A Wedding Between Enemies

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

S ERENA LED LUCIANO to the meeting room. She didn’t feel nervous. Even if Luciano was his obnoxious self, she knew how to handle these men.

And, at the end of the day, they had no power over her. They’d try to find some. They’d try to stop her. But they hadn’t been able to yet. And, much as she hated to admit it, in a war like this, Luciano would no doubt be an asset. She tended to focus too much on the should be and not enough on the underhanded ways people could behave when their power was threatened.

She hadn’t threatened this group’s power, except by the fact she was a woman and younger. She couldn’t help but wonder how different this would all be if she’d been her father’s only son .

But that was neither here nor there.

She could fire them all, but she knew that would lead to revenge plots. That too she could handle, but she didn’t want to. Not yet. So she kept them on. Pretended to listen to their manly tutting. Then did however she pleased.

“Serena.” Riccardo Esposito was her least favorite of this group. He always talked to her as if she was perennially twelve. The only reason she hadn’t fired him was because she was afraid the other three would get so worked up about it, they’d cause problems she couldn’t yet afford.

Someday . Someday, they’d all be gone in one fell swoop. But for today, she had to deal with them as she always had. Endlessly polite. Carefully cool. Unbothered by their complaints and criticisms.

And sure of what she was doing.

“This is a business meeting,” Riccardo said, as if this was news.

Serena settled herself at the head of the meeting table, and Luciano gracefully slid into the seat Riccardo had no doubt been about to sit in. Serena had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the mottled red of Riccardo’s cheeks.

“It is a business meeting. On company time and everything,” Serena agreed as the rest of the men took seats. “So, let’s move this along.”

“ He is not part of our business.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be the case for much longer.” Serena smiled placidly. “The lawyers are already working on a Valli-Ascione merger. We’re still working out the details, but all your jobs will be safe, of course.”

“For a period of time anyway,” Luciano murmured.

Serena supposed she should have found his input irritating, but it hit just the right note. A bad cop, good cop kind of approach.

She met disdainful and disapproving gazes of the four men who’d been her father’s top advisors. Serena had let them maintain their positions, and she listened to their suggestions still, out of respect for what they’d done for Valli previously.

But she rarely listened to their outdated and insipid ideas. Her father had hired and trusted yes men , not brilliant minds.

Since Riccardo had never found a seat, he stood there vibrating. “A merger would violate everything your father stood for.”

“My father apparently valued drinking, driving and killing himself. So, this is not quite the censure I think it was meant to be.”

“Your grandfather—”

“You did not work for my grandfather,” Serena cut off coolly. She did not let the simmering anger that they would dare mention her grandfather to her permeate her tone or her expression. “You did not know my grandfather. You will not invoke his name if you wish to remain employed, and let me take it a step further.” She met Riccardo’s furious gaze, cool as a cucumber. “I am in control. Full control. If Valli fails, that will be on my shoulders. Not yours. So I will make the decisions. And this decision? It saves us.”

“Serena.” It was Mattia Adamo’s turn to try to reason with her. She could tell from the way he said her name. “This is a huge decision and an incredibly large undertaking. You cannot expect us to approve simply because you…” His gaze slid to Luciano. Disdain hardened his gaze. “Because you have found yourself personally involved with our rival .” His gaze returned to her, a paternal and patronizing smile on his face. “You must give this time.”

All generous understanding, with the undercurrent of condescension that was close enough to remind her of her mother’s disapproval.

Funny, that never bothered her here. It never had. Her mother still had a knack for twisting a knife Serena fully didn’t understand, but these men were…nothing to her. They were forever simply obstacles in her way, and she appreciated that role for them. You could not stay sharp if you were not continually tested.

But if they got too far into her way now, they would have to be cut. And she would deal with the fallout, even if she didn’t want to just yet.

“My dear boys,” Luciano said, and the way he drawled out the word boys set every single man in this room’s teeth on edge.

Serena relished it.

“ Rival is such an antiquated word in this current landscape.” Luciano gave every impression of the relaxed, borderline bored, playboy. But his words were absolutely true. “The American company has swooped in and hurt us both. Because they can offer both global and local services. Because they can throw a few minnows our way and have us fighting for the scraps of it all like starving sharks. Let us not be desperate. Let us be smart.”

