she’d been burned.
‘You know I only have a week, and Art is... Daddy is,’ she corrected quickly, ‘keen to hear what I think of the place.’
‘Your wish is my command.’ His voice was low and husky and her body reacted instantly, her nipples straining against the fabric of her dress, her eyes widening. And he saw. She just knew he was aware of the effect he was having.
‘I’m fine.’ She shook her head with an attempt at professional detachment. ‘I can find my own way.’
His face wore a slow, sardonic grin. ‘Just like you were fine to get off the boat?’
She huffed. ‘That’s not very gentlemanly of you.’
‘What gave you the impression I’m a gentleman?’ he queried softly, moving closer so that she found thoughts difficult to string together.
‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘But I really will be fine. I’m just going to walk along the beach today. If I get lost, I’ll turn back. Even I should be able to navigate my way around an island without coming to grief.’
‘Still,’ he said, wondering in the back of his mind why he was arguing with her. ‘I’m here to show you around.’
She nodded, lifting her gaze to his face thoughtfully. She caught a flicker of emotion in his eyes that she didn’t understand. ‘Why?’
He shrugged. ‘Because it’s a big island and you could get lost.’
‘No, I mean why you? You must have people who could sell an island for you.’
‘Yes.’ His mouth was a grim slash in his face.
‘So? Aren’t you too busy to act as tour guide?’
Rio thought of the paperwork cluttering his desk in Rome and shook his head. Contracts for the high-rise in Manhattan. The lease for the Canadian mall. The purchase offer he’d made on a mine in Australia.
It could wait. Keeping the invasive tabloid press away from his private life was priority number one. He’d spent the last five years making sure his parentage wasn’t revealed, and he wasn’t going to let the truth come out now. Involving more people than necessary in this deal was a sure-fire way to invite public attention.
‘Yes.’
Why had he decided that distraction was the best way to get her off the scent and stop her questions? He couldn’t have said, but he moved closer, noting with interest the way her pupils darkened.
‘But I don’t really like the idea of you drowning in my ocean. Or tumbling off a cliff on my land.’
‘Your ocean? Your land? Someone’s got a bit of a God complex, haven’t they?’
His laugh was deep; it resonated right through her.
‘Until your father signs on the dotted line, that is the truth of the matter.’
She tilted her head to one side, lost in thought. ‘I don’t know if I believe anyone truly owns an island like this.’
‘I have a piece of paper that would beg to differ.’
She waved her hand through the air distractedly. ‘Yes, yes—legally. But don’t you think...?’ She left the sentence unfinished as she realised what she’d been about to say. Discussing her personal philosophies wasn’t part of the job. And, essentially, she was on Prim’amore to work.
She’d been paid—and paid a small fortune. Now she had to uphold her end of the bargain.
‘Yes?’ he prompted, but Tilly had zipped away from their conversation.
‘Well,’ she said, injecting her voice with the same sense of entitlement she’d personally been on the receiving end of any time Cressida had called and asked for a favour, ‘if you really want to waste your time playing sales agent, then let’s go.’
He arched a brow, but if he was surprised by her pronouncement he didn’t otherwise show it.
Tilly did a pretty good Cressida huff as she strode down the corridor and pushed the door to the cottage open. But the moment she stepped on to the small deck she froze, a gasp escaping her mouth.
He followed, almost bumping into her. ‘Problem?’
She shook her head, her eyes wide as they took in the sheer beauty of the spot. He watched her, and understood the wonderment in her face. Hadn’t he felt a similar sense of incredulity when he’d first arrived?
‘It is heaven on earth, mi amore.’
His mother had been confused at the end. She’d slipped in and out of her past just as a dolphin rippled over the surface of the ocean, and most of her memories had revolved around him. Piero. The bastard who’d broken her heart and left her pregnant and destitute.
‘It is as if God left a small piece of heaven just for us to find and enjoy.’
His expression was grim as he studied the horizon, seeing it as Cressida was. The ocean was immaculate. A deep turquoise colour disturbed only by the gentle cresting of waves. The sky was a blanket of deep blue, the sun an orb of white, high in the sky.
‘I feel like we’re the only ones on earth,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘I hadn’t expected the island to be so...’
He waited, curious as to how she would choose to describe it.
‘It’s not just beautiful,’ she said, searching for words. ‘It’s...magical.’
‘Magical?’ he repeated derisively, ignoring how close the description was to his mother’s first impression.
The amusement in his tone was enough to drag her back to the present. ‘Yes.’ She forced a cynical smile to her face. ‘At least that’s what Daddy will be hoping hordes of tourists think.’
He nodded, dismissing the sense that she was hiding something from him. ‘The island’s perfect for a holiday resort. Close enough to Capri to provide entertainment, but totally isolated at the same time. It’s easy to imagine how special any resort would be here.’
She nodded, but there was sadness in her heart. Having been on the island less than an hour, she already knew she hated the idea of buildings and roads cutting across it. Of people bobbing in the ocean, boats churning across its smooth surface, voices shouting through the serenity.
‘Yes,’ she said, her frown carrying into the simple word.
‘What would you like to see, Cressida?’ he asked, and the use of the socialite’s name reminded Tilly forcefully of just what her duties were.
‘I was just going to walk along the beach,’ she murmured, nodding in one direction.
‘Fine. We’ll walk.’
He moved towards the stairs and she followed, though his presence was knotting her tummy again.
‘You really don’t have to come with me,’ she said
