A Deal for the Di Sione Ring (The Billionaire's Legacy 7)

His body stiffened. She thought she might have pushed it too far, her muscles tensing for an explosion. A long, silent moment passed. Then he expelled a breath and raked a hand through his hair.

“My mother was my father’s secretary. She had an affair with him during a rough patch in his marriage, thinking he loved her, that he would leave his family for her. But that was the way of my father and his wife Anna’s relationship. They were big partyers, volatile personalities. They repaired their marriage and my father ended things with my mother. She is a very proud woman. She left her job with Benito and found another. Then she discovered she was pregnant. She couldn’t keep the job she’d taken—it was too demanding. She found another but it didn’t pay much. My father had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. She waited until we were nearly broke before she went to his house one night with me to ask for financial assistance. He shut the door in our faces.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“My father and Anna argued after my mother and I left. They were supposed to attend a party that night, one of those drug-infused affairs of the day where the wealthy blew all their money playing far too hard. My father was notorious for his love of illicit drugs and drink. After their argument, he wrapped their car around a tree and killed himself and Anna.”

Oh, mio Dio. “What happened to your siblings?”

“Giovanni took them in.”

“But he didn’t find out about you until later,” she said, remembering. “When Alex found you. How did he know about you?”

“He was watching from the window that night. He put two and two together.”

She tilted her head to one side and asked the question that had been on her mind since Hong Kong. “Why didn’t you bond with your siblings then? That must have been an incredibly emotional experience giving your grandfather his life back.”

“Because I didn’t want a relationship with them,” he said roughly. “I wanted nothing to do with the Di Siones. I couldn’t refuse Giovanni’s offer to put me through school, to give me a start in business, but that didn’t mean I wanted anything to do with a family who’d never acknowledged my existence. Who didn’t think I was good enough to be a part of it.”

“That wasn’t your siblings’ fault. It was your father’s.”

“I made overtures. Overtures which were rebuffed. I knew where I stood.”

“Perhaps your siblings have gained a different perspective now.” She bit her lip, then plunged into the deep end. “You will regret it if you don’t make another attempt. Do you know how much I wish I had brothers and sisters? Yes, maybe they would have come with baggage, but at least they would have been there for me. I would have had somebody to lean on.”

“This is different.” His eyes flashed a warning. “There is no point rehashing a past that can’t be changed. Leave it alone, Mina.”

She shook her head. “You can’t run from your emotions, Nate. Throw away something so valuable. Or what happened today will happen again. Only worse. And then maybe it will be too late.”

“Mina,” he growled, snaking an arm around her waist and dragging her to him. “I said no more.”

Fury pulsed in his gaze like a living, breathing entity. The hands that held her were full of leashed aggression. Intensity surrounded him like a black cloud. He was seconds away from another explosion.

“Bene,” she breathed. “Bene.”

Her heart tattooed itself against her chest as he slid an arm underneath her knees and picked her up.

“What are you doing?”

“Shutting you up.”

* * *

Nate carried his wife into his bedroom, a maelstrom of emotion coursing through him. Big emotions, intense emotions Mina managed to pull out of him with that caring, empathetic side of her that never judged, only validated, making him want things he’d long ago decided were impossible.

It was like walking in a minefield, allowing his feelings to surface. To acknowledge just how much his grandfather meant to him. Just how angry he was at himself. Too viciously painful to venture any further into, so he retreated by turning his intensity on the woman he couldn’t seem to get enough of. The woman who blanked his brain of anything but her when he came within a five-foot radius of her.

He set Mina down on the floor. “Take off your clothes.”

She gave him one of those wide-eyed looks as he started to strip. He thought she might refuse given the mood he was in. Then heat took hold in her beautiful eyes, the attraction she couldn’t fight. The trust she reserved for him no matter what he asked of her.

Her hands moved to the top button of her blouse. She undid the buttons slowly, clumsily, until the last was undone. He watched her the whole time, holding her gaze with his. She unzipped her skirt, pushing it off her hips with a wriggle that turned him hard as stone. Clad in her lacy underwear, her eyes drank him in. Fell to the last piece of clothing he wore. His boxers did nothing to disguise his arousal.

“Come here.”

She blinked. Hesitated. Then walked toward him, stopping a couple of inches away. She was so beautiful standing there, so perfectly formed, so highly desirable, his throat went dry.

He nodded his head toward his boxers. “Take them off.”