He wanted everyone to go.
He wanted to wrap her in his arms once more and whisper words until she was calm, he wanted to make this better for her.
Alessia’s examination was brusque but thorough. She checked the reflexes of his eyes, examined his bone structure, lifted his shirt and felt his ribs, then nodded.
“Rest. Take it easy. No strenuous physical activity for either of you. If you feel groggy, disorientated, or in any way worse than you do now, you’re to call me immediately. If you cannot reach me, you go to hospital. Understood?”
“Will I be okay to fly in a couple of days?”
His heart thumped into his ribs. He didn’t need that kind of assault from the inside.
Alessia considered that. “You don’t have any broken bones. So long as you don’t develop any additional symptoms tomorrow, then yes. Do you have someone who can care for you in England?”
Nico turned to look at Maddie. “I’m…not really. I can call my dad if I need to, but I’d prefer –,”
His heart thumped harder. The idea of her being completely alone after this –
“See how you go. Just take it easy. Don’t push yourself. Rest lots.” Alessia turned back to Nico. “He bore the brunt of it, as you said.”
It was the last thing Nico wanted Maddie to hear, all things considered. Her guilt was already palpable. “I’ll be fine,” he assured smoothly. “I’ve seen worse.”
At that, her lips twisted into a small smile. “How is Gabe?”
Their eyes met and he felt again the loss of Alessia from their lives. She’d been like a sister to them, at one point, her father like the son Gianfelice had wished he’d had – where his own children were frivolous and hell bent on blowing their way through their trust funds, Alessia’s father had been the opposite: steadfast, hardworking and respectful. Alessia had spent a lot of time with the Montebellos, growing up, so she knew all the intricacies of their relationships and histories, including the time Gabe and Nico had got into a physical brawl that wouldn’t have ended had it not been for Yaya and a big pot of water she tipped over their heads.
“He’s…Gabe,” Nico lifted his shoulders.
He felt as though Alessia was going to say something else but then she blinked, her eyes wide, her smile carefree.
“Thank you for coming so promptly, Alessia.”
“Of course.” She turned to Maddie, a kind smile on her face. “I hope your sprained ankle and now this won’t stop you from coming back to us one day, Maddie.”
A polite smile, then Alessia reached out, putting a hand over Maddie’s. “And if you do, please call me. I can show you all the sights he’s forgotten about.” She grinned, and Nico had another pang of something.
He didn’t want Maddie to go. The realisation came to him as if struck by lightning. He wasn’t ready to end this. Not yet. He turned to face her and smiled past the blinding pain. “Thank you, dottore.”
Chapter 12
“I DIDN’T KNOW. NOT at first.” She’d stopped shaking, but she was still pale, so the bruise on her cheek was all the more obvious. He couldn’t look at her without wishing he’d succumbed to his first instincts and laid into Michael with all the might of his fists.
But he hadn’t.
For two reasons. It would be so much easier for prosecutors to make their case if the violence had been unprovoked, and unanswered. And secondly, he never wanted Maddie to think him capable of the kind of violence Michael had exhibited. He was a different kind of man. Even when his temper was pushed to breaking point, he remained in control.
He was safe. Reliable.
He reached an arm along the back of the sofa, stroking her hair gently. “I believe you.”
“Do you?” Her eyes were hollow. She sipped her tea – he’d lost count of how many she’d had since everyone had finally left and they were alone once more.
“Of course.” And he did, without hesitation.
“That day I met you, I didn’t know who lived here, I didn’t know anything. Even when you said your name, I didn’t realise.”
He recalled that – the oddness of her not knowing he was a Montebello, how refreshing it was to engage with a woman who wasn’t familiar with his life story and his bank balance.
“I woke up – after we’d…after that first time – and all I could think about was Michael and the fact you were old friends. Oh, God, Nico, I was so terrified. I felt like I’d made the worst mistake of my life.” She bit down on her lip, her eyes beseeching. “Not in sleeping with you, but because of your connection to him. I’d spent six months trying to get away from him, to forget him, to move on with my life and then you…” She sucked in a big gulp of air. “Why did you have to know him? What are the chances of that, Nico?”
He nodded, understanding. It was a cruel joke, in some ways. “So you ran back to La Villetta. Were you planning to leave Italy?” He didn’t know why but the idea of that felt like he’d swallowed a fistful of barbed wire. He didn’t want to go near it, didn’t want to analyse how he would have felt if he’d got to La Villetta that stormy summer’s afternoon and found that she’d already left.
If he’d never got to see her again.
“No.” A hollow smile. “By the time the cab dropped me off, I was a little calmer.”
She looked down and his gut contracted painfully. “I never do anything like we did that afternoon. It was so random. I don’t know what came over me but I met you and I just…” Her sentence petered into nothing. She bit down on her lip, shaking her head a little.
“I know.” He ran his fingers over her hair, so gently, wishing in that moment that the only touch she’d ever known was like this – so reverential and full of respect. “I was there. I was struck by the same lightning bolt.”
She looked towards him, her eyes enormous. “That’s exactly what it was like!”
He nodded thoughtfully, playing it out in his mind.
