.

‘What have you been doing?’ he asked again.

‘Trying to fit in—but as always I didn’t.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Chi-Chi is desperate to marry and Antonietta…’ She hesitated, and then told Nico what he might not know, as it was very recent news. ‘She is soon to be engaged to Sylvester.’

‘But isn’t he her cousin?’

‘Second cousin, I think,’ Aurora said, and watched as Nico pulled a slight face. ‘I don’t think she’s happy about it.’

‘I can’t say I blame her.’

Nico sighed. If Aurora was fire, then Antonietta was ice, and did not show her feelings. If Aurora thought Antonietta unhappy, then she was.

‘So,’ Aurora continued. ‘There is Chi-Chi wanting a husband, Antonietta not wanting one, and as for me…’ She took a breath and told him, ‘I am twenty and only last week had my first kiss.’

‘Just a kiss?’ Nico asked, and she nodded.

‘I hated it,’ she admitted.

Nico wasn’t sure he believed her. ‘You need to hide your Pill better, Aurora.’

‘You were snooping?’

‘And you think your parents don’t?’ said Nico.

‘Usually I’m more careful. I was in a rush tonight.’

‘So, if you have just had your first kiss, and hated it, why are you on the Pill?’

‘If you build it they will come,’ Aurora said. ‘Or hopefully I will.’

He laughed.

So did she.

Oh, they laughed—and it was such a moment, such a shared flash of bliss, to see cold, immutable Nico lie there and laugh, that she did what she knew she should not and moved her hand to his cheek.

His hand went to remove it, but instead it held hers there.

‘It’s me who doesn’t fit in, Aurora. I don’t want relationships. I don’t want responsibilities.’

‘And you probably don’t want someone who can’t kiss.’

‘Aurora, trust me—you can kiss.’

‘Can I try it on you?’

‘No.’

‘I repulse you so much?’

‘You know you don’t.’

‘Then why not let me kiss you?’

‘I’m not your practice board.’

‘So I go back to my firefighter…’ Aurora said, and felt his hands grip her fingers tighter.

‘One kiss.’

He said it with authority, but the undercurrent suggested they both hoped he was lying.

How to kiss him? Aurora pondered. How best to claim her one kiss?

‘What are you doing?’ Nico asked.

‘I want to see you,’ Aurora said, and she climbed up so she sat on his stomach, and it made her insides melt that he helped her and that he smiled.

She had not looked at her firefighter. In fact she had closed her eyes—though not in bliss.

Now she looked.

His face was still beautiful in the dark: the shadows in the hollows of his cheeks, the dent in his strong jaw, and those delectable lips, and those black eyes watching her.

‘You know how to kiss, Aurora,’ he told her, and she lowered her head to his.

She felt the softness of his mouth, and his pleasurably rough jaw, and she lingered there for a moment, lightly kissing his full lips.

He had such a nice mouth.

She gave that nice mouth playful kisses that teased, that were almost friendly—but not chaste. It was like a little warm-up…like poking a big, sleeping bear.

She could feel his naked torso between her legs and the warmth of his belly on her sex as she practised her kiss on him.

‘Taste me with your tongue,’ he told her, and she saw that Nico’s eyes were now closed.

‘I’m too shy.’

That elicited another laugh from them both. It was nice to laugh as their mouths mingled, to share in each other’s breath—and then his hand came behind her head and Aurora received her first proper kiss, for with one sweep of his tongue he discounted all the others.

Finally, she closed her eyes.

Then, as he sucked her tongue and pressed her head into his, she knew she was right to be there, for her body was on fire for him.

He tasted of limoncello and water and skill. He gave her a taste of the passion beneath that aloof exterior and he made her crave him.

She rose on her haunches and his other hand came to her waist as he kissed her more deeply, tangling with her in indecent ways. His hand slipped down to her buttocks—and he pulled his head away.

‘Dio, Aurora, where are your knickers?’

‘I don’t wear them to bed.’ She smiled. ‘It’s too hot.’

His hands were on her ripe flesh and she could feel his fingers digging hard into her. And then she recognised the reluctance in him and felt regret as he removed them.

‘Do you wear your underwear to bed?’ she asked.

She slid back and sat on his thighs. It was a very provocative move, for in doing so she slid her naked sex over the hardest part of him. She pulled back the cotton blanket and saw beneath his black silk boxers and the clear evidence of his desire for her.