“And merging companies would be smart because…?” Riccardo asked this with malice, and yet, Serena could not help but note he waited for an answer. He might hate Luciano, but he did not try to treat him like a child speaking out of turn.

“I’m sure once Serena shares her plan company-wide you’ll have all the answers you need.” He gestured at her, and she had to hold herself carefully still lest she give away her surprise.

All of this was an act, but she hadn’t counted on him to act like anything was all her plan, or particularly smart.

“Now, is that all, gentlemen?” Serena asked, making a production out of standing. “I have an afternoon full of meetings. The work of wooing customers back my father lost from his own stubborn refusal to move on with the times awaits. For all of us,” she added pointedly.

“You cannot announce an engagement, a merger, as though you are a dictator,” Riccardo said, overloud and as close to losing his temper in a business meeting as Serena had ever seen.

“Mr. Esposito, please. Calm down.” Luciano clucked his tongue and glanced at Serena. “Surely Valli employees are reprimanded in some way if they should throw a little tantrum?” He phrased it like a question.

The splutter that came from all four men was truly a thing of beauty. Serena might have clapped if it wouldn’t ruin her illusion of cool, controlled leader. “I think that will be all for now, gentlemen. Should you want to discuss this more…calmly…after you’ve read through my plan, which will be sent out once the lawyers are satisfied, we can call another meeting.” She began to move for the door.

Luciano stepped outside the meeting room first, but Riccardo all but leaped in front of the door before Serena could follow.

“You can’t do this.”

“On that, you are wrong. If you recall, that is exactly how my father set up his version of Valli. One fully in control leader. No checks. No balances. No cannots . I hope to change that eventually, but for now, all decision making goes through me and only me. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

She pushed past him, only to be stopped by Vincenzo Conte. “Serena. Please, reconsider. You know that I’m only looking out for you.”

She had thought that in the beginning. Of the four of them, she had considered Vincenzo something of a mentor. But in the aftermath of her father’s death, she had quickly realized that just because he didn’t argue with her, it didn’t mean he supported her. He was more chameleon than businessman. Out to maintain and amass more power, not save Valli.

She did not trust him, but she pretended. So she smiled. “I appreciate the concern, but I have given this as much thought as anything. It is the right pathway forward.”

Vincenzo sighed, clearly meaning to convey concerned disapproval. “What could you possibly see in that man?” he asked her gently.

She looked at Luciano, standing there in the hallway, an amused, satisfied smile on his face. He’d handled the room beautifully. He had a goal, much like she did. They would become enemies again, no doubt, but right now…?

Right now, they were on the same team. And she did see something in him. Something she didn’t particularly care to.

“A kindred spirit,” she muttered, detesting the fact that it wasn’t altogether untrue.

* * *

They went through the next few days like this. He went to Valli. She went to Ascione. They met with lawyers. They drew up papers. They planned a wedding.

Serena suggested they could stand a few days not staying in the same place since the papers were abuzz with engagement news, and since that wasn’t completely wrong, Luciano had agreed.

Taking space here and there would be essential in keeping his guard up. And it allowed him to think, to plan, to reassess.

Most importantly, he was collecting pieces of her soft spots. By watching her every day. In her own territory. In his. And so he began to notice the things that didn’t just irritate her—him, mostly—but the things that offended her. A use of her grandfather’s name against her. Anyone at Valli telling her she couldn’t . Her easy camaraderie with animals and the way she required concentration to appear easy with people.

The way she appeared at ease and peaceful every day in Ascione, but he could see her gaze taking in everything. Without fail, she went home every night, went through the elaborate process of getting one of her notebooks and fancy pens out and then wrote every last thing down.

Meticulous. Determined. Controlled. A fascinating woman, all in all. He could not say he’d ever known someone quite like her. Underneath all that ice was something far more complicated. And a little odd, truly.

But there were those soft spots. All of them noted—mentally because he did not require notebooks —to be used later when they would suit him, help him. When he would have to come out on top.

He told himself this, because it was a much more palatable reason for his interest. Self-preservation over…

Over being fascinated by her.

He scowled a bit because as good as he was at denial, he was having a hard time believing his own lies when it came to her .

The her who swept into his penthouse early in the afternoon wearing a cheerful summer dress that he wouldn’t have thought suited her at all. She carried a large bouquet of flowers tucked into one arm and a large bag hanging off the other.

