A Ring for Vincenzo's Heir

Scarlett was right. About everything.

Part of him had thought if he pushed her, she would flee, which would prove his worst beliefs and justify his actions in making her sign the post-nup.

He’d wanted to push her away.

You’re afraid to love me. Yes, afraid. You tried to create a wall between us. But I’m not going to let you do it. We love each other. We belong together.

From the first moment he’d met Scarlett, so silly and free in the New York dive bar, choking at her first taste of vodka, he’d been enchanted. He’d never met anyone like her, so feisty and sexy and warm.

He’d wanted her from the start, and he’d been willing to make deals to possess her—like his ridiculous fantasy that he could protect his own heart, and stay in control, by making her sign a form, or by trying to love her less, because he, the one who cared less, was the one who had the power.

But that was wrong. He saw that now.

It wasn’t the one who loved less who had the power, but the one who loved more. Not because you could control the outcome, or keep from getting hurt, but because it meant you were brave enough to live without fear, hurtling yourself headlong into both joy and pain.

Being a fully alive human being, with the courage to love completely—what could be more powerful than that?

And as much as he loved his son, it wasn’t the baby who’d first cracked open his heart.

It was Scarlett.

He looked at his father. “I need to go talk to my wife.”

“Go, son,” Giuseppe said fiercely. “Show her who you really are!”

Vin nodded, turned back down the hall.

He never should have rented their home out from under her. Another way he’d tried to push Scarlett into hating him. It had never felt like his home—until now. Scarlett had taken the sad, faded, tumbledown prison of his childhood and brought it to joyous life.

She’d done the same for him. Before they’d met, Vin had been focused on money and power, to the detriment of his own happiness. He’d been so afraid of being vulnerable that, if Scarlett hadn’t shown up in the New York cathedral that day, he would have married a woman he didn’t give a damn about.

If not for Scarlett, he would have turned into a man like Salvatore Calabrese: selfish, shallow and cold, too insecure to risk the only thing that mattered. His heart.

So many things Scarlett had done for him, and all she’d asked in return was for him to love her. For him to be the man he’d been born to be. The man she deserved.

Vin’s walk turned into a run. Nodding at the sleepy security guard sitting inside the foyer, he pushed open the front door.

Outside the palazzo, the street was dark and quiet. Silent white snow fell softly to the ground. But where was Scarlett?

Then he saw her.

Still in her diamond necklace and sapphire-colored gown, her red hair looked tangled and twisted, and she had terror in her eyes.

A man was holding her. A man with a gun. A man with all kinds of darkness in his eyes.

“Vin!” she cried, struggling.

“Borgia.” Blaise Falkner gave him a cold, evil smile. “I should have known you wouldn’t keep away for long. You’ve wrecked my plan, but I’m almost glad. Now you’ll see what I’m going to do to her, right in front of your eyes.”

Terror ripped through Vin’s heart as he looked from Falkner’s face to the revolver, black as a deadly snake, held against Scarlett’s forehead. For a split second, Vin’s world started to go dark with fear.

Then he took a deep breath. He didn’t do fear. Ever. And he wasn’t going to start now, when his wife needed him to be strong. There was only one emotion he could let himself feel right now. He let the waves of it roll over him, like an ocean in a storm.

Rage.

CHAPTER TWELVE

WHEN BLAISE HAD pulled a gun on her in the quiet, snowy street, Scarlett had thought bitterly of how Vin had ordered her to keep a bodyguard nearby. Why hadn’t she listened?

Because she’d never imagined she might need a bodyguard in the center of Rome. She’d never imagined that anyone might want to attack her...

“I’ve been watching your house for a week,” Blaise had said, keeping his black revolver trained on her. “Hoping to get you alone.”