Stella!” Leonardo stared with near disbelief. When he’d heard the light knock at the door, he’d thought that maybe the local grocer was delivering the food he’d requested. He’d never dreamed that it would be the woman he’d turned his back on and walked away from. He’d relegated her to becoming a part of his past. To find her now in flesh and blood as part of his present required a moment for his brain to catch up with his new reality.

He considered closing the door in her face, turning around and leaving her in his past once and for all, but there was a look of hope laced with sadness in her eyes that he could not turn away from.

A gust of chill, early April wind blew past, and he saw Stella shiver. He was dressed in an oversized sweater, but she was still dressed in the lightweight, often gossamer-like clothes that she’d worn in Sicily. She didn’t even have a coat on, and her naked toes peeked out from her barely-there sandals. He could tell she was doing her best to fight it, but she shivered again. Behind her, her cab was already driving away down the long gravel lane that wound its way down the mountain to the small town below.

“You’ve left me no choice, have you?” he said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. If he turned her away, she’d probably be dead from exposure before she ever reached the bottom of the mountain. “Come in.” He stepped aside, wondering how he could have ever cared so much for a woman as manipulative as her.

Stella’s eyes widened at Leonardo’s harsh words, then seeming to pick up on his meaning, she glanced over her shoulder at the retreating cab. Turning back around to face him, she pulled her cellphone out of her little over-the-shoulder purse. “I can call the cab company. I can call him back. I can ask him to wait for me, but if you could just give me a few minutes, please…” She didn’t move from her spot on the threshold of his home even though he’d moved aside and had opened the door for her to come in.

A stronger wind blew, and this time Leonardo actually heard her teeth chatter. “Woman!” he exclaimed in exasperation. “Come in now.” He grabbed her hand and led her into the house, ignoring the instant heat that flared in his body the moment his skin touched hers. His body still wanted her. He couldn’t stop himself from having nighttime dreams of what it was like to be inside of her, to feel her body move, and to hear the sweet sounds of her voice crying out in pleasure, but he could control the choices he made during his waking hours.

Still holding onto her hand, he led her to the enormous open fireplace that sat in the middle of the cabin’s great room. The cathedral ceiling was thirty feet high and the towering fireplace hood made of smooth river rock climbed up through its top.

“Stay,” Leonardo said as he sat her down on the wide hearth surrounding the crackling fire. He returned a few minutes later with a mug of coffee-laced cocoa. “Drink this.” He knew that it wasn’t necessary. The chill seemed to have left Stella already, but when his hand brushed hers as she took the cup, it was still very cold.

He sat down next to her and waited until she took a sip of the warm brew before pelting her with any questions. When she’d lowered the mug from her sweet, perfect lips—lips that he ached to kiss—he lodged his attack. “How did you find me, and what do you want?”

Stella winced, but then she gave a thin-lipped smile with steepled eyebrows. Her eyes were so full of regret that he had to stop his arms from wrapping around her and pulling her into him. “I messed up.”

A breath of tense air left Leonardo as his chest deflated. It was as if her wave of a white flag toppled all of his buttresses in one move. He hated that he still wanted her, and he despised himself for wanting to trust her, but intellectually, he was not willing to let her off the hook so easily. “So, you never meant to sign a report arguing the need to have the Romano del Mare reclassified as a historic monument? You never meant to cause my family to lose millions or for the resort’s doors to be closed forever?”

Stella nodded. “I did write and sign that report. I did it almost three months ago before I ever got to Sicily. I… I thought that I was doing the right thing. My boss told me to research the property. I did. But I made an argument to them that the monastery’s original design could still be honored even if used as a resort. They told me that I could come and make the pitch to you, but I should have told you that they had plans to take things further if I failed. To be honest, I didn’t know what they would do. There were eight or nine contingency plans… and the one they went with was reserved as a last resort. I’m shocked that they did it, and I believe they were wrong.” She took a deep breath, and Leonardo could see that she was emotionally bracing herself. “Leo, I messed up…”

Leo… It was what she’d called him at the beach as they’d made love. His mind railed against her words, convinced that she was manipulating him yet again, but his heart reached for her and did not care whether she was good for him or not.

