She loved the warm, old-world feel of the di Vitale home Salvatore shared with his father and grandfather. No grandmother Elisa mused the woman had died before he was even born. It struck her that Salvatore had had very little feminine influence in his life. He’d only been a small boy when his mother died and his father had never done anything that she knew of to fill that void in Salvatore’s life.
No aunts. No good friend of the family, except perhaps Therese her father’s wife.
Salvatore was only five years older than Elisa. Therese would have married Elisa’s father not long after the death of Salvatore’s mother.
‘Did you see much of Therese growing up?” she asked as he led her up the grand staircase.
‘your father and my father are good friends and have been since before I was born.”
She supposed that answered the question except it didn’t tell her how close he might have been to her stepmother.
‘Are you and Therese close?” He stopped in front of a door and turned to face her.
‘What are you asking, cara”
‘ your mother died when you were little. I just wondered if… ”
‘your stepmother played the role of surrogate to me?”
‘yes ”
‘I had no desire to have another mother.”
‘But you were so young.”
‘OId enough to know how much it hurt when Mamma died. I did not go looking for someone else to fill her place.”
He’d been afraid of losing again was perhaps still afraid of it. To love meant taking a risk one Salvatore might never willingly submit to.
It was a depressing thought.
He pushed open the door. ‘This is your room.”
‘1 don’t understand why I can’t stay with my father and his family.”
Salvatore’s brows drew together the bronze skin between his eyes wrinkling.
‘you are his family, cfo/cezza.”
‘Right.” But not in the same way. Never in the same way.
‘So, why can’t I stay with them?”
‘you are safer here.”
‘1 don’t believe that. Your company is in charge of my father’s security. 1‘11 be safe as houses there ”
‘lf one of the fanatics opposed to the sale of the crown jewels came looking for you, the woman who convinced the former prince to allow her to auction them oft would you want someone else to perhaps get in the way? Like your sister or your stepmother?”
‘But he planned to sell them before I came along. It had been made public for weeks when Adamo Jewelers was chosen to host the auction. Making me a target would be senseless.”
‘Fanatics often are. You are willing to risk your family’s safety on this belief?” She shook her head .
He stepped back. your room.”
‘Thank you.” She moved inside, her attention arrested immediately by the charming femininity of the room.