Wide awake now, Josie fizzed with excitement. Dropping lightly to the ground, Dario reached up and put his hands around her waist to lift her from the horse’s back. When her feet touched the gravel she discovered exactly how much the experience had taken from her.
‘My legs have gone to jelly!’ she whispered, frantically grabbing at him. He put his arms around her to steady her and a shockwave pulsed through her body. Suddenly she was greedy for his touch and didn’t want him to let her go.
‘That’s natural. And I’m in no hurry to go anywhere.’
‘B … but you’ve always got another appointment somewhere or other …’
‘That can wait for a few moments. I would never abandon you out here with jelly legs.’
Josie looked at him and it was well worth it. He was smiling.
He’s going to ask me about the party again and there’s no way I can refuse! she thought, breathless with panic and anticipation. There’s no way I can refuse him anything!
But she had misjudged him.
A moment later, his fingers closed on her upper arms and he gently pushed her away. In that instant she felt the electric charge flowing through her body falter and fail as he broke the circuit.
‘Goodbye, Josie,’ he said in a husky voice.
And then he was gone.
All Josie’s fantasies about being able to attend Dario’s party shattered like a Ming vase. She tried to convince herself it didn’t matter, but it did. Putting on a brave face, she walked into the castle to meet Antonia, although thoughts of what might have been were a permanent loop of regret running through her mind. Couldn’t she have said yes? Been brave, just for once? What was she going to do with her carefully protected heart anyway—keep it in a museum?
‘Now Fabio’s asleep we can hit the town,’ Antonia said confidently as she skipped downstairs from the nursery. ‘What are you going to wear tomorrow night?’
‘I’m not going.’
‘Oh … still not? Why not?’
‘I’ve got too much to do. You know how it is,’ Josie said with a nonchalance that fooled neither of them.
‘Well, you might be able to pass up the chance of a night of glamour and romance tomorrow, Jo, but that doesn’t mean I have to. I want you to come and help me choose a dress for the party, and we can talk about your project at the old olive press while we do it. I told you there was plenty to discover here, didn’t I?’
‘You did—and you were absolutely right.’ Josie wasn’t just thinking of archaeology. She gazed through the open castello door at the sun-drenched forecourt outside. Dario would have to cross it on his way to or from the stables and garage complex, but the forecourt stayed deserted.
Despite the bright day, it felt as though her life had lost some of its sparkle. ‘I’d love to come with you,’ she said brightly, trying to summon up some genuine enthusiasm.
‘Good. The chauffeur will have the limo here in a couple of minutes,’ her friend said, grinning.
Shopping with Antonia on her home ground was a new experience for Josie. It couldn’t have been more different from her everyday life back in England. Instead of dragging around crowded chain stores getting hotter and more frustrated by the second, this was an expedition into another world.
An air-conditioned di Sirena limousine swept them almost silently to Florence. They were dropped off within sauntering distance of the designer quarter. The streets were shady, with chic little cafés every few yards for the tired of spending. Before they could get too hot, Antonia paused outside her favourite designer’s showroom. To Josie’s amazement, they didn’t even need to open the door for themselves. An assistant threw it back on its hinges at the mere sight of Antonia. They were greeted like royalty, and ushered into cool splendour. Josie decided this must have been what it was like to be shown into an ancient Roman temple, only this building was on a much more opulent scale. She stopped and stared, completely overawed by all the gold leaf and pink marble columns until Antonia took her in hand.
‘Come and meet Madame, Jo. She makes all my clothes when I’m at home.’
Madame was a tiny Parisian in towering black stilettos, a chic little black dress and jet-black hair scraped back into a neat bun. She was the consummate European, flourishing her scarlet nails like a matador’s cape to hypnotise and tempt. When they were formally introduced, Josie was so starstruck she almost bowed.
‘Oh, lighten up, Jo!’ Antonia laughed. ‘The staff are here to serve us, not the other way around. Take a seat, dunk your biscotti, do whatever you want. They won’t care!’
