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Just pure pleasure for no other reason than that.

She messaged Pino and moved him to tomorrow, then took another quick shower, but her choice as to what to wear had narrowed.

The coral dress was no longer an option. It was the denim shorts and another flimsy top or the navy cheesecloth dress.

The shorts looked too casual, the navy dress too much. How she wished she’d left the coral one for today, but then she always got things wrong.

Stella pulled on her shorts and then thought of the elegant women here, and that Gabe was taking her for lunch in Capri.

Navy dress, she decided.

And felt almost right for once as she tied her hair high up in a messy bun. She wore her flat sandals and then jumped when the phone in her suite buzzed and she was informed that her guest was waiting for her in the driving bay. They were discreet enough, she noted, not to say his name.

She was blushing, remembering their kiss, a little bemused by it all still.

‘Good morning,’ he said as she climbed in, a little too awkward to look at him. She just smiled a wide smile and he gave her a small nod.

Gabe was annoyed and trying not to show it. Not with her. The doorman had just enlightened him about something, and he was doing his best not to show it.

‘Did you sleep well?’ He asked the dreaded question as the doorman stepped back, wondering how she’d answer him.

‘Yes,’ she said, actually surprised that she had. ‘Well, for someone going in a helicopter for the first time. You?’

‘No,’ he said, putting on sunglasses as he pulled off. ‘But then I never sleep well.’

God, but it was nice to be honest, so honest that instead of brooding on it, or trying to dismiss it, ‘I’m in a bad mood,’ he admitted, ‘though not with you.’

‘That’s good then.’ She glanced over. ‘I would have been happy to walk up.’

‘I know you would.’ He looked over, and she rather wished he wouldn’t take his eyes off the road. ‘You didn’t put on insect repellent.’

‘I did.’

He glanced over again. ‘Stella?’

‘I always forget.’

‘You’ll get bitten.’

‘Well, you don’t have insect repellent on.’

‘How do you know?’

Her lips pinched. How did she know? Because the scent of him was incredible, masculine yet morning fresh and tickling her nostrils. She wanted to reach over and smell him, get right up close to that unshaven jaw, but knowing her luck, he’d career off the road.

She almost laughed out loud. Then she took a breath, remembering that wouldn’t be a very funny joke for him. And anyway, she didn’t know how to be so bold, and still she didn’t know what today was about.

Or even if she knew how to flirt.

‘I just spoke with the doorman while you were coming down,’ he explained, his expression grim. ‘The press are on their way.’

‘Regarding your grandfather?’

‘Yes. I can keep them away from him, but they’ll soon be hounding me.’

‘I looked you up,’ she admitted. ‘They really do have it in for you.’

‘They hate me because I refuse to give interviews or tell them my side. Soon it will be the twenty-fifth anniversary. When Geo dies it is all going to blow up again. They’ll be approaching me like crazy.’