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‘Excellent Oh, and, Bella’

‘What?’

‘Don’t forget Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, or who you’re staying with’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t Ciao,’ she finished up on an excited note, then hung up

CHAPTER FIVE

SERGIO PLACED HIS phone on the bedside table, letting out a long sigh as he lay back against the pillows, his conscience urging hiht But it was too late, of course Way too late He’d passed the point of no return the moment Bella had asked him to let her rent the villa

He had to see this through, even if it was a disaster waiting to happen For already Sergio suspected that seducing Bella ht have consequences that would be not so easily dismissed

Not a pregnancy He wasn’t stupid enough to let that happen He was thinking of e he wanted to do was fall in love with her Falling in lust with Bella was bad enough But he could survive that Hell, he had survived it Just Falling in love with her, however, was another ball game

And it could happen, especially if he was going to spend so much time with her

Then don’t spend too ical advice Once you get her into your bed, go to Milan to work during the day and only coht

Good thinking, Sergio

Which only leaves the proble her into your bed in the first place

Easier said than done

Clearly, she still thinks of you as her big brother; that rather quiet, introverted boy she first met First impressions did tend to stick He would have toof that boy This time, Bella had to see soio suspected he would not be able to bring off such a radical change in character with conviction But there was room for a little wickedness and a lot of boldness

He took some confidence from Bella’s comment that she’d found him impressive when she’d seen hih of course he’d been wearing a tux that night Woio needed Bella to be iood body Well shaped and well toned, with olive skin and surprisingly little body hair for an Italian He also had an i that woht say size didn’t matter but he’d found that, on the whole, the opposite was true

Sergio sucked in sharply as he envisaged hoould feel, having sex with Bella His body started envisaging it too Da Yet he had an early start toinal plans for this Friday He’d been going to spend the whole day in the franchise’s head office, thanking the staff for all their hard work as well as preparing them for the handover to their new bosses next Monday Impossible now All he could afford was a few hours in theUnfortunate, but he would soften his abrupt departure by giving the in advance for them to have a handover party at a local pub

Sergio hated cutting and running, but he had no option He needed to get to Lake Co been unoccupied for so darkened its doorstep since Easter He knew Maria would have kept the place clean, but it ht need an extra spruce up She also needed to be told that a guest was couest’s identity in advance, however Just that it was a fe the inforht Maria was a big fan of Bella’s, a factor that had irked Sergio over the years Maria had loved Dolores’s beautiful daughter Doted on her Spoiled her, even She had never forgotten her and had obviously found pleasure in Bella’s success

Maria was going to be very excited when he finally revealed who the io realised with soht swiftly followed by another How on earth was he going to seduce Bella right under Maria’s nose without her finding out?

Impossible Hell on earth! He’d backed himself into a corner here Hardly an unusual situation where Bella was concerned That creature had been nothing but trouble since the first day he’d clapped eyes on her

No, no, Sergio, be honest here The trouble didn’t start till her sixteenth-birthday party when she’d e hi sex appeal He hadn’t been back to Sydney for severalin a house run by a woman he disliked intensely But Bella’s birthday had coincided with his mid-year break in June, and his father had insisted he come home for the celebration, after which they would all fly to Lake Como for their annual holiday The last time he’d seen Bella on the previous Christirl in a ponytail and braces