Revelations of the Night Before Read online

  Nico looked up then, his eyes reflecting the same heat that she knew must be in her own. With a strength of will she would have never guessed she possessed, she pushed his hand away and hastily tucked her shirt back in. Her cheeks were hot, and she refused to look at him.

  He didn’t speak for a long moment. When he did, his voice was more tender than she’d expected it to be.

  “It was you.”

  Tina realized that tears were pricking her eyes. She looked up at him, uncaring if he saw the emotion written on her face.

  “I wish it hadn’t been,” she told him truthfully. Once, she’d fantasized about him, when she’d been young and naive and didn’t know what making love meant. She’d wanted him to fall in love with her, to kiss her and marry her and think she was the most beautiful woman alive—that’s all she knew when she’d been a teenager, but it had been her happy fantasy for at least a year. And then, once he’d gone away, she’d continued to dream about him.

  Yes, she’d wanted him, but not like this. Not with this kind of animosity and mistrust. What had happened between them in Venice, beautiful though it might have been, was a mistake.

  His lips thinned, the corners of his mouth white with suppressed anger. Though they were true, she wished she could take back the words, if only to try and rebuild whatever fragile peace they might have made, but it was too late.

  The car stopped while she tried to think of something to say, and the driver came to open the door. Silently, Nico ushered her into the obstetrician’s office, his fingers firm and burning in her back. His scent wrapped around her senses and made her throat ache with memories of their night together.

  The girl on duty at the front desk didn’t even look up as they approached. She handed over a clipboard and told Tina to fill it out without ever once making eye contact.

  “We are expected,” Nico said tightly, “and I am a busy man.”

  The girl’s head snapped up, her eyes widening as she recognized the man standing before her. “Signore Gavretti—I mean, my lord—forgive me. Please come this way.”

  From that moment on, things moved quickly. Tina was shown into an ultrasound room and made to disrobe. After the technician took images and dated the pregnancy, she dressed and went into the doctor’s office where Nico sat silently sending messages on his phone. A few moments later, the doctor arrived and talked to them about her health, the baby and what needed to happen every few weeks.

  There would be regular ultrasounds, and at twenty weeks they would know the sex of the baby if they chose. There were vitamins to take, blood tests to have done and urine samples to give.

  There were even classes to be taken, though she wasn’t sure that Nico would be coaching her through anything when it came to childbirth. And she wasn’t sure she wanted him to do so, either.

  By the time they left the doctor’s office, Tina’s head was reeling. Instinctively, she put her hand over her still flat abdomen as if protecting the tiny life growing there.

  A baby. She was truly having a baby, and she’d seen the little tiny lump on the screen for herself. Nico had seen it, too, but in the photo the doctor had handed to him in the office. He’d seemed a bit taken aback at first, as if he still couldn’t quite believe it, but there was no denying she was pregnant and no denying that the conception date coincided with the night they were together.

  Now he was silent as they rode through the streets of Rome. Outside the car window, traffic screeched and honked, but inside it remained eerily quiet.

  Eventually, she realized they were not heading in the direction of her hotel. Her heart began to beat a little harder as she turned to him.

  “I’m tired, Nico. I want to go back to my hotel and pack.” She’d had a text message from Lucia, but she hadn’t yet answered it. Since her friend was unable to get together for dinner, it wasn’t crucial that she do so right away.

  Nico’s expression gave nothing away as he looked over at her. He was like a block of ice, so cold and unapproachable that he made her shiver.

  “Your suitcases have already been packed.” He glanced down at his watch. “I imagine they’ve been delivered, as well.”

  An icy tendril of fear coiled around her heart. “Delivered? Where would they be delivered? I’m off to Capri in the morning, and I will need my things tonight.”

  “I’m afraid the plan has changed, cara.” His storm cloud eyes were piercing as they caught hers and held them. “We are going to Castello di Casari.”

  Her pulse beat loudly in her ears. “I can’t go with you,” she said. “People are expecting me.”

  “No,” he said smoothly, tapping the screen of his phone. “They are not. You are on your own right now, Valentina. Renzo and the lovely Faith are in the Caribbean and your mother is sailing around Bora-Bora.”

  Tina stiffened. “While that is certainly true, I do have friends. And they are expecting me.” Acquaintances, more like, and they were not expecting her so much as expecting a call from her if she wanted to get together.

  Which she typically did not. She was happiest on her own. She’d always been a bit of a loner, and she’d never yet outgrown it. It was part of the reason she liked math and numbers so much. When she was in her head, solving problems, she didn’t have to deal with the outside world.

  “Then you will call and inform them your plans have changed.”

  “And for how long should I say I am delayed?” she asked tightly, knowing she was not going anywhere tonight that he did not want her to go.

  There was ice in his smile. “Indefinitely.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CASTELLO di Casari was far more than an ancient family fortress. It was impenetrable. Nico surveyed the castle rising out of the sheer rock in the middle of Lago di Casari and felt the overwhelming sensation of loneliness and despair that he’d always felt when returning here.

  The castle had been modernized over the years, so that its medieval character remained but every modern comfort was provided for. Nico had not been here since his father’s death just over a month ago. Why he’d thought to return here now, he wasn’t quite certain.