‘Oh, Nico…’

She touched him without fear or hesitation, freeing him from the restraint that had kept their actions decent. She explored him with her eyes and her hands and knew she had never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

‘Aurora…’ he warned, and removed her hand, or soon he wouldn’t be able to control himself any more.

But she did not stop, and when her hand returned he did not halt it.

‘Make it stop, Nico,’ she begged.

‘Make what stop?’

‘This fire.’

‘Go to bed,’ he told her, pushing at her hips and attempting to lift her from his thighs.

But she dug in. ‘No.’

‘Okay,’ he compromised. ‘I’ll make you come, and then you are to go to bed.’

His arrogant tone only turned her on even more, and she relished the opportunity to discover what he could make her body feel.

Oh, he brought bliss with his fingers. He was not gentle, and she stifled a cry as he slipped his fingers inside her. She moved with his hand for a moment, but then sobbed in frustration. ‘It’s not your hand I want…’

‘Let go,’ he told her as he stroked her more insistently, increasing the speed and pressure of his fingers according to the responses of her body.

When she climaxed, Nico decided, he would allow himself to join her, and then they could both get some sleep.

‘We might be going to die tonight, Nico,’ she told him. ‘Don’t let me die a virgin.’

She looked down at him and felt a shiver rippling inside her as he almost smiled.

But was it a smile?

Aurora did not know, for it was a look she had never before seen. It was a kind of grim smile that made her stomach flip, and his voice, when it came, was deeper than thunder, with a low warning edge.

‘Get on the floor,’ he told her.

‘No,’ she said. For that would mean separating their bodies and she did not want to give him even a second to change his mind.

That grim smile remained as his hand left her sex and moved to his own. ‘Take off your top,’ he told her. ‘I want to know every inch of you.’

With anticipation bubbling inside her, and delight that she was finally getting her way, she pulled her T-shirt over her head.

Aurora put her hands on his chest and lifted herself a little. She looked down as he held himself in one hand and ran the glistening tip against her most sensitive flesh.

‘Don’t make a noise,’ he warned as he nudged against her, except she was too tight for his thick length.

He could feel her thighs shaking as she knelt up. ‘Get on the floor,’ he said again, for he could better control things there.

‘Please, Nico, now!’

He was just a little way inside her, and he took her hips in his large palms. He’d meant to do it more gently, but she was damp with perspiration, and so was he, and as he pushed her down their bodies slid together and he pulled her down harder than he’d intended and seared into her virgin flesh.

It was the most painful, exquisite, blissful moment of her life and she did not make a sound. It was Nico who let out a breathless cry as he took her virginity.

‘Shh…’ Aurora said, though the sound stroked through her as they locked together. She stayed still, so still, because it was agony, but it was delicious too, and she felt his hands very gently on her hips, steadying her.

‘Come here,’ he told her, but did not move an inch. ‘Let me kiss you.’

Now he made her moan, for his kiss was her first taste of the true Nico—utterly tender and all man. His kiss and his tongue took all the hurt away as his hands stroked her hips—not to move her, just to feel her—and he made her whimper. And as the hurt receded desire took its place and she started to move according to the demands of her own body.

She wanted to linger on his lips, to savour this side of Nico, but her body wouldn’t allow it, for she could not kiss him softly and move as she wished to at the same time.

Nico took over, holding her hips and bringing her in line with his building rhythm, lifting his hips to thrust into her.

‘Nico…’ she said, in a voice that was fighting not to scream. ‘Nico…’

He wasn’t putting out the fire in her—it was spreading and consuming her, and she did not recognise the approaching bliss, but sought it all the same.

And then he let out that breathless shout again and lifted himself.

Feeling Nico swell and then the rush of his relief fill her, caused Aurora to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. And Nico, her Nico, pressed his hand over her mouth as her world went black and her orgasm coursed through her.

It was the most intense moment she had ever known and he guided her through it.

Aurora started kissing his palm. Kissing and tasting his salty skin. His hand slid behind her head and he pulled her back to his kiss.

They came down from their high together and slowly. Back to the world they had left for a while. Back to the sound of the choppers and her father’s snores.

He held her for a while, but he was concerned about the pace and direction of the fire, and soon he went to the window and checked the solid red glow on the hillside.

