Chapter Ten
Renzo sat behind the wheel of the car, unmoving. Sonia’s words had slammed into him with the force of a jackhammer. They’d sliced through his anger, obliterated his hurt at her abandonment. They’d turned everything on its head.
He’d known Sonia was passionate but he’d never guessed at the deep well of feelings that spilled over as she spoke. He’d been so busy indulging himself he hadn’t looked more deeply.
Renzo’s chest cramped at the hurt he’d seen in her eyes. His gut churned at the despair in her words. His conscience carved a hole right through him at the idea of her feeling used.
Slowly, gripping the wheel hard because he needed something to anchor him, he picked through what she’d revealed.
She knew about the engagement.
He hadn’t expected that since Sonia didn’t read celebrity gossip, but he should have been prepared.
She believed he’d been having sex with her while committed to another woman. Pain radiated from his jaw to his temple and down his neck. Belatedly he realised he was grinding his molars.
Deliberately, he unlocked his teeth and flexed his fingers on the leather-clad wheel.
It was tempting to blame Ambra’s family for talking to the press, or his grandparents for their role in this situation. But the fault lay at his door. He’d been too lazy, too self-satisfied to stir himself and tackle an issue he preferred to ignore.
Because of that Sonia, his vibrant, beautiful lover, suffered.
His hands fisted as he recalled the rest of what she’d revealed. That he wasn’t the first man to hurt her. That someone had betrayed her, a man who’d hidden the fact he was married. Had Sonia hoped that relationship would last? Had she given her heart to the bastard?
Searing heat scorched Renzo from scalp to soles. He wanted to find her ex-lover and pummel him to a bloody pulp.
Renzo thought of his Sonia, passionate, forthright and ready to embrace life, betrayed by a snake who’d made her feel usedand cheap.
His skin crawled as he remembered.
It was you who made her feel that way.
You who didn’t stop to think about what you were getting into, so long as you had sexy Sonia on tap for your pleasure.
What did that make him?
Renzo had been brought up to expect the world would fall into place for him. Pampered only son of an eldest son, he was heir to wealth and title. He had it easy. He was attractive to women, successful, had a job he loved, friends and a life he enjoyed. He was accustomed to reaching out and taking what he wanted.
His gaze slewed to the woman who’d come to a halt a little way down the hill. Even from here he registered her high-set shoulders and the stiff, unnatural way she stood, as if mustering all her energy just to stay on her feet.
He recalled the bright glaze of her stunning eyes, making them glitter like drenched peridots. Typically she’d refused to let the tears fall. Sonia wasn’t a needy woman. Or a weak one. But that didn’t make her pain any less real. So real that Renzo felt the echo of it shear through him.
Suddenly he couldn’t sit still any longer. Shoving open the door he unfurled himself from the car and headed towards her, down the stony slope. She faced away from him, as if staring at the city, but did she really see it? The thought of her giving in to tears made him feel wrong inside.
Renzo slowed as he approached, not wanting to scare her into running away. He needn’t have bothered. He saw her tense at his approach but she didn’t move. Sonia was no coward. Though she’d moved out of the apartment, it was because she was disgusted with him.
In all his life he’d never felt so...inadequate. It was something he never wanted to experience again. Renzo infinitely preferred being in control of his world.
‘It’s not what you think.’
Sonia shook her head, her long, caramel-coloured hair swishing across her back. ‘I’ve heard that one before.’ She sounded so bitter.
‘I’m not engaged.’
She stilled.