awkwardly. ‘I’ll take her with me this time. You probably have work to do.’
Rigo nodded, glancing at from his emails onscreen as she gathered up a bag of toiletries and disappeared into the bedroom at the back of the plane. Something dark and uncomfortable began to uncoil in his chest.
She was beautiful, his daughter. How he hadn’t seen the resemblance straight away he would never understand. But the mind played cruel tricks when it was angry, and he had most definitely been angry. He had missed so much already. He wondered if the little girl would somehow have already erected a great big wall between them. Or if she would remember his absence and think of him forever as somehow lacking as a father.
* * *
As Rigo stepped out onto the veranda of his Tuscan villa he was once again filled with a sense of bone-meltingly deep calm. He nursed a cup of freshly brewed espresso in his hands and sat down to watch as pink fingers of sunlight spread across the dawn sky above the vineyards. The villa sat on acre upon acre of sprawling lush green hills and farmland. He listened to the glorious absence of traffic noise, pedestrian voices and all the other sounds he associated with his life in Paris.
Nicole appeared beside him, dressed in only a light silk robe, her hair spread over her shoulders in a tumble of loose errant waves. He had made love to his wife once more in the night, after waking to feel her long limbs tangled with his own, and then again just before they had decided to get up early for breakfast.
‘This view is breathtaking.’ She sighed, leaning forward against the balustrade as she cradled her own steaming cup of coffee in her hands. ‘If it were mine I would never leave.’
‘Technically it is yours now.’ He stirred his coffee thoughtfully. ‘I bought this place to help drum up profit in the local area, with the vineyards and the stables, but I don’t think I’ve set foot here more than twice in the past few years.’
‘Don’t you ever take time off?’ she asked. ‘Wait—I already know the answer to that question.’
‘I live a very busy life, as you know. But I have been ordered by my PR team to take this honeymoon so I plan to make the most of it.’
‘You make it sound like such a chore.’ Nicole’s expression dropped a little, her eyes drifting away to gaze out at the sudden sparkling fountains of water that had begun to fly through the air as the sprinkler system began to drench the land.
‘I’m sorry if my lack of enthusiasm offends you, but I’m simply not built to be idle. It makes me feel edgy.’
She looked up at him. ‘That’s possibly the first spontaneously personal thing you’ve ever said to me,’ she said. ‘I was beginning to wonder if you might be made of stone under all that muscle.’
‘I think we both know that I don’t run cold with you, tesoro.’ He reached out to trap her in the circle of his arms, pulling her close.
Nicole laid her coffee down on the table beside them, placing her hands flat on his chest. ‘We communicate well in bed—that much is true. But I’m talking about when we’re not in bed, Rigo. It makes me uncomfortable to think that you know practically everything about me while I still know so very little about you.’
‘What would you like to know?’ he asked, leaning back against the balustrade.
‘I don’t know.’ Nicole laughed. ‘That’s like asking me how many grapes grow in this vineyard.’
‘About five and a half tons per acre, give or take.’ He smirked at her answering glare. ‘I’m joking—that’s just a guess.’
‘Isn’t there a Rigo Marchesi that you have never shown to the world?’
His expression faltered for a moment, and the emotion in his eyes was so intense it made her breath catch. But just as quickly as it had appeared it was gone, making her wonder if she had simply imagined it.
‘I have never lived under any pretence like you have, Nicole. The Marchesis don’t have the luxury of keeping secrets,’ he said nonchalantly, taking another sip of his coffee. ‘If you want to know more about my secret wine collection, now, that is something I can do.’ He smiled—a brilliant expression that transformed the previous shadows in his face.
Nicole looked at his smile and felt something bloom inside her. That small little seed of silly hope that she knew she was clutching tight to her chest. He was still holding back a lot of himself. But was she naive to hope that their attraction might bloom into something deeper if given the chance? They would be here together for the next couple of weeks, and she was determined to make the most of her chance to dig under the protective armour he seemed to wear.
After they’d washed and dressed they spent the day exploring the grounds of the estate, with Rigo seeming more at ease holding Anna as he pointed to all the different types of grapes that grew in the massive vineyard.
Nicole tried her best to step back and let him take the lead. She hadn’t expected him to be so interested in his daughter. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that he would be an involved father when she had already seen how much he worked. But as Rigo leaned down and dropped a kiss on Anna’s cheek she felt another layer of the armour around her heart crack apart. Anna nestled her face into his shoulder and Rigo’s brows rose in surprise.
‘I think she’s starting to like me.’ He looked to where Nicole stood, watching them.
She tried to laugh, ignoring the way her heart soared at the sight of him holding his tiny daughter. That pesky glimmer of hope bloomed once more in her chest, making her want things she couldn’t have.
RIGO MOVED AWAY from the doorway after watching Nicole lay their daughter down. She had fallen asleep in her arms. The little girl was exhausted after a morning of paddling in the pool followed by an afternoon visiting the stables. The past week, since they’d landed in Tuscany, had passed for him in a comfortable routine of long days exploring the surrounding towns followed by long, hot nights with his wife.
Nicole followed him out to the veranda, plugging the monitor in nearby as Rigo grabbed two glasses of wine.
‘I don’t think I will ever settle for another wine again after tasting this.’ Nicole sighed deeply, leaning her head back as they sat down on one of the loungers, side by side.
‘All the wine from this vineyard is exceptional. But this particular one is from their vintage collection—my personal favourite.’
‘So are you going to explain your behaviour earlier?’ Nicole smirked, a knowing smile playing on her lips.
‘You mean when I saved Anna from having her fingers bitten off?’ Rigo shook off the sheer anxiety he’d felt at having the small child in the stables, surrounded by his huge stallions.
‘The horse was at least two feet away, Rigo. And I was holding her tightly.’
‘She was getting too excited—flapping her tiny fingers in front of it. It was only a matter of time before something happened.’
‘Oh, Mr Serious, you really do need to learn how to relax.’ Nicole tutted. ‘Anna was in no danger today. You seem to have