  Until he glanced over at the woman sitting stiffly beside him in the helicopter. Yes, it was an excellent place to stash an uncooperative female. He could hardly credit that the woman with the riotous hair and lush mouth was little Valentina D’Angeli, but his brain was becoming more accustomed to the fact by the minute.

  Just as it was becoming accustomed to the fact she was pregnant with his child.

  Until this afternoon, he would have stated it was impossible, but he’d been thinking back to that night and remembering what he’d done differently with her. He had used a condom, it was true, but he remembered it had torn as he had removed it. Now he wondered if it might have torn earlier and he’d only noticed as the tear grew.

  Regardless, she was here and she was pregnant. And he wasn’t letting her go, because if he did, he had no illusions that her brother would do everything in his power to keep Nico from the child.

  And Nico wasn’t allowing that to happen. He kept what was his.

  The helicopter sank onto the landing pad and the rotors slowed. A man bent over and approached the craft. Then the door opened and Giuseppe’s smiling face was there.

  “My lord, we are overjoyed that you have come,” the majordomo said.

  “It’s good to see you again, Giuseppe,” Nico replied, descending from the helicopter and turning to assist Valentina.

  Giuseppe was a short man, not quite five foot five inches tall, and he tilted his head back to look up at Nico. “I am sorry about your father, my lord. We were all saddened by the marchese’s death.”

  Nico clapped the other man on the shoulder. He didn’t feel anything inside, hadn’t since he’d gotten the news, but he knew he was expected to show emotion over his father’s death. It was the correct thing to do regardless that his father had done nearly everything he could in life to alienate his only son.

  “Thank you, Giuseppe.
He lived life as he wanted to, sì? He died as he lived, and I am sure he is at peace.”

  Giuseppe’s old eyes were suspiciously watery. “Sì, sì.”

  A couple of staff members came forward to collect the luggage as Nico threaded his fingers into Valentina’s and brought her to his side. She didn’t resist, though he could feel her stiffening as her soft body came into contact with his.

  “This is Signorina D’Angeli,” Nico said. “She will be staying with us for a while.”

  Giuseppe didn’t betray by word or expression that he understood the significance of Valentina’s name, but Nico didn’t doubt for a moment that the older man did. Giuseppe followed the motorcycle Grand Prix circuit and would certainly know the famous name. He would never ask questions, however.

  “Signorina,” he said, bowing over her hand in a courtly gesture. “Welcome to Castello di Casari.”

  “Thank you,” Valentina replied without a trace of the stiffness that Nico could feel in her. He had to admire her ability to appear as if she actually wanted to be here. Giuseppe was none the wiser as she smiled at him graciously.

  “We will need a meal in an hour or so,” Nico said. “Can you do this, Giuseppe?”

  The man dragged his attention back to Nico with some reluctance. “Sì, my lord. The chef has been busy since we received the news of your impending arrival.”

  “Excellent. Please have it served on the terrazzo.”

  “Sì, my lord.”

  With another smile at Valentina, Giuseppe went off to oversee the staff. Nico still had her hand captured in his, and he led her across the gray helipad and down the stairs to a door, which was a side entrance to the castle.

  “I’m sorry about your father,” she said as they entered the modern glass-and-chrome room that his father had built as a waiting room for the helicopter. “I should have said that earlier.”

  “Thank you,” Nico said automatically, though it irritated him to do so. Why couldn’t he simply tell the truth? That he wasn’t sad? That he felt nothing but anger at the man who’d left him the title and the chaos that went along with it? He was right now pillaging Gavretti Manufacturing in order to repair the damage to all the Gavretti holdings.

  He would save his legacy, but at what cost? Now more than ever it was important he do so. He had a child on the way, and he intended to hand over an intact empire when the time came. Unlike his father had done.

  “I read that he died of a heart attack,” Valentina said from behind him.

  “He did.” Nico stopped and turned toward her. “He also died with a smile on his face, in the bed of his latest mistress. She was twenty.”

  Valentina’s lips dropped open and he had a sudden urge to close them with his own. To plunder their sweetness for one more glimpse of the bliss he’d felt that night in Venice.

  “Oh,” she said, her cheeks reddening. Nico wanted to laugh, but he didn’t. She was still so innocent, no matter that he’d done his best to corrupt her that night. Desire sliced into him then, hot and sharp.

  If anything, it angered him to feel this way toward her. Toward a D’Angeli.

  “He had money, cara, and a title. Women like that sort of thing, whether they are young or old.”

  “Not all women,” she said.

  “This has not been my experience.”

  She looked haughty. “Then maybe you’re not meeting the right kind of women.”

  “If they are women, then they are the right kind.”

  She made a noise that sounded like disgust. “How did I ever fall for your smooth words that night?”

  He reached out and stroked his fingers along her soft cheek. She gasped as he did so, but did not pull away. Sparks shot through his skin at the touch, made his body hunger sharply for hers.

  Her violet eyes were wide. He wondered if she knew they glittered with heat and need. Whatever this was, she felt it, too. Perhaps, for her, it was the lure of the forbidden. Or perhaps it was simply that he was a man and she a woman and they were attracted to each other.

