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Ha
‘So you want me to be your front man,’ she said slowly.
Luca swivelled to face her. ‘Excuse me?’
‘To do the talking,’ Ha
He gave one terse nod. ‘Right.’
She settled back in her seat. ‘All right. I can do that.’
‘Good,’ Luca answered, and he turned back to his phone.
The VIP lounge at the airport fully lived up to Ha
By the time they boarded the plane she was feeling pleasantly relaxed; one of the spa attendants had given her a head and neck massage while her feet had been soaking. It had felt lovely, as had Luca’s look of blatant male appreciation when she’d emerged from the spa—the attendant had insisted on doing her hair and make-up as well.
‘You look good,’ he said in approval, and, while Ha
‘I think,’ she told him as they took their seats in the plane’s first-class section, ‘I could get used to this.’
Luca’s mouth quirked up at one corner. ‘I’m sure you could.’ He accepted two flutes of champagne from the airline steward and handed one to Ha
‘Why are you so determined to have me become used to champagne?’ Ha
‘Why not? You should enjoy all of these new experiences.’
‘True,’ Ha
‘No.’
‘So why did you put me up in first class?’
‘I wanted to watch you enjoy the experience.’
Ha
‘Well, I am enjoying it,’ she said, striving for normality. ‘Thank you.’ The last thing she needed was to start crushing on her boss. He’d probably find that amusing—or maybe offensive, and fire her. She handed her half-drunk champagne to the steward and buckled her seat belt. Time to get things back to the way they’d always been.
Luca must have been thinking along the same lines because he reached for the in-flight magazine as the plane took off, and then spent the rest of the four-hour flight looking over some paperwork. Ha
In fact, with each passing hour of the flight, he seemed to get more and more tense, his muscles taut, his eyes shadowed, his face grim. Ha
She tried to watch a movie but her mind was pinging all over the place, and so she ended up simply staring out of the window at the azure sky, waiting for the minutes and hours to pass.
And then they did, and they landed on Santa Nicola, the Mediterranean glittering like a bright blue promise in the distance.
‘Is someone meeting us at the airport?’
‘Yes, one of Tyson’s staff is picking us up.’ Luca rose from his seat and shrugged into his suit jacket. ‘Let me do the talking.’
Okay... ‘I thought you wanted me to socialise.’
‘I do. But not with the staff.’
Bewildered, Ha
The feel of his warm, dry palm sliding across and then enfolding hers was a jolt to her system, like missing the last step in a staircase. Instinctively she started to withdraw her hand but Luca tightened his hands over hers and pulled her forward.
‘Come on,’ he murmured. ‘People are waiting.’
With his hand still encasing hers she followed him out of the plane, blinking in the bright sunlight as she navigated the narrow steps down to the tarmac. She was just thinking that she wished she’d packed her sunglasses in her carry-on rather than her suitcase when she heard someone call a greeting to Luca and then felt his arm snake around her waist.
Ha
‘Signor Moretti! We are so pleased to welcome you to Santa Nicola.’ A ta
‘Ha
CHAPTER FOUR
HANNAH STOOD BLINKING stupidly at the man who had come forward. He reached for her hand and numbly she gave it to him.
‘Signorina Stewart. So pleased to meet you! Signor Moretti mentioned he was bringing his fiancée, and we look forward to getting to know you. I am Stefano, one of the members of Mr Tyson’s staff.’
Ha
What on earth...?
‘Ha
Still reeling, she forced a smile onto her face. ‘Pleased to meet you, I’m sure.’
As soon as she said the words she wished she hadn’t. Now she was complicit in this...whatever this was. A lie, obviously. A ruthless deception—and for what purpose? Why on earth would Luca pretend she was something she wasn’t?
Because he was pretending he was something he wasn’t.
The answer was so blindingly obvious Ha
‘Come this way,’ Stefano said, beckoning towards the waiting open-topped Jeep emblazoned with the Tyson logo, a dolphin jumping in front of a sun. ‘Mr Tyson’s villa is only a few minutes away.’
Ha
They got in the back of the Jeep and Stefano hopped in the front. Ha