The Italian Inheritance (18 page)

Anna
awoke
wondering where the hell she was. She sat bolt upright, squinting against the brightness of the room. Slowly the events of last night came back to her. Dinner with Mancini... Coming back to Rafael’s apartment... Sex with Rafael... More sex with Rafael.

She winced. The dreaded morning after. Where was he anyway? The bathroom door was open and she smelt soap. He must have already showered, dressed and gone downstairs. 

She heard singing coming from the kitchen. Rafael singing? Jumping out of bed she opened the door a crack and listened. Yes, that was his voice. A pleasant tenor reverberated from the kitchen. Giggling she closed the bedroom door and padded over to the mirror.

“Christ!” Look at the state of her. Hair out ninety-degrees, mascara smudged under her eyes, swollen lips from too much kissing... She looked well and truly... well, yes.
That.

Where the hell were her clothes? They must still be downstairs. Well, she wasn’t going to saunter down naked to fetch them so she needed a plan B. Looking around her eyes fell on one of Rafael’s shirts, freshly ironed and hanging on his wardrobe door. Perfect. Sliding it on Anna returned to the bathroom, freshened up and tried to sort out her wayward hair. Luckily, because it was long and straight it required very little maintenance. A few hand pulls and she’d transformed her tangled locks into respectable bed-hair.

Time to face the music.

“Hello, gorgeous,” called Rafael as she made her tentative appearance in the kitchen. He kissed her full on the lips. “You look so delectable I should take you right back upstairs and ravish you all over again.”

Anna laughed and took a seat at the high breakfast table in the centre of the kitchen. “Please no. Give me a chance to recover first.”

Rafael met her gaze. “I will.”

He placed two steaming mugs of freshly plunged coffee on the table and opened the oven. “Croissants okay with you?”

“And breakfast,” mused Anna. “This is five-star treatment.”

“You deserve it,” he replied, winking at her.

“You’d better be careful or I might start falling in love with you.” It was a joke
,
but somehow it didn’t have the desired effect. Perhaps because it was a bit too close to the truth.

Rafael’s gaze clouded over and he took a seat opposite her. “Love? What’s love got to do with it?” His sudden seriousness was disturbing. “We’re having fun. Let’s not ruin it.”

“Oh yes, I forgot you’re allergic to the L-word.”

He gave her a pained look. “Come on, that’s not fair.”

“You don’t believe in love, you told me so yourself. Anyway, don’t worry. I was only joking. In case it wasn’t obvious, I had lots of fun last night
,
too.”

Despite her cheery tone Anna was worried. For her sex with Rafael was so much more than just sex. She didn’t have flings. 

Until now.

With Rafael it was different. With him it was pure enjoyment. It was physical and sensual and orgasmic. She’d never experienced anything like it before in her life. To say she was overwhelmed was an understatement.

They steered clear of messy subjects like sex and love for the rest of the morning managing to get by with lots of small talk and jokes.

After cleaning the apartment they decided to head back to Capri. This time Rafael was silent as he gazed out over the Bay of Naples, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Anna was fine with that.

“I think I’ll enjoy the sunshine,” she called, as she placed a big straw hat over her face, lay down on the deck and pretended to doze.

What would the next few weeks hold? She had to get the DNA test done and sent off to the lab to compare with Giovanni’s. That was the most important thing right now. She was eager to confirm that she really was Giovanni’s daughter. Even though she’d never met him, the knowledge that she had a real, flesh and blood father helped in some way to give her that sense of security she’d always longed for as a child. 

She couldn’t deny the money would make a huge difference to her life.
What would she do with ten
million dollars? Travel, invest in property, start her own business... the possibilities were endless. As the boat sped over the white crests towards Capri, Anna mused about many things, but what she refused to dwell on was Rafael and the night of passion that they’d shared.

The sun was still high in the sky when they got home. “Let’s have a drink on the terrace,” Rafael called as he threw his keys on the table in the entrance hall and disappeared upstairs.

“Okay,” said Anna and strolled out to the back terrace. It was bathed in sunlight and framed with potted citrus trees, bursting with lemons. Anna gasped in delight.

The back garden extended for almost an acre down a terraced slope, where plenty of olive groves soaked up the sun’s rays. In the distance, the cobalt blue Mediterranean sparkled merrily.

“Gosh, it’s stunning here,” she gaped unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her.

“Yes, I’ve always loved this house,” remarked Rafael coming up behind her. “I used to come here as a teenager during the holidays.”

“So this was Giovanni’s house,” said Anna, her eyes flickering with interest. Her gut instinct had been spot on when she’d broken in here that morning.

Rafael nodded. “I moved in when he died.”

So he’d got
ten
the house
,
too. Interesting.

“Come and have a look around.” He led her down to the olive grove. “I mess around here in my spare time. Maria, that’s the housekeeper, likes to bottle the olives. There are jars of the stuff in the pantry.” He grinned at her easily.

Anna envied his care-free stance on
what had happened last night—b
ut then he was a man. Sex to them was just... well, sex. Nothing more. Nothing to be afraid of. No emotions other than the primal ones. Rafael knew exactly how to behave. He’d probably been in this situation many times. He touched her intimately as they walked around the garden, running a hand over her bottom or grazing the underside of her breast with his fingers. Although she smiled and went along with it, Anna couldn’t shake the uneasiness that had settled over her that morning. It was almost as if she was speeding towards a precipice when suddenly she’d discovered the breaks didn’t work.

You are over-reacting, she told herself sternly. Just because the guy is great in bed doesn’t mean you’re in danger of falling for him. He’s made it perfectly clear this is going nowhere. Take it for what it is, hot sex, nothing more. Yet the uneasy feeling remained.

