Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
A soft sniffle. Goddamn it. I had been right.
Even if the girl had come here looking for a husband, I had been rude. Far too rude. I just hadn’t expected to react to her the way I had.
I hadn’t expected her to be so fucking pretty, damnit!
This was my cousins faults. I picked out an angry text, still standing in the hallway. I didn’t hear another sniffle. I did hear the water turn on.
She was taking a shower.
Which meant she was naked.
I cursed and went back downstairs to get more bourbon.
Chapter Four
Theresa
A soft knock on the door roused me.
I lifted my head from the bed. I felt fuzzy headed, but clean and less wrung out. I had showered and taken a nap, something I never did at home.
Home. Something I had not had for what felt like forever. And something that was once again, out of reach.
I had hoped to find a new home here. I looked around at the opulent luxury of the guest room. It was decorated in my favorite colors. I had a feeling the girls had had something to do with that.
It was lovely. I should feel safe here. But that man had made it obvious I was an unwelcome guest.
If only he hadn’t been so unspeakably handsome… somehow it made the brutal humiliation of it all so much worse. Before he had opened his mouth, I’d had an instant reaction to him. An attraction that shocked me.
I had felt like I was literally seeing the man of my dreams.
Not that I’d had much time for romantic dreams. Even as a girl, I hadn’t dreamt of white dresses and cozy kitchens. I had vaguely wanted a big family. But that was more due to the fact that God kept taking everyone I loved away from me.
One by one. Until there was no one. No one but the Margarellis. And I wasn’t one of them. Not really.
Meeting Michael had proved that once and for all.
“Are you awake, Bella Mia?”
“Auntie?”
I hurried to the door, realizing I must have locked it before getting cleaned up. I was glad. And it proved that I did not feel safe here.
But as I opened the door, a huge dose of maternal love swept over me in the form of a cuddly, older Italian woman.
“Auntie!” I squealed as she enfolded me in a giant, sweet smelling hug. “I missed you!”
She gave me a gentle pat on the back and let go.
“You look tired,” she said with a frown.
“It was not easy… leaving. Even though I had to.”
“Yes, you did,” she said, nodding firmly. It was true. I hadn’t had a choice. Not unless I was willing to become a pawn in a bitter feud to settle a family debt. The Margarellis had stepped in. Their power alone had kept the dogs at bay.
But only when I lived on their land. If I set foot off their estate, I would have been taken. So I had been trapped. It was a gilded cage, to be sure, but a cage all the same.
“You aren’t ready! Michael will be cross if you are late.”
I rolled my eyes, not giving a damn if I made him cranky. Could the man be any ruder? I doubted it. But I said nothing. Auntie was his family. I couldn’t criticize the man in front of her.
I would just keep my opinion to myself, as I usually did. It was safer that way. Easier, too.
More cowardly, a voice said inside my mind, but I shooed it away.
“Dress for dinner. Here, wear this,” she said, unpacking my bags and handing me a dark floral dress. I stared at it, chewing my lip. It wasn’t particularly fancy, but I didn’t want to make any effort at all. I sighed and changed quickly, brushing my hair and pulling the top off my face and into a barrette. Auntie could find no fault with my appearance now.
“There’s no need for you to unpack,” I said as she bustled around the room, afraid to tell Auntie that I would not be staying.
Coward, again, that inconveniently honest voice hissed at me.
“It is always nice to look nice. Especially for such a beautiful girl. You could wear a potato sack and stop traffic,” she chuckled. I smiled wanly. I didn’t really care what I looked like. All my appearance ever did was attract the kind of attention I did not like.
“Are you ready to eat?”
“No. I am going to let you young people eat together tonight. I already snacked too much while I was cooking,” she said, patting her belly.
“Oh,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment. Having Auntie there would have made the meal palatable. As it was, I could not imagine trying to make conversation with that man and not giving myself indigestion in the process.