and died away. Two weeks would be perfect. Long enough to seduce her—it was his turn this time, after all—but not long enough to tie them together for life.
When they’d finished eating, there was a natural lull. They sat in silence, staring out at the lake, which was showing off for them, flipping its waves into frothy white crests. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a subtle shift in Jackie’s posture, felt rather than heard her take in a breath and hold it. He moved his head so he could look at her.
For a moment she was motionless, but then she pushed her sunglasses back onto her head and stared at him. He blinked and refused to let his muscles tighten even a millimetre.
‘Romano…’
She broke off and looked at the lake. After a long, heavy minute, she turned to him again. ‘I…I wanted to talk to you about something.’
Although they’d been talking Italian all this time, she switched into English and the consonants sounded hard and clunky in comparison. He stopped smiling.
‘Would you consider an exclusive fashion shoot for Gloss!, timed to come out the day after the new Puccini collection is revealed?’
He opened his mouth and nothing came out. For some bizarre reason he hadn’t been expecting that at all.
But that was Jackie Patterson all over. She had a way of overturning a man’s equilibrium in the most thrilling manner. It was a pity he’d forgotten how that excitement was always mixed with a hint of disorientation and a dash of discomfort. Didn’t mean he liked it any less.
This could be the perfect opportunity to keep close to Jackie for the next few days, easing that frown off her forehead, making her relax in his company until she remembered how good they’d been together instead of how messily it had ended.
‘It’s a possibility,’he said and gave her a long, lazy smile. ‘But let’s save the details for later—say, drinks tomorrow evening?’
CHAPTER FIVE
IT WAS just as well that Jackie knew the road to Monta Correnti like the back of her hand, because she wasn’t really concentrating on her driving as she travelled back to her mother’s villa. Just as well she’d only drunk half a glass of wine at lunch too. Romano had her feeling light-headed enough as it was and she’d decided she needed her wits about her if she was going to tell him what could be the biggest piece of news in his whole thirty-four years on this planet.
Only, it hadn’t quite turned out that way, had it?
She’d chickened out.
Jackie sighed as she made her way up the steep hill, hogging far too much of the road to be polite.
She’d thought she’d been ready for it, thought she’d been ready to open her mouth and change his life for ever.
What she hadn’t counted on was that, without the benefit of almost two decades of hate backing her up, Romano’s effect on her would be as potent as ever. He’d always made her a little breathless just by standing too close, just by smiling at her. It had got her completely off track. Distracted. She’d do well to remember the mess she’d ended up in the last time she’d given in to that delicious lack of oxygen.
All the chemistry she was feeling probably didn’t have anything to do with her. He couldn’t help it, just exuded some strange pheromone that sent women crazy. While Romano had built a solid foundation and long-lasting reputation in his professional life he wasn’t the greatest in the permanence stakes, and she’d started panicking that he’d be a bad father, that he wasn’t what Kate needed.
Jackie muttered to herself as she took a hairpin bend with true Italian bravado.
What did she know? Did she have any more ‘permanence’ in her life? The truth was, after Romano, she’d never really let anyone get that close again. Oh, she’d had relationships, but ones where she’d had all the power. They’d dragged on for a couple of years until the men in question had realised she never was going to put them ahead of her work, and when they’d left she’d congratulated herself for having the foresight not to jump into the relationship with both feet.
Jackie slowed the car and pulled into a gravelly lookout point near the top of the hill. She switched off the engine, got out and walked towards the railing and the wonderful view of the lake.
She’d wanted to run, to get as far away from him as possible. Was that why she’d chickened out of telling Romano the truth? Was she once again thinking of herself, of keeping herself safe, of keeping the illusion of perfection intact?
No. She’d been scared, but not for herself—for Kate. She’d imagined all the different scenarios, all the different reactions he might have. Would Romano be angry? Horrified? Ambivalent?
What if she scared Romano off by dropping this bomb-shell? It was too sudden, too much, after seventeen years of silence. She wouldn’t get a second go at this. It had to be right the first time.
She swallowed and gripped the wonky iron railing for support, but instead of staring at the majesty of Lake Adrina, she just stared at her feet.
Her heart might just break for Kate if Romano didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She knew what it was like to lose a man like that. It hurt. Really hurt. And Kate might hate her for doing it all wrong and scaring him away. She couldn’t have that.
Lunch had been good, but it had only been a starting point. They had to build on the fragile truce they’d started to mesh together. Whether they liked it or not, she and Romano would be for ever linked once he knew the truth.
So she’d invented a reason to keep him talking to her, to keep them seeing each other. They needed to get to know each other again. Then she could work out a way of telling him about Kate that wouldn’t send him running.
She’d just have to ignore the glint of mischief deep in those unusual grey eyes, forget about the fact her body thought it was full of adolescent hormones again when she clapped eyes on him. At least Romano hadn’t tried anything; he’d been the perfect gentleman, even though she was sure there’d been a hum of remembered attraction in the air. Thank goodness they were older and wiser now and both knew it would be a horrible mistake to act on it.
When Jackie finally drove through the gateposts of her mother’s villa, she spotted Scarlett sitting on the low steps that led to the front door, watching her rental car intently as she swung it round and parked it beside her mother’s sports car. She pressed her lips together as she switched off the engine. She knew that look. Scarlett was in the mood for a showdown and Jackie really wasn’t.
She got out of the car and tried to ignore Scarlett, but as she neared the steps Scarlett stood up and blocked her path.
‘What?’ she said with the merest hint of incredulity in her voice. ‘Have you been waiting for me here all afternoon?’
Scarlett returned her stare. ‘Basically.’
Jackie shook her head and moved to pass her sister. Stubborn wasn’t the word.
‘Please?’ Scarlett said, just as they were about to brush shoulders.
It wasn’t the tone of her voice—slightly hoarse, slightly high-pitched—that stopped Jackie in her tracks, but the desperation in her