And then he looked back to the sofa, where Aurora lay…

Aurora knew she must return to her bed.

‘Come on,’ Nico said, and took her hand.

He helped her up, and as Aurora stood on shaky legs she fought the sting of tears. How could he be so close one moment and then pack her off to bed like a child the next?

He picked up her T-shirt and led her through to the small kitchen. He turned on the light and she looked down and saw blood, and the evidence of their coupling.

‘I can’t have a shower—they’ll hear the pipes.’

‘I know,’ Nico said.

Instead he turned on the water at the sink and began to wash her, slowly and carefully.

Tenderly.

It was the second best moment of her life.

Then he put the T-shirt over her head. She did not get another kiss, but he held her for a moment and then released her.

Aurora returned to her pink bedroom and lay in a bed in which she no longer felt she belonged.

CHAPTER FIVE

AURORA AWOKE VERY EARLY, as she always did, in her own bed, but to a world that felt different.

She gave no thought to the wildfires.

For days she had been obsessed by them, but now her first thoughts were of Nico and what had happened between them.

There was no regret—in fact it was bliss to recall. But there was a tremble of fear. For she had not thought she could love him more, or want him more, than she had this time yesterday.

But she did.

Only then did she register the sound of rain—a light patter against her window. Aurora climbed out of bed and peered out. There was steam from the heat, and black smoke in the sky, and a steady fine drizzle of rain.

Aurora pulled on a dress and sandals, and as she slipped out of the house she stole just one look at Nico, crashed out on the couch.

Nico was not feigning sleep this time, but he woke at the sound of the door closing softly and then the steady, welcome patter of rain.

He was not one to examine his emotions—more often he shut them down—but for a moment he lay there, trying to label how he felt.

It wasn’t so much regret that had him closing his eyes tight, for in all his twenty-six years those hours last night had been the best of his life.

It was guilt.

Guilt because although everything had changed between them nothing had changed about what he wanted from his life. He did not want love and he certainly didn’t want marriage.

Nico had lost control in the small hours and he was not used to losing control.

He always used condoms.

Always.

Yet last night he had not given them so much as a thought.

Had her brother come home, or if her parents had got up and caught them, they would be heading over to the priest right now to arrange a wedding.

Instead he dressed, and headed out to where he knew he would find her.

It was muggy and humid, and no doubt the water would evaporate long before it got to the fires, but the rain would certainly help because the mountains had been tinder-dry.

Down through the village he headed, towards the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

He found her walking through the temple ruins, clearly deep in thought, because she jumped a little when she saw him, evidently not having heard his approach.

‘Are you okay?’ Nico asked.

‘Of course,’ Aurora said.

She knew she must look a sight, with her damp dress and hair, but there was nothing she could do about that.

Nico’s shirt was damp too, and his black hair was wet from the rain. She guessed this was what he would look like coming out of the shower, and thought of the shower they hadn’t been able to have last night.

‘Do you have any regrets?’ Nico asked.

‘About last night?’ Aurora checked. ‘None.’

She wouldn’t change it even if she could. The things Aurora would change would be the now and the future without him.

‘Do you?’

‘In part,’ Nico admitted, ‘because I loathe mixed messages and—’

‘I get the message, Nico,’ Aurora halted him. ‘I heard it loud and clear—you don’t want to marry me and—’

‘I don’t want to marry, period,’ Nico said. ‘I don’t ever want a relationship.’

And therein lay the difference between them, thought Aurora. How did he so easily separate sex from a relationship? For she felt as if she was in a relationship with Nico. Right now, as they walked through the ruins, she felt the closest she ever had to another soul.

‘Aurora, you don’t want to be married to me.’

Yes, Aurora did. But for dignity’s sake she had to sound as if she wasn’t imploding when she spoke, and so she took a breath.

‘No, I don’t,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be married to a man whose skin crawls at the thought of being here. I don’t want to be married to a man who keeps his hand on my shoulder but his eyes on the pretty—’

‘What are you talking about?’

Aurora just shrugged, and then asked him a question. ‘When are you leaving?’

‘I’ll see what’s happening with the fires,’ Nico said, ‘but I expect I shall leave today.’

Even the heavens were against her, Aurora decided, because as he said it the drizzle turned into heavy rain. Yes, he would be leaving today.

‘Aurora, did you think last night might change things?’

‘No.’

