CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
‘Oh, my …’
The house was stunning.
Cold and empty, yet beautiful indeed, its floors were marble and the ceilings high, and she could have happily lingered just in the hall. But she followed him and found herself in a vast room—again empty, except for an elegant chandelier that he turned on and dimmed. Little beams of light danced around the vacant space and she walked to the massive fireplace, where the mantelpiece was higher than herself.
‘It’s going on the market,’ Sevandro explained.
‘It’s yours?’
He nodded.
‘But why stay in hotels if you have this?’ She winced. ‘Or was this where you and Rosa lived?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘Rosa took one look and hated it—we never spent a single night here. She wanted Villa Casadio.’
‘Where’s that?’
He didn’t answer straight away, just walked on, and although she would have loved to linger she followed him out, gazed into room after empty room.
* * *
‘Look at this library!’
Juliet’s enthusiasm, even at three in the morning, with the place cold and bare, was a stark contrast to Rosa’s reaction. Though it wasn’t Rosa’s view he was comparing it to—it was his. The first time he’d seen the property he’d been composed and impassive with the realtor, but inside he had felt as Juliet now did.
She wasn’t following him around any more. She was exploring back in the main hall, standing at the bottom of the spiral staircase gazing up, her mouth open.
‘If we go down one level…’ he started,
But Juliet was already making her way up.
She paused. ‘Can I?’
‘Of course.’
‘Sevandro, it is beautiful.’
She peered into a bathroom, tried to turn on the light, but had to rely on the moon shining in through frosted windows onto huge mirrors illuminating a central clawfoot bath.
‘Oh, my…’
‘I had a domestic team come in last week to get it ready to go on the market. There’s still more to do. A lot more to do,’ he added. ‘Still, it’s probably better than I remember it.’
Far better—he hadn’t set foot in the place since he’d come to visit Gio at Christmas, and even then it had been a cursory look around, as he’d decided to put it on the market. It had been freezing then, neglected and dusty, but he rather thought she would have loved it even so.
‘The realtor suggests I get a few rooms styled.’
‘Why? Anyone can see it’s gorgeous. But you need a piano in the lounge…’ She gave him her opinion. ‘And navy silk couches.’
‘Maybe… The main bedroom has all the original furnishings. I like it, but the realtor said it’s a disaster.’
He attempted to turn on the lights there, but again they didn’t work.
It didn’t matter.
‘It’s beautiful.’ She walked around the large shadowy space, touching a chaise and then walking over to the velvety bed. ‘Why would the realtor call it a disaster?’
‘I think it’s a love or hate thing. It’s red,’ he told her. ‘Very red. The carpets, the bedding, the walls. And when the drapes are hung, they are red too.’ He watched her sitting on the bed and walked over. ‘So, what do you say?’
* * *
‘What do I say? That it’s stunning and that I cannot believe you stay in hotels rather than here. And that this…’ she sank back ‘…is the best bed ever.’
She wasn’t even flirting. She was so tired, and the sleep in the car had served only to remind her how exhausted she was.
‘I don’t know what else to say. I love it.’
‘I meant what do you say about staying here?’
* * *
In the shadowy light he saw her immediate frown, and it surprised him that it hadn’t entered her head why he had brought her here. Her reaction to his home was pure, he knew.
‘Living here for a while?’ he went on.
‘In your home?’
‘It’s never been my home. And don’t worry—I’m not asking you to move in with me.’ He laughed at the notion. ‘But you do need some space, and these are important months for you. I won’t be here—it’s going to be empty. Maybe you could just come here to practise?’
* * *
It was tempting…so tempting. But it was just too generous.
As well, there was a deeper truth: she was developing more than a crush on him. It scared her how much she liked him. A man who was about to turn his back on his family…a man who was close to no one.
‘I don’t think so.’
He lay down too, and they stared up at the ceiling, then wriggled and got comfortable, just lay side by side.
‘No, it’s too…’
‘What?’
‘Too much.’
‘It’s just sitting here empty. You can tell Susie and Dante that we spoke at the wedding…that I need someone to open up and such while tradesmen come through.’ He shrugged. ‘I probably do need someone.’
‘What about when you’re here?’
‘I shan’t be here. I’ll try to fly in and out for the memorial, but I’m not even sure I’ll have time for that. The pace at work is crazy—and that’s before we’ve even signed off on the project. After that, it will be worse.’
‘Why, though?’ She stared. ‘We agreed on one night only.’