  It didn’t have to be complicated, and yet it felt as if it was the most complicated thing on earth.

  “You fell,” he said softly, “because you wanted to.”

  She had no signal. Tina tossed her phone onto the bed in disgust. She’d tried several times to send a text to Lucia, but there was no signal out here in the middle of this lake.

  This place was, she had to admit, magnificent. She pushed open the double doors onto the balcony, which ran the entire width of the house, and stood in the sunshine. The sun’s rays were lengthening as it neared dusk, but her view of the surrounding area was not yet diminished. Castello di Casari sat in the lake, but ringing the lake were mountains punctuated by small villages while vacation homes of the rich and famous perched high on the rocks.

  The mountains were deep emerald, blooming with plants and flowers; in the distance, the tallest peaks were wreathed in white. Tina sighed. She could see civilization, but she could not reach it. The castle was built on a small island in the lake, its massive towers and walls taking over the entire island.

  She went over to the stone balustrade and leaned against it. Below her, the lake rippled in deep blue currents. There was a sailboat a distance out, and a motorboat zipping by closer in. Pots of pink bougainvillea spilled over in regular intervals around the balcony, and there was a grouping of tables and chairs not too far away. She walked over and sat in one of the chairs, content to sit still and be at peace for a while.

  She’d been relieved to find that she had her own room, though she hadn’t truly expected Nico would try to share a room with her. What for? He clearly didn’t want her anymore, no matter that he strummed his fingers over her skin and her body ached for him.

  He had simply done it to prove a point. She had fallen because she’d wanted to, he’d said.

  And he was right. She had wanted to. Because she’d been overcome by the feelings and sensations ricocheting through her that night, and because she’d wanted more. She’d wanted to see where the feelings led her.

  He, however, had seduced her because she was a woman and she was willing.

  Tina snorted in disgust. His father had died in bed with a twenty-year-old. Nico would no doubt do the same someday. What a fine father he would make for her baby. She was beginning to understand why her mother had been so secretive—what if her own father had been so terrible?

  Renzo knew who his father was, and it had done nothing but cause him pain. He had not told her that, but their mother had. Renzo’s pain was the reason her mother gave for not telling Tina what she wanted to know.

  Maybe she’d been right after all.

  She sat in the sun until it disappeared behind the mountain. It was still light out, but growing darker much faster now. She still wore jeans and sandals, but she’d removed her jacket and scarf. Now she returned to her room and retrieved them.

  There was a knock on her door. The man who had greeted them at the landing pad was there, smiling at her pleasantly. “Signorina, his lordship asked me to tell you that dinner is prepared. You can reach the terrazzo by going out on the balcony and taking the steps down to the next level.”

  “Thank you,” Tina replied. She wanted to refuse to join Nico, but she was surprisingly hungry. The anti-nausea medication the doctor had given her had worked wonders and she actually had an appetite for once.

  She didn’t change for dinner, determined that she would not do that at least. She was here under protest, not as a willing guest, so to hell with the niceties. Frau Decker would be horrified at her lack of manners, but Frau Decker was in Switzerland. Besides, her old teacher had never addressed a situation in which a lady might be held captive by a gentleman against her will.

  Tina frowned wryly. Whatever would the good woman say if she could see this place and the man who waited at the dinner table? Quite probably, like most women, she would giggle and fawn over him.

  Tina went onto the balcony and walked the length of it before finding
the stairs down to the next level. There, a large table and at least ten chairs had pride of place beside a stunning view of soaring cliffs directly across the lake.

  The table was set for two, with crisp white napkins, crystal goblets, silver flatware and pristine white plates. Nico stood with his back to her, looking out at the cliffs and holding a glass of wine from which he occasionally took a sip.

  She studied his broad back, reluctant to interrupt his thoughts and turn them toward her once more. He’d changed, she noted with surprise. Instead of the suit, he wore a pair of stonewashed jeans and a black shirt. His hair curled over his collar, and for a moment she longed to go over and slide her fingers into the silkiness of it as she had done that night.

  Tina shivered involuntarily, but not from cold. Her body was hot, her blood thick and syrupy in her veins. He did that to her, and it disconcerted her that he still could.

  She took the rest of the steps down and Nico turned, his gaze skimming her lightly as he did so. She tilted her chin up, as she’d been taught, and bore his scrutiny as if it were nothing.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “I’ve been better,” she replied.

  He appeared concerned. “Do you still feel nauseous?”

  Guilt pricked her. “I’m not ill anymore, thanks to the medication. No, I was thinking more along the lines of how this is my first abduction.”

  She didn’t expect him to smile, but he did, and it caught at her heart though it should not. “Mine, too.”

  “How fortunate,” she said crisply. “We can enjoy the experience together.”

  He came over and pulled her chair out, and she realized she’d actually been standing there as if she’d expected it. How silly, and how very like her at the same time. She only hoped he didn’t notice how she blushed.

  His fingers skimmed over her shoulders after he pushed her chair in, and twined in her hair. She went very still, sparks zipping along her spine and behind her ears. It hurt, and it felt like the most wonderful thing all at once.