“I’ve handled hard things in life, Alessandro.”
“I’m beginning to see that.” He walked past her into the room and opened a bottle of sparkling water. When he raised one in her direction, Sam shook her head.
She watched the play of the muscles at his throat. His tone was flat when he spoke. “Matteo will need at least two more surgeries. Many months of physical therapy to build back strength in his right leg. But yes, he can make a complete recovery.”
Sam threw herself at him, joy overriding any sensible caution. “Thank God!”
He caught her, and this time his arms went around her. From chest to abdomen, she was plastered against his powerful body. All that ache in her breasts came back with a twofold intensity. This time, their embrace didn’t soothe her. It sparked that hunger that never seemed to be far. He was deliciously hard and lean against her, and all Sam wanted was to press her hips closer, lean her thighs against his until she could feel every inch of him intimately. Until she could provoke his hunger too.
Gentle but firm hands nudged her back. “From enemies to such a warm embrace,” he said, clearing his throat, “that’s quite a turnaround.”
“I never said we were enemies. I admit you’re growing on me.”
One brow arched in that arrogant face. But that conscious movement couldn’t hide the flash of desire in his eyes. For the first time in her life, Sam bemoaned her lack of sophistication when it came to sex and attraction and affairs.
Walking around the lounge, she picked up the loose sketching paper, books and other stuff she’d scattered about. The bedroom was as much hers now as it was his. “Matteo’s been through hard stuff before, right? He told me his asthma had been really bad. That he was teased at school mercilessly for being a small, scrawny kid and you stopped some bully who made his life hell.”
“He confided in you?”
“He said he was a runt next to you. But that he overcame…” She sighed. “You’re surprised he told me.”
“Matteo likes to pretend that he was never weak. He sulks when my aunt reminds him of the almost fatal episode he had once. I think he’s even convinced himself that he was always this charming and dynamic.”
Sam hugged her sketch pad to her chest. “Is it such a bad thing if you don’t want everyone to know your weaknesses?”
“If they make you ashamed, yes,” he said, casually picking up her hairclip and her two pencils, before settling into the armchair that had the perfect view of the lake.
Awareness zipped down her spine at how easily this ruthless, powerful man seemed to have accepted her presence—and her innumerable things—in his room. As if she belonged there with him.
“Matteo is ashamed of his physical vulnerabilities and goes to any lengths to make up for them.”
She stared, arrested, at the picture he made.
Head thrown back against the chair, long legs sprawled in front of him, with her pink hairclip clasped between elegant fingers, Alessandro was all subdued vitality and masculine perfection. Even with his hair and shirt rumpled, he looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine.
And she could see how being compared to this man—who was a natural leader—would’ve bred resentment in Matteo. Being ruthlessly perfect himself, Alessandro would demand the best of everyone. “Does he know that you don’t think he has anything to be ashamed of?”
“Does he think I’m a complete monster?” He bit out what sounded like a curse, as if he’d found the answer to his own question. “If anything can defeat Matteo’s recovery, it will be himself. Hard work and endurance are not his strong suits.”
“He has us to help him with that,” she said eagerly. She knew what it felt to not have control of one’s body.
His gray eyes flicked open and pinned her to the spot. “Does he have you, Ms. Fischer?” His feet kicked off the ottoman before he added, “To cheer him on?”
Sam could feel her cheeks heating. He had phrased it like that on purpose. She walked around the lounge to the seat opposite him, taking her time before saying, “Yes.”
“A prolonged stay will complicate things.”
It wasn’t quite a warning, and yet there was something in his tone. “Life is full of those pesky complications.”
“You will continue to pose as my girlfriend so as not to arouse any suspicion with the Bianchis.”
“That sounds like a promotion from mistress. At least in title,” she said brazening it out. “Does that mean you can tolerate me now?”
The infuriating man just watched her from under those lashes. “Once my aunt gets her hands on you, you might change your mind. Especially when she realizes you will be the thing that helps her manage her worry about Matteo.”
“If I can distract her, I can bear that much.”
Leaning forward, his gaze did that thorough sweep of her again, as if he wanted to unravel her and see how she was put together. “I’m beginning to think there’s more to my brother than I give him credit for. He gained such loyalty from two intelligent, beautiful women.”
