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Laughed.
Laughed.Athim.
He could hardly believe it.
And yet on she laughed, as if he was a figure of fun. It tempted him to feel something very nearly murderous instead.
But Victoria, his wife who in no way seemed to know her place...kept right on laughing.
As if daring him todosomething about it.
CHAPTER FIVE
VICTORIADIDN’TMEANto laugh, but before she knew it the laughter took her over. And then it was like she was carried away by the force of it and even when she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop.
Especially when the implacable, merciless Ago stared at her in stunned amazement. Affront written all over him.
Just in case she wondered if anyone had dared laugh at him before.
Any other man would have looked ridiculous. Even pitiable, so out of his arrogant depth. But not Ago.
Never Ago.
Victoria had opened the door thinking it was the front desk, because the hotel was lovely and attentive, and had instead literally been struck dumb at the sight of him. He was somehow bigger than she remembered, blocking out the overhead light as he stood there on the landing outside her door, glowering in obvious fury while his dark blue eyes were so intense it nearly hurt.
She probably should have attempted to bar his way, but she hadn’t been able to summon up the will to do it. Not when her heart was clamoring in her chest and her traitorous body flushed all over. And now they were standing in this hotel room together, which seemed...decadent, at best. Not to mention foolish.
And also unbearably intimate, because here in this hotel with that heavy front door closed tight, they were truly alone.
When they hadn’t been alone together, not really. Not in all this time. There had been guards milling about within shouting range and her uncle and all the rest of his household staff six months ago. Then her father had been seemingly omnipresent when she’d arrived in Italy, and had continued to storm about after the wedding, too. Even after her father had taken himself back to England, there had still been Ago’s staff. Bustling all around the ancient estate to make certain that the Accardi in residence had whatever he might need or want before he needed or wanted it.
This, right now, was the first time they had ever truly been on their own.
A kind of fizzy panic had bubbled up from deep inside her at the idea of any kind ofsalvage operationand she had no choice but to laugh it out. It was that or lose herself in it the way she had in his arms months ago.
She couldn’t have stopped if her life depended on it, and maybe it did.
“Do you find this amusing?” Ago asked, his voice like a sharp sword that cut straight to the beating, fizzy heart of that panic. Victoria pulled in a ragged breath, not sure if she wasgratefulhe’d cut her off—or something else entirely.
The sudden silence seemed to throb in her ears, expanding inside her like a terrible balloon. And for all he held himself still and straight, she could see the wildness in his dark blue gaze and she knew that, as ever, there were storms in him. Just there, just beneath his skin.
It was her curse that she felt compelled to dance in them.
Victoria moved closer tonight, because now she’d had time. Time on her own for the first time in her life. True time to herself without having to answer to anyone. She did not have to account for her time, her fancies, her interests. She did not have to discuss her whims with anyone or accept it when what she wanted was denied her with little or no explanation. Instead, for once, she had simply wandered as the spirit took her and done exactly as she liked.
And she had found that in the absence of her father’s usual overbearing behavior and bullying remarks—and freed now of the gnawing fear that had consumed her for months that her pregnancy would be discovered at any moment—she had spent entirely too much time thinking about Ago.
And not just reliving the night in her uncle’s garden that had brought her here.
Victoria had spent her nights of freedom, tucked up in charming inns and slick hotels all over Italy, researching the man who happened to be her husband. In a manner she’d never allowed herself to do before. Because first, she was certain that her father’s staff spied on her in any number of ways, including tracking what she did online. And second, because it seemed inappropriate to look up Ago when it had been made very clear to her that she was meant for his brother. And no one ever had to look up Tiziano. His exploits were splashed everywhere, for all to see, night and day.
Tiziano would have been a friendly, easy affair, she’d thought. That was all he had to offer. And if she found herself dreaming instead of the older Accardi brother—the one who actually spoke to her and made her heart pound with the intensity of his regard—that was one of the only secrets she got to keep to herself.
Though after that Christmas season last year, when Tiziano had made such a scene with his mistress that Victoria had felt compelled to tell Ago herself that there could be no engagement, she found herself a littletoofocused on the sterner, darker, more overwhelming Accardi.
It was his fault, because surely he should have known better than to stand so close to her at that Christmas Eve gala. He had been the experienced one. She had felt like nothing so much as a boat tossed about by the tide.
Victoria had spoken to Tiziano’s mistress herself earlier that night, and had found Annie Meeks nothing short of delightful. The kind of woman she would have liked for a friend, if she’d been allowed any. In one short conversation, Annie had made Victoria laugh and had made it clear that she loved Tiziano Accardi in a way that Victoria would have said no one could. But most importantly, in a way Victoria—who had expected to announce her engagement to Tiziano that very night—certainly didn’t.
