(2012) Evie Undercover (21 page)

‘
A
s you say,
though,
it was ever so many years ago, and you were very young.’

‘Hey, I
’m not that old!’ he laughed. ‘But i
t’s nice of
you to want to defend me
.
’

She
buried her face in
his
chest and
nestled
closer
.
‘So maybe you d
on’t qualify for sainthood.
I’m not sure that being in bed with a saint would
be high
on my wish list
, anyway
.’

He looked down at her and gave her a lazy smile. ‘Thanks, Evie,’ he said
quietly
.

She stared out of her bedroom window in
Il Poggio
,
w
atching the early morning sun inch its way above distant Todi. Trailing in its wake were lo
ng streaks of white-gold light
, which s
lowly drifted
across the sky, widening i
nto each other, merging
into giant sheets of pale light which swept away the dark of night.

Had she still been on her m
ission
, it would have been
accomplished, she told herself
.
There was
nothing incriminating about the Zizi affair
–
or rather
the non-affair
–
b
ut
the fax story
,
along
with the photograph her editor already had
,
would be enough
for him
to
publish
the salacious article he was after.

The paper could say what
ever
it liked
about
Tom
and Zizi
.
Since he’d b
ee
n shown to have done something
dishonest
in the
past
, people could easily be persuaded to think he’d crossed the line with his married client whilst at the same time telling the court that she hadn’t done anything to damage her reputation.

She coul
d hand in
the story
. H
er editor would be pleased with her and her job would be secure.
But
as she’d realised in a flash as she lay beside Tom,
that wasn’t going to happen
,
not now, not ever.

How ironic, she thought drily, getting something she’d so badly wanted when she no longer wanted it.

She turned away from the cold glass and looked slowly around the room. Her gaze fell on the bedroom door and lingered there. She remembered the look on Tom’s face when he’d burst into her bedroom on hearing her scream that first night. She smiled at the spot where he’d stood.

That was the moment when she’d fallen in love with him
–
she just ha
dn’t allowed herself to recogn
ise
it. No
t until
last night
.

Her eyes now wide open, she
real
ise
d
what Eduardo had seen in them when he’
d watched her gaze at Tom. I
t was amazing
that
she’d managed to fool herself for one whole week that while Tom was fun to be with, he was no more to her than a boss who happened to be a brilliant companion. She’d been so blind
.

And not just about Tom. S
he
could see
herself clearly for the first time
in
ages
.

Even if she hadn’t fallen in love with Tom, she would never have been able to do what
Pure Dirt
had
asked her to do; not in any circumstances
–
s
he just wasn’t wired like that.
Yes, she desperately wanted to be a journalist
,
but not so badly that she’d bring herself to do something absolutely vile to someone else in order to achieve her goal. No way!

She cringed as she remembered
telling
Rachel and Jess that she was going to focus on the
Pure
, not on the
Dirt
.
How naïve of her. The minute you pried into someone’s private life and made it public, you were up to your neck in crap. There was no
thing
pure
about
printing something about someone that they’d rather other people didn’t know
, whatever that something was
.

God, she’d been so stupid
.
If only she’d faced the truth about herself and the job earlier in the week, she could have mentally
ditched
Pure Dirt
and concentrated on having a bloody good time in Italy
. I
nstead she’d wasted precious time worrying about how to get a story.

No matter how much she dreaded the thought of him knowing why she’d gone to Italy with him,
and
no matter how
much she wanted
to think that he mig
ht never need
to
know,
she owed it to him to tell him the truth. The way she’d met
him was a lie,
but there weren’t going t
o be any more lies between them
and she wasn’t going to live in fear of him learning the truth at some point in the future. She was going to tell him up front about
Pure Dirt
.

But she had to be super cool about the way in which she did it.
B
lurting
it
out
on their first date
in London
would be a sure fire way of
kill
ing
their relationship before it had hardly got off the ground
. No,
she’d
have to
do it
carefully and at the right time.
Which meant she’d have to keep her job at Pure Dirt, and therefore
the
agency, a little while lon
ger.