She had been under no illusion that having sex with Nico would change anything for him. There had been a kernel of hope, though…

And Nico crushed it.

‘I’ll never marry, Aurora.’

‘I shall,’ she said, and she said it harshly.

Her words punished Nico, but determinedly he did not let it show. ‘You have your own life to live and you have no obligation to me.’

‘I know.’

‘So, please, if you are going to help care for my father, at least give me your bank details.’

‘I don’t want your dirty money.’

‘Dirty money?’

‘Oh, come on, Nico, don’t take me for a fool. Since when did a boy from Silibri leave school at sixteen and go on to own hotels and his own helicopter?’

‘You really are good at assuming the worst, aren’t you, Aurora?’

‘What else is there to think?’ She stopped walking then and looked at him. ‘Nico, be careful.’

‘Of what?’

‘Whatever it is you’re mixed up in.’

‘You think I’m in the mafia?’ Nico said. ‘Or moving drugs?’ He loathed that she thought that of him. ‘I’m not involved in anything like that.’

‘Come off it, Nico,’ Aurora said, and tried to walk off. ‘Don’t lie to me.’

He caught her arm. ‘I’m not,’ Nico said, he was angry. ‘Please don’t take me for some corrupt mafia gangster.’

‘I don’t,’ Aurora said. ‘Or I’m trying not to.’

‘Aurora, ask and I’ll tell you—but only you.’

She stood in the rain and it still felt like a relationship. She should walk away now, not draw herself in closer to a man who would never want her completely.

She asked, ‘How?’

‘You know when I left here that I went to my grandfather’s?’

Aurora nodded. ‘On your mother’s side?’

‘Sì. They are very modest people, who never cared much for my father. They thought my mother had made a poor choice, but she ran off and married him anyway. My grandfather suggested that I cut all ties with my father, but I could not. I got a job there and I sent half my wage home to him. I knew that he was not well and could no longer work the vines—’

‘He could have,’ Aurora interrupted. ‘He chose not to.’

‘Perhaps,’ Nico conceded. ‘Anyway, I made my own way. I worked in a bar, and then I took a loan, and then I bought a small stake in the bar and put in more hours.’

‘That does not buy you a five-star hotel in Rome and three others.’

‘I don’t own four hotels, Aurora. I have stakes in them.’

She shook her head, disbelieving. No, a Sicilian woman could not be beguiled.

‘What I do own,’ Nico said, ‘is land.’

He looked to the misty grey waters and the cliffs shining from the rain.

‘This will go no further?’ he checked.

‘Of course.’

‘Even when you sit on the hill drinking wine with Antonietta?’

‘She won’t be hearing about last night, Nico.’

‘This might be a more difficult secret to keep.’

He smiled at her slight eyebrow-raise, and the fact was he wanted to tell her. Nico wanted her take on the decision he was about to make.

‘My father married my mother not for love, but for what he thought he would get.’

‘Which was…?’

He led her out of the temple ruins and they walked towards the old monastery.

‘My grandfather owned the land we stand on—right to the edge of the temple ruins. When my mother died, he said the only good that could come out of it was that my father would never get his hands on it. He left it to me. That is why my father says I stole from him.’

‘Why did he want it?’ Aurora said.

She did not doubt it was beautiful—and, yes, the view was divine—but as far as she could see it was worthless, and she told him so.

‘Houses sit empty here for years. My father goes on about the house he had for—’ She swallowed, not wanting to say ‘us’ when no such thing existed. ‘He could not even give it away.’ She looked around again. Yes, it was her playground and, yes, she loved it, but… ‘There’s just the carcass of the old monastery and those steps down to the beach.’

‘It’s gold, Aurora. And my father would have sold it to developers. We would be standing now in a concrete jungle, with tourists being bussed in from the airport every day.’

Aurora could not picture it, though she tried to. ‘It would be good for the village, though, to have people coming through…’

‘In some ways it would—but that is not what my grandfather wanted and I agreed with him. He thought the monastery should be restored, but that would mean bringing stone up from the quarries…’ He halted. The cost and logistics were appalling. ‘Believe me, I have been tempted to just sell it—’

‘No!’ Aurora cried, and it was emphatic. ‘He left it to you!’

‘Yes.’ Nico nodded. ‘But I didn’t even know he owned it until a short while before he died.’

‘Yet you spoke of his plans for it?’

