“Is that what you want, Ms. Fischer? A shoulder to cry on? Would it make you feel better if I took you in my arms and whispered sweet little lies that all of this was a bad dream? A small obstacle in your grand love story?”
“Oh…youareunbelievable.”
Pushing her hands through her hair, she bundled it into a messy knot. Wavy tendrils defied her efforts, kissing her jaw.
Her breasts rose and fell, and Alessandro was perversely grateful for the color it brought back to her cheeks. He’d rather she think him an unfeeling monster than become the lost waif she’d been minutes ago. Her mouth twisted in an angry snarl as she covered the distance between them. “What I’d prefer is…” she poked him in the chest “…is for the return of my trust back to me.”
“Ahhh, that I cannot do,” he said clamping his fingers over her wrist. Her fingers folded into a fist, the knuckles pressing against his chest. “But if you would like to use me as a punching bag for life’s disappointments, I volunteer. I’m familiar with that role, thanks to Matteo.”
Her mouth dropped open, her fist resting against his chest. “That’s horrible.” Her outrage deflated as fast as it had come. “You’re right that Matteo and I finished months ago, and in truth we should have ended long before that. But for him to move on so quickly, and to have started seeing her before we actually ended things… It’s not like I can compare to a billionaire heiress.”
“Self-deprecation doesn’t suit you,” he bit out through clenched teeth.
She side-eyed him and sighed. “For an annoying stranger I just met, you are far too right. But it’s not self-deprecation. There are a lot of things I couldn’t give Matteo, and I accepted it long ago.”
Alessandro frowned at the ring of truth in her words. “Ms. Fischer—”
“I’d rather you don’t suddenly become warm and cuddly, Mr. Ricci.”
“And I’d rather you rage at me again than fall apart. I have a severe allergy to tears.”
The sound that escaped her mouth was half cry, half laughter. “Was that a joke?”
Alessandro felt as if he’d achieved a personal milestone, when the doors burst open and closed with a hard thud.
Matteo’s gaze swept over them, lingering on Alessandro’s jacket over her shoulders.
Ms. Fischer jerked around. A reddish tint crested her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around her midriff in a gesture he recognized as defensive.
“Sam…cara mia, you’re here,” Matteo said. “One of the staff said they saw a woman wandering around looking lost. I recognized you from the description immediately. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. I have been busy for the last few months.”
Ms. Fischer—Alessandro refused to call her Sam even in his mind—stared at Matteo. “Of course you’re busy, Matteo, preparing for your engagement. Did you think I’d come up here and cause a scene if you told me? Or is it that you thought I’d never have the guts to leave my parents behind, to live my life as any normal person would?”
Alessandro frowned. It was clear she was throwing Matteo’s words back at him.
Matteo raised his hands. “Give me a chance to explain.”
His jacket slipped from Ms. Fischer’s shoulders as she thrummed with anger. “Nothing to explain. Apparently, as much of a naïve fool that I am, I had the sense to know that our relationship had stagnated. But it was such a hit to your ego that you went and got engaged to your billionaire heiress immediately, right?”
Matteo came to her with urgent strides. Alessandro barely fought the urge to stop his brother from touching her. Instead, he bolted the door.
“How long did you play us both?” Ms. Fischer said. “You even had the gall to mention her to me, but you never had the courage to end things with me even though we both knew it had run its course.”
Matteo bent his head toward her. “Sam, I—”
“Go back to your party.” Ms. Fischer, it seemed, hid a spine of steel beneath the naïveté.
Alessandro rested his hip against the large desk, his fury now a slow burn. “Listen to her, Matteo.”
Matteo whipped around. “Stay out of this.”
“Vittorio could have been standing right next to me when you burst in here, you fool. Or any one of Angelina’s thuggish cousins.”
The flash of fear in Matteo’s eyes said he understood the warning. “I should have checked.” He cast a glance at Sam, his jaw tight. “Let’s talk in private.”
“You have lost your mind, as usual,” Alessandro said, straightening from the desk. “Do not forget that I’m the only thing standing between you and the Bianchis if they find out about your girlfriend on the other side of the pond. Even if it is over now, they won’t like the crossover. You’re lucky Ms. Fischer didn’t run around the party calling out your name.”
“You can’t understand,” Matteo said with a sneer.
