Time to flirt.
To be twenty-four and single in Rome.
She might even download the dating app that Chi-Chi and Antonietta had told her about!
To hell with you, Nico Caruso, because I want to be with a man who wants me. I am finally out of your shadow.
And she was soon to be out of Marianna’s.
* * *
‘Where’s Aurora?’ Nico asked late in the day.
‘Oh, she’s with the marketing team,’ Marianna said and then glanced at the time. ‘Though they’ll all be off on their bus tour now.’
Nico gave a small eye-roll, though not with any malice. It was more in amusement that Pino had called and invited him to join them.
Again he had declined.
‘Do you know?’ Marianna said. ‘I have never met a more enthusiastic lot of people. With their energy and exuberance I’m sure the new hotel is going to be amazing.’
‘If you like Persian Orange,’ Nico said, and he pushed over the uniform order he had signed off on. Persian Orange! With bespoke tones of Butterscotch and Burnt Caramel for those who felt the shade might not suit their colouring.
Nico had a headache from looking at so much orange.
And he had another question. ‘Why was Aurora shadowing you today? I thought her role was in marketing.’
‘Correct,’ Marianna agreed. ‘But presumably you will be spending a lot of time in Silibri...?’
‘Not once the hotel is up and running.’
‘You are always between hotels. I have Teresa in Florence, Amelie in France... Francesca thought that Aurora might be suitable—’
‘No.’ Nico said it too fast, and with too much force, and he attempted a quick recovery. ‘Look, I’m sure Aurora will be excellent in her marketing role, but I don’t think she would work out as—’
‘It’s fine,’ Marianna cut in. ‘Aurora said the same.’
‘She did?’
Why did that feel like a punch to his guts rather than spread relief? And why did the thought of working closely with Aurora unsettle him so?
Nico grabbed his jacket and took the elevator down to head for home.
He did not need to ponder further to know the answer: there was way too much history between them.
CHAPTER THREE
The night that neither can forget...
‘YOU CAN TELL Nico that I’m not leaving my home.’
Just hearing Nico’s father say his name had Aurora’s heart both soaring and shattering anew.
It was a regular occurrence in Silibri. Nico Caruso’s name was mentioned often.
‘Since when did I have a direct line to your son, Geo?’ Determined not to give herself away, Aurora responded light-heartedly as she plumped the old man’s cushions behind him. ‘I haven’t spoken to Nico in ages.’
‘He’s sending his helicopter to take me to Rome.’
Aurora’s cushion plumping was paused for a moment.
Geo got confused at times, and was also known to exaggerate, but even by Geo’s standards this was too far-fetched to be believed.
‘Who told you that?’ Aurora asked as he rested back in his chair and she straightened up.
‘The doctor did.’
‘Oh? And is this the same doctor who told you that your drinking would kill you?’ Aurora checked.
Geo gave a reluctant smile.
‘The same doctor who said that you couldn’t manage here alone and needed to be in a nursing home?’ she continued. ‘Because I thought you told me that that doctor could not be believed.’
‘Perhaps,’ Geo conceded, ‘but he was telling the truth this time—Nico is sending a helicopter to fetch me.’
Wildfires had been ravaging the south coast of Sicily and steadily working their way towards their small village for more than a week. They had been told to get out—of course they had—but, like Geo, her father had refused.
She didn’t doubt that Nico wanted his father away from the fires, but a private helicopter was way beyond a boy from Silibri—even a successful one!
Geo’s lies were becoming more and more extreme. A few weeks ago, when Aurora had dropped off his shopping, he had told her that she had just missed seeing Maria. Maria, Geo’s wife and Nico’s mother, had died the year Aurora had been born—some twenty years ago.
Last week he had said that Nico owned three hotels across Europe. When Aurora had refused to believe him, Geo had corrected himself: Nico owned four!
‘He stole from me!’ Geo said now, and cursed. ‘He took what was mine.’
‘You tell tall tales, Geo,’ Aurora said gently.
‘Well, he can stick his nursing home in Rome. I hate him. Why would I want to live closer to him?’
Aurora knew that father and son did not get on. She knew it very well.
But, though she loathed Geo’s treatment of Nico, she could not walk past the old man’s house and not drop in. It was worth it if it made things a little easier on Nico to know that his father was being cared for.
‘Now,’ Aurora said. ‘Is there anything else that you need me to do?’
‘Take some money from my dresser and run down to the store.’
‘I’m not getting you whisky, Geo,’ Aurora told him.
‘Why not? We’re all going to die in these fires!’
Aurora beamed. ‘Then you will meet your maker sober.’
‘Take the money and get me my whisky.’
‘Don’t.’
The very deep voice caused Aurora’s stomach to flip over, but even before she turned to face its direction she knew its source.
‘Nico...’ she said. ‘You’re here?’
‘Yes.’
He wore suit trousers and a white shirt—which somehow, despite the ash floating in the air, looked fresh. His hair was black and clean, unlike hers, which felt heavy after a day spent sweeping leaves outside Geo’s home and trying to get his house as safe as possible.
