by Miranda Lee
‘You sent her up to Jeremy’s room with some towels?’ Sergio said, his mind racing as he tried to picture what might have happened.
‘Sì. Are you deaf now as well as stupid?’
Sergio jumped up from his chair. ‘That’s it. That has to be it!’ Excited and appalled at the same time, he raced upstairs and burst into Jeremy’s room without knocking.
‘Wake up, Jeremy! Wake up!’
Jeremy bolted upright in the bed with a startled gasp. ‘What the...? What’s going on?’
‘Go into the bathroom, close the door, then say something to me.’
‘Huh?’
‘Just do it!’
Jeremy staggered, naked, into the bathroom and closed the door. Sergio groaned when he heard his friend’s deep voice as clear as a bell. Without taking the time to explain, he ran to his room, grabbed a fresh shirt and his phone, then bolted for the garage. He was on the road to Milan within five minutes, his heart in his mouth but hope in his heart.
* * *
Bella was sitting in a quiet area of the first-class lounge, staring blankly through the large plate-glass window at the comings and goings of the airport, when a pair of black trousers materialised in the corner of her eye. She groaned silently at the thought some man was going to try to pick her up. It had happened before when she’d been waiting for a flight in first-class lounges.
‘May I join you?’ a very familiar voice asked.
Shock had Bella’s head jerking round and up, the silky hair of her red wig swinging around her ears.
‘Sergio,’ she choked out, thinking how dreadful he looked, his beautiful brown eyes all bleary and bloodshot. ‘What...what are you doing here?’
He sat down in the chair opposite her, his expression an odd combination of resolve and remorse.
‘I have come to tell you that I love you, Bella,’ he said in a heartfelt voice. ‘And I know you love me back. Maria told me so this morning in no uncertain terms. And she does not lie. I also finally worked out what happened yesterday. You took towels up to Jeremy’s room and overheard one side of our telephone conversation. You heard him say that I planned to marry a young Italian girl, plus other possibly damning things as well. What you didn’t hear, however, was what I was saying. I told Jeremy how much I loved you and wanted to marry you. I told him that that stupid plan about marrying an Italian girl had gone out the window within a day of your coming to the villa. He was the one who had doubts. Not me. Never me.’
When Bella absorbed the sincerity in his voice and saw the love in his eyes, she could not help it. She burst into tears, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed with happiness and relief. Sergio loved her. He hadn’t been using her. He loved her!
‘Please do not cry, my darling,’ Sergio choked out as he reached over and took her hands away from her tear-streaked face.
Her seeming distress sent lots of worried eyes swinging their way, one gentleman actually coming over to say something to Sergio in Italian, his voice sharp with disapproval.
Sergio said something back to him and the man smiled, before turning to speak to the other curious patrons. They all smiled then, with one woman actually clapping.
‘What did you say to him?’ Bella asked after she got her crying under control.
‘I told him I’d just proposed to you. And that you were crying with happiness.’
‘Oh...’
‘So now I had better ask you officially,’ he said, winding his fingers through hers. ‘Will you do me the honour of being my wife, my darling Bella?’
Bella struggled to swallow the huge lump in her throat. Blinking back a new rush of tears, she bent down to kiss his hands before glancing up at him with still-glistening eyes. But her voice was quite steady when she finally said, ‘Yes, my darling Sergio. I will.’
A ragged sigh shuddered from his lungs. ‘I am in danger of weeping myself. Which will never do. Let’s get out of here.’ And he pulled her to her feet.
‘But what about my luggage?’ Bella asked breathlessly as he hurried her away. ‘It’s already on the plane.’
‘Once I tell them that you won’t be on the flight they will unload it. I will get Luigi to pick it up later and take it to the villa.’
Bella just shook her head, in awe of this man she loved. ‘What would you have done if you hadn’t got here in time? What if my plane had already taken off?’
‘I would have caught the next flight to New York,’ he replied without missing a beat.
‘Really?’
‘You’d better believe it. I wasn’t about to let you get away, my darling.’
Bella had never felt so loved as she did at that moment.
When they emerged from the terminal several minutes later, Bella was amazed to see Sergio’s silver Alfa Romeo waiting for them at the kerbside, a uniformed security guard holding the passenger door open for her.
‘Now there is one thing I must ask you,’ Sergio said once they were safely out of the airport and on their way, not back to Lake Como but heading for the Morelli factory. ‘Is there really a movie deal, or did you just make that up?’
‘No, it’s real all right. But they don’t need me in New York till the first of August,’ she confessed.