“I should have sent you away again.” Her eyes were enormous in her face. “But I wanted to be selfish.” She lifted a hand to his chest, as though she couldn’t help herself.
“Selfish?”
She shook her head slowly. “Michael had already taken so much away from me. He controlled everything about my life. I didn’t want to give you up because of him.” She squared her shoulders, her dainty features assuming a defiant look. “I wanted you and the only reason I would have walked away from what you were offering was because I was afraid. I refused to be afraid anymore.”
Fierce pride exploded through him.
“I thought about telling you,” she said quietly. “I hated lying to you and once you knew about him – not who he was – but that there’d been someone like him in my life, I felt like it was an actual lie. Like I was purposefully keeping a secret from you. But I didn’t know…”
“I would have believed you,” he promised, knowing instinctively that it mattered to her to hear that, and wanting her to understand that his trust in her was absolute.
“I know.” Her eyes were fierce when they connected to his and a pulse of understanding throbbed between them. “But I didn’t know if it would change things. He’s one of your oldest friends. You knew him for years before you knew me. It would have complicated everything and you were the first good thing to happen to me in a really long time.” Her words reached inside of him, filling him with a swirling pool of mess. “I just wanted to hold onto that, to you. I just wanted to hold onto this for as long as possible.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, nodding, the fact their summer was almost over sitting at odds with her admission just now. He stroked her hair lightly, toying with the ends, and when he inhaled he caught a hint of her beautiful floral fragrance.
“The last time I saw Michael, I suspected he was way off the rails. He’d had a lot of potential in school but a huge ego and a dark streak I never fully appreciated.” Nico shook his head. “It was a few years ago – before you met him, I presume?”
She nodded.
&n
bsp; “I always felt like I should have done more. I wished I’d got him into rehab or something –,”
“Don’t.” She lifted a finger to his lips, her half-smile so beautiful and gentle. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known what he was capable of.”
He ran a hand across his jaw gruffly. “I didn’t know how bad it was.”
“I believe that. He’s a very good actor. In the beginning, he was so charming. He made it easy to like him, easy to believe he loved me.”
He moved his hand to capture hers, lacing their fingers together.
“Why was he here?” Her eyes were like saucers in her face. His stomach clenched at the sides. Because he’d betrayed her. Unknowingly, unintentionally, he’d brought the lion she most feared right where he’d told her she was safe, and she’d got hurt as a consequence.
Nico’s lips compressed to form a gash in his face. “He’s broke. He kept saying it had been a bad six months. He reeked of alcohol when he first arrived. Honestly? He needed me to bail him out. And I didn’t know then what I do now. I felt sorry for him. I just remember the way he was in school, and I wanted to see him succeed. So I told him I’d invest in him – that I’d set up an amount for his use. His effort, my capital, we’d split the returns. I thought it would be a way to get him back on his feet without making him swallow his pride.”
She nodded, her delicate features impossible to read, but hearing him say what he’d offered her abuser made him sick now. “Did you feel he’d be able to do that?”
“No.” He grimaced. “Not necessarily. But I felt I owed it to him to allow him to try.”
“And lose your money?”
“I have enough money.”
She nodded again, slowly, and all he could do was stare at her beautiful face, marred by the beginnings of a bruise, and swollen at her cheek. He hated to think how often she’d been like this because of Michael. He hated a lot of things in that moment.
“I’m the reason he’s had a bad six months.” She whispered the words. “Is that what he meant, do you think?”
That she thought so was impossible to tolerate. “He’s the reason he’s had a bad six months, a bad life.” He moved closer, brushing her lips with his, needing her to understand. “Losing you hurt him, of that I have no doubt, but not because of who you are. Because he lost the ability to control you, and he thrived on that. I am so sorry you ever went through this. I’m so sorry you’ve ever known a day’s fear in your life.” He kissed her again, still gently, but with all the truth of his feelings. “I wish there was something I could do to take that pain away.”
She put a little distance between them, lifting a hand and running it over his undamaged cheek. “Don’t you see, Nico? You have.” And she smiled, a smile that reminded him so forcefully of the way she’d been the day they’d met. It was like the sun piercing the clouds in the sky. “I came here so broken and then I met you and without even realising it, you put everything back together inside of me.”
His chest compressed. Something burst through him. Something good. Warm and pleasant and addictive.
He didn’t speak – there was no need. Not when her perfect words hung between them.
But a moment later, a little line formed between her brows. “What will happen to him?”
The warmth dissipated and for the briefest moment there was something else. A flash of jealousy. It surprised him, and he suppressed it immediately, refusing to feel it. She wasn’t asking out of concern. It was natural she’d want to know. “What would you like to happen to him?”
“Honestly?”
Jealousy fired once more.
“Yes.” His word was hoarse, and curt.
She bit down on her lip, her eyes scanning his face. “I just never want to think about him again. I don’t want to be afraid of him, I don’t want to know he even exists.”
Nico expelled a breath of relief. “You won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because he’s going to prison for a very long time.”
“Prison?” Her eyes flew wide. “Really?”
“Oh, yes, cara. I intend to make sure of it.”
