by Lynne Graham
His jaw tight, Vincenzo stared at both men. Alex held her breath, waiting for him to rip into these men who had enough courage to own up to their torturous childhoods with the man Vincenzo thought had abandoned him.
But Vincenzo remained silent and with it didn’t invalidate the pain of the brothers he considered his enemies.
“Charlie told me one of the boys at school has been bullying him,” she said, running a hand through her hair. “I reported it to his teacher and she’s looking into it. However, I also taught him how to sucker punch the bully if he ever bothered him again.”
All three men simultaneously cheered on that suggestion, and the tension broke.
“Come, sit down, bella. Unless you’re planning on leaving again,” Vincenzo drawled, an edge of censure in his tone. He looked up at her, and she had that feeling of being consumed by his gaze. Only it wasn’t just desire. It was more. “Soon, you’re going to run out of places to hide.”
Heat washed over her face, but Alex took the chair he pulled out for her. “I had my mother’s affairs to take care of in New York. Her husband’s estate is huge. Not to mention the fact that Charlie was missing me. I did text you that I was leaving.”
“Ah, yes, so you did. Five minutes before takeoff.”
She refused to let him put her in the wrong this time. “What would you have done if I had told you any earlier? You’re so busy spinning your webs around people. It’s hard enough that I can’t even give Charlie a specific date yet as to when he can join me.”
“Maybe I would have joined you in going to New York, Alessandra. Did you think of that?”
Alex jerked her gaze to his. “Why?”
“For the simple fact that you’re going through a lot in your life right now and I wanted to be there to support you? For the logical fact that it would have been sensible to present a united front to Charlie’s extended family and the lawyers?
“To reassure Charlie himself that I’m just as invested in his well-being as you are? I’m a stranger to him, after all.”
Shame streaked bright color across Alex’s face, and she struggled to hold his gaze. He was right. It was the whole point of their deal, after all. And yet, all she’d wanted was a reprieve.
From the emotional turmoil he plunged her into with one look, one touch, one kiss.
From the trust he demanded she give him without having earned it.
The more she learned about him, the more complex he turned out to be. This whole thing had never been simply about revenge, or ambition, or wanting power for himself. Not the man who’d helped so many, who had such a strong moral compass.
Her first instinct that he was a man worthy of knowing had been right.
The more she wanted to remain detached, the more she felt lured in. Before, she’d been afraid of the harm he would cause Leo and Massimo and Greta, but now she was beginning to worry about him.
About the bitterness she’d seen in his eyes when he spoke of his mother. About what would be left of him when all this was done. About the crushing emptiness that would come no matter his material success if there was no one to share it with.
She rubbed the pads of her fingers over her tired eyes. “I’m sorry. You were right. I… I didn’t think of all those eminently sensible reasons.”
He clutched her fingers on the table and squeezed. “You’re still fighting this, bella.”
She nodded and pulled her fingers away. Three gazes watched them with varied levels of interest.
“What finally convinced you to come here to the villa?” she asked him, reaching for a glass of wine.
“I was getting bored of sleeping alone,” he said bluntly.
Greta’s fork clattered onto the plate.
“I invited him,” Leo said into the awkward silence. “Neha reminded me that in all this…you’re the one caught in the middle.
“So I will tell you again, Alex, and in front of him, this time.
“Neither Massimo nor I expect you to fight for us. But if you need an out from this marriage, if for any reason you want to be done with it, we’ll throw everything we have behind you.”
The absolute fury in Vincenzo’s eyes in contrast to the stillness that came over him had Alex drawing in a sharp breath.
“Telling my wife that you’ll help her walk away from me, in front of me, is surely a fool’s play, Leonardo.” The very smoothness of his words raised the hairs on her neck. “Like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Especially after all the work poor Alessandra has been putting in to persuade me to rethink your ruin.”
Leo didn’t even bat an eyelid. “No threat of ruin will make me forget my priorities, Cavalli. You think you had it hard? You didn’t have our father filling your head with poison when you barely knew right and wrong. You didn’t have to unlearn toxic truths about why your own mother would desert you.
“I had to protect my family, and myself, from him, when I was barely a man. And Alex has been a part of this family for a long time.”
Again, Vincenzo stayed silent.
Alex chewed her salad, feeling a spark of hope for the first time in weeks, while Leo and Massimo started casually chatting about the upcoming bicentennial celebrations of BFI. The preparations were already in full force.
She had told neither Leo nor Massimo about Vincenzo’s plans for the villa or BFI. God, she hated being the bearer of bad news. Especially when there was nothing she could do to help them. Fortunately, both of them had been out of town when she’d returned that night, still reeling under the impact of all she’d learned.
“Did you clear your calendar for the celebration, Alex?” Massimo asked. “There will be journalists, of course. But also, a photographer for the family’s photoshoot for the feature they’re doing on BFI’s history.”
“I’ll sit that one out if you don’t mind,” she replied.
Vincenzo covered her hand on the table, his gaze filled with a wicked humor. “Of course, she will come. We will both be here to celebrate the success of such a long-standing venerable institution as BFI. Especially on such a momentous day.”
