"Sorry. I thought it looked like a fun thing for a little boy." He was out of touch with kid's developmental stages. He only had a teenage daughter, and he'd been stationed overseas with the military for most of her early years.
"It is. Thank you. I'll put it away for a while until we think Giorgi is old enough to play with it safely."
Obviously trying to soften the criticism, Emily pushed under Seth's arm and hugged him. "I suppose I should be grateful you didn't buy him a gun."
"I'd never do that." Seth injected a hint of righteous indignation in his voice while making a mental note that guns were blacklisted.
To show there were no hard feelings, Seth kissed the top of Emily's head. They were cousins, but she was more like a sister. Ever since her parents had died when she was four, he'd taken her under his wing.
Emily wandered off to make peace with Violet's mother, and Seth sipped his cool lager, keeping out of the way. Most of the people here were Savino's relatives, and although they made an effort to speak English around him, they often forgot, so half the time he had no idea what they were talking about.
While parents and grandparents fussed over the children, Seth's gaze returned to Gina. A musical riff sounded and she dug her phone out of her bag. As she checked the screen, a shadow passed across her face. Rising from her seat, she put the phone to her ear and strode out of the room.
Seth rubbed a hand thoughtfully over his mouth. Boyfriend trouble probably. A woman as beautiful as Gina probably had a different man for every night of the week. Yep, Gina was most likely trouble with a capital T.
Downing the last of his lager, Seth wandered through to the kitchen to grab another bottle from the fridge.
At the sound of Gina's voice behind the kitchen door, he paused in the corridor. He didn't want to intrude on her private conversation, even though he had no idea what she was saying. He was about to return to the living room when her rushed, breathy tone stopped him.
He might not understand the words, but he recognized the note of distress in her voice. He winced, not wanting to poke his nose in where it wasn't wanted, but he hated to hear a woman upset like that.
With a sigh, he headed back towards the kitchen and put his head around the door. Gina had ended her conversation. She stood with her back to him, staring out of the kitchen window at the courtyard where the cars were parked, her arms wrapped around her middle.
"Gina, are you all right, love?"
For a few seconds she didn't respond, then she swiveled slowly to face him. "Something terrible has happened."
Perhaps her boyfriend had broken up with her. "Is there anything I can do?" Seth was wary of involving himself in her relationship problems, but he hated seeing this beautiful, vibrant woman so sad and defeated. Those luscious, smiling lips of hers were now pressed tight with misery.
"Will you get Savi or Leo for me?"
"Of course." Seth placed his empty lager bottle on the kitchen counter and strode back to the living room. Savino was just inside the door, so Seth told him that Gina needed help.
"What's happening?" Emily asked, watching her husband hurry away.
"Gina's had some bad news, I think."
Emily followed Savino. Seth should have let the issue go, but it niggled at him. What could have upset Gina so much? She'd looked like a different woman after the call. He wanted to reassure himself that she was okay. On reluctant feet, he wandered back to the kitchen and leaned a shoulder on the door frame.
Gina snuggled in her brother's arms, hiccupping through her tears as she babbled in Italian, while Savino appeared tight-lipped and angry.
"What's going on?" Seth asked Emily, frustrated that he didn't understand their language.
"That was the police who called her."
"The police! What's happened?"
"She got tangled up with the son of a local Mafia guy when she was nineteen. He was convicted of murder and sent to prison. The police have just called to tell her he's being released early. She needs to leave Naples for a few weeks until they know what the guy's intentions are."
All Seth's senses focused in, laser sharp. "Was she involved in putting this guy away? Is he likely to come after her?" Seth's heart pounded at the possibility.
Emily shook her head. "I don't know the circumstances. It happened long before I met Savi."
Seth strained to understand Gina and Savino's conversation, but all he picked up were the names of some Italian towns.
"They're trying to think of somewhere safe for her to stay. It sounds like their relatives are out because this guy knows who they are and where they live."
