Ruthlessly Bedded, Forcibly Wedded

So she shook her head. As she did she saw Vicenzo’s face darken and close in, but she assured herself she was making the right choice—even though it felt like anything but the right choice. She felt curiously numb.

‘You’re right. All I’ve ever wanted is to be free. And if you’re willing to let me go now…I’d like to go.’ Her heart constricted painfully, but she told herself she was just protecting herself. She wouldn’t be able to endure more heartache than this, and if she stayed heartache was certain.

Everything about Vicenzo was stiff and unyielding. ‘Of course. If that is your wish. Tommaso will take you to the airport in an hour. I can arrange for your things to be packed up and sent to your new place. I’ll leave it to you to decide what to do about our marriage.’

Cara opened her mouth but he put up a hand. ‘I’ve destroyed the prenuptial agreement, so if you do decide you’d like to separate you’ll be well looked after. And needless to say you’ll have access to funds in the meantime. I would just ask that you consider what you want before making a final decision.’

If she’d needed a sign then this was it. He wasn’t even trying too hard to persuade her to change her mind. Cara couldn’t articulate anything anyway, so she just nodded jerkily. And then, before she could break in two, she turned and walked out of the study.

An hour later she waited on the steps by the front door. Tommaso had gone to get the Jeep. Her heart felt as if ice had been packed around it. She heard a sound behind her and whirled around. If it was Vicenzo—But it was Silvio, and immediately she felt devastated.

‘I’m sorry,’ she blurted out, tears pricking her eyes. That treacherous ice was melting.

He came to a stop beside her and looked up with kind, shrewd eyes. ‘What for? You have to do what you have to do.’

‘Thank you for understanding.’

Tommaso pulled the Jeep around and Cara bent to kiss Silvio on both cheeks. He caught her hand just as she would have turned away and said huskily, ‘I don’t think you realise, Cara, Vicenzo hadn’t been back to this house since he left home at the age of seventeen. And yet he brought you here, because I think he knew that for the first time he was willing to risk his heart again.’

Shock coursed through Cara. No, she wanted to say, he only brought me here so that he could make sure I didn’t cause trouble. And yet… She heard Tommaso open the door of the Jeep behind her, take her small case from her feet.

The pull to give in was nearly overwhelming—to go back, to ask Vicenzo… But she had to be strong. If she went back he might seduce her into staying, but eventually it would amount to the same ending. A worse heartbreak than she could ever imagine.

Her mouth wobbled. She had to leave. Now. ‘I’m sorry, Silvio.’

He just nodded and pulled back in his wheelchair. Cara got into the Jeep and turned her head, so he wouldn’t see her tears as they moved away.

By the time they were pulling in to the airport, and Tommaso was handing her yet another tissue, Cara had to finally concede that if she even made it onto the small plane waiting on the tarmac her heart would be so broken into tiny pieces that anything in comparison had to be better.

When she apologised and asked Tommaso to turn around he didn’t look surprised. And when she asked him to stop in Tharros, and she emerged from a small boutique dressed in a simple white sundress sprigged with small daisies, he didn’t say a word.

The villa was silent when they returned, and she could see what Silvio had meant about there not having been happiness here for a long time. She made a silent vow to do her best to change that—but first…

She took a deep breath outside Vicenzo’s study and opened the door. He was standing at the window, hands in his pockets. Every line in his body so tense and proud. She saw an opened bottle of whisky on the table and an empty glass. And then he turned around, and she almost flinched at the look on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and in that instant she knew that there was infinitely more between them than just the events that had brought them together.

Vicenzo saw Cara standing there, in a plain white dress and bare feet, her hair down. It was a mirage. It had to be. Especially as she wasn’t wearing that awful black. She looked like an angel. She couldn’t be real.

And then she was walking towards him, lifting herself up on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck and say, ‘I’m sorry for walking away…but I was afraid—so afraid that all you felt was guilt and a duty to let me go… I wanted you to reach out and hold me, to tell me not to go, and when you didn’t…’ She shook her head, eyes glistening with tears. ‘I’m not free without you, Vicenzo. You’re my freedom.’

Her sweet scent wrapping itself around him told him this was real. She had come back to him dressed in white, to make a statement, to make him believe.

‘Oh, Cara…’ He pulled her so tight she could barely breath, and buried his head in her neck and hair. His words were muffled against her neck as he kissed her and talked at the same time. ‘The only reason I didn’t reach out was because I knew if I touched you I’d never let you go again, and then you’d hate me for not giving you the choice to walk away. But you don’t know how hard it’s been to stand here and think of you getting onto that plane… I was attempting to drink myself into a stupor in order to stop myself from going out and hauling you back here.’

She searched blindly for his mouth, pressing kisses on every bit of exposed skin. ‘I couldn’t do it. The thought of leaving the island, leaving you behind, was too much.’

Their mouths connected and they kissed as if they’d never kissed before, as if they’d been parted for years.

When they finally broke apart Cara looked up and smiled tremulously. ‘Enzo…Vicenzo…I love you so much.’

He smiled, and his body tightened in anticipation at the innocently sexual look in her eyes, at the softness of her body melded to his. He held her face in two shaky hands. Looking deeply into her eyes, Vicenzo asked, with a tremor in his voice, ‘Will you marry me again, Cara? Here on the lawn in front of the people we love…so that I can prove to you how much I love you and need you…’

Happiness exploded through Cara like a sunburst. ‘Of course I’ll marry you. Over and over again if you want.’ And she reached up and pressed her mouth to his, stealing his soul with the sweetest kiss.

It was early evening by the time Cara found herself waking slowly and opening her eyes. In her half-sleep she had a momentary sense of panic, and her eyes flew open to see Vicenzo resting on one arm, looking down at her with a serious expression on his face.

‘Cara I’ll never leave you again like I did that night. That’s why you never wanted to stay in my bed, wasn’t it? You were afraid you’d wake and it would be that morning all over again…’

Cara nodded warily.