Reunited with Her Italian Ex Read online

  Her real-life Romeo…

  Freelance journalist Natasha needs to find work—fast! When a job comes up in Verona she jumps at the chance. Her heart might have been broken by a charming Italian, but with few other options, promoting the city seems like a dream assignment. Until she meets her new boss—and ex!—Mario…

  Mario might not be the playboy she remembers, yet Natasha strives to keep their relationship professional. But in the city of Romeo and Juliet, pursuing their star-crossed romance is hard to resist…

  Natasha found herself facing Mario.

  “You’ve danced with everyone else,” he observed. “Will it ever be my turn?”

  “Not until you ask me.”

  “No,” he said. “I’m not going to ask you.”

  But as he spoke, his arm went around her waist in a grip too firm for her to resist, even if she had wanted to.

  Once before they had danced together. One night in Venice, when they had been having supper at an outdoor café in St. Mark’s Square, a band had started to play, and before she’d known it she’d been waltzing in his arms.

  “Is this all right?” he’d whispered.

  “I’ll let you know later,” she had teased.

  It had lasted only a few minutes, and she had promised herself that one day she would dance with him again. But the next day they had broken up, and it had never happened again. Until now.

  It was unnerving to feel his arms about her, his hand on her waist, holding her close. Her heart was beating softly but fervently. She glanced at him, trying to know if he felt the same. Would he invite her to dance with him again?

  Dear Reader,

  Verona has always been one of my favorite Italian cities. Being Italian by marriage, I’ve visited many places in that lovely country: Venice, Rome, Florence. They are all beautiful, but Verona has something else: the lingering attraction of the world’s best known and most heartbreaking love affair—Romeo and Juliet.

  Some of the story is legend, but long ago there really were two young people who sacrificed their lives for their love, and their tragic story moves people to this day. Their story stayed with me when I went to Verona, walking the picturesque streets and going to see Juliet’s house. There her statue stands, gazing at the visitors who seek to share her secrets.

  Natasha, my heroine, originally goes to Verona to work, but before long she is enfolded in the magic of the legend. At times her own love seems equally fated to end sadly, but she has the courage to cling on and help her lover achieve the happiness that was always meant to be.

  Juliet would have been proud of her.

  REUNITED WITH HER ITALIAN EX

  Lucy Gordon

  Lucy Gordon cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men. She’s had many unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books. Once, while staying in Venice, she met a Venetian who proposed in two days, and they’ve been married ever since. Naturally this has affected her writing, in which romantic Italian men tend to feature strongly. Two of her books have won a Romance Writers of America RITA® Award. You can visit her website at lucy-gordon.com.

  Books by Lucy Gordon

  HARLEQUIN ROMANCE

  Not Just a Convenient Marriage

  The Falcon Dynasty

  Rescued by the Brooding Tycoon

  Miss Prim and the Billionaire

  Plain Jane in the Spotlight

  Falling for the Rebel Falcon

  The Final Falcon Says I Do

  The Larkville Legacy

  The Secret That Changed Everything

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EXCERPT

  PROLOGUE

  VENICE, THE MOST romantic city in the world.

  That was what people said, and Natasha was becoming convinced that it was true. Where else could she have met the man of her dreams within hours of arriving, and known so soon that she was his and he simply must become hers?

  Sitting in a café by a small canal, she looked out at the sun glittering on the water. Nearby she could see a gondola containing a young man and woman, wrapped in each other’s arms.

  Just like us, she thought, recalling her first gondola ride in the arms of the man who had changed the world in moments.

  Mario Ferrone, young, handsome, with dancing eyes and a rich chuckle that seemed to encompass the world. She’d met Mario just after she’d arrived in Venice on a well-earned holiday. He’d insisted on showing her the city. As his brother owned the hotel where she was staying, she’d briefly thought this a professional service, but that idea soon changed. There was an instant attraction between them, and nothing had ever seemed more wonderful than the time they spent together.

  Until then, there had been little in her life that could be called romance. She was slim, pretty, humorous, with no difficulty attracting admirers. But where men were concerned she had an instinctive defensiveness.

  It went back to her childhood, when her father had abandoned his wife and ten-year-old daughter for another woman. Until that moment Natasha’s life had been happy. Her father had seemed to adore her as she adored him. But suddenly he was gone, never to get in touch again.

  Never trust a man, her mother had told her. They’ll always let you down.

  She’d been content to heed the warning until Mario came into her life and everything turned upside down.

  Her own reactions confused her. Her heart was drawn to Mario as never before to any other man. Sometimes her mother’s voice echoed in her mind.

  No man can be trusted, Natasha. Remember that.

  But Natasha felt certain that Mario was different to all other men—more honest, more trustworthy, more faithfully loving.

  Last night he’d kissed her with even greater fervour than before, murmuring, ‘Tomorrow I want to…’ Then he’d stopped, seeming confused.

