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‘Because I’m falling apart without you.’ His shoulders rose and he turned his head to look at her. ‘I want you to think about coming back. Not to me, I know you won’t do that, but back to Moretti’s. The staff are on the verge of mutiny because without you there I have lost my conscience. You can have your own office so you don’t have to see me if you don’t want to. You can boss me around just as well by email as in person. Name your terms and your price.’
Stefano didn’t take his gaze off her. He sought every tiny flicker of reaction on her face.
Her forehead furrowed. ‘You want me to come back to work?’
‘I know I’m asking a lot of you.’
‘You’re not wrong.’
‘Please. Hear me out. Anna, it’s not just Moretti’s that’s falling apart, is me. I’m falling apart. I know you won’t come back as my wife but I miss having you in my life. You keep me sane. You help me see things clearly. I need you.’
He’d never said that before to anyone. He’d learned at too young an age that people were too often faithless and cruel to each other to allow himself to ever need someone. The only person he’d ever needed was himself.
Much of the colour had left her face.
‘If you come back then it will be on whatever terms you choose. Having you close by will be enough for me.’ He ran his fingers through his hair to stop them from touching her. ‘I know it’s over for us. How I took advantage of your amnesia was unforgivable. I was furious about your assumptions that I was having an affair but I made assumptions of my own. I swore you had to be a gold-digger because I couldn’t face the truth that you were in love with me and I was in love with you.’
She sucked in a breath and he grimaced. ‘I know it’s too late for you to hear that but, please, allow me to explain. I know I won’t have your forgiveness but I would like yo
ur understanding.
‘Your instincts about your promotion were right—I did give it to you so I could be rid of you—you were the best person for the job but that was secondary—but it wasn’t because I was bored with you. You were scared I would leave you but I was already scared you would leave me. I’ve never been wanted for myself before, not since Nonno died. The rest of my family didn’t want me and you know as well as I do that they treated me like dirt. When I left them to fend for myself, people didn’t want me, they wanted to use me; bosses exploiting my age to try and underpay me, drunk women seeing me as nothing but a handsome face to have sex with. When I finally made my fortune people didn’t want me for myself, they wanted my fame and money. You were the first person to see through the expensive suits and see the man inside. How could you like that man when no one else had ever liked or wanted him? I deliberately pushed you away because I was too much of a coward to acknowledge that I loved you. I pushed you away before you could push me.’
His soul laid bare, Stefano took a long breath and covered her hands. A glimmer of hope fluttered in him when she didn’t resist, her eyes still on his face, wide and glistening.
‘I can’t be without you,’ he said, willing for her to believe him. ‘I can’t even breathe normally. Days without you are an eternity. Please come back. If all you can offer is to take your place in Moretti’s again then that’s enough.’
Time itself seemed to morph into eternity while he waited for her to respond.
When she moved her hands out of his hold his heart sank so sharply it caused physical pain.
But then she placed one on his cheek and moved her face a little closer and his heart dared to rise back up.
‘After all you’ve just said are you only offering me my job back?’
He trapped the hand palmed against his cheek. ‘Anna, you have my heart. Whatever you can give I will accept. I need you and I will take whatever you can give.’
‘But what do you want?’
Something in her expression sent warmth into blood that had been cold for weeks. ‘I want you to ask me to make that promise I made to you again so that I can tell you I don’t need to make it because there will never be anyone else but you for me.’
Slowly her face moved to his and then her eyes closed and her lips pressed gently against his.
He hardly dared to breathe. He’d flown out here knowing he needed to make that one last move and strip himself bare for her. He’d reconciled himself to them being over but had been unable to reconcile with Anna being out of his life for good. She was so much a part of him that her not being there had been like living with a piece of himself missing.
‘I don’t want to come back to London as your employee,’ she whispered into his mouth. ‘I want to come back as your wife.’
This was more than he had dared hope for. Far more. ‘You do?’
Her nose brushed his as she nodded. ‘I love you.’
A boulder settled in his throat and he swallowed it away. ‘But can you forgive me?’
‘We’ve both made mistakes. If we can’t draw a line under them and make a fresh start then we’ll both suffer for it.’ She smiled, though her chin wobbled. ‘It’s been agony for me without you. I’d already decided to come home and see if there was any chance for us.’
‘Really?’
She nodded. ‘That’s why I came back early from the beach. It had all suddenly become clear for me. I thought my love for you had died but that was my hurt and pride talking, not my heart.’