‘I thought they were just nostalgic ramblings about his hometown,’ Nico admitted. ‘And my father certainly never told me about it—though when I found out I understood better why he hates me so. He married my mother to get his hands on it.’

Aurora looked at the land she loved and knew so well, but she looked with different eyes now. It was Nico’s.

‘What will you do with it?’

‘I don’t have to do anything. It’s a huge asset and I can keep building on that.’

‘Or sell it to developers?’

‘No,’ Nico said, for he had ruled that option out long ago, even if at times he’d been tempted. And then he said what had long been on his mind. ‘I could restore the monastery.’

‘And make it into what?’

‘A very exclusive, very luxurious hotel.’

Aurora swallowed.

‘Just a few suites…’

‘But how would that make a profit?’

‘I would charge a fortune to stay in my Silibri hotel, and I believe I would get it.’

Aurora heard the steely resolve in his voice and blinked, because businessman Nico was someone she did not know.

She spoke then. ‘It would bring people back to Silibri…’

‘It would,’ Nico said, and then he made sure he crushed that last kernel of hope. ‘But not me. At least not permanently.’

‘I get it, Nico.’

She did.

Nico would not be returning to Silibri to live.

He looked at the ruins, and then he looked to the shell of an old stone cottage, and vowed it would be the first thing that was restored. Yes, he would be back to see his father, but there would be no reason to spend another night in the Messina house.

Nico would not do that to Aurora.

And finally, after years of indecision over the land, his decision was made.

He would not marry Aurora.

But he would take care of her this way.

CHAPTER SIX

Rome

THE LAST TEAR.

It spilled out as she began to pull herself together.

Enough.

She swore there and then that it would be the last tear she shed over Nico Caruso.

Aurora wiped it from her cheek and crumpled the sodden tissue in disgust.

Alone in her hotel room, with the others on the bus tour, she was bent double with the strength of her tears as she relived that night and the morning after.

Well, she had relived it for the last time and she had embarrassed herself enough over him.

It really was time to move on.

So, instead of peeling another tissue from the box she topped up her lip-gloss over swollen lips and tried to repair the damage her crying binge had caused to her eyes.

She would not sit in her hotel room and mourn him—or rather mourn the fantasy of him—for a moment longer.

It was springtime in Rome.

She downloaded that dating app and scrolled through it, but when she tried to write her profile she gave in and thought, Baby steps, Aurora.

She headed down to the bar, more than a little nervous about walking in alone.

And just as she was doing her best to get over Nico, who did she see walking towards her?

A scowling Nico, who, from his expression, wasn’t expecting to see her either.

‘Aurora.’ He gave a swift nod.

‘Buona sera.’ It took everything she had to greet him with a smile.

‘Buona sera. I thought you were on a bus trip?’

‘No.’ She did not elaborate ‘I’m going to have a drink at the bar.’

‘Alone?’ Nico frowned.

‘Not for long hopefully!’ She smiled at her own little joke. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Then she corrected herself. ‘Oh, no, I won’t. You’re heading home in the morning.’

‘Here is my home, Aurora.’

‘Ah, but home is where the heart is, Nico. You know that.’

‘I do,’ he agreed. ‘And I shall say it again—here is my home.’

He ordered his head to give her a nod and his legs to turn and walk off, but neither obeyed. And then, even as his common sense was screaming at him to walk away, he spoke. ‘And, given you are in my hometown, let me get you a drink.’

He’d done it again.

Just when she was determined to move on from him he pulled her back to him.

Well, not this time, Aurora told herself. Yes, she would have a drink with him, but she would not be making a fool of herself again.

He was her boss and she would hold on to that fact.

The bar was busy and he put a hand on her upper arm to guide her through. Staff jumped into action and they were taken to a quiet corner table.

‘It’s so busy I thought I’d have to drink at the bar,’ Aurora said. Although that was possibly the reason he had joined her. ‘It’s lucky we got a table.’ That sounded naïve. ‘I mean, I’m glad no one was asked to move to make way for the boss.’

‘It would be poor form to do that to my guests, which is why this table is reserved solely for me.’

He watched as her lips pursed and wondered what he could possibly have said to upset her, for it looked as if she was tempted to get up and walk out.

Aurora was.

