The drive climbed higher than Willow expected.
The narrow road wound upward through stone walls and terraces thick with olive trees until the lake spread below them in widening curves of blue and silver. The villa disappeared somewhere among the trees behind them as the car continued climbing toward the gardens.
When they arrived, the gates opened onto terraces layered one above another, each level stepping upward toward the mountains. Gravel paths curved through sculpted hedges and tall cypress trees that stood dark and still against the bright sky.
The gardens felt as though they had been built over centuries of patient care.
Willow paused just inside the entrance and turned slowly.
The lake lay far below now, vast and luminous, the villages reduced to pale clusters along the shoreline.
"This is unreal," she said.
Zane watched her take it in with quiet satisfaction. His gaze rested on her longer than on the view itself, as if her reaction mattered more than the landscape.
