A glimmer of triumph touched Mr. Ricci’s mouth. “I couldn’t bear to part with her right now. Go back to your party.”
With a dark look at his brother, and not even a glance in her direction, Matteo left, taking his fiancée with him.
Sam jerked away from the man at her side. “I don’t appreciate being fought over like a bone between two dogs.”
Again those damned double doors closed. His hands tucked into pockets of his trousers, Mr. Ricci considered her. “I don’t think anyone has ever called me a dog before. Not even as a boy.”
“Probably because you terrified everyone around you.”
“You met Angelina, got a glimpse of her father. Do you truly think I bullied you or Matteo just then?”
The openness of his question halted Sam’s angry pacing. However much she wanted to blame him, this infuriatingly arrogant man was not at fault. “Fine. Don’t use me as a weapon in your ongoing battle with Matteo, then. You knew that he didn’t want to leave me here with you, and you still needled him.”
“And it is my fault that my brother does not trust you with me?” he asked with such a straight face that Sam wanted to slap the expression off it. “Or that he risks betraying his possessiveness over an ex to Angelina’s eyes?”
The discomfort Mr. Ricci caused her was of a different kind. There was something between her and this man. Something she’d never felt with Matteo or any other man.
Sam gathered her sweater, her movements clumsy. Hunger gnawed at her belly, and her head was beginning to pound too.
She threw her handbag over her shoulder and gripped it tightly to steady her fingers. By the time she turned to Mr. Ricci, sudden tears had bubbled up in her throat.
Exhaustion always made her cry. But she had to hold herself together. For some reason, it was paramount that she not show this man any weakness. She’d already betrayed her awareness of him. “If you can have my luggage located by your staff, you can be free of me.”
“Nowyouare twisting my words.”
“Why are you pulling your punches suddenly? Given the show you put on just now, I’m a problem for you. I need to get out of here. I need to—”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I have an extreme aversion to people telling me what I can or cannot do, Mr. Ricci.”
“I don’t care if you break out in hives. You look like you’re ready to drop, you don’t know where you are, much less where to go, and this problem isn’t going to be solved by someone taking advantage of you on the streets tonight.” His smooth as silk tone dissolved at the end. “Unless you’re offering to leave Italy altogether. Right now.”
For a split second, Sam considered saying just that. But he wouldn’t believe it unless he handed her onto a flight himself. Unlike Matteo, the man was thorough. As for returning home, every inch of her rebelled at the thought.
Other than to salvage her friendship with Matteo, this whole trip had been to prove to her parents and herself that she could handle life. That meant not just physically but emotionally too, including dealing with lying ex-boyfriends and their hot-as-sin brothers.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Why not?”
“I can’t leave without talking to Matteo, after coming this far.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Matteo had been such a large and constant part of her life for years. Angry as she was with him right now, that ridiculous standoff in front of an audience couldn’t be their last meeting. “This vacation is important to me. Even if Matteo and I don’t patch up things, I’ve come too far to simply turn around. I’ll make other plans in a few days.”
Mr. Ricci leveled a considering look at her. “He’s not going to break his engagement.”
Was that what he got from her admission? “You won’t let him, you mean?” she retorted, just to rile him up. Of course, she’d never had any intention of getting back with Matteo.
He roughly thrust his fingers through his hair. The short haircut couldn’t hide the waviness of it.
Sam smiled, wondering if it was the one rebellious element he couldn’t control. Slowly, other things came into sharp focus. The grooves around his mouth hinted at tiredness as did the tight lines near his eyes.
One look at Vittorio Bianchi and the flash of fear in Matteo’s eyes had told her Mr. Ricci hadn’t exaggerated one bit. And while he’d been furious with Matteo, he’d made sure she didn’t provoke Angelina’s interest.
And yet, Matteo had treated him as if he were the enemy. She’d heard so many stories and tidbits that cast Matteo’s older brother as a ruthless, uncaring tyrant who constantly belittled him.
The fairness that was a core part of her disliked that Matteo had played on her sympathetic nature, that she’d made up her mind about this man without knowing him at all. Her pinging awareness of him made everything even murkier.
“What was that smile for?” God, the man watched her like a hawk. “You looked very human just then.”
