by Jennie Lucas
But it was hard for Vin to keep his vow.
* * *
It took four more days, not three, before they were able to wed. The Borgias had been wrong. Even with the town mayor expediting paperwork, even with copies of their birth certificates—Vin’s listed paternity a glaring lie that set his teeth on edge—there were certain formalities that had to be completed, and not even political connections or deep pockets could completely circumvent them.
Four days.
Four days of spending every moment with beautiful, intuitive, keen-eyed Scarlett and the wonderful people who believed themselves to be his family. Four days of listening to Maria prate on excitedly about her plans for their wedding. A required visit to the American Consulate in Florence turned into a pleasurable day of sightseeing with Scarlett, gawking at the Duomo followed by lunch at a charming café in the Piazza della Signoria. Four days of taking long walks in the Tuscan sunshine, eating glorious food.
Four days of talking to Scarlett, of learning about her, of finding new things to admire. One rainy afternoon by the fire, she’d suddenly set down her book and on impulse offered to show him the intricacies of picking a pocket.
He appreciated the lesson and, in return, offered to teach her how to fight. “My dad already showed me,” she said primly. “I tried my punch out on Blaise in New York.”
“I bet you did,” he said, grinning at her. “All right. Here’s how to use your own body weight against an attacker who grabs you from behind. Bet your dad didn’t teach that.”
Vin still smiled, remembering how pleasurably those lessons had ended—in bed together.
Such a strange way to live, Vin thought. He wasn’t accustomed to such a luxurious squandering of time. He usually spent eighteen-hour days in the office, and that was what he should have been doing now, nailing down the details of the upcoming Mediterranean Airlines deal.
Instead, he sent his assistant on to Rome without him. He told his staff to handle everything, promising only that he’d arrive in Rome for the face-to-face meeting required by the other company’s CEO, Salvatore Calabrese.
He’d spent the last twenty years focused on work. He told himself he’d be justified to take a few days off, but this was no mere vacation. He had a clear goal: making Scarlett love him so she’d sign the postnuptial agreement giving him the permanent control he needed to protect his son.
At least that was what Vin told himself as he spent hours walking with Scarlett through brilliantly colored autumn fields, on footpaths laced with cypress trees, holding her hand as they talked about everything and nothing. Hours of lingering together over meals, midday picnics beneath the golden sunlight, evening dinners inside by the fire. Vin found out why Scarlett was such a bad cook. “The day after my mother died, I tried to cook a can of soup over an open stove and nearly burned the house down.” She smiled. “My father declared he’d be in charge of meals for safety reasons. My job was to keep the house clean and focus on school, when I was able to go.”
She smiled about it now, but when Vin broke down the many sources of pain in that sentence—her mother died, they had to cook over an open stove, she wasn’t always able to go to school—he marveled at her resiliency. He admired her strength.
That didn’t stop him from arguing about what they’d name their son. He wanted a simple name like John or Michael. She wanted an Italian name from his family. “Like Giuseppe,” she’d suggested hopefully. Vin had shut that idea down fast.
But he was afraid his emotions were starting to be compromised after four solid days of getting to know her mind and heart. Four nights of utterly exploring her body.
He’d spent hours kissing Scarlett, running his hands over her lush curves and overheated skin, as they’d set their bedroom on fire. They’d made love in every possible way as he’d explored every possibility of giving her pregnant body the deepest pleasure.
All in all, they’d been days and nights he would never forget. He was almost regretful to see them end.
But his plan was working. He could see it in Scarlett’s green eyes when she looked at him now.
Against her will, she was starting to love him.
Perhaps Scarlett would have fallen in love with him anyway, without him trying so hard. Most women did. It was not something he was vain about; it was simply a fact. They could not resist his sex appeal, his raw power and the underlying attraction of his billions in the bank. He didn’t have to try with women. It was usually the opposite. He would be cold to them, and they stunningly and stupidly loved him for it.
Scarlett was different.
