“Don’t give up so easily. You two have history together. He’s a stranger.”
“She doesn’t act like he’s a stranger.” He pitched his fork down hard on his plate. “I don’t feel like eating. I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Don’t give up. As long as you’re here, we still have a chance to stop her from marrying him. If you leave, you leave her alone with him. You don’t want to do that. You need to give her an alternative.”
“You can’t honestly want her to marryhim!” Cesare countered. “You don’t actually think he’s serious about marrying her. He’s a scumbag! This is some kind of underhanded trick cooked up by his family. He’s playing her for his father. You have to see that.”
I lowered my voice, hoping he would do the same thing. Gia and Romeo could come back anytime. “I feel the same way you do, but the best way we can keep an eye on him is to keep him here. He’ll show his true colors soon. Trust me. When he does, we all need to be ready to pick up the pieces, and that means offering her a good man to marry in his place.”
He smacked his lips and tossed his napkin down next to his plate. “Fine, but if he steps out of line once, I’ll fucking kill him. I don’t give a shit who he is.”
“I know, but you can see the way she acts around him. If she really wants to marry him, you and I won’t be able to stop her.”
“She won’t marry him. I won’t let her.”
“Listen, man,” I told him. “If she really wants to marry him, we shouldn’t want to stop her. I care about her, and I want her to be happy. If he turns out to be the best man for her, I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen.”
“He isn’t the best man for her,” he countered. “No way can he be sincere about her—no way.”
I straightened up and pushed my plate away. I didn’t feel like eating, either. “I feel the same way, but you know the old saying. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If he’s planning something with his father, keeping him here will be the easiest way to find out what it is and stop them before they do too much damage.”
GIA
Istopped by the stairs that upstairs. Romeo squeezed my hand. We’d been holding hands in the library while we talked about South America.
That squeeze sent a shiver of excitement up my arm and into my heart. This was the man who snuck into my bedroom last week—the man who turned me on so much.
His eyes told me loud and clear that his visit meant as much to him as it did to me. He was thinking about it again right now. “I guess I’ll see you later,” he murmured.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I guess so.”
He gave my hand one last squeeze and pulled away. He headed up the stairs, and I went back to the dining room, but I found it deserted except for the servants cleaning up after dinner. Leo and Cesare were both gone.
I sighed. Romeo and I must have been in the library a lot longer than I thought. I should have gone to the kitchen and gotten something to eat, but when I passed the front parlor, I saw someone moving outside.
I thought at first it must be one of the security guys, but when I checked, I realized it was Cesare. He was back on the terrace where I found him before.
I stepped outside. “Are you okay?”
He gazed up at the lighted windows of skyscrapers in the distance. “I’m fine. You should go inside. It’s cold out here.”
I sidled over to him and slipped my hand into his. His hand felt so different from Romeo’s. Romeo’s hands were slender and artistic, not muscular like Cesare’s.
Should I have felt guilty for holding Cesare’s hand so soon after holding Romeo’s? I seemed to have traveled a long way away from all those considerations. I had already been fooling around with both Leo and Cesare. Now I was starting to get close to Romeo too.
“Don’t you want to take a walk?” I asked. “It isn’t that late.”
“Not really. I have too much on my mind.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He shot me a hard glance, and I trembled in spite of myself. He had been so warm and close this last week. He never looked at me like this before. In fact, I couldn’t remember him ever looking at me like that in all the years we’d known each other.
“What are you doing with Romeo?” he demanded.
“Huh? I’m just considering his proposal. I told you. I’m doing exactly the same thing with him that I’m doing with you.”
His face went even blacker. That was obviously the wrong thing to say. “You better not be doing the same thing with him that you’re doing with me.”