AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Which means there’s no need for any emergency contraceptives,’ she continued. ‘Here or at home. Thank goodness,’ she babbled on, the mention of home making the boulder grow. He’d asked her to stay another night. Did that mean he would expect her to leave today?
He said nothing for a long time. His hand absently circling her hip. The only sound was the deafening hum of the air conditioner.
Would he say something? Give her a sign that he’d like her to stay a little longer? She needed more time.
Eventually he moved. Warm palms settled over her belly and stroked gently, easing the ache from the dull cramps.
‘That’s good,’ he said at last, the murmured words devoid of emotion.
Issy placed her hands over his and breathed in his scent. ‘Yes, isn’t it?’ she said, trying to ignore the now enormous boulder.
He hadn’t asked her to stay. But he hadn’t asked her to leave either. That had to be a good sign. Didn’t it?
‘Buongiorno, signorina.’
Issy blinked at Carlotta’s greeting as she pushed herself up in bed, gripping the sheet to cover her nakedness. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and watched the older woman place a tray on the terrace table, put out a plate of pastries, a pot of coffee and one cup.
She felt achy and tired, as if she hadn’t slept at all. Probably because she hadn’t. All the questions she didn’t have answers for had made her emotions veer from euphoria to devastation during the pre-dawn hours as she’d tried to sleep.
‘Scusami, Carlotta. Dové Signor Hamilton?’ she asked, doing her best to pronounce the question correctly.
The housekeeper smiled and replied in Italian, speaking far too fast for Issy to catch more than a few words. Then Carlotta took a folded note out of her apron pocket, passed it to Issy, bobbed a quick curtsy and left.
Issy waited until the door had closed, a feeling of dread settling over her, before glancing at the clock on the mantelpiece. It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. Where could Gio have gone?
She opened the note, her hands trembling. But as she read it her breath gushed out in a shaky puff.
Sorry, Issy.
Had business at the office. You’ll have to survive without me today.
Back around dinnertime. Ask Carlotta if you need anything.
Ciao, Gio
A lone tear trickled down her cheek as the hope she’d been clinging to dissolved.
How could he have gone to the office without waiting for her to wake up? She sniffed heavily. Well, she wouldn’t have to worry about blurting out her feelings, seeing as he wasn’t even here.
It was only after she’d read it three more times that the full import of the curt dismissive note dawned on her.
What had Gio really been hoping for when he’d left this morning? The veiled message in the cursory note seemed obvious all of a sudden. When he returned home tonight, he hoped to discover the sticky business of ending their affair had been dealt with in his absence. He hadn’t said anything about her leaving last night because he’d hadn’t felt he needed to. It had always been understood that she would go once her period started.
The agony threatened to swamp her as she choked down breakfast and got dressed, but she refused to let any tears fall. There would be time enough for that when she got home.
After breakfast, Issy packed her bag and arranged a flight home via the computer terminal in Gio’s study. She rang Maxi and told her she would be at the theatre tomorrow, ready to get back to work. The conversation fortified her. She needed to return to her own life. To start grounding herself in re
ality again. But as she disconnected the call and keyed in the number Carlotta had given her to book a cab to the airport, her fighting spirit finally put in an appearance.
Her fingers paused on the buttons.
Why was she making this so easy for Gio? Why was she letting him call all the shots, even now?
By keeping quiet about her feelings earlier, by trying to be mature and sensible and take things slowly she’d played right into his hands.
She’d been prepared to give Gio everything—not just her body, but her heart and her soul too. And even if he didn’t want them, or the family and the life they could build together, didn’t she at least owe it to herself to tell him how she felt?
After getting an address for Gio’s office out of Carlotta, Issy booked a cab to take her to the airport. But when the cab arrived twenty minutes later she handed the driver the piece of notepaper with the Florence address scribbled on it, explaining in her faltering Italian that she needed to make a quick stop first.