But she stopped short, because he was no fool. Flowers had already been taken care of, and the caterer was hard at work in the kitchen, filling the penthouse with delicious smells.

“Oh,” was all she said by way of greeting, frowning at the colorful floral centerpieces that had been delivered that morning.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked, curious what else she thought he wouldn’t have planned for.

“Simply some of my things. It’s been a few nights, so I thought it best if I spend the night here tonight. We haven’t done that yet.”

“No, we have not.” Fascinating that she’d be the one to instigate it. “I seem to recall something about gunpoint needing to be involved if that were to happen?”

She got very prim looking, that haughty chin of hers going up. “I was referring to your estate when I said that. An apartment in the city is little different than a hotel, all things considered.”

It was semantics, of course, but he could admit he appreciated her ability to twist semantics to suit herself.

She moved forward, shoved the bag at him. “If you have an extra room, put this in there. If not, we’ll deal with it after dinner, but you should put it away. I shall see about adding these flowers to the bouquet.”

She was a woman so used to giving orders and expecting them to be followed, that there seemed to be no question in her mind whether he’d follow through. He, however, was not a man used to taking orders, so while he took the shoved bag, he did not immediately move to stow it away .

She, however, moved for the table—already elaborately set—and unwrapped the flowers. She didn’t even look at him as she fussed with the centerpiece.

Though she hid it well, he could read the nerves under the surface. He was learning to see under that careful, icy facade. He wanted to believe that was just good business sense, but he knew part of it was pure fascination.

He didn’t revel in understanding her, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from trying to.

Her mother was coming over for dinner tonight, and if there was one soft spot he still didn’t fully understand it was the one that involved her mother. He aimed to figure it out tonight.

So, with that thought in mind, he decided to fully embrace his acted role of doting fiancée. He went and stowed her bag in his bedroom, then returned to the dining room that featured a curved wall of floor-to-ceiling windows to show off the beautiful cityscape and the sea.

He realized, somewhat abruptly, that there at the edge of the far window, if he angled himself just so, he could just make out the jut of rock her little castle settled itself upon.

He wished he had not realized this. It felt strangely…intimate to know he could look out, look across, and see the place he knew represented her true self better than anything she ever let people see.

“It’s a beautiful view,” Serena said, without ever looking up from her flowers. She was just about done with them, but she took her time with the last stems and arranging them into the centerpiece that already existed.

Luciano made a noncommittal noise as Serena finished what she was doing. He had never once felt uncomfortable in his own home, but suddenly he didn’t know quite what to do with himself.

It felt dangerous to think of her true self when her mother would not be here for some time yet. When it was just the two of them. Waiting.

“Perhaps I should give you a tour, so it appears to your mother as if you’ve been here before.”

“Good idea,” she agreed, but did not immediately move away from the centerpiece.

Luciano tried to find something to say that might irritate her, get that stiff back and cool look of hers geared toward him. But he couldn’t seem to think of anything.

Maybe he was ill.

Eventually she let the flowers be and moved closer to where he stood in the living room. She straightened her shoulders, much like she’d done before going into that meeting with her coworkers the other day.

He half expected some dressing down.

“Before we begin, I feel it necessary to explain that… Well, it’s just that my mother will be…” She trailed off. The nerves never showed on her face. They were in the way she gripped her hands together, then seemed to realize it and dropped her hands at her sides. She had done this at least five times since arriving. “I do not know how to articulate how my mother will be, but it will not be comfortable or…normal.”

He found her nerves strange, but he didn’t like it. “Luckily I am an Ascione. Well versed in uncomfortable and abnormal.”

Her mouth curved at that, and a strange warmth settled in his chest. Because it was a real smile. He’d amused her, settled some of those nerves.

And he liked being able to do so.

He could not for the life of him fathom what that meant , so he pushed it away as he pushed away so many confusing things when it came to her.

He showed her around the rest of the place feeling a new sort of tension creep into him. It reminded him of a time long gone that he’d gone through great efforts to ignore. That part of his youth when he’d still endeavored to impress his father.

The idea he wanted to impress her was a personal affront, and he rejected it. He had to reject it.

Luckily the announcement of Serena’s mother’s arrival interrupted his thoughts on the matter, and he lead Serena to her mother, plastering on a broad smile fit for the host of the evening.

