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‘Oh?’
‘There’s an apartment in Rome. Luca...um...gave it to me, and we’re not using it, so I wondered if you’d consider moving in?’
She stared at her sister in confusion. ‘But why?’
‘Well, because I miss you, for one thing, and because once the baby’s born, I’ll want you close. But also, because it gets you out of here.’
They both looked around the cavernous lounge room of Hughenwood House.
More pity.
‘I’m okay, Libby. I’ve lived here all my life. I know how to deal with it.’
‘But I miss you.’
‘I miss you too. I’ll come visit, I promise.’
‘We would enjoy having you close by.’ Luca’s deep voice shifted between them. An apology? A hope of smoothing over the past?
She lifted her shoulders. ‘I’ll think about it.’
And on the one hand, she was tempted. She adored Olivia, and missed her like crazy. The thought of being close to her, particularly with her now being pregnant, was like a talisman that Sienna found it hard to turn away from. But it was also an escape route that only a coward would pursue. She couldn’t run away from her life, not really. Even in Italy, the past would follow, and the ache she felt at missing Alejandro would still be there, right in the middle of her heart.
Five weeks. He stared at the pool, the glistening water, remembering her, seeing her, the visage of Sienna so freaking real in his mind that she might as well have been there right now. He reached out a hand, but there was nothing. No Sienna. No hope. His gut twisted.
This was what they’d agreed to.
So why the hell couldn’t he move on?
The way she’d looked on that last morning, when she’d put two and two together and come up with eight—that she could actually believe their relationship had boiled down to pity. That he’d slept with her because he felt sorry for her! He’d wanted her so badly, so much that it had been eating through him, between the wedding party and when she’d arrived at his office in Barcelona. She thought he’d agreed because he’d felt sorry for her? He’d agreed because he’d felt as though his life depended on it.
There was no pity there. Nothing but need.
And suddenly, it was imperative that she comprehend that. He didn’t know why, but it was vitally important that Sienna not be existing with the idea in her mind that anything other than desire had motivated him to be with her.
He’d wanted her, and so he’d taken her—with no regard for the consequences. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any—and how would he know? He hadn’t spoken to her since. He had no idea what her life was like, what she felt, if she was okay and, more importantly, he didn’t know if their passionate affair had resulted in any complications. He owed it to her to find out.
She stared at her phone, disbelief curling in her gut, and she reached for it quickly, before her mother could see Alejandro’s face on the screen and ask a barrage of questions Sienna had no intention of answering.
‘Hello?’
‘Sienna.’
Her name on his lips was like a whisper. She closed her eyes, moving from the dining room without looking at her mother. Starbuck padded along beside her.
‘Is everything okay?’ She pressed her back against the timber-panelled walls of the hallway, her eyes fixed on one of the paintings across from her.
‘I’m outside. Do you have a moment?’
‘What do you mean, outside? Outside, where?’
‘Your home.’
She startled, pushing off the wall and moving towards the front door. ‘My home in England?’
‘Yes.’
‘But why?’