If Greta heard the resounding mockery in his words, she didn’t let it show. Slowly, she pushed her chair back, and stood. She pressed one hand into Alex’s shoulder and then walked away. Without a word.
The stoop of Greta’s proud shoulders made a lump settle in Alex’s throat. Greta’s past actions and Alex’s present sat like painful, snarly knots in their relationship. She hadn’t realized how much Greta’s implacable but quiet presence in her life meant to her. Until Alex had lost it.
Massimo and Leo followed Greta.
The moment it was just them, Alex turned on Vincenzo.
To find him frowning, a thoughtful tilt to his mouth.
“What are you doing here at the villa? What new game are you up to?” she demanded.
“Following your dictates,” Vincenzo replied silkily, sitting back in his chair.
Alex slammed her wineglass down, hard enough for it to slosh over her fingers. “Please, V. No more games.”
“I hate living like a bachelor in hotels when I have a perfectly nice wife here at the villa. I realized you were right all along.”
“You mean you realized you can torment Greta in her own home?”
“Asking me to behave as if I finally found my long-lost grandmother is a bit much, even for you, bella.”
Why had she thought bringing Vincenzo face-to-face with the Brunettis would be a good idea? Already, her head was pounding. “If you think you’re going to wear her down into regretting her actions, you’ll wait forever. To her, the past is done, V. She had to deal with the consequences of every selfish, vile act Silvio perpetrated, and that has turned her into stone.”
“Consequences that became the crumbling foundation of my life.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive her.”
“Bene. Because I hate disappointing you.”
“Do you really? Is this all anything other than a game to you?” she demanded.
She’d had enough. It felt as if she was still dreaming, amidst the fitful sleep she’d caught on the flight back to Milan. Wondering if all the pieces would ever come together. Wondering if she would always feel ripped apart by conflicting loyalties.
She pushed away her chair, every inch of her vibrating with an internal fight she couldn’t win. “I’m out of here.”
“Alessandra—”
“I have to get ready. There’s a designer launch in Milan. I have to show my face.” Although the thought of being in front of cameras right now made her want to throw up.
Vincenzo followed her down the steps. “I contacted your agent and got you out of it.”
Alex stilled. “What? That’s… How dare you?”
“Alessandra, you look like you’ll collapse if someone blows hard enough.”
“And whose fault is that? I just spent an entire week going through my mother’s things. Sorting what to keep and what to give away. For Charlie. Her entire life…in boxes, V. Then I came back to this. I know why you can’t forgive Greta for what she did to you and your mother. Even I can’t. But…have you thought for one minute that I might actually need you? That I might want to lean on you?”
“Of course, yes.”
“I’m so foolish. I can’t believe I actually thought it would be a good idea for you to be here. You’re right. I’m pathetic and—”
His arms enveloped her so tightly that Alex was forced to stop shivering. “Shh…tesoro. Shh…breathe, Alessandra.”
“Sometimes, I feel so alone. It doesn’t matter what I do, or where I run. In the end, I’m always terrifyingly alone.”
“Look at me, bella. Concentrate on me.”
Alex looked up and the panic that had been closing in on her receded. She focused on her reflection in the gray of his eyes. Breathed in until that fresh, crisp scent of him was an anchor in her blood. Let herself drown in the warmth his body gave off.
A tear rolled down her cheek and he held her gently. As if she was the most precious thing in his life. “You’re not alone, Alessandra. I’m here. Mi dispiace… I’m sorry, you were right. I forget how much you’ve been through.”
In that moment, he was the haven she’d been looking for all her life. He was the prince she’d always wanted. He held her heart in the palm of his hand.
And Alex wanted nothing more than to sink into his strong body. Nothing more than to share the grief that choked her sometimes. Nothing more than to give herself over to him.
But the girl who’d been seen by her own mother as a punishment, the girl who’d always wondered what she’d done wrong, the girl whose heart had been seriously dented over the last few months, reared its head. Bringing rationality along.
She looked up into those magnetic eyes, forcing herself to break the spell. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you act as if this marriage is so important to you?”
His curse rang around in the garden. “Because it is.” He ran a hand through his hair and she realized, even he didn’t know why. “It just is.” But the conviction she wanted was there. In his gaze. In the set of his mouth.
“Why?” she pushed, instinctively realizing they were standing on the cusp of something vital.
“Because you made me see a future for myself. All my life, I had no plans beyond the destruction of the Brunettis. I came to Bali because I had been so curious about you, about your role within the family. But when I got there, when we met, it… I have never acted like this with a woman before. There’s no precedent for my actions.”
A burst of air burned her lungs as Alex took in a deep breath. All around her, fragrance filled the air. The sounds and scents of life itself underscoring the hope flickering in her chest.
He was right. She couldn’t do justice to anyone this way, sitting on the fence in the middle of everyone. She had to choose. She wanted to choose him. She wanted to bridge this gap between them. She wanted to hope that everything would turn out for the best.
