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Itwasabout him. His overreaction was rooted in the roots of his existence. Because he had been born from neglect. To a mother who should have been keeping an eye on him. But who never looked his way. Never looked at him when it mattered. And then he’d done the same. Looked away at the wrong moment. Neglected his responsibilities.
‘I thoughtIhad put you in danger,’ he confessed. His chest heaved. ‘Do you understand? I couldn’t find you...’
Her arms flew back around her midriff and he wanted to prise them open and climb inside her embrace. Press their bodies together in an intimate, unbreakable lock.
What was wrong with him?
He was a mess.
A frantic mess.
‘But I wasn’t lost, Raffaele.’
‘You were lost tome,’ he growled. ‘It’s protocol, in any extreme weather, to do a head-count of all the staff and residents on the boat—’
‘I didn’t know that,’ she interrupted. ‘I didn’t know a little bit of heavy rain would be of concern to a boat of this magnitude. I wanted a different space—a different view.’ She looked up at the glass roof.
‘This is only the beginning,’ he told her. ‘A storm like this will only get worse. Reach a peak we won’t fully understand until it arrives. I’ve seen—’
‘I didn’t know that either.’
‘It was my responsibility to tell you,piccolina.’
‘I’m not your responsibility, Raffaele.’
‘You are carrying my child,’ he reminded her. ‘I should be protecting you. You should be in my bed, where I can see you, keep you safe.’
‘Youchose separate bedrooms.Youchose—’
‘To stay in control.’
‘You chose not to be with me in a physical sense even when you said it was natural.’
‘Itisnatural.’
‘Then why—?’
He couldn’t help it. Raffaele reached for her. Held her elbows in his big palms as if she were the last point of safety. The only lifeboat when he was sinking deep into uncharted territory.
‘Have you not enjoyed my company? Have I not been enough to keep you entertained without sex?’
He had to know. Had to know if, despite what they’d shared, all she wanted was the billionaire. The façade. The man who offered women nothing but sex.
‘Of course I’ve enjoyed it. The last four days have been heady. Real. Honest.’
Real? Honest?Those two words punched him in his temples. Rocked his stance. Weakened his knees.
They had been real. He’d never spent so much time with a woman. Never eaten three square meals with another human being every day. Meals without the due ceremony of a restaurant, a chef, a menu.
Never had he eaten a meal on his lap with some flickering film in the background as a woman showed him how clever her new laptop was.
Never had he refused to take a willing woman to bed.
Never had he listened to a woman speak.
Of course he’d heard the phonetic hum of her words, but he’d never wanted to understand what they meant. How words spoken revealed truths about the speaker.About Flora.He’d wanted all her words. To stay in an idle stupor and pay attention to her chorus.
Had he been a fool for wanting that?
