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‘Aurora,’ he said as she went to move off. He spoke with his people and then nodded to Francesca, who took the group through to the oratory. ‘I need to see you.’
‘Of course.’ She fixed on a smile. ‘What do you need?’
‘Not here,’ Nico said. ‘Not now.’
Nico truly loathed his treatment of her on the day his father had been laid to rest. He regretted with every fibre of his being the way they had parted.
Her dignity.
His silence.
And he had missed her so. That throaty laugh, that raw passion for everything she did.
How to tell her of the mess in his head?
Where did he begin to explain to Aurora that if he were capable of love absolutely it would be with her?
‘Your schedule is very full,’ Aurora pointed out.
She did not want to be alone with him; she did not want to fall into his arms, to yearn for his kiss. To sob out that she was pregnant and then witness his dark reaction.
Aurora would tell him from a distance, she decided, then and there, because she felt like putty whenever he was near.
But Nico did not give up.
‘Later tonight?’ Nico said. ‘I shall be done around ten.’
‘But I finish at eight,’ Aurora said, and tried to inject regret into her voice. ‘Perhaps we could schedule a meeting for the morning?’
‘I don’t want a work meeting.’
No, he wanted sex. Aurora was very sure of that.
Nico was staying in the Temple Suite tonight, and no doubt he did not want to spend the night alone.
Damn you, Nico!
She corrected herself: she was not putty—more, she was a puppet on Nico’s string. He thought he could bed her at will. And the real trouble was that he could.
Perhaps she wouldn’t evenhaveto tell him. She was feeling so hormonal right now that to be alone with Nico meant she would fall into his arms. He would just have to strip off her skirt and he would know. Or his hands would remove her bra and the heavy breasts that were now crushed against her chest would spring full into his hands…
Nowhe saw anger in her face. It flashed in her eyes and it formed in two red dots on her cheeks. But her smile remained.
‘I want to speak to you Aurora,’ Nico said.
But it would have to wait, for Vincenzo was making an approach.
‘Ah, Signor Caruso!’ Vincenzo said.‘Benvenuto!’
‘Welcome?’ Nico checked. ‘What do you mean,welcome? It’smydamned hotel?’
‘What’s eating him?’ Vincenzo asked as Nico stalked off.
Aurora knew she now had to tell a lie, and she watched Vincenzo’s face fall as she spoke. But that lie would keep her sane.
It kept her sane even when Nico joined not the big-wigs’ group, but the local dignitaries as Aurora gave them her tour—fully thirty minutes behind Vincenzo’s schedule.
First she took them outside to the main pool, where the ruins of a Roman bath had been carefully brought back to life.
