He raised a brow.
She was the first woman who hadn’t immediately thought to use Alyssa like a ladder toward him. The first woman in his sphere who had considered his child’s interests before her own.
She was the first woman he’d ever met who always put someone else before her own needs—first her Nonni, Gio and now a little girl. Even his mother, who adored her grandchildren, sometimes used Alyssa to try to manipulate him.
But Pia… Could Pia be truly different in this too?
“Do you always stammer when you talk about what men and women do?” he goaded.
“It can’t be good for her to know you and I…you and me…”
“My mother and my sister Teresa are the only ones who’re allowed to look after Alyssa,” he offered. He’d never explained his actions to anyone and yet the words fell from his mouth. “I need a woman for only one thing and I do that when I’m out of town.”
“You need a woman for only…” Her words trailed off, a flush dusting her cheeks. “That’s horrible and so…clinical. Are you saying you’ll never need a woman, even in the future, for anything else?”
“I’m saying exactly that. I don’t intend to marry ever again.”
“What about affection, companionship, y’know…”
“I’ve never met a woman who made me feel or want those things. Alyssa has me, and my mother and sisters for a woman’s influence.” He took a step toward her, more turned on by this ridiculous conversation than made sense. The infuriating woman took another step back. “My mother will understand that our relationship is not something I want discussed in front of Alyssa. She wasn’t even supposed to bring Alyssa today. But I bet she couldn’t pass up the chance to meet you.”
“When I met her…she…” Pia hesitated. When he just stared back at her, she finally said, “I could be wrong, but I think she…doesn’t like me.”
“She doesn’t.”
“Why? She doesn’t even know me.”
“You’re the prime contender for Gio’s fortune.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Pia said laughingly. But the seriousness in Raphael’s gaze sobered her up. “How do I know you don’t feel the same? Do you see your piece of the pie getting smaller? Maybe you’re the one manipulating me?”
He laughed, as if the very idea was ridiculous.
The confidence he wore like a second skin—that didn’t come without bending life to one’s will. Giovanni had told her how Raphael had taken VA public, made gains they hadn’t seen in the last decade. He’d been ruthless about the changes he’d enforced, wasn’t the least bit sentimental about what needed to be done, but his execution was always effective, she’d been told by her grandfather, curiously with something like regret in his eyes.
More profits. Better stock prices. He had no friends he trusted, no one was indispensable to him. No weakness was allowed in himself or tolerated in others.
The shadow of his father’s suicide, Pia realized now, would forever cast a black shadow on Raphael’s life, and would never let him be anything but a man who loathed weakness.
“If you’re wealthy, then why would your mother worry?” she countered.
He shrugged, but Pia could see it bothered him by the tightness of his mouth. “She grew up in a very wealthy family and my father kept her in the same style. When we lost the house and our lifestyle, a lot of her friends and connections turned their backs on her. She took it very hard—wouldn’t leave her bedroom, refused to eat. She became a ghost.”
“It couldn’t have been harder on her than it had been on your father, could it?” Pia was unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
She waited for a cutting comeback. He simply frowned.
“I’m sorry, that was unkind. It’s just that…your father was betrayed by people he trusted. People with whom he shared his fears and dreams and hopes. Your mother still had him and you and your sisters. What’s a fortune when you have family and friends who love you?”
“You really believe that, don’t you?”