how ruthlessly he tried to find things about her he didn’t like in order to fight his attraction. He couldn’t come up with one.
“What’s going on in that intelligent mind of yours?”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said in a dampening voice, “especially when we both know you’ve been able to read me like a book so far.”
He turned on his side. “Not this time.”
She let out a troubled sigh. “I learned a lot after living with Cliff for those eight years. Whether justified or not, he felt betrayed by his parents. The family should have gotten professional counseling to help him. When I saw Dante’s expression, he reminded me so much of Cliff, I got a pain in my stomach.”
“The news definitely shook him.”
“It was more than that, Leon.” Slowly she sat up and looped her arms around her raised knees. “All I saw was the little boy who a long time ago fell apart at the loss of his mother. Your father said he’s a grown man now, with a wife, and can handle it, but I’m afraid Dante’s world has come crashing down on him again.”
Leon nodded slowly. “If I don’t miss my guess, his turmoil came from the fact that Papà wants to adopt you. Call it jealousy if you like. He and I suffered a great deal in our youth over his remarriage.”
“Now he’s reliving it. He sees how devoted your father is to my mother. When he said he planned to adopt me, maybe you couldn’t see Dante clearly from where you were sitting, but his face went white.”
“I noticed,” Leon muttered. “There’s no question her sin of omission has caught up with my brother.”
In that moment he’d realized Dante had disliked Luciana perhaps even more strongly than Leon himself had years ago. But Dante had held back his feelings until this morning, when she’d revealed news about her secret baby. To make it even more painful, Belle had been sitting next to her mother at the table, bigger than life and more beautiful.
“I can see only one way to stop the bleeding.”
Her thoughts were no longer a mystery. He rolled next to her and grasped her upper arms. “You can’t go home yet—”
That nerve in her throat was throbbing again. “I have to. Don’t you see? As long as I’m in Rimini, I’m a horrible reminder of his past. Mom and I have the rest of our lives to work things out. I have a career, Leon. In a few days I’ll be back at my job. She can fly to New York and visit me. If I leave, then there’ll be no gossip, and Mom’s secret will remain safe.”
His jaw hardened. “There are two flaws in your argument. In the first place the damage has already been done to Dante. Secondly, now that you’ve been united with her, she won’t be able to handle a long-distance relationship. I’ve already learned enough to know a visit once every six weeks will never be enough for you, either. You can forget going anywhere,” he declared.
Her chin trembled. He had the intense desire to kiss her mouth and body, but sensing danger, she eased away from him and got to her feet. “To remain in Italy for any length of time is out of the question. Don’t you see it will tear Dante apart? It’s not fair to him! He didn’t ask for this. None of you did, but he’s the one at risk of being unable to recover.”
Leon stood in turn. “He’ll recover, Belle, but it’s going to take time.”
“I don’t know. I keep seeing his face and it wounds me. I have to leave. As for the rest of this week, I couldn’t possibly stay at the palazzo while I’m here. That’s always been Dante’s home. My only option is to fly back to New York ASAP.”
“No. For the time being you’re going to stay with me, where you’ll be away from Dante and yet still remain close to Luciana.”
A small cry escaped Belle’s throat. She shook her head. “I...couldn’t possibly remain with you, and you know why. If I stay anywhere, it will be at a hotel.”
Before he could think, she backed away farther. In a flash she’d gathered up her jacket and towel and darted across the sand to the steps leading to the villa.
Long after she’d disappeared inside, Leon was still standing there trying to deal with a tumult of emotions regarding his brother. But he also had been gripped by unassuaged longings, and realized he had a serious problem on his hands.
Just now he’d wanted to kiss Belle into oblivion. The chemistry had been potent from the first moment they’d met. Though Benedetta hadn’t been gone that long, Leon found an insidious attraction for Luciana’s daughter heating up within him.
Like father, like son?
Something warned him it could be fatal. How was that possible? If she’d sensed it, too, that could be the reason she’d run like hell.
IN A PANIC over feelings completely new to her, Belle raced to her room and jumped in the shower to wash her hair. In getting what she’d wished for by finding her mother, her world and everyone else’s had been turned upside down. Nothing would ever be the same again and it was her fault!
Since she turned eighteen she’d been leading her own life as a liberated adult, in charge of herself and her decisions. No matter the situation now, she refused to be a weight around Leon’s neck.
Her roommates would tell her she was stark staring crazy to run from the situation. They’d kill for the chance to stay with a gorgeous widower in his fabulous Italian villa. What was her problem?
Belle could only shake her head. What wasn’t her problem? When Leon had driven her away from the palazzo earlier, she’d left it in an emotional shambles. After trying so hard not to hurt anyone, she found out that every life inside those walls standing for hundreds of years had been changed because of her driving need to know who she was.
Are you happy now, Belle?
In a matter of minutes Dante’s life had been turned into a nightmare. She couldn’t live with herself if something drastic wasn’t done to staunch the flow of pain for him.
But she couldn’t stay with Leon any longer, either. Through an accident of marriage, he was her stepbrother, for heaven’s sake! Yet she had to face the awful truth that her feelings for him were anything but sisterly. She could be arrested for some of the thoughts she’d been having about him.
Just now on the beach, the ache for him had grown so acute she’d literally melted when he’d grasped her arms. It wouldn’t be possible to stay with him any longer and not act on her feelings for him.
She finished blow-drying her hair and slipped on the only pair of jeans she’d brought, along with a khaki blouse. It was time to play tourist while she decided what she was going to do.
Before leaving the room in her sneakers and shoulder bag, Belle dashed off a note, which she propped on the dresser. In it she explained she’d gone for a walk and would be back later.
No one was about as she retraced her steps to the beach. It was the only way to leave his gated property. She hurried past a lifeguard tower. For all she knew, the guy on watch was one of Leon’s security people. But she wouldn’t worry about that now, because she’d reached
