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He’d known she was gorgeous, and the attraction was undeniable, but seeing her in that dress, her hair all tumbled, the flush in her cheeks as her eyes lifted to his…

Watching that smile disappear had killed him and he knew that in an effort not to hurt her he already had.

End this madness, he warned himself.

Take her back to the mainland now, drop her off at the hotel, and tomorrow she would be gone.

She was dressed in her appalling navy dress when he came out, and drinking sparkling water with a laughing Rosa as she made her purchase.

‘No—’ Rosa was shaking her head ‘—why get black when dusty rose is your colour? If you are only getting one pair, you get what you love and work around it.’

‘Oh!’ Gabe said, attempting to sound normal—trying to remind himself that he should be bored by now, as clothes shopping with a woman was the last thing on his list of must-do’s. ‘You are getting something?’

‘When in Capri…’ She closed her eyes as if realising the financial damage, but then those blue eyes opened, and her smile met his.

‘Good for you.’

She did not expect him to pay, and there was no pressure for her to buy, he knew. Yet she had, and that made his heart soar, for reasons he couldn’t quite fathom.

‘It will be a few weeks,’ Rosa warned.

‘I can’t wait.’

Of course post-purchase guilt hit as they stepped out into the sunlight, and Gabe laughed as she instantly regretted her impulse spend.

‘It will be the best money you have ever spent,’ he assured her, both touched and pleasantly surprised that she’d paid—he really wasn’t used to that.

Stefano took the lunch he had bought for his grandfather and stored it and soon they boarded the helicopter again—earlier than she had expected. In fact, it was just mid-afternoon when they headed back to Sant Lavia.

And their day was over.

Gabe never gave a thought to endings; he simply walked away.

Stella was dreadful at them.

Seeing the palazzo in the distance, for once its sight did not appeal for it spelt the end of them. She sat staring out of the window to the water below, refusing to look over.

He ensured Stefano wasn’t in the loop. ‘Stop sulking.’

Her lips twitched a little.

‘Honestly, it is better this way.’

‘Yep.’ She carried on looking down at the sparkling waters as if sapphires and emeralds lay just beneath the surface and she flashed fire. ‘I’m sure there are plenty more fish in the Tyrrhenian Sea.’

Ouch.

He liked that she could be a little mean, letting him know that there were plenty of good-looking bastards perhaps more willing than he.

But she was wrong.

No one was more willing.

It was the aftercare he could not provide.

‘Stella…’

‘What?’ She turned and faced him. ‘What is there left to say?’