Laughing softly, he lifted the pillow from her head and bent to kiss her.
Had he ever felt this happy?
Yes, he thought as a feather-stroke of unease raised the hair along his forearms. His grin faded. He’d felt this happy when he’d been a child. Blindingly, blissfully happy, and completely unaware of how easily all that could be lost with one bad decision.
* * *
By the time Sebastiano’s jet touched down in Naples it was late and Poppy’s joy at the day had morphed into something mellower. Giuseppe’s smiling limo driver greeted them and put his foot down as he whisked them through the dusky evening towards Villa Castiglione.
A soft, dreamy smile curved her lips as her mind drifted over the afternoon they had shared in Venice: eating pizza beneath a shop awning to dodge the rain, checking out the Guggenheim and visiting the island of Murano where she had bought two small glass figurines, one for her brother and one for Maryann. Sebastiano had also bought her a tiny bluebird he’d said was the exact colour of her eyes when she was happy.
It had all been so perfect. So wonderfully normal she had quite forgotten that it wasn’t. Had Sebastiano forgotten too? Did he feel any of the things she did?
She glanced at his carved profile. Being with him was like a dream, a dream she never wanted to wake up from. But the closer they got to the Villa, the closer they got to flying home to London, and the real world. The real world where yet again she would be required to be stoic and move on when things didn’t work out as she hoped.
Memories of past homes she and Simon had stayed at crowded in on her. Not all of them had been bad. Some had seemed almost promising but in the end even those families hadn’t wanted them. Not long term.
Feeling her stomach pitch Poppy pressed her hand to her abdomen. Sebastiano noticed.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Of course,’ she murmured, staring at their hands as he linked their fingers together.
The fact was she would follow Sebastiano’s lead on this. She would collect the things they had left at the villa the day before, say goodbye when he dropped her at her front door, maybe shake his hand, thank him for everything and—Oh God, the third wish...
She had nearly forgotten about the third wish.
Her throat tightened. She had already decided to let that go. How could she not when she loved him so much? Because, yes, she did love him, she acknowledged with a sigh. What was the point in denying it to herself any longer?
But she had a sneaking suspicion that Sebastiano wouldn’t let her off the hook about that last wish so easily. He wasn’t a man who left his debts unpaid, another thing that made him so lovable.
But what could she ask for when he was the only thing she wanted? The one thing she couldn’t have because, even though he had said he wanted her, even though they had shared another night together, nothing had really changed between them. She was still Poppy Connolly, the daughter of a drug user, and he was still Sebastiano Castiglione, descendent of a royal household. Their getting together would be like Zeus pairing up with a Hyde Park squirrel!
‘Look at the colour of the sea,’ she said, wanting to distract herself. ‘It’s almost black in this light.’
‘Yes.’
‘And those houses.’ She crinkled her nose. ‘Maintenance must be really difficult, seeing as how they’re built so close together. Do you think—? Hey!’
Suddenly she felt his hands on her waist. ‘I want to see you in London.’
His roughly spoken words startled her and she must have stared at him a full minute before responding, elation sending a wave of emotion through her whole body. ‘Did I just hear you right?’
‘Si. Our relationship might have started out fake, but it’s not fake any more.’ He flashed her a quick smile, his eyes searing her with a blaze of heat. ‘Why end things prematurely when we don’t have to?’
Reeling from his request, and his warm hands either side of her waist, a laugh welled up inside her. What had started out as fake for her had turned real in a very short space of time too.
Very real.
But continue to see him in London? A niggle in the back of her mind stopped her from jumping at the idea and throwing her hands around his neck. A niggle that warned her that if something was
too good to be true then it usually was.
‘But how do we make it work?’ she asked, easing back from him. ‘I have so little free time as it is. And...’ She shrugged helplessly. ‘Between our two schedules we’d never get to see each other.’
‘I’ll make it work.’
Poppy rolled her eyes at his confident tone. ‘But how? Give me the logistics.’