Chapter Sixteen
Vincenzo
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL morning as I step out onto the terrace, the little gift I’ve bought for my beautiful wife safely in my pocket. It was delivered to me late last night and I can’t wait to give it to her.
Maria has set a beautiful breakfast table for us with fresh brioche, coffee, jam and honey, fruit and all manner of other delicious breakfast things. There are mimosas also, so we have something to toast with, because I’ll certainly be wanting to toast.
The past two days have been… Well, when I told her she was a revelation, I meant it. From the moment I took her dress off in my office, before laying her across my desk, she was flawless. Utterly beautiful. Then how sweetly she fell apart in my arms, saying my name, and the taste of her…
Fucking exquisite.
I had to give her my vow not to end her father’s life just as she had to give me her vow to stay in my bed, because there simply wasn’t another option. Not when her body was made for mine and vice versa. Besides, it’s easy enough to make Salvatore disappear, and then I’ll crush his allies.
Still, spending the rest of that day in bed with her was the happiest I can ever recall being.
Even when she asked me about the scars on my back.
I wasn’t expecting her to say anything about them, but of course that was foolish of me.
They’re extremely visible and while I have no hang-ups about them, no one has ever asked me about them before.
I didn’t want to tell her, not when she was the indirect cause, but when my gattina asks me a question, I have to answer.
I didn’t mean to make her cry, though, and I certainly didn’t want her to either, not for me.
It seems that beneath her fiery anger and her sharp claws, my wife has a soft heart, something I should have thought about when she demanded I spare her father.
It broke me a little to see her pain, especially when she told me she’d had no tenderness, no gentleness, not since her mother died.
All I’d wanted to do in that moment was to give her everything she wanted. My family was the reason she’d missed out on all the things a mother should have given her, the reason her father had been so awful to her, and she needed some recompense for that.
So, I did give it to her. I worshipped her like the goddess she is, with as much care and tenderness as I was capable of, and I surprised even myself. At the end, when she looked into my eyes as we both came together…
You can never let her go now.
No. Never. I wasn’t going to anyway, naturally, but now I’m certain. She’s a woman of great worth and she’s mine, and I’ll keep her at my side and in my bed. I’ll give her everything she’s ever wanted.
She thought you were a monster, though, remember? And you know she’s not wrong…
But I don’t want to think about that. Instead, I concentrate on my anticipation as I take the box out of my trouser pocket and place it in the middle of her plate.
I left her sleeping this morning, so I could finish up making the necessary arrangements for her father’s disappearance.
Giovanni’s new life will be an uncomfortable one, especially considering the identity I gave him has a record a mile long.
They don’t like drug dealers in Thailand, but I’m sure he’ll agree that life in a Thai jail is better than death.
I go over to my chair and sit down, waiting for my wife to join me, but a couple of minutes pass and she doesn’t arrive, so I get up again.
I’m strangely restless, so I pace over to the edge of the terrace, to the stone parapet, and pause there a moment, glancing out to sea.
Then I turn and pace back to the table, once more checking that everything is in place.
Then I hear a light footstep and when I look up, there she is in the doorway to the terrace.
She’s wearing a simple dressing gown of peacock-blue silk, with a silk belt loosely tying it closed.
Her inky hair riots over her shoulders in the way I love so much, like thunder-clouds I can actually touch and caress.
She blinks at me sleepily, then comes over to where I’m standing and lifts her arms, winding them around my neck as she rises on her toes to press a delicious kiss against my mouth.
I take the kiss and deepen it, my hands resting on her hips as I tug her more firmly against me.
She feels so good, all hot and silken and female, and I can already feel myself getting hard once again.
My hunger for her is relentless. It feels as if I can never get enough.
After a few moments, I lift my head, looking down into her beautiful eyes. ‘Breakfast first, gattina. You got a healthy workout last night.’
She flushes the colour of roses, the blue in her gown somehow turning her eyes a brilliant turquoise. ‘I did. And I blame that solidly on you.’
‘I didn’t hear any protests.’
Her mouth curves in a smile that makes my chest ache. ‘That’s fair. There were none.’
I gently untangle her arms from around my neck, pausing to hold her fingers in mine and then turning her palms up and laying a kiss in the centre of each one. ‘Sit, my wife. I’ll pour you coffee.’
Still flushed, her eyes sparkling like rare gems, she goes to her chair and I insist on pulling it out for her. She sits, her gaze dropping to the little box in the middle of her plate.
‘What’s this?’ she asks.
I round the table and sit down in my own chair, my anticipation building to ridiculous levels. ‘A little gift,’ I tell her. ‘A wedding gift if you like.’
Her forehead creases. ‘But I didn’t get you anything.’
‘Of course you didn’t.’ I lean forward, my elbows on the table. ‘You didn’t know you’d be marrying me, remember?’
‘True.’ She glances down at the box again then picks it up and opens it. Her eyes widen and my pleasure and satisfaction pull tight.
Sitting in a cushion of black velvet are two rings. One a platinum wedding band studded with emeralds, the other a matching engagement ring with a huge emerald in the centre, surrounded by diamonds.
They’re beautiful rings and they match her perfectly, making up for my error in getting a simple band when it should have been these all along. And naturally, I couldn’t get just a wedding band. She needed an engagement ring too.
Caterina sits there, staring down at them, and I’m waiting for her face to flush with pleasure and her eyes to glitter with happiness.
I’m waiting for her to take them out of the box and demand that I put them on her finger.
I’m waiting for her to exclaim and hold out her hand, watching the sun catch the light in the jewels and making them sparkle.
