No Strings (Broken Strings) (11 page)

“No, I am determined not to have our plans ruined.”

They were supposed to be exploring the centre of Florence
from Repubblica square to Strozzi palace on a specially organised night tour.

Indi didn’t say anything, as she was still unused to all the
attention that Grey’s presence drew.

“Well the local police don’t want us to do anything that
encourages the crowd to get any bigger or start up in another area. They have
already started sectioning them off so the traffic can start flowing properly
again.” Hayden commented as he entered the suite after going down to the foyer
to talk with one of the senior officers controlling the scene down there.

“Is there not a back entrance that Adam and Indi can slip
out of? Then I go and sign some autographs for fifteen minutes to placate them,
with you nearby if it gets too out of hand, then we head back into the hotel
through the front and exit out the back as well.”

Adam and Hayden nodded at each other. “Maybe that could
work.”

And it did. The more diligent fans getting their photos and
autographs and Indi had her tour of the city.

They travelled back on the early morning train but didn’t
arrive at the villas until that evening.

As they pulled from the main road into a smaller lane that
leads to their villas, they passed another car coming in the opposite
direction, which at first they thought were occupants from another villa
nearby.

“Fuck.” Adam who was driving uttered, as he pulled the car
to an unexpected stop shortly after the other car passed them by.  “I could have
sworn Caitlin was in the back of that car.”  He caught Grey’s eye in the
rear-view mirror.

Grey swore under his breath “Okay, well, let’s get back to
the villa before she has a chance to get the taxi to turn around, and come
back.  I don’t want her associating Indi with me unless we have no other
choice.”

Indi took in the men’s alarmed expressions and drew the
conclusion that this Caitlin was one of the issues Grey had said he needed to
sort. “Caitlin?” She wanted answers and fast.

“Indi, please trust me on this. I don’t have time to explain
now, but I will fully as soon I can get away.”

Indi glared at him stiffly. “Fine, just to drop me here, and
let me walk the last bit myself.” They had had a marvellous time in Florence,
and she was determined not to have it tainted by a confrontation at the very
end. 

“Are you sure?” Grey furrowed his brow.  “It might be the
easiest way, in case she does come back because if Adam saw her, then it’s
likely she recognised him too.”

“Yes, but I do expect a
full
explanation about who
exactly she is.” She responded coolly.

Hayden took the initiative and removed her suitcase from the
boot.

“I will.” He leaned in to kiss her, but she shrugged him off
quickly before exiting the car.

With a suitcase in hand, she carried herself off down the
lane towards the villas, with Grey’s car driving off into the distance, leaving
dust clouds wafting in their wake.

She’d just arrived into her own villa, and passed through
the gate to the garden out of sight of any passing traffic, when she heard a
car pull up.  Seconds later, she heard a car door slam and a woman with an
awful shrilling voice demanding that the driver help with her luggage then
disputing the charge for the journey.  She closed her eyes and sighed as an
uneasy feeling swept over her.

Had he been playing her
along?

It had been three long hours since Indi had arrived home on
her own, she’d tried to keep herself busy first by dealing with her removing
her washing from her luggage, listening to some music, and answering emails on
her laptop, but nothing could help focus her mind away from what might be
happening next door.

She couldn’t help but think the worst about who this woman
was. She had replayed the moment over and over in her mind from when Adam had
sworn some expletive as the other car passed by them to when she had been left
to walk down the lane to the villas by herself.  She tried to focus on Grey’s
body language at the time. He hadn’t seemed happy to see this woman, but that
didn’t mean he wasn’t in some kind of meaningful relationship with her. Maybe
he just wasn’t happy at being caught out.

She had tried to stop herself from thinking that he might
just disappear off with any explanation. She stepped out onto the terrace
several times to reassure herself there was still someone next door, each time
a sense of relief washed over when she could still hear the murmur of faraway
voices.

Finally, at a little after eleven, Indi’s body had given
into the fatigue she’d been fighting due to their early rising, and she fell
asleep curled up on the sofa.

It wasn’t until the sun was rising that extremely tired
feeling Grey shook Indi’s arm gently to awoke from her slumber on the sofa.

She opened her eyes slowly, her body’s reaction stiff and
disoriented at first as he sat at the edge of the sofa beside her looming over
curled up body. 

“Have you not been to bed at all?”  Indi asked, reaching up
from her reclined position, and running a hand up over his cheek to touch the
day worth of stubble coming through. 

He shook his head silently. Grabbing the hand still touching
his cheek, he planted a tender kiss on the inside of her palm.  “I’m sorry it
took this long to get away. I had to wait until she went to bed after our
screaming match.”  His voice was low and hoarse. 

“So who is she?” Indi made a move to stand up from her lying
down position, her nerves coming through in her voice.

He had gone over his speech several times so he could sound
convincing as he concealed some of the truth. It was something he had never
been good at, but he was prepared to say almost anything to keep her from
finding the full truth until he could deal with his father and free himself
from Caitlin permanently. “There isn’t much to tell. She is the daughter of one
of my father’s business associates.  I have chaperoned her to a few business
events as she also works for my father.”

He watched her walk from the sofa and start to clear up the
plate and glass remaining from her evening meal the previous night.

“So has she come here for herself or your father?”

“She came to give me some papers that my father needed
signed, but it was a ruse to spend time with me, as well. She has always been
hopeful that we would get together especially with both our fathers encouraging
the idea. ” Not quite the whole truth but a little white lie here and there to
make it sound quite as awful as him engaged to her.  He was so close to putting
his plan into action he didn’t want to ruin it now by spooking Indi with the
full truth when he soon would be free to pursue her properly without the weight
of his father deception hanging around his neck. Just a few more hours and the
proof that he knew about Caitlin would be hand delivered to his father as stage
one of his ousting.

