Had his own anger for her been fueled by his own selfish needs?
Because Santo had been the one person who had seen beyond what Renzo could do for him.
Now Renzo wished Santo were here to help him understand the force of his anger. It wasn’t like his family’s shenanigans and poor impulse control were new to him. And yet it had never bothered him this much before.
They tarred Mimi with the same brush as Pia despite his vehement declaration that it wasn’t true. But worse was their lack of consideration for him. Their lack of empathy or understanding for everything he had shouldered not just in the past year but for more than a decade now.
Only Mimi, even at loggerheads with him in the beginning, even as she distrusted him, had understood the rawness of his grief at losing his brother, his friend.
Hands shaking, he poured himself a finger of whiskey and downed it in one gulp. It didn’t soothe him one bit. Which meant he had to leave the penthouse. He didn’t want to be near her when his anger was a cold burn in his body, a sticky coating in his throat.
“Renzo?” Mimi’s tentative tone came from behind him.
Whiskey sloshed over his hand as he poured himself another finger and threw that back too before he turned.
His wife stood framed by the arched doorway, hands clasped in front of her in a nervous gesture that went straight to his heart. But the rest of her…was a feast to his senses.
His erection throbbed painfully at the mere sight of her, and all he wanted was to press her against the wall and bury himself deep inside her. Work his anger and frustration and this shrapnel of hurt out on her luscious body until he could escape it all.
With emerald-green silk shorts and a camisole in the same color draped against her curves, she looked…like a delicious meal he wanted to wolf down. Her face glowed with that freshly scrubbed look. With her long, wavy hair in a braid, she was eons away from the woman who had been full of elegant grace all evening.
But just as sexy, and only his.
Suddenly, he understood another little nugget at the source of his general resentment. Something about this woman brought back all the needs and desires he’d conditioned himself to not feel. Love and affection and companionship and understanding…all things he’d been determined to not need, he wanted them now.
He grabbed his discarded jacket and held it in front of him. “You need anything?” he said brusquely.
Her gaze widened. “Don’t tell me you have investor meetings at this time of the night?”
“I don’t.”
Her arms went around her midriff, and Renzo knew that she was bracing herself against him. “Did I say or do something wrong? At the party?” She blinked. “I mean, I know I spent too much time chatting with Massimo, but he was helping me remember all your cousins, and he’s easy to talk to once you—”
Renzo cut her off. “He was good to you, then?”
“What? Yes, of course,” she said, looking shocked. “He’s no worse than any privileged young man, Renzo. But he’s not a lost cause. At the risk of interfering in your family matter, I think he got the message this time.”
“It is your family too,bella.”
“Luca’s definitely. Really, Renzo, you can’t expect them all to just like me when we have six years of—”
“Youbehaved like a decent person.”
“I did. But I have nothing to lose like they do.”
Nothing to lose…was that how she still saw their relationship? Had she no stake in it? Renzo breathed out a rough exhale, feeling as if an invisible hand had punched him. “What the hell do they have to lose?”
Mimi sighed. “I mean, you threatened Chiara right in front of me. And all night, you hovered around me as if you were a mama bird, and—”
“I don’t like that analogy one bit. Not even accurate, because the last thing I feel toward you is maternal.”
She laughed then, and it took everything he had in him to not pounce on her and carry her away to the bedroom like a conquering overlord. And then he would pillage and plunder her and…get her to admit that this marriage, their relationship, was important to her. That it wasn’t a level-headed transaction she could walk away from when the time was up.
“My point is…Massimo told me you haven’t brought a girlfriend to any party or family function in a long time. They’ve not heard of you admiring a woman, even in passing.”
“Because I never wanted to advertise my affairs and embarrass my family like Papa does.”
“Yes. But all they see is you being so protective around me. They all feel threatened. How can you not see it? You hold their fates in your palm, and they think I’ll sway your head.”
