The Sicilian's Surprise Love-Child

Yet as he sat there he recalled Aurora’s emphatic no when he had suggested that the night after—

Damn, no matter how he tried to avoid it, all roads led to that night.

Nico forced himself back to the moment: What in God’s name was he doing, sitting here discussing fabric? It was his hotel and it had been four years in the making.

The trouble with the Silibri venture was that the staff considered it to be their hotel too. They were all so involved and took it all so personally.

‘What about the same green as the other hotels, but in linen?’ Francesca suggested.

Aurora shook her head.

‘That just takes us back to the Merry Men,’

‘So what do you suggest, Aurora?’ Nico threw down his pen in exasperation.

Of course she had an immediate answer. ‘Persian Orange.’

From her seemingly bottomless bag she produced several swatches of fabric and proceeded to pass them around. It was a linen blend that wouldn’t crease, she assured them, and with one look Nico knew she was right.

‘It is the colour of the temple ruins and the monastery just before sunset,’ Aurora said. ‘And you know how beautiful Silibri looks at that time of night. Mother Nature chose her colours wisely.’

‘It is a bold colour,’ Vincenzo objected. ‘A touch too bold, perhaps?’

‘I don’t agree that it is too bold; it is, in fact, quite plain,’ Aurora refuted, then cocked her head to the side.

Nico watched as her knowing eyes weighed up Vincenzo.

‘Are you worried that it might clash with your red hair?’

‘Of course not…’ Vincenzo was flustered and smoothed said red hair down.

‘Because,’ Aurora continued, ‘we could have bespoke shades on the same theme, with Persian Orange being the main one.’

‘Bespoke shades…?’ Vincenzo checked.

And Nico watched silently as his marketing manager warmed to his new assistant’s idea, and watched, too, Aurora’s small, self-satisfied smile as of course she got her way.

Heaven help Vincenzo, Nico thought, trying to manage her. Because Aurora could not be managed nor contained.

She was as Sicilian as Mount Etna, as volatile as the volcano it was famous for, and she could not be beguiled or easily charmed. She was perceptive and assiduous and…

And he refused to give in to her ways.

‘I’ll consider it,’ Nico said.

‘Consider it?’ Aurora checked. ‘But what is there to consider when it’s perfect?’

‘There is plenty to consider,’ Nico snapped. ‘Next.’

It had been scheduled as a thirty-minute meeting but in the end it took sixty-three—and of course it did not end there.

As Marianna disappeared for a quick restroom break, and Nico attempted to stalk off, Aurora caught up with him. ‘I wonder if we could speak? I have an idea.’

‘It has all been said in the meeting.’

‘This isn’t about the uniforms. I have another idea for the Silibri hotel.’

‘Then speak with Vincenzo, your manager.’

‘Why would I share my idea with him?’

‘Because I don’t generally deal with assistants.’

Aurora felt his cool, snobbish dismissal and told him so. ‘It is spring, Nico, and the sun is shining—yet you are so cold that when I stand near you I shiver.’

‘Then get a coat! Aurora, let me make something very clear—and this is a conversation that you can repeat to all your colleagues. You are here for a week of training to find out how I like things done and how I want my hotel to operate. You’re not here for little chats and suggestions, and catch-ups and drinks. I did not build a hotel in Silibri to expand my social life.’

Nico wanted this conversation to be over.

‘You are shadowing Marianna for the rest of the day?’ he checked.

‘Sì?’

‘Then what are you doing standing in mine?’

CHAPTER TWO

DAMN YOU, NICO!

How much clearer could he have made it that he did not want her near him? He could not have been more horrible had he tried.

As Nico stalked off Aurora wanted to be done with her feelings for him. To shed them. To discard them. To stamp her foot on them and kick them to the kerb. She was tired of them and bone-weary from this unrequited love.

‘Aurora.’ Marianna had found her. ‘We need to talk. Or rather, you need to listen.’

‘I already know what you’re going to say.’

But she was told anyway.

A little more decorum and a lot less sass, or she would be shadowing the bottle-washer for the rest of the week.

And while Aurora understood what was being said, she just did not know how to squeeze herself into the box demanded of her. Or how not to be herself when she was near Nico.

‘Hello, husband,’ she had used to greet him teasingly when, as a young girl, she had opened the door to him.

He would shake his head and roll his eyes at the precocious child who constantly fought for his smile and attention. ‘Your father says he wants some firewood chopped,’ Nico would respond.

Yet, as much as he’d dismiss her, she would still sit and watch him chop firewood, and her heart would bleed when he took off his top and she saw a new bruise or a gash on his back.

How could Geo do that to him?

How could anyone hate Nico so?

Then he would look over, and sometimes he would smile rather than scowl at his devoted audience. And her day would be made.

Nico hadn’t broken her heart when he had first left Silibri—after all, she had only been ten then—though for a while she had cried herself to sleep at night.

No, the heartbreak had occurred on one of his rare trips home, when Aurora had been sixteen.

Her heart had sung, just at knowing he was home, and then one afternoon he had spoken at length with her father behind closed doors. She had assumed they were drinking the grappa her father had saved for this very day.

