Chapter Seven
‘Yes, it’s still going wonderfully. Tiring though, but I expected that.’ Sonia held the phone with one hand and stretched her other arm over her head. She’d spent too many hours straight working and felt like her whole body was kinked. She dropped her arm and braced it on the railing of the roof terrace. Before her, dusk turned Rome indigo and gold as city lights glittered beneath the dark sky. Even after a month and a half she hadn’t got used to the city’s beauty.
‘You don’t sound tired. You sound energised.’ Her sister Angela laughed and warmth enveloped Sonia, as if Ange were here instead of on a film set in Ravenna.
‘I am.’ Sonia rolled her stiff shoulder. ‘Despite feeling like I could sleep for a week, I don’t remember the last time I felt so enthusiastic.’
‘So it was the right thing taking the job.’ Ange sounded smug. As well she might. Sonia’s designs for Ange’s film star friend Gina Moretti had led to the offer of this design position. Fortunately too, though the company was based in Milan, her boss preferred to live in his beloved Rome.
‘Definitely the right thing. I love Rome. I feel I can be anyone I want to be here. That there’s no reason I can’t reach out and make my dreams come true.’
Back home in Australia she’d begun to have some success with her designs but it was nothing compared with the opportunities she had with this new position. Besides, in Italy she felt free of the baggage of her abysmally failed relationship. She could almost pretend it hadn’t happened.
‘And is it just the job making you so happy?’
Sonia blinked and stared at the floodlit dome of a church a few streets away. ‘Sorry?’
‘Well, you loved your work in Australia and you’ve always been so positive. Look at the way you helped me when things were tough.’ When Ange separated from her husband at the same time their mother died. It had been a tremendously difficult time for both sisters but they’d got through it and now Ange was reunited with her adoring husband. ‘But lately you sound even more... I don’t know. Elated.’
Sonia knew exactly what Ange meant. She woke each day with a fizz of anticipation in her blood and it definitely wasn’t just because she’d landed her dream job.
Her thoughts drifted to this morning, to waking snuggled against Renzo’s muscled frame. Of the sleepy smile of welcome he’d given her that felt like a cocoon of warmth and wellbeing, wrapping around her. Of showering together and the surprised delight in his eyes as she’d slid down his long frame and taken him in her mouth. Of the heady triumph and exquisite tenderness she felt as she brought him to the edge, only to have him haul her up high so he could lose himself in her body, bringing them both to joyous completion.
She’d almost been late for work. In the end Renzo had scrambled to help, finding her shoes and jacket while she shimmied into her favourite skirt and red top. Then, at the door they’d got distracted again, so she’d left with her lipstick kissed off and her hair shockingly messed. When she’d tried combing it into submission Renzo had captured her hand, kissed it and told her the tousled, just-out-of-bed look suited her.
‘Sonia?’
‘Sorry, sis. I missed that.’
‘I was just wondering if there was any other reason you’re so happy.’ She paused. ‘A man, maybe?’
Instantly Sonia tried to cut her off. ‘Now you sound like an old married woman, trying to match up every single you know.’
Sonia didn’t want to talk about Renzo, even with Angela. What they had was so... out of her ordinary world. She wasn’t a woman who had steamy affairs with charismatic Italian studs. Not that Renzo was just a stud. Sexy as he was, he made her laugh, and he was kind too, always interested in what she had to say and—
‘That’s because marriage is absolutely wonderful! With the right man.’
Sonia heard her sister’s tone change on the last sentence and guessed she was thinking of their father, a cold, selfish man who’d been abusive and threatening. Poor Ange had had to live with him longest while Sonia stayed in Australia with their mother.
‘Of course marriage is wonderful. You’ve got Matteo. You know he’s one of a kind.’ Plus her brother-in-law loved his wife with such obvious devotion it was a joy to behold.
‘I know it,’ Angela murmured. ‘But I’m sure there’s someone out there for you too. I don’t know exactly what happened before you left Australia, but I’d hate to think it had soured you off men for good.’
Sonia frowned. As far as she knew Ange didn’t know anything about her ill-fated relationship with Eric. But her sister had great instincts. Clearly she’d guessed something momentous had happened. Probably because Sonia wasn’t good at lying.
And wasn’t that the great irony, given that her whole relationship with Eric had been a lie?
He’d deliberately seduced her, knowing she was looking for love. Making a mockery of her hopes. Worse, turning her into the despised other woman.
Sonia shuddered, chilled to the marrow as she recalled the moment she discovered he was married and had kids. That he was just amusing himself with a gullible woman. Their love story was nothing but a sordid affair and he’d left Sonia feeling tainted and guilty even though she’d acted in innocence.
‘You know I’m not in the market for a man, Ange. I’ve got a career to build.’
Yet as she said it, her thoughts reeled back over the last weeks. To Renzo, sleepy-eyed but up to make her coffee before she left for work. Of him listening as she rambled about her work and encouraging her with insightful questions. Sharing the highs and lows of his own work. Taking her out to explore the city he loved, or staying in and teaching her Italian, rewarding her progress with kisses that led them straight to bed, or the sofa, or, memorably, the kitchen counter.