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‘Thank you for the offer but my home is in Sicily.’
‘It’s not as if Rome’s the other side of the world. You can visit whenever you like and of course we’ll make plenty of trips back here.’ She and Luca had found the ideal compromise—half the year in Sicily and half the year in Rome.
She could live with that and so could Luca. Six months of hyper-security and six months of freedom and anonymity. It was a good compromise. Their new home in Rome now beckoned, waiting for their small family to move into it. Her fingers were already itching to get decorating.
Scanning the room for Luca, who had earlier disappeared to their personal wine cellar with a couple of uncles demanding a tour, she spotted Cara and Pepe having what looked to her eyes like a heated discussion. She’d already had a good chat with her friend but had found her distinctly cagey about how Pepe had got hold of her phone. So cagey, in fact, that she had refused to discuss it.
When Luca reemerged a short while later, she pulled him to one side. ‘Do you know what’s going on between those two?’
He looked over and shrugged. ‘Pepe refuses to talk about it with me.’
As Lily’s godparents, Cara and Pepe had been required to stand together during the baptism. Grace had noticed the way Cara had refused to even look at him. Now her sweet-natured friend looked as if she wanted to rip his throat out.
‘Leave them to get on with it,’ Luca advised, clearly reading her mind. Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on the top of her head. ‘We have guests to mingle with, Signora Mastrangelo, before we can slope off for an early night.’
She didn’t have to be a mind-reader to know what was on his mind. She could feel the bulge in his trousers resting in the small of her back.
‘The day has worn me out,’ she said with faux innocence, pressing back into him so they were completely flush. ‘An early night is just what I need.’
‘Seeing as it’s our last night here, we should get my mum to look after Lily.’
‘That would be the nice thing to do. After all, she won’t get woken up in the middle of the night by a teething baby for ages.’
‘We’ll be doing her a favour really.’
‘Absolutely,’ she agreed, heat already bubbling in her veins at the thought of what the night would bring.
