‘Yes, but appearances are deceptive. It’s the bridge leading to the prison and it’s called the Bridge of Sighs because the window was the last view a condemned man had of the city before incarceration.’
‘I guess it’s what you call reality—which is rarely romantic.’
‘You are much too young and beautiful to be so cynical,’ he said, laughing. ‘Let me tell you, lots of romances have flourished in this city. For instance, it is rumoured that Casanova escaped from the prison to meet his one true love.’
‘Casanova didn’t have one true love,’ she said with a laugh.
‘How do you know that?’ he teased. ‘He just got really bad press. To coin a cliché, you should never judge a book by its cover.’
‘You should never ignore the facts either—otherwise you could end up making a serious error of judgement.’ She leaned her head back against his shoulder and tried to disregard the fact that she wanted to ignore the reality about Nicholas and believe that this was the start of something serious.
For a moment silence fell between them.
Was she starting to fall in love w
ith him? As soon as the question entered her consciousness, she cast it away. She was enjoying his company—enjoying the intimacy of making love with him. Nothing more.
The boat glided smoothly in towards the shore.
‘I hope you enjoyed that,’ Nicholas said as he climbed out and reached to help her step on to dry land.
‘Yes, it was great.’ Cat avoided eye contact with him. Like pebbles thrown in a pond, her thoughts had sent out disturbing waves that couldn’t be ignored. She wasn’t in love with him because she wasn’t that stupid—for one thing, Nicholas would never return those feelings. She would never have the kind of life that she craved with someone like him; it could never be settled and ordinary. Women were just playthings to him.
So this wasn’t love, but perhaps she was developing feelings for him and, if so, that was very dangerous territory. If she spent more time with him, those feelings could grow. Before she knew it, she could wake up one morning and be in love with him! Then her life really would be a mess.
She was going to have to finish this and the sooner the better.
They wandered along by the side of the water and she tried to think about the beauty of her surroundings and not what she had to do.
They turned a corner and walked into St Mark’s Square; pigeons scurried and fluttered into the air against the impressive background of the basilica. A string quartet was playing classical music outside one of the pavement cafés.
Nicholas led her over to a table and summoned a waiter.
‘You are very quiet, are you OK?’ He looked across at her with that dark-eyed stare that seemed to cut straight through her.
‘Yes, fine.’ She tried to summon a smile.
He ordered champagne and then passed her a menu.
When they got back home he probably wouldn’t even want to see her again. So she should reassert her independence. Finish this now, before he did.
She looked across at him and he smiled and suddenly she was backtracking. She couldn’t do it now, she told herself violently. As soon as the plane touched down in London and they were back to reality—that would be the right time—that was when she would do it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CAT put some order forms down on her boss’s desk and returned to the main office. It was raining outside; heavy slanting sheets of water were hitting the windows with a drumming sound. The heatwave had broken, summer was officially over and Cat’s mood was as dark as the weather.
‘There is a call for you on line two,’ one of the secretaries informed her as she sat down at her desk.
‘Who is it?’
‘I don’t know—they didn’t say.’
Cat pushed a hand through her hair and tried to compose herself. Then, with a deep breath, she reached and lifted the receiver.
‘Cat McKenzie here, how may I help you?’
‘Oh, I can think of a number of ways you can help me, Catherine.’ Nicholas’s warm, teasing tone instantly made her blood run to fire.