Seth gripped the back of his neck and blew out a breath. There was one place she would be safe. It was unlikely the Mafia would find her at his farmhouse in the Cornish countryside. If they did, ten years as a Royal Marine commando had taught him how to handle himself.
The last thing he wanted right now was more hassle, not when he had important decisions to make about his personal life. But what was sensible and what was right were two different things. He'd never been able to ignore someone who needed help. That was why he'd put himself in danger and been shot in Afghanistan.
"Gina, you can come and stay with me for a while."
Gina turned her big tear-filled brown eyes on him, and Seth's protective instinct fired up full throttle. Anyone who planned to hurt her would have to go through him.
Chapter Two
Gina clutched the handle of her carry-on bag as Seth retrieved her two large suitcases from the luggage carousel at London's Gatwick Airport. Glancing over her shoulder, Gina scoured the crowd for Italian men who might be working for Nico Dè Fiore.
Nico had been twenty-one when he went to prison. He was six years older now and no doubt hardened by his experience. He'd been bitter and angry with her to start with. Now he'd be furious she'd never answered the letters he sent her from prison. People like Nico never forgot a slight.
The Dè Fiore family was powerful, with police officers and government officials on their payroll. They were also notorious for holding grudges. Did they know she'd been warned to leave Naples? Might they be following her?
Gina pressed a trembling hand to her temple. It was wonderful of Seth to offer her sanctuary, but she missed her family already. That sounded childish for a twenty-five-year-old woman, but her mamma and papa and her brothers had been there for her when she needed them.
They'd helped her when she got herself tangled in a bad relationship with Nico, and supported her as she recovered. On the days she'd felt too anxious to leave her bedroom, her mamma had held her and told her the taxi driver's death wasn't her fault.
For twelve months after the Nico incident, she hadn't left the house without Leo or Savino at her side. Gradually her confidence had returned, yet one phone call from the police was all it took to jerk her back to that terrible night.
"Hey, you okay, Gina?" Seth stopped at her side with the suitcases on a luggage cart.
She forced a smile and nodded.
"We'll need to catch a shuttle bus to the car park. It's this way." Seth headed through the "Nothing to Declare" door at customs, and Gina followed him into the arrivals hall, dragging her carry-on behind her. They exited through sliding glass doors and climbed on a waiting shuttle bus. Gina huddled into her coat, shivering from the bitter bite in the air.
The bus dropped them in a huge car park filled with acres of cars beneath a dismal gray sky, and Seth led her to a black pickup. He lifted the bags into the back and opened the front passenger door for her. The stink of dogs made her wrinkle her nose.
"Sorry about the doggy smell. I forgot to take their blanket out." Seth grabbed a tartan rug off the seat, folded it, and tossed it in the back. "I cover the seat when the dogs ride shotgun." He pulled a can of air freshener from the glove box and squirted some around.
Seth took Gina's elbow and boosted her inside the high vehicle, then shut the door. Whistling, he rounded the pickup and climbed into the driver's side.
Seth drove onto the busy motorway around London and joined the packed four lanes of traffic. The bleak winter countryside slid past the window: trees with bare branches, flooded fields covered in ice, and dirty piles of snow at the edge of the road.
Welcome to England. Gina shivered, even though Seth had the heater blasting warm air. How she missed her beautiful Italy already.
The steady drone of the engine lulled Gina to sleep. Hours later, she woke with a stiff neck as the vehicle bumped along a rough road. Dusk had fallen, and the headlights cut through the darkness in front of them, the twin beams revealing a narrow road with high banks on either side.
"Where are we?"
"Nearly home, Sleeping Beauty."
They turned a corner and the headlights illuminated a large old house with ramshackle outbuildings nearby. Seth swung the pickup around the yard and stopped. A security light above the back door popped on, floodlighting the area as he cut the engine. "Welcome to Home Farm."
