A Night of Living Dangerously

Moving forward, Alessandro grabbed her shoulders. His eyes were dark as he said in a low voice, “Just tell me who.”

She tried to laugh it off. “Nothing, really. They followed me into the bathroom where I was hiding at the restaurant—”

“You were hiding?”

“—and spoke to each other. In English, to be sure I’d understand. They called me fat and stupid, and said you’d divorce me. They couldn’t wait for you to be back with Olivia.”

He stared at her, his mouth a grim line. Then he abruptly released her, turning away. Lilley stared at his muscular backside as he headed for the door.

He was walking away from her without a word. Again.

“Don’t you care?” she choked out. “Don’t you care at all?”

Alessandro whirled around, and his expression was so full of fury that she gasped.

“I care,” he said. “They will regret hurting you.”

“What are you going to do?” she whispered, afraid of the strange darkness she saw in his eyes.

“They are women. I cannot physically hurt them. But,” he stretched his intertwined hands, “I can take what they care about the most. Their money.”

“How?”

He looked past her ear. “A few well-placed calls to the banks … to the businesses that employ their husbands in well-paid sinecures.” He gave a smile as cold as death. “They’ll be penniless.”

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sp; She stared at him, her mouth agape. “I thought they were rich.”

“It’s a front. They’re deeply in debt.”

“I thought they were your friends!”

His lip twisted. “Friends?”

“You seemed to be having such a good time …”

“I grew up with them,” he said tersely. “But we’re not close. We share a past. We share a history. But no. They are not my friends.”

Staring up at him, Lilley thought of the friends she’d had in Minnesota growing up, playing marbles with the housekeeper’s daughter Lisa, going for long bike rides with Katie from school, ice skating on the pond with her friends and drinking hot chocolate.

Alessandro hadn’t had that. His friends weren’t real. Pity and grief for him welled up inside her. And suddenly she couldn’t hide her feelings. Not any more.

“I don’t need revenge.” Blinking back tears, she took a step towards him. “There’s only one thing I want. One thing I need.”

His jaw twitched. “What?”

“You,” she whispered. “I love you, Alessandro.”

She heard the catch of his breath. Then his eyes became wistful.

“I know,” he said quietly. “I’ve known since before our wedding, when you almost blurted it out, and I stopped you.”

“What?” She didn’t remember anything like that. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you remember? You said you had something to tell me before we could marry. I stopped you because I already knew. You were in love with me. I could see your feelings on your face.”

Lilley’s lips parted as she remembered the moment in Las Vegas when she’d tried to tell him the truth about her family. “That was what you thought I was going to say?” she said slowly. “That I was in love with you?”