  ‘Yes?’ she’d whispered. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I can’t tell you now…but tomorrow everything will be different. Goodnight, mi amore.’

  Now here she was in the café where they often met, waiting for him to appear and transform her world yet again.

  She almost ached with the yearning to know what he’d meant by ‘everything will be different’. Was he going to propose marriage? Surely he must.

  Oh, please hurry, she thought. How could Mario keep her on tenterhooks when it mattered so much?

  Suddenly, she heard his voice call, ‘Natasha!’ Looking up, she saw him walking by the canal, waving to her from a distance.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he said, joining her at the table. ‘I got held up.’

  She had a strange feeling that he was on edge.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.

  ‘It will be, very soon,’ he said.

  His eyes never left her and every moment her conviction grew that tonight they were going to take the next step—whatever it might be.

  He took her hand. ‘There’s something I’ve been trying to tell you for days but—’

  ‘Trying? Is it so hard to tell me?’

  ‘It could be.’ His eyes met hers. ‘Some things just aren’t easy to say.’

  Her heart was beating with anticipation and excitement. She knew what he was go
ing to say, and she longed to hear it.

  ‘That depends how much you want to say them,’ she whispered, leaning close so that her breath brushed his face. ‘Perhaps you don’t really want to say this.’

  ‘Oh, yes, you don’t know how much it matters.’

  But I do know, she thought happily. He was going to tell her how much she meant to him. In a moment her life would be transformed.

  She took his hand in hers, sending him a silent message about her willingness to draw closer to him.

  ‘Go on,’ she whispered.

  He hesitated and she regarded him, puzzled. Was it really so hard for him to reach out to her?

  ‘Natasha—I want to tell you—’

  ‘Yes—yes—tell me.’

  ‘I’m not good at this—’

  ‘You don’t need to be good at it,’ she urged, tightening her clasp on his hand. ‘Just say it—’

  ‘Well—’

  ‘Traitor!’

  The screamed word stunned them both. Natasha looked up to see a woman standing by the table, glaring at them. She was in her thirties, voluptuous, and would have been beautiful but for the look of livid hatred she cast on Mario.

  ‘Traitor!’ she screamed. ‘Liar! Deceiver!’

  Mario’s face was tense and pale as Natasha had never seen it before. He rose and confronted the woman, speaking angrily in Italian and pointing for her to leave. She screamed back at him in English. Then turned to Natasha.

  ‘It’s about time you knew what he is really like. One woman isn’t enough for him.’

  She raved on until Mario drew her into a corner, arguing with her vigorously. Natasha could no longer hear the words but there was no mistaking the intensity between them. The dark-haired woman’s rage grew with every moment.

  ‘He’s a liar and a cheat,’ she screamed in perfect English.

  ‘Mario,’ Natasha said, ‘who is this woman? Do you really know her?’

  ‘Oh, yes, he knows me,’ the woman spat. ‘You wouldn’t believe how well he knows me.’

  ‘Tania, that’s enough,’ Mario said, white-faced. ‘I told you—’

  ‘Oh, yes, you told me. Traitor! Traitor! Traditore!’

  For a moment Natasha was tempted to thrust herself between them and tell Mario what she thought of him in no uncertain terms. But then her impetuous temper flared even higher, driving her to a course of action even more fierce and desperate. While they were still absorbed in their furious encounter, she fled.

  She ran every step of the way to the hotel, then up to her room, pausing at the desk to demand her bill. Nothing mattered but to get away from here before Mario returned. It had all been a deception. She’d believed in him because she’d wanted to believe, and she should have known better. Now she was paying the price.

  ‘You were right,’ she muttered to her mother’s ghost. ‘They’re all the same.’

  The ghost was too tactful to say I told you so, but she was there in Natasha’s consciousness as she finished packing, paid her bill and fled.

  She took a boat taxi across the water to the mainland, and from there she switched to a motor taxi.

  ‘Airport,’ she told the driver tensely.

  Oh, Mario, she thought as the car roared away. Traitor.

  Traditore.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Two years later…

  ‘I’M SORRY, NATASHA, but the answer’s no, and that’s final. You just have to accept it.’

  Natasha’s face was distorted by anger as she clutched the phone.

  ‘Don’t tell me what I have to do,’ she snapped into the receiver. ‘You said you were eager for anything I wrote—’

  ‘That was a long time ago. Things have changed. I can’t buy any more of your work. Those are my orders.’

  Natasha took a shuddering breath as yet another rejection slammed into her.

  ‘But you’re the editor,’ she protested. ‘Surely it’s you who gives the orders.’

  ‘The magazine’s owner tells us what to do and that’s final. You’re out. Finished. Goodbye.’

  The editor hung up, leaving Natasha staring at the phone in fury and anguish.

  ‘Another one?’ asked a female voice behind her. ‘That’s the sixth editor who’s suddenly turned against you after buying your work for ages.’

  Natasha turned to her friend Helen, who was also her flatmate.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ she groaned. ‘It’s like there’s a spider at the centre of a web controlling them all, telling them to freeze me out.’

