it might be nice for you to have a day with your father, without being on edge with me here.’
‘I’m going to take him in some breakfast,’ Sophie said.
‘The doctor is coming at nine to check up on him,’ Luka said, and he put a credit card on the bench.
‘What’s this for?’
‘The caterers and things.’
‘I can cover that,’ Sophie lied. She really had been intending to spend the day cooking and doing what she could to prepare for tonight.
‘Please, don’t say you will get this. You asked me to go along with things as if we were together. Well, that is how it would be. Book the caterers, get the garden looking beautiful. I have never heard of your business so I don’t know how easy it will be for you to arrange things with no notice. Use my name, you won’t have a problem’
She didn’t have a single one.
It was strange to have the world at your fingers, courtesy of the Cavaliere name.
Except people didn’t jump in fear when she rang and said that she was organising a last-minute gathering; instead, they seemed genuinely happy to help.
And so she enjoyed herself amidst the saddest of times.
The columns of foliage and scented trees were decorated with tiny lights that would come on at sunset. A string quartet had been arranged and the food had Sophie’s mouth watering even as she made her selections.
Hearing her father cough and struggle to catch his breath, Sophie knew this would all be over, long before the credit-card bills came in.
‘What’s this?’ Paulo asked.
‘A new shirt and suit.’ Sophie smiled. ‘They just need you to try it on so they can take it in.’
Yes, to Sophie, Luka’s life was charmed.
And so she had a beautician come to Luka’s home and sat on a velvet chair in the bedroom as her thick black hair was spun into heavy ringlets and her eyelids were painted a smoky grey.
‘Red lips...’ the beautician said, but Sophie shook her head.
In her bag, still there, was her once-used lip glaze.
She wondered if it would all have dried up but, no, it went on easily.
‘Just touch it up through the evening,’ the beautician said. ‘And try not to play with your hair or the curls will drop.’
Sophie chose her dress from the selection Bella had made. A simple black dress that went with the shoes she had worn on the day she had walked into his office was her choice. She tried it on and let out a small hiss of frustration. The front was far too low and as for the back there wasn’t one.
Luka walked in as Sophie stood staring in the mirror, trying to fathom if she’d be safe without a bra.
He saw first her back, glossy and brown, with black ringlets snaking down it. He looked down and saw the muscles of her calves drawn lean in high heels and he walked over, anticipating her slight jump as he came into view in the mirror.
‘I’m sorry about all this,’ Sophie said.
‘Don’t be sorry.’ Luka shrugged. ‘I agreed to go along with this. Of course your father would want a special night.’
‘Thank you.’
He looked at her lips and told himself he was imagining things because they were the very lips he had kissed that long-ago day. He looked down at the gape of unrestrained cleavage and thick nipples that jutted from the fabric.
‘I forgot to pack my backless bra...’
‘Those bras are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.’
She could feel a shiver on her back, so light she thought it might be his finger, but she realised he was holding a drink with one hand and removing his tie with the other.
It was the nerves on her spine that were leaping in hope.
‘I’ll change,’ Sophie said, turning to go to the wardrobe, except Luka didn’t step aside and she walked slap bang into him.
His drink he held steady.
It was her heart that seemed to spill on the floor.
‘You’ll wear that,’ Luka said. ‘You’ll wear what turns me on.’
‘Why?’ Sophie demanded. Why the hell would he do this to them?
‘Mortification of the flesh,’ Luka answered. ‘It’s my new game.’
He undid his shirt and she could feel the tense pinch of her nostrils as he took it off and she would hold her breath till he headed for the shower.
He didn’t, though.
Instead, he went to the wardrobe and took out a clean shirt.
‘Aren’t you going to shower?’
‘There’s no time for that.’
‘Luka, please...’
‘Do I smell?’ He came over and lifted his arm and she simply refused to breathe him in. ‘No, I showered this morning. You get me in the raw...’
She wanted him clean and sterile—she didn’t want his heady scent.
‘See?’ Luka smiled at her pale face. ‘It’s a good game. Well, it is for me. I keep forgetting you don’t like all that business...’ He did up his shirt and Sophie chose to get out.
‘I’m going to help my father get ready.’
‘No need.’ His eyes did not leave her alone for a minute. ‘I brought a nurse back with me. Another one will take her place at midnight. They come with the best references and I have done the necessary checks.’
‘I take care of my father.’
‘Of course you do,’ Luka said. ‘But as a daughter, not a nurse. I was thinking today that if I had a child, not that I ever will, but if I did I would not want them looking after me in that way. Enjoy him as your father now.’
‘I can’t afford a nurse.’ Her words were shrill, her admission reluctantly dragged through strained lips, but Luka didn’t even blink.
‘You know,’ he drawled, ‘they’re the first honest words to come out of your mouth. We need to head out there. Matteo and Shandy will be here soon, I believe they’re getting engaged in a few weeks...’
‘Shandy?’ Sophie said, resentment prickling for Bella, for her heart would break when she found out that Matteo was about to get engaged. ‘What sort of a name is that? Is he bringing a horse?’
‘Oh...’ Luka gave a low laugh. ‘She’s back.’
‘Who?’
