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CHAPTER TWO
BEAUTIFUL? SHEFUMED as she slipped away from the party altogether, towards the edge of the Tiber river, dancing slowly beneath the full moon. Right up until that moment, he’d almost had her. She’d believed his practised seduction. She’d believed that he wanted to dance with her. That he saw her as she was.
Which was not beautiful.
She wasn’t being down on herself, she was simply being honest. Objectively speaking, it was easy to face that reality when your mother was Angelica Thornton-Rose and your sister was Olivia. It was impossible to have any false hope about your own beauty. She was the thorn amongst two roses, or the fluffy little rust-coloured duck between two elegant, gracious swans, and she’d long ago given up hope of some kind of magical transformation turning her into one of them. She never would be, and she didn’t need to be lied to and flattered by some guest at the party. Even one who made her feel as though she wanted to—well, suffice it to say, Sienna was fighting impulses she’d never known before.
She stared out at the river and with each fast, knotty turn of the water she quelled her own blood’s rushing, drawing herself back to reality even when the fantasy of what she’d just experienced was so very, very tempting.
‘Have you seen Sisi?’ Olivia’s beautiful face was placid, but her eyes showed worry.
Alejandro looked at the bride, trying to spot any similarities between the two, and failing. Olivia’s face was heart-shaped and symmetrical, her eyes wide-spaced and a deep blue, her hair naturally so fair it was almost white. There were no fascinating freckles on her nose, no flashes of the ocean in her eyes, and her lips were dull and flat when compared to the full, tempting pout of Sienna’s.
‘My sister,’ Olivia clarified, mistaking his lack of response for non-comprehension.
‘We thought you were dancing with her.’ Luca’s voice held a warning, and also a plea.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Olivia murmured, craning her slender neck as her eyes ran over the guests of the party. ‘I’m sure she’s here somewhere.’
Alejandro didn’t need Luca’s pointed stare to offer to go and look for her. Even as he said the words, excitement bubbled up inside his chest. ‘I’ll find her, if you’d like.’
‘No, it’s fine. I should go and check on her, make sure she’s—’
‘Let him do it,’ Luca urged. ‘You know Sienna hates it when you worry.’
Alejandro suspected, in fact, that Olivia didn’t need to worry. Not as much as she did. For all that he’d only known Sienna a matter of minutes—ten at most—he was good at judging people, and he could feel her strength from a mile away. He didn’t think Sienna needed to be found to be sure she was all right, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to find her. Only his motivations were far from altruistic.
‘It is your wedding. It’s the least I can do, given I shirked best man duties,’ he said with a grim smile, feeling like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Luca’s grateful expression made it even worse. What would his friend say if he knew that Alejandro wanted to seek Sienna out for the pleasure of her proximity alone? That his offer had very little to do with Luca’s concerns?
‘Ah. So you are still here.’
Just when Sienna was getting herself back into a normal sinus rhythm, Alejandro—or the voice of him—swirled through the balmy Roman air towards her, wrapping around her belly first then spreading and popping through her entire body. She turned slowly, because she needed time to steel herself for this—as hard as it had been to grapple with his ridiculous charisma in the middle of the wedding party, doing so here, alone, in a quiet space away from the restaurant, with only the river and the moon and the ancient ghosts of this spectacular city for company, she feared his god-like abilities would overwhelm her.
Well, duh.
He held a flute of champagne towards her and she reached out, curving her fingers around it instinctively—after all, that was what one did with proffered drinks—only he didn’t immediately retract his hand, so their fingers brushed and held and it was as though every star in the heavens had poured its energy into her fingertips. She buzzed all over.
‘Thank you.’ She jerked the glass back towards herself, lifting it to her lips and drinking, quickly, in a need to extinguish the fires that were ravaging her central nervous system.
He shrugged with indolent relaxation, moving closer, until he was right beside her, just ever so slightly too close, so she was wrapped up in him—his exotic, masculine fragrance, the heat of his body and the sheer magnetic aura of the man, so that she had to fight to stop from sinking into him.
She held the glass with two hands and turned back to the river, no longer able to pretend her heat rate was anything like calm.
‘You ran away from me.’
There was no point in denying it. ‘I needed some space.’
‘You’re not enjoying yourself.’
The problem was, she had been enjoying herself, a little too much. ‘It’s been a long day.’ Starting with the horrors of getting ready for the wedding with their mother, hearing her wax lyrical about Olivia’s beauty and Sienna’s failings—as though Sienna hadn’t made her peace with the genetic lottery years earlier!
‘Couldn’t you have chosen a dress for Sienna that didn’t make her look like a chubby leprechaun?’
She was used to her mother’s taunts, but she’d been feeling so good about herself in the floaty princess gown, and so the sting had been acute.
‘Where are you from?’
She told herself she asked the question to be polite, but the truth was she didn’t want him to leave again.