At first glance, Serena didn’t look anything like her mother. The woman was blonde, perhaps a little too thin, but knew how to perfectly accentuate her assets. A beautiful woman. The kind Luciano tended to gravitate toward. There was a sharpness to her that was the complete opposite of Serena’s sharpness.

Mrs. Valli clearly knew how to move around the world as an important businessman’s ex-wife. She knew how to dress and flatter and what parties to go to in order to be seen. She had the socialite part of her role down while Serena channeled all her energy into understanding the business. As long as she had that crutch, she did very well for herself. But left to her own devices, well, she’d no doubt be home with her cats.

No, he could not see any similarities between the two women, and when Serena did not immediately step in as she often did, Luciano knew it would be his role to take the lead tonight. Between two opposing, though related, forces.

Luciano moved forward, all gallantry. “Welcome to my home, Mrs. Valli. I hope you’ll allow Eduardo here to take your things.”

She gave a little nod and handed off her wrap and purse.

“May we get you a drink?”

Mrs. Valli studied the butler, Luciano and the room around them with quick, cunning eyes. “Surprise me.”

The butler nodded his head and then disappeared. Before Luciano could guide Serena’s mother deeper into the apartment, she reached out and grabbed Serena’s left hand. She drew the engagement ring into the light, moved Serena’s hand this way and then that. Luciano could not account for how stiff Serena seemed as her mother studied the ring on her finger.

“It’s positively exquisite,” Mrs. Valli said, with very little inflection. Then she trilled out a little laugh as she finally dropped Serena’s hand. “Honestly, it looks more suited to me than it could ever be to you, darling.”

“I quite like it,” Serena said, and Luciano could not ignore the note of hurt in her voice that she tried to hide.

“Of course you do,” Mrs. Valli tutted. “It’s gorgeous . It’s simply that a gorgeous piece like this tends to require a…” The woman sighed and pouted a little as she studied her daughter. Then her gaze turned to Luciano. “You know what I mean.”

He did not, but as his goal was to charm Serena’s mother, he smiled broadly and gestured her inside. “Come. Sit. Let us drink to a happy future together.”

Mrs. Valli made a noncommittal noise, but she stepped ahead with Serena toward the dining room and the well-appointed table just as the waitstaff appeared with the drinks and the primi .

“You have a quaint little place here,” Mrs. Valli said as Luciano held out a chair for her. She seated herself grandly while Luciano tried to deal with the strange slight of his expensive and luxurious penthouse being called quaint and little.

“Grazie,” Luciano managed to mutter before moving to the next seat and holding it out for Serena. “I thought having a nice, private celebration of our families joining would allow us a better opportunity to get to know one another.”

Mrs. Valli made that same odd humming sound, that was somehow both polite and a disagreement at the same time. Luciano looked at Serena. Her gaze was out the windows, as though, inside her mind, she was anywhere but here.

Luciano found he hated that too. Because he had never once seen Serena remove herself like this. She was always the first to handle things, putting on that armor and brave face to handle whatever needed to be dealt with.

What would cause her to shrink in on herself instead? His gaze turned to the mother, and he wondered if his charm tactics were all wrong. He took his own seat at the head of the table and lifted his glass. “A toast?”

Serena blinked, as if awoken from some spell, but then held up her glass as well. Mrs. Valli, however, only looked from the glass set in front of her, to the ring on Serena’s hand, to him. Her lips were pressed together as if in deep thought. Then, after a great drawn-out moment, she raised her glass and smiled.

“Let me congratulate you both. It’s an inspired decision, truly.”

Luciano thought the choice of words odd, but there was no point dwelling on it. “Salute.”

Serena echoed the word with little inflection. There was no fierce determination. No ice. No fire. She seemed a ghost in her own skin.

As they ate, Luciano shared the details of the wedding planning he and Serena had agreed upon. If he managed to lure her into conversation, she gave one-word responses. Everything about her was muted, dull.

Mrs. Valli, on the other hand, was vibrant and talkative. And vocal about what she approved of. What she didn’t. In some ways, he could see Serena in the woman. The way she noticed everything, filed it away.

But there was an unnecessary cruelty to her that Serena didn’t have. When they’d discussed the procession and forgoing the tradition of having someone walk Serena down the aisle, Mrs. Valli had rolled her eyes.

“I’m surprised there’s no animal parade walking her down the aisle.”