“You really want to spend time with me?”
“I’ve barely seen you for more than a few hours since the wedding. Either you’re finishing off a contract, or saving them from me, or showing up for Charlie on the other side of the world.” His thumb traced the dark circles under her eyes. “I would feel quite the neglected husband if I didn’t see that you’re neglecting yourself too.”
She shrugged. But she couldn’t conjure the energy to dislodge his hands. No, she didn’t want to dislodge them. She was tired of fighting. She wanted to be held. By him. It was an ache in her belly, this want. “We both have busy lifestyles.”
“I miss you, bella. That’s why I moved in here. I miss—” he swallowed, his eyes glinting with desire and awareness, slamming into Alex like a bulldozer “—spending time with you.”
She snorted, a lightness filling her despite the emotional roller coaster of the last week. It was hard not to be moved by the raw need in those eyes. “You mean you miss sex?”
“Si.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But I miss having sex with you.”
And just like that, he felled her where she stood with that raw admission, with that naked hunger he made no attempt to hide in his eyes.
Electricity arced between them, and she found herself swaying toward him. Every cell in her begging to give in.
His palm kneaded her hip with gentle pressure, his powerful thighs teasing sinuously against her own. “Stop running away, Alex,” he whispered in her ear.
He touched his mouth to the line of her jaw, his breath a caress against her skin. Heart beating a thousand to the minute, Alex leaned into him. Those soft lips drew a lightning path down her cheek until they reached the corner of her mouth. And stilled. A meteor dropping on them couldn’t have moved her then.
“Maybe catch up on your sleep first, bella.
“Because we have a lot to make up for.”
* * *
Vincenzo closed the door of Alessandra’s bedroom softly behind him. The gaunt set of her face—maledizione, she looked like stretched glass—haunted him as he walked through the long corridor toward the room he had set up as a temporary study.
Lust he understood. She was gorgeous and more than matched his appetite in bed.
But this tenderness when he’d found her fast asleep on top of the bedcovers, still in the sweats and old T-shirt she’d worn this evening, dark shadows under her eyes—this he didn’t understand.
He stayed inattentive all through the conference call with Massimo and BFI’s CFO, two of the most dynamic board members of BFI, both Leo’s recruits.
Frustration raked through him as the call ended. The second man left while Massimo closed his laptop with a hard thud that spoke all too loud.
“You won’t find anything against him,” Massimo said calmly.
“What?” Vincenzo spat out, his mind all too focused on his wife. And the very real grief he’d glimpsed in her eyes earlier that evening. Grief for her mother that she still refused to share with him.
“You won’t find any dirt on Leo. Or me, for that matter.”
Vincenzo looked back at the younger man he was unwillingly coming to more than respect. “Look, Massimo—”
“Don’t insult my intelligence, Cavalli. You’ve been like a rabid dog these past few weeks trying to find ammunition against Leo.
“The men who are hungrily following in your wake to oust him…those are the kind of men Leo took on in the first place in his fight to turn BFI around. Who didn’t agree with him when he instituted an ethics committee, who didn’t want to give up even a small share of their profits to clean up the mess Silvio created.
“But then you already know all this.”
&nbs
p; Massimo picked up his laptop and crossed the room. “For a man who hates the name Brunetti and everything it stands for, you very much act like one, Cavalli.”
The air left his lungs as if he’d been gut punched. “Don’t you dare—”
“No? It’s a Brunetti trait to destroy the very people who might save us.
“Didn’t you realize that in all the research you did on us? Didn’t Natalie tell you I almost lost her because of how screwed up I had been? Isn’t that what you’re doing to Alex?
“Our father—si, our father,” he emphasized when Vincenzo flinched, “drove away two good women who could have turned him away from his destructive path.
“See this through and you’re truly his son. More than Leo and I have ever been.”
Massimo’s words ate through Vincenzo like acid, eating away at his resolution, corroding his certainty.
Destroy the name Brunetti and everything it entailed in this world. That had been his goal for so long. A number of people were counting on him.
But the Brunettis were men he was coming to see as more than honorable. Despite all his aggressive tactics, there had been no attempt at retaliation from either.
In fact, they had invited him into their home, the very home he wanted to ruin.
All the evidence only pointed to the fact that they cared about what he did to Alessandra. Not to them.
He had started on this path to right a multitude of wrongs, yes. But he never wanted to hurt an innocent in the process. He was beginning to feel like a man caught uncomfortably between his past and present. A man caught between his promises and his own selfishness.
And the woman he’d married so impulsively, who’d looked today as if he was breaking her apart, she was caught in the middle of it all with him.
* * *
Alex stood inside the huge BFI office that Leonardo occupied, indecision cleaving her in half. She had a decision to make. Vincenzo had been right. And the fact that she’d turned up here meant a part of her had already made it.
But she couldn’t just leave things in limbo anymore. Not after she’d learned about Antonio and all the people who’d been harmed by Silvio Brunetti. Not after finally understanding the burden Vincenzo had been living with for so many years, the burden that fueled his need for justice.