Cautiously, Josie let herself be shown to a seat. When Antonia ordered a latte, she did exactly the same, although she would rather have had a cup of tea. Then her friend was shown the finished dresses she had previously ordered from Madame’s autumn collection, together with samples of a dozen new designs in a rainbow of colours. Once she knew she was safely out of the spotlight, Josie began to relax. Soon she was lounging in her comfortable armchair and offering her opinion to Antonia as confidently as Madame.
Then one of the covey of assistants emerged from a room at the back of the salon carrying a single dress reverently in her hands. It was a fluid length of shimmering silk in the most beautiful shade of green Josie had ever seen. She was vaguely aware of Antonia standing up for a closer look, but nothing could distract her from that stunning vision.
‘You’ve got to try that on, Toni,’ she said with longing. ‘With your dark colouring, it would make you look really exotic.’
‘You think?’ Antonia took the ravishing cocktail dress from the assistant, turning its hanger so that light danced over its discreet detail of gold threads. ‘I don’t know … bias cut is awfully unforgiving to a tummy like mine.’ She chewed the inside of her cheek, then appeared to have a sudden inspiration.
‘Tell you what, Jo—why don’t you try it on? It would be a brilliant match for your eyes.’
‘I don’t know …’ she said slowly, although deep down she did. They all did. There was no way any woman alive could have refused such an offer.
‘Oh, come on—it’ll look gorgeous!’ Antonia smiled. ‘You know you want to …’
Josie laughed in spite of herself, and gave in. ‘All right,’ she decided, struggling out of the depths of her comfy armchair before she could change her mind. ‘I’ll do it!’
Swishing the dress from Antonia’s hands, she strode off to where an assistant was waiting to help her change. The changing room was nothing like the tiny curtained cubicles she was used to. It was larger than her flat back in England, and the surroundings made taking her clothes off in front of a complete stranger almost feel natural.
Almost, but not quite! she thought, blushing.
Unable to look at her reflection while she stripped, she concentrated on the lacy wisps of sweet-pea-coloured lingerie draped artistically around the room. Seeing all those lovely things made her ache to attend the party. For once in her life she would have given anything to dress up and strut her stuff, to show gorgeous Dario a completely different side of her. If only the single decent dress she had brought to Italy wasn’t so old and enormous. She had bought it for her engagement party, but Andy’s subsequent betrayal and her retreat into overwork had seen the weight fall off her. She had thought it would be good enough to wear for private dinners at the castello, but that was before she’d actually met Dario. Nothing would have persuaded her to wear it now.
Suddenly shy at dressing up in the lovely green silk dress, she pulled it on hurriedly, half afraid to look. The assistant’s gasp horrified her.
‘Oh, no—don’t say I’ve wrecked it?’
Hideous scenes of split seams or gashed silk filled her mind as she glanced at the mirrored wall beside her.
One glimpse and she stopped, awestruck. The dress was perfect.
And so am I! she thought before modesty caught up with her. She turned pink at the thought.
The assistant was first to come to her senses. She flung open the changing ro
om door and stood back, motioning for Josie to walk out into the showroom.
The collective intake of breath from Antonia, Madame and all her assistants was worth every second of self-doubt Josie had ever suffered in her life. She instantly felt taller, more self-confident and …
‘Wow, Josie!’ Antonia breathed reverently. ‘You’re beautiful!’
‘Yes,’ she said shakily, managing to agree with a compliment for the first time in her life. It gave her a little shiver of shock. She was amazed to find that was another sensation she liked.
‘What do you think they’d say if I walked into the university Christmas ball wearing this, Toni?’
‘They wouldn’t say anything,’ her friend sighed. ‘They wouldn’t be able to.’
Madame was not amused. ‘That dress might have been made with you in mind. You simply must have it, Dr Street.’
With those words, Josie stopped looking delighted and started looking worried. She discreetly mouthed a desperate question across at her friend. ‘How much is it?’
‘Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,’ Antonia said airily.
‘But I do!’ Josie said aloud.