“Seriously?”
“Here, in Italy, what Michael did this afternoon is assault. And the fact he threatened to kill you, in my presence, makes it likely he’ll get a very long sentence.”
“How long?”
“The maximum for aggravated assault is twenty years. It won’t be that,” he shook his head. “But with two charges for assault, and a charge for his threats, it could be up to fifteen.”
“Fifteen years?” Her mouth opened. And sympathy crossed her face. “So long?”
Jealousy, again. “You don’t want this?”
“I –,” she dropped her eyes to their legs, her expression impossible to read. He didn’t pressure her but every moment of silence pulled at his nerves. “I wish I didn’t,” she said earnestly. “I can see the way his life could have turned out, and I wish he hadn’t turned into the kind of man he is. But he did. And he hurt me and he scared me and honestly? I don’t think he’s capable of stopping himself. I think prison is the best place for him.”
Pride. Admiration. Affection. He felt every single one of those emotions to the core of his being.
Everything she said was so fair, so balanced, so right. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine what his life would be like in a matter of days, without Maddie, and strangely, found that almost impossible.
“But Nico? Doesn’t that mean the same thing for you? I mean, what if you go to jail for hitting him?”
She grew even paler before his eyes. “I didn’t hit him.”
“What? I’m sure you –,”
“No. I restrained him forcibly, but I was very careful. Believe me, Maddie, I am aware of my actions because they ran contrary to every instinct I possess. Even before I knew who your attacker was, I found the idea of giving him a dose of his own medicine tempting. But having Michael here in my house and seeing him grab you by your hair,” he paused, needing to regulate his voice, to slow his breathing, to avoid the possibility of frightening her in any way. He didn’t want to upset her further. “You have no idea how much I wanted to make him pay for what he’s done to you.” He shook his head slowly, pain radiating towards his eyes. “But then I’d be no better than him. And I’m different. Even when angrier than I have ever been, I didn’t use my fists.” He brushed her lips with his. “There are gentle men, Maddie. What Michael was like with you –,”
She bit down on her lip and he groaned, kissing her properly then, needing her to understand. But the kiss was his undoing because nothing that had happened that day had driven desire from him. He wanted her, if it was possible, more than ever before. Where pain had filled her, he wanted to erase it with pleasure.
“I will never hurt you,” he promised, and in that moment, with all of his soul, he meant it.
His cheek was purple. She traced it with her eyes, not wanting to wake him, not wanting either of them to have to face this day: her last in Italy.
A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed past it, but it was impossible to erase the emotions that were flooding her, cell by cell, so she could barely breathe.
The idea of flying away from him was like poison.
She didn’t want to go.
God, she wanted to stay. Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away, pushing out of the bed quietly, so as to avoid waking him. She needed a moment to think, to understand what she wanted. Not just what she wanted – what was possible.
She moved into the kitchen silently, flicking the kettle to life and staring out at the sea. It was a grey morning, rain clouds heavy in the sky, just as they’d been the first time she met Nico.
A noise alerted her to the fact she wasn’t alone but when she shifted her head, she saw Dante’s comforting frame moving towards her. He was walking well, no evidence of his injuries in his gait. She crouched down, patting his furry neck and pressing her cheek to the top of
his head. “Hey boy.” She whispered, but even if she hadn’t wanted to wake Nico, she wouldn’t have been able to speak in a normal voice. It was as though grief was taking up all the space reserved for air in her lungs.
“How you feeling?” She ran her hand towards his mid-section. He made a low moaning noise and so she stopped. “Still a bit sore, huh? I guess that’s to be expected.”
The kettle clicked off. She stood with one last pat of the dog’s head, reaching for a mug and dropping a tea bag into it. Boiling water drew colour from the bag and she watched its slow penetration of the water, swirling like magic. Rain began to fall and of their own volition her eyes tracked to the patch of grass where she’d been walking in the storm, completely unaware of how her life was about to change.
Even on that morning, she’d already come so far. Just being here in Ondechiara, she’d found pieces of herself that Michael had sledged away from her, but it was being with Nico that had truly made her whole again. She’d thought she loved Michael, and after she’d left him, she’d really believed she’d never fall in love again. She’d thought love was, in and of itself, untrustworthy, and unsafe.
But with Nico, loving him made her feel strong. She trusted him completely, she felt safe with him. She loved him.
A strangled noise came from her throat so Dante drew his gaze to hers sharply. Instinctively, she rubbed his head, calming him, but her pulse was like a torrent, incapable of doing anything other than assaulting the framework of her veins.
“Oh my goodness.” She lifted the tea to her lips. It was scalding hot and bitter. She’d forgotten to add milk. She replaced the mug, moving to the fridge and removing the bottle, but she simply put it on the bench beside the cup, her eyes wide, shock at the realisation flooding her.
She loved him.
Of course she loved him. It wasn’t even such a revelation. She’d probably known she felt that way for weeks, but giving that emotion its proper name was confronting.
Because she knew he didn’t love her.
Just This One Summer: A billionaire forbidden love romance... (The Montebellos Book 2) Page 15