But she does none of those things.
Instead she keeps looking at the rings and says nothing at all.
Something in my chest tightens, my muscles tensing. ‘Well?’ I ask, unable to keep the impatience from my voice. ‘Do you like them?’
She doesn’t look at me and disappointment kicks hard inside me.
Then, hard on its heels, anger. I force them down, because maybe she’s simply shocked, maybe that’s all it is.
Or maybe she doesn’t like emeralds, or even rings.
Maybe she doesn’t wear jewellery at all and she’s worried about my response.
‘If you don’t like the emeralds,’ I offer, ‘I can get you a different stone. Or maybe even earrings or a necklace if you don’t wear rings. If you don’t want jewellery at all then I can—’
‘What does this mean, Vincenzo?’ Finally, she lifts her gaze from her plate. There’s no joy in her face, or even pleasure, no, it’s anger that glitters in her eyes now.
My disappointment twists hard and part of me is shocked by its intensity. Shocked by how much I wanted her to like these, by how important her opinion has become to me. How important she has become and how quickly.
I don’t like it. No one should be that important to me, no one. There’s only one thing of any importance in my life and that’s my crusade. Nothing comes before that.
So I shove the feelings aside and force a smile, leaning back in my chair as I clasp my hands together. ‘It can mean anything you want it to mean.’ My lazy tone has never felt so forced. ‘I bought them because I thought you might like a prettier wedding band and an engagement ring to match.’
‘Don’t do that,’ she says unexpectedly, her green gaze seeing right through me. ‘Don’t do that cynical amusement thing you do.’
A flash of anger hits me, even though I know she’s right about the mask I wear, but I’m not happy with her pointing it out. ‘I’m not doing anything, gattina. I’m merely disappointed that you don’t like them.’
She stares at me then picks up her mimosa and takes a long swallow, toasting precisely nothing. ‘It’s not that I don’t like them,’ she says at last, putting her glass back down. ‘They’re beautiful.’
I know better than to let that mollify me. ‘Then what’s the issue?’ I demand. ‘If you don’t want them, I can—’
‘No. The issue is that I never agreed to marry you in the first place.’
‘I know you didn’t,’ I say, my hold on my temper starting to fray. ‘We’ve been through this. But the fact remains that we’re husband and wife now.’
‘So?’ She’s sitting rigid in her chair, her whole body looking as tense as mine feels. ‘I never wanted that.’
‘You were going to marry Bianchi,’ I point out, a strange and totally out of proportion anger simmering in my gut. ‘Which means you’d have ended up marrying anyway, so aren’t you glad you ended up with me instead?’
‘You’re not listening. I never wanted to marry Carlo. I never wanted to marry anyone.’
‘It’s done now,’ I say flatly. ‘And it can’t be undone.’
‘Bullshit.’ Her eyes glitter like the emeralds in the box, all sharp edges, anger flickering and leaping like a hot green fire. ‘We can get a divorce and you can let me make my own choices.’
My whole body goes tight with negation. Divorce her? Let her go? The wolf in me growls with fury at the thought, but I try to reel it back in. This anger is pointless and why I’m letting it get to me is anyone’s guess.
‘No,’ I say, putting every ounce of will I possess into the word. ‘It’s too late for that, Caterina.’
‘Why?’ she demands, her will matching mine strength for strength. ‘I want to be free to make my own decisions, Vincenzo. I want a life that isn’t…this.’ She waves a hand at the villa surrounding us. ‘I’ve already told you that.’
‘You did, but my answer is the same. It’s too late for you to have that life, not now you’re married to me.
’ I hold her gaze so she understands how serious I am, because it’s not just about me and what I want.
Now she’s married to me, it’s an issue of personal safety.
‘You’re an Argenti and it doesn’t matter if you divorce me.
You’ll always be an Argenti in the eyes of the families, and you’ll always be a target.
And I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go only for someone to hurt you. I’ll never agree to that.’
She takes a breath, continuing to stare furiously at me. ‘Then give me a new name and a new life, the way you’ve done for others. That’s easy for you to do and no one need ever know.’
For a minute I regret ever telling her about the people I’ve sent on to a new life elsewhere, because I could arrange that for her as I’ve arranged it for her father. But as I’ve told her, it’s too late for that. It’s too late for her to be free in the way she wants, because now she’s mine.
Why is holding onto her so important?
I ignore the thought. ‘And what will you do if in three months’ time you find yourself pregnant?’ I demand instead, which is a low blow even if it’s true. She could be pregnant. We didn’t use any birth control, and I’ll be damned if a child of mine is born outside the Argenti family.
She pales at that. ‘If I’m pregnant, I’ll let you know, of course. I’d never keep your child from you, Vincenzo.’
‘But will you even keep it?’ I’m being blunt and forceful, and these questions are difficult ones for her to answer, and I know that. But I don’t care. If she’s pregnant with my heir, I will take them both.
The rest of the colour leaves her face and she abruptly drops her gaze at the ring boxes again. ‘I don’t know,’ she says more quietly. ‘I haven’t thought about it. I haven’t thought about having children at all.’
‘Which is not a risk I’m willing to take.’ I don’t disguise the iron in my voice. ‘If you’re pregnant, I’ll keep the child and since a child should never grow up without their mother, I’ll also keep you.’
She looks up at me again. ‘And if I don’t want to be kept?’
‘You’ll survive,’ I tell her. ‘Somehow, in this beautiful villa with a husband that keeps you well satisfied and where you won’t have to worry about money, and you can have everything you’ve ever wanted.’