‘Think of it as a birthday present. Happy birthday,’ Antonia said.
‘But it’s not my birthday.’
Antonia smiled more enigmatically than the Mona Lisa. ‘I know,’ she said mysteriously.
Although she couldn’t wait to get back to the castello to try on her new dress again, Josie got her generous friend to take her from the salon to a chain store, where she felt happier and could spend her own money. Now she was discovering how much fun it was to be spontaneous, there was no stopping her.
As she was indulging herself with satin and lace, Dario’s words about wanting to know when she felt like doing something scarily spontaneous came back to her with a guilty rush of excitement.
I wonder exactly how spontaneous I can be? she thought to herself with a sudden burst of bravado. I might surprise you yet, Count Dario di Sirena!
‘I could gatecrash …’ she said, not realising that she had said it out loud.
‘Do what?’ Antonia replied absently, her attention on some ankle bracelets.
Josie blushed, but then went for broke. ‘The party. Antonia, can I come to the party after all?’
Antonia looked around at Josie with a broad smile. ‘Yes! I thought you’d never ask!’ she said, throwing her arms around her friend.
‘But I’ve already refused Dario’s invitation, not once, but twice!’ Josie frowned.
‘He won’t mind, but if you’re going to worry you can come as my guest. Everyone’s allowed a “plus one”, so tell yourself you’re mine,’ Antonia said, as quick as a flash.
‘You have an answer for everything.’ Josie shook her head in awe.
Antonia smiled a wicked smile. ‘Of course. It’s called native cunning.’
Dario was in his studio, trying to plan a new painting. He couldn’t settle to anything and had tried to find some way of filling the time while Antonia and Josie were in Florence. First, he’d gone out on Ferrari again. That had been unsettling. Every step of the way recalled Josie’s arms around his waist, her body pressed tight against his. Before he’d known it, he had accidentally reached the old olive press where her boxes of finds and tools stood neatly packed away beneath the awning that protected her work. It was his own land and he had visited the place a hundred times over the years, but it felt like an intrusion to be there alone today. He’d seen the box he had sent her and, looking more closely, noticed she had already unpacked a sketchbook and made a start.
Unused to feeling uncomfortable on his home ground, Dario had turned Ferrari’s head away from the place so full of Josie’s presence. He thought it would be cooler to ride up through the trees. Instead, his temperature rose as he drew closer to the place in that woodland glade where he had kissed her. Not for the first time, her spirit disrupted his plans.
I’ve only known her a few days, and yet she’s on my mind all the time. I can taste the sweetness of her lips and feel the warmth of her body, even when she’s miles away. What’s the matter with me? he thought restlessly. He couldn’t concentrate on his work. He decided to try to replace all his thoughts of her with something else, and fast.
That was when he had abandoned the wide expanse of his estate for the contained luxury of his studio. Hoping to lose himself in his art, Dario soon found another of his usually perfect cures wasn’t up to the task. In a complete change of direction, he started to paint a portrait. Things went wrong from the beginning. The subject of his portrait was supposed to be Arietta. To Dario’s irritation, his preliminary sketches kept turning into someone else entirely—and that ‘someone’ looked uncannily like Dr Josephine Street.
When a flash of sunlight danced around the room, he was glad of the distraction. Then he saw it was reflecting off a sleek black car as it slid along the lime avenue towards the front door.
It’s Josie! He threw down his stick of charcoal, then snatched it up again.
No. It’s Antonia. And … her friend, he corrected himself carefully, resisting the temptation to go out and welcome them home.
Josie hurried straight up to her own suite. The moment she was safely inside, she started unpacking all the carrier bags she had brought back from Florence. Reverently, she put the beautiful dress Antonia had bought her on one of the padded hangers. Then she carried it up to the top floor of her suite and hung it up in the room Dario had called the solar. That way, she could see it while she worked. At least, that was the theory. Once the dress was displayed in sunlit glory, it was all Josie could do to tear herself away and unpack everything else she had bought. Antonia had exploited her temporary brainstorm by suggesting another indulgence, which had prompted a real spending spree.