His private table did not impress her. In fact she felt a little insulted as she wondered how many other women had sat in this very seat. How many hands had he held across this very table?’ And then she halted herself, for Nico was the last person she could imagine being affectionate.

They ordered their drinks—a spritzer for Aurora and a red wine for Nico—and then sat in tense silence as they waited for them to arrive.

‘Aren’t you going to ask me how your father is?’ Aurora asked.

‘I spoke with him two hours ago and I see his doctor tomorrow.’

‘My mother is taking in his meals while I’m away. In case you were wondering.’

Nico said nothing and Aurora took a deep breath, trying to keep her exasperation in. Reminding herself that Nico did not want to hear anything about home…

She was supposed to be keeping things professional, Aurora told herself. Except his father was fading. Did Nico properly know that?

‘Look, Nico, I know that after all he did to you, you must hate him, but I think—’

‘I don’t,’ Nico interrupted. ‘I love him very much.’

For Aurora the sky turned purple, the floor was now sand and the people in the bar were green.

Everything she knew was gone.

‘I have to accept, though, that he does not want my love. Still, tomorrow I will try again, and I will be told to get lost again.’

Their drinks were brought to them and even after Aurora had taken a sip of hers the revelation had not sunk in.

‘You love him?’

‘Always.’

His response was made in a voice she had never heard. One she did not know how to describe, for it was both decided and resigned.

‘So, no,’ Nico continued, ‘I will not ask you how my father is, because I am in touch with his doctor every day. I know he is failing. I have sent him the lifting chair that you texted me about. And I have a chef in Palermo currently trying to recreate some dinner he keeps speaking about. One that his mother once made. I hope that it will prompt him to eat.’

‘Nico…’

She did not know what to say. Oh, the hell of loving someone who beat you! The hell of loving someone who goaded and taunted you.

‘He seems a little happier,’ she said, and saw his disbelieving look. But she spoke the truth. ‘He seems calmer,’ she told him. ‘Although I have a confession, Nico. I was a very bad carer and bought him some whisky last week. We watched a television show together and we laughed…’

‘Thank you,’ Nico said.

Aurora resisted reaching over and taking his hand. Nico did not like affection, but she ached to give it to him. She attempted to keep some distance, as she told him the painful truth. ‘He’s nearing the end.’

‘I know he is.’

Aurora felt selfish for her assumption that Nico was going home just to avoid her. She sensed he had closed the subject, and so, after a moment’s pensive silence between them, she looked around the lavish bar.

‘Pino will be upset he missed this,’ Aurora said. ‘He wanted to buy you a drink and a meal.’

‘He wanted me to go on the bus tour.’

That made Aurora laugh.

‘I’m meeting them all for breakfast tomorrow, before I fly off.’

‘I wasn’t told.’

‘There’s an invitation being delivered to your rooms at turndown,’ Nico said. ‘And before you tell me that I should not be so formal with old friends, I will explain again that this trip is not about friends visiting Rome. It is work—and I take my work very seriously.’

‘I know,’ Aurora said. ‘And so do your staff. But aside from that fact, we are friends visiting Rome.’

He said nothing.

‘Well, they are your friends,’ she amended, for Nico had once told Aurora that they could never be friends. ‘Whether you want them to be or not.’

Nico’s eyes shuttered, and he wished that it was enough to obliterate the knives of her words—for she was right. Pino et al were his friends.

More than friends.

It takes a village…

And it was true that the people of Silibri had raised him.

He had sat in the park as a terrified child and Bruno Messina had insisted he come back to their home to sleep.

And he had been so hungry at times, too proud to beg, but the emptier his cupboards the more frequent the invitations.

‘Hey, Nico!’ Pino would say. ‘I need some work done in my yard.’

And that had meant supper…

‘Nico,’ Francesca would say. ‘I have made too many biscotti. Take them before they go stale.’

Tomorrow, at breakfast, he would take off his jacket and he would smile and laugh with them. Somehow, before the hotel opened and it was all down to business, he would thank the people who had always been there.

‘Don’t you ever wonder about home?’ Aurora asked.

‘I hear enough of what’s going on,’ Nico said. He didn’t like invasive gossip and exaggerated stories, but then he looked at Aurora. ‘Yes.’

They shared a small smile.

‘How’s Chi-Chi?’ he asked.

‘Still looking for a husband.’

‘Do you ever hear from Antonietta?’

