She wanted to destroy it all but the investigators could provide another copy. They’d probably already sent an electronic version.
Arms tight around her middle, she tried to think.Whyhad Gio done this? Befriending her,seducingher.
It was clear that everything she’d believed special between them was a lie.Hewas a lie. He’d played the perfect companion, stripping her defences until…
He couldn’t possibly know how she felt about him. Could he?
It shamed her to think of the fragile hopes she’d begun to nurture in such a short time. She’d congratulated herself on finding a friend, a lover who was everything she’d ever dreamed of. Their relationship had seemed so much more than carnal, so much more significant.
Yet all the time he’d beenmoredeceitful,moreconniving than any of the would-be lovers who’d tried to court her. He made them look like fumbling schoolboys.
As for him being interested inher—that was the biggest lie of all. He’d sensed her neediness and used it as a weapon.
And you gave it to him. It was your own naïveté that let him in.
She’d never forgive him for what he’d done. More importantly, she’d never forgive herself.
From this moment on she was done with emotional weakness, done with romantic fantasies. And absolutely done with men.
Eight minutes later, carrying the barest essentials, she opened the security gate and went to meet the car she’d ordered. She didn’t look back.
CHAPTER TEN
Present day
Gio got inthe back seat and slammed the door. The limo took off, accelerating so fast he and Stella were pushed hard against the back rest.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a mob spill out of the cathedral, surging towards them. Two men swerved towards the bridal car, decorated with ribbons and flowers.
Ignoring them, Gio turned to the woman beside him. It was better to concentrate on Stella than the volcanic surge of his emotions. The sheer fury that just wouldn’t subside. He’d never known anything like it. It took time to master himself.
He’d seen his father give in to excess emotion and it had eventually destroyed him. Meanwhile Alfredo Barbieri lived and breathed a vendetta that could only diminish him since his enemy, Gio’s father, was already dead.
Gio saw the damage those two had wrought and long ago decided there was no place in his life for extreme emotion.
Yet here you are! All because of this woman.
Her skirts billowed around her as she yanked at the lace of her long veil, muttering as she freed it from beneath her skirts.
Under the reams of rich fabric she looked smaller than he remembered. The bodice clung to her breasts and torso and her face seemed more fine-boned than before.
But she was no delicate flower. Her jaw was set hard and high colour painted her face as she ruthlessly fought the encompassing folds of her lavish gown. Over the sound of mumbled swearing he heard fabric tear.
Abruptly she looked up, directly at him.
It was like a punch direct to his solar plexus.
Velvety brown eyes that had once looked at him with approval, laughter, even adoration, regarded him as if he were a rat that scuttled out of a sewer. A butcher’s knife was softer than her glare. He almost felt the slice of a honed blade flaying his skin as she surveyed him.
He was irate, furious with both himself and her, still not quite believing the lengths he’d gone to. Yet beneath the anger and disbelief was a spreading glow of satisfaction. Because Stella was here with him.
She’d tapped into a vein of primal instinct he hadn’t known he possessed.
Gio had strode down the aisle of the cathedral and the sight of her, simpering next to her handsome groom, had provoked an almost murderous rage.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ She snapped the words as if biting off chunks of his flesh. ‘No, don’t bother answering. I already know. You’re trying to cause as much trouble and humiliation as possible for me and my family. You really are a piece of work, aren’t you, Signor Valenti?’
No one had ever addressed him with such dripping disdain. As ifhe’dbeen the one playing games.
