together? And once that idea had taken hold, nothing was going to budge it.
And the reality had been better than even his overheated imagination could have come up with. Sex with Harper had been amazing. Special. Maybe too special. Vieri realised that for the first time ever the sexual act had actually meant something, gone far beyond simple physical pleasure and taken him somewhere he had never been before, deep into unknown realms of emotions that he hadn’t even known existed. It felt dangerously like losing control, but for this one night he was going to allow himself to live solely in the moment, enjoy the here and now. He wasn’t going to think, he wasn’t going to analyse what had happened between them, or indeed the fact that Harper had clearly been a virgin. Not now. Not with her nuzzled like this in his arms. He felt himself drifting off into a contented sleep but when Harper moved softly against him, his arousal, which had already half woken from its slumber, defiantly made itself known.
‘Vieri.’ His name, uttered sleepily from her open lips, only served to stoke the fire, and when she reached for him, pressing her full breasts up against him, winding her legs around his, there was only one possible outcome. One hot and sensual, deeply sexual and infinitely satisfying conclusion.
* * *
Harper awoke with a start. The room was very still. A watery, early morning daylight was filtering through the gaps in the old wooden shutters. Pulling the covers under her chin, she stared at the foliage twisted around the posts of the bed, the roses that had lost their just-picked bloom.
She was alone. She knew that much without turning to look or spreading out a limb to check. She could sense the space where Vieri had been, feel it with a twitch of pain, like a hole in a tooth.
He had gone. Screwing her eyes shut, she forced herself to get a grip, to ignore the clenching of her heart, the acute sense of loss, abandonment.
She had known the deal when she had agreed to go to bed with Vieri. One night of pleasure. That was what they had signed up for. And clearly that night was over.
She turned on her side, staring at the indentation on the pillow where Vieri’s head had been. Despite the sense of emptiness inside her, she didn’t regret what they had done—she could never regret it. Because making love with Vieri had been the most wonderful experience of her life. She had felt it; it had happened. She was irrevocably changed. And even though the bed beside her was empty now, nothing could take that away.
Pulling back the covers, she caught sight of the crumpled pair of white stockings, remembering how Vieri had peeled them from her legs, some time in the middle of the night. How they had made love again, with such passion, such tenderness...but without a condom. She recalled Vieri cursing with frustration, searching his pockets again, coming back to bed empty-handed. But the power of their passion had been too strong and neither of them had had the willpower to stop. Instead Vieri had insisted that he would be very careful. She just hoped he was right.
Picking up the stockings, she rolled them into a ball and tossed them onto a chair before heading for the bathroom and a long, hot shower.
* * *
She sensed something had happened the moment she stepped out into the corridor. At first all seemed eerily quiet, but as she strained her ears she could hear low male voices and as she started to descend the sweeping staircase the two men in the hall looked up at her. Friends of Alfonso’s, they had stayed overnight. Harper started to smile at them but her smile froze as she got closer and caught the sombre expressions on their faces.
‘My dear.’ One of them reached out and touched her arm. ‘I am so sorry.’
Panic clawed at her heart. ‘W...what?’
‘You...you haven’t heard?’ The two men exchanged a glance.
‘No, tell me, please. What has happened?’
Just then the door to the study opened and Vieri appeared, his face ashen grey.
‘Vieri!’ Harper rushed towards him but he seemed to look straight through her.
A man in a dark suit followed him out and together they walked to the front door, speaking in soft but rapid Sicilian. Harper watched in frantic silence as they shook hands, the man pulling Vieri into a hug, patting him on the back, before turning to leave.
‘Vieri! Please, tell me what has happened!’ She ran to him again, putting her hands on his chest to bar his way, to prevent him from walking straight past her.
Vieri stopped, looking at her for the first time, and Harper felt her heart contract with pain. His handsome face was taut with grief, his eyes the colour of dull stone. He dragged in a breath, as if having to speak to her was costing him too much, more than he was prepared to give. But eventually he found the coldly terse words.
‘It’s Alfonso, Harper.’ He averted his gaze, as if he couldn’t bear to look at her. ‘He’s dead.’
‘No!’ Harper choked on the word, tears immediately brimming in her eyes. ‘But how...when?’
‘Some time last night.’
‘Oh, Vieri.’ Harper stared back at him, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. He took several steps away from her, then stood tall and straight, as imposing as ever, but with every plane of his body rigid with tension. As if, were she to touch him, he might snap. ‘I’m so sorry.’
He angled his head, giving an almost imperceptible shrug, as if to say her platitudes were of no interest to him. As if she were of no interest to him. This man, who only a few hours ago had looked at her as if she was the centre of his world, taking her to unknown heights of ecstasy, stealing her heart, was now regarding her with something bordering on disgust.
But he was grieving. Taking a shuddering breath, Harper wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. He looked so devastated, so lost, that she thought her heart might break for him.
Her feet took her towards him again, the overwhelming need to comfort him blocking out all other emotions. Throwing her arms around his waist, she tried to hug him to her, but it was like hugging a block of stone. And when she crushed her head against his chest, her tears dampening the front of his shirt, it seemed as if his heart beating against her ear had slowed to a cold, hard thud.
He made an impatient noise over the top of her head. ‘I need to get on. There are a lot of things I have to see to.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Harper sniffed noisily, pulling herself away. She cleared her throat, tucking her hair behind her ears. ‘Can you just tell me...was anyone with him when he died?’
‘Maria was with him.’ His voice was dry, detached. ‘She said it was very peaceful.’
‘Well, that’s something to be thankful for.’ Harper sniffed again. She waited for some sort of reply but his silence made it all too clear that she was being dismissed. ‘Okay, I’ll...um...let you get on, then.’ She started to move away. ‘But if there’s anything I can do to help, anything at all, you will say, won’t you?’
‘Actually there is.’ The force of his reply turned her hopefully back to face him.
‘Yes?’
‘Get rid of the guests.’ His mouth flattened into a hard line. ‘All of them. Right away.’
Harper hesitated, but only
