No, seven days couldn’t come around soon enough. Putting on an act for Juliano was a bigger strain than she’d ever thought it would be. And it felt wrong to lie to him. She knew how it felt to find out you’d been lied to. Only too well.
On the evening of the third day she excused herself after dinner. She had a headache and was feeling weary. The sleepless, teary nights were catching up with her.
‘You haven’t eaten much,’ Alessandro commented as he inspected her almost full plate.
He was in a T-shirt that fitted snug across his chest and left his strong forearms exposed, the dark covering of hair there so fucking sexy.
She stared at him, absently rubbing her bare arms that had suddenly broken into goosebumps. ‘I’m not very hungry these days.’ It was said pleasantly enough for Juliano’s ears but hergaze hardened to leave him in no doubt as to the cause of her poor appetite. She couldn’t afford to soften her stance or let her guard down. ‘Excuse me.’
Nat left the room without a backward glance. She wanted a shower. She wanted her bed. She wanted to sleep for four days and then this whole quarantine thing would be over and she could get as far away from Alessandro Lombardi as was possible.
Alessandro watched her go, his hands fisting in his lap. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to shake her or kiss her even as he knew he deserved her contempt. Looking at it from her perspective, his actions must have seemed extraordinarily callous.
From the second Nat had turned the picture around and Camilla’s face had stared back at him, her Mona Lisa smile taunting him, he’d known he’d screwed up. The evidence of his treachery was damning and right there but it wasn’t the full story.
How could he make her see that the physical resemblance was where the similarity between her and Camilla ended without going into all the sordid details? Without exposing his guilt and shame? He didn’t talk about that.
Not with anyone.
Beloved.She’d said beloved. And of course Nat thought he was still in love with his wife. Why wouldn’t she? Marriage did imply love, after all, and it hadn’t even been a year yet. He’d stepped towards her trying to explain but her recoil had felt like a slap. She’d been too angry for his explanations. And how could he say the words aloud, anyway?
I didn’t love her. I didn’t love my wife.
What kind of a man did that make him? She’d told him she loved him but that was because she hadn’t known that he wasn’t worthy of love. Hers or any other woman’s.
Not after Camilla.
But, right now, they were stuck together and he wasn’t sure he could stand four more days of her cold shoulder. It was like his marriage all over again. Constantly pretending everything was all right for Juliano’s sake and the stress of projecting the illusion of marital bliss had been a constant drain.
‘What’s wrong with Nat?’
Juliano’s question broke into his reverie. He smiled down at his son. ‘She’s fine.’
‘She’s really quiet,’ Juliano persisted. ‘And she looks sad.’
Alessandro was surprised by his son’s insight. So much for them trying to carry on as normal, to protect Juliano. He was obviously a lot shrewder than they’d given him credit for.
‘She’s a little tired I think,’ he assured. ‘I’ll go check on her soon.’
Ten minutes later Alessandro left Juliano sitting on the sofa with Flo and the latestBlueyepisode. He climbed the stairs and headed for Nat’s room. They needed to talk away from little ears – whether she wanted to or not.
The shower was running as he entered her room and his gaze tracked her path to it from her discarded clothes. Hesitating for a moment, he contemplated waiting for her to come out but, hell, he had seen her naked before. They’d showered together numerous times. Had even had hot, wet, soapy sex on more than one occasion.
And he was damned if he was going to tiptoe around in his own house.
Striding to her en suite, Alessandro stopped in the open doorway, leaning his shoulder into the jamb. The bathroomwas full of steam, the fogged glass making it impossible to see anything of the occupant.
‘Maybe I should have installed a sauna in here for you,’ he said dryly.
There was a beat of silence before her cranky response. ‘Go away, Alessandro.’
Annoyed at her dismissal, he drawled, ‘Nothing I haven’t seen before.’
‘Nothing you’re ever seeing again.’
His mouth compressed into a line. He really didn’t want to argue. ‘I want to talk.’
‘Yeah, well, Idon’twant to talk.’