“What a lovely idea, Mother,” was the only thing Serena said the whole dinner that reminded Luciano of the actual Serena.

She was clearly being sarcastic, but Mrs. Valli used it as an opportunity to complain about Serena’s cats and the crumbling castle she haunted, and then reached over to touch Serena’s styled hair. “How many times have I told you to leave it loose? You look like an ill Victorian child with it all scraped back from your face.”

“Perhaps it was the look I was going for.”

“ I quite like it,” Luciano added. “For whatever that says about me.” He chuckled genially.

Mrs. Valli did not join in, but Serena almost smiled.

By the time they got to dessert, Luciano got the impression that Mrs. Valli had drank more than her fill. She spoke a bit overloud and enthusiastically, which only seemed to make Serena shrink in on herself even more. That hint of her old self was a fleeting thing he wished he could find a way to tease out again.

Mrs. Valli let out a loud sigh that had Serena flinching—her first outward reaction since the beginning of the evening.

“Let us drop these niceties,” she said, leaning forward so that she met his gaze. “I know you are no doubt a skilled actor, Luciano, but do you really think you can get the public to believe you’re interested in Serena?”

For a moment, the words didn’t fully penetrate. They were so different than anything he’d expected to hear that he did not know how to absorb her meaning. “I beg your pardon.”

“It seems very obvious this is some sort of business ploy. And while I commend you for having that kind of…spirit about you, you don’t honestly think people will fall for it? Aside from Serena, of course.”

There were so many insults in those few words, Luciano could scarcely understand them all. Especially with Serena sitting right there and not offering any kind of fiery or icy rebuttal like she would have if he’d said these things.

But she did not say anything. She was nothing but bloodless ice. No, not even ice. Just…dull, gray rock.

He, on the other hand, felt like all the blood had rushed to his head. In anger and outrage. Some of it misplaced, he knew. Some of Mrs. Valli’s behavior felt far too familiar. It was just usually aimed at him, not someone else.

Still, this was about Serena. And her mother. So he cleared his throat and attempted to speak carefully. Not letting his own issues bleed into this. “Mrs. Valli, I think it is very obvious to me , you misunderstand much. There is no…trick I’m trying to pull over on Serena. Surely you know your daughter better than that.”

But it was clear from this evening that she did not. And it was so odd, because he saw so many echoes of how his father had treated him in the ways Serena’s mother treated her—and even more shockingly, so many similarities in how Serena got through it. For every insult against her looks, her animals, her house, she seemed to latch on to them all the harder. Just as he had to every barb that he was stupid, useless and lazy.

While he was happy to play down to any negative interpretations of him , he found he could not with determined, brilliant, beautiful Serena. And so he decided to play Mrs. Valli’s game for this round. Rudeness wrapped in fake concern.

“You must have loved your ex-husband very much.”

She blinked, reared back almost as if she’d been struck. “What?”

“I know the marriage ended before his demise, but it is the only way I can fathom misrepresenting your daughter in such a way. She followed his business footsteps and this hurts you in some way because you loved him and it did not work out, so you do not allow yourself to see past it.” He went so far as to tut compassionately. “Losing him twice must have been quite the blow.”

“Blow?” Her eyes narrowed icily. He should have seen Serena in them. They were the same shape, the same color, but there was a lack of warmth in the layers of brown and green. “I celebrated the day that useless failure of a man left this earth. I only wished he’d done it earlier.”

“Mrs. Valli. That is no way to speak of the dead, or your daughter’s father.” And so Luciano got to his feet. “I’m afraid I cannot allow this evening to continue. I do not care for the whole of how you’ve treated my soon-to-be wife this evening. There will be no more invitations until you can assure me that you will be pleasant and positive toward your only child. ”

He looked briefly at Serena, who was staring at him wide-eyed and stunned. Luciano gestured to the butler. “Eduardo? Would you see Mrs. Valli out? I’m afraid Serena and I are indisposed and cannot walk her to her car ourselves.”

“Serena!”

“I’m afraid this is Luciano’s place, Mother,” Serena said quietly. Her eyes were oddly shiny. “As polite guests, we must abide by what he says.” She did not rise from her seat, so Mrs. Valli whirled on Luciano even as Eduardo came forward.