“But you don’t share their viewpoint?”

“God no, she is my worst nightmare. She follows me
everywhere. She just won’t take no for an answer.”

Indi furrowed her brow. “If there is nothing going on
between you why did you hide me away when we saw her? Wouldn’t she seeing you
with me put an end to her aspirations?”

Grey felt a sense of dread rise up his throat from the pit
of his stomach. Whole lie or half-truth, which should he utter. He hadn’t lying
to the woman standing in front of him, a woman he was falling in love with. “I
did it to protect your existence from my father until I can disentangle a few
issues he has caused.”

“You keep mentioning these issues but never actually expand
on them. Are they really that sensitive that you can’t tell me about them in
any detail?”

He fidgeted uncomfortably under her scrutinising gaze. “It
is complex. There is a lot of baggage between my father and his children that its
best remaining within my family. All I can promise you is that once I get back
from Sicily things will be resolved to a satisfactory point so that he won’t be
able to interfere with our plans.”

“Can you be sure whatever concerns you have now about
keeping me secret from your father will be truly be alleviated. After all I
went through with my own father; I can’t live with the constant worry of someone
else’s father causing problems in my life as well.”  Her voice wavered up and
down.

“I understand your apprehension, but it will be okay.”

Indi was silent for a few moments then offered him a weak
smile. Inwardly, he sighed in relief, as she seemed to accept his reassurance
without any more questions.

“You look dead on his feet.  Why don’t you go back to your
villa and catch up on some sleep, before she discovers that you’re gone.”

He
shook his head stubbornly.  “Sleep can wait; I need to hold you close before
I’ve to endure that woman again.”

 “Come,
I have an idea of how to relax and work some of the tension from the last 12
hours away.” He held out his hand to her encouraging her to place her small one
within his larger one.

Wordlessly,
he opened up the glass doors and led them to the patio that was still draped in
the remaining gleaming moonlight before it became outshone by the rising dawn
sun. “I thought we could watch the sunrise from the jacuzzi,” He explained as
he turned and caught her confused expression. “It is perfectly secluded from
the other villa, so you don’t have to worry about being spotted.”

 “Am
I going to get to see the sunrise this time?” Indi smirked teasingly,
remembering how they had missed several previous sunrises because they had
become distracted with each other’s bodies instead.

Grey
returned her grin, beginning to enjoy himself for the first time since the
previous evening’s grim events started. “I didn’t hear you complaining about
missing them at the time. In fact, if I remember rightly you were doing another
kind of moaning!” Pulling her into a quick embrace, he swatted her bum cheeks
lightly with his palm.

“Oww,”
She protested, rubbing where his palm had landed.

“Don’t
worry baby, I’ll kiss it better.” He said, picking her up and dumping her into
the already bubbling water, still clothed. “Now hurry up and get naked.”

It
wasn’t long before they were both submerged in the water, naked, Indi sitting
on his lap as they kissed any doubts over their future away.

Catching
their breath, Grey smiled down at Indi as they moved back to an embracing
position not wanting to spoil the moment quite yet. “I guess I should apologise
for distracting you from yet another sunrise.”

Laughing,
“I rather prefer your distractions. Anyway, we will share plenty more sunrises
in the future.”

“Yes
we will.”

They
were silent for a while, conscious that this probably would be the last
opportunity to see each other before Indi flew back in the morning.

Catching
Indi yawning, Grey carried her out of the jacuzzi and off to the bedroom.
Intent on making sure she drifted off to sleep before he headed back to his own
bed in the other villa. Instead, the enormity of what lied ahead and her
tiredness made her quite emotional, and he ended up curling up next to her on
the bed trying to soothe her off to sleep.

Exhausted
his own sleep got the better of him, luckily, Adam awoke him just an hour later
with a call on his mobile warning him that he’d been gone for quite a while.

“Try
not to worrying about everything.”

She
nodded.  “I’ll keep myself busy. Do you think you might be able to come see me
again later?”

He
shrugged dejectedly. “I’m actually not sure. I’ll try my best, but I don’t want
to do anything to heighten her suspicions and says something to my father. If I
can’t get away during the daytime, I promise to come to you tonight.”

They
had shared one last lingering kiss before he headed out of her room.

This
time Indi managed to drift off into a more comfortable continuation of her own
sleep. She awoke some hours later just after twelve, checking her phone her
heart missed a beat when she noticed a flashing message notification indicating
her had an unread text message, which she hoped, would be from Grey.

Her
heart dropped with a thud when she saw it was from Aimee confirming the final
details of picking her from the airport when she landed at Manchester
tomorrow. 

She
tapped in a quick response to Aimee before wrapping her body in a short silk
wrap that matched her babydoll nightwear underneath.

She
was determined to enjoy her last full day in the villa with or without Grey. 

Making
a batch of pancakes with a sprinkling of berries over the top, she plated up a
portion and took it out onto the terrace to enjoy her breakfast in the morning
sun.

After
breakfast and changing into a cream summer dress, she lazed out by the
breakfast table typing some email replies on her laptop prior to settling down
to finish reading a book she’d started at the very beginning of the holiday
before she became distracted by Grey.

She
was disturbed from her reading by the same shrill female voice from the
previous evening; she looked up from her book and was glad the breakfast table
stood tucked away from view.  With the voice, getting louder and nearer
curiosity overtook her senses; she wanted to get a proper view of the wicked
witch of west for herself.