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Hope looked at her watch and realized it had been three hours since she left Luciano’s office and forty-five minutes since the first phone call. “Are you saying you never go shopping or for a walk where you can’t be reached?”
Claudia’s hands rose in the air. “Ai, ai, ai. I see there is no reasoning with you.”
Hope said nothing. She didn’t want to hurt the older woman, but she couldn’t explain her actions without divulging her impasse with Luciano.
“It is nothing more than a storm in a teacup. She went for a walk and time got away from her. Mamma, there is no need for you to keep carrying on.”
“Tell your brother this.”
Martina grimaced. “No thank you.”
“There you see.” Claudia crossed her arms and gave both Hope and Martina a baleful look.
The maid came out at that moment, a cordless phone in her hand. “Signor di Valerio wishes to speak to his wife.”
Hope looked at the phone with as much enthusiasm as she might feel for a plateful of spoiled fish.
“Hope?” Claudia asked, her expression now concerned.
Hope put her hand out for the offending phone.
Claudia stopped her from lifting it to her ear. “Every marriage goes through growing pains in the beginning, child. Do not be too hard on my son, whatever he has done. A woman must be strong enough to forgive.”
Hope forced herself to smile and say, “Thank you.”
Her mother-in-law and Martina showed a great deal of tact by leaving her to speak to Luciano in privacy.
She lifted the phone to her ear. “What?”
“That is no way to greet your husband.”
The censure infuriated her. “Go to hell, Luciano.”
His indrawn breath told her he hadn’t liked hearing that.
She didn’t care. Not anymore, she told herself. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
His sigh was audible through the phone lines. “The driver said you dismissed him. How did you get home?”
“What do you care?”
“You were upset when you left my office.”
“And this surprises you?” she asked scathingly.
“No.” He sounded odd. “How did you get home?” he repeated.
“I took a cab and I went for a walk. I turned the ringer volume down on my mobile after you called. Any more questions?”
“No.”
“If that is all…” she said, reversing the roles they had played in his office.
Again the sigh. “I’m flying to Rome and will be gone overnight. I realize it is not the best time for me to leave, but it cannot be helped.”
“Why are you bothering to tell me?” She stared across the swimming pool, her body aching from the pain filling her heart. “I’m just a body in your bed. I’m not your wife. You don’t even want our baby.” She was crying again and hated him for hearing the choking sobs she could not hide.
“Hope—”
She hung up the phone before he could say whatever it was he had meant to say. All his words hurt her and she was so tired of being hurt.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LUCIANO called again that evening from Rome. She came to the phone, feeling subdued and just plain not up to arguing with his mother or sister about taking the call.
“Hello, Luciano. Was there something you wanted?” she asked in a voice that sounded dead to her own ears.
“Si, Hope, I want many things, but I called to apologize for my behavior when you told me about the baby.” He sounded tired. “I want our bambino, cara. I am sorry I was less than enthusiastic when you told me.”
She dismissed the apology as too little, too late. Perhaps if he hadn’t been treating her so hurtfully for days beforehand, it would have been enough. “Don’t call me cara. It means beloved and you don’t love me. I don’t ever want you to use that word with me again.”
“Hope, I…” He hesitated.
Strange to hear her super-confident husband hesitant.
“If that’s all, I’m tired and want to go to bed.”
“I want to go to bed also, but with you, not in solitude.”
For once his sexy voice had no affect on her whatsoever. “I don’t want to sleep with you anymore.”
He said something low and forceful. “You are not leaving my bed.”
“Really? How are you going to stop me?” she asked with little more interest than she had felt for the rest of the conversation.
“Santo cielo. You are my wife. You sleep in my bed.”
“I don’t like you anymore, Luciano.” She didn’t say she didn’t love him because it was not true. She did, more fool her. And it hurt.
“Cara—”
“Please, Luciano. I don’t want to talk anymore. I don’t know why you married me, but I can see now it was a huge mistake.”
