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her there.

      ‘Do you want me in a maid outfit?’ Bella said. ‘While your fiancée is away, we can play, perhaps...’

      ‘Yes...’

      He would have her again, he would empty his wallet for her again, he would do anything he could just to go back to that night.

      There was no thought really, just that.

      His kiss was rough, it was fierce, she had been goading him, shaming herself, sure, just sure he would tell her where to get off, that Matteo Santini would not want her in the same way that he once had.

      Yet he did.

      It hurt. There were tears of shock as she kissed him back. It hurt her soul to taste again what she craved, and now, to give in, she was back at day one, aching with withdrawal, and so even as their tongues thrashed, even as their groins displayed their devotion, somehow, somehow she pushed him back. And then she said not that he couldn’t afford her but the truth.

      ‘I can’t afford to.’

      For if she did, surely she lost her soul?

      * * *

      Matteo returned to that room and he lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan, rather glad of the seedy surroundings.

      It had seemed luxurious at the time.

      The memory still was.

      He had spent five years fulfilling his promise to himself. He had let go of the past, built a reputation, and while he would throw it all away this very moment, still he thought of the impact on her.

      Either face the press or live in isolation...

      He thought of the sheikh he was meeting with soon to discuss a chain of hotels and how hard it would be on Bella to introduce her as his wife after the salacious headlines had hit...

      Matteo was lying there, thinking of throwing everything he had worked for away for Bella, and he knew that he needed out of this place.

      A clear head was not possible with her around.

      ‘Hey.’ Matteo was still lying on the bed in a prison cell called Bella when the reluctant groom called.

      ‘The wedding’s happening,’ Luka said. ‘For real. I don’t need a lecture. Sophie and I—’

      ‘I don’t need to hear it.’

      He didn’t want to know his friend had found love, he didn’t want to know that he must now dance with Bella tonight.

      He wanted his helicopter and he wanted it now. He wanted to be lifted out of the sky and back to the safe haven he had created, where women came loudly and then left, hopefully, quietly.

      Instead, a few hours later he stood in a packed church.

      All the locals were there.

      Past sins forgiven.

      But it was not the bride he noticed as Sophie walked down the aisle but the bridesmaid.

      Bella was wearing a dress and the colour was ginger and Matteo knew it was the one she had worn for the Natalia party the night he hadn’t shown up.

      It was.

      She had made a few modifications.

      The back was lower and the sleeves were gone.

      It showed her slender figure, it brought out the deepest green of her eyes.

      Yes, she knew how to dress as a lady and today she was one.

      She gave him a very soft smile and then she focussed on the wedding and tried not to cry, because while she would love her friend for ever and did not begrudge her a moment of this day, there was a special pain, a unique loneliness that came when your friend found love.

      Bella suddenly felt left behind.

      Alone.

      With her pride, though, Bella reminded herself.

      It was a beautiful wedding but it wasn’t theirs.

      Bella and Matteo walked out with the happy couple onto the street and there were cheers and celebration rice was being thrown.

      There were drinks to be drunk and speeches to be made, and they did it all and looked out to the street with the olive trees dressed in lights that started to sparkle as evening came. There was no choice but to hold each other again as they danced that one dance.

      It was cruel.

      It was bliss.

      She sank into his arms and he wrapped them around her just because.

      He felt the same, Bella thought, he smelt the same, only she wasn’t the same.

      ‘I’m sorry that I offended you this morning,’ he said, and she looked up to him and nodded. ‘You offended your fiancée too,’ Bella said. ‘I don’t like her but don’t be that man who cheats.’ She said the same words she had on the night they had found each other. ‘I thought better of you.’

      He was better than that, and it mattered enough to tell her.

      ‘We broke up,’ he said, ‘about ten minutes after you got fired.’

      ‘I don’t believe you,’ Bella said. ‘You say that just so I agree to go back to your room with you.’

      ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m saying that because this morning wasn’t about cheating or lying, it was about us and my wanting you.’

      ‘You didn’t think to tell me?’

      ‘Oh, I did,’ he said, and she frowned as he spoke on. ‘I decided it was safer not to.’

      ‘Were you worried that you might have called down for room service?’ Bella smiled just a little and so too did he.

      ‘Yep.’

      Then he broke the last piece of her heart.

      ‘I’m leaving after this dance,’ he said, and from the strain in his voice she knew that he meant it. ‘I’ve booked a helicopter—’

      ‘You’re the best man.’

      ‘I know,’ he said, ‘but I have to go and I have to think and I can’t do that with you...’

      He couldn’t, because he was as turned on as she was. If he stayed, if there was even one more dance they would be back in the hotel room and tonight Matteo needed to be the best man he could be.

      Not for Luka but for Bella and himself.

      He kissed her cheek and said goodbye and he held her a moment and smelt her hair and then she watched as he went and said farewell to the bride and groom. She saw the lights of his helicopter and Bella stood alone.

      With her pride, though.

      It offered little consolation.

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      BELLA WASN’T A MAGPIE.

      She didn’t take shiny things for herself.

      The nice things she wanted were for the people she loved.

      Tonight, though, her desire was selfish.

      ‘Sophie...’ Bella went over to her friend and Sophie was the happiest she had ever seen her. It was clear to all that this wedding was no farce—you could feel the love between Sophie and Luka.

      ‘I’m going to be the worst bridesmaid in the world,’ Bella said, and Sophie smiled as she told her that she would be leaving early.

      ‘Are you going after the best man?’

      Bella nodded. ‘I’ll never be suitable wife material for Matteo,’ she said, ‘I get that, but...’ She didn’t finish.

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