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‘Not as happy as Sergio He is mostexcited’

Bella suspected Maria hadn’t got that word right Sergio was not the excitable type Never had been As much as she admired his self-contained persona, Bella found his tendency to be slightly straitlaced a touch irritating Bella had never forgotten the night of her sixteenth birthday when she’d boldly asked him to kiss her Bold for her, since she wasn’t at all bold when it cairls from her class had been there at the party Several of the very hot and hunky coirls had actually dared her to go and kiss hiiven her a one-second peck which had been both huht she looked quite hot herself that night

No, Sergio was not the excitable type He certainly wasn’t a typical hot-blooded Italian h, as the driver said

‘Iar her inside out of the heat She’d forgotten how hot it could get here in the summer ‘What room have you put me in?’

‘Sergio said you were to have one of the rooms next to his He is in the master bedroom’

Of course, Bella thought He was master of the house now

In the old days all children—even Sergio—had slept on the top floor of the villa, in bedrooms which didn’t have the size or the luxury of the bedrooms on the middle floor, where all three rooms had en-suite bathrooms and French doors that opened out onto a wide, cool balcony The e with a king-sized four-poster bed and the most decadent bathrooe sunken spa bath

‘Do I have a choice of which bedroom?’ she asked as they mounted the stone staircase that led up to the first floor

Maria shrugged ‘It is no matter They have both been freshly cleaned You choose’

‘Perhaps the one with the gold bedspread, then’

Which was how Bella ca in the room where her mother and Alberto had once slept when they had stayed there all those years ago, a delightful rooold and which Bella had always adht as she dispensed with her too-hot jeans and pulled out a cool wrap-around dress made in the softest silk The lovely antique furniture was the saold-embossed wallpaper and the semi-transparent curtains that blew softly in the breeze froht as she put her hair up in a loose knot and had a quick shower, the floor and walls covered in a creas were all gold, the cream towels thick and soft Once dried and dressed, Bella decided not to bother withShe was on holiday, after all And the paparazzi had no idea she was here

Shesoft bed beckoned—but politeness insisted she find Sergio and tell hiio hadn’t been expecting her for another hour or two yet Understandable When her plane had set down in Roht to Milan had been delayed an hour, with her text to Sergio infor him of the fact But the plane had actually taken off only half an hour late with the pilot ood time with favourable winds So she’d arrived at the villa earlier than the io would have anticipated

When Bella eed froave an excellent view, not just of the lake, but the villa’s lovely garden and grounds Glancing down and around in search of Sergio, her eyes i the pool He was tall and dark-haired, wearing nothing but a pair of brief swi off an impressive physique

Dear heaven, she thought as she ogled the way his back eous skin Not fair skin like her own, but beautifully bronzed in the way onlyartificial ht, with broad shoulders and a nicely shaped head, croith thick black hair that glea down at hi herself such a hunky husband For this had to be Carlo

But no sooner had this thought entered her head than Carlo lifted his head and looked straight up at her, his very faasp to her lips