Chapter Thirteen #2
But when she’d returned to Sicily months ago, she’d finally seen the truth stripped bare. He’d never love her. Not because of something lacking in her, but because of his nature. Selfish, imperious and ruthless. He accepted only one way: getting what he wanted every time.
She’d never seen him violent, though her half-brothers spoke of the thrashings he’d meted out in their youth. Yet she could easily imagine him ordering the destruction of a rival business.
She opened her mouth to speak but Gio beat her to it, talking quickly as if wanting this over as soon as possible.
‘My father never rebuilt. We moved to the mainland. He had insurance money to start again but for a while he didn’t bother. He was depressed. Later he rallied and threw himself almost manically into building up his business again.’
Gio spread his hands. ‘But everything he did, every success, was a step on the way to besting your father. He wouldn’t stoop to violence but his one goal was to build a business bigger and better than Barbieri’s and smash him.
It was a fixation. He had no time for anything else. No time for anyone, including me.’
Stella heard Gio’s pain and it went straight through her. She wrapped her arms around herself, cradling their unborn child. His story reminded her that there were no guarantees of safety in life. ‘I’m so sorry, Gio. For everything you lost.’
His mother and sister. The life they should have had together. And his father, lost in a way that she suspected had scarred Gio as much as the earlier deaths. She imagined him as a boy, missing his mother and sister, turning to his father for affection and reassurance and finding none.
How familiar that was.
Her life and his had been completely different but they’d had one thing in common, they’d both been children bereft and craving love. A love that was denied them.
Two fathers who, in their different ways, neglected their children.
It was startling to think how much she and Gio shared, what similar forces had shaped them.
Gio continued. ‘Between them, our fathers spent years trying to triumph over the other. It sapped the last of my father’s strength. He’d never been the same since my mother and Serena died. Grief and obsession hollowed him out, eventually destroying him.’
He surged to his feet and paced to the pool as if he couldn’t bear to sit still.
‘I vowed not to follow in his footsteps. I loved my family but I refuse to let grief destroy me. I refuse to get sucked into a vendetta with a man I wouldn’t let lick my boots.
’ He spun around, eyes locking on hers. ‘I decided that the best vengeance was to live the life I want, not tied to your father in any way. We compete in the same market but I don’t plan my business around him. Usually I don’t even think about him.’
Stella drank in the sight of Gio. His long, athletic legs. Those well-built shoulders and that tapering torso with its impressive musculature.
But it wasn’t just his masculinity that hooked her attention.
She read pain in the lines bracketing his mouth. Yet he looked neither defeated nor defiant. He looked strong and sure, as if the loss and hurt he’d endured had forged him into someone more robust and certain of his place in the world. As if he’d grown from the experience.
Stella’s breath caught. How attractive that was. This was nothing like her father’s overbearing power. It was something different and enormously alluring.
Gio had carved his own way and she admired that. She, on the other hand, had been weak, not standing up for herself sooner.
For too long she’d bowed to family expectations.
Because she’d craved a place with them. It had made her overlook the way they’d used her, offering acceptance and approval but never quite delivering.
It was only recently she’d let herself admit how wilfully blind she’d been, not wanting to face facts.
‘So, the dossier on me and my family?’
‘I thought you were a plant, trying to inveigle information. I hadn’t paid attention to your family for years and thought I’d better find out what I could.’
Slowly, she nodded. That made sense. But one thing didn’t. ‘If you’re not motivated by vengeance against the Barbieris, why burst into my wedding? Why cause that scene?’
He hadn’t known she was pregnant. So what other explanation could there be, but a vendetta?
Colour streaked Gio’s cheekbones and his jaw worked. She had the strongest feeling he didn’t want to answer.
Slowly she rose, moving closer, but not too close. She needed to read every nuance of his expression, but from a safe distance. When she got too near him her hormones did all the thinking, not her brain.
‘You said you’d be frank with me, Gio.’
‘You want frankness?’ His expression was full of challenge and something she couldn’t decipher. ‘I needed to stop the wedding. Not because of your father, but because of you. I couldn’t let you marry.’
Though Gio didn’t reach for her, she felt the familiar tug of connection, making her want to close the gap between them. As if there was an invisible force, urging them together.
