‘I have two housekeepers who live in, make sure everything is ticking over. Occasionally, it’s used by some of my employees, a little bonus if they do well. The promise of an all-expenses-paid long weekend here generates a lot of healthy competition, and it does no harm for the place to get an airing now and again.’
‘It’s huge. What about family members?’
‘Oh, completely off-limits to them. My parents ensured their place in the pecking order as the black sheep of the family and I’ve inherited their generous legacy. I have little contact with my extended family.
‘My parents were both only children, so there are strangely few people who bear a belated grudge towards me. I see a couple of slightly less distant relatives now and again when I’m in Milan; a few more work in some of my associated companies, my way of making amends for my parents’ appallingly hedonistic behaviour which was, if all accounts are to be believed, ruinous to both family names.’
He edged towards her and pointed. ‘You can’t see it, but there’s a winding path that leads down to a private cove at the bottom of the cliff face. Excellent bathing. Once upon a time, fishing used to be big here. Not so much any more. Tourism pays better, it would seem. The wealthy find the sight of yachts far more uplifting than the reality of fishing boats.’
‘What a shame you don’t get here often,’ Chase said. When he was like this—charming, informative, his voice as deep and as dark as the most pure, rich, velvety chocolate—she could forget everything. She could lapse back to the past where dangerous, taboo emotions still held a certain innocence, a time when he didn’t hate her. ‘Don’t you sometimes long to have someone to share this with?’
‘Oh, but isn’t that what I’m doing now?’ Alessandro drawled. ‘Admittedly, only for a few days, and with a woman who is destined never to return, but it’ll do for the moment.’
He reached across, pulling her towards him. ‘I’ve given my loyal housekeepers time off,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘It’s hot here. I thought it might be nice for us to live as naturists for a few days. Why bother with clothes? I want to be able to touch you anywhere...at any time... And you’ll discover that my house is perfect for ensuring one hundred per cent privacy. I’ll make you thaw, my sweet; on that count, you can trust me...’
Chase was still smarting from the insistent stab of hurt his words had generated. Destined never to return.
They approached the sprawling villa through wrought-iron gates which had been flung open, revealing perfectly groomed lawns stretching out on either side of the gravel drive.
‘How many people does it take to look after these gardens?’ She shouldn’t have been, but she was still shocked by the splendour.
‘A small army,’ Alessandro admitted drily. ‘I’m single-handedly trying to do my bit to keep the economy going. There’s a very private pool to the side of the house. I have vague memories of my parents throwing some extremely wild parties there.’
‘I had no idea the house belonged to them.’ Chase turned to look at him and their eyes tangled. Instantly, she could feel her breasts begin to ache in expectation of his caresses. With Shaun, she had become conditioned to viewing sex as something that had to be done. But when she had lain next to Alessandro her body had been fired up in a way that was new and, whilst they hadn’t made love, it now thrummed at the prospect of being touched by him. It was a heady, exciting feeling and she was sure that it was all wrapped up in the culmination of what had begun all that time ago, what had never come to fruition.
‘It was their pride and joy. The one thing they both hung on to.’
‘And you kept it for sentimental reasons?’
‘I never do anything for sentimental reasons. It’s a good, appreciating asset.’
It was dreamy. If she had been able to conceive of a place like this, she might have been more elaborate in her teenage fantasies about perfect lifestyles instead of just settling for average. Then she decided that it was just as well, because how much more awkward would life have been now had her naïve, happily married parents in their two-up two-down been turned into minor landed gentry living in a small castle?
They were greeted by an elderly housekeeper and her husband who had stayed on to welcome Alessandro, tugging him into the kitchen so that they could show him the freezer full of food that had been prepared and the well-stocked larder. He managed to shoo them away after an hour and they departed wreathed in smiles.
‘They’ve been with me for longer than I care to think. As you know, my parents were firm believers in handing over care of their offspring to hired help,’ he told her as he played tour guide, taking her from room to room. He absently thought how many of those little details of his past she had been privy to, courtesy of that small window in his life during which his self-control had gone on holiday.