Nico knew she had been working frantically, but she looked as if she had spent all these weeks lying on a recliner by the pool in the hot Sicilian sun. The Persian Orange of her uniform was indeed perfect, and brought out the little flecks of gold in her dark eyes. Her lips were plump and shaped in a mild smile.
He tried to gauge her level of hurt, and he checked for hostility in those amazing eyes, but saw none.
For there was none.
She loved him—and that, sadly, was that.
‘Aurora,’ he said as she went to move off. He spoke with his people and then nodded to Francesca, who took the group through to the oratory. ‘I need to see you.’
‘Of course.’ She fixed on a smile. ‘What do you need?’
‘Not here,’ Nico said. ‘Not now.’
Nico truly loathed his treatment of her on the day his father had been laid to rest. He regretted with every fibre of his being the way they had parted.
Her dignity.
His silence.
And he had missed her so. That throaty laugh, that raw passion for everything she did.
How to tell her of the mess in his head?
Where did he begin to explain to Aurora that if he were capable of love absolutely it would be with her?
‘Your schedule is very full,’ Aurora pointed out.
She did not want to be alone with him; she did not want to fall into his arms, to yearn for his kiss. To sob out that she was pregnant and then witness his dark reaction.
Aurora would tell him from a distance, she decided, then and there, because she felt like putty whenever he was near.
But Nico did not give up.
‘Later tonight?’ Nico said. ‘I shall be done around ten.’
‘But I finish at eight,’ Aurora said, and tried to inject regret into her voice. ‘Perhaps we could schedule a meeting for the morning?’
‘I don’t want a work meeting.’
No, he wanted sex. Aurora was very sure of that.
Nico was staying in the Temple Suite tonight, and no doubt he did not want to spend the night alone.
Damn you, Nico!
She corrected herself: she was not putty—more, she was a puppet on Nico’s string. He thought he could bed her at will. And the real trouble was that he could.
Perhaps she wouldn’t even have to tell him. She was feeling so hormonal right now that to be alone with Nico meant she would fall into his arms. He would just have to strip off her skirt and he would know. Or his hands would remove her bra and the heavy breasts that were now crushed against her chest would spring full into his hands…
Now he saw anger in her face. It flashed in her eyes and it formed in two red dots on her cheeks. But her smile remained.
‘I want to speak to you Aurora,’ Nico said.
But it would have to wait, for Vincenzo was making an approach.
‘Ah, Signor Caruso!’ Vincenzo said. ‘Benvenuto!’
‘Welcome?’ Nico checked. ‘What do you mean, welcome? It’s my damned hotel?’
‘What’s eating him?’ Vincenzo asked as Nico stalked off.
Aurora knew she now had to tell a lie, and she watched Vincenzo’s face fall as she spoke. But that lie would keep her sane.
It kept her sane even when Nico joined not the big-wigs’ group, but the local dignitaries as Aurora gave them her tour—fully thirty minutes behind Vincenzo’s schedule.
First she took them outside to the main pool, where the ruins of a Roman bath had been carefully brought back to life.
‘Most of the suites,’ Aurora explained, ‘have their own private pool, but this is the central one. Though it is positioned so that it can’t be viewed from the main building.’
‘Why is that?’ a reporter asked.
‘For private functions,’ Aurora said. ‘It looks incredible when lit at night, and with the calibre of guests we expect to host we would not want to risk them being photographed.’
‘Can a couple book just this area just for themselves?’
‘Of course,’ Nico answered, when Aurora could not.
She could feel the sun beating on her head, and Nico’s eyes on her, and the air felt so thick she could barely drag it in.
Oh, how she wanted to discard the jacket and skirt! To peel off her clothes and take his hand as he led her into the cool, inviting water.
‘Let’s head inside,’ Aurora said, and deliberately avoided his eyes. ‘This was once the oratory, where the monks would gather to pray and meditate,’ she explained as they came in from the glittering pool into the huge, cool, dark building. ‘The new stone is from the same quarry as the original monastery, and this whole wall…’ she touched it lovingly ‘…is original. Now it’s going to be a place for meditation and spa treatments. A place to hide from the world and restore oneself in peace and tranquillity.’
It was truly stunning. All those painstaking hours and millions of euros had been worth it, Nico knew.
Even his father had known. During their last visit, on the last morning of his life, Geo had admitted that he would have sold it to developers.
‘But I like what you have done,’ he had told Nico. And today Nico held on to those words as Aurora walked them around.
He could never palm this hotel off on his managers or sell it.
Yes, he had said that on the day of his father’s funeral, and for a while he had thought he would, but as the grief had settled Nico knew he could never just hand it over.
It was his life’s work.
‘Now…’ Aurora smiled as she led them up some stone stairs and across a long cloister. ‘I shall take you into my favourite suite.’
‘The Honeymoon Suite?’ one of the crowd joked.
‘No,’ Aurora replied.
How could that be her favourite when she would never know a honeymoon? The truth was she avoided the Honeymoon Suite as best she could.
‘This is the Temple Suite,’ Aurora told her audience. ‘And I’m sure you will soon see why.’
She pushed open the heavy wooden door and as they took one step inside they all gasped—except for Aurora and Nico.
Even the sun had joined the party, and it seemed to split apart the stones of the old temple ruins in this most stunning view. It actually brought tears to Aurora’s eyes as she stood and looked out.
‘I had seen the temple ruins from every angle I thought possible,’ Aurora explained. ‘I grew up in Silibri and they were my playground. But some weeks ago I put on a hard hat and was shown the view from here. I admit I cried when I saw the temple from this height and distance. I believe this was the view that the monastery was built to capture. It is a slice of heaven, is it not?’
And it was—except that Nico was watching Aurora, and the way her eyes shone with tears. He could feel her love for this incredible space.
He wished—oh, how he wished—they were here alone.
They would be tonight.
She led them through the suite and onto the huge balcony and was grateful for the gentle breeze to cool her warm cheeks. Yes, she had trained herself not to blush around Nico, but it seemed she could not train herself out of desiring him. The