‘Occasionally.’ Aurora nodded, but then she shook her head. ‘Not as much as I would like. I miss her a lot.’

‘You were close,’ he agreed.

‘Yes.’

‘I would like to know what happened at The Wedding that Never Was.’

‘You heard about that?’ Aurora checked.

‘Everyone who has a drop of Sicilian blood probably did!’

Aurora gave a small smile and took a sip of her drink, but she didn’t lean forward in glee and share the details with him. He knew Aurora hurt for her friend.

‘We just sat there in the church…waiting,’ she told him. ‘Waiting and waiting for the bride to arrive.’

‘Did you have any clue that Antonietta wasn’t going to show up?’

‘No.’

‘Aurora…?’ he checked.

‘It’s the truth, Nico. I guessed she wasn’t happy, but I knew no more than I told you that night—’

Whoops! They were trying not to refer to that.

‘I was surprised and a bit hurt that she didn’t ask me to be her bridesmaid. And I knew she wasn’t thrilled at the idea of marrying Sylvester, but her father is so forceful. Both families are.’

‘And so you sat in the church and you waited…?’ Nico prompted.

‘Yes. A car arrived, and then word spread that it was not the bride—just Antonietta’s father. The priest spoke to him outside.’

‘And…?’

‘A fight broke out in the church. It was terrible, Nico. As soon as I worked out what was happening I left and got a ride up to her parents’ house, but Antonietta was already on the cuccette to France.’

‘She took the train out?’

Aurora nodded. ‘I miss her very much, but she will never be back. She wrote and told me, but I knew it already—for how can she come back? Her name is mud all through the village and beyond. Not with her friends, but she has a very large family.’

Nico would have liked to tell her that time would heal things, but he knew only too well how people could hold a grudge.

‘Anyway,’ Aurora said, ‘I’ve decided that I’m going to go and see her.’

‘In France?’

She nodded. ‘As soon as I’ve saved up enough and have some leave owing I’m going to book my flight.’

He wanted to point out that she’d already have enough money if she would just let him pay her for his father’s care. Nico really wanted her to have that holiday with her friend in France, but he’d have to work out a way to give it to her. Without offending her, of course. Or misleading her.

‘Do you want another drink?’ Nico offered. ‘Or perhaps we could get dinner.’

‘You told me to step out of your shadow, Nico,’ Aurora said. ‘You told me that I was here for work. We’ve caught up on family and friends, so let’s just keep it about business.’ Aurora was proud of herself for that, at least.

‘Okay. Tell me about this idea you have.’

‘I thought you didn’t deal with assistants?’ Aurora sneered, reminding herself of how appalling his treatment of her today had been. ‘I’m going to speak with Vincenzo tomorrow. I will give him my idea and watch as he gets promoted.’

He smiled.

It was the most dangerous thing, for she could feel her resolve melting like the ice cubes at the bottom of her glass.

‘Tell me, Aurora.’

‘No.’ But she was so excited that she couldn’t not share it. ‘Okay—I think we should offer a very exclusive package for weddings at the temple ruins.’

‘I don’t own that land.’

‘But you own the land that surrounds it, and without that access it’s very difficult to get to.’

‘Yes, but there might be tourists about, or—’

‘Nico, it will be the same as a beach wedding. Of course there might be tourists or people walking there. And,’ she went on, ‘I know that whatever we come up with it might have to change later—there might one day be ten hotels in Silibri—’

‘Not like mine.’ Nico gave an adamant shake of his head.

The monastery had been a hellish restoration, and no developer in their right mind would have gone to the lengths he had. That aside, there was nowhere else with the views from the old monastery, nowhere with such access.

‘Aurora, it would be…’ He was about to put up obstacles, and there were many, but she was right. He knew that, for of course he had considered it. ‘It would be brilliant—’

‘But only in the right hands,’ Aurora said. ‘Only with the right manager.’

‘We have a functions manager.’

‘I’d want to make weddings at the temple separate. Exclusive,’ Aurora said. ‘And I want that role.’

‘You have no experience,’ Nico pointed out. ‘You have been in the hospitality industry for four weeks. Before that—’

‘I was a cleaner—and a very good one,’ Aurora said. ‘Is your father’s house not spotless?’

‘It is.’

Aurora had just combined three of his least favourite topics—his father, the fact that she was his father’s unpaid help, and weddings.