And then Nico had come out and asked if she’d like to take a walk. She had quickly washed her face and hands and scrubbed her nails, so her hands would look pretty for the ring. And she had brushed her teeth for she had wanted to taste fresh for her first kiss.

They had walked down the hill and around the old monastery, but instead of heading to the ancient temple ruins, Aurora’s favourite place, Nico had suggested they take the steps down the cliff to the beach.

‘Our fathers are very old fashioned…’ Nico had said as they walked on the deserted sands.

‘Yes!’ Aurora had beamed, for she had known he had just been speaking with hers.

‘They try to make decisions for us.’

She’d felt the first prickle of warning that this conversation might not be going as she had long hoped. ‘They do,’ she had rather carefully agreed.

‘Aurora, I stopped allowing my father to dictate to me a long time ago.’

‘I know he is difficult. I know you hate him. But—’

‘Aurora,’ he broke in. ‘I can’t see myself ever marrying. I don’t want to have a family. I want freedom…’

It had been the worst moment of her life.

‘Aurora!’

Marianna’s voice broke in on her painful reminiscence.

‘Are you even listening to what I’m saying?’

‘Of course,’ Aurora said. She hadn’t been listening, but she could guess very well what Marianna had said. ‘Don’t worry, I…’ She gave a slow nod, took a deep breath and made a vow—not just to Marianna but also to herself. ‘I will not embarrass myself again.’

Aurora was done with Nico Caruso.

For eight years she had loved him in secret.

A whole third of her life!

Well, no more.

It was time to snuff out the torch she carried.

She would be calm and distant and professional if she ever saw him again.

‘I didn’t mean you to take it like that…’ Marianna gave her first kind smile. ‘Nico is a wonderful boss, but he’s no one’s friend. Just remember that when you’re working together.’

‘I will.’

‘Come on—the driver is waiting.’

‘The driver?’

‘So I can go and pack for Signor Caruso’s trip. Oh, and I must organise his driver for the morning, now he’s no longer staying at the hotel…’

Aurora just wanted the day to be over. She wanted to go back to her hotel room, throw herself on the bed and cry…and then emerge better and stronger and step into the future without him.

Instead, she had to step into his home.

It was beautiful, of course.

Nico lived in the Parioli district, and his residence was just a short drive from the hotel. It was elegant and tasteful and her heels rang out on the marble floors.

There was a huge gleaming kitchen, where Marianna deposited the limoncello and passata in rather empty cupboards. Then they went back to the main corridor, with its cathedral-high ceilings and a grand staircase which she climbed reluctantly—for surely Nico’s bedroom was not the best place to attempt to get over him?

The master bedroom had French windows and a balcony and looked out to Villa Borghese Park. And, had it not been Nico’s bedroom that she stood in, Aurora might have been tempted to step out onto the balcony and drink in the view. Instead she looked at the vast bed, dressed in white with dark cushions, and imagined Nico beneath the crisp linen.

His bedroom daunted and overwhelmed her, although Marianna was clearly very used to it and quickly pulled out a suit carrier and a case and started to select shirts and suits.

‘Aurora, could you please sort out underwear?’

Joy!

It was agony—sheer agony—Once, a long time ago, she had slipped her hand inside similar black silk boxers and felt his velvet skin…

Oh, it killed her to be in his bedroom, and to remember how it had been between them, but she tried hard to keep her vow and focus on work.

‘Should I pack these?’ Aurora asked, holding up a pair of black lounge pants. To her surprise, Marianna laughed.

‘No, I bought those just in case he has to go into hospital or something.’

‘Oh…’

‘You have to think of all eventualities if you’re a PA.’

Except Aurora didn’t want to be one. ‘Marianna, why am I shadowing you today? I’m enjoying it, of course, but I thought I would stay with the marketing team.’

Marianna put the suit she was holding down on the bed before answering. ‘Well, I don’t always travel with Signor Caruso and, given that he’ll presumably be spending some considerable time in Silibri, I thought it might be prudent to train someone to assist me when he’s there. I have someone in each of his hotels with whom I liaise. I spoke with Francesca and she suggested you.’

‘I would be Nico’s PA?’

‘No. But I want someone in the Silibri hotel that I can liaise with directly regarding him.’

‘Does Nico know about this?’

‘No, it’s just something Francesca and I have discussed. I would not trouble Signor Caruso unless I considered it viable…’ She gave a thin smile, which told Aurora that she was already having her doubts as to her suitability for the role.

Aurora had doubts of her own.

Getting closer to Nico wasn’t going to snuff out the torch. Instead it would fan the eternal flame that burned for him. So Aurora said the bravest thing she could. ‘It is very nice of you to consider me—but, no.’ Aurora shook her head. ‘I don’t think that role would be for me.’

Tonight, when she was back in the hotel, she would cry one final time over him, Aurora decided.

There would be no bus tour.

She was a little tired of being with her friends. They saw each other every day and they were all so much older than she.

No, tonight she would recall with shame her own behaviour earlier with Nico and then she would weep into the pillow. And then…

Well, it was time she moved on—time she started dating.

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 stick.

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.