For one thing, she didn’t lust for money. In fact, she was suspicious of it as a manipulative tool. That just proved her intelligence, which made her even more desirable.
Seducing her in bed had been easy. Winning her heart was a little more tricky.
He’d had to share his feelings.
His regrets.
He still shuddered a little, remembering their conversation as they’d walked beneath the cypress trees last night, in the cool October air.
“Why did you move to New York after your mother died?” She’d looked up at the villa, the windows gleaming with warm light in the darkness. “You were only fifteen. Why didn’t you come live here?”
His body had tensed. He should have known she wouldn’t let that go. He’d wanted to say something sarcastic, or tell her to mind her own business. But looking at her hopeful, vulnerable expression, he’d known he had to do better than that, at least until they were safely married and he had the signed post-nup. And as intuitive as she was, he couldn’t tell her a lie, either. So he’d shaped his mouth into something he hoped looked like a smile and told her part of the truth.
“Even at fifteen, I dreamed of starting my own company. Building my own fortune. My uncle was a hard-driving corporate lawyer. I knew if I moved to New York he’d be able to help me.”
And Iacopo Orsini had. When Vin was eighteen, he’d taken all the money he’d saved from constant work, and the untouched payout from his mother’s life insurance, and asked his uncle to help him draw up the necessary papers to set up his first company. Iacopo had also led by example, showing Vin it was possible to work every waking hour, and avoid inconsequential things, like spending time with family and loved ones. Or even having loved ones.
“Oh,” Scarlett had said, and the light in her eyes had faded as she bit her lip. “That makes sense, I guess.”
“Flying makes me feel alive,” he’d heard himself add. “It gives me a sense of control. I can go anywhere. Do anything. Be whoever I want to be.”
“It’s your idea of freedom.”
“Yes.”
“That’s funny. My idea of freedom is being able to stay in one place, as long as I want, surrounded by family and friends. Freedom,” she said quietly, “would be a real home, filled with love, that no one would ever be able to take from me.”
Their eyes locked in the moonlight, and for one crazy moment he’d wanted to tell her everything. He’d been tempted to offer up not just his body, not just his name, but his past, his pain, his heart. His future.
But it was a risk he couldn’t take.
“Come on,” he’d said abruptly. “Let’s go inside.”
The memory of how he’d felt last night still left Vin feeling uncomfortable. Vulnerable. Exposed. He didn’t like it. It was a situation he didn’t intend to repeat.
He had to get the papers signed as soon as possible so he could get back to a life he recognized, a life under his control.
But first things first.
Today was their wedding day.
Vin looked at his bride now, as she stood across from him in the villa’s courtyard with the view of the wide Tuscan fields, as Giuseppe, as mayor of Borgierra, spoke the words that would bind the two of them in marriage.
In the distance, Vin could hear the plaintive cry of birds as they soared across the bright blue sky, as they were watched by Joanne and Maria and the other friends and Borg
ia relatives who’d packed in around them.
Vin couldn’t look away from Scarlett’s beautiful face.
Her warm green eyes sparkled in the sun, shining with joyful tears as she smiled up at him. She was wearing a simple sheath dress in creamy duchesse satin, purchased in Milan, altered for Scarlett’s advanced state of pregnancy. Her red hair tumbled down her shoulders, and she had a tiny fascinator with a single cream-colored feather and a bit of netting that his sister had selected. Large diamond studs to match her ring now sparkled in her ears, a gift from Vin. Maria had wanted her to hold a bouquet of white lilies, but on this one detail, Scarlett was firm: no lilies. “They’re not just stinky, they’re appallingly overpriced.”
Vin smiled at the thought of Scarlett being worried about the price of flowers, when the diamonds she was wearing cost hundreds of thousands of euros.
Instead, she held a bouquet of autumn wildflowers. It was just like her, he thought. The vivid blooms were as bright as her hair, and the scent as sweet as her soul. But the wild roses still had thorns—little flashes of temper and fire.
