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‘Maybe you should speak with them?’

He turned in surprise at her reaction, disappointed even, but then she smiled. ‘Signor Rinaldi Bares his Soul…’

‘Oh, no,’ he joked back. ‘I will be il Conte di Sant Lavia by then. But I won’t use my title, so that will annoy them.’

‘You inherit his title?’

‘I don’t want it,’ he admitted, and that was big, for he’d told no one of his future plans. ‘Not that I’ve told anyone that. I’m just trying to do the right thing by my grandfather now.’

A barrier was opened and they entered a private road with a Do Not Trespass sign, and he turned and tutted for her delicious deceit yesterday.

And then they came onto more formal ground. Heavy gates bearing a crest were opened and Gabe chatted with the guard in Italian for a couple of moments about upping the security as Stella gazed in awe at the magnificent building. The limestone blocks were almost golden, and there were endless rows of arched windows. It was a palace indeed.

‘Oh, my.’ She couldn’t believe its grandeur, nor its size. ‘I can just imagine the guests arriving for a ball.’

‘Believe it or not,’ Gabe said, ‘this isn’t its best side.’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘I’m not. You’ll see when we’re up in the chopper, but the architecture was designed for pleasing the family and grand guests. The main beauty of the building is from the inside.’

They drove on a slight upward slope around the side—the grounds were tiered, she realized as he stopped the car so she could see the grand entrance, flanked by rows of cypress trees.

‘We enter the first floor from here,’ he explained, then drove the car around the back.

Wow!

A black helicopter awaited, but beyond that a lemon orchard spilled down the cliffside and there were olive groves beyond. There was a pool, beautiful gardens and, beyond that, the glittering ocean.

‘The ground floor you can’t see from here,’ he said as they climbed out of the car, ‘but there are steps down to it.’

‘What floor are you on?’

‘So you can find me tonight?’

She laughed, their first real flirt of the day. ‘I’m not invited in, remember?’

‘I could smuggle you in after dark.’ Perhaps he should not have taken it further, but he did.

‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘Your grandfather lives here.’

He actually laughed and then explained the layout. ‘My grandfather has the top floor—it is less formal and used more for family.’

‘You’re family though.’

‘Of course.’ He paused. It was odd how, these last few days, his memories kept flooding back, emotions too. How he hadn’t been able to bear being up there, the rooms that had once been filled with laughter and light, so still and silent. ‘I have a wing on the first floor. The piano nobile. You’ll get a better idea from the sky.’

The pilot stepped out and gave a signal to Gabe, who nodded. ‘He’s ready for us.’

She had thought she would run under the rotors, but instead they were boarded and seated.

‘Scared?’ Gabe asked.

‘Terrified,’ she admitted, but as he took up a pair of headphones, instead of handing them to her, or gesturing for her to put them on, he did so himself, resting them gently on her ears, smoothing her hair and even moving the microphone so it rested a little way from her lips.

And his eyes told her that was where he wanted his own mouth to be.

The pilot gave them a quick safety briefing, then the doors closed and the rotors were starting, but as he put on his own headphones they seemed cocooned.