"Thanks," Gina whispered, staring uncertainly out of the windshield. She knew Seth lived in the countryside, but she'd pictured a quaint country house in an English garden full of roses with other similar houses nearby. This place appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.
Seth climbed out and came around the vehicle to open her door, letting in a blast of freezing air. He offered a hand to help her down.
Gina picked her way across the uneven cement yard, avoiding chunks of frozen dirt that must have fallen off the tires. Seth unlocked the door, pushed it open, and stepped aside to let her pass. Her heels clicked on the tile entryway. The faint odor of dog hung in the air, but at least it was warm inside.
A deep bark pulled her up short as a massive Alsatian stalked out of a door on her right, followed by a smaller black dog.
"Down." Seth's firm command made her jump.
Both dogs sank to their bellies on the ground, and Gina's pulse rate steadied. She didn't dislike dogs, but she wasn't used to them.
"Meet Aero and Tiff. Aero's the big guy. They're ex-military dogs, so they're well-trained. I got them last year. Tiff was the explosives sniffer dog that worked with my unit in Afghanistan. I told them I'd have her when she was retired. When I went to pick Tiff up, Aero had just been returned because the couple who took him couldn't handle him. He was an attack dog, and they're difficult to re-home."
"An attack dog?" Gina took a step back and bumped into Seth. His arm came around her waist, steadying her against his chest. She stayed there, absorbing his strength with a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry. Aero's well-trained. The secret is to be firm and let him know who's boss. Aero knows his place is in the utility room and the back porch. He doesn't come in the rest of the house. If you're worried about him, I'll ask one of my friends to look after him for a few weeks."
"Yes, please. He does make me nervous." Gina sidled past the prone dogs while Seth stooped and rubbed them both behind their ears. Then he ordered the dogs back into their beds.
"I'll show you to your room, then I'll fetch your bags and throw together some dinner for us."
He moved in front of her and led the way along the corridor and up the stairs. The floor of the old farmhouse creaked as he turned onto the landing and pushed open a door with a nameplate that read Little Princess.
The medium-sized room had pink wallpaper decorated with tiaras, wands, and fairy-tale castles. The comforter and curtains were of shiny gold fabric covered in stars.
"This is my daughter's room when she stays. It's the only one that's aired and made up. Hope it's okay."
"You have a daughter?" How come Emily had never mentioned this?
He nodded without elaborating. "There's a thermostat here to adjust the heating." He bent and fiddled with something on the side of the radiator. "Turn it up if you're cold. The boiler is on all the time."
Seth headed for the door and pointed to the right. "Bathroom is the last door that way. I'll fetch your suitcases so you can unpack and settle in."
She'd have to share a bathroom? Gina put her head out of the bedroom door and peered along the corridor with a frown. Then she turned and examined the room. She had no experience with radiators or boilers. Where she lived, they had electric under-floor heating that automatically adjusted to keep a constant temperature.
How would she cope? And what on earth was she going to do all day stuck out here in the middle of nowhere?
• • •
Gina woke to the fragrance of unfamiliar laundry detergent on the pillowcase and remembered where she was. Keeping her eyes closed, she fought the wave of loneliness and anxiety. How she missed the familiar morning sounds of her niece's chatter and her brother's laughter.
Normally she got up and went downstairs to help her mamma in the kitchen. Often, they spent the day cooking together, trying new dishes. Or she'd go shopping with her sister-in-law Claire, and they'd have lunch in one of the fashionable restaurants in Naples.
After huddling in bed for a few minutes longer, Gina opened her eyes and checked the time on her watch on the nightstand. Eleven thirty—cripes. Seth would think she was the sort of woman who lazed around in bed all day, and normally she was a morning person. When she was a teenager, she'd loved to wake early to run with her brother before the city came to life, but that was before Nico.
