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But she was engulfed in another yawn and the last of her energy evaporated

‘Make your own decisions in the ht now I’o’

He scooped her up, and just that—the sensation of his body around hers and his fierce directive—had her lost in the waves of her own fight She caved, allowed hilove of his hand on her head Didn’t fight the steady beat of his heart on her cheek or the warm male scent of his chest She didn’t lift her head to check where he was going, or worry or wonder how she was going to get home

She let herself melt

When he opened the door of a cabin she saw subtle lights and soft fabrics in creams and pinks and lacquered wood And she didn’t resist

He laid her down on the bed and she felt his hands peel down her zip and ease her out of her dress And still she didn’t struggle She let it happen She rolled over in her underwear, felt sheets pulled back, and then she was enveloped in the softest satin and her path into dreams stretched out ahead

And she knew, as she drifted under, that she was here again, with Matteo, and that the hole in her ar wider and wider

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ON HIS EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY his father had given Matteo the fountain pen he now held in his hands He ran his fingers along the onyx lacquer and tested the brass nib The first tin the lease for his flat at university It had felt like a step into adulthood, symbolically marked by such a for contracts and legal docuht now

He put the lid on it and tucked it away

Right now he needed so with no trace of the past So he could use to write out his future Because it was right there, in front of him, fast asleep on the bed

He stretched out his legs and rolled his shoulders The chair was coh for short people anted to take a load off their feet for a few minutes, but it was totally useless for a six-foot-three ex-rugby-player who’d been folded into it for the past five hours