Geppa must have been aware of what was going on, for Callie’s carry-on case was open on the bed. Absently, she threw her original clothes into it – she would not take any of the stuff Dante had bought her – then changed into jeans and a sweater. Her mind was reeling from everything that had taken place in the last few hours, barely able to comprehend how the headiest experience of her life had turned to dust and recriminations in the blink of an eye. It was like they’d both been woken from the same sensual dream at the exact same point and drenched with the cold hard facts of their reality. And their reality was that she’d only ever been with him in this castle against her will.
But when he’d asked her to stay… She could still feel the strength of her longing to say yes. It was a longing that had terrified her into silence.
Stockholm Syndrome. That’s all it had been. Stockholm Syndrome.
The only thing of reality that really penetrated the fog in her mind now was that she smelt of sex, and she snatched the bottle of perfume Dante’s sister had chosen for her from the dresser, unwrapped the packaging and drenched herself with it.
She took one last look in the mirror. The wash-in colour she’d dyed her hair with on a whim the night before she’d flown to Naples had faded. Another coupleof washes and it would have faded for good. She wanted to tie it back, but her hair band was on the floor of the vault.
She walked the long corridor lined with Dante’s ancestors and tried to catch a breath. Everything inside her felt sotight.
The Leopold room was empty.
She closed her eyes and forced her legs to the ancient front door.
As her trembling fingers connected with the round handle, a deep voice called out from behind her. “All these years, you’ve been looking out for your sister and trying to protect her… Who’s been looking out for you? Who’s been there for you, Callie?”
The breath she managed to pull into her constricted lungs felt sharp. Painful. “Georgia has.”
“And now?”
Her chin wobbled, but she forced her voice to remain strong. “I’ll just have to look out for myself.”
She left the castle without looking back at him.
“What’s wrong?” Tullia asked when she answered Dante’s call.
That was the second time a woman had taken him aback within one evening. “Nothing. I just thought I’d call and see how you are.”
“Which you have never done before, so I ask again, what’s wrong?”
Hadn’t he? He was in frequent contact with his sister. They messaged each other numerous times a day, normally with silly memes to make each other laugh.
“Is it your house guest?” she asked into the silence, somehow makinghouse guestmore pointed than it should warrant.
“No,” he answered after a beat too long. “Anyway, she’s gone.” And the castle that usually breathed noise had fallen silent.
“Right… Gone where?”
Probably to Accardiano to put his best friend in the gravest danger.
He could only hope that she would see sense before it was too late and finally trust his word on the danger of telling Niccolo. But if she didn’t…
Either way, she was right. Niccolodiddeserve to know he was going to be a father to Georgia’s baby before he committed to marriage with another woman. The person best placed to tell him, though, was Dante.
Damn it, it was like being stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Whatever he did or didn’t do, someone was going to get hurt, and if telling Niccolo put Georgia in danger… if his friend felt a fraction for Georgia as Dante did for her sister, he would never forgive him for it.
Because Georgia was right too. Niccolo couldn’t be told until after the wedding. Dante’s closest friend had an impulsive, reckless streak. If he knew Niccolo, his instinct would be to get the first flight to England, and he would act on that instinct without thinking of the consequences. It was Niccolo’s reckless, impulsive streak that had got him into this whole damn mess with Lorenzo Esposito.
But keeping it from him… was he any better than Callie in thinking he knew what was best for Niccolo?
Ultimately, the choice was Georgia’s to make, and she’d made it.
His mind suddenly zoomed back to Callie. There was noifabout what she was doing. She was on her way to Accardiano. On her way to a potential lion pit…
And he had let her go there. He’d given her the damn money to get herself there!
He blinked hard.