Oh, why couldn’t he have arrived in a couple of hours, when she was all washed and dressed up for Antonietta’s party?
But, really, what did it matter? Nico would never look at her in that way.
‘How did you get here?’ Aurora asked. ‘The road from the airport is closed.’
‘I came by helicopter,’ Nico said.
‘Told you,’ Geo declared to Aurora, but then he addressed his son. ‘I’m not going anywhere and you’re not welcome here. Get out!’
Here we go, Aurora thought, and sure enough, within two minutes of Nico arriving, Geo was shouting and waving his stick at his son.
‘Get out!’ he raged.
‘Pa...’
‘Out!’ Geo shouted. ‘I want you gone. You bring nothing but trouble. You’re not welcome in my home. You’re a thief and a liar and you ruined me.’
It was Aurora who calmed things down. ‘I’ll take Nico outside and show him what has been done to prepare for the fire,’ she suggested.
They stepped out of the small house, but there was no reprieve—Geo’s words followed them out into the oppressive heat, where the air was smoky.
‘He won’t leave willingly,’ she said.
‘I know he won’t.’ Nico sighed.
He had his chopper waiting, and a care facility in Rome ready to receive Geo, but even as Nico had asked Marianna to put the arrangements in place he had known it was futile.
‘You could carry him out,’ Aurora suggested.
‘I could,’ Nico agreed, ‘but then he would die on my shoulders just to spite me. What about you?’
‘Me?’
‘Yes, why are you staying, Aurora?’
‘Because we have to protect the village.’
‘And what can you do against the might of a wildfire?’ Nico asked.
All five-foot-three of her. She was tiny—a stic
k.
Except she wasn’t a stick any more.
They had avoided each other as much as possible since that awkward walk four years ago, and he had watched her blossom from a distance. The child he had rejected was now all woman. The cheeky, precocious brat who had hung on his every word was a forthright, assertive woman who, to Nico’s cold surprise, completely turned him on.
Not that he showed it. For one thing had not changed. Nico did not want a family and he did not want the responsibility of another heart.
‘Aurora, you can’t do anything to stop the fire.’
‘I can feed the firefighters,’ Aurora responded. ‘Anyway, Pa says the village is safe.’
‘Aurora...’ Nico kept his voice even, but fear licked at his throat at the thought of her staying here.
The village was not safe. Far from it. Nico had, after all, just viewed the fires from the sky, and heard the worrying comments from his pilot, who was ex-military. Bruno, Aurora’s father, was probably regretting his foolish decision and just putting on a brave face.
‘Leave.’
‘No.’
He persisted. ‘Come with me now and get out.’
‘I already told you—no.’
‘I could insist...’ Nico said, and it angered him when she snorted.
Did she not get that the village was going to go up in smoke and that the fire would destroy all in its path?
‘I could just put you over my shoulder—the same way I am tempted to do with my father.’
‘And then what, Nico? What will you do with me in Rome?’
He gritted his teeth.
‘My father would not object,’ she said. ‘In fact, all the villagers would come out and cheer if you carried me off.’ She gave him a smile that did not quite meet her eyes. ‘But then you would surely return me, Nico, and that would not go down very well.’
No, Nico thought, it would not. ‘Don’t you ever think of leaving?’ he asked.
‘Why would I?’ Aurora shrugged. ‘La famiglia is everything to me. Give me good food and family and my day is complete. What more could I want?’
‘You should deepen your voice, Aurora,’ Nico said, ‘when you impersonate your father.’
‘But I wasn’t impersonating him.’
‘No? You’ve heard it so often you believe it to be your own thought.’
‘Why do you have to criticise?’
‘I’m not.’
‘Oh, but you are.’
Nico took a breath. Aurora was correct. He was criticising—and he had no right to. Especially when she did so much for his father.
He addressed that issue. ‘You still haven’t sent me your bank account details so that I can pay you for the time spent with my father.’
‘I don’t count it as work.’
No, she saw it as duty. Nico knew that.
Even though he had not married her, she had taken on the role of caring for his family.
‘Aurora...’
‘I don’t have time for this, Nico. I want to move the firewood away from your father’s home. I thought my brother had done it...’
‘Give me a moment,’ Nico said.
Walking away from the house, he took out his phone and made a call to his pilot.
He could get out.
Perhaps he even should get out.
As he and the pilot both agreed, it would be a waste of vital resources to have a pilot and helicopter sitting idle, just in case Geo changed his mind.
But Nico could not leave his father to his fate alone.
And neither could he leave Aurora behind.
He looked over to her, lifting logs, doing all she could to keep the old man safe.
‘Right,’ he said walking towards her. She was filthy from the effort and he watched the streaks of ash grow as she wiped her forehead. ‘Leave the firewood to me. What else needs to be done?’
‘Aren’t you leaving?’
‘No.’
Their conversation was interrupted with the arrival of Aurora’s father. ‘Nico!’