‘We did. You don’t have time for a relationship and I don’t want one. But it is good talking to you. Having…’ He hesitated, as if he didn’t know what to call it. ‘This.’
‘Yes…’
‘I’m not just selling the house,’ he admitted. ‘I have some loose ends to tie up—things I need to sort out. Hopefully I can clear the air with Dante…leave things the best I can. Who knows? They might come and see me in Dubai.’
‘What sort of things?’
‘You know that Dante and I fought?’
She nodded.
‘Dante asked if Rosa was pregnant—insinuating it was a trap, a grab for our land—there’s lots of history between our two wineries. I didn’t want to hear it.’
‘Of course not.’
‘I told him he was wrong.’ He turned and looked at her then. ‘However, that wasn’t true. Rosa had indeed told me she was having my baby…’
‘That’s why you married?
‘Yes.’
‘Had you been together for long?’
‘We never dated,’ he said. ‘It was just one night. I had just found out I’d got the loan from Mahir… I was supposed to be celebrating with my family.’ He turned and stared up at the ceiling now rather than at her. ‘I’m sure you don’t want the details.’
‘I do.’
It was an odd admission, yet lying here in the semi-darkness, at the end of such a glorious night and day, she somehow knew this was the only chance she’d get to hear them. It was like collecting tiny pearls scattered on the floor, each one a treasure, and she wanted all the precious pearls.
‘If you want to tell me, of course.’
‘I went to the De Santis winery. I thought we were meeting there—I’m not sure if the message was relayed wrong. Anyway, Rosa came over. She’d seen my car arrive, and she didn’t know what I was celebrating.’ He shrugged. ‘Things just happened…’
Juliet swallowed. She understood how.
‘That night I was careless, and when she told me she was pregnant, that her mother had already worked it out, there was no question I’d do the right thing.’
‘No question?’ she checked.
‘Some questions,’ he admitted in the still pre-dawn. ‘But I kept them to myself.’ He looked over. ‘I’d never expected to marry.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘It just wasn’t something I could envisage. You?’ he asked, perhaps needing a break from his own thoughts.
‘I used to want to…’ she nodded. ‘When I was younger. But then…’ She paused. ‘I think my father’s affair messed me up.’
‘Or your mother turning off her love like a tap when she didn’t like what you had to say.’
His summing up was cold, even a bit brutal, but possibly it was required, because it cleared the mists around that time a fraction.
‘Maybe.’ She actually smiled. ‘You can be very direct.’
‘I know.’ He half laughed. ‘So can my brother. The night before I got married, when he tried to suggest it was a trap, I didn’t appreciate it. I think most people had guessed it was a shotgun marriage, but I wasn’t going to confirm it. It didn’t seem like the best start for us, and I didn’t want our child knowing we’d only married for their sake.’ He took a breath. ‘So I told him to go to hell and we fought.’
She nodded.
‘Rosa lost the baby just after the wedding. At least that’s what she told me.’
Juliet frowned. ‘I don’t know what you mean…’
‘I think I got so angry with Dante because I was already starting to have doubts that she was pregnant myself.’
‘You think she lied?’
‘I do. But I don’t know for sure. I was about to go looking for answers when the accident happened.’
Was this the ‘more’ that Susie had been unable to talk about? Juliet wondered.
‘Does Dante know any of this?’
‘No. After her funeral he apologised—said he’d clearly got it wrong…’
‘You never told your family she was expecting?’
‘No. Rosa didn’t want anyone apart from her parents to know she was pregnant until well after the wedding. After the miscarriage she said we could try again.’ He gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Even though we’d never tried in the first place.’
Juliet sat up on the bed, really thinking about all he’d said. ‘So they all think you married for love?’
‘They do,’ he agreed. ‘I’ve never wanted to fall in love and marry. I didn’t then, and certainly not now. But when I messed up I knew I had to do the right thing. On a selfish level, having a wife and baby suited my career. Sheikh Mahir is very family orientated. We’re partners now, but I was new to him then. He was very pleased I was settling down.’
‘Were you upset when Rosa told you she’d lost the baby?’
He looked at her for the longest moment, and then nodded. When she heard him swallow, Juliet guessed why he didn’t speak.
‘I’m sorry.’ She blew out a breath. ‘I get it now,’ she told him. ‘I get why you hate coming back to Lucca. Can you talk to Dante? Tell him he was right?’