Now you’re coming to the party tomorrow night, Jo, we can have some real fun. I’ve arranged for a masseuse and my usual team of beauticians to visit the castle. You and I can make a real day of it.
From that moment on, Josie’s work had to take a back seat, although, happily, in her attempts to drive Dario from her mind, she was far ahead with her research. She spent far more time admiring her new dress from every angle and counting down the minutes until her makeover. Whenever she thought about the party, she felt sick with nerves and excited at the same time. She took the tops off all the bottles of gel and bubbles and oils she had bought for the occasion and inhaled until she was high on a cocktail of jasmine and adrenalin.
When she finished what passed for work that day, she took the green silk down into her bedroom so she could carry on admiring it. When a maid came in to turn down her bed, Josie didn’t have to ask if she liked the dress.
‘You’ll be the centre of attention at tomorrow night’s party, signorina!’ the girl whispered with awe.
Josie couldn’t answer. All her worries about the celebrity guest list were coming back in force. She thought of the evening ahead and privately planned to spend the whole evening hiding behind a pillar if necessary, nice and close to the buffet.
Next day, Josie’s work rate plummeted to zero but she hardly cared. Her worries about it were reduced to a tiny cloud hovering on the extreme edge of a much larger storm. Happily, the makeover took up nearly all her time, and it was heavenly. Every moment brought her closer to the party, the dress … and Dario. That thought made her so nervous she could barely touch the little party savouries that Antonia kept ordering from the kitchens.
After a long soak in scented water right up to her neck, Josie had an aromatherapy massage with rose oil. While she was trapped beneath a hairdresser’s skilful fingers and with a manicurist at work on each hand, Antonia seized her moment.
‘I’m so pleased you decided to come to the party, Jo. You never know. It might be an introduction to that tall, dark, handsome man who’ll sweep you off your feet.’
Josie could only think of one person who fitted that description: Dario. She had been thinking about nobody else, and was suddenly af
raid she might give herself away. She tried to distract Antonia with a careless laugh.
‘Hah! The last time that happened, my heart got kicked down the road like a tin can,’ she said, trying to sound as though it didn’t matter.
‘Andy Dutton was neither tall, nor dark, nor handsome,’ Antonia huffed.
Josie recoiled from the memory of the biggest romantic disaster of her life. ‘That’s why I’ve come to a decision. I’ve decided it’s time to put that whole horrible business behind me and move on,’ Josie announced bravely, and immediately felt better for saying it. Once she had put her feelings into words, things suddenly felt so much clearer in her mind. ‘I’m only sorry I couldn’t have realised it sooner,’ she sighed.
‘So you’ve finally come around to my way of thinking? That it’s time to forget him?’ Antonia grinned, delighted.
‘Yes—and no. I may have recovered from getting my feelings burned by Andy, but it’s made me determined never to get so close to that particular kind of fire again,’ she said, but as she spoke, the memory of Dario’s kisses flooded through her. How could she say such things, yet still feel like this? Thoughts of his hard, hot body beneath her hands filled her with a longing that all the massage oils in the world could never relieve—and the sensation was spectacular.
‘Fine—so tonight you’re not looking for trouble, you’re just there to enjoy yourself,’ Antonia said airily. ‘What can possibly go wrong with that?’
‘I’m not looking for anything,’ Josie announced, trying hard to convince herself that it was true.
Her mind was too full of Dario for safety. Dealing with that would be more than enough for her to handle.
As the day went on, time slowed down to a snail’s pace. First, Josie’s hair was piled up like a Roman princess. Then, when her fingers and toes had been thoroughly pampered, her nails were painted the colour of mother-of-pearl, making them shimmer with her slightest movement. Then she got the chance to choose some diamond earrings from Antonia’s collection of jewellery, and a pair of equally sparkly stilettos from her friend’s huge collection of shoes. After that, time crawled by until there was barely half an hour to go before the party. Then Antonia started fluttering around her like a demented butterfly.
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