Bruno greeted him warmly, as he always did—and that consistently surprised Nico. The fact that he had refused to marry his daughter should have caused great offence, yet Bruno had confounded Nico’s expectations and still treated him as a future son-in-law.
‘You will stay with us,’ Bruno said.
‘No, no...’ Nico attempted, for he did not want to be under the same roof as Aurora.
Or rather, he wanted to be under the same roof alone with Aurora. He wanted to strip her off in the shower and soap those breasts that now had sweat dripping between them.
He was trying to hold a conversation with Bruno even as filthy visions of the man’s daughter flashed in his mind. What was wrong with him?
‘So you’re too good for us now?’ Bruno demanded.
They all spoke from the same script, Nico thought as he dragged his mind from Aurora’s breasts. To refuse Bruno’s hospitality would be an insult, and although in his professional life Nico did not care who he offended, he attempted to do things differently here.
Like it or not, while his father was alive, he still needed these people.
More, though, he wanted to do the right thing.
‘You can have Aurora’s bed.’
‘No. Absolutely not!’ Nico would not hear of it.
‘She will be out tonight, at Antonietta’s birthday party.’
‘Aurora should be at home,’ Nico said. ‘With the threat to the village I thought the roads would be closed.’
‘The main one is, but some are open between the villages, and the threat has been here for weeks,’ Bruno said. ‘Life goes on, and Antonietta’s father is the fire chief. The firefighters are camping on his grounds so it is the safest place for her to be.’
Nico wasn’t so sure of that—and it had nothing to do with the fire!
‘I could be on lookout,’ Nico said, but Bruno shook his head.
‘It is Pino’s turn tonight. I did it last night. You shall stay with us.’
‘Well, thank you for your offer, ‘Nico said, ‘but I shall stay only if I sleep on the sofa.’
‘Up to you.’ Bruno shrugged.
Before dinner Nico checked in on his father, who had drifted off into a drunken stupor. Aurora was already there, and rolling him onto his side, making sure Geo would not choke should he become unwell during the night.
‘I told the store not to supply him with whisky,’ Nico said to her.
‘There is home delivery now.’ Aurora shrugged. ‘Even your father has worked out the Internet. And there’s always Pino stopping by, or Francesca. You can’t stop him.’
‘I send money, but then I wonder...’
‘If you didn’t send it he would drink cheap wine instead,’ Aurora pointed out. ‘Come on, it’s time to get back. Supper will soon be ready.’
‘I need to speak with the doctor first.’
The news from the doctor was the same.
Geo needed to stop drinking and he needed a more comprehensive level of care—except there was no staff to provide it in Silibri.
‘I have spoken to the agency,’ Nico said to him. ‘And I am looking to purchase the house across the street. That way—’
‘You could purchase ten houses,’ the doctor interrupted. ‘No one wants to live here. The village is dying faster than your father.’
Why did Aurora choose to remain here?
Nico thought of long-ago evenings at the Messina dinner table. She would talk of her photography, and how she would pester the manager at the winery to change the labels on his wine. To rename, rebrand. She had passion and dreams—but they had been smothered by this village, like the smoke that blanketed the valley now.
‘Come and sit down,’ Bruno said as Nico walked into the Messina home. ‘Good
food and family and my day is complete. Come now, Aurora.’
But Aurora did not join them at the table.
‘No, Pa, there will be food at the party and I have to get ready.’
‘And will there be firemen at this party?’ Bruno checked. And though he spoke to Aurora, he looked over to Nico.
‘I think they are a little too busy fighting fires.’ Aurora smiled sweetly as she left the room.
Nico’s gut tightened.
‘Aurora has a thing for one of the firefighters,’ Bruno said, and rolled his eyes. ‘Per favore, mangia, mangia, Nico. Come on—eat.’
The pasta, though delectable, tasted like ash in Nico’s mouth.
Worse still, he could hear the pipes groan as Aurora turned on the shower...
* * *
It was bliss to have the hot day and all the grime slide off her skin and to feel the dirt and grease being stripped from her hair. This morning she had risen before six, and had worked every minute since, and yet though she ached, Aurora was not tired.
She looked down at her skin, brown as nutmeg, and saw her fleshy stomach and full breasts and all too solid legs.
She was too much.
Too much skin and bum and boobs.
Too much attitude.
Although as it had turned out for Nico she was not enough. Never enough for him.
How, Aurora pondered as the water drenched her, could Nico manage to turn her on even from the kitchen table?
Last week she had kissed a firefighter, and all she had felt was the tickle of his beard, and all she had tasted was the garlic on his breath, and all she had smelled was the smoke in his hair.
There was something so clean about Nico.
Even if his morals were filthy.
Oh, yes, she had heard the gossip about his many women!
But there was still something so clean about him—the tang of his scent and the neatness of his nails that made her shiver on the inside.
She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body that was burning inside like the mountains that were aflame all around them.
She headed into her pink bedroom. It was too childish—she knew that—but then she should be gone by now.
Aurora thought now that she would either be the village spinster or perhaps she would marry one day.
The Sicilian's Surprise Love-Child Page 3