‘So your familydon’tknow about your forthcoming marriage to Maria?’
‘No. It will probably come as a surprise and there will most definitely be rumours, but nothing we haven’t navigated before.’
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and Antonio was momentarily distracted. She’d been leaving her hair down ever since the salon, and it was making it difficult for him to keep her in his mind as the waitress he’d married for convenience. And then, after the pool, a few days ago?Cazzo, he’d not been able to put her back in that box at all.
She’d looked at that pool like he’d seen financial advisors look at his company’s bottom line—with naked lust—and he’d wanted her to have what she wanted. And yes, he might have been just a little jealous. Of a swimming pool. But that wasn’t why he’d enticed her into it.
Now that he knew about her sight loss, he could just as easily see the bars on the cage she had tucked herself into. And it was wrong. Wrong to see her like that. She was different from the person she was six years ago, they both were. But what was missing was a sense of…he struggled to find the right word…ease. Her sense of self had beeneasy. Yes, there had been cares and concerns hidden in her gaze, but her laughter had beeneasy. She’d had an innate sense of grounding. But all of those things seemed to be different now.
And for a moment in the pool he’d seen a glimmer of that woman he’d married. Before her eyes had turned on him and he’d felt it.
Heat.
Want.
Desire.
Oh, it had disappeared pretty quickly once Ms Quell had arrived on the scene. But he couldn’t get it out of his head. It ran on a loop in his mind, catching him by surprise whenever his guard was down. Like at night. Or in the shower. He’d remember the feel of her skin slipping through his palms, or against his chest and thighs. The way her eyes sparkled, shards of gold in a sea of blue, like glimpses of underwater treasure.
‘Is Maria going to be there?’ Ivy asked, her fingers playing with the hem of the white skirt that had ridden up along her thigh.
‘Sì,’ Antonio replied, ignoring the spread of heat through his body and locking his gaze on the road ahead. ‘She knows you’re coming. She knows we’re trying to get a divorce as quickly as possible, and she also knows that she won’t be able to get her hands on Gallo Group without all this, which includes your help.She’snot the enemy.’
‘If she’s not, then who is?’
The muscle in his jaw flickered. ‘The rest of them.’
If Ivy had thought that Antonio’s villa was impressive, it was nothing compared to Villa Alessia. She’d gasped out loud as they’d rounded the gravel drive, lined with artfully manicured box trees in terracotta pots, her fingers itching for her camera. The stone walls sprawled over several floors and stretched out across and around a magnificent courtyard she caught glimpses of as Antonio parked the car.
He’d explained that he’d bought his mother the villa shortly after his first international deal with Alessina. And without needing to hear it, Ivy had understood that he’d wanted his mother to have something that was hers, and not given to her by Gio—something that couldn’t be taken away, like Antonio’s inheritance had been. That it was important to him that his mother always had a home melted her heart a little. Especially as someone who knew how much that meant.
He waited for her patiently as she tried to take it all in, squinting a little unintentionally. The unmistakable sounds of a party carried on a gentle breeze and even the late hour of the afternoon hadn’t dulled the heat of the summer’s day.
Antonio gestured with a flick of his dark head to follow him and she rounded the car, her wedge sandals crunching on the gravel. The breeze continued to play with the calf-length skirt Ivy was sure she would stain before long, but it was pretty. It made herfeelpretty and she hoped that might be enough to give her the confidence she needed to face Antonio’s family.
Stepping carefully on the path that would have, six years ago, been thoughtlessly easy, but now required just a little more attention, she followed Antonio’s thankfully slow footsteps as they rounded the building and came to an open courtyard filled with nearly fifty people.
Ivy came to a halt. ‘Thisis your family?’
Antonio turned, frowning at her. ‘Not all. There are more coming later for the meal.’
Ivy blinked. She couldn’t imagine being related to so many people. And the glamour! Diamonds and gold glinted in the setting sun, enough to remind her of the flashes she’d seen as the detachment claimed part of her eyesight.
And for the first time since the clothes had arrived from the salon, she was truly thankful that Antonio had bought her such fine things to wear. Certainly, the things she’d brought with her from London would have drawn nothing but scorn. As it was, she felt everyone’s attention on her and it wasn’t entirely comfortable.
Unconsciously, she scanned the faces, looking for one in particular.
Micha Rufina.
Ivy was aware that she should have told Antonio she knew him. Or had at least met him, one year ago. But instinctively, she’d been trying to protect him, knowing that the context surrounding her meeting with Micha would undermine whatever peace he’d found with his grandfather in the last few years. Micha had only approached her on Gio Gallo’s behalf. And once she’d sent him away, Ivy had put it firmly out of her mind, unwilling to travel down that path.
She’d never thought she’d see Micha, or Antonio, again for that matter. But now…
A beautiful dark-haired woman dressed in an exceptionally flattering ornate black dress detached herself from the crowd. And while they might not have been blood-related, there was something about the way that she moved which reminded Ivy of Antonio. Regal. Determined. Powerful.
Those things might not be genetic, but they had most definitely been nurtured.
‘Mamma,’ Antonio said in English. ‘This is Ivy McKellen.’

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