don’t have to be a priest to be a godly person. Everyone felt that way about the old duca. I know you loved him.”
“That’s beside the point. He knew he was dying. All he was doing that day was expressing his sentiment about me to a sweet girl who’d brought him his favorite dessert baked by the best cook around. But to see that as a sign from above...” He shook his head.
Gemma slid off the bed. “My mother was raised in a good Catholic family.”
He raked a hand through his midnight-black hair. “Heaven help me, so were you.”
“That’s why she honored the traditions here.”
“You’re right, but she went too far. Without giving me any voice at all, she made me out as the untouchable one, the future duca whose word was law. It’s that old divine right of kings business and it disgusts me.”
No one could confuse her like he could with his logic.
“It’s time to put the past in the past, where it belongs. There’s no room in the modern world for it. I’m a normal guy, Gemma. Warts and all.”
“You don’t have any.”
Vincenzo leaned against the door with his strong arms folded. “Of course I have flaws and imperfections, like every other man. Think about it—until I called my friends together about buying the castello, they didn’t know my last name or the fact that I inherited a title. Do you see them treating me any differently? Have they once shown me a special kind of deference?”
“Actually, no,” she said with her innate honesty.
“Good. Maybe that will convince you. Please hear me out. We need to be spending time together as adults, not as those teenagers from the past having to live by ridiculous rules that constantly divided us in your mind. It’s important—in fact, it’s vital—that you throw away the blinders while we explore the world we’re living in now as equals in all things and ways.”
* * *
Gemma could hear what he was saying, but it was so hard to silence her mother’s warnings after all these years. It meant throwing off old fears and conceptions that had dominated her thoughts forever.
“I’m in love with you. Isn’t it worth it to you to find out if you can see me as a typical man you’ve met and want to get to know better?”
Vincenzo was the most atypical man she’d ever known, but he couldn’t see it. He wasn’t a woman. She hugged her arms to her waist. “You already know what’s in my heart.”
“I do?” he quipped, making her smile. “Then prove it. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
She recognized that no-nonsense tone in his voice. When he went after something, he was impossible to stop. Gemma knew she had to get away from him. “There’s nothing to do, Vincenzo. I have to leave.”
With a few long strides, he stood in the front of the doorway so she couldn’t walk out. He was such a breathtaking male, her legs turned to mush.
“The second I learned you didn’t have a husband, I planned for us to take a vacation together. That’s why I left that night for New York. There were loose ends I needed to tie up first so we wouldn’t have anything standing in our way.”
“That’s a fantasy you need to let go of. For one thing, you just employed me. I can’t take a vacation.”
“There’s still enough time before the grand opening for us to be gone a couple of weeks. My partners will handle everything, and you’ve already done the most important work with Maurice. When was the last time you went off on a real trip anywhere? Be honest.”
Her eyes closed tightly. “I don’t remember.”
“That’s what I thought. I need a holiday badly, too, but I never felt like taking one because the woman I wanted with me wasn’t available. My fear that you were happily married and living somewhere in Italy with your husband and children tortured me more nights than you’ll ever know.”
Gemma had battled the same fears about him and had suffered endlessly for years.
“We’ll leave in the morning. Go home and get packed. I’ll come by the pensione at eight. We’ll drive to the airport and have breakfast on the plane.”
He was serious. It frightened and thrilled her at the same time. She moistened her lips. “Aren’t you too tired to go anywhere after coming back from New York?”
“When we get to the beach, we’ll sleep, relax and play in the water to our hearts’ content.”
It did sound out of this world.
“If—if we go,” she stammered, “I don’t want us to sleep together. When we’re in each other’s arms we communicate as a man and woman, but—”
“We certainly do.”
Heat filled her cheeks. “You know what I mean. I didn’t think of you as the duca while we were on the bed, but at other times—”
“I get where you’re going with this,” he broke in. “You want to see us as that man and woman no matter what else we’re doing.”
She nodded.
“So do I, so I’ll try to keep my hands off you. But I’ll warn you now, it’s not going to be easy.” He walked over to the massive dresser and pulled out a knit shirt he put on. “I thought I’d better cover up before I walk you out to your car. Fortino’s a man and would understand, but I don’t want him to get the wrong idea about you.”
“Thank you.”
His deep chuckle reverberated through her body as he caught her face between his hands, kissing her long and hard. Like old times, they wrapped their arms around each other and started down the winding staircase. Vincenzo stopped every so often to give her another kiss. She didn’t think they’d ever reach the bottom and didn’t care.
They crossed through the castello to the front entrance. “It feels like we’re the only two people on earth.”
“Don’t I wish,” he whispered against her throat. They nodded to Fortino and went down to her car. “Let’s exchange phones so we can put in our numbers. I want you to call me the second you reach the pensione.”
She nodded. When that was done, he crushed her against him. “Ci vediamo domattina.”
If she wasn’t dreaming, then she would be seeing him in the morning. Taking the initiative, she pressed a kiss to his lips and climbed in the car. “Tomorrow.”
* * *
Vincenzo packed a bag, then phoned his cousin before getting in bed. “Dimi?”
“Are you back from New York?”
“Yes, and I’m going away again, but I wanted to call you first. How’s Zia Consolata?”
“Failing a little more each day.”
“I’m
