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He stepped back, running his fingers through his floppy blonde hair, his other hand on his hip as he contemplated ignoring my command or obeying it. I glared up at him to show him I wasn’t messing around.
He shook his head and turned, storming out the hut and slamming the wooden door, nearly breaking it off its hinges. I dropped my head to my chest as all my emotions caught up with me and I fought them back.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to check the text from Alessio.
I gave her the phone, Finn.
Why? What is the plan here?
No plan. She just needed to speak to her family.
I stared at his message and shook my head.
Don’t be a fool, Alessio. Don’t fall in love with someone you can never have. It will only end in heartbreak. Take it from someone who knows.
The Island
I frowned as I stared at the reply from Finn.
Don’t fall in love with someone you can never have. It will only end in heartbreak.
Is that what this was? Was I falling in love with a woman I could never have? I didn’t know what love felt like. I wouldn’t be able to recognise it if it was staring me in the fucking face. I wasn’t sure I was even capable of falling in love with someone. How can you when you don’t know the first thing about it? But surely that is what the next few days were for? Figuring out what the fuck this was between us. All I knew is that the thought of her leaving me caused me pain. The thought of giving her back to her family and never being able to see her again, physically hurt. Because that is what would happen. Giovanni would never let her near me ever again. But it had to be her choice. If she chose me, if she decided to stay with me, I would have to think of something fast. A marriage alliance, perhaps? But it would have to ensure we still took the North, otherwise Diego would never agree to it… and Giovanni would have to see the merit in it. That was the fucking impossible part. Surely, he would listen to Elenora if she expressed this is what she wanted. If he could see how happy I could make her. If he could see that I would only ever keep her safe and it would only benefit his family’s name and reputation to be connected to the Barbieris through marriage? Fuck, listen to me. I was thinking about marrying Elenora Buccini! A week ago, I would have told you I had no fucking interest in ever marrying anyone. I never had. I would have only ever married if it benefited my position. Not for…
I shifted my gaze to Elenora who was sitting next to me in the car which was taking us to our hotel in Santorini. Her face was turned away from me, staring out the window at the new scenery of the stunning Greek landscape as we hurtled along the cliff top roads towards the most exquisite, quaint city of narrow, cobbled pathways and white-washed buildings with blue tops. She hadn’t spoken a word to me since she phoned her family and it was making me uneasy. I could tell she was upset. Really upset, and I wanted to kick myself. I shouldn’t have let her call them.
“Are you sure you are okay?” I asked, searching for her hand. She carefully moved it out of my reach and pushed her hair behind her ear instead, keeping her gaze out the window. My frown deepened.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, her voice small and fragile.
“You are clearly not fine. I take it the call didn’t go well? What did they say? Elle, talk to me.”
She didn’t say a word or move a muscle and I clenched my jaw. I leaned forward and ordered my driver to pull over the car. She turned her head for the first time and I saw her eyes were red rimmed from fighting back tears for so long.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I took off my seatbelt and climbed out of the car. I stormed round to her side and opened the door. She got out cautiously, her gorgeous features etched with confusion as I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the side of the road that overlooked the edge of a cliff into the lapping ocean.
“We are not starting this holiday like this. So talk to me,” I commanded. She pulled her hand out from mine and turned her back to me. Tossing her head back to stare up at the sky, she inhaled deeply as I tried to prepare myself for whatever she was about to say.
“I don’t think I can do this, Alessio.”
“Do what, exactly?”
She spun around to face me with tears in her eyes. “Us. This. Being here with you. I feel so fucking guilty. It is killing me, Alessio. My family is hurting. They are in pain because of you! And I am here… sleeping with you, kissing you! Imagining what a future with you might look like! What kind of person does that make me? What kind of daughter, sister, friend am I? I am a horrendous person, Alessio.”
I stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders as the tears started running down her cheeks. She wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“You are not, Elle. You are the most amazing person I have ever met. You feel everything with so much passion. Your family knows how much you love them. They just don’t understand this. Fuck, I don’t even understand this,” I said, moving her chin with my fingers to force her look at me. “But I want you, Elle.”
“You’re not using me? Just having some fun with me until I have served my purpose? Before handing me back and pretending none of this happened?” she snapped, stepping back from me with fire in her eyes.
My eyebrows furrowed as the anger inside me grew. “Is that what they said to you?”
“It is what everyone is thinking! That I am pathetic! That I have been manipulated and sucked in by your lies. That you are just using me for sex and when you are bored, you’ll toss me away because I mean nothing to you!”
I scoffed and moved my gaze towards the ocean, shaking my head.
“Really? We are back here again? What do I have to do to prove to you that I care about you, Elenora? I took you to the South to keep you safe from Lorenzo. I let you freely roam around my house, eat breakfast with my Zia and me every morning, and I gave you everything you asked for to make you feel comfortable. I nearly beat my cousin to death to protect you. I planned this trip for us to try and figure this out. I let you call your fucking brother in private, knowing you could easily screw me over! I’ve said I will find a way to give you back to your family after the trip if you decide that is what you want, even though it will fucking kill me! And you still think I don’t care about you? What more can I do?”
She stared at me, her bottom lip trembling. “Give up the North. Leave it alone. Stop all this madness.”
