CHAPTER FIVE

      AURORA AWOKE VERY EARLY, as she always did, in her own bed, but to a world that felt different.

      She gave no thought to the wildfires.

      For days she had been obsessed by them, but now her first thoughts were of Nico and what had happened between them.

      There was no regret—in fact it was bliss to recall. But there was a tremble of fear. For she had not thought she could love him more, or want him more, than she had this time yesterday.

      But she did.

      Only then did she register the sound of rain—a light patter against her window. Aurora climbed out of bed and peered out. There was steam from the heat, and black smoke in the sky, and a steady fine drizzle of rain.

      Aurora pulled on a dress and sandals, and as she slipped out of the house she stole just one look at Nico, crashed out on the couch.

      Nico was not feigning sleep this time, but he woke at the sound of the door closing softly and then the steady, welcome patter of rain.

      He was not one to examine his emotions—more often he shut them down—but for a moment he lay there, trying to label how he felt.

      It wasn’t so much regret that had him closing his eyes tight, for in all his twenty-six years those hours last night had been the best of his life.

      It was guilt.

      Guilt because although everything had changed between them nothing had changed about what he wanted from his life. He did not want love and he certainly didn’t want marriage.

      Nico had lost control in the small hours and he was not used to losing control.

      He always used condoms.

       Always.

      Yet last night he had not given them so much as a thought.

      Had her brother come home, or if her parents had got up and caught them, they would be heading over to the priest right now to arrange a wedding.

      Instead he dressed, and headed out to where he knew he would find her.

      It was muggy and humid, and no doubt the water would evaporate long before it got to the fires, but the rain would certainly help because the mountains had been tinder-dry.

      Down through the village he headed, towards the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

      He found her walking through the temple ruins, clearly deep in thought, because she jumped a little when she saw him, evidently not having heard his approach.

      ‘Are you okay?’ Nico asked.

      ‘Of course,’ Aurora said.

      She knew she must look a sight, with her damp dress and hair, but there was nothing she could do about that.

      Nico’s shirt was damp too, and his black hair was wet from the rain. She guessed this was what he would look like coming out of the shower, and thought of the shower they hadn’t been able to have last night.

      ‘Do you have any regrets?’ Nico asked.

      ‘About last night?’ Aurora checked. ‘None.’

      She wouldn’t change it even if she could. The things Aurora would change would be the now and the future without him.

      ‘Do you?’

      ‘In part,’ Nico admitted, ‘because I loathe mixed messages and—’

      ‘I get the message, Nico,’ Aurora halted him. ‘I heard it loud and clear—you don’t want to marry me and—’

      ‘I don’t want to marry, period,’ Nico said. ‘I don’t ever want a relationship.’

      And therein lay the difference between them, thought Aurora. How did he so easily separate sex from a relationship? For she felt as if she was in a relationship with Nico. Right now, as they walked through the ruins, she felt the closest she ever had to another soul.

      ‘Aurora, you don’t want to be married to me.’

      Yes, Aurora did. But for dignity’s sake she had to sound as if she wasn’t imploding when she spoke, and so she took a breath.

      ‘No, I don’t,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be married to a man whose skin crawls at the thought of being here. I don’t want to be married to a man who keeps his hand on my shoulder but his eyes on the pretty—’

      ‘What are you talking about?’

      Aurora just shrugged, and then asked him a question. ‘When are you leaving?’

      ‘I’ll see what’s happening with the fires,’ Nico said, ‘but I expect I shall leave today.’

      Even the heavens were against her, Aurora decided, because as he said it the drizzle turned into heavy rain. Yes, he would be leaving today.

      ‘Aurora, did you think last night might change things?’

      ‘No.’

      She had been under no illusion that having sex with Nico would change anything for him. There had been a kernel of hope, though…

      And Nico crushed it.

      ‘I’ll never marry, Aurora.’

      ‘I shall,’ she said, and she said it harshly.

      Her words punished Nico, but determinedly he did not let it show. ‘You have your own life to live and you have no obligation to me.’

      ‘I know.’

      ‘So, please, if you are going to help care for my father, at least give me your bank details.’

      ‘I don’t want your dirty money.’

      ‘Dirty money?’

      ‘Oh, come on, Nico, don’t take me for a fool. Since when did a boy from Silibri leave school at sixteen and go on to own hotels and his own helicopter?’

      ‘You really are good at assuming the worst, aren’t you, Aurora?’

      ‘What else is there to think?’ She stopped walking then and looked at him. ‘Nico, be careful.’

      ‘Of what?’

      ‘Whatever it is you’re mixed up in.’

      ‘You think I’m in the mafia?’ Nico said. ‘Or moving drugs?’ He loathed that she thought that of him. ‘I’m not involved in anything like that.’

      ‘Come off it, Nico,’ Aurora said, and tried to walk off. ‘Don’t lie to me.’

      He caught her arm. ‘I’m not,’ Nico said, he was angry. ‘Please don’t take me for some corrupt mafia gangster.’

      ‘I don’t,’ Aurora said. ‘Or I’m trying not to.’

      ‘Aurora, ask and I’ll tell