‘I see,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘If you don’t want me to do it, Sergio, I won’t. I’ll give up my career entirely if that’s what you want.’
His shock was genuine. ‘I would never ask that of you, Bella. That wouldn’t be right. And it wouldn’t work in the long run. You were born to perform.’
Bella bit her bottom lip as a new wave of emotion threatened to overwhelm her. How lucky was she that she had finally found that dream husband she’d always wanted and who she’d imagined did not exist.
‘I don’t have to work all the time, Sergio,’ she reassured him. ‘I will want to take lots of time off to be here in Italy with you, especially when the children come along.’
‘You do want children, then?’ he asked, sounding a little surprised.
‘I would love to have children. Especially your children.’
‘You’ve no idea how glad I am to hear that. Maria said you did but I thought she might have been getting a little carried away. Oh, dear God...’
‘What?’
‘I need to ring Maria and Jeremy and tell them everything’s sorted out between us. When I found out what had happened, I just bolted out of the place without explaining anything. Here! Take my phone and ring Jeremy. His number’s in the menu.’
* * *
Sergio couldn’t help smiling as he listened to Bella explaining everything to Jeremy. He could well imagine that doubting Thomas choking on the news that they were going to get married.
‘And tell him to tell Maria,’ Sergio said at one stage. ‘Also, we won’t be back at the villa for a while. After I do what I have to do at work, I’m taking you ring shopping.’
‘Jeremy said congratulations,’ Bella informed Sergio once she’d hung up. ‘You know, I wasn’t sure about him when he first arrived, especially after what you said about him being a Don Juan. But it’s hard not to like him, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. He’s very charming. And a very good friend. But he’s terribly cynical about love.’
‘He might surprise himself and fall in love one day. The way we did.’
‘I wouldn’t hold your breath.’
Bella nodded. ‘I suppose not everyone can be as lucky as us. Sergio, would you mind if I asked you about something I overheard Jeremy say yesterday? Nothing too bad, I assure. Just something which puzzled me at the time. And still does.’
‘Ask me whatever you like,’ he replied. ‘I want no secrets between us.’ Except perhaps my rather ruthless intentions when I first invited you to stay.
‘Okay... So how long, exactly, have
you had the hots for me?’
Sergio chuckled. ‘Would you be scandalised if I told you since your sixteenth birthday?’
‘Good Lord! Truthfully?’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
‘So when I kissed you and you acted like a dead fish, then you were just pretending?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘But I don’t understand. Why did you have to pretend like that?’
‘You were my stepsister at the time. It wouldn’t have been right.’
‘I wouldn’t have minded.’
‘Your mother would have.’
‘Oh, dear heaven, my mother! Can you imagine how she’s going to react when I tell her we’re getting married? She’ll probably have a pink fit.’
‘She’ll cope, once you tell her I’m a billionaire.’
Bella grinned. ‘You could be right there.’
Sergio knew he would have to cope with Bella’s mother too. But he would. For Bella’s sake.
‘So you have to be in New York on the first of August,’ he mused aloud.
‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’
‘That gives me two weeks to get things settled at the factory, put someone new in charge and go with you.’
‘You’re going with me?’
‘You don’t think I’d let you go to the city of sin by yourself, do you?’
Bella rolled her eyes. ‘Sergio, I have lived in New York for years. I know how to look after myself. But I don’t mind if you come with me,’ she added, blue eyes sparkling. ‘Provided you don’t go all super possessive and protective like some Italian men do.’
‘I’ll be as super possessive and protective as I like, Bella. You’re going to be my wife.’
Bella sighed. ‘Oh, dear...’
‘Just kidding. So how long do you think it will take to shoot this movie?’
‘Not too long. Two months, perhaps? But we’ll have to rehearse for a while first. Get the locations booked and the costumes made. Might take the rest of the year.’
‘In that case we’ll have to get married before we go. Or is that too fast for you?’
‘Not at all. But can a wedding be organised that quickly?’
‘We might have to get a special licence. Bribe an official or two. But that shouldn’t prove too difficult. This is Italy,’ he replied, with a twinkle in his eye.
Bella took a deep breath. ‘There is one thing I should confess, since we’re not going to keep any secrets from each other.’
Sergio stopped breathing for a second. Please, God, not anything too bad, he prayed.
