FLASHBACK (MATTEO'S PARIS VILLA)
Matteo stood at the balcony by the railing, the smoke from his cigarette curling into the still air. He was almost squinting against the sun. He bent his head and fixed his eyes on the turquoise shimmer of the pool below, but his mind was already across the Atlantic.
The glass door slid open with a low hiss. Isabella stepped out, unclad with only a black lace panty covering her below, her skin glowing like burnished silk.
She wrapped herself around him from behind, her head resting against his broad back, her breasts pressing firmly into his muscles.
Matteo didn't flinch. He knew her touch by the weight of it, the familiar, suffocating heat of a woman he had spent years trying to exorcise from his sensual blood.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" he muttered, his voice gravelly. "The doctor said you were stressed."
Isabella inhaled the scent of him... soap and skin.
