“If there is anything you want to add to the collection, please let me know.”
She shook her head slowly, as if she couldn’t quite believe what was in front of her. She continued to wander until she came to an alcove with a velvet armchair and a small table with a reading lamp. “I think I’d start with more readers.”
He blinked at her, then nodded. “I’m sure that can be accommodated.”
Ann-Sophie let her hand brush over the soft velvet of the armchair that sat in the rays of the afternoon sun.
“My aunt built these nooks on each floor to make sure she could find natural light for reading, no matter the season or time of day.”
Ann-Sophie turned to him. “Do you have a favorite place to read?”
“Not much of a reader. Never have been.” The moment he said this, her expression fell. She looked…disappointed in him, and he found himself very displeased by this. Displeased enough to reveal a truth he so rarely spoke of, before he could think better of it. “Dyslexia.”
“Oh,” she whispered, and the hint of judgment that he had seen on her face shifted to something softer.
Alessandro was well aware that this was exactly the kind of softening he needed to exploit. The plan was to use this…emotional reaction he was having to the unearthing of his past, he reminded himself. His most strategic move was to show her a glimpse of what she wanted to see, then shut it all down again.
“My parents preferred the termlazy,” he added, forcing himself to reveal his past. “My father was particularly affronted by the idea that there was something ‘wrong’ with his son—his words.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ann-Sophie whispered. “That’s awful.”
Her blue eyes seemed to pierce through all his protective layers, leaving him with the disquieting sense that she wasseeinghim.
Alessandro waved off her sympathy. “By that point, it probably didn’t matter. I had already decided that being spectacularly bad was much better than being the kid who always needed extra help.”
She furrowed her brow. “But they still should have—”
“We don’t need to adjudicate my childhood,” he snapped. “I’ve moved on.”
Ann-Sophie blinked at the sharpness in his voice. “I’m sorry for prying.”
But her penetrating gaze stayed fixed on him, as if she was seeing even more. He felt…off balance.
Warning bells clanged in his head, reminding him of the last time this happened, when he lashed out at her back in Nice. He would absolutely not lash out at her, but he had to dosomething. So he did the only other thing that he could think of. It was the thing that he had needed to do since the moment she had walked down her own street and back into his life. Slowly, so there was no mistaking what his intentions were, he lowered his mouth so it was almost touching hers. She blinked up at him, her eyes widening in surprise. And then he saw the shift, the look he had not allowed himself to imagine for seven months. Open desire, just for him. But now that she was so inescapably close, right in front of him, he stopped resisting.
He closed the distance and gave in. Her lips were as soft as he remembered, and they tasted of that sweet, forbidden fruit he had kept from himself for far too long. His body reacted to the taste immediately with electric arousal. This was the heaven he had been waiting for. He brushed his mouth against hers again, telling himself that this was part of his plan.
He wanted more, so he opened his lips to hers. Her breath hitched, and a wave of satisfaction ran through him. Yes, she wanted him, and he could have her again. The thought echoed inside him, stronger than he expected, the moment she parted her lips. Her soft mouth was hungry, and he could taste a want that matched his own. The fire that had burned unbearably high every night of that one, glorious week flared higher.
Alessandro cradled her jaw in his hands, aching for more of the eager strokes of her soft tongue. He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms, remembering each dip and swell. Then he found her waist, testing the changes that he had seen with his eyes. But the touch was so much better. Slowly, he moved his hands over her new roundness, caressing—
He felt movement under his hand. Their child, so undeniably real. Something strong and painful rip-roared through him, turning the heat that moved through him into ice. It was as if a long-healed wound had been forced open, and he needed to staunch the flow of fear and dread.
Alessandro pulled back and looked down at his hands, frozen on each side of her belly. He glanced up at Ann-Sophie, at the crease that had formed between her eyebrows, her unspoken questions hanging between them. He refused to answer them. Instead, he backed away and removed his hands. His body protested loudly, and he clenched his fists, resisting the urge to reach for her. He took a step away. Her eyes were wide, and her hair tousled. Her cheeks had flushed, and the confusion written across her face was mixed with raw want.
Then her mouth twisted down with what could have been hurt. Alessandro clenched his hands to stop himself from reaching for her again, from touching her, from doing so much more than kissing her, just to soothe that hurt away. But he would not subject himself to the emotions that still tore at him. So he took one more step back, ignoring the twist in his gut as Ann-Sophie’s expression grew more guarded.
And when he spoke, his voice was fully under control. “Supper is served out in the garden at seven.”
Then he turned and walked away.
Chapter Five
ANN-SOPHIE STOOD, frozen in place, as Alessandro’s last footsteps echoed on the stone walkway of the tower. When the door closed behind him, she sank into the lush velvet chair, her mind reeling. Was he just…walking away? After that kiss?
For one, short moment it had felt as though Alessandro had exposed a guarded piece of himself, and then they were kissing with a magic that entwined this enchanting library with the man she had lost herself with seven months ago. Seven months of longing came alive, longing she had tried to repress. His lips had caressed hers with the same aching hunger she remembered too well.
And then, just as unexpectedly as this magical moment had started, Alessandro took it away, leaving her with this sensation that something in her was cracking as he walked away. And she was doing all she could to hold herself together.
