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Nothing, because she’d just worked out how to put her headphones to silent and now she cut him out of the loop, and when the helicopter landed and they were out she thanked Stefano.

She was close to tears, he could see, but smiling brightly to the pilot and all English politeness as he asked Stefano to see that Signora Maria got the meal for Geo.

‘I don’t need a ride down the hill,’ she warned. ‘So don’t offer.’

‘I wasn’t about to.’

‘Good.’ She was just about to huff off when he grabbed her wrist and spun her back.

Please don’t touch me, she wanted to beg, because I’m already struggling to keep my dignity…

‘Let’s walk.’

‘I’m tired of walking.’

‘I meant…’ He led her to a rusty iron gate, so neglected compared to the rest of the property, at least all she had seen of it. ‘When I’ve sold up here and the new owners are in, you might want to know about the place I’m taking you to. You can keep it on file…’

He’d made her curious enough to follow.

Or was it that he was so engrossing that she would follow him down a cliff path, heading to who knew where?

He was the most riveting, exciting man she’d met in her life and she had a long time to get over him—perhaps she didn’t want it to start quite now.

And so she followed him down…ever down.

‘Oh, I never knew I was scared of heights.’

‘Just look at my back.’

It was hot and her sandals were digging in and the ribbon on her dress was blowing in the wind like her hair, and it felt like the biggest adventure of her life.

One that probably wasn’t wise.

They were dreadfully high.

‘You know,’ she said to his back, ‘if my parents actually cared about me, they might be rightly starting to worry now.’

He turned and smiled. ‘I care,’ he said, ‘and there’s no need to worry.’

And she knew then he was the wise one.

Knew he’d been right to deny her, because her heart was now his.

She could deny it to him, to herself, she could scream it from a cliff face that all she’d wanted was sex, but…

‘Here.’ He helped her down the rocky steps, a little slippery in places from moss, and then he guided her into a cavern, almost unseen, just a huge crack in the rocks.

‘What is this place?’

They stepped in, and it wasn’t a cave, there was light from above. It was more a fissure in the cliff, and looking up she could see the glare of the blue sky and twines that dropped from a waterfall…

‘It is a family secret,’ Gabe admitted. ‘We used to come here.’ He pointed to the top of the waterfall. ‘I climbed up there.’

‘To the top?’

‘Halfway.’ He’d never let himself remember before. ‘Nobody except the Rinaldis know about this place.’

‘I’m hardly going to tell.’ She smiled then, really smiled, so grateful she hadn’t huffed off, and to be here in an unexpected place with him. ‘I doubt we could use it. We’d never get the equipment down,’ she said. ‘And I don’t know if insurance…’