Chapter 77

The silence that followed had a special quality, as if we were suspended in that moment beneath the stars, with no past and no future. Just the two of us and that shared vulnerability. Of all the things Gideon had shown me—the villa, the vineyards, the centuries-old cellars—this place, this moment, felt the most intimate.

"Do you come here often?" I asked at last, breaking the quiet.

"Whenever I c