“I have a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Little ladybugs are flittering around. Seeing those three men brought back memories. It brings me fear too. If Brando sees the way that one is looking at you—” She shook her head, not speaking the truth. “Then there’s the fact that he has three brothers he never knew about.”
“And there’s that,” I said. “I wonder if Luca lied about his wife being barren?”
“No. He never lied to me before. That’s one thing about him, Scarlett Gorgeous. Look at me,” she hissed.
I turned to face her again.
“His word is his honor.My word is as good as my blood.He’s old school, always has been. Tight Italian roots—only God comes before family and honor. What he says, he does. What he says, he means.”
“If that’s the case…” I glanced out the window. “Who do they belong to?”
“Lucious Leone Fausti. Does the rest matter?”
No, I thought, with a stab of ice making me feel cold all over.Not one effing bit.
* * *
After Maggie Beautiful and I had gone over the first night that Rocco appeared, she decided that it was best if I try to talk to him alone. I was not thrilled with this prospect. The arrival of two other brothers threw me some. And I couldn’t tell Rocco what I knew before Brando knew.
Before he came back inside, I went upstairs to throw a cover-up over my swimsuit. When I came back down, he sat at the table, a drink in hand, looking as relaxed as if he was in mamma’s kitchen.
He looked up at me, long black lashes over green eyes. His were so much lighter than mine, his skin a much darker gold, and his hair as dark as a starless and moonless night. “You didn’t have to cover up for me,bella.”
I blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Romeo—is he interested in Violet?”
“Sì. Is this a problem?”
“Yes. No. Well, she’s newly single. I don’t want her to get—”swept away in Italy, caught in those eyes, pregnant from my husband’s brother.
“Ah,” he said, standing. “Romeo is a good man. He is just a bit naughty. Ah, how would you put it? Perhaps fun. Is this what Viola is after?” He cocked his head to the side.
“I believe so.”
“It is settled then.”
He took a few paces toward me. I took a few paces back, but there was only wall left. He looked down at the cross hanging between my breasts.
“That is a stunning piece of jewelry,bella. It belonged to my grandmother. This was one of her family’s homes.”
The news would have shocked me, caused me to ask a million and one questions, but he started to turn the faucet on.
I sidestepped him, sitting at the table so he’d be more inclined to talk to me and not give me the intensity of his eyes. That was what it felt like to me, when he looked at me that way. Intense.
He smiled as he sat across from me. “I do not wish to make you nervous,bella.”
“No, I don’t like to be chased or cornered.”Not by you, anyway.“I’m married.” I lifted both hands.
He shrugged. “I am as well.”
“You are?”
“Yes, you are well acquainted with my wife—”
It came to me then—intuition that had gone ignored. Ignorance was notalwaysbliss. “You’re the pasta feeder—”
“Rosaria Caffi.” He laughed. “She occasionally uses Fausti, when she wants something she cannot obtain on her own.”
Whatever he saw pass across my face made him study me a bit harder, but not with want, with curiosity. “Has she done something to offend you?”
