frowned, unsure where that comment was going. ‘Why is this?’
‘She’ll keep an eye on the place, water the garden.’ Absently she picked up her phone and began tapping quickly onto the screen. ‘At least for a few days.’
Garden, he pondered. That didn’t fit with the glamorous image she’d built up as she’d promoted the team. Had this cottage, this garden been her escape from the media frenzy that had followed? He knew well about the need to escape. It had been something he’d had to do twice in his life now.
‘You gave up your career to become a gardener?’
She turned to face him, putting her phone in her handbag at the same time. ‘Why is that so shocking?’
‘Seb never mentioned you were a gardener.’
‘It is something I’ve always enjoyed, but I didn’t feel the need to change my life before Seb’s accident.’ She looked up at him, her expression serious and focused. ‘Seb’s death changed all that. That’s why I want to know all he did that day. I have to understand why it happened.’
Each word echoed with her accusation, leaving him in no doubt she blamed him. The only other person who knew the truth was her father—and he’d insisted that she must never know all the details of Seb’s accident.
Thoughts of Seb grounded him and the urge to tell her everything, just to clear his name of blame in her eyes, was overwhelming. But he wasn’t doing this for himself; he was doing it for Seb. He would do well to remember that when he next thought of succumbing to the temptation of Charlie. She was out of his reach. Put there by his sense of honour and his promise to Seb and subsequently her father. Out of his reach was where she had to stay.
AS DARKNESS BEGAN to descend the car pulled to a halt outside Alessandro’s offices and Charlie got her first view of the place she’d heard so much about from her brother. His calls had always been full of excitement and pride as he’d enthused about the Roselli factory, workshops and test track.
Sadness crept over her too. This was where Seb had spent his final weeks and she could have been part of that if she’d accepted his offer to come out and visit instead of being so tied up in her career. The same career she’d dropped after Seb’s death.
She got out of the car and stood looking up at the buildings, wishing she had come to see what he was doing. ‘I should have come when he asked me to,’ she said softly and was startled when Alessandro responded.
‘Seb always hoped you’d come here one day.’ His voice was gentle and not at all judgemental as he placed his hand in the small of her back. She drew in a ragged breath, her emotions all over the place. Memories of Seb mixed with the undeniable attraction she felt for Alessandro. Guilt added to the mix and washed over her. How could she even be thinking such thoughts? Quickly she blocked them out.
‘I wish I had.’ Her voice was a croaky whisper of raw emotion. She stood next to him in the warm evening air, her emotions exposed and vulnerable, as if she stood before him totally naked. She was certain that not only was he able to see every bit of her skin, but into her heart and soul.
He stopped outside a glass door and keyed in his pass code, his other hand sliding away from her back, the heat of his touch cooling, giving her space to think. Judging by the shiver which had run up her spine, she needed that space. Badly.
‘Why didn’t you?’ he asked, pushing open the door, stepping inside and holding the door open for her, but she didn’t miss the lightly veiled accusation in his voice.
‘It was busy. You know how the end of the racing season gets.’ She saw his jaw tighten, saw the sceptical look on his face and shame heated her cheeks. She’d also been worried about Seb’s blatant attempts at matchmaking. He’d often teased her on the phone about finding the perfect man for her.
She could have come. She’d wanted to come, but she had been a tiny bit threatened by this new life Seb had found. They’d always been so close and when he’d met Alessandro all that had changed overnight. She was pleased he’d found something he was so passionate about; she’d just never expected it to take him so far away from her, physically or emotionally.
He shrugged nonchalantly but she knew what he was thinking. She could almost hear his words, heavy and accented, telling her she was selfish, and she retaliated as if he’d actually spoken. ‘I didn’t know time was against me.’
He let the door go and she stood in the semi-darkness of the large reception. His face was a mask of hardened fury as the accusation in her words hit him. Did he feel any guilt? Did he have regrets? Did he want to go back and change things?
He stepped forward, coming closer, and she wished there was more light, something to lessen the presence of a man who excited and angered her so intensely. She veered wildly between those two emotions as he looked directly at her.
‘Whatever guilt you carry, Charlotte, I do not need it added to what I feel.’ His voice had deepened, become growly, anger lingering dangerously beneath the surface like a serpent waiting to strike. He loomed over her in the dim light, every bit the predator, but she wasn’t going to be his next victim.
‘Just by saying that you are admitting guilt.’ She rounded on him. The hours spent on the plane and in his car, when she’d thought everything through silently, had allowed her temper to brew and now it flared to life.
For a moment his gaze held hers, his eyes hard and glittering. Tension stretched almost to breaking point between them as silence settled after her angry words. In her head she could hear her heartbeat, the fast thump of blood rushing around her body. It should have been ignited by her anger, but the flutter in her stomach as he stepped closer made it something else entirely.
It was raw attraction. Something she didn’t want to feel. Not now and not for this man.
He stepped even closer, his height towering over her in the darkness, and she looked up into his eyes, wanting to appear fearless but afraid he’d see just what an effect he could have on her. Could he hear her heart pounding? Had he noticed her breath, ragged and unsteady?
‘Dangerous words, cara.’ Each word was low and soft like a cat purring, but she sensed the coil of tension in him, the cool detachment from the emotions that careered inside her. He was more like a tiger preparing to strike.
‘I came here to see what Seb had been working on,’ she said, trying hard to beat down the flutter of emotions, and walked away from him towards the stairs. ‘So, can we just do that? Then I’d like to check into a nearby hotel.’
She didn’t wait for his answer, didn’t look at his face, but every nerve in her body told her he was watching her—intently. She was about to go up the stairs when light flooded the reception area and she blinked against it and turned to face him. The sleek clean lines of the interior of the building were exactly as she would have imagined and, unable to help herself, she looked around her, trying hard to ignore the man who stood in the centre of the marble floor and the superiority which radiated from him.
‘This way,’ he said and passed her as she waited at the foot of the stairs, his scent of musk and male trailing in his wake. ‘We’ll take the lift.’
She bit her bottom lip, anxiety rushing at her.
