My mother’s voice freezes me in my tracks as I begin the descent down the stairs to the basement. I’m not sure if I should feel grateful or irritated by the interruption.
“Yeah?”
Evelina’s head peers around the corner and offers a practiced smile. “Did you not hear me calling?”
“No?”
“You must come with me,” she goes as far as to hold her hand out to me. “We have an important visitor.”
I glance down the remaining stairs, feeling a petulant tug from somewhere within my sternum. “Can’t it wait?”
“Now, Dante,” she doesn’t leave room for negotiation.
With a forlorn sigh, I march back up the stairs and follow behind my mother toward the foyer. Her pace is frustratingly swift for a woman so small, and I have to jog a little to keep up.
“Are you at least going to give me a heads up about who it is?”
Evelina doesn’t even bother glancing over her shoulder. “A don should always anticipate their visitors.”
I bite back a scathing retort and continue to trail behind her, feeling like a chastised teenager being forced to socialize against my will.
But as I see who is waiting for us in the foyer, it all starts to make sense.
She stands at the center of the room, the hem of her perfectly tailored dress brushing the floor, her posture flawless.
Rina is just as I remembered her from a few nights ago: striking, confident, and almost painfully sure of herself.
“Dante,” Evelina says, her voice honeyed with maternal satisfaction. “Marina’s here to visit. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Wonderful. Stupendous.
Rina steps forward, her heels clicking against the polished floor. Her dark hair gleams in the sunlight, cascading over one shoulder, and her lips curve in a smile that’s equal parts charm and challenge.
“Dante,” she greets, kissing me on both cheeks. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Marina,” I say as I exchange the greeting. My lips graze the air on each side of her face.
“Rina,” she corrects with a playful tilt of her head.
Evelina’s gaze flicks between us, her smile deepening. “Marina has kindly offered to take you out into the city to help you reacclimate to Montecroce. She knows the markets better than anyone.”
“My father used to own the grocers, as well as his father before him. I spent much of my childhood running along those cobbles,” Rina adds, all charm.
My eyebrow shoots up. “I thought your father was a Conte?”
Rina drags her eyes across me. “He is an ambitious man.”
“Well, that’s very generous of you,” I say, my voice carefully neutral as I shoot my mother a forced smile.
Evelina claps her hands lightly. “Well, the sun is setting. It would do you well to get some fresh air while it’s still light enough to admire the city’s beauty.”
I clench my jaw, searching for an excuse, anything to avoid being dragged deeper into this charade.
And then it comes to me, swift and clear.
“Actually, I’m unfortunately going to have to decline. I just got out of a meeting with a…colleague back home. I must check in on our…asset.” I glance at Rina, offering a tight smile. “Rain check?”
Evelina’s smile falters. “Business can wait, Dante. Marina came all this way?—”