Solemnly, Vin, then Scarlett, spoke the words that would bind them together as husband and wife. He didn’t exhale until it was done and they were actually married. After everything it had taken to get her to the altar, it was surprisingly easy.
No man could now tear them asunder.
“You may kiss the bride,” Giuseppe said happily.
Scarlett Ravenwood—Mrs. Scarlett Borgia now—looked up at him with joy suffusing her beautiful face.
Looking into her eyes, Vin felt dizzy with happiness. She was wearing his ring. Carrying his baby. Bearing his name. He hadn’t felt like this since—
A cold chill went down his spine.
The last time he’d felt this happy had been in this very same villa, that Christmas when Giuseppe and Joanne had asked him to live with them. At fifteen, for the first time in his life, he’d felt wanted and loved. But within a week, he’d lost everything.
Looking at his wife’s beautiful, joyful face, Vin felt a sharp twist in the gut, a darkness curling around his heart like a poisonous mist.
Letting himself be happy, letting himself care, was like asking for abandonment. For loneliness. For pain.
He couldn’t let her change him. He couldn’t let himself be vulnerable. He had to be tough. Strong. He had to keep his fists up.
“You can kiss her, son,” Giuseppe repeated in English, smiling.
Lowering his head, Vin kissed her. The touch of her lips electrified him like a blessing—or a curse.
He heard applause and teasing catcalls from the loving, kind people around him. He wrenched away from the kiss. Staring at Scarlett, he suddenly couldn’t breathe.
Giuseppe, Joanne, Maria and even, especially, Scarlett were so wrong to love him. If they only knew the truth—
As beaming family and friends came forward to offer their congratulations, Vin loosened the black tie of his tuxedo, feeling attacked by all the overwhelming, suffocating, terrifying love around him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AS SCARLETT SPOKE her wedding vows, looking up at Vin’s dark eyes, she felt like every dream she’d ever had was coming true today.
Every day had been a new dream, from afternoons spent together in the cool autumn countryside, walking hand in hand as they talked about everything and nothing, to the deliciously hot nights they’d explored each other in bed, doing things that had nothing to do with talking. He made her feel...joyful. Sexy. Exhilarated.
He’d made her feel free. Like he accepted her just as she was. Like he...cared for her.
And she’d come to care for him, to respect and admire him. She’d started to even... But the thought scared her.
After all the romantic days and nights together, gazing into each other’s eyes beneath the loggia and teasing each other with hot kisses behind the thick hedges of the garden maze, today’s beautiful courtyard wedding, presided over by Vin’s father, was the perfect end to such perfect days.
As she and Vin spoke their vows in the courtyard, surrounded by his family and friends, Scarlett looked up at him. She’d never seen such stark emotion in his dark eyes.
Was it possible Vin might be falling for an ordinary girl like her?
Scarlett’s voice trembled as she spoke her vows, but Vin’s voice was calm and steady and deep. She felt his lips brush softly against hers as a pledge of forever, and she thought she might die of happiness.
Then everything changed. The tenderness in Vin’s expression hardened, turned cold. As their family and friends came forward in the villa’s courtyard to congratulate them, her brand-new husband dropped her hand as if it burned him and backed away, loosening his tie, as if he could barely stand to look at her.
What had happened? Scarlett didn’t understand. She felt confused and hurt as she followed him into their wedding reception lunch, held immediately afterward in the great hall inside the villa. She tried to tell herself she was being too sensitive. They’d just gotten married, with a lifelong vow. That was what mattered. Not that he’d dropped her hand after he kissed her, and his eyes suddenly looked cold.
But it troubled her as she sat beside Vin at the head table through the elegant wedding lunch.
She looked around the great hall. Maria had outdone herself. The enormous room was filled with flowers and people and music. It was so warm with love, it barely needed the fire in the enormous stone fireplace. When the staff served a lunch of pasta and salad, Vin ate silently beside her. Scarlett smiled at him shyly.
He glowered back.
