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Tenderness and longing and hope surged up. And the boulder cut off her air supply.
‘Oh, God!’
She collapsed onto the toilet seat, her fist clutching the tissue, her knees trembling and every last ounce of blood seeping from her face.
‘I can’t have,’ she whispered. ‘It’s only been a few days.’
But she sank her head into her hands and groaned. Because there was no getting away from it. She’d let her emotions loose and now look what had happened? She’d only gone and fallen hopelessly in love with Giovanni Hamilton. Again.
She wanted to deny it. But suddenly all those wayward emotions made complete sense.
Her Pollyanna-like obsession to get Gio to embrace his family. Her blissful happiness at their renewed friendship. Her relentless attempts to understand the traumas of Gio’s childhood and then help him fix them. Even her bizarre anguish at the discovery that she wasn’t pregnant.
Her fabulous holiday fling had never been about sex, or friendship, or putting the mistakes of her youth behind her. That had been a smokescreen generated by lust and denial.
She groaned louder.
Fabulous. She may well have just made the biggest mistake of her life. Twice.
It took Issy a good ten minutes to get off the toilet seat. But in that time she’d managed to get one crucial thing into perspective.
Falling in love with Gio again didn’t have to be a disaster.
The man she’d come to know wasn’t the surly, unhappy boy she’d once fallen for. He was more settled, more content and much more mature now. And so was she.
She hadn’t imagined the connection between them in the last few days. The power and passion of their lovemaking. The intensity of their friendship. Or the astonished pride on Gio’s face when his uncle Carlo had welcomed him into the bosom of his family.
All of which meant Gio wasn’t necessarily a lost cause.
But she also knew that the spectre of that boy was still there. And, given all the casual cruelty that boy had suffered, it wasn’t going to be easy for the man to let his guard down and accept that she loved him. Especially not in the space of three days!
After splashing her eyes with cold water, Issy practised a look of delighted relief in the bathroom mirror for when she informed Gio of her unpregnant state.
She mustn’t give Gio any clues about how she felt. Not until she’d worked out a strategy. She needed to be calm and measured and responsible this time. The way she hadn’t been at seventeen. Which meant taking the time to gauge Gio’s feelings before she blurted out her own.
Putting her hand on the doorknob, she took a steadying breath—and decided not to dwell on the fact that her strategies so far hadn’t exactly been a massive success.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she closed the door behind her, grateful for the darkness.
‘What’s going on? You okay?’
The deep, sleep-roughened voice made her jump.
‘Yes. I’m absolutely fine,’ she said, forcing what she hoped was a bright smile onto her face.
‘You sure?’ He paused to rub his eyes. ‘You’ve been in there forever.’
Propped up on the pillows, the sheet draped over his hips, Gio looked so gorgeous she felt the boulder press on her chest again. She made herself cross the room.
‘Actually, I’m better than fine. I’ve got some good news.’ She shrugged off the bathrobe and slipped under the sheet. ‘I’ve started my period.’
He frowned, and something flickered in his eyes, but the light was too dim to make it out. ‘So you’re not pregnant?’ he said dully, as his hand settled on her hip, rubbed.
She snuggled into his arms, pressing her back against his chest.
‘What a relief, right?’ she said, swallowing down the words that wanted to burst out.
Don’t say anything, you ninny. It’s far too soon.
