Page 37 of Bound By The Italian’s 'I Do'

‘Please, Gianni. Please. Keep me locked in a dark basement with spiders if you must but please, let me call my sister.Please.’

It was the distress on her face that made Gianni come within a whisker of granting her request. When a solitary teardrop rolled down her cheek he had to clench his fist to stop from reaching into his back pocket for her phone.

‘Bella, listen to me,’ he said gently. ‘Your sister is safe, I swear it. Alessandro is not the monster you believe him to be. He would never harm a hair on her head.’

Chin wobbling, her teeth grazed her bottom lip. ‘You expect me to believe you?’

He brushed a finger across her cheek and gave a rueful smile. ‘I expect nothing, but on this I want you to put your trust in me and believe me when I say Amelia is safe and no harm will come to her.’

He could not fathom why, after staring intently into his eyes for so long it felt as if she’d delved into a lifetime of his memories, her soft nod and the loosening of her taut frame as she whispered, ‘Okay,’ should make his chest fill so strongly.

She must be mad. Issy knew that, gazing out of the window but with her thoughts too full to see. Trustinghim? Trusting the devil? And it wasn’t because she had no choice in the matter, it was a trust that came from her heart, a relief that spread through her and eased the tightness in her lungs. It was a trust she felt guilty for having, almost as guilty as she felt when she remembered how close she’d come to giving her virginity to the devil. If Gianni hadn’t confessed to knowing who she was, she would have let him make love to her, and gladly. That he’d obviously had a fit of guilt himself to make such a confession at such a time should not mean anything. He’d led her on to that point. Every word he’d said had been a lie.

But every word you’ve said has been a lie too...

That’s different, she argued with herself. Gianni was a corrupt...she almost called him a monster but for some stupid reason her brain recoiled from allowing her to think it. But he was definitely corrupt! He was the corrupt bastard who’d stolen her father’s business and destroyed her life. He deserved everything she and Amelia had been planning for him.

Are you sure about that...?

Shut up! she shouted to her stupid brain. Of course she was sure! Amelia had discovered proof of their corruption and her sister wouldn’t lie.

But why did you refuse to go ahead with the plan without proof?

Because I needed to be certain we were doing the right thing! They both had been! They had agreed from the off that they wouldn’t go ahead without proof that it wasn’t only their father the Rossi cousins had destroyed!

Why was she having this argument with herself again? Before meeting Gianni, as Amelia’s side of the plan had been gaining speed, Issy had put her fresh insistence that Amelia find proof of corruption down to cold feet. Secret doubts had gathered, and she’d become increasingly needful of something concrete and physical to throw at the Rossi cousins if it ever came to it, a certainty that this wasn’t just the vengeance of two adolescent girls who’d probably been blind to their father’s faults.

It was working at the hospital, she was sure, that had put those doubts about her father in her head, and she hated herself for them, would never admit to Amelia that they even existed.

Working on the children’s ward meant Issy spent a lot of time with parents whose precious children hovered between life and death. Those parents were fallible. Human. But the children never saw them like that. Their children trusted them implicitly. If Mummy or Daddy said they were going to get better then they unfailingly believed them, even if that assurance was a lie. Not one parent lied out of callousness but because they couldn’t bear to deal with the consequences of the truth, both to their child and to themselves.

‘We’re here.’

Issy blinked herself out of her reverie and looked at her watch. Only ten minutes had passed since Gianni had kidnapped her into the back of his car and she hadn’t paid any attention to her surroundings.

They’d stopped at an electric gate with a guarded security box built into a high stone wall that ran as far as the eye could see either side. The narrow road they’d taken continued on the other side of the of gate, surrounded by thick, tropical foliage. As they travelled it she tried not to marvel at the beauty surrounding them but when they emerged through it and the stunning vista revealed itself, she was unable to stop the gasp that escaped her lips.

A huge cove with the clearest turquoise water she’d ever seen lapped onto the cleanest, whitest sand she’d ever seen. The rays from the sun high above them made the water and sand sparkle like a billion tiny jewels had been scattered over it. Virtually hidden amongst the palm trees lining the beach was a handful of thatched roofed chalets. The central one, set back from the other four and easily the size of them all combined, rose like a Tibetan monastery.

It was the most stunning sight she’d seen in her life, beautiful enough to make her heart twist and then pump with a sigh.

The driver parked in a sheltered garage hidden from the naked eye.

‘Let me show you around,’ Gianni said quietly.

Issy closed her eyes before following him out of the car.

Close-up, the complex was even more stunning than it had been from a distance.

‘This is the first time I’ve come here since the work was completed,’ he told her as they neared the chalets, each larger and set further apart from the others than she’d originally thought. Reaching the first, she realised each chalet was set in its own private landscape.

‘My original intention for this holiday was to spend a week sailing on thePalazzo delle Festeand the second week here,’ he added when she made no response.

‘You’ve spent an enormous amount of money on something you’ll only use for two weeks of the year,’ she observed as he guided her past a swimming pool that looked as if it were naturally created. Palms offered natural shade on one side of it, the other a sunbather’s paradise.

‘I’m planning for the future.’

‘Oh?’

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