Her Italian Soldier

“It’s clear to me you’d be a natural at whatever you chose to do.” She knew enough about Lucca to realize he never said what he didn’t mean. His compliment meant more to her than it should have. She was starting to care too much. “What was the defining factor that made you accept his offer?”

She finished wiping the utensils and put them in the drawer. He’d been honest with her. Why not tell him the truth? What could it hurt?

“When I confronted my ex, he intimated our lives had been boring for a long time. Ryan wanted out of his mundane existence. He said that once we were married, the excitement went out of our relationship.”

“Had you been intimate before the wedding?”

Annabelle had been in Italy long enough to notice that Italian men weren’t afraid to talk about personal things. They got in your space. In that way they different from the American male.

She shook her head. Even if she’d thought the question audacious, they’d already gone way past desultory conversation to talk from those painful private places. “No. I was raised that you waited until you took your vows.”

“So in order to win the prize, he had to marry you first.”

“I never thought about it that way, but now that you mention it, I’m sure you’re right.”

“Some men are like that, Annabelle. Always needing another conquest to validate their existence. I’ve known rootless types like him.”

“Rootless?”

“Sì,” he said in his inimitable Italian way. “It’s my theory they’re not centered and therefore destined to be distracted by anything new that comes along, often discarding something or someone who’s a pearl beyond price,” he added in his deep voice.

A quiver ran through her body. Talking to Lucca was like inhaling a fresh, invigorating breeze. “I appreciate what you’re saying, but I’m hardly a pearl. In all fairness, we both had periods where we did twenty-four-hour rounds, often at the wrong times. It wasn’t a recipe for togetherness. There’s a high ratio of divorce in that field. We ended up one of the statistics.”

“You and half the world.” She felt his intense gaze. “Your ex—Ryan, is it?—couldn’t hold a candle to you.”

His words were unexpected. The kind of words you wanted to hear when you weren’t so sure of yourself anymore. Not even her husband had said things like that to her before they were married. “That’s a lovely compliment, Lucca.”

“It’s only the truth.”

She tossed her head back. “When I got married, I was so certain my marriage wouldn’t fail. At the time of the divorce, Mel caught me at the moment when my pain was at its peak. In my vulnerability, I felt that some time away from medicine might be the best thing for me. I guess I thought it was time I stepped out of my predictable life and did something unpredictable. No reminders of the past.

“Mel and I already got along well. The transition to become his assistant didn’t sound too difficult. Best of all, the kind of work I would do for him wouldn’t tread on anyone else’s toes. No one lost a job because of me. All those reasons fed into my decision, but in truth, I

didn’t want to be around the medical world, where the past would haunt me.”

“That makes sense,” he murmured. “Now we pan away to my father’s arrival on the scene.”

“Yes.” Her pulse quickened. “The three of us spent several days together. He was gathering ideas for a new ad campaign and wanted my input from an American woman’s perspective. I was amazed at his request, but it tickled me that he’d picked me over dozens of beautiful women who were professional models. As you can imagine, it was a boost to my sagging ego. Mel was willing to let me go if I promised to return by the end of June.”

While she spoke, Lucca had been staring at her through veiled eyes, preventing her from knowing what he was thinking. “How much longer before you have to fly away?”

“Two weeks.” Minus a day. She was dreading the day she had to go back and leave all this…leave Lucca. She carried the dishtowel and cloth to the utility area near the door of the kitchen and put it in the washer with some other things. After turning on the machine, she closed the door and turned to him. “In case you were wondering, Guilio did offer me a good sum of money to come, probably the going rate of a top model.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“I felt a fraud. What if the camera didn’t like me? Out of that fear I told him I couldn’t work for him unless I was paid the same salary Mel was paying me. After all, your father was virtually giving me a three-week holiday in Italy, all expenses paid plus the air fare over and back. To me that was a dream come true. In the end, he agreed

.”

He cocked his dark head. “My father is always in the driver’s seat when it comes to establishing terms. For you to have the final say meant he wanted you here any way he could have you. So tell me—has it been a dream come true so far?”

She reeled from his question. Since Guilio had first approached her, she felt like she was in a dream, deathly afraid to wake up and find she was back in that dark place where she’d been existing. Annabelle couldn’t bear the thought of ever being there again.

“So far it has been a thrill,” she answered honestly, and Lucca was the major reason why. “Ask me again in two weeks. Good night.” She started for the bedroom. He followed her down the hall.

“Don’t go,” he said in a husky tone. “I don’t relish being left alone yet.”

She turned to face him, alert to a nuance in his voice that sounded like he really meant it. “If you need to talk, just tell me.”