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What else? “It can only be this summer.” Even as she spoke the words she felt regret fold around her. In another time and place, if he hadn’t been connected to Michael, if she hadn’t still been discovering her sense of independence after having lost herself completely to an over-controlling partner, she would have hated putting a time limit on this. But Michael made anything else impossible. “I mean it, Nico. I have a life in England I have to get back to at some point.” The very idea sent a sharp spear of dread through her. London was so full of Michael, so full of memories. But she missed home. She missed her parents, her dad. Her friends, who she’d completely disappeared from out of a need for self-preservation.
“Cara?” He captured her face in the palms of his hands, holding her still for his inspection. “I promise you, I do not want more than I’ve offered. Today was fun, si?”
“Si,” she repeated, nodding.
“So let us have more fun, and the moment we stop enjoying it, we end it. No hard feelings, no strings, no commitments, no promises we can’t keep. Bene?”
Her brain was shouting at her to see sense, to see reason, but Nico was standing right in front of her in his wet leather jacket, so impossibly sexy, like some kind of Greek God brought to life purely for her enjoyment.
Seeing clearly was over-rated, anyway.
Chapter 4
HE WATCHED AS SHE poured him a wine. Her movements were so graceful, her fingers deft in their manipulations. He leaned against the doorjamb and smiled. He hadn’t been lying. He didn’t trust easily, and never would, but he liked the company of women and Maddie was not like the women he generally knew.
He couldn’t put his finger on any difference in particular – he’d enjoy discovering them as he got to know her better – but there was an indefinable quality that fascinated him and had, if he was honest, from the minute he’d seen her windswept body on the top of the cliff near his home.
After they’d slept together, he’d fallen asleep. He hadn’t meant to, but the moment had been so blissful, the room so dark, his body so completely satiated, her breathing so soporific. Waking up to discover her gone had wrenched him from that satisfied state though. He’d walked through the house, going from room to room, presuming she might have gone in search of a bathroom, or some food or water, but after fifteen minutes, he’d accepted the fact she was, in fact, gone. Her missing clothes had cemented that realisation. Only she’d left her hat, and just the sight of it on the hook near the front door had filled him with a burning sense to see her again, even if only to understand why she’d bolted.
He’d come here only intending to ask her for an explanation, to say ‘goodbye’ and finish their encounter more satisfyingly. He didn’t like loose ends. But the same drugging sense of desire had rushed his body when she’d pulled the door of La Villetta open and the proposal of a casual summer affair had been issued from his lips before he’d really known what he was saying. Even with these boundaries in place, it was more than Nico generally offered a woman. A week tended to be the sum total of the time he spent with any one lover. It wasn’t arbitrary; it was simply how his body worked. He got to know a woman and moved on. No hard feelings, just like he’d said to Maddie.
But this wasn’t going to be an intense affair. They’d see each other occasionally – when the need overtook them, when it suited, just for this one summer.
It was actually unexpectedly kind of perfect.
“Are you hungry?” She shifted her gaze to his, her eyes feline and beautiful.
“I am always hungry.” He
grinned and saw the way she responded, desire sparking in her expression.
“Me too.” Her smile was captivating. Some people smiled with their lips but Maddie seemed to smile with her whole body. It overtook her completely so warmth burst from her soul.
“Let me see what you have.”
“What for?”
“To cook for you.”
“You’re going to cook…for me?”
“Sure. This surprises you?”
“Erm, yeah. Kind of.”
“Why?”
“You just don’t exactly scream ‘give me an apron’.”
He laughed. “Gender stereotyping?”
“More like powerful-billionaire stereotyping,” she corrected with a small shake of her head. “Don’t you run one of the biggest companies in the world or something?”
She hadn’t known who he was earlier, but he’d told her his last name and now she did. Did that change things for him? No. Everyone knew he was a Montebello. That was nothing new. But he did have to admit he’d liked the anonymity her lack of knowledge had initially provided. His financial circumstances changed things. It had to. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world – there weren’t many people who could fail to be impressed by that.
“I run a sixth of it,” he murmured in agreement, moving to the fridge, pulling open the doors. Ciabatta, garlic, tomatoes. He turned to face her and caught her eyes staring at his rear. He grinned to himself, but to Maddie, he made a tsking sound. “You shouldn’t store tomatoes in the fridge, Maddie. You’re in Italy now.”
It was like her smile had been forcibly smothered. Her eyes assumed a look of something he could only describe as fear and an apology flew from her lips. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
