“Yes.” He would not be drawn into hysterics. “But I don’t think you fully understand?—”
“I understand very well.” She slammed the glass on the table and stood. “The company means everything to you, more than your family, more than your wife. It always has and always will. You’ll never change.”
“Will you sit down and listen? There is more.”
She took a step back. “No. I listened enough for the first twelve months of my marriage. Not this time. This time you listen. Don’t expect me to be a doormat. I came here thinking you’d do the decent thing and help me. I thought you’d do anything for your family. I thought, for old times’ sake, that vow might extend to me and my grandmother.”
Her words needled him until his temper rose.
“One favor deserves another. It’s not as if I’m asking for anything you did not stand in a church and vow to give me. Besides, having you back in my bed would be a pleasure—for us both.” Her face flooded with colorat her words.
The corners of her lips turned down. “Sex. You’re all about sex. But not because you want me, but because you crave a child.”
“You’re wrong. You don’t understand. You think you know me, mio fiore, but you don’t.”
She raised her head high. “I’m pretty sure you no longer know me at all. I want and deserve more from a marriage. My answer is no. Categorically no. I’ll find another way to get the money.”
“You and I were married. You are still my wife.”
Abby’s eyes glittered with distaste. “Your problem, not mine. I have no intention of marrying again so I’m more than happy to wait the three years for a divorce. Screw your business deal. Isn’t the Lombardi Group big enough as it is? Why do you want more?” She looked at her watch. “It’s late. I’m tired. As it appears you haven’t changed one bit, I’ll take my leave.”
Abby turned and started toward the door.
“Va bene. Do what you do so well—run away again, Abby.”
She hesitated with her hand on the door handle.
She threw a look over her shoulder. “Good-bye, Dante. Have a nice life. I’m sure you’ll have no problem replacing me. You’ve made it perfectly clear I am not, and never was, important to you.”
Then she walked out and refused to look back.
Chapter 3
Dante refilled his glass and drank the burning liquid in one gulp.That went well.
He heard the door open behind him and for an instant hope flared. Abby had come back. But when he turned it wasn’t Abby, only Carla.
“She left then?”
Dante shrugged. “She said no.”
Carla took his empty glass from his hand, refilled it, and sat on the couch, sipping his brandy. “Hardly surprising considering the act you pulled when she arrived. I’m amazed she didn’t slap your face and take off running. Your mistress, indeed. Don’t ever use me like that again.”
He grinned, filled another glass with brandy, and joined her on the couch.
“It worked, though. Did you see her face? She was jealous. She still has feelings for me.”
Carla eyed him suspiciously. “I thought you didn’t want her to love you. I thought you were going to make her a business proposition?” She raised a knowing eyebrow. “You are so full of it. ‘I don’t want love. I don’t need emotional complications. All I need is a son.’”
She parroted the words he’d told her at lunch last week, and they did sound ridiculous the way she said them, but even Carla wasn’t privy to his real fear and reason for wanting no emotional involvement. He didn’t wantanyoneto know, not even his best friend.
“Well,” she said, “what are you going to do now?”
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He’d had it all planned out. Of course he knew about her grandmother. He also knew Abby would come to him. Where else could she go? It was simple enough to tell the bank he wouldn’t cover another loan. It allowed him to offer a straightforward transaction—money in exchange for her agreement to return to his life and help him fulfill the conditions of his father’s will. “I should have married you. Then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Carla almost choked on her brandy, spluttering drops down her shirt. “As if I’d have agreed to that. I’m with Abby on this one. Marriage should be to the one you love, and you don’t love me any more than I love you, well, not in that way. I love you like the brother I never had.”
He’d known Carla since he could walk. She was the daughter of his father’s financial adviser and they’d been friends since the age of eight when Carla beat him at tree climbing. Dante was scared of heights and Carla climbed higher than him, and she never let him forget it.