‘I still don’t know for sure, though, and it seems unfair on Rosa to speculate when she isn’t here to state her case. I was thinking of speaking to her doctor. He stitched me and Dante up that night of the fight, and he said a couple of things that have always stayed with me.’
‘Such as…?’
‘My hand was swollen and he said, “Your bride isn’t going to be pleased if you can’t put your ring on.” Then he asked how Rosa was. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when I look back he was asking as if he hadn’t seen her for a while.’
‘What else?’
‘It was small things… He asked if I had any questions for him. I thought he was talking about my hand. But maybe he was inviting me to speak about something else?’
‘Could you try asking him now?’
‘It’s too late. I spoke to his daughter at the wedding reception—not about this, but I asked after him. She told me he has dementia, so that window is now closed.’ He shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it.’ He pulled her close. ‘Forget about it now.’
He wanted to get back to the way they’d been, and so too did Juliet—she didn’t want them to end on this low. But what he’d told her was important.
‘I think I’d tell Dante,’ she said.
‘Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’
Was he referring to her telling her mother about her father’s affair? Surely not.
‘But look at the trouble telling tales got you into last time.’
He was!
‘Sevandro!’ She was jolted—utterly shocked. ‘You can’t say that!’
But he had. And she was so shocked that she laughed. And the fact that he could joke, and she could laugh about something so dreadful, was a revelation in itself,
‘Spiona!’ he called her.
That meant tattletale. They had a sort of wrestle as he said it, and it was the most inappropriate fun she had ever had. And as they play-fought it was as if she was banishing the sting of that day, making a new memory of it that would always make her laugh.
She ended up on his stomach, legs astride him, and she knew there wasn’t another person on this planet who could have teased her like that, who could have taken the most painful dark part of her and soothed it.
‘So,’ he said, with a smile that melted her. ‘Are you going to be my housekeeper?’
Was she?
‘No strings,’ he told her. ‘You know. I don’t do all that.’
‘I know.’ She said, and then paused. ‘Strings are my speciality, though.’
He gave a half-laugh at her reference to her violin, but she saw that he didn’t get what she was trying to say. Juliet didn’t know how to say it, but knew she had to try. She was exploring the boundaries of her own heart as she looked at the only man she’d ever been with…the only man she’d ever wanted to be with. But there were conditions.
‘I can’t be your lover in Lucca.’
‘I’m not asking you to be a kept woman.’
‘I understand that.’
‘If I come back for the memorial I’ll stay in a hotel—no problem.’ He gave her a smile. ‘Unless you want me?’
His hands slid up her outer thighs, warm and firm, then back down, and then they moved over the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs and she saw the arrogance in his smile.
He knew there was no question she would want him.
‘Sev.’ She put her hand over his, stopped his sensual stealth and looked right into his eyes. ‘If you leave now and meet someone tomorrow, that’s fine.’ She swallowed, because that wasn’t quite true. ‘It might hurt, but that’s fine. We shan’t have this again.’ She removed his hand from her thigh.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘If you come back for the memorial and there’s been someone else…’ She shook her head.
‘Hold on… You want us to act like a couple, yet we’ll be continents apart and not see each other for months—not see anyone—all because of one night?’ He laughed at the ridiculousness of it, pulling back his hands of his own accord, clearly not used to such demands. ‘I told you: I don’t do relationships.’
‘I’m just letting you know. And if I do stay here, and I meet someone, I’ll move out.’
He frowned.
‘I assume you won’t want me bringing men back here?’
She watched his lips tighten, and his eyes darkened as they met hers. Possibly he’d got where she was coming from.
‘They’re two separate issues.’
He was sulking, and he looked so sexy, but then he gave a small smile, undoing the buttons on her dress, untying the strings of the bikini beneath.
Toying with her naked breasts, he came up with a possible solution. ‘You could come to Dubai now and then…’
He moved up onto his elbows and blew on a nipple.
‘I don’t have time,’ she pointed out, closing her eyes as his mouth took it in, feeling weak, and yet certain, alight with so many different responses to him. ‘You know that.’
‘We’ll have to make time.’ He came up from her wet breast and looked at her. ‘Look, I really can’t come back here. And I’m not talking about family now. Work is about to kick off…’
But then perhaps he remembered her exams, and the reasons she needed to retreat from the world, because he cursed and lay back down.
‘I don’t do the couple thing.’
He was seriously pissed off.
‘I’m not demanding anything, Sev,’ Juliet told him. ‘Just letting you know.’
