His stark gaze bored into her again.
‘Will you grant me that favour?’ he asked.
Eloise felt her mouth tighten, her chin lift. She felt as heavy as lead.
‘You intend to trot out excuses for why you behaved the way you did? Is that it?’ There was a coldness in her voice she did not bother to hide.
He gave an infinitesimal shake of his head. ‘Not excuses—reasons. Reasons I had no chance to explain to you in Rome. Reasons I must give you now.’
He took a breath, hoping she would let him explain before she fled from him.
‘I agreed to marry my step-cousin, Carla,’ Vito said, as if cutting the words from himself, ‘because it would allow me to obtain the shares in Viscari Hotels that her mother, Marlene, had inherited from my uncle Guido—her late husband. That was the reason. The only reason.’
Eloise reeled back, her face paling as if he had struck her, as his words impacted on her. She stared at him, gall rising in her. ‘You traded me for a handful of shares,’ she said.
Her voice was hollow, her eyes distending. The bitterness in her throat burned like acid. In her head, thoughts tumbled like falling rocks. Each one smashing into her.
That’s all I was to him—all the value I had. Less than a handful of shares in his precious hotel chain! And for that—for nothing more than that—he agreed to marry another woman. Thinking I’d go along with it.
Pain knifed through her.
‘You traded me for a handful of shares!’ She hurled the words at him again, her face convulsing now. ‘That was why you put me through what you did! You agreed to marry someone for that?’
That tic came again in his cheek. ‘As you say,’ he said tightly.
She stared at him. ‘How could you, Vito? How could you stoop that low? With all your wealth, to want yet more—to be prepared to marry for it! Stringing me along while you did so, making a fool of me—bringing me to Rome right under the nose of the woman you were going to marry? And you really think that coming here and telling me all that to my face is going to make me change my mind about you?’
There was derision in her voice, open scorn. Raw anger. She had to put it there—because only that could quench that phosphorus flare of hope and longing.
He moved restlessly. There was about him an air of withdrawal, as if he’d shut himself inside himself. His eyes had blanked now—there was nothing in them, no emotion...nothing. He picked up the magazine page, lying abandoned on the tabletop, folded it mechanically, and slipped it into his breast pocket.
Then he looked across at Eloise again. ‘I’ve said what I came to say, Eloise,’ he said. ‘I’ve sought you out to say it—to explain to you why I behaved as I did. And,’ he went on, and now his voice was weighted down as if with lead, ‘for one other reason.’
He looked at her, and there was a bleakness in his eyes now that had not been there till this moment. A draining of hope.
‘I sought you out because I needed to know, Eloise, just what we had come to mean to each other. To discover if...if there could have been anything more to us than a summer romance.’ His expression twisted. ‘When we arrived in Rome all I wanted was to focus on you! But—’
She cut across him, her voice scathing, bitter. ‘But the little business of your marriage got in the way! So then I just turned into a prospective mistress, didn’t I? To be neatly stashed away in a love nest in Amalfi!’
Vito’s hand slashed through the air. ‘No! It was never that! Never. I just wanted—’
‘You wanted to get hold of some shares. Yes, you said.’
Eloise’s voice was harsh, grating. Her eyes as hard as stones. She couldn’t bear this. Couldn’t bear to have Vito saying such words to her. Vito who had callously set her aside for the sake of some extra shares...
But you could have him back! You could have him back right now—all you have to say to him is that you want him. Need him in your life. And that it’s not just you who needs him.
Temptation, overpowering and overwhelming, hovered in front of her.
I could have the dream! I could have Vito in my life...in my future. Making a family with me.
But then, like cold acidic water, came the knowledge that it was impossible. He was not a man whose values and choices she would ever want to understand. Not a man she would inflict on anyone, let alone—
She took a shuddering breath, her mind shearing away from the future that must be hers, and hers alone, with no one to share it with her. She made her voice indifferent.
‘Look, Vito—forget it. You made your choice—those shares were more important to you than I was. Well, they can stay that way.’
She took a step backwards. Claws were ripping into her, shredding her.