Free St Piran's: Italian Surgeon, Forbidden Bride by MARGARET MCDONAGH Page B

secrets, albeit the least monumental and important of them, had been discovered. She didn’t want to tell him anything but how could she bluff her way out? Even if she could excuse the kittens, the damning evidence of the makeshift bed was impossible to explain away.
    ‘Jessica?’
    ‘I, um, recently moved into my cottage,’ she began shakily, unsure how much to tell him. ‘The storm ten days ago destroyed the roof, causing water damage and the electricity being shut off. I tried to say there anyway…’
    ‘Dio!
With no power and no roof?’ he exclaimed, muttering something uncomplimentary in Italian.
    Jess lowered her gaze. ‘It was only one night. I wasconcerned for the kittens,’ she explained, failing to add that not only had it been miserable with no electricity or hot water but that she’d been spooked in the isolated cottage with no security.
    ‘So you’ve been staying here since then?’
    ‘Yes,’ she admitted with reluctance.
    She couldn’t help but be mesmerised by the way Gio continued to stroke Dickens, his fingers sinking into the soft fur. The kitten was enjoying it if his purrs were anything to go by. It made her think dangerous and never-to-be-allowed things… like how it would feel to have Gio’s fingers caress
her
body from top to toe. She had no doubt she’d be purring, too.
    Looking down lest he read anything in her eyes, Jess struggled to push her wayward thoughts away because no matter how much she may crave his touch, it wasn’t going to happen.
    ‘Why here, though?’ Gio’s voice reclaimed her attention. ‘Why not stay at a hotel… or with friends?’
    She fudged an answer, mumbling about the need to keep the kittens with her and everywhere being fully booked at the height of the season, because no way was she going to tell him the truth about the sorry state of her finances or that she didn’t
have
any friends. Not the kind she could stay with, anyway. To explain either would involve the impossible?revealing what she could never reveal… why.
    Why she had crashed and burned so badly…
    Why her life had changed so drastically and irrevocably four years ago…
    And why she was now counting the cost in so many ways, not just financially but professionally?hence her change of career and re-training in her mid-twenties tobecome a counsellor?and socially?keeping people at a distance and denying herself the closeness, emotional or physical, she had once enjoyed as a normal part of life. Nothing about her life these last four years had been normal. But she’d succeeded, she was coping… or had been until Gio had arrived, bringing home all she had lost and making her yearn for things she could never have again.
    ‘It’s only for a short while.’ She crossed her fingers, hoping that was true. ‘The insurance company have agreed to the repairs and the builders are starting work next week. As soon as possible, I’ll move back in.’
    ‘You can’t stay here and live like this until then, Jessica,’ he protested, clearly upset about the situation.
    ‘It’s not so bad,’ she countered, trying for a carefree smile. ‘I don’t have any choice.’
    ‘Of course you do.’
    His words and the determined tone of his voice made her nervous. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘As of now, you’re moving in with me.’

CHAPTER SIX
    U NOBSERVED, Gio leaned against the doorjamb and watched as Jessica carried out some graceful Tai Chi movements. She was dressed in a loose T-shirt, shorts that left shapely legs bare from mid-thigh down, and a pair of trainers, her vibrant curls restrained in a ponytail. He never tired of looking at her. Taking a sip of his coffee, he waited for her to finish her routine.
    It was the August bank holiday weekend and they both had two days off. Jessica had been in his house for two weeks. She’d protested, but there had never been any question in his mind about where she should stay. He couldn’t let her camp in her office. She’d wanted to pay rent, he’d