C H A P T E R 2 9 : W H E N T H E I R R E S I S T I B L E H A P P E N S E L L A S T A N F O R D “You have no idea how I have been waiting all evening for this.” They kissed desperately, her arms closing around the back of his head to pull him nearer. Her half-naked body was trembling in his arms. It had been so long, the kisses were a hot rush across her flesh, an overload to her senses that woke up all those lonely places inside her that she had ignored for god knows how long. He touched his tongue to the seam of her lips, and her chest got tight and achy and her knees threatened to buckle. She raised her hands to his shoulders to keep from falling and tilted her head to the side. Her lips parted, and the slick touch and warm glide of his tongue was like dropping a lit match on a pool of gasoline and she went up in flames. She wanted to burn and make him burn along with her. He tasted like beer and liquid sex and she wanted to eat him up. A low moan escaped her chest, her brea

C H A P T E R  3 1  : H E R  F I R S T  M E E T I N G E L L A  S T A N F O R D The correct word to decribe it was ‘strange’, Ella decided. It was strange to fall into a deep slumber when her mind was so disturbed, but her mental and physical exhaustion was such that she fell soon afterwards into bottomless sleep, her body curled on its side, one hand beneath her cheek, in the attitude of a weary child. Perhaps her mind was not completely asleep because she could feel him. She was not sure what the time was and whether she was imagining things or it was truly happening. But she felt his hand touching her face, caressing her cheek, and then she felt his lips on her forehead, giving her a light goodnight kiss someone would give a child. Ella wanted to open her eyes so badly to see whether it was merely a fickle of her imagination or if it was

C H A P T E R  3 3  : H I S  W A K E  U P  C A L L  A N D  W O R R I E S E L L A  S T A N F O R D After her brief meeting with Joseph, she had picked up her book and beach towel and gone back to the hotel. Not surprisingly enough, there was no sign of Javier. Almost as soon as she laid her head on the pillow, she fell asleep. After what felt like a few hours later, she woke up and stretched her body. It seemed that the rest had swept away some of her tiredness. Fluttering her eyes opened, she saw him. Against the open french windows, his body taut, Javier was standing, staring at her. For a moment they looked at each other in silence. From complete relaxation Ella felt herself plunge into breathless awareness. His face was an expressionless mask. All traces of the desire, rage, and frustration he had shown last night were gone. “I was beginning t

C H A P T E R  3 5  : W H E N  H E  O P E N S  U P  A N D  S H E  G I V E S  I N E L L A  S T A N F O R D Javier shrugged. “At least we are alive,” he said. “All I hope is that we can start the car again. We are about a mile from my brother’s cottage and there is no village for hour miles back. The nearest garage is about seven miles off.” They got back into the car. “Okay, let’s try again.” he said, starting the ignition. Astonishingly, it sprang to life at the second attempt, and he carefully reversed back from the tree. They started to drive around the corner and emerged on to a flat narrow road bordered on one side by trees through which she could just see a river bank. On the other ran orchards whose blossom-covered branches tossed wildly to and fro in the wind. Javier sighed with relief, dr

C H A P T E R  3 7 : P I E R S  J O S E P H  S U M M E R S J A V I E R  S U M M E R S Later, she lay in his arms, in the warmth of his embrace and soft glow of good sex and soothing heat from the fireplace. If someone had told her a month ago whether she would end up in a stranded cabin in a wood somewhere in Sicily, naked with her boss's body — also naked— pressed against hers as if they were lovers, she would have laughed out loud. Yet here she was. Would she regret it? In all honesty, she did not know. She was probably going to regret it in the morning, when this dreamy reality would lose the word dream and became nothing more than just a reality — something she had to face head on. What if he was going to leave her in the morning? What if when the sun rose up, he would tell her that this had been a mistake? What would she do then? Her brain wanted her to rethink about all of this but her heart was t