Gina sat up, pushed back her unruly hair, and climbed out of bed. She pulled open the curtains, hoping she'd been wrong about the isolated location. Her heart dropped at the sight of endless tiny fields, a patchwork of green and brown across the rolling countryside. The only bright spot was a distant glimpse of the ocean.
She pushed her feet in the ballet flats she used as slippers, pulled on her robe, and put her head out of her bedroom door to listen for Seth. After a few moments, she heard a plaintive whine. Curious, she tiptoed to the top of the stairs.
The black dog, Tiff, was at the bottom, staring up at her with big brown eyes, tail wagging so hard her whole body wriggled. Both dogs had made her nervous last night, but there was no sign of Aero, and Tiff wasn't frightening on her own.
Gina bent and patted her knees. "Come here, Tiff."
The dog scampered up the stairs and nuzzled Gina's hands, wagging her tail the whole time. Gina stroked the dog's head like Seth had. Tiff's fur was sleek and smooth, her ears soft as velvet.
"You're really a little sweetheart, aren't you, bambino." The dog looked young, but if Tiff had retired from the military, she must be older than she seemed.
When Gina returned to her room to fetch her toiletries and towel, Tiff trotted behind her. Gina sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the dog some more.
"Are you smiling at me, girl?" Gina would swear Tiff's doggy lips were drawn back in a grin.
As Gina walked to the bathroom, Tiff followed. "You can't come in here with me." Gina opened the bathroom door, then turned to the dog. "Sit." Tiff's bottom landed on the floor and she stared up expectantly. Gina stroked her head again. The cute black dog really was adorable.
Gina showered, washed her hair, then carefully applied her makeup to disguise the dark circles beneath her eyes. Although she'd slept for many hours last night, her rest had been disturbed. The previous night she'd barely slept at all, her mind replaying her fight with Nico again and again until she was a trembling wreck.
She stared at her face in the mirror and firmed her lips. She wasn't going to let Nico Dè Fiore ruin her life again. She was older now, better able to manage her mental issues. She popped an antidepressant tablet in her mouth and cupped her hands beneath the cold water for a drink.
She would survive a few weeks here with Seth and look forward to seeing her family at Christmas.
Chapter Three
&nbs
p; Seth looked up as the footsteps he'd heard come down the stairs arrived at his office door. He took off his reading glasses and sat back to admire Gina in her skintight blue jeans and fluffy red cardigan. Every time he saw her, it gave him a little jolt. He knew she was beautiful, but somehow his memory didn't capture the full impact she had on him.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, thank you. Sorry I'm so late coming down."
Seth acknowledged her apology with a gesture of his hand. "I'm easy. Sleep as long as you like." She had enough to worry about without stressing over that. "My timetable's flexible. Winter's a quiet time for me. We don't have any residential groups at the outdoor pursuits center, just a few school day trips, and the guys who work for me mostly handle those."
Pushing back his chair, Seth stood, only too happy to put off finishing the dismal financial forecast he was putting together for the bank. "Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?"
He brushed past her in the doorway, catching a whiff of her enticing fragrance that pinged along his nerves, making him ultra aware of her. Having her in his home without falling for her might be tougher than he'd thought.
He put the kettle on to boil, then winced at his jar of instant coffee granules. He couldn't give that to an Italian. They always made such a song and dance about their coffee.
"How about tea?" Seth threw a smile over his shoulder as Gina sat at the kitchen table.
"If that's what you're having," she said.
"Tea it is then." Seth made a mental note to buy a coffeemaker and some proper coffee when he next went shopping, which would have to be soon. Gina had seemed less than impressed with the frozen lasagna he'd pulled from the freezer and cooked in the microwave for dinner last night.
He poured the boiling water on the tea in his teapot and set it on the table with two mugs, a carton of milk, and a pack of sugar. He wasn't used to the niceties of entertaining. He and the guys who worked for him were all ex-military, and they were happy to keep things simple.
Sweet Italian Christmas: Three Christmas Romances Page 15