She felt slightly nauseous at the prospect. Angelo’s capacity for ruthlessness was way beyond what she had ever guessed at.
“Yes.”
“That was cruel.”
“Do you really think so?” His eyes darkened with strong emotions, one of them unmistakably anger. “Wouldn’t you have preferred to know what kind of bastard Baron Randall was before getting so involved with him?”
“Sure, but that’s different…a wife is already involved. She loved him.”
“And he would keep hurting her if she didn’t face the truth. They could have had children before she woke up to what kind of man he is.”
“You can’t justify such cold behavior with that kind of reasoning. You didn’t tell her about him for her sake, you did it for yours.”
“I didn’t tell her anything.” He got up and came to lean against her desk. “I made sure she found out through friends, that there was always someone there to comfort her as each new layer of his sleazy behavior was revealed. If my mom had found out the same way, she would have been saved a lot of humiliation and might be alive now.”
She wished that were true, but chances were, there had been clues that his mother’s lover was an evil man, whoever he was. Just as there had been clues to what kind of man Baron was. Things she’d ignored for the sake of her love.
“I had friends around me when Baron did his public rejection campaign and trust me, it didn’t make it any easier to bear.”
“You don’t know that. You didn’t have to face the other.”
“No, I didn’t, but I did learn that friends can be worse than strangers, or even enemies.”
“Do you really think a wife is better off not knowing of her husband’s infidelity?”
“No, that’s not what I meant at all.” But she could see how it sounded like it. “It just bothers me that was part of your revenge against him. I pictured you taking over his company, not laying waste to his personal life.”
“No man deserves to be ruined as much as this guy. I’ll never forget my mom’s sobbing, hysterical confession, or her deep shame and guilt because of what she’d done. His cruelty killed her. You can’t get more personal than that.”
And it had left Angelo in a world where business and vengeance ruled and love had no place. No wonder he was so ruthless, but he couldn’t go on being that way. If he learned to love her, would he soften…at least a little?
“He didn’t give her the pills,” she pointed out.
“No, just the reason for taking them.”
“That could have been as much about her grief over your father than over what this guy did to her. She made the choice, Angelo.” She hated saying it, but he couldn’t spend the rest of his adult life hating this other man.
A heart full of hate had no room for love and she needed his love.
“Why are you defending him?” he asked sounding both confused and strangely wounded by her words.
“I’m not.” She laid her hand on his thigh in comfort. “I’m trying to make you see reason.”
“In what way?”
“Revenge can consume you and I don’t want you consumed.” She pleaded with him with her eyes, hoping he would read the message there and heed it.
He gave her one of the slashing smiles she’d come to adore. “Don’t worry, it’s almost over and the only thing that consumes me lately is when I get to make love to my beautiful wife next.”
“I want that to be true.”
“It is. Believe me when I say I spend a lot more time thinking about you than anything else.”
That was a huge admission and she gave it the response it deserved, standing up to kiss him with all the passionate love beating in her heart.
CHAPTER TEN
“TARA?” They were naked, snuggled against each other on the oversized reading chair in the far corner of the study with their legs entwined and stretched out on its matching ottoman.
Angelo had responded to her kiss with flattering enthusiasm, locking the door and then proceeding to demonstrate just how much he thought about her during the day.
She nuzzled his hair roughened chest. “Mmmhmm?”
“Why was your breakup with Randall so public?”
The languorous aftermath of their lovemaking dissipated like the steam on a latte. This wasn’t something she’d talked about to anyone, even her mom. It had hurt too much.
He rubbed her back soothingly. “I’d really like to know.”
“At first, it wasn’t. Baron told me he was getting married, but that he wanted to keep our relationship going.”