Poppy stared out at the twinkling lights dotted around the majestic coastline and nodded. ‘Unbelievable.’
‘I meant the man, not the backdrop,’ Nicole teased with a soft laugh.
‘Oh!’ Poppy smiled, or she tried to. ‘Yes to both.’
‘I’m really glad you’re with my cousin,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen him look at a woman the way he looks at you.’
As far as Poppy could tell, he looked at her as if he wanted to strangle her most of the time, especially when she had inadvertently cornered him into saying that he loved her. Which hadn’t been entirely her fault. His terse instructions upstairs, and her worry over making their relationship look normal when she really had no idea what a normal relationship looked like, had made her fidgety. It hadn’t helped that he’d sat so close to her at dinner she’d felt the press of his powerful thigh against hers every time he moved. The man just took up too much space!
‘I’m sure your cousin has looked at many women the way he looks at me,’ Poppy commented, wanting to down play the lie she didn’t enjoy telling. She’d heard so many lies in her life so far, she’d vowed to not tell any herself, and here she was pretending to be involved with this lovely woman’s cousin.
‘Not that I’ve seen,’ Nicole said. ‘In fact, he’s never brought a woman home to meet la famiglia before. It means you’re important.’
Poppy frowned. ‘No one?’
‘No,’ Nicole confirmed. ‘That’s how we know you’re the real deal. Apart from the fact that he looks at you as if he wants to gobble you up whole.’
Poppy felt her whole face flush and Nicole was immediately contrite. ‘Mi dispiace. I’m sorry, Poppy. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It’s just that I’m jealous.’ She gave a dramatic sigh. ‘I want a man to look at me like that one day.’
‘Like what?’ Sebastiano asked as he came to stand beside Poppy.
Poppy’s heart kicked up at the sound of his voice, her body going on high alert. He was so close she could feel the heat of him driving out the chill of the night air.
‘Like he wants to eat me up,’ Nicole said.
Poppy groaned; the only thing she wanted eating her up right now was the ground.
‘You’re too young.’ Sebastiano was deadpan. ‘If any man looked at you that way, he’d have me to contend with.’
‘Pah! I am twenty-four,’ Nicole retorted hotly. ‘One year younger than Poppy!’
‘Like I said,’ Sebastiano smiled down at her. ‘Too young.’
Nicole pulled a face and Sebastiano tweaked her nose as if she were ten years old. It reminded Poppy of how she liked to fool around with Simon, and a sense of warmth invaded her heart. Initially she had thought Sebastiano just a corporate shark with no feelings but seeing his more playful side come out with his family made him more human than she would like him to be. It made him more of a man she could grow to like if she wasn’t careful.
‘Be warned, Poppy,’ Nicolette advised her loftily. ‘The Castiglione men think they own the world sometimes.’
Sebastiano laughed as his cousin wandered back inside.
‘Don’t listen to her,’ he said, looking down at Poppy. ‘We Castiglione men know that we own the world.’
Poppy couldn’t contain a grin and shook her head. ‘You are so full of yourself.’
‘Si.’
His smile took her breath away and she shivered. He wasn’t even trying to be charming and yet he was. What would happen if he actually tried to win her over?
‘Are you cold?’
‘No... I mean, yes. A little, but...’ She paused as he draped his jacket over her shoulders. His clean scent and warmth instantly enveloped her and she breathed in deeply, warning herself to put some distance between them because she was already feeling overwhelmed by him. ‘I’m sorry about earlier,’ she murmured. ‘That whole “love at first sight” thing at the dinner table. I didn’t mean to trap you like that.’
‘Didn’t you?’
‘Of course not.’ His suspicion was as thick as a peasouper and, frankly, insulting. ‘You really have mixed with the wrong women, haven’t you?’
‘So my grandfather would have me believe.’
‘Look, Sebastiano, I’m not likely to forget that this whole thing is phony and I’m under no illusions as to why I’m here. The problem is, I’m not used to being the centre of attention, and I don’t like it.’