Once they’d
re-establish
ed
their relationship
,
she
could
tell him about
Pure Dirt
and how she’d turned her back on what had been one ginormous mistake from the start.

She loved Tom and she was convinced that he loved her
. W
ith luck,
her past
would
n’t
come between them
.

One thing was for certain, though
–
whatever happened or didn’t happen between her and Tom in the future
,
n
o one would ever know what he
’
d told her
that night
.

Chapter Fourteen

When is a proposal not a proposal?

Tom threw back his cover
,
walked across
the hotel
bedroom to the window
and
pushed
open
th
e
shutters
.
L
eaning
forward
against the wooden
window
sill,
he
watched
as
the
night
bega
n to
break up into
wide
swathes
of
pale grey
and blue
that reached out across the sky
, each of them
outlined
by
the
white
sun
that
rose up behind them
,
herald
ing
the dawn of the new day. 

Their last day
together
in Italy.

It was true that Evie would be working for him for two more weeks, so in a way they would
still
be together
when they were
in England
, but
it might not be the same. And
anyway,
his work schedule meant that they wouldn’t be physically together, and that’s what
he wanted.
She’d brought a breath of f
r
esh air into his life and he wasn’t ready to
return
to life as it had been before he
’d met her.

And he might not have to. W
ho knew how things would turn out in the future?

But that was for the futu
re.

Their time together
in Italy had been a dream. Holding Evie in his arms the night before,
having her in his bed,
that
had been a dream come true – it had been
something
that was
very, very special. For him, anyway. And for Evie, too, he was sure. She wasn’t the sort of girl to pretend to feel something
that
she didn’t feel.
It
was why he always felt so comfortable with her. Or one of the reasons. She was lovely to look at, and
she was great
fun. There were
so many
reasons why he enjoyed being with her.

And he fervently hoped that she felt the same about him
.

One of the sprinklers came on in front of his window. The scent of damp grass reache
d
him. He
leaned further forward and inhaled the morning air. He
’
d miss that aroma
when he was back in London. His small paved garden was l
ovely, but not as lovely as
the
Umbrian
garden that was
wait
ing
for him whenever he drove through the wrought
-
iron gates
and
on to his drive
.

And Evie liked the house
and garden
, too.

He could tell that she genuinely did. The longer the week had gone, the more she’d glowed with happiness and relaxation. There wasn’t any place that they’d been to, any sight that they’d seen, that she hadn’t responded to in a positive, lively sort of way. She had a natural charm, a lovely way with her. And while he’d always appreciated the skill and professionalism of his regular interpreter, he was absolutely delighted that the man had been unable to
come with him.
Otherwise,
he would never have met Evie.
And that would be a loss.

He straightened up. He’d have a shower, make
a
start on packing, and then go for his last breakfast with Evie on the terrac
e.
As he turned away from the window, he suddenly felt very forlorn.

Evie stood beside her packed bags on the terrace and glanced at her watch. In just over four hours they’d be on the plane going home
,
and that
was
a depressing thought. It had been a brilliant week and she didn’t want it to end.

But
come to an
end
,
it had
. T
hey
were about
to go back to the real world, a world full of tests they’d
both
have to face, and
there was no way of knowing
what the future would bring.
The end of their week in Italy might
just
herald the end of her
relationship with
Tom.

‘Ah, Evie!’ The husky tones of Gabriela sounded from behind her. She spun round and saw Gabriela coming quickly across the terrace towards her. ‘I’m very glad that I’m not too late to see you. I was so worried that you would already have left.’

‘Gabrie
la!’ She smothered her dismay.
Gabriela
, cool
in a body-hugging, scoop-necked grey silk dress
,
was
the
very
last person she wanted to see
. ‘Tom’s
on the phone
.
I didn’t expect to
see you
here
–
I thought
you
would have
had
more than enough of us
after
yesterday
. It
was a lovely day, by the way. Thank you again.’