Scarlett’s cheeks turned hot with embarrassment as she looked away. Maybe it was the sudden tension between them, but her lower back and belly started to ache strangely. She sipped sparkling juice instead of champagne, one hand rubbing her belly over the knee-length, cream-colored satin dress.
She told herself to relax. Whatever was bothering Vin, they had hours to work it out before they left for Rome tonight. He would close the deal with Mediterranean Airlines tomorrow morning. Vin wanted to check them into a suite at the best hotel in Rome tonight, their wedding night. While he was signing the papers, she could meet her new doctor and prepare for their baby’s imminent birth. She was trying to convince him that they should skip the hotel and go directly to live in the home he’d grown up in, but he resisted.
“It’s a mess,” he’d said shortly.
Now, sitting at the wedding luncheon, Scarlett sighed. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned away from Vin, who was still glowering silently at nothing, and turned to chat with Giuseppe and Joanne and Maria and her fiancé, Luca. She laughed and applauded as their friends and neighbors offered champagne toasts, half of which she couldn’t understand, as they were in Italian, but they were lovely all the same. She just wished her parents could have been here to see her wedding day.
Tears rose to her eyes as her new father-in-law and mother-in-law and sister-in-law all hugged her and teased her and constantly asked if they could get her anything.
She had a family again. After all her years alone, she hated to leave them.
Rome was only three hours away, she comforted herself. She glanced at her handsome new husband. Maybe Rome would be even more amazing. The city where their baby would be born. Their first real home. It would be where their life together would begin.
Tears filled her eyes as she listened to Giuseppe’s emotional toast, as he praised his son and expressed his gratitude that he’d returned to the Borgia family after so many years apart. She was still wiping her eyes and applauding at the end of his speech when Vin suddenly growled in her ear, “We need to go.”
“Go?” Scarlett blinked. “But you said we could stay the entire day—”
“I changed my mind.” He tossed his napkin over his empty plate. “I want to be in Rome before dark. I still have a lot of work to do. We’ve wasted enough time here.”
Wasted? The best days of her life?
Scarlett took a deep breath, struggling not
to take it personally. “All right. I understand.” She was trying to understand, but her heart felt mutinous. She bit her lip, looking around. “We’ll need a little time to say goodbye—”
“You have two minutes.” Rising to his feet, he stalked toward the table where his bodyguards were busily flirting with two of the local girls.
Scarlett stared after him, shocked and hurt. The muscles around her pregnant belly clenched and she felt a sharp tinge in her lower back that made her leap to her feet.
“What is it?” Giuseppe said.
“I’m afraid we have to go,” Scarlett said. “Vin is anxious to get to Rome. You know he has the big business deal in the morning...”
“That is a pity,” Giuseppe said, rising to his feet. “You can’t stay the rest of the day?”
“Thank you.” Vin was suddenly beside her. He held out his hand to Giuseppe and said coldly, “It was a very nice wedding.”
“You’re welcome?” His father looked bemused as Vin shook his hand, then Joanne’s in turn.
“You can’t leave, Vin!” cried his sister. “You haven’t even cut the wedding cake! I’ve planned activities for the rest of the day. There’s a dance floor, and...”
“I’m sorry. As I told you from the beginning, I have an unbreakable appointment in Rome.”
“Oh. Right.” Maria looked crestfallen. Her fiancé, Luca, put his arm around her encouragingly. She bit her lip, tried to smile. “Of course, I...I understand.”
Scarlett didn’t understand. Why did they have to leave so soon, cutting off their wedding celebration? It seemed not just rude, but nonsensical. But she forced herself to hold her tongue.
Vin held out his hand to his sister, but the young brunette just brushed his hand aside and threw her arms around him in a hug. He stiffened, but she drew back with a smile. “We will see you soon, brother. Luca’s family lives in Rome. He’s trying to convince me to have our wedding there!”
“Oh?” His voice was cool.
“But we will see you sooner than that, I hope.” Looking at Scarlett, she said, “Call us when the baby comes.”
