Uncovering the Silveri Secret

‘You do need me,’ he said. ‘And you’ve got me for another year, so you’d better get used to it.’

‘What’s the point of stringing this crazy guardianship thing out for another year?’ she asked. ‘You want to be free of me just as much as I want to be free of you. Anyway, once I get married to Julian, you’ll have to relinquish your hold over me.’

‘You’re not getting married until you’re twenty-five,’ he said. ‘Not while I have anything to do with it.’

She clenched her hands by her sides, anger in every rigid line of her body. ‘Is that why you’ve been busily trying to seduce me any chance you could?’ she asked.

He returned her fiery look with cool ease. ‘Are you going to tell your God-fearing boyfriend that you’ve slept with me?’

Her eyes turned to flint. ‘I have not slept with you.’

‘Are you going to tell him you had an orgasm with me, then?’ he asked.

Her cheeks bloomed with colour again. ‘I didn’t have any such thing with you. You didn’t...you know...’ She whooshed out a little breath and shifted her eyes from his. ‘We didn’t go that far.’

‘You probably won’t have to tell him.’

Her eyes flew back to his. ‘What do you mean?’

‘He’ll know as soon as he sees you,’ Edoardo said. ‘You won’t be able to hide it, especially if he sees you interact with me.’

She clamped her lips together as if she was struggling to keep back a retort. She released them after a moment. ‘I can’t think of any situation or event where you and Julian would be present at the same time.’

‘So you’re not going to invite me to your wedding?’ he asked.

She gave him a pointed look. ‘Would you come if I did?’

Edoardo considered her question for a moment. Over the years his mind had occasionally drifted to the day when she would walk down the aisle to some man standing at the altar. He had no doubt she would make a beautiful bride. She would love being the centre of attention; it would be her chance to be a princess for the day.

But he hadn’t planned on being there to see it.

‘Weddings are not really my thing,’ he said.

‘Have you ever been to one?’

‘Two, a few years ago,’ he said. ‘They’re both divorced now.’

She folded her arms across her middle. ‘Not all marriages end up on the rocks,’ she said. ‘Many couples spend a lifetime together.’

‘Good for them.’

She frowned at him. ‘You don’t believe love can last that long?’

‘I think people get love and lust confused,’ he said. ‘Lust is a transient thing. It burns itself out after a while. Love, on the other hand, is something that grows over time, given the right conditions.’

‘I thought you didn’t believe in love,’ she said.

‘Just because I haven’t been in love myself doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,’ he said. ‘I can see it works for some people.’

‘But you don’t think I’m in love, do you?’

‘I think you want to be loved,’ he said. ‘It’s understandable, given that your father’s gone and your mother has always been too selfish to love you properly.’

Her teeth snagged her bottom lip again. ‘You’re making me out to sound tragic.’

Edoardo studied her for a moment. ‘Don’t throw your life away on someone who doesn’t love you for the right reasons, Bella,’ he said.

‘Julian does love me for the right reasons,’ she said. ‘He’s the first man I’ve met who hasn’t pressured me to sleep with them. Doesn’t that say something?’

‘Is he gay?’

She gave him a look. ‘Of course he’s not gay. He has principles; standards. Self-control.’

‘The man is a saint,’ Edoardo said. ‘I can’t be in the same room as you without wanting to rip the clothes off your body and ravish you.’

Her eyes flitted away from his, her cheeks firing up yet again. ‘You shouldn’t say things like that,’ she said.

‘Why not?’

‘You know why not.’

‘You don’t believe in speaking the truth?’ he asked.

‘Some things are better left unsaid.’

Edoardo came over to her and slowly lifted her chin with the end of his index finger. ‘What are you so afraid of?’ he asked.