‘I want you to have the hotel.’ She leaned forward. ‘It deserves to be what it used to be.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Then you are certainly able to renovate it.’
She recoiled as if he’d slapped her. How could she? How could she walk into the place that was like a living testament to Matteo? How could she oversee its renovations knowing that every colour scheme she chose or fitting she selected would be like touching Matteo all over again?
‘No.’ A terse word full of fear and meaning. ‘I don’t want it.’
‘Nor do I,’ he said softly. ‘Unless you are part of the deal.’
‘No more deals,’ she whispered. ‘Just common sense.’
‘Common sense?’ He arched a brow and then stood, moving towards the window. Skye’s eyes captured every detail of him, greedily devouring him under the cover of his back being turned. She saw that he was, indeed, slimmer than he had been. That his hair was longer. That he was altered physically by what they’d experienced.
And guilt waved through her. Losing the baby had been a nightmare for her. But what about Matteo? She couldn’t deny that he’d wanted their child. She didn’t doubt that for a moment.
‘How are you?’ She whispered the question, the words full of haunted agony.
‘How am I?’ He spun around, pinning her with eyes that were full of Matteo, yet were not. Eyes that glowed with arrogance and pain. Eyes that were miserable.
‘How am I?’ he repeated, moving across the room towards her so that she held her breath and felt like she was being whipped with every step he took. His proximity was danger and delight.
‘I am ruined, Skye.’
She couldn’t hold her sob this time. It burst out of her but she said nothing. She could only stare and feel. Feel everything, all at once. All her hopes and loves and needs and wants, all her soul and her body and her heart.
‘I am ruined.’ He crouched before her and stared at her without touching. ‘I am a half-man since you left. I have spent these weeks needing you, needing to hear your voice, to know that you are okay. Worrying for you, wishing for you. I have lived and breathed every day full of anger at my own stupidity. And the worst part of it is that you’re right. You were right to walk out on me. After what I did to you, how can I hope you would love me still? You offered me your heart once and I was not man enough to understand what a gift it was. A stupid hotel! For a stupid hotel, I gambled you.’
Skye stared at him, her skin pricking with goose-bumps.
‘I spent my life wanting that damned building, to the point I was blind to the truth of what we had. I hated your father, and I thought I was getting some petty kind of revenge in marrying you. And yet he has the last laugh, because I ruined even this. I fell in love with you and seem to have done everything I could to push you away.’
He dragged a hand through his hair. ‘I have tormented myself with memories of all that I have said to you. Done to you. Of the way I have made it seem as though it’s only your body I value, because I was too proud to admit how utterly you have all of me. How I rejected your love even when it was all I wanted.’
Skye bit back another sob, the grief of their situation permeating her body.
‘I don’t deserve you. I know that. But, even now, I need to know that you understand. That this is your decision. If you want me, I am yours. I don’t expect you to be stupid enough to give me another chance, Skye, but if you were... If you did...’
‘Don’t!’ she cried, squeezing her eyes shut. ‘This is hard enough...’
He reached for her hand and pressed it to his chest, and then he held his other palm flat against hers. ‘Feel how we beat in unison. How our hearts know what we are too stupid to comprehend.’
She shook her head, tears stinging her eyes. ‘Teo...’
He moved his hand from her chest and reached into the breast pocket of his suit. He pulled out a small velvet box and Skye froze, staring at her husband and then the little cube.
Before she could say anything, he popped the lid open and Skye’s gaze fell to the ring.
And her chest rolled.
It was perfect.
Of their own volition, her fingertips moved to the ring and lifted it, staring at the details with a sense of awe. It was rose-gold with intricate patterns carved into the narrow band, and there were small diamonds set the whole way around. They were not of huge value, nor size, but they were beautiful.
‘It’s...very nice,’ she said softly, sliding it back into the box.
Matteo’s smile was just a quick twist of his lips. ‘It is what I should have chosen the first time around. I knew, as soon as you wore the other, that I had been wrong. That you are someone who prefers beauty over cost.’
She swallowed and looked away. ‘The hotel...’