“… but I can fix it.”

The two sides of Leonardo’s feuding self stopped their internal struggle with Stella’s final words. “What?”

“I can fix this. I can make it right. We can get the cease and desist overturned. I know it. We just need to—”

“Stop.” Leonardo stood and stepped away from the fireplace as he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. Turning, he faced her. Her expression was full of confused anticipation, and yes, even hope. But he wanted none of it. He was done. He’d been done the second he’d walked out of his office after receiving the court order to stop all of the renovation activities. “I’ve put that behind me. It’s done. The Romano del Mare has taken up too much of my energy and too much of my family’s resources, but that’s over. I’m severing my involvement and my family’s investment in that property. There’s no going back. There’s only moving forward.”

Stella’s cheeks colored a soft pink the color of cherry blossoms. She’d never looked more beautiful to him, despite the pain he saw in her eyes. “You left it behind… and me too.”

She’d finally put it together. He’d had no intention of ever seeing her again. She was the past, and there was no room for her in his future.

Until that moment, his emotions had been in turmoil, but he felt himself cool toward her. He felt himself shut down so that he could manage her with the same intellectual aloofness that permeated all of his major life decisions. “How did you find me?” He needed to know. This was his one sanctuary from all of the demands that accompanied overseeing a billion dollar empire. That the place he retreated to when he needed to recharge had been invaded by the world he’d wanted to leave behind left him devoid of any goodwill for the one who had done the invading. He needed to know that no one else would be attempting a repeat performance.

“There was a book on your desk about log cabins, and there was an inscription in the front of the book by the architect of this place. I tracked him down. I told him”—she swallowed hard—“I told him that I was pregnant and that my family medical history required us to make a decision fast.”

Leonardo’s world tilted off its axis as everything in his life changed, and he stared, gape-mouthed at her before finally finding his voice. “You’re pregnant?” It was more an exclamation than a question. His heart pounded against the inside of his chest at all of the ramifications—the wonderful, magnificent ramifications, he realized. But then the world jerked to a halt as the rest of her words crashed their way through his mind, obliterating all other thoughts along the way. “Medical history… and we have to decide fast.” His heart plummeted into his stomach and he thought he might be physically sick.

“No, no…” Stella said, waving her hand frantically in front of her as if to wipe away the words that she’d spoken before. “I just told him that so that he’d tell me where I could find you. He wouldn’t even admit to knowing you at first.” Her voice fell and took on the tone of someone who was utterly defeated. “He was completely loyal to you. I… I had to trick him to get him to tell me where you were.”

The sick feeling that threatened to overwhelm Leonardo didn’t go away. He’d gone from near-fatherhood to having to make the worst decision of his life to not being a father at all within the blink of an eye. He hadn’t even known that he wanted to be a father until that second. He’d thought that it was a path for other men, but not him—but Stella’s simple ruse had completely dispelled that delusion.

Not knowing what else to do with himself, he sat back down next to Stella. He’d felt fine before she’d arrived, but within minutes of having her back in his life he felt as though he’d gone three rounds in a ring with a heavy-weight champion. How could a woman like her ever be good for him to have in his life?

“Do you think we could go skiing?” Stella asked in a small voice.

“Huh?” he asked, shifting his attention to her.

“I noticed that some of the ski slopes were still open. I never imagined that they’d be open this late in the season, and I’ve never been.”

“You want to go skiing?” Leonardo repeated. He still felt numb and didn’t know how he should respond to her simple request. It seemed easy enough. Spend a day outside in the sun with a girl who had once captured his heart.

“The past is behind us, you’re right. I agree, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse to sit idly while my life passes by. I”—she took a deep breath—“I want to live every moment.” She laid her hand over his and curled her fingers over his palm. His mind considered forcing his body to pull away, but his hand overruled it when he gave her fingers a squeeze.

“Skiing sounds nice,” he said, smiling, “but first we’ve got to get you some proper clothes.”