“It’s just... I’m sorry, because I care for you and I don’t want to hurt you.”

Hang on, no. This was something different. More than a silly misunderstanding or a mistake.

A sickening feeling once again began to fill her stomach and she held her breath for a moment to gather her composure before she spoke.

“What are you sorry about?”

He bowed his head. “I’m afraid there’s...someone else.”

This she hadn’t expected, and instantly she felt her hackles rise.

“Someone else? You’re telling me you already have a girlfriend? And you’re telling me now—after all this time?” Annie was incensed. “Don’t you think you should have mentioned something before?”

“I know...and it’s been great,” he replied. “But maybe things have started to get a little out of hand.”

“A little out of hand? It’s not as if we just had the odd drunken fumbling one-night stand. We’ve spent the best part of the last two weeks together and now you’re telling me you’re already taken. What kind of an arsehole are you?”

“It’s nothing like that,” he replied quickly. “Believe me, please. It’s not that. I don’t have a girlfriend, Annie, honestly.”

“Then what is it? If you don’t have a girlfriend, then what’s the problem?”

“It’s just... I’ve met someone else.” His voice was soft and his eyes couldn’t look at her face.

“Someone else—here in Italy?”

Now Annie felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. This she didn’t expect at all. So he wasn’t cheating on some poor girl from back home. He’d taken up with another one here.

While screwing her at the same time.

“Yes,” he confessed. “Believe me, it wasn’t intentional, just a chance encounter, really, but I haven’t been able to get her out of my head.”

“A chance encounter? You make it sound like something from a romantic movie,” she spat. “So you’ve spent all this time with me, romancing and shagging me, then you meet this other girl and suddenly, bam! Just like that, everything changed?”

“Something like that. I didn’t expect it to, but it did. I’m sorry, Annie, like I said, it was completely unexpected, out of my control. Her spirit is just so bright and lovely that you can’t help but fall for it—”

Annie sucked in a jagged breath. “You love this girl?”

His eyes fluttered nervously, but he couldn’t look at her. She studied his face. He looked truly penitent.

She’d never seen that before. Every time she’d been dumped or blown off, the expression on the guy’s face was nonchalant—that’s if he bothered to tell her at all. Whereas Harry’s face now was full of regret and confusion, and somehow that hurt even more.

“Answer me,” she urged.