LITMIR.BIZ

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not stand even having her in the same room so he shook his head. ‘It wouldn’t work.’

      ‘It has to work,’ Sophie said. ‘You owe me.’

      ‘I do.’ Luka did not concede with those words. He knew she spoke the truth. ‘But apart from the fact that neither of us can abide being in the same room together, I do have a life. I might be seeing someone...’

      ‘I don’t care if this upends your life for a while. This is going to happen, Luka. You might sit a rich man in your posh London office and live a jet-set lifestyle but you are from Bordo Del Cielo, you cannot escape from that. You might go through women like tissues but the fact remains we were promised to each other from childhood and where we come from that means something.’ Luka let out a tense breath as she asked again. ‘Will you help my father die in peace?’

      ‘You want me to move in with you and pretend that we live together?’

      ‘No, I read that you have an apartment in Rome...we will use that.’

      ‘Why not yours?’

      ‘I share with my friend Bella. You might remember her...’

      Luka bit back a sarcastic response. From what he had heard, a lot of men might remember Bella!

      ‘She runs a business from our home.’

      As she spoke, he noted that Sophie ignored his slight sardonic smile, even though she must know what it insinuated.

      ‘It would not be fair to disrupt Bella and it would look odd for us, as a couple, to be sharing a home with her.’

      ‘And would this loving couple be sharing a bed?’ He voiced the obvious question but she did not answer directly.

      ‘It would look strange for us to sleep apart.’

      ‘Would there be sex?’ he asked, wishing a blush would rise on her cheeks, for Sophie to give some indication that this hurt like hell for her also, but she stared back coolly as she delivered her response.

      ‘I would think not,’ she said. ‘Since that evening, given what happened, I have a phobia...’

      Luka’s eyes widened. Was Sophie saying that there had been no one since him? There was a small rush of giddy relief that he quickly doused but she hadn’t finished speaking. ‘But if that is what it will take for you to agree, then, yes, there can be sex.’

      ‘I thought Bella was the whore.’

      ‘We can all be whores,’ Sophie responded with spite, and Luka looked at the beautiful yet hostile stranger whose innocence he had taken, never to return. ‘So, yes, if sex is to be part of the deal—’

      ‘No, thanks,’ Luka interrupted. ‘I don’t need charity sex and, anyway, martyrs don’t turn me on—it’s extremely willing participants that do.’ He watched the slight swallow in her neck and he knew, he just knew she was remembering how good they had been so he cruelly walked her down memory lane and, as he did so, he reinforced a truth. ‘Surely you know how much I like a woman who instigates things.’

      He’d thought she’d blush as he pointed out how she had been the one who had practically begged him to make love to her yet, rather than blush, Sophie surprised him with a shrug and a smile.

      ‘Well, there will be no sex for us, then, because I won’t be instigating anything. Are you going to do this, Luka?’

      ‘I’d like some time to think about it.’

      ‘My father doesn’t have time.’

      ‘Leave me your business card, Sophie, I’ll call you when I’ve made up my mind.’

      He watched as she went into her bag and for the first time appeared flustered. ‘I don’t have any with me.’

      ‘Give me your number.’

      ‘I will contact you.’ Sophie stood and went to leave but at the last moment changed her mind. ‘You owe me this, Luka, we were promised to each other. You took my virginity.’

      He could only admire her for, unlike most women, she spoke of their time together without misty recall. In fact, she reduced it to cold fact.

      Almost.

      ‘Took?’ he checked. ‘What an odd choice of word. You see, from my recollection...’ Now a blush spread from her neck and rose to her cheeks. He came around the desk and stood in front of her, and she backed up to the desk. ‘Are you going to jump up, Sophie...or do your prefer a kitchen bench to an office desk?’

      Now she was struggling to keep her cool.

      ‘Why didn’t I marry you?’ He played devil’s advocate. ‘You being such a good Sicilian girl...’

      ‘I told my father that it was my dream for him to walk me down the aisle. I told him—’

      ‘Stop there,’ Luka interrupted. ‘I need to think about what I’m prepared to agree to but before we go any further there is something that you need to know.’ They were face to face as he said it. ‘I will never marry you.’

      ‘You’ll do whatever it takes.’ The spitfire he had known was returning and she jabbed a finger into his chest to make her point. ‘Whatever. It. Takes.’

      ‘No,’ he calmly interrupted. Despite the cool facade she had attempted, he knew that she was as Sicilian as the volcanic soil they were from, and as he watched her struggle to hold in her temper, he didn’t suppress his slight triumphant smile. She was just as volatile and passionate as he remembered. Those traits in Sophie were everything he both loved and loathed.

      ‘After what you did, after what you said about me in court...’

      ‘Lose the drama, Sophie,’ His voice was completely calm. ‘I accept that I have a moral debt to you, given all that happened, but, even with several years’ interest added, I do not owe you that much. I will agree to be your fake fiancé, but never your fake husband. Know that now, or get the hell out.’

      He hoped for the latter. Get the hell out of my life, my head, my heart.

      Just get out!

      Instead, Sophie must have accepted his terms for she sat back down.

      It was time to talk business.

      Finally, together, they would face the mistakes of their past.

       CHAPTER ONE

      ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW!’

      Sophie smiled as Bella went into her bag and bought out a neatly wrapped package.

      ‘Can I open it now?’ Sophie asked. She already knew what it was—a dress for her engagement party next week. Even though they worked as chambermaids, Bella was a talented dressmaker and Sophie had spent the last few weeks having sheets of paper pinned to her. She couldn’t wait to see the real thing. Bella had kept it a complete surprise and Sophie didn’t even know what colour the dress was.

      ‘Don’t open it here.’ Bella shook her head. ‘Wait till you get home. You don’t want to get sand on it.’

      Though tired from the shifts as chambermaids at the Brezza Oceana hotel, just as they always did they had come to their secret cove. It wasn’t really a secret cove but it was tucked behind jagged cliffs and could not be seen from the hotel. The tourists didn’t really know about it as the small beach was accessible by a path that the locals of Bordo Del Cielo kept to themselves. When the hotel had first been built, much to the locals’ disgust, it was here that Sophie and Bella would come after school. Now, even though they worked together most days, still the tradition remained.

      Here, where no one might overhear them, they came and sat, their legs dangling in the azure water, chatting about their hopes and dreams and voicing some of their fears...

      Not

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