He lay silent and she sat up, her thighs warm from their day on the beach, loose against his loins. They were both firmly in their corners, but united in their turn-on.
‘Okay…’ he half relented. ‘I shan’t lay a finger on you again if there’s been anyone else.’
‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘And if I meet anyone—’
‘Please…’ He gave a low laugh as his hand returned, pulling at the ties of her bikini bottom this time, playing with the titian curls there, then slipping his hand down and feeling her oiled and warm. ‘I don’t think there’ll be an issue there.’
Oh, she wanted to give a smart reply—to tell him not to be so certain. Yet she knew it would be pointless, and she knew, even if they ended things today, it would take a lot of time to get over him.
She also knew, even as he stroked inside her, even as he withdrew his fingers and gave his attention to the swollen knot of nerves there, that she was much too into him.
‘Nice?’ he asked needlessly, as she moaned, and he told her with his hand that no one could ever please her the way he did.
‘I want…’
Her thighs were shaking, and she gave a frustrated sob as he ceased in his attention, left her on the edge. And there she remained, hovering for a moment, as he unbelted himself, then tugged at the buttons on his shirt, exposing his chest as he rolled on a condom.
‘What do you want?’ he asked, guiding her on to him.
‘This,’ she said, trying to focus simply on the sheer pleasure their bodies made, moving on him.
He pulled her head down and they were kissing, her breasts flattening on his chest and his hands moving her, her cheek beside his.
‘Move in…’ he said, his voice husky, his fingers digging into her hips and grinding her down on him. ‘There’ll be more of this.’
She nodded, perhaps unseen, but it was as if she was reassuring herself. There would be more of this…
The want, the desire, was all new to her, so deep and acute, and even before he was gone she was missing him already.
‘Don’t cry.’
She heard his words and knew that she must be crying.
‘Cry, then,’ he said. ‘It’s been tough for you.’
His voice was ragged. Perhaps he thought she was simply relieved that her housing and financial woes were gone.
She was crying for other reasons, though. For making love while trying not to lose her heart…
He was stroking her bottom, and she realised she was moving now of her own accord. Or were they both moving as one? There were strings, invisible threads lacing them, pulling her closer, opening her up, tightening her centre.
The sound he made as he released was a perfect note— her perfect note—and it had her tightening and pulsing as he shot inside.
Her face was on his cheek as she drew in a breath, waiting to come back down to earth.
Normality should be pinging in now, Juliet thought.
‘I’m going to miss you,’ he told her.
And she felt her lips pinch on tears as she wondered why he got to say it while she dared not.
* * *
It was starting to get light, and they both knew they had to get her things from the hotel.
As they rearranged their clothes he spoke.
‘Take some time. Think it through before you tell Anna you’re leaving.’
‘I’ve already said yes.’
‘Never believe or be held to what’s said during sex,’ he told her. ‘Think about what you really want.’
He was businesslike now, as he wrote down the entrance code.
‘I’ll need your phone number.’
They went through a few things as daylight started to filter in and the room was tinged red, then they headed down the stairs.
‘Listen, if it sells quickly, I won’t hand it over till your exams are done. Is that fair?’ he asked.
‘More than fair.’
She watched him look around, perhaps realising that it might sell fast and that possibly he might never see the place again. She felt a flutter of panic—because he really was closing things down here.
‘When do you fly?’ she asked at the hotel, as her things were loaded into the car.
‘Midday. I’ll have breakfast with Mimi and Gio. Do you think I can get them to come and see me in Dubai?’
‘Good luck with that!’ She laughed.
He drove her to Anna’s and it was still only six a.m. as he pulled up.
‘This was great,’ Sevandro said. ‘I didn’t expect to have such a nice weekend. You?’
‘I hoped to,’ she admitted. ‘Though it did exceed all expectations.’
They shared a smile—their smile, the one that repeated their words back to each other—but no kiss.
‘We’ll keep it between us?’ she checked. ‘Especially with me moving in?’
‘Sure. Anyway, I’ll be in Dubai.’
‘Yes.’
‘But I’ll hopefully see you after the memorial,’ he said, because three months of abstinence was rather a big commitment for him to make.
And she got that.
‘I’ll hopefully see you, too.’
She felt like a different person as she walked up the driveway to Anna’s. Dawn was breaking and little birds were chirping. She turned to wave, or rather to hold up her violin, but he had already gone.
Get used to that feeling , Juliet told herself. One day soon Sevandro will be gone for ever .