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Except even the all-powerful Giovanni could not wipe away the wounds a tragedy had left behind. The dysfunction his father and Anna’s volatile relationship had wreaked. He and his Di Sione siblings were proof of that.
“Nate.”
He levered himself away from the desk to find Mina standing in the doorway, eyes wide, hands clenched at her sides.
“Leave me alone.”
“Nate—”
“Leave me the hell alone.”
Her face paled. She turned on her heel and left.
* * *
Mina finished unpacking in the suite Nate had appointed her, eyes burning, heart thumping. The verbal slap he’d administered stung. He was hurting. Hadn’t said two words since they’d left Long Island. Then that display just now...the loss of his supreme control. The animallike pain in his eyes.
She wanted to help him, to comfort him. But Nate was a solitary animal. He didn’t want her in his head. He didn’t want her sharing his pain. He wanted to bury it until he went off like a time bomb.
The last of her suits hung up, she scooped her lacy underwear into a drawer. He’d made that part of their arrangement clear. Don’t expect intimacy from me. It was just sex.
But she couldn’t deny it hurt. Couldn’t deny it stung after three nights of sleeping in his arms. Of sensing an emotional connection between them that was, perhaps, only in her own head.
Leaning against the exquisite hand-carved cherrywood dresser, she raked a hand through her hair. Breathed past the painful squeeze of her chest. What was she doing? Allowing herself to get pulled in even deeper with feelings for a man she couldn’t have. Shouldn’t want to have.
An affair was all it was supposed to have been. To experience everything she’d missed with a worldly, exciting man who made her toes curl. Allowing herself to develop feelings for Nate when he would walk away from her when his attention span waned was setting herself up for a fall. To have something she so desperately wanted and to once again be left alone was too much of a threat to the fragile sense of worth she’d acquired.
It would prove she was not lovable enough to keep. Not good enough. And she was never going there again. Ever.
Pushing away from the dresser, she walked past Nate’s study. It was empty, the penthouse silent. He must have gone out, his usual pattern of walking when his emotions grew too great to bear.
Finding her way back to the gleaming stainless steel showpiece of a kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water and took it out to the terrace. The vast concrete and steel metropolis that spread out in front of her was gray and forbidding. A hazy layer of smog sat over the buildings like an embrace; the air felt gritty, harsh in her lungs; and beeping horns, whistles and sirens blended together in a chaotic symphony that would surely keep her up all night.
A wave of longing descended over her. For the vibrant blue sea and sky. The taste of salt air on her lips...
“Not a very good introduction.” Strong hands slid around her waist and drew her back against Nate’s hard body. “But it can be very beautiful and alive. Give it a day and it will pass.”
Her spine remained rigid. He drew her closer, his lips nuzzling her nape. “I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you. I’m sorry.”
She softened. “You were hurting.”
“Yes. I thought I had dealt with my emotions, but clearly I hadn’t.”
“You love him. This isn’t going to be easy for you.”
Silence stretched. “I hadn’t told him I loved him until today. It hit me that I could have lost him and he would never have known.”
She twisted around in his arms. “He knows. You only have to see you two together to know that.”
His mouth flattened, pain darkening his eyes. “I’ve wasted so much time.”
“Then make the most of what you have left. Forge a deeper connection with your siblings.”
“We’ve been through this,” he said abruptly. “There is too much baggage there. Too much history to make that
happen.”
“Says who? Who doesn’t want a relationship? You or them?”
