* * *
The helicopter was on the helipad at the front of the house but there was no sign of Sergio. She raced through the front door and up the stairs, but when she burst into their bedroom she stopped dead when she saw him sitting on the end of the bed. His shoulders were hunched and he was holding his head in his hands, but he lowered them when he heard her and jerked his eyes to her face.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ he demanded hoarsely. ‘You left my father’s house nearly an hour ago. I thought...’ He swallowed convulsively and, to Kristen’s shock, he dashed his hand across his eyes—but not before she had seen the betraying glimmer of moisture on his lashes.
‘What did you think?’ she asked faintly.
‘That you had gone. That I had driven you away.’
Understanding dawned. ‘Salvatore took Nico to the castle to play with Rosa. There was no need for you to worry. I wouldn’t take Nico away from you,’ she told him urgently.
‘I wasn’t worried about that. I was scared that I had lost you.’ Sergio stood up and, as he walked towards her, Kristen was shaken by the terrible bleakness in his eyes.
‘Would you care if you had lost me?’
‘Dio, how can you ask that?’ His voice shook. ‘Of course I would care.’ He raked a hand through his hair. ‘Perhaps these will explain better than words.’
Only then did Kristen notice the exquisite bouquet of red roses on her dressing table. What on earth? She bit her lip as Sergio handed the bouquet to her. The sensual fragrance of the roses filled her senses and her fingers trembled as she stroked the velvet-soft petals. There was a note attached to the bouquet. She ripped it open and stared at Sergio’s distinctive bold handwriting:
‘Can you ever forgive me?’
He had written one short line, yet she sensed powerful emotion behind the words and it was as if a fog around her brain had suddenly cleared.
What was he asking her to forgive him for? Her throat ached with tears. For finding it hard to show his feelings, or for hiding his emotions, as he had learned to do when he was a child and his mother had beaten him? Dear heaven, she had been so selfish to hide how she felt about him while she waited for him to tell her that he loved her. Maybe he didn’t, but he cared about her enough to buy her roses.
‘When I arrived home I came to find you to give you the flowers,’ he said in a curiously strained voice, ‘but one of the staff told me you were visiting my father.’
‘I saw the helicopter. Salvatore told me you had gone to the hospital in Rome to visit a friend, but you are back earlier than expected.’
‘Fortunately, Gilberto’s health scare turned out not to be a heart attack.’
Kristen breathed in the roses’ rich perfume. ‘These are beautiful. Thank you.’
‘Can you forgive me for the way I behaved last night, Krissie?’
This was a Sergio she did not recognise. A man clearly wracked with emotion. But what did it mean? What had he meant when he had said he had been afraid he had lost her?
‘Sergio...you once offered to tell me about your first marriage.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Will you tell me about Annamaria now?’
He frowned, clearly surprised by her request.