“Are you…? Do you think you’re kicking me out? Do you really think—”

“I think it is in all of our best interests to take a pause.” Luciano commended himself for his calm demeanor. Working in a club for so long had certainly taught him how to deal with the ridiculously entitled. “When you’ve taken a break, I hope you will come to the conclusion that you have behaved poorly, and you owe your daughter an apology. Once that is issued, I hope we can move forward more pleasantly.” He managed a patient smile.

Mrs. Valli made a noise of fury. “Perhaps you both deserve each other,” she ground out before jerking away from Eduardo’s proffered arm and marching toward the exit herself.

Luciano tried to calm himself with a deep breath. Bullies were a dime a dozen and no doubt both he and Serena had seen their fair share. Their business was rife with them, and her father had been one just as his father had.

But something about the way her own mother had spoken of her. Like a childish adolescent trying to tear down someone who got even a scrap of attention. It was infuriating, but moreover, it was like holding up a mirror to his own adolescence and forcing him to see it through an adult lens.

Had his father really thought all those terrible things about him? Or had Luciano simply existed, soaking up attention and interest that his father preferred only on him.

He did not wish to consider it, so he turned to deal with Serena.

She stood, still as a statue and perhaps just as remote, bracketed by one floor-to-ceiling window. She watched the world outside—a soft, pastel sunset. “You did not need to stand up for me,” she said after a few beats of quiet.

She sounded very…tired. Her expression was blank. A careful mask. She did not act as though her mother’s behavior hurt her, and yet Luciano could not shake the idea that this was how Serena would react to hurt. Cold and stony.

“It is what a fiancée would do.”

“I suppose it is,” she agreed. Her hazel gaze remained on the darkening world outside the large windows.

Luciano had the rare experience of not knowing what to say. So he stood next to her and said nothing. He stiffly told Eduardo he was dismissed with the kitchen staff, and that Luciano would handle everything at the apartment for the rest of the night.

Which left just Luciano and Serena and her silence.

When Serena finally broke it, it was with that careful, detached tone he knew so well. This was the one she’d always used on him in the rare occurrences their paths had overlapped over the years before she’d approached him with this plan of hers.

“Even with you standing up to her, she will never believe this is genuine, and I worry…” She swallowed, then carefully turned to face him, her gaze meeting his. He saw courage hiding something in the brown and green depths. Something like vulnerability. “I worry she won’t be the only one.”

Something reared inside of him. And much like the entirety of the dinner had whirled up familiar feelings in an unfamiliar setting, this did the same. Because the hint of vulnerability incited a long-buried need to fix, to save . When he’d been a child, he’d wanted to protect. When he’d become a teen, he’d given it up.

You could not protect those who did not wish to be protected.

No doubt Serena fell into that category. And he’d be damned if he twisted himself in all those old knots to make the same mistake twice.

That was one thing Luciano refused to do. So, he took her words at face value, and ignored the hurt underneath.

“We don’t need people to believe. In fact, doubts might help. People will be watching us. They will be intrigued. We need attention. Our names out in the ether.”

“Perhaps,” she agreed on a sigh. She turned her attention back to the window. “But we also need to appear like a united business front if we’re hoping to woo any of our lost customers back. We want them to take the meetings because they’re intrigued, but we need to close the deals because we’re the best.”

“Then let us be the best.”

She nodded at that. No doubt a foregone conclusion for the both of them. Another heavy silence settled, though her expression was less detached and more…intense. Her lips pressed together and her eyebrows furrowed.

“Everything she said is true, you know. Or not said, but hinted at. I am dull. I like animals better than people. This ring would better suit someone like her.” Serena said all these things with a certainty that irritated him. “She is not wrong .”

Luciano could only stare at her. He didn’t even fully disagree with what she was saying. But it still grated . Because yes, she liked animals perhaps too much. She had quirks the size of the entire country, and yes, that ring was maybe not suited to Serena’s personality, but…

But Angelica Valli was wrong. About everything. It was clear as day to him, and it was shocking and just…wrong for that not to be clear to Serena.

It wasn’t his business. None of this was an area he should insert himself into. He did not need to protect her. Serena Valli protected herself.

But she was wrong , and something that had broken free during that dinner whirled around inside of him, ruining his good sense to keep his mouth shut.

“ I think she is wrong,” Luciano said, too intently, no doubt. “Because in the long space of time I have known you, Serena Valli, I have never once considered you dull .”