Her life and his had been completely different but they’d had one thing in common, they’d both been children bereft and craving love. A love that was denied them.
Two fathers who, in their different ways, neglected their children.
It was startling to think how much she and Gio shared, what similar forces had shaped them.
Gio continued. ‘Between them, our fathers spent years trying to triumph over the other. It sapped the last of my father’s strength. He’d never been the same since my mother and Serena died. Grief and obsession hollowed him out, eventually destroying him.’
He surged to his feet and paced to the pool as if he couldn’t bear to sit still.
‘I vowed not to follow in his footsteps. I loved my family but I refuse to let grief destroy me. I refuse to get sucked into a vendetta with a man I wouldn’t let lick my boots.’ He spun around, eyes locking on hers. ‘I decided that the best vengeance was to live the lifeIwant, not tied to your father in any way. We compete in the same market but I don’t plan my business around him. Usually I don’t even think about him.’
Stella drank in the sight of Gio. His long, athletic legs. Those well-built shoulders and that tapering torso with its impressive musculature.
But it wasn’t just his masculinity that hooked her attention.
She read pain in the lines bracketing his mouth. Yet he looked neither defeated nor defiant. He looked strong and sure, as if the loss and hurt he’d endured had forged him into someone more robust and certain of his place in the world. As if he’d grown from the experience.
Stella’s breath caught. How attractive that was. This was nothing like her father’s overbearing power. It was something different and enormously alluring.
Gio had carved his own way and she admired that. She, on the other hand, had been weak, not standing up for herself sooner.
For too long she’d bowed to family expectations. Because she’d craved a place with them. It had made her overlook the way they’d used her, offering acceptance and approval but never quite delivering. It was only recently she’d let herself admit how wilfully blind she’d been, not wanting to face facts.
‘So, the dossier on me and my family?’
‘I thought you were a plant, trying to inveigle information. I hadn’t paid attention to your family for years and thought I’d better find out what I could.’
Slowly, she nodded. That made sense. But one thing didn’t. ‘If you’re not motivated by vengeance against the Barbieris, why burst into my wedding? Why cause that scene?’
He hadn’t known she was pregnant. So what other explanation could there be, but a vendetta?
Colour streaked Gio’s cheekbones and his jaw worked. She had the strongest feeling he didn’t want to answer.
Slowly she rose, moving closer, but not too close. She needed to read every nuance of his expression, but from a safe distance. When she got too near him her hormones did all the thinking, not her brain.
‘You said you’d be frank with me, Gio.’
‘You want frankness?’ His expression was full of challenge and something she couldn’t decipher. ‘I needed to stop the wedding. Not because of your father, but because of you. I couldn’t let you marry.’
Though Gio didn’t reach for her, she felt the familiar tug of connection, making her want to close the gap between them. As if there was an invisible force, urging them together.
‘Why?’ Her voice was hoarse.
His look seared. ‘Because we’re not finished with each other. Are we, Stella?’
Gio put in words her secret fear.
He stood there, bare feet apart, almost naked, proud and challenging. And her needy heart thrummed in answer. It would be easy to go to him. To nestle close, letting desire sweep them away as it had yesterday.
Her balance had shifted, her body leaning forward ready to move, when thought of yesterday’s furious coupling stopped her.
Sex was all well and good.
Who was she fooling? With Gio sex was phenomenal.
But she had a baby to consider. A future to plan. She couldn’t, wouldn’t let herself be led by her libido any more. Or by the feelings his revelations had evoked. She needed time to sift and consider them.
She folded her arms and shook her head.
