Page 34 of In Bed with Her Billionaire Bodyguard

They emerged from the forest near to the chairlift that would take them up higher, where they could take a series of runs that would get them to where he wanted to take Hope. She pulled to a stop beside him, pulling her goggles down, her eyes bright with excitement and expectation, and he knew he’d done the right thing.

‘Your chariot awaits,’ he said, pointing to the bottom of the chairlift, surrounded by small groups of families, couples and what looked like a ski class of five-year-olds.

Anonymity. He’d given her anonymity, she realised, as she leaned into the gentle turn she took down the green run that both she and Luca could have made blindfold. But she enjoyed the ease of it, refamiliarising herself with the turns, the stops, the feel of it. She’d spent so long being the face of Harcourts, courting the press, for good or ill, because it was how she represented her family, that she’d forgotten about simple pleasures, of an enjoyment that wasn’t on display—perhaps even of a romance that was secret, she thought, her stomach swooping in line with the wide arc she made with her skis as she turned to a stop at the bottom of another set of lifts. To one side was the button lift, dragging skiers up the side of the easy run full of children and newbies. To the other was the bubble lift and where Luca was leading her to.

They queued up with excited children and eager adults, all speaking a mix of German, French, English, Spanish and Italian. Hope felt happy. And excited. A family of four stepped into the bubble-shaped lift behind them, the heavy plastic affording a hazy glimpse of the slopes below them and the mountain range above. The little girl was jumping up and down, the thrill and excitement rolling off her in waves. But it was the little boy that caught Hope’s eye. Solemn, perhaps a little scared, his mother quietly and gently soothed him with reassuring words Hope didn’t need to understand.

She remembered her mother doing something very similar for her when she and Nate had been learning to ski. She caught Luca looking at them too and wondered what it reminded him of. And slowly the smile that had curved her lips dropped a little. The look in his gaze wasn’t one of fond memories.

But the lift arrived at its destination and they only had a short time to grab their skis and disembark. She went to follow the family to the top of the blue run—a step up in difficulty from the green, but Luca gently guided her in the opposite direction.

‘We’re not taking the run down?’ she asked.

‘Not yet. There’s something I want to show you,’ he said. ‘Trust me?’ And even though she couldn’t see his eyes, hidden by the wraparound sunglasses, there was a taunt, a challenge, without the edge and with all the tease that she enjoyed so much between them.

‘Not as far as I can throw you,’ she lied and Luca threw his head back and laughed. It was a startling sound—one that drew more than just her glance his way.

‘Come on,’ he said, and he guided her towards a faint track. It was off-piste, so it wasn’t under careful management, and there were no ski patrols keeping an eye out like there were on the runs. But Hope was confident of both her and Luca’s ability and she knew he’d never put her at risk. Ever.

The thought was as startling as his sudden deep laugh had been and it rang in her ears, echoing in the silence created by the banks of snow that surrounded them as they crossed the ridge of the hill and swept down into the basin below.

Her stomach rose and fell as the momentum they’d created forced them back up the other side and, despite her absolute conviction that she would slide back down, she found herself cresting the other side and couldn’t help but let out a whoop of pleasure.

She followed Luca as he cut a path across fresh, untouched snow, and she tried not to be distracted by the sight of clouds hovering close by. He called back to her to make sure she was keeping up and while the cold air pushed and pulled out of her lungs with a frequency that was as intense as any workout, it was so much more satisfying.

For a while she focused simply on that. Moving her body, following Luca’s direction. Her mind emptied for the first time in what felt like for ever. Peaceful. It was peaceful. There was nothing here that wanted her to be, or do, something. There were no demands on her or for her to make. She settled into the rhythm and lost herself, until Luca slowed to a stop. There was a little wooden sign, but she missed what it said because the moment she gazed to where Luca was looking, she forgot her curiosity.

Breath left her chest in a whoosh, the sight before her so magnificent. The peak of a mountain rose up so close she was half convinced she could reach out to touch it. The clouds that had hovered near earlier ringed the peak below where they stood.

When Luca clicked out of his skis and took a seat in the small bank of snow behind them, Hope followed suit.

‘It’s beautiful,’ she said, her tone reverent. It was as if they were close to heaven, she thought, the sun glinting off the snow, a pale denim blue sky bare from but a few spun-sugar clouds. It was spectacular.

Luca nodded, not needing to fill the silence between them. It was an unusual trait, she realised, suddenly aware of how much of her life was filled with distractions or information. She had wondered before if it were part of his role, his job. A chauffeur needed to be unassuming and invisible a lot of the time. In some ways, she supposed, bodyguards had to be the same. But she was beginning to realise that it was something innate in him. Something quiet that called to the near frantic energy of her life and drew it down a few notches, soothing her in a way she’d not experienced before.

Her grandfather tolerated her, challenged her to be better and more with his absent manner and his criticism. Nate sought to fix, to mend, to do, unaware that he was utterly overcrowding her, not even giving her the chance to prove herself. The board, the shareholders, they were simply blind to what she achieved daily. But Luca? He just let her be.

Luca felt the moment that she relaxed finally. For the first time since that morning, she took the breath he’d felt her struggling for. He knew the breakneck speed at which she worked; he knew enough about the life she led to understand why she felt the need to be that way. He just wasn’t sure that she’d ever really sat down and thought about whether she wanted it or not.

It hadn’t been Alma or Pietro, or even Anna, that had helped him to see what he wanted from life, but a teacher from his local school in Palizzi. Signor Arcuri had called him back after class, just before the end of his final term.

‘It doesn’t matter what you want to do, Luca. As long as you know why. That “why” will give you purpose. It will see you through hard times, self-doubt, poverty and riches alike. Find why you want to do what it is you want to do, and do it with absolute conviction and no looking back.’

It had changed his life, Luca knew. It had forced him to coalesce his thoughts, his wants, into a single goal: Pegaso.

Perhaps he’d never grown out of the idea of becoming the white knight he’d believed his mother had desperately needed, because even then he’d known that he wanted to protect people. To help those who couldn’t help themselves. So he’d taken the money his mother had gifted him when he’d signed the NDA at eighteen and been clever. Sensible but clever. He’d invested half of that money while he’d done the training and groundwork needed to build Pegaso up from nothing. He was proud of that, and he’d never looked back. But he couldn’t help but wonder if that perhaps all this action and forward momentum in Hope disguised the fact that she didn’t know what it was that she truly wanted.

‘Beats the gym,’ Hope said, her breath a puff of air, her eyes squinting in the sun, having taken off her goggles to look at the view.

‘Beats the gym,’ he confirmed. He checked his watch. ‘Come on.’

‘Have we got somewhere to be?’ she asked, laughing lightly. It was a sound he felt against his skin. One he wanted more of.

‘A very important meeting,’ he teased.

Another ninety minutes of skiing and one chairlift later and they came to a large chalet, similar to the one they were staying in, but here on the large wraparound deck were tables, half full of skiers and families. Hope’s desire for anonymity was so different to his mother’s near compulsive need for recognition that he didn’t know how to make it fit with Hope and her life.

‘Lunch?’ she asked, turning that bright, full smile on him, and it had the force of a punch to the chest, sending all thoughts of his mother scattering.

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