The Commanding Italian's Challenge

His gaze dropped to her phone. ‘How was your mother?’

Her tension increased. ‘I couldn’t really tell. I’m hoping she’s the same as when we spoke in St Lucia.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘What’s her general state?’

Pain lanced through her. ‘She has good days and bad days.’ It was an adequate enough answer. And yet she found herself elaborating. ‘The assault was traumatic in itself, but the real trauma came when she found out she was carrying me. I think that completely broke her mentally. I was oblivious to her deep trauma for years before she got help.’

He walked into the room, his hands leaving his pockets to hang by his sides. ‘You were a child. How could you have known?’

‘I was old enough to see how hard she took Luigi’s leaving. She got so bad we were both assigned counsellors. I was too young to grasp exactly what was going on half the time, but I knew that she was suffering. About a year after Luigi left her counsellor suggested New Paths as a permanent residence. It was a whole new experience for her. Most of the time she thrives there, but every now and then she has a relapse.’

Maceo flinched and his expression turned almost furious. Just as he had on the balcony, he turned away abruptly.

Her stomach hollowed. ‘Sorry if that was TMI. Not everyone wants to know the messy details.’

He turned back to her, his eyes burning. ‘On the contrary. I want to know everything.’

The firm assurance brought a lump to her throat. Swallowing, she nodded. ‘New Paths has a high success rate with alternative therapies. Mum’s is a combination of medication, art and music therapy, specifically designed for her. That’s the kind of therapy I want to do eventually,’ she confessed quietly.

Enlightenment fired in his eyes. ‘That’s what you intend to use your inheritance for?’

‘Yes,’ she stated boldly. ‘You probably think it’s not—’

‘I think it’s highly commendable. Luigi would be proud.’

Tears prickled at her eyes. ‘Do you think so?’

He nodded, his eyes gentling in a way that suggested he wasn’t as unaffected as she’d imagined. They stared at one another, jagged understanding throbbing between them. Then another crack of thunder attempted to shatter the tree house.

She jumped. Maceo chuckled.

The atmosphere was broken. And when he returned to his desk a minute later Faye couldn’t help but accept that she’d slipped just a little bit further down that slippery road where her heart was in even more danger.

CHAPTER TEN

IT WAS A little terrifying how returning to Capri felt to Faye like coming home. Perhaps the feeling stemmed from never having had a true home, her mother’s mental fragility and resulting anxiety having left her in a state of flux.

Those two years spent with Luigi had been her closest to stability and ‘home’...

Pico’s over-exuberant greeting merely deepened the sensation of homecoming. And that night, when he scratched at the door for entry into Maceo’s bedroom—where he’d insisted she moved—she smiled at Maceo’s put-upon expression.

‘I’m under no illusion that he’s pining for me,’ he said.

‘Will you let him in, please?’

‘I suspect I’ll have to—or else listen to him whine all night,’ he growled, before rising to open the door.

A thoroughly pleased Pico rushed in, but when he attempted to jump onto the bed Maceo whistled sharply. ‘He can stay for tonight, but I refuse to have him on our bed.’

Her heart squeezed, then banged against her ribs in foolish reaction to his words. Under the guise of petting Pico, Faye ruthlessly tried to bring her feelings under control. Which turned out to be a futile task because, a moment later, when Maceo tugged her into his arms, the cascade of emotion smashed her fortitude to smithereens.

* * *

In the following weeks Maceo continued to whittle away at her foundations until Faye accepted that when she eventually left she would be taking an extra suitcase full of heartache with her. Because her feelings for Maceo had long passed the just sex they were supposed to be indulging in.

To stop herself being totally overcome by her staggering emotions, she attempted to place a professional distance between them—first by requesting a return to the R&D department, and then by demanding that they keep their physical relationship between themselves.

Maceo grumbled, but when she refused to back down, after a twenty-minute debate, he grudgingly gave in, before pulling her beneath him in bed with the instruction to put him in a better mood—a task Faye was all too delighted to perform.