  ‘But there is. Surely you know that. The spider’s name is Elroy Jenson.’

  It’s true, Natasha thought reluctantly. Jenson owned a huge media empire that until recently had provided her with a good living. But he’d taken a fancy to her and pursued her relentlessly, ignoring her pleas to be left alone. Finally he’d gone too far, forcing her to slap his face hard enough to make him yell. One of his employees had seen them and spread the story.

  ‘Everyone knows you made him look a fool,’ Helen said sympathetically. ‘So now he’s your enemy. It’s a pity about that quick temper of yours, Natasha. You had every right to be angry but…well…’

  ‘But I should have paused before I clobbered him. I should have been calm and controlled and thought about the future. Hah!’

  ‘Yes, I know it sounds ironic, but look at the price you’ve paid.’

  ‘Yes,’ Natasha said with a heavy sigh.

  As a freelance journalist her success had been dazzling. Magazines and newspapers clamoured for her sassy, insightful articles.

  Until now.

  ‘How can one man have so much power?’ she groaned.

  ‘Perhaps you need to go abroad for a while,’ Helen suggested. ‘Until Jenson forgets all about you.’

  ‘That would be difficult—’

  ‘It needn’t be. The agency found me a job in Italy, doing publicity. It would mean going out there for a while. I was about to call them and say they’d have to find someone else, but why don’t you go instead?’

  ‘But I can’t just… That’s a mad idea.’

  ‘Sometimes madness is the best way. It could be just what you need now.’

  ‘But I don’t speak Italian.’

  ‘You don’t have to. It’s an international thing, promoting the city all over the world.’

  ‘It’s not Venice, is it?’ Natasha asked, suddenly tense.

  ‘No, don’t worry. I know you wouldn’t want to go to Venice. It’s Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. Some of that story is real, and tourists love to see Juliet’s balcony and other places where different scenes are set. So a group of luxury hotel owners have clubbed together to create some publicity for the place. Of course, I know you’re not exactly a fan of romance—’

  ‘It doesn’t bother me,’ Natasha said quickly. ‘I’m not going into retreat just because one man— Well, anyway—’

  ‘Fine. So why don’t you take this job?’

  ‘But how can I? It’s yours.’

  ‘I really wish you would. I accepted it impulsively because I’d had a row with my boyfriend. I thought we were finished, but we’ve made up and it would really suit me if you went instead of me.’

  ‘But if they’re expecting you—’

  ‘I’ve been dealing with the agency. I’ll put you in touch with them and sing your praises. Natasha, you can’t let your life be ruled by a man you haven’t seen for two years. Especially when he was a cheating rogue. Your words, not mine.’

  ‘Yes,’ she murmured. ‘I said that. And I meant it.’

  ‘Then go. Put Mario behind you and put Elroy behind you, too. Seize your chance for a fresh start.’

  Natasha took a deep breath. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll do it.’

  ‘Fine. Now, let’s get started.’

  Helen logged on to her computer and contacted the agency. Moments later, Natasha was reading an email, written in efficient English, offering her the assignment and giving her instructions:

 
You will be dealing with Giorgio Marcelli. The hotel owners employ him to handle publicity. He looks forward to welcoming you to Verona.

  ‘You see, it’s a no-brainer,’ Helen said. ‘I’ll leave you to have a think.’

  She departed.

  Left alone, Natasha stared out of the window, trying to decide what to do. Despite what Helen said, it wasn’t easy to make up her mind.

  ‘Not Venice,’ she had asserted and Helen had reassured her, because she knew that nothing would persuade Natasha ever to go back to that beautiful romantic city where her heart had been broken.

  Natasha thought back to herself as a very young woman, haunted by her mother’s warnings never to trust a man. She had pursued a successful career, devoting her time to her writing, avoiding emotional relationships. Of course she could flirt and enjoy male company. But never for very long. Eventually distrust would make her back away from any man who attracted her.

  She’d been glad of it, sure that caution would protect her from suffering her mother’s fate. On that she had been resolved.

  Until she’d met Mario.

  He had affected her as no other man ever had. Together they had walked the streets of Venice, drifting by the canals. In one tiny alley he’d drawn her into the shadows for their first kiss. Despite her attempts to obliterate the memory, it still lived in her now.

  Her whole body had responded to him, coming alive in ways she had never dreamed of before. She could sense the same in him, although every instinct told her that he was an experienced lover. Wherever they went, women had thrown admiring glances at him and regarded Natasha with envy. She’d guessed they were thinking how lucky she was to be sharing his bed. That day had never come, although several times Natasha had been on the verge of giving in to temptation.

  As the day of her departure neared, Mario had begged her to stay with him a little longer. Blissfully happy, she had agreed.

  Even now, two years later, remembering that happiness was the most painful thing of all, despite her frantic attempts to banish it from her memory, her heart, her life.

 
-->