Hired:The Italian's Bride

“But you don’t understand, Mari, that’s the thing. You don’t understand anything.”

It was Luca who took the step and Mari found her breasts pressed against the fabric of his suit coat. Without thinking she lifted her hand, the silky fabric of her pashmina drifting off her shoulder and hanging from her right elbow. Her finger traced the hard angle of his jaw. “Then help me understand.”

He didn’t answer. Instead he reached up and gripped her wrist with his hand and lowered his mouth to hers.

She opened her lips, letting his tongue sweep inside, tasting the tangy sharpness of fine champagne and the dark seduction of cool chocolate.

With his other hand he dragged her closer. The clinking sounds of the dining room echoed behind them, slightly muffled by the seclusion of the alcove. Luca’s lips trailed over her cheek to her ear and down the curve of her neck, dropping featherlight kisses that made her weak in the knees and destroyed any resolve she might have had.

“Luca,” she uttered, shattered, wondering what it would be like to give herself to a man for the first time since that awful day seven years before. To feel safe and protected. Cherished.

“The first time I saw you, your hair was up.” He whispered against her temple and sank her fingers into her waves. “And I knew that moment that one day you’d wear it down and you’d look exactly like you do tonight. Bellissima Mariella.”

She tilted her head back, feeling her hair slide along her shoulder blades as his mouth followed the curve of her neckline toward her collarbone. There was no reason for him to be touching her this way unless…unless…

Sensation after sensation swirled through her: touch, taste, the feel of his body holding hers and the taste of his lips as their mouths clashed again. His fingers found the zipper at the back of her dress and lowered it a few inches, sliding his fingers along the seam while Mari ached to be touched. It ceased to matter where they were.

But he stepped back.

“I can’t do this Mari. It’s not fair.”

Her body still vibrated from his embrace. “I don’t understand.”

Gently he reached out, picked up the trailing end of her shawl and placed it over her naked shoulder. “I cannot be with you tonight knowing that tomorrow…”

He hesitated, the silence so terrible Mari thought she would certainly scream. Finally she broke the silence with the one question she had wanted to ask since this morning but hadn’t had the courage to hear the answer.

“When will you be back?”

For the first time that evening, his gaze skittered away. “I have no plans to return. Once Paris is looked after, I am returning to Florence for the holiday with my family.”

A family that didn’t include her. No matter how welcome she’d felt in his arms, it came down to the resounding fact that she was an outsider.

And with that, everything went sinking to her toes.

It was clear. Despite what they’d shared, despite the attraction that clearly simmered between them—she knew that much to be true—there wasn’t enough to keep him here. She stood motionless, not sure of what to say. Until she’d asked the question, there had been a tiny flicker of hope. But she’d only been fooling herself. She had always known he was leaving, so why was she feeling so betrayed? Why was she feeling like somehow she’d failed?

Because she wasn’t ready to let him go yet. That was what he’d done to her. He’d shown her herself and he’d taught her to hope. And in the process he’d ended up breaking her heart by doing what he’d said he was going to all along. Leaving.

She should have known better. Should have thought it through more. Should have realized that in the end they couldn’t just go their separate ways like nothing had happened.

“Say something, Mari.”

She sat down in the chair. “There is nothing to say, Luca. We both knew this time was coming. I guess I just hoped you’d be back.”

“We knew this was temporary.”

She couldn’t tell him how she’d grown to care for him, to rely on him. It would sound weak and clingy and that wasn’t what she wanted. It was irrelevant now anyway. Tomorrow he’d be gone. There was no sense fighting what was obviously not meant to be.

“I thought you’d be around to supervise more of the refurbishing, that’s all.”

His jaw relaxed a little and he sat, too, turning his chair to face her. “I did, too. The plan was for me to be here several more weeks. But I’m needed more elsewhere…I know I’m leaving the Cascade in capable hands, Mari. And I’m only a phone call or e-mail away if you need help. I have full confidence in you.”