flat and Angelica’s legs would hang over the end of your sofa.’ He could picture them. Long legs, short skirt, sexy boots—
‘The sofa is a non-starter,’ she agreed, ‘but the room is here, just along the corridor. Right next to yours.’
That jolted him out of his fantasy. ‘That’s not your room!’
‘No? Whose clothes are hanging in the wardrobe? Whose book is on the bedside table? Nonnina Rosa believes that it’s my room and that, my dear cousin, makes it a fact.’
‘Nonnina Rosa is on the other side of the world.’
‘She’s just a second away in cyber space. You wouldn’t want her to discover that when I selflessly volunteered—’
‘Selflessly? Madonna!’
‘—when I selflessly volunteered to come halfway across the world to pick up the pieces and glue you back together, you did nothing to stop me from moving in with a Baldacci?’ She mimed her grandmother spitting at the mention of the hated name. ‘Would you?’
‘The only reason you’re here is because Vanni Baldacci’s father sent him to his Milan office to keep him out of the scheming clutches of a Vettori.’
‘Epic fail. The darling man has just texted me to say he’s on his way with my gumboots and a brolly.’
‘Lisa, please...’
‘Nonnina was desperately worried about you, Dan. She felt responsible—’
‘What happened had nothing to do with her. It was my choice. And you were about as much use as a chocolate teapot,’ he added before she could rerun what had happened. It was over, done with. ‘The only reason I keep you on is because no one else will employ you.’
She lifted her shoulders in a theatrical shrug. ‘Whatever,’ she said, not bothering to challenge him. ‘Of course, if you object so strongly to Geli having my room you could always invite her to share yours.’
‘Go away, Lisa, or I swear I’ll call Nonnina myself. Or maybe I should speak to Nicolo Baldacci.’
‘How long is it, exactly, since you got laid, Dan?’ she asked, not in the least bothered by a threat that they both knew he would never carry out. ‘It’s time to forget Valentina. You need to get back on the horse.’
He picked up the saucer of milk and waited for her to move.
‘I mean it. You’ve been looking at Geli like a starving man who’s been offered hot food ever since she walked through the door,’ she said, staying right where she was. ‘In fact, if I were a betting woman I’d be offering straight odds that you were taking the first mouthful when I interrupted you.’
‘I met her less than an hour ago,’ he reminded her, trying not to think about the feel of Angelica’s tongue on his lip even as he sucked it in to taste her. Coffee, honey, life...
‘An hour can be a lifetime when lightning strikes. I wanted to rip Vanni’s clothes off the minute I set eyes on him,’ she said with the kind of smile that suggested it hadn’t been much longer than that.
‘I’m not about to take advantage of a damsel in distress.’
‘Not even if she wants you to take advantage of her? She looked...interested.’
‘Not even then,’ he said, trying not to think about her crimson lips whispering ‘caldo...’, her breath against his mouth, the way she’d leaned into him, how her body fitted against his.
‘You are so damned English under that Italian exterior,’ she said. ‘Always the perfect gentleman. Never betraying so much as a quiver of emotion, even when the damsel in question is stomping all over you in her designer stilettos.’
‘Valentina knew what she wanted. I was the one who moved the goalposts.’
‘Don’t be so damned noble. You fall in love with the man, Dan, not some fancy penthouse, the villa at Lake Como, the A-list lifestyle. I’d live in a cave with Vanni.’
‘Then talk to your parents before your secret blows up in your faces.’ Dante had experienced that pain at first-hand... ‘It won’t go away, Lis.’
‘No.’ She pulled a face, muttered, ‘Stupid feud...’ Then she reached out and touched his arm. ‘I’ll leave you to it. Good luck with finding a hotel that’ll take Rattino,’ she said, heading towards the door. She didn’t get more than a couple of steps before she stopped, turned round. ‘I suppose Geli could put him back in her coat pocket and sneak him in—’
‘Are you done?’ he asked, losing patience.
‘—but it will only be a temporary solution. Tonight’s scene in the bar will be the talk of the market tomorrow.’
‘The snow will be the talk of the market tomorrow.’
She shook her head. ‘It snows every year but the combination of a head-turning woman, the rare sound of Dante Vettori laughing and a rat? Now that is something worth talking about.’
‘Lis,’ he warned.
‘Never mind. I’m sure you’ll think of something.’
‘You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.’
She grinned. ‘I know exactly what you’re thinking. You and every man in the bar when she arrived in a flurry of snowflakes. How to make an entrance! Tra-la-la...’ Lisa blew on her fingers and then shook them. ‘Seriously, Dan, I don’t know if Geli needs a job but she will need space to show her stuff and having her around will be very good for business.’
‘Are you done now?’
‘As for the other thing, my advice is to get in quickly or you’re going to be at the back of a very long queue.’ She almost made it to the door before she said, ‘You won’t forget that you offered her supper? Have you got anything up here or do you want me to look in the fridge?’
‘Just lock up and go home.’
‘Okay.’ She opened the door, looked back over her shoulder. ‘I’ve brought up Geli’s suitcase, by the way. It’s in her room.’
‘Basta! Andare!’
‘And you have lipstick—’ she pointed to the corner of her own mouth ‘—just here.’
* * *
Geli’s hands were shaking as she scooped out a tiny portion of chicken for the kitten, her whole body trembling as she sank to her knees beside the bath, resting her chin on her arms as she watched him practically inhale it. Trying to decide which was most disturbing—kissing a man she’d only just met or being told that the flat she’d paid good money to rent did not exist.
It should be the flat. Obviously.
Elle was going to be furious with her for being so careless. Her grandmother had lost everything but the roof over their heads to a con man not long after their mother died. Without their big sister putting her
