One Passionate Night's Miracle: One-Night Baby / The Surgeon's Miracle Baby / Outback Baby Miracle

‘That’s a very personal question.’ Santino held her gaze.

‘And yours wasn’t?’

‘My question was directed at a prospective employee.’

Kate’s cheeks fired up with embarrassment. She had walked straight into the trap Santino had laid for her. ‘I’m single and happy to remain so.’

‘Defensive too.’

‘Not at all; I’m just happy the way I am. My life is full. I don’t need a man to define me—’

She was just getting into her stride when Santino’s phone rang.

‘Will you excuse me?’ He was already on his feet, frowning at the interruption.

‘Go right ahead.’ Kate could hardly hide her relief as Santino walked away. She was keen to learn more about him, but when the tables were turned her mouth ran away with her. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she was nowhere near ready to tell him the truth … any of it.

Santino was smiling when he returned to the table.

‘Good news?’ Kate was beginning to hope he had been called away. She needed some time alone to review her tactics if she wasn’t going to make a mess of telling him about Francesca.

‘I think it’s good news,’ he said, ‘and I hope you agree. Our new director has arrived ahead of schedule.’

‘But that’s excellent news.’ And the best reason yet to put the distance she needed to think clearly between them. Kate started to her feet. ‘We should get back.’

‘You’re in a hurry to leave.’

There was a warning note in Santino’s voice, which warned Kate to relax. She made a point of settling back in her chair. ‘Not at all, I just thought—’

‘We’re not going back to the studio,’ Santino cut across her. ‘There’s a little restaurant higher up the valley where it’s become a tradition for the studio to hold a welcome party at the start of each new project.’

‘And with a new director starting it’s a new project.’

‘Exactly.’

The tension started to flow out of her. It wasn’t ideal, it wasn’t the solitude she had hoped for, but with people around them at a party she would be safe, because there would be no opportunity for Santino to ask her the type of penetrating questions she was sure he was leading up to.

‘You have two possibilities,’ he informed her, pulling out his mobile. ‘I can take you back to the hotel and you can travel with the cast and crew, or you can come to the restaurant with me …’

His casual tone suggested he didn’t care one way or the other what she did.

Kate hid her disappointment. Santino was giving her the option to back out. She should be grateful and take him up on it. What would it look like to the crew and cast if she arrived with him? She should bring this dangerous encounter to an end right now. If she didn’t she would be cooped up with Santino in the tiny cabin of a sports car, finding him infinitely more attractive than she had on the first day they met. The one thing she couldn’t do was take the risk of falling for Santino all over again. She couldn’t take the risk of losing her heart to a man she knew nothing about, a man whose life was a total mystery to her apart from the obvious power and wealth he wielded. What she should do was go back to the hotel and travel to the party on the coach like everyone else. ‘I should be there …’

‘Where? Where should you be, Kate?’ Santino pressed.

There was something in his eyes Kate recognised, and it made her heart beat faster. ‘I should be with you,’ she murmured. ‘As Caddy’s representative.’ The words blundered out as reality streamed back into her thinking. ‘And as your temporary assistant it would be appropriate for us to greet Diane Fox together,’ she said, quickly composing herself.

‘My thoughts exactly.’ He was breaking down the barriers one by one. He would get to the truth about Kate’s personal life however long it took. He had come round to thinking that there must be some pain in her past that made it hard for her to open up. No one understood that sort of thing better than he did, but that didn’t mean he had any intention of softening towards her.

The moment they settled down in the car sexual tension started snapping between them. He could understand that people might change over five years, but it was harder to understand what game Kate was playing.

‘That’s better,’ he said lightly when she smiled. He judged any reaction better than none.

‘Better?’

‘Better than seeing you looking so anxious …’ He turned up the charm with an indulgent smile. ‘You’ll have me thinking you’re hiding something.’

The expression that came into her eyes now warned him to back off, but that wasn’t in his nature. ‘You should relax and have fun while you can. It wouldn’t hurt you.’

‘What kind of fun?’

He eased his shoulders in a shrug. ‘Innocent fun … Something tells me you don’t have enough of it.’ While he was speaking he punched in some numbers on his phone. ‘I’m going to call the coach company before we leave here to tell the driver to take everyone straight to the restaurant. We’ll all arrive around the same time if they leave now …’

Speaking rapidly in Italian, Santino kept the phone wedged between his ear and shoulder as he secured his seat belt. When he cut the line he placed the phone in its nest, released the handbrake and pulled away.

It was too late to change her mind now, Kate reflected.

The restaurant was an old restored barn with a high, pitched ceiling lined with ancient oak beams. Sound bounced off the vast tiled floor and the floor was packed with tables, every one of which was taken. There was an open kitchen at one end and Santino had been right about the noise. The chefs were yelling at each other and the waiters were yelling at the chefs and everyone else had to yell to be heard above the yelling. Because the studio party was a last minute affair the room hadn’t been closed to the general public, though the film crew had commandeered one of the long, refectory-style tables and lined it with ice buckets and jugs of iced water and wine …

‘Kate, you’re here!’ Caddy raced to the door to greet them with a hug for Kate and a big grin for her producer. ‘We’ve only just arrived. You must have driven like the wind, Santino. Isn’t this fantastic?’

For a moment Kate couldn’t answer. She was shell-shocked by the chaos and it seemed as if teams of children were weaving between the tables, which made her miss Francesca more than ever.

‘Nectar,’ Santino murmured in her ear. ‘And I really don’t blame them.’

Kate looked at him in bewilderment, and then realised Santino thought her attention had been drawn to a group of extras exchanging bottles of the studio’s Dom Perignon champagne for the local wine.

‘I’ll make sure you taste some before we leave.’

‘Thank you.’ She had to relax, but for some reason she couldn’t.

‘I thought you’d like it here,’ Santino went on, unaware of Kate’s growing tension. ‘It’s a perfect fit with your love of the local culture.’

‘Yes,’ Kate murmured distractedly, glancing around, looking for something, she hardly knew what.

She was being silly. Santino was right. It was nice here. And how could she not like it when his hand was planted in the small of her back as he began to steer her across the room? If only his hand didn’t fit quite so well … If only it weren’t such a struggle to keep her thoughts confined to business.

She wasn’t here to flirt with Santino, she was here to meet Diane Fox and look after Caddy, Kate reminded herself firmly. But where was Diane Fox, and where had Caddy got to?

They had almost reached the table the film company had commandeered when Caddy appeared out of nowhere at her elbow. At the same moment Kate froze.

‘Don’t you like your surprise, Kate?’

Kate heard Caddy’s question, but was unable to answer. She could only stare transfixed down the room to where a little girl, having spotted her mother, was racing to greet her …

It took him a moment to put his brain into gear when an older woman came to stand between him and Kate. She was vaguely bohemian in appearance and her soft grey eyes were kind and full of concern. She had to be Kate’s legendary Aunt Meredith, he realised.

‘Oh, Kate,’ she exclaimed softly, putting a hand on Kate’s arm, ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shock you. I should have rung to warn you we were coming, but it was so last minute there wasn’t chance. It was Caddy’s idea. She said you were feeling down. I hope I’ve done the right thing?’