“This is lovely,” she said, her voice breathless.
“I’m pleased you like it, but there is another reason why I chose this one for you.”
A smile teased at her lips. “Let me guess. Your bedroom is next door?”
“It is.” He flashed his heart-stopping smile, so full of the humor she remembered. Her heart thumped harder. “But I suspect you might like what I’m about to show you even better.”
Alessandro led her to a door along the sidewall, under an intricately carved wooden threshold. He turned the handle and revealed an area far too vast to be called a room, even in this castle-like place. As she walked out onto a stone balcony, she could see she was in one of the villa’s towers she had spied from the road. At some point, the balconies that lined each level had likely been used for defense, but now the stone hallways were lined with wooden shelves, stacked with countless rows of books. Her room was just a teaser. This was the place Alessandro had used to lure her here, and it was even more spectacular than she had imagined.
Ann-Sophie walked to the edge of the balcony and rested her hands on the polished stone, gazing down the open center. Lit in the rosy golden light of the stained-glass windows was a spiral staircase in the same dark wood as the shelves, and at the corners of each level were small alcoves, fitted with armchairs and lamps, like tiny reading rooms.
Alessandro rested his hand on the curve of her back, and a new feeling rushed through her, one she refused to call hope. He leaned closer and whispered in her ear, “Welcome to the Carandini family library.”
She had given him two weeks, and that was exactly what he needed. He would ease her defenses down and seduce her in every way possible again. Marry her. And the restless feeling she stirred in him? The risk of exposing the raw edge this villa evoked in him, haunted by the ghosts of his own past? Anything could be managed for two weeks. Of course, he would let himself indulge in pleasures. Those alone weren’t a risk. It was allowing these pleasures and indulgences to take over his emotions.
Which were absolutely under control now.
The more he had gotten used to the idea of this pregnancy, the more he saw the opportunity it presented. A baby of his own would mean a chance to right the wrongs of his childhood. He would never deceive his child. He could never shower this child with false affection, then cast them away when they became an inconvenience with a sprinkle of half-hearted gaslighting. He would set clear expectations and follow through, not blame a child for things they were too young to understand.
“I can’t believe your family owns all of this,” said Ann-Sophie softly, as she gestured at the shelves.
“It’s an impressive collection,” he agreed.
“Just looking at all these books makes me outrageously happy,” said Ann-Sophie, shaking her head.
The tension that he had carried in his shoulders since the moment his brother had told him about herroundnesswas finally starting to ease. If she could be coaxed into raising the child here at the estate, with its library and the walls, this would contain the unpredictability of their…situation. So Alessandro took a deep breath and let himself enjoy the soft material of her dress under his hand and the lavender scent of her hair.
“This was my great-aunt’s life’s work,” he said, watching Ann-Sophie’s features, studying her reactions. “In another era, from another family, she likely would have been an academic. But she and my grandfather grew up without means, and she could never get her hands on enough books. So when my grandfather’s fortune exceeded anyone’s dreams, he gave this project to her.”
“Am I staying in her room?”
“When she stayed here, yes. Though she chose to live in the home where she and my grandfather grew up, she spent a good amount of time here, building the library of her dreams.”
“Interesting,” she said, but creases were forming on her forehead. She looked up at him, her eyes wide and unguarded. “All of these books justsit herein this house, where no one lives?”
She sounded…displeased by that idea. He frowned. “Not anymore. You are here to read them.”
She tilted her head a little, as if to consider his answer. After a moment, she said, “Show me around.”
Alessandro gestured to the main floor below, where a series of cases stood at the center. “The oldest books are shelved on the bottom floor, away from direct sunlight, where the room temperature can be more carefully controlled.”
She nodded, then began to wander along the balcony, taking in the rows of books that glowed in the red light of the stained glass. Alessandro found himself entranced by the way her hair glittered and moved as she reached for one volume, then another.
“The remaining floors of stacks are for more recent books, arranged by language, I believe. You might find something in Swedish.”
Ann-Sophie continued slowly, her gaze fixed on the shelves as they passed. She stopped, stooped down and then rose. “Did you grandparents love to read, too?”
“Like many people with new money, my grandfather likely saw this project more as an opportunity to establish the family’s prestige.”
She frowned a little, and Alessandro found a strange twinge of…displeasure. As if he had wanted her approval. But that couldn’t be right. He focused on the fact that her voice had lost the bite he had heard in Stockholm, and right now, she looked like she had in Nice, so curious, so unselfconscious. Except that she was, indeed, rounder. Gloriously so.
His family was not a topic he volunteered information about, as the conversation could so easily slide into territory better left in the past. But this past would soon be part of his child’s history, too. The idea had stirred something inside him, unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
“Where did all of these books come from?” she asked.
“Some were here when my grandparents bought the place, which was how the project started. The rest came from auctions, estate sales, travel…everywhere. My great-aunt developed a bit of a reputation, so libraries came to her with older books in need of costly restoration or books they no longer had room for.”
“This place definitely has the space,” she said, and he heard a trace of awe in her voice.
