Back In The Italian's Bed by Annie West

don’t believe it. It’s a woman, isn’t it? After all these years some woman has finally got to you.’ She shook her head. ‘I never thought I’d see the day you felt something for one of them.’
    Fabrizio’s mouth flattened. ‘You make me sound like some sort of Casanova.’
    Her eyebrows arched. ‘If the shoe fits, big brother. You’ve been loving and leaving them for as long as I can remember. Except I doubt
love
entered into it, for you at least.’
    Fabrizio sat straighter, scowling. ‘You think I’ve left a trail of broken hearts?’ He shook his head. He’d always taken the precaution of choosing sophisticated women who understood he enjoyed sex, enjoyed female companionship, but had no intention of settling down yet.
    Until Jenna.
    With her he’d taken one look and known he had to have her. There’d been no time for carefully setting the boundaries, just a gut-deep certainty he needed her.
    He
still
needed her.
    ‘Well,’ Chiara paused, ‘a string of disappointed women. I can think of at least two who were horribly let down when you ditched them.’
    Fabrizio stared. ‘You knew them?’
    ‘They were hardly a secret.’ Her look was assessing. ‘Until lately. For ages I’ve heard reports about a beautiful blonde with a great smile but you’ve kept her very much to yourself.’
    A great smile. Jenna’s smile could light up a room. It always warmed him. It had been one of the things that had first drawn him to her. Now his world felt cold without her.
    His heart dived. Last time he’d seen her those lush lips had been quivering in distress – so at odds with the bravado of her angled chin and perfect poise. Pain slashed through his belly, ripping a gaping hole that left him raw and bleeding. He was to blame for that.
    ‘Fabrizio?’ He looked up to see Chiara watching him closely, her brow puckered. ‘Why didn’t I meet her? Why did you kept her to yourself?’
    Because she was different.
    Because Jenna wasn’t like the other women who flitted in and out of his life.
    Because instinctively he’d known she was more important than all the rest. Even if he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.
    Santo cielo
! He ploughed his hand through his hair.
    ‘Fabrizio!’
    He felt Chiara’s hand on his sleeve and met round, questioning eyes.
    ‘Are you all right?’ For once his little sister looked serious, all teasing gone.
    He shook his head. ‘Anything but.’ He hauled in a rough breath that made his tight lungs ache. ‘I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life.’

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    ‘
PRONTO
.’ JENNA HELD the phone to her ear with one hand while she rubbed the blackened brass door-knob with the other.
    ‘Jenna, it’s Adriana here from the Tourist Office.’
    Jenna sat back on her heels and wiped her sleeve over her damp forehead. She’d worked steadily all morning and ached all over. This call was a welcome respite, even if she could barely afford the time.
    ‘Adriana! How are you?’
    ‘Good, thank you.’ Her friend sounded breathless. ‘But I have news. Your first guests are on their way.’
    Jenna’s eyes widened. ‘Not for another week. By then I’ll have finished—’
    ‘You don’t have another week. This was too good an opportunity to pass up, believe me. Just tell me you’ve got the internet connection up and running. That’s a must for them, apparently.’
    ‘Of course I have. I was working on the website again this last week. But I’m not ready for guests.’
    ‘You’ll have to be. They’re on their way, said they’d be there in an hour.’
    Jenna shot to her feet, leaving her stomach on the floor. An hour? Impossible. She looked at the ladder and bucket on the front step, thought of the unfinished painting in the dining room, all the work to be done before she could open her guesthouse.
    ‘You’ll have to call them back and tell them there’s been a mistake.’
    ‘And turn down the chance for triple the income you’d get from a full house?’
    Jenna