‘Why not? Franca is his sister!’
‘He knows I wouldn’t lay a finger on Franca. She’s been throwing herself at me for years! It’s a standing joke between us.’
‘A standing joke?’ Mina echoed, striving without success to see the gorgeous sexy brunette in that light.
‘What else would it be? A teenager carrying on like a thirty-something vamp from an old movie!’
‘A t-teenager?’ Mina stammered incredulously. ‘Franca’s a teenager?’
‘Famous and gloriously narcissistic, but then she is only nineteen.’
Nineteen…Mina was deprived of speech for the space of thirty seconds.
‘But you knew I wouldn’t realise what age she was! You took me there quite deliberately!’ she accused. ‘And as for you thinking that I would give you the freedom to stray, you’ve got another think coming, Cesare Falcone! Now I wish I’d pushed that conceited little madam into the pool!’
‘She’s a foot taller and at least two stone heavier. I would have had to wade in and rescue you, bella mia.’ Cesare strolled lithely to the foot of the bed, glittering golden eyes skimming her outraged face. ‘So if I don’t have the freedom to stray, why the bloody hell did you tell me I did?’ he suddenly raked at her fiercely.
‘I didn’t think you believed me…you laughed!’
‘I didn’t feel one bit like laughing when you started crying while I was trying to kiss you…and you know it!’
‘I didn’t know it.’
‘I’ve been afraid to touch you ever since! You made it painfully clear that you didn’t want me,’ he bit out unevenly.
Her eyes stung, making her drop her head. Both of them had been too busy hiding behind their pride, refusing to give an inch. Yet Cesare had given so much in so many other ways, she acknowledged for the first time. It wasn’t his fault that she had felt so rejected she had frozen him out on every possible occasion. Sometimes, she registered, loving meant putting your pride on the line.
‘For ten bloody frustrating days you have been totally unresponsive to my every attempt to make you happy,’ he condemned in a driven undertone.
It was true. Like a sulky child, she had stonewalled him with petty gestures of defiance, hugging her pain to herself, refusing to show it.
‘I can’t do anything right with you,’ he grated.
The tears stung even harder behind her lowered eyelids. ‘I always want you,’ she whispered. ‘Seems to me I never learned how to stop that——’
The silence hung like a deadened weight above her head. She bit her lip and tasted blood, feeling exposed.
‘Say that again,’ Cesare invited unsteadily.
She sniffed. ‘You heard me.’
He hunkered down to her level and reached out for her tightly clasped hands. She kept her eyes closed, willing back the moisture, strengthened by the warm feel of his hands enclosing hers. It felt so good even though his hands weren’t quite steady. She swallowed hard. She had been alone for a long time. She had put up so many barriers over the last four years. Once she had been open, outspoken, had known no better than to wear her heart on her sleeve. Only now did she admit that she had not hidden behind pride with Cesare. She had hidden behind the terrible fear of being hurt again. And when you were scared you didn’t give genero
usly.
She would never have made the slip of telling him that she loved him again had she not been mindless with passion in his arms. But his outright rejection of that love had cut deep. ‘You don’t believe anything I say,’ she reminded him tightly.
‘I’m learning,’ Cesare breathed very quietly, holding her hands tightly in his as if he was scared that she was about to make a break for freedom.
‘Is Roberto ever going to forgive you?’
‘I owe him an Armani suit. He’s a good sport.’
‘He was just…just joking around.’
‘Sì…I know, but coming after these last days…the strain…’ Cesare sighed heavily ‘…I blew a fuse.’
She looked down at his lean, beautifully shaped brown hands and an intense tide of love surged up inside her. It really didn’t matter if he didn’t love her. It really didn’t matter if her only hold on him was sex and the daughter they shared. There were a lot of shades between white and black and she could settle for mid-grey and make the best of it, because the most terrifying truth of all had to be faced. Without him there was nothing.