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‘Oh, yes, I’m aware that blame has landed on my lap since we met. But maybe you’d care to elaborate?’
His nostrils flared. ‘In a matter of days, you’ve made me need so badly. I trained myself not to do that after my father died. Then I redoubled my efforts when I lost my mother. But you,duci. You...’ He gave her shoulders a gentle shake. ‘Don’t you understand what you’ve done? Tonight I abandoned every vow I made, in the name ofmercy. I told you I wanted nothing to do with your sister and yet I’ve just negotiated her release and put myself in debt to some objectionable individuals. She’s on her way home and has promised to call you twice a week from now on until you say otherwise.’
He laughed harshly as she gasped, grateful tears springing to her eyes as he released her to drag shaking fingers through his hair. ‘Nobody else gets a chance like this with me. No one else would get this far. If word of this gets out, my reputation will be in shreds,’ he accused.
And yet there was no venom in his tone. If anything, Alessio Montaldi looked shell-shocked and a little vulnerable at the revelation.
The light that shone in his eyes was almost...pleading.
‘What am I going to do now?’ It was a hushed query, his eyes searching hers for answers. ‘I’ve dismantled every nefarious dealing my uncles profited from. I have them in the palm of my hand. But I can’t bring myself to crush them. And,Diu mio, I find myself considering granting them forgiveness. You’ve ruined me, Dr Parker.’
Her heart gave a wild leap. ‘Have I? Or have you proved to yourself that you are and were the better man all along? That you’re truly your father’s son? Now you get to truly live. You get to remember your parents for the wonderful people they were without the burden of vengeance weighing you down. You get to love free and true...if that’s what you want.’
‘And what about who I want? What if it’s too late for me...with her?’
Agitation rolled through her belly, decades-old fear attempting to take hold once more. But he’d taught her to be brave. So she would be brave,for them. She’d stare the possibility of rejection in the face, one more time, and take the greatest risk of her life. ‘You’re a fixer, the great and fearsome Alessio Montaldi. Are you going to let the possibility stop you?’
His hand dropped slowly from where he’d clutched his nape. Eyes like gold lava stared into hers and his shoulders squared. He looked larger than life, but then, didn’t he always? And yet, this time his mouth worked as if he was summoning up and testing words he was afraid to say.
Her heart lurched, fearful but eager. Willing him to say them. Because if he didn’t...
She shook her head.I trust you.
She didn’t realise she’d spoken the three little words out loud until his breath shuddered out of him.
‘Diu mio, I don’t deserve you. Or your trust.’
Her heart dropped six feet beneath her feet but she wasn’t going to crumble. ‘Why not?’
For the first time since she’d known him, shame and regret etched his face, sinking in deep as he shook his head. ‘Because Ihesitated, Giada. You asked me to save someone you love, and I hesitated because I was afraid. For myself. I was afraid what letting go would mean for me.’
She shook her head, puzzled. ‘Wh-what do you mean?’
‘Because it became clear that I would doanythingfor you. That I would lay down my very life for you if it came to it. I’m used to power and a lot of it. But...that sort of power, the kind you have over me, it’s...’
‘Terrifying?’ she offered softly.
He made a rough, wholly animalistic sound at the back of his throat.‘Se,’he agreed with an awed rasp.
‘I guess that’s that, then?’ she dared. Then turned away.
He arrived in front of her with the force of a hurricane. Flames leapt in his eyes as he grabbed and held onto her upper arms. ‘What?’
She shrugged even as her heart attempted to beat right out of her chest. ‘If you’re too terrified to face that power, then there’s nothing more to discuss, is there?’ She deliberately glanced at the door behind him. ‘Maybe I’ll take a holiday until my next posting. Find a man who—’
His untamed growl silenced her. ‘I’ve just put onevinnittabehind me,tesoro. Do not let me pick up another.’
‘There he is, my powerful Alessio. Are you going to do what it takes, then?’ she teased.
His arms dragged her closer. ‘Is this what you want? To see me at my most terrified? My most vulnerable? To know that I love you so much, that I’m besotted to a level that petrifies me?’ The words were jagged, almost broken. And the tremble that seized him when he said them made her heart surge with emotion.
Giada lifted her hands, slowly because the wildness in his eyes needed to be handled with care. He was a man on the brink.
The brink of a discovery so deep it terrified her too.
‘Yes, I do,’ she stated without holding back. And when she saw the jaw-dropping shock in his eyes, she smiled and cradled his strong jaw, rubbing her thumbs over his stubbled skin, revelling in the shudder that went through him. ‘Before you go thinking me cruel, just know that I want you this way, this open and honest and fearful, because it means you’ll treasure the feeling. Just as you treasured the memory of your parents, you’ll fight every day to keep this feeling alive because you’ll know that it’s returned. With an equally open and honest heart, Alessio.’
The shuddering grew until a relentless wave overtook him, his eyes darkening until they were barely gold, until they burnished with disbelief and then hope. Joy. Awe. ‘Giada...’
