The warm summer night suddenly felt cold.
“So you’ll waste money on everything but the one thing I actually care about?” Folding her arms, she turned away stonily. By now, as the night grew late, many of the tables had emptied.
“Hallie.” His voice changed, turned gentle. “Look at me.”
Grudgingly she did and saw his dark eyes were tender.
“Tell me why a house means so much to you,” he said. “Because I truly do not understand.”
Hallie took a deep breath.
“The house I grew up in was built by my great-grandfather. By his own two hands.” She tried to smile. “The songs I sing to Jack, the songs you love so much, they were the ones my mother once sang to me. My family lived for generations on the same mountain. I had close friends. A place in the world.”
“If you loved it so much,” he said quietly, “why did you leave?”
With an intake of breath, she looked away as a rush of pain filled her heart. Even after five years, grief often still caught her like this when she wasn’t looking. “Everything was suddenly gone. My family. My home. I couldn’t stay. I felt lost.” Her hands twisted together in her lap. “My parents always said I should be a singer. Even my brother said it. So I tried. For five years.”
“That’s a long time.”
She gave a choked laugh. “So many people try to break in as singers in New York. All so talented, better than I’ll ever be.”
“I doubt that very much.”
“The harder I tried to succeed, the worse I felt.” Looking down, she said softly, “And it didn’t bring them back.”
Silence fell across their table. She heard the clank of silver against china from a few remaining patrons and the distant sound of traffic and birds crying in the night.
“So why,” Cristiano said slowly, “would you ever choose to leave yourself vulnerable to such pain? After losing so much, I’d think you’d never want a home again.”
/> Hallie looked at him. “Is that why you live in hotels?” she said softly. “Never stopping. Never staying.”
Cristiano’s eyes widened slightly. Then he drew back, his jaw tightening. Rising to his feet, he held out his hand. “Come. The night is growing cold.”
* * *
It was quiet in the sports car as he drove them back through the city after midnight.
How did you build your fortune?
I was lucky. I met a man who owned a small hotel chain in southern Italy. I convinced him to hire me and teach me everything he knew. Then I betrayed him.
Hallie looked at him sideways, wishing she had the courage to ask him who the man was and why Cristiano had betrayed him. She stayed silent.
Before their wedding, she’d convinced herself he was a good man, deep down. But now that they were married she was starting to see a darkness inside Cristiano she’d never glimpsed before.
She was suddenly afraid of learning things about him she didn’t want to know.
When they arrived back at the hotel, they found Jack sleeping in his crib and Agata snoozing nearby on the sofa, her knitting folded neatly in her lap. After they’d thanked her and she’d left for the night, Hallie and Cristiano tiptoed into the darkened nursery. For a moment, they just stood together looking at their slumbering child.
Then Cristiano took her hand. Wordlessly he led her to their bedroom, and even though a corner of her heart was still angry, she could no more resist him than stop breathing.
Once in their bedroom, he pulled her against him. In the slanted moonlight coming through the blinds, his eyes burned through her. So did his fingertips, lightly stroking down the top of her sexy black dress, the bare skin of her back.
“I have followed all your rules, have I not?” he said in a low voice.
Confused, Hallie nodded.
“I’ve shared a meal with you both every day? Learned how to care for our son? Loved him?”