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‘Here is Domenica now.’
On cue a woman had silently materialised, wearing a pale silk blouse and conservatively plain pencil skirt; her dark hair was streaked with silver, but her face was unlined. She was very attractive.
‘I hope you both had a good journey.’
Soren gave a grunt that could have meant anything, or he might have been clearing his throat. Her confusion tipped into anger.
Was this because he’d let her see that there was a chink in his armour? Was he regretting allowing her to glimpse his vulnerabilities? Or maybe she was the fool seeing a wounded hero, when all he was was a top-of-the-food-chain male animal who used women.
‘This is Domenica, who is a great deal more than a housekeeper.’
Now, there was a choice of words to incite speculation, and of course it did, though Anna struggled to hide her thought processes behind a smile.
‘Our journey was...long,’ Soren said, thinking,Toolong.
He had only intended to give Anna the basic facts about the palazzo; instead he had found himself opening up in a way that was utterly alien to him. It made him uncomfortable to think about the things he had said to her, inviting her and her small feet to wander around in his head.
The decision to spare her the helicopter transfer had come back to bite him big time... The orally focused thought inevitably drew his eyes to her soft mouth.
The thought of loosening the tight seam of her lips took immediate residence in his mind— He cleared his throat and reclaimed his control.
It was past time to kill off the self-indulgent fantasies. He should not need to remind himself that sleeping with the enemy, or any relation to the enemy, even when that relation excited him to a painful degree, was fraught with complications that were too high a price to pay for a few moments...maybe many...of pleasure.
Anna stood back and wondered if their switch to fluid flowing Italian was intended to make her feel excluded, or was she being oversensitive?
Either way, she did.
The conversation went on above her head as Anna allowed her gaze to flutter around the massive space—everything about it was intended to awe, and of course it did. It remained to be seen what the parameters of this woman’s role were, but she did seem to have a very easy relationship with Soren, though intimate might have been a suggestion too far.
‘Right, I will leave you in capable hands. Tomorrow—well, it might take you a while to get your bearings.’
‘I only need to get my bearing of the library. That’s what I’m here for,’ she said, pleased to see a flash of something close to surprise in his eyes. He wanted things on a business footing and that, she told herself, was fine by her.
She didn’t look back as she mounted the staircase behind the older woman, even though his footsteps had stopped and she could feel the imaginary imprint of his eyes between her shoulder blades like a laser-guided gun sight.
The woman gave a running commentary on the history of the building as they walked along seemingly endless corridors. Anna’s brain retained a few descriptions, such as Sicilian Baroque, but for the most part the information slid over her head.
A few of the many doors they passed were open; she would have lingered at some, but the woman’s pace was as relentless as her delivery of detail.
Anna was relieved when she finally came to a halt.
The attic that Soren had taunted her with was a suite of rooms that were beyond luxurious, and, despite the ancient fabric, the plumbing was five-star state-of-the-art decadence.
She salivated at the idea of testing out the massive marble tub or, for that matter, the shower that was twice the size of her bathroom at home.
When the subject of supper was introduced, Anna shook her head and patted the crewel-work cover of the four-poster they were standing beside. The bed had been turned back and she recognised one of her new nightdresses arranged artistically on the silk cover.
She resisted the temptation to sayWhat? No chocolate mint on the pillow?and smiled. ‘Actually, I’m not hungry. The tea—’ she nodded to the table beside the fireplace filled with an urn of fragrant flowers, where a tea tray with a snowy cloth was set ‘—will do me just fine.’
The woman gave a gracious nod. ‘Well, if you are sure. There are cold drinks in the fridge, but should you change your mind or want anything at all, just dial zero.’ She indicated the old-fashioned phone set on a bedside table.
After a short solo exploration Anna found all her personal items along with her new wardrobe, which must have travelled ahead, laid out neatly in the cavernous drawers and wardrobes of the separate dressing area.
She finally kicked off her shoes and, with one of the silver-backed brushes from the dressing table in her hand, wandered into the football-pitch-sized bathroom—a slight exaggeration, but not much!
Taking the lids off some of the row of crystal glass-topped bottles, she inhaled the various fragrances before selecting one. Sitting on the edge of the tub, she switched on both taps and poured some of the oil into the gushing water. It immediately foamed and filled the space with the exotic fragrance.
She let her clothes drop where she stood and stepped into the scented water, willing her mind to go blank as the warm water did its magic on the various tense knots in her body.