A small, elderly woman was sweeping the patio when they got back. Anna turned to greet her. This must be the housekeeper. As she held out her hand the old woman gasped and the broom fell to the floor with a clatter.

“O Dio mio!”

Rafael jumped up. “Maria, are you alright?”

“Io non ci credo,” cried the housekeeper. I don’t believe it.

“What’s wrong?” Asked Rafael worried. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Si, si...” nodded the woman, pointing at Anna.

Anna approached the housekeeper. “My name is Anna,” she said softly. “I’m from England. Is everything okay?” The woman was as white as the lime-washed walls surrounding the villa.

“Si, Inglese,” nodded the housekeeper.

Rafael looked at Anna. “She doesn’t speak English. Let me talk to her. I’ll be right back.” He steered the elderly housekeeper back to the kitchen, talking fast but softly in Italian.

Anna exhaled. Well, that was odd. She took a seat on the patio step and waited for Rafael to return. After a few minutes he was back.

“Is she okay?” asked Anna, concerned.

“Yes, she is fine.” Rafael stood in front of her. He looked rather pale himself. “She said she recognised you from a long time ago.”

“That’s impossible. I’ve never been here before.”

“That’s why she thought she was seeing a ghost.” Rafael gave a grim smile. “It wasn’t you she met, it was your mother.”

“My mother!” Anna shielded her face from the sun. “When? Here?”

Rafael nodded. “Do you look like her? Your mother, I mean?”

Anna nodded. “People used to say we did. I don’t really remember. The few photographs I
have
don’t really do her justice.”

“Apparently she used to be a nanny.”

“A nanny for
whom
?” Anna frowned in confusion. “I don’t remember her ever mentioning that she was a nanny. When I was growing up
,
she
worked
at the local crèche. Perhaps that’s the connection?”

Rafael sat down. He didn’t know what to make of this latest development. Maria, who had been with Giovanni’s family for decades, could hold the key to this entire case. That’s if she really did meet Anna’s mother twenty
-
five
-
years ago.

“Maria said Giovanni’s uncle came to visit one summer and brought your mother with him. She was nanny to his two young children. Apparently they stayed here for six weeks, in this house.”

“So that’s how my mother met Giovanni,” whispered Anna. “They must have had an affair.”

“The timing fits,” he remarked. “Maria couldn’t remember the exact year
,
but she said it was just before the wedding.”

“Giovanni’s wedding?”

Rafael nodded. He had to admit this pretty much proved that Anna’s mother had been here. If Giovanni had met her then and had an affair, it would have been illicit, given his engagement to Rosa. If that affair had resulted in Anna’s mother getting pregnant, then Anna could truly be Giovanni’s missing heir. It was possible, but there were still a lot of ifs...

“It’s all starting to make sense now,” said Anna excitedly. “They met here on Capri, had a passionate affair and then my mother left, not knowing she was pregnant. She must have found out back in England. Oh, poor mum.”

“I think we need to hurry up with that DNA test,” Rafael said sharply. “I’ll make the arrangements this afternoon.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still having doubts?” asked Anna. “Surely this proves my story?”

Rafael forced a smile. “I admit it’s looking more and more likely that you are Giovanni’s missing heir. Unfortunately
,
we still need the DNA test—f
or legal reasons. I can’t execute the will until I’ve proven you are his daughter.”

At her exasperated look he added, “Sorry, its protocol. Nothing I can do.”

Rafael didn’t feel remotely bad about lying to Anna. In his line of work evidence was everything. Assuming something was fact could be and often was disastrous.

In effect he had the power to award Anna the money right now if he wanted to. He’d seen Giovanni’s will and if Rafael was convinced Anna was the real deal there was no reason why he couldn’t write her a cheque this instant.

But he wasn’t a lawyer for nothing. He wanted that cold, hard evidence before he signed away the remainder of Giovanni’s fortune. He owed the old man that much.

As he went to his office to call the clinic Rafael admitted there was another, more personal reason for insisting on the DNA test. If he awarded Anna the inheritance now, she’d say thank you very much and be gone tomorrow. No more exploring her glorious body or having those long legs wrapped around his waist. No more passionate kisses or watching her orgasm in his arms. Sorry, he wasn’t ready to give that up yet. Nowhere near ready. Their affair had just begun. Last night had been amazing and Rafa wanted more. Anna was the best thing that had happened to him in years. Why would he voluntarily give her reason to leave?

Selfish and manipulative? Maybe. But stupid, he was not.

The DNA test took roughly ten minutes. Anna gave a mouth swab and filled in the relevant forms, before everything was bottled, sealed and sent to the pathology lab in Naples where the actual paternity test was being carried out.

After the housekeeper’s dramatic reaction to Anna yesterday, Rafael had insisted she get the DNA sample done without delay so they could set the process in motion. She’d gone alone as Rafael had headed back to Naples for two days to view prospective properties for the shelter. It was important for him to find something soon as two months wasn’t a long respite when there was renovation work to be done.

Anna was excited. Within a week she would have concrete proof that Giovanni was her real father. After so many years of believing her father had been killed in the Middle East before she was born
,
it would be a relief to know for sure. She’d have a real family connection, possibly even relatives strung around Italy, but most importantly she’d feel like she belonged.

Plus, she’d be rich. As much as she didn’t like to tempt fate, Anna couldn’t help but think about the million
s of
dollars. It seemed like a fairytale.

Please...
she prayed. L
et this one
have a happy ending
.