‘I know you’re going to have a hard time believing this,’ she went on, ‘but you are the only man who has ever satisfied me sexually. Before you I was boring in bed. Boring and shy and a total failure. My lack of passion—for want of a better word—was what broke up most of my relationships. But I was none of those things with you. Right from the start, Sergio. Right from the first moment I looked down at you from the balcony and saw you by the pool. Lord, but you took my breath away. You might find this a silly romantic notion but I think Maria was right. I was different with you because you loved me the way those other men never loved me. You are the man I’ve been waiting for all my life. My dream man. My wonderful Sergio...’
Sergio found himself totally blown away with her confession. She made him feel ten feet tall. And very loved.
‘And I have been waiting for you all my life, my darling Bella. My darling Izzie...’
Sergio’s heart turned over at the thought of how close he had come to losing her. So very close.
He vowed right then and there that he would do everything in his power to be the very best husband he could be so that she would never regret trusting him with her love. Fancy her offering to give up her career for him. How wonderful was that? But then she was wonderful. And she was all his. He aimed to keep it that way, till death did them part.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE SECRET THAT SHOCKED DE SANTIS by Natalie Anderson.
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The Secret that Shocked De Santis
by Natalie Anderson
CHAPTER ONE
STELLA ZAMBRANO FELT as if she was sitting outside the principal’s office, knowing she was in trouble without a clue as to why. All she could do was wait and try not to think the worst.
The military wing of the San Felipe palace was designed to impress and to intimidate. It succeeded in both. The vaulted ceilings were metres high, the floors tiled in a headache-inducing intricate mathematical pattern, and the walls plastered with gold-framed portraits of the De Santis predecessors—princes, military leaders, powerful men.
San Felipe, a famed island principality in the heart of the Mediterranean, was currently ruled by Crown Prince Antonio De Santis. Austere, yet beloved, and devoted to duty, Antonio was aided by his charming, utterly adored younger brother Eduardo. The public face of San Felipe, risk-taking, suave Prince Eduardo almost single-handedly kept the tourism industry afloat.
The most recent portrait in the vast room depicted the two brothers standing side by side in full military regalia. It hung on the wall directly opposite, dominating Stella’s field of vision. She opted to stare at the floor. The sweat on her back iced. She desperately hoped the Princes were not present in the palace today.
‘Lieutenant Zambrano?’
She looked up as her name was called.
‘The General will see you now.’
Finally.
Stella searched the Captain’s face for clues, but saw that if he were any more expressionless he’d be dead. She was uncomfortable, conscious that she ought be wearing her sharply pressed midnight-blue trousers and a starched white shirt, topped with her gold-trimmed blue jacket. Her brass should be gleaming, her ribbons immaculate, her star straight on her shoulder. Instead she was wearing sweat-stained fatigues and muddied boots.
She’d just finished her morning run when a stony-faced sergeant had appeared and said it was urgent and that she didn’t have time to change. He’d driven her straight from the base to the palace, where the General of San Felipe’s army had his official quarters.
Now she felt conscious o
f the marks on her clothing, the grime on her face. But perhaps the General would overlook her untidy appearance. Perhaps this summons was to give her the overseas mission orders she’d been waiting so long for.
But the unnatural silence spiralling in the waiting room warned her differently. This call was too soon after her last rejection. Too unexpected. And the carefully blank faces of the civilian staff present... The way they wouldn’t look her in the eye...
Slimy snakes of doubt slid down her spine.
‘Lieutenant?’ the Captain repeated sharply.
She blinked, her brain lurching back to the present. Mortified, she stood. A superior officer had never been required to repeat orders to Stella before. She stiffly followed him to the large carved door that was firmly shut. He opened it and impassively waited for her to pass through.
Stilling her nerves, Stella walked into the room, then stood to attention at a respectful distance from the desk. The heavy door behind her closed with a thud.
The uniformed man seated behind the large desk didn’t look up. He didn’t tell her to stand at ease. Didn’t tell her to sit. Didn’t tell her anything. Instead he stared down at the personnel file open before him. She knew it was hers, but kept her gaze fixed on the wall behind him—yet another portrait of the Prince’s. Peripherally she was aware of the man’s greying hair and that he was wearing glasses to read the report. The General had been serving in this army for almost fifty years. Other men his age would have retired already. He never would. He was there for life. Because his life was the military.
She respected that. She understood that. Because she felt the same.
‘Lieutenant.’ He finally addressed her.
‘Yes, sir.’ She saluted.
He still didn’t look up. ‘On the afternoon of July the twenty-sixth you were based at the San Felipe barracks, is that correct?’
Her stomach dropped. That date was branded on her brain.
‘I believe so, sir.’ She licked her horribly dried lips.
There was no waiting now. Her instinct had been right: this wasn’t the new mission she’d been hoping for.
