He did not wish to contemplate how that was possible.
But even a long, hot shower had not helped, likely because Pau found that even the damned shower stall was no longer his. The entire monastery was haunted, not by the ghosts of his ancestors as might be expected, but by Leontina. He swore he caught her scent around every corner, only to turn it and find no one there.
He spent the morning furious that on this, his day of victory, he was unable to think of anything but her. And not because she was the means to his long-planned end, which would have been acceptable. He didn’t know what it was, this dark obsession.
Pau only knew it plagued him.
When she appeared in the front hall at the appointed time, it was like a body blow. He hated that, too. She gazed at him with a guarded sort of calm that he found offensive, especially when her eyes were still too green, too dark, too compelling.
Maybe the real trouble was he remembered the night in the shower too vividly. Leontina on her knees in all of that steam, her jade gaze hot and fixed to his with his cock thrusting in and out of her perfect mouth—
She is a witch, he assured himself.
More importantly, this was not the day for such reminiscences. Today was about Bernat. It was about coming full circle. About Umberto, at last, reaping what he sowed.
“When you are ready,” he intoned, and he was certain that there was something too knowing in the way Leontina looked at him. He was sure that she would speak up, because that was what she did—
But she didn’t. She only inclined her head like the subservient wife she’d never been here, and somehow that was worse.
He found himself fuming as he ushered her out into the drive and saw her into the waiting vehicle. They sat in the back seat of the SUV as his men took them to the waiting plane, tucked away on his private airstrip. Yet somehow, though he could have reached out a hand and touched her at any point, he felt as if she was much farther away.
His tragedy was that he was far too aware of her just the same.
Pau had not given Leontina any directives about how she ought to dress for the occasion of returning to the home she’d escaped, but he could find no fault with the outfit she had picked. It was not one of her baggy dresses, which he hadn’t seen at all in a long time. Today she’d chosen a long-sleeved dress in a dark hue that managed to emphasize her pregnant belly without clinging too closely anywhere else, making her look elegant and untouchable—especially with the jewelry she wore, hints of gold at her wrists, her ears, her neck. She’d twisted her hair back into a smooth ponytail, and it called attention to her classic, gorgeous features.
She bore no resemblance at all to the invisible girl in saggy clothes who crept about in the servants’ stairs. She was, with no guidance from Pau at all, exactly who he wished to present to Umberto today.
So there was no reason at all that she should get under his skin.
Though he had a whole plane ride to think about it.
It was how at ease she seemed. How relaxed. She sat across from him on the plane and acted as if she was alone, and utterly unbothered, while he thought seriously about climbing the walls.
Landing in Tuscany did not make it any better. He felt almost…edgy, being back here. They moved from the plane to sit in the back of yet another vehicle, and this time, he tried to keep his gaze on the landscape. The cypress trees rose like taunts on every rolling hill.
And as soon as he saw Umberto’s absurd castle heave into view, he felt restlessness all over him.
Pau told himself that this was foolishness. He had finally achieved what he wanted. He should have been filled with nothing but triumph. Perhaps he needed to actually parade Umberto’s daughter in front of him and behold the old man’s reaction to get the full effect.
Maybe he was expecting to feel all that triumph too early.
That said, he wasn’t a complete fool. He had brought his security detail with him on this trip, because he didn’t trust Umberto as far as he could throw him—and given that he would not touch the man if his life depended on it, that was not far. But Umberto could teach slithering to snakes. There was every reason to think the old man might well react violently once he realized he was truly backed into a corner.
Once he understood that Pau had bested him—again—and better yet, with the daughter Umberto had dismissed as unimportant except as a bargaining chip.
As the Land Rover navigated its way over ancient hills and winding roads, Pau could admit to himself that he rather hoped that the old mandidtry to get violent. His face already hurt from Giaco’s fists. Why not fighteverymale in the Tavian family this week?
It would solve all manner of problems if Umberto tried, because unlike with Giaco, Pau would happily fight back this time. And he had no doubt that he would win.
How satisfying, he thought. It would tie things up neatly and truly bring it all full circle. It would be fitting in every way.
The only trouble was, he wanted Umberto to live a while with the knowledge he’d been bested.
Pau found himself regretting the fact that he was not more pugilistic. He allowed himself a few brief daydreams as the vehicle bumped along, but he preferred strategies and probabilities to wrestling matches. And he was so busy thinking about the various ways he would celebrate his enemy’s death when the glorious day finally arrived that they were walking up to the grand front door of the castle itself before he realized that his wife had not spoken a word all morning.
He hadn’t noticed because she had been like a thorn in his side all this while. The scent of her was driving him mad—he’d resorted to imagining himself some kind of cinematic action hero in defense.
“I doubt we will stay long,” he told her, perhaps a bit more darkly than necessary, as they walked.
