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EMILY SHIVERED. A SECOND later warm air rushed out of the vent in front of her as Max turned on the heat.
    The wipers sounded like a heartbeat, faster now as the rain fell harder. They sped through the shiny, dark streets of Florence toward God—and Max—only knew where.
    She glanced at his profile in the bluish illumination from the dash. Her heart wouldn’t behave, no matter how much she reminded herself that he was a lying, father-disrespecting, thoughtless bastard she shouldn’t care a thing about.
    Franco.
    Her mantra wasn’t working. Her breasts ached as she stared at Max’s strong, tanned hands on the steering wheel and remembered what those hands had felt like on her bare skin. Or the way he’d brushed her hair back from her face to see her smile, or—Damn. Damn. Damn.
    The rain was coming down in sheets, and the wipers automatically adjusted to the conditions. “I hope we’re not going too far.” She had to raise her voice a little, as she changed the subject to something less inflammatory. For now. “I have to be at Galileo Galilei airport in Pisa by six tonight. And I still have a hundred things to do before I—” Even as she said it, Emily knew it didn’t matter how adamant she was, or how great her desire, she wouldn’t be going anywhere. Not yet anyway.
    Max slid her an unreadable glance. Fear churned in her stomach as she accepted that arguing with him wasn’t going to change the fact that she was stuck. Everything inside her rebelled, but she said reasonably, “I won’t be going anywhere for a while, will I? Did they give you any idea how long we’ll be in quarantine?”
    “Until they know what was in that vial, and we’ve both been cleared. So settle back and enjoy the scenery. We’ll be staying at his place for the duration.”
    “By ‘his’ I presume you mean your father’s?” Daniel’s home was located on the outskirts of Florence in the Certosa hills of Impruenta, only twenty minutes away. The villa was large enough to avoid seeing Max for a year. Not that it would take that long for them to get a clean bill of health, and not that Max would stick around for a hundredth of that. According to his father, a lot of women knew what the back of Max Aries looked like. She’d just been unlucky enough to be one of many.
    “I imagine,” Max said matter-of-factly, “he left the villa and everything else to you.”
    “To me? Don’t be ridiculous.” Emily rolled her head on the headrest to look at him. “Why on earth would he do that? You’re his heir.”
    “Biologically.”
    More alike than either would admit. It tore at her knowing that it was their stubborn gene, obviously hereditary, that had thwarted any chance of a father/son relationship. Now of course it was too bloody late. “My God. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, did it? You and your father both got the same dogged stubborn streak. Biological or any other way you look at it, you were his only child. There’s no reason to suppose he didn’t leave everything to you. Who else would he name in his will?”
    “You were more a daughter to him than I was ever his son. He loved you,” Max told her flatly. “Enough reason to leave all his worldly possessions to you. He always did have his priorities straight.”
    “He loved you, too.” In his own way.
    Max’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. Instead of defending Daniel she kept her mouth shut. She was sure his father had loved him. But she had no illusions about the man who had helped her rise to the top in a field where not just talent, but who you knew, could make or break you.
    Daniel had loved Daniel best of all.
    She’d adored him. Daniel Aries had been an amazing, if oblivious, mentor. Emily also acknowledged he’d been a shitty and oblivious parent, too. But it was partly Max’s fault that he and his father had had a lousy relationship. As long as she’d known him, Daniel had tried his best to make a connection with Max. Max hadn’t been