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Virgins were trouble.
Michele had never accepted that they shouldn’t be together for ever. If she’d come back into his life saying it was just for Nikki, they might even have made a go of it, but she’d taken her daughter’s illness and Franco’s match as proof that he should never have left her in the first place.
‘You were my first,’ she’d reminded him constantly. ‘You were special.’ As if those words would be enough to convince him that he should never have left her behind. Never mind that she hadn’t bothered to inform him of her pregnancy or of the child he never knew existed. Never mind their constant fights and the fact that, if it hadn’t been for Nikki, they would have never been reunited at all. She would have been nothing more than a part of the history he’d left behind in London, a rebellious fling with a girl he knew his family would never approve of.
A fling that had ended when he’d taken off for Italy to work in the vineyard near Piacenza.
Or so he’d thought.
He rubbed his side.
A twenty-eight-year-old virgin. How was that even possible?
He’d wondered what other surprises Holly Purman was hiding.
But that was one surprise he had not seen coming.
The night was dark and cold and wet, the road a slick ribbon of black, and if it hadn’t been framed with white lines, the winding road would have merged into the inky night. Holly fumed alongside a silent Franco, but if he thought her getting dressed like she’d been told and clambering into the car for the long drive back was going to be an end to the matter, he was going to be sadly mistaken.
The miles added up and so did the tension in the cabin until finally Franco got sick of Holly glaring at him. ‘You should try to get some sleep.’
He wished. ‘So what’s the real reason?’
‘What?’
‘You said you’re not afraid, so what’s the real reason you wouldn’t make love to me?’
‘Dio!’ he swore, for it felt like more of a curse when he could say it in Italian. ‘Am I going to be subjected to a six-hour interrogation?’
‘If that’s what it takes.’
He shook his head. ‘You’re unreal.’
‘I’m waiting?’
‘You think it will make a difference? That I’ll change my mind?’
‘I just want to know why you dropped me faster than a hot potato when you found out I was a virgin when you seemed so damned keen up until then. I think that’s a fair question to ask, don’t you?’
The orange lights of the freeway lit up the interior of the car with a weird otherworldly light. The roads were empty and it was just them and a slick ribbon of freeway and a crazy conversation.
‘You won’t like it.’
‘I’m a big girl, Franco. Hit me with it.’
He looked at her. ‘All right. But don’t blame me if you don’t like what you hear. You take a woman’s virginity and you’ll always be her first. Good or bad, you’ll always be the one against whom all the others are rated. If you’re number two or three or even number ten, you’re just another number, but number one, that’s special.’
He looked across at her to make sure she was taking it all in.
‘I’m listening.’
‘And women get emotional. The first time can hurt, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. And then come the tears and the comforting. And she’s already been thinking, Is this the one I’m going to spend my life with, and now they’ve shared this amazing experience. Sex complicates that whole thing—when it’s her first time, it makes her want to believe he’s the one.’
‘And you know this to be fact, of course, as opposed to some male fantasy of how women work?’
‘I’ve seen it. I’m not making this up.’
‘How old was she, Franco? Was she twenty-eight years old?’
His jaw clenched. ‘Sixteen. But it’s the same principle. I’d still be your first.’
‘She was a teenager!’
‘She was first and foremost a female.’
‘And you think I’ll get needy.’
‘I told you you wouldn’t like it.’
‘You think I’ll start drawing up wedding plans and poring over bridal magazines?’
‘I did warn you.’
‘Jesus, Franco, there was me thinking you might help me out with my little problem, and you’ve got us marching down the aisle.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Do you have any idea what it feels like to be a twenty-eight-year-old virgin? I feel like a freak.’
‘So go find someone else to take your virginity out on. It’s not that hard to find someone to sleep with.’
