“No,” she whispered. “None of this is what I want.”
He closed his eyes. “I need you to stay,cara.I can’t imagine you not being here.”
“Because you’re infatuated with me.”
He dipped his head, yet again underscoring the very reason she had to leave.
“It’s not enough.”
“What do you want? What can I give you?” She pressed her hand to his chest and held it there. “Do you really not know?”
His eyes were instantly hidden from her, his emotions inscrutable.
“Don’t pretend this is just sex.”
“I’m not,” he said, but he was still not offering anything more. “I have had plenty of sex, with plenty of women. I have never felt like this.”
“And do you really not understand why?”
“You are different.”
“No, you’re different, when you’re with me. In here,” she pressed her fingers to his heart, tapping them quickly. “You care about me.”
His Adam’s apple shifted. “Stay.”
“Why won’t you admit it?”
“Do you truly want to leave?”
She shook her head once. “You don’t want to know what I want.”
“I do.”
She sucked in a breath, told herself to be brave. To get this over with. “I want to stay with you. Not for a few weeks, not for a year, but forever. I want to stay right here, in this paradise, with you, the man that I love. And I want you to love me back, for the rest of my life. Anything less than that is why I have to leave.”
He stared at her without speaking, for a very long time. He stared at her and her breath started to burn until she realised she was holding it and let it out in one long exhalation.
She blinked quickly, tears stinging at her eyes, as he just looked at her and frowned. Finally, he dropped his hands and nodded once. “I’ll organise it for you. When you know where you want to live, I’ll make sure there’s a home available to you. You will never need to worry about money again.”
A tear slid down her cheek, but she was glad he didn’t see it, because he’d turned his back and was already stalking towards the door. She didn’t even get a chance to tell him that she would never live in a place he owned, or take another cent from him. Luca had disappeared, and with him, so too had Ally’s most dearly held hopes.
It was over.
Three weeks later,at his office in Rome, Luca told himself he felt good. The company was his, the direction one he could choose. And this, he thought, was the ultimate re-direct. A surprise move nobody had seen coming.
He looked across at his brother and cousin, both with expressions on their faces that showed a lack of trust, and got down to business. And tried not to think how proud Allegra would be of him, for taking this step.
“Our grandfather was wrong. He has been wrong, all his life.”
Paolo grunted.
“He sought to divide us, to make us compete, without realising that if we were to work together, nothing could stand in our way.”
Dante sat a little straighter.
“I thought the only way to succeed in life was to beat you. To win, at all costs.” He couldn’t think about Allegra, and his wedding, and the lengths he’d gone to. He couldn’t think about her expression on that last day, or her sweet voice arguing for him to follow this course of action.
“And you have,” Dante pointed out. “We’re out.”
