MS KEATING: [silence]
INTERVIEWER ONE: When did you get to Italy?
SIA HAD BEEN reluctant to leave the Caribbean but the prospect of going to Italy had her practically skipping down the steps of the private jet that had whisked them to an airfield just outside Siena.
‘I can’t believe you haven’t been to Italy,’ Sebastian said as if disgusted. ‘It is a crime.’
‘Your definition of crime might need to be looked at,’ she replied around a smile.
‘Anywhere you would like to go?’ he asked, guiding her towards a beautiful grey convertible at the end of the tarmac. It was sleek and old-fashioned, the kind of car that made Sia want to run her hand across the bonnet to see if it was as silky as it looked, gleaming in the Tuscan sun.
‘Is this yours?’ she demanded, momentarily forgetting his question.
‘Yes.’
‘Can I drive?’ she asked.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘But you flew the plane,’ she said, knowing full well that she sounded like a stroppy child.
‘Really? That’s how you’re going to play this?’ Sebastian demanded, peering over the top of his sunglasses.
‘Fine.’ She relented long enough to return to his earlier question. ‘I want to go to the Uffizi and the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. Definitely have to see the medieval frescoes in the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, and Michelangelo’s Pieta in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City—’
‘Okay, okay, I get it,’ Sebastian interrupted, putting the car into gear and pulling out of the airfield onto the road towards his estate just outside of Siena. ‘You want to see everything.’
‘If we can,’ she said, a hint of reticence in her voice for the first time in days.
‘We’ve got time,’ Sebastian said, as if trying to convince himself as he shifted up to the highest gear and hit the accelerator.
The glide of the steering wheel beneath his hands as they took the familiar corners and bends in the road to his estate was strangely satisfying to Sebastian. It hadn’t been that long since he’d been here, but for the first time it felt as if he were coming home. For so many years, on the move between his hotels all around the world, working every hour he could, it had been a place more for Maria than him. But, bringing Sia here, it felt as if he were revealing part of himself to her.
But only a part.
He could afford her this small glimpse into his life because she was going to leave it. They only had ten days left now and it was because he felt that time was running out for them that he’d decided to surprise her that evening.
He smiled, the prospect of it exciting him as much as he hoped it would delight her. He looked across to where she sat beside him. Having tied a scarf around her hair to stop it whipping about her head, she looked like a siren from the silver screen, the bright slash of red lipstick screaming from rosebud lips that he wanted very much to mess up with deep, hot, open-mouthed kisses.
She looked glorious. Alive and full of even more passion than he’d thought possible when he’d first met her in Victoriana. He wanted it, all of it. His fingers gripped the steering wheel and he wondered when this obsession with her would be done. His need for her was almost constant, but it was absolutely nothing in comparison with his awareness of what she needed and wanted.
‘When was the last time you were home?’ Sia asked in a half shout over the roar of the wind and the purr of the engine.
‘I had a little lunch thing with the Queen of Iondorra and her husband,’ he said.
‘Did you just name-drop a royal?’ she demanded.
‘Absolutely,’ he said, shrugging his shoulder, causing Sia to laugh. ‘It’s one of the perks of Theo’s marriage.’
‘Theo?’
‘Tersi. The friend you were surprised I had?’ He paused to take the last turn-off for the estate. ‘We were checking out Maria’s husband. Needed to make sure that he was good enough,’ he said as he drove parallel to the boundary wall of his home.
‘And was he?’
‘Time will tell,’ Sebastian replied, turning his mind away from Matthieu Montcour as he guided the car through the wrought iron gates and up the drive before pulling to a stop beside the steps leading up to the front door.
Sia took her time getting out of the beautiful sports car she’d enjoyed so much, partly because her legs felt a little unsteady and partly because Sebastian might as well have brought her to the house of her dreams. Only it was more of a grand estate than a house.