‘Why?’ Her voice was hoarse.
His look seared. ‘Because we’re not finished with each other. Are we, Stella?’
Gio put in words her secret fear.
He stood there, bare feet apart, almost naked, proud and challenging. And her needy heart thrummed in answer. It would be easy to go to him. To nestle close, letting desire sweep them away as it had yesterday.
Her balance had shifted, her body leaning forward ready to move, when thought of yesterday’s furious coupling stopped her.
Sex was all well and good.
Who was she fooling? With Gio sex was phenomenal.
But she had a baby to consider. A future to plan. She couldn’t, wouldn’t let herself be led by her libido any more. Or by the feelings his revelations had evoked. She needed time to sift and consider them.
She folded her arms and shook her head.
‘You’re denying it?’ He mirrored her stance, crossing his arms, which only drew attention to his powerful chest. ‘What’s wrong, Stella? You want frankness but only if it suits you? Are you such a coward?’
‘I find it hard to believe you waited until my wedding day to realise you wanted me. You had months, Gio, but I didn’t hear a word from you. You timed your appearance for maximum scandal.’
If this really were about the unresolved connection between them, he’d have contacted her long ago.
He opened his mouth to answer but she hurried on. ‘You say you’re not driven by vengeance but it’s hard to believe when you’ve ensured the maximum damage and hurt. People will be gossiping about me and Eduardo for decades.’
That was another thing that had kept her from sleep last night, guilt over Eduardo. She mightn’t love him but she’d been surprised to discover she liked the man her father had chosen. He deserved better than to be deserted at the altar.
Remorse was heavy in her chest. She’d risen this morning determined to find a phone to contact him, but today’s events had distracted her.
‘Eduardo? You’re saying you really care for him?
’ Gio’s calm disappeared. His eyes glittered and the pulse at the base of his neck hammered, the muscles in his arms bulging as if he barely restrained himself.
‘You weren’t thinking of him yesterday when you came apart in my arms. It wasn’t his name you screamed when I was deep inside you. ’
Stella stiffened, reliving that moment when all that mattered was Gio and the pleasure he wrought.
There was nothing Stella could say, no excuse she could make for her behaviour. She’d been desperate for him, revelling in their combustible passion. The stark rightness of it—despite it being wrong when she was supposed to marry another—had been a relief after months of misery.
She forced herself to meet his unwavering gaze. A short time ago he’d been all repressed feelings as he spoke of the past. Now nothing was repressed. He radiated untrammelled emotion.
She was torn between dismay, indignation and excitement. Because this was no ploy. Gio’s emotions were starkly evident.
As if he were jealous.
Could it be? Or did her imagination work overtime?
‘Why wait months to contact me, Gio?’ The buds of optimism, nurtured by his earlier explanations, withered. ‘Why wait to confront me in the cathedral?’
‘Because I didn’t know you were marrying until the day before yesterday.’
Stella raised her eyebrows. ‘Your investigators didn’t do a good job then.’ It still rankled that they’d invaded her privacy.
‘I called them off ages ago.’ Gio scrubbed a hand across his jaw, looking past her towards the lush gardens. ‘I was in Malaysia when my PA mentioned your wedding. I flew back overnight, straight to Sicily.’
Stella gaped. Could it be true?
The hard set of his jaw and the searing impact of his gaze as it fixed on her convinced her it was.
‘You flew back just to stop the wedding? Because…?’ She refused to jump to conclusions.
‘Because what’s between us isn’t over. I couldn’t stomach the thought of you with another man.’ He raked his hand through his hair. ‘That’s why I returned. I can’t move on yet and, despite your engagement, I believe you feel the same.’
His honesty floored Stella, knocking aside anger. Such an admission! It sucked the fight from her.
He needed her.
Her chest felt tight from lack of oxygen as she swung away to stare at the manicured garden, clasping shaky hands.
Stella exhaled, trembling, feeling the truth of his words. She’d tried—how she’d tried!—to convince herself she was over Gio. That she despised him. But it wasn’t so.
Her heart sang when he spoke of not being able to move on. Of needing to be with her.
She should be appalled but instead felt relief.
