‘I don’t suppose you did. Not precisely. It’s interesting that you think you should be forgiven but Stephan thinks Ursula shouldn’t, isn’t it? Or are you going to claim you were roofied, too?’ Shaking with a mix of anger and outrage, she added with studied politeness, ‘I’ll say bye Brendon. I don’t expect to hear from you again.’

‘Don’t sleep with other men,’ Brendon half-shouted, as if that would stop her ending the call.

It didn’t. And it didn’t do much to calm her outrage either.

Chapter Eleven

Piero had sacrificed the rest of the afternoon of workshop time in favour of preparing dinner, one eye on Ferrari’s progress in the Formula 1 practice sessions. Now it was time to fetch Zia, however, he was second-guessing himself. Was bringing her into his home instead of taking her out too much of a seduction scene? The table was neatly laid on the upper terrace … conveniently close to his bedroom. He wouldn’t be a straight man if he wasn’t up for more than dinner with such a beautiful woman, but did this look as if he felt entitled? He didn’t want to be that guy. He sighed. A tourist, she couldn’t have an expectation of a date or two leading to an actual relationship but he shouldn’t have amended the original arrangement without checking. He took out his phone and called her.

‘Pronto.’ She sounded lightly amused at giving him the Italian greeting.

He smiled at her funny, pretty English accent. ‘Do you mind a change of plan?’

Her voice dropped a tone, carefully neutral. ‘You can’t make dinner?’

He corrected her swiftly. ‘I absolutely can. But do you mind if it’s at Il Rifugio? I thought you might like to try the family wines and if we eat here then I don’t have to drive. But we can go into town if you’d prefer.’

‘Oh.’ He could almost hear her examining the idea and looking for flaws.

‘If I turn into a creep you can set Lucia on me,’ he offered gravely.

Her laughter trickled over his senses. ‘On that basis I suppose I’m safe. I’ll bet she can be scary.’

He turned and began to head towards the cypresses. ‘I’m on my way to walk you over.’

‘I’m sure I can find my way.’

‘I don’t want to give you time to change your mind.’