“Keira, you don’t understand!” he yelled. “Please stop!”

Feeling eyes on her, Keira veered to the cover of the clock tower’s dark shadow. Her intention was to avoid a scene, to have a quiet conversation with Cristiano in order to stop him drawing so much attention to her.

When she reached the shadows, she pressed her shoulder against the smooth, cool side of the tower, then wiped away her tears as Cristiano jogged up to her.

“Please keep your voice down,” she hissed, folding her arms. “You’re embarrassing me even more.”

“You have no need to be embarrassed,” Cristiano told her emphatically.

“Oh really?” Keira huffed. “Maybe if I was an Italian woman I’d have known the rules and wouldn’t be embarrassed. But in my culture, finding out your date has a wife tends to be a bit blush-inducing.”

Keira couldn’t be sure because of the shadows, but it looked as though Cristiano was smiling. The sight infuriated her. What on earth could be so funny to him about shaming her so thoroughly?

“I did not know we were on a date,” Cristiano quipped.

Keira frowned even harder. She’d had just about enough of this as she could stand. “Can you let me go back to my hotel now without screaming my name across the piazza?” she demanded.

But Cristiano, to her dismay, started to laugh.

“This isn’t funny!” she hissed.

“Maybe you will see the funny side once you hear the punch line?” Cristiano said, still laughing.

“I seriously doubt that,” Keira replied, tersely.

Cristiano took both her arms in his hands and looked her deep in the eye. “Keira, I was married but I am not anymore. The punch line is that we got a divorce.”

Keira had not been expecting that at all. The word took her by surprise. She looked at him suspiciously. “You’re divorced? But you’re too young.”

“I am twenty-eight,” Cristiano replied. “And our relationship only lasted a year in all. It was a whirlwind romance. But I thought she was the one and didn’t see the point in waiting.”

Keira thought of Shane, of their own whirlwind romance. If he’d proposed, would she have been swept up in the moment and married him? It certainly seemed plausible.

“What happened?” she asked, the frown still etched across her forehead, her mind still stuck on Shane. “Did you just change your mind out of the blue?” She couldn’t help but project her own situation bitterly onto his.

“Actually, no,” Cristiano said. “It was she who changed her mind.” His voice lowered. “She cheated on me.”

“What?” Keira stammered. She had to rest her back against the wall in order to support herself. The news was too shocking for her to take in. “But I thought it was only the Italian men who cheated.”

“And that is why you should not go on stereotypes,” Cristiano told her sternly. “Just because Vanni says Italian men cheat does not mean all do. And it certainly does not mean that women never do.”