‘And I have contacts,’ she said. ‘I know everyone…’

‘Aurora…’ He kept his voice even. ‘It’s a good idea—an excellent one. But let’s get the hotel up and running first.’

She could not wait, though. ‘Nico, we could have wedding gowns for hire, for couples who want to be spontaneous. I want this to happen. I want that role and I will tell you why. I know what the temple looks like in the early morning, and in summer and in winter. I know how it looks when the moon is low at night…’ To prove it she took out her phone and moved her chair round the table so she sat next to him. ‘Look!’

With the scent of her close, with her bare arm next to his suited one, with her voice so close he could feel its vibration, Nico decided it was safer indeed to look at the images on her phone.

And they really were breathtaking.

‘Since I could walk I have explored those ruins almost daily. For years I have—’

It was she who halted now, for she could not reveal to Nico that it was there she had envisaged their wedding. Not in the tiny little village church, but there at the temple ruins.

It had been a pointless dream—she had known even then—for her parents would never have agreed to her marrying anywhere other than in church.

She felt his arm against hers and the heat from his thigh—or was it from hers? They were sitting so close to each other, and it had happened so naturally, but she felt terribly aware of that fact.

She moved herself and her chair to a far safer location.

Opposite him.

‘At least think about it,’ Aurora said. ‘And think of me…’ She paused and their eyes met across the table. ‘I mean, consider me for the role.’

‘Of course,’ Nico said, and still his eyes held hers. ‘And I do think of you, Aurora.’

She did not know what to say to that. She felt the pull of him, but it was all too late, she decided. She had put him behind her.

She tore her eyes from his gaze and looked down to her glass, which was empty.

‘Another one?’ Nico said.

‘I had better get on,’ Aurora said. She stood and put her bag over her shoulder. ‘Thank you for the drink, Nico. It was good to catch up.’

He walked her out and towards the elevators, and she could feel the thick energy between them. She dreaded that he might kiss her—but only because it would take a stronger woman than her to say no.

‘You had better go,’ Aurora said. ‘You have an early start. I know because I booked your driver.’

‘I should go,’ Nico agreed.

In fact, Aurora was the very reason he wasn’t staying at the hotel that night—to avoid just such a situation as this. And yet even with all his exit strategies planned here they stood, face to face.

‘I will see you at breakfast before I leave?’

‘I await my invitation,’ Aurora said.

‘It will be on your pillow.’

She wanted him on her pillow—and far more dangerous than her want, which was perpetually there, was the clear arrival of his.

Nico’s hand came to her cheek and he smoothed a stray lock of hair. It wasn’t only Aurora’s resolve that was fading.

She floored him.

Always.

The sexual attraction between them was undeniable, for sure. But there was also this banter between them—this life they both knew and this world they had shared. And Nico, despite doing everything he could to avoid it, now did not want the night to end.

His hand remained, cupping her ear, and his fingers were in her hair.

She could remember that hand, pressed over her mouth as she came, and she fought not to kiss it, not to flirt.

She won the former battle but failed on the latter.

‘I packed your underwear,’ Aurora said in a provocative tone—and there went the express train of her mouth again, saying things it should not and being too familiar.

Not that Nico seemed to mind, for he was stroking her earlobe and his eyes were telling of his desire.

And the guard she had fought to keep up was dissolving, for she did not know how to be anyone other than the person she was. The person who was in love with him.

He brought out the Aurora in her.

‘Aurora…’ Nico said, and she heard in the sound of him saying her name a summons to bed.

She ached to turn her head just a fraction and kiss the palm that held her cheek, to give in to the bliss of him just one last time. To have Nico make love to her in Rome.

He was leaving in the morning and would return only after she had left. This was their only chance, and Aurora did not know how to resist him.

Her neck fought not to arch and her mouth not to part to kiss his palm.

But then her guardian angels dashed in.

They flew from their clouds, or wherever they’d been hiding, and there was no time for them to apologise for their absence. They hauled her back from the brink.

‘Goodnight, Nico.’

Well done, Aurora!

Though it wasn’t actually Aurora who had halted things, for she was desperate for his kiss. No, it was a force greater than she that had somehow gathered and dragged those words from her mouth.

‘It’s been a long day,’ she added, then gave him a smile and walked off.

It would be a long, lonely night.

But at least she would awake with her pride.

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