It shouldn’t work like this. They’d only spent a week together. Yet this potent thing between them had nothing to do with how long they’d known each other.
He hadn’t put a name to the connection and nor had she. She didn’t understand it yet felt it in every pore. More so now they’d cleared the air and she’d discovered he wasn’t an arch manipulator like her father.
Even in her fury she’d felt the connection. Felt and feared it. For she’d never known anything like it. As for Gio seducing her, they’d seduced each other, despite what she’d told herself in her pain.
She thrilled that Gio had crossed the globe to claim her. He made her feel desirable and cherished. He met some intrinsic need she’d never known before.
That was why Gio was dangerous. His actions, his words, played into her greatest weakness. To be wanted, cherished, loved.
She dragged in a shuddery breath, gaze fixed on the gem-bright lawn and deep blue lake beyond it. But what she saw was Gio’s silvery stare, the pain in his eyes as he spoke of her being with another man. Pain, not guile.
It was…astounding.
But what was the connection he felt? Pure lust, or something else?
‘Stella?’
Slowly she turned back. ‘What do you want from me, Gio? What are your plans?’
His mouth twisted. ‘I didn’t have a plan beyond getting you here.’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘But your professional reputation is for insight and long-term strategy.’
His shoulders rose, hands splaying. ‘This isn’t business. It’s about us, Stella and Gio, and how we feel.’
‘I thought men didn’t talk about feelings.’
A wry smile made something needy twist inside. She pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling the bulge where his baby nestled. A dart of keen emotion pierced her.
‘You’re right. I don’t want to.’ His smile died. ‘I don’t have pretty words for you, Stella. But we started something months ago and it’s not over. I’d told myself I’d moved on but when I heard about the wedding I knew it was a lie. You know it’s a lie too or you wouldn’t be here.’
Shame bit deep. At how she’d abandoned Eduardo. But not for her father, whose plans to marry her to an aristocrat had come undone.
She didn’t want to have anything to do with Alfredo Barbieri, ever.
Marriage had been a way to secure a bright future for her baby and give her the freedom to build her career while moving away from Alfredo’s influence.
Now everything was in tatters yet, while she felt remorse for her jilted groom, the rest wasn’t as important as she’d thought.
Stella forced herself to think. ‘What do you suggest? An affair until the lust burns out, then we separate?’
There was a flash of steel in Gio’s eyes. As if her plain speaking didn’t please him.
Yet when he answered, his voice was rough. ‘It’s not just the two of us any more, is it, Stella? There’s the baby, and it’s mine, isn’t it?’
Silently she nodded. There was no point prevaricating now.
She watched him digest that, saw the infinitesimal changes to his expression but couldn’t read his thoughts.
How did he feel about the baby?
‘Then we need to discuss the future.’
True as that was, his words felt like a weight pressing down. She had no guidebook for this situation, no experience that would help her. And he didn’t look nearly as avid now. Or was that disappointment? Weariness slammed into her.
‘Yes,’ she said finally. ‘But later. I’d like to rest first.’
She turned quickly and the world spun again. She grabbed for the back of a chair but Gio was there first.
Muttering under his breath, he swept her up against his bare chest. Despite his swim his skin felt hot against her.
‘There’s no need to pick me up, or to swear.’
She sounded like a starchy schoolmistress. But better that than breathlessness at his take-charge action.
Her emotions were in turmoil. She wanted Gio but want wasn’t enough. She needed distance to untangle her thoughts and feelings.
He hefted her higher against his chest, his arms wonderfully strong about her, his silvery gaze meeting hers.
‘I was swearing at myself, for not noticing how tired you were. As for carrying you,’ he added as they entered the house, ‘you need looking after. Besides…’ His mouth curved in a tight smile that hinted at hunger.
‘I like holding you close.’ His nostrils flared on an indrawn breath and she had the crazy idea that he drew in her scent. ‘Unless you object?’
Object? Her whole being clamoured in delight. She’d given up pretending to herself. ‘No. I don’t object.’
Yet in her soul she knew their physical connection, while powerful, wasn’t enough. She needed more.
Did she have the strength to act on that knowledge? Or was she destined to capitulate to a heady affair that might leave her more broken than before?