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He was athe realquestions His cool blue eyes would narrow if she tried to probeone of sapphire ice Don’t push me, those eyes seeh he would deflect her questions by sliding his hand beneath her skirt and starting toas all her questions dissolved and nothing was left but the pleasure he gave her, tiive up She just lowered her sights a little She stopped expecting big revelations and just concentrated on the little ones

And every ti about hi bit of the jigsaw In those sleepylove, he told her about how he’d worked his way up fro an entire chain of restaurants He told her about working on a fancy vineyard in California, so that he knew all about the wine trade He made a wistful face when he described his friend Murat’s beautiful country of Qurhah and told her how big the stars looked when you were out in the reat big learning experience and everything he knew, he had taught himself

And one thing she was learning faster than any other was that it wasn’t so easy to put the brakes on her own e hors towards her Greek husband, or just that sex had removed the protective shield from her heart No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see for him in a way that went bone-deep Her heart was stubbornly refusing to listen to all the logic her head tried to throw at it

Yet she knehat happened to woh to love men who didn’t love them back She’d watched her mother’s life becooing to have She’d wasted years on bitterness and resentment, because she’d refused to accept that you couldn’t make another person do what you wanted them to

And that was not going to happen to her

She wouldn’t let it

S down the folds of her tea dress, she walked into the kitchen to find Alek seated at the table, a half-full coffee pot beside hih a stack of financial newspapers He glanced up as she walked in, his eyes following her every step, like a snake bewitched by a charmer She had become used to his very macho appraisal of her appearance and, with a certain arown to enjoy it

He put the newspaper down as she sat down opposite hilinted as she reached for the honeypot

‘I enjoyed licking ht,’ he murmured

Her eyes widened ‘Alek!’

‘Are you blushing, Ellie?’

‘Certainly not It’s just the stea me hot’

‘Would you like to come to Italy?’ he questioned

Ellie dropped the little wooden spatula back in the pot ‘You mean, with you?’ she said

‘Of course with ave a lazy shrug ‘We can treat it as a kind of honeyo to Lucca I have business in Pisa and I can go there afterwards while you fly home And Lucca is an extraordinarily pretty city They call it the hidden gem of Tuscany It has an oval piazza instead of a square one and a toith trees growing out of the top Lots of dark and winding streets and iconic churches You’ve never been there?’

She shook her head ‘I’ve never been anywhere apart from a day trip to Calais with my mother’

‘Well, then’ He raised his eyebrows ‘Didn’t you once tell ed to travel?’

Yes, she’d told him that, but that had been when she’d still had a had been part of her work plan and independence had been a believable dream which seemed to have fallen by the wayside since she’d discovered she was pregnant She thought of Italy—with its green hills and terracotta roofs All those famous churches and marble statues she’d only ever seen in pictures

Wouldn’t it be good to go on an unexpected honeymoon for some sunshine and culture—even if it was the most unconventional honeymoon in the history of the world? And yet, just the fact that Alek had suggested it brightened her matic husband? Could she possibly enuinely cared about one another, rather than two people ere just trying to make the best of a bad situation?