He shook his head, interrupting her with urgency. ‘Do you remember what you said about love and hate? About how close they are on the emotional spectrum?’
Skye turned to face him, her eyes huge.
‘I hated your father, Skye. I hated him practically my whole life, to an almost mythical proportion. I came here, to London, wanting the hotel more than anything in my life. I expected to hate you. I thought I could use you without experiencing even a hint of remorse over it.’
She hardened her heart and tilted her chin, telling herself to be strong even when she was grieving anew, like barely healed wounds were being sliced open.
‘But I met you and everything changed. The world began to spin in entirely the wrong direction. Hate became love, but I didn’t want to believe it. My idiocy makes it no less true, my darling, my love. Can you not see that I have loved you all along?’
Her expression was mutinous but hope flared large in her chest. ‘You still tried to take the hotel.’
‘Something I will always regret,’ he murmured. ‘Something I am trying to fix now, if you will let me. I want it out of our lives. It meant everything to me because it was such a big part of my fam
ily’s history. But I will not jeopardise our future for my past.’
Skye swallowed, his words turning something around inside her. She remembered something else he’d said to her, what felt like a lifetime ago. You are already smart. Why not be happy?
‘I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say. I feel one thing and I think another.’
‘I know, I know.’ He nodded gently, kneeling and pressing his forehead to hers. ‘And you are right to question me. I know I will never hurt you again, but that it will take time to show you. So I ask you the same question I did in Venice on your last day. I know I have no right to even hope; that you have no reason to trust me. But, Skye, I ask only... Will you simply give me a chance to show you, cara?’
Her heart was trembling. ‘I just... I don’t think I can.’ At his look of anguish, certainty filled her. ‘The thing is, a chance isn’t good enough.’
He nodded, putting some space between them.
‘Then tell me what you need, bella. Tell me what will make you happy and I will do it.’
‘Even if that means leaving? And never seeing me again?’
A muscle jerked in his cheek but he nodded. ‘Yes, Skye.’ She saw him swallow and brace himself, and she understood the emotions that were spreading through him. The pain and fear and miserable acceptance. But he continued bravely. ‘I will never not love you. I will never not need you. But I will leave you alone...if this is what you want.’
And, finally, she smiled.
A smile that spread over her face and through her body. A smile that was definitely not matched by Matteo’s expression.
‘Why would I want you to leave me alone?’
He frowned, his confusion understandable.
‘Oh, Matteo.’ His name quivered against her mouth. ‘I wish everything between us had been different.’ She chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully. ‘I wish there was no family feud, no hotel. No anger and hatred. But, even with things the way they were, I still loved you.’
His lips were grim. ‘Because you are all that is kind and good. Only you could love a man like me...’
She held a hand up to silence him, pressing her fingertip to his lips. ‘I married you because I loved you. I left you because I loved you too much to live with you, when you didn’t feel the same way about me.’
‘Only I did, cara. I’ve been such a damned fool.’
‘Yes,’ Skye murmured, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. ‘But, seeing as you’ve seen the light and are prepared to spend the rest of your life showing me each and every day just how much I mean to you, it would be rather foolish for me to make either of us suffer a moment longer. Right?’ She lifted a hand to his cheek. ‘We are both miserable, aren’t we?’
His eyes swept over her face and he nodded, a grim gesture of agreement.
‘So let’s not be.’ She lifted her hands and held his face, then moved her own closer.
‘What exactly do you mean?’ He was cautious, his expression guarded.
‘You’re my husband,’ she said with an impish grin, mirroring a phrase he used often. She leaned her face forward, so their lips were only an inch apart. ‘And I love you. As much now...no, more...than the day we married.’
His groan was heavy with emotion; his eyes swept shut. When he opened them again, Skye was staring at him, a smile on her sweet, pink lips.