all right, Rini. Though your explanation wasn’t the one I expected, I got my answer, so thank you. Please forgive me for barging in here uninvited. I give you my promise it will never happen again.”
When the limo turned into the courtyard, she rushed to get in the backseat on her own. Rini was right there, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of meeting his eyes and closed the door herself. As the limo drove off, Rini’s heart plummeted to his feet.
“Where do you wish to go, signorina?”
“The airport, per favore.”
Alessandra didn’t look back as they turned away.
No more looking back.
Just now she’d wanted to comfort him over his infertility, but she sensed he wouldn’t have been willing to listen to her. For him to have revealed his agony to her had been huge for him. Now that he’d told her the truth, he’d backed away, certain that she—like any other woman—wouldn’t see him as a complete man.
Was that image of being incomplete the reason for his meteoric rise in the business world? Had he worked day and night to compensate for what he saw as an inadequacy? She’d detected the love in his voice when he’d talked about his sister and her babies. Pain pierced her heart to realize that every time Rini eyed his nephew, he was reminded that he could never give a woman a child from his own body.
She’d seen the way he’d kissed and loved Valentina’s baby. The man had been there for her throughout her pregnancy. Yet all that time, he’d been gutted by the knowledge that he’d never be able to look forward to having a baby from his own body. Her heart ached for him.
As for his conversation with her aunt, that was something else again. If he’d been sworn to secrecy, then she wouldn’t be getting an explanation out of him. Alessandra could go to her aunt and demand to know the truth, but it wasn’t her right.
On the flight back to Metaponto, she stared out the window of the plane. Rini Montanari had been an earthshaking interlude. But interlude was all he’d prepared for their association to be and became the operative word in her romance-less life.
* * *
Sunday evening the helicopter dipped lower over Ravello. Rini was late for his brother Carlo’s birthday party, which Valentina and Giovanni were hosting.
For the last three weeks Rini had traveled to four areas of Calabria in Southern Italy, exploring the possibility of developing more oil sites. But he’d been in agony since Alessandra had left his villa and couldn’t concentrate.
Nothing he’d visited turned out to be as promising as the land owned by the Caracciolo family. But he’d written that off. Unfortunately, blotting Alessandra from his heart was another matter entirely. With love in her eyes, she’d reacted to the news that he was infertile as if it was of no consequence to her. She’d assured him it didn’t matter. The way she’d kissed him, as if he was her whole life, he’d believed her.
But her aunt’s fear that a relationship with Alessandra might cause a permanent rift between the twins had prompted him to back away. Fulvia had told him how close the girls had been growing up, how much fun they’d had as children. But everything changed when Alessandra fell in love and then was betrayed by her sister and the man she’d thought she would marry.
The girls had finally gotten past it, but now they’d reached another impasse because Dea had met Rini first. Apparently she’d been devastated when he didn’t want to date her. Hearing that Alessandra had been showing him around the property had upset her.
Though the situation was totally unfair, Fulvia had looked him in the eye and asked him if he wanted to be responsible for bringing on more pain between the two of them that might last. It was his decision to make.
In the end, Rini couldn’t do it, so he’d had to let Alessandra go. All he could do was watch news clips on television about the discovery of the Temple of Hera beneath the waters off Basilicata in the Ionian.
Dr. Bruno Tozzi and his team had been given credit for the find and Alessandra’s name had been mentioned. Every few days more information was being fed to the media about more discoveries of a courtyard and temple walls.
Rini was proud of Alessandra and the amazing work she was doing. Thanks to the coverage, he was able to keep track of her without having to make contact with her father. But having said goodbye to her had thrown him into a black void.
Once Rini arrived at the Laurito villa, he was besieged by family. He played with Carlo’s daughter, then took turns enjoying the two baby boys. Giovanni chatted with him for a while, but it was Valentina who sequestered him in the sunroom just off the terrace. He couldn’t get out of it.
“I thought you’d be bringing Alessandra with you. She’s fabulous!”
“That’s over.”
“Why? I know you’re in love with her.”
His eyes closed tightly. “It can’t work.”
“Rini—are you saying she doesn’t love you?”
He inhaled sharply. “She’s never said the words.”
“Have you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does! Alessandra came to your house unannounced. I saw the look in her eyes when you walked out on the patio. If ever a woman had it bad...”
“There are things you don’t know and I can’t tell you. Don’t make this any harder on me.”
“Okay.” She patted his arm. “I’ll leave it alone. Keep your secrets and come on back out. Papà wants to talk to you and find out what new areas you’ve found for drilling.”
“I wish I had better results to report.”
Together they joined the others. Near midnight he flew back to his villa and did some laps in the swimming pool before going to bed. To his chagrin, sleep wouldn’t come. He spent most of the night outside on a lounger.
Three weeks... If he didn’t see Alessandra again soon, he’d go mad. But he had certain knowledge that bound him to stay away from her. Early Monday morning he put his emotional needs in the deep freeze and left for his office, prepared to announce some new sites for drilling that would please the board. He worked steadily until Thursday, when his secretary put through a call from his sister.
“Valentina?”
“Have you heard the news?” She sounded frantic.
His gut clenched. “What is it?”
“The seismic research facility in Malta registered a six-point-nine quake in the Ionian. The impact was felt all along the coast. It affected the diving site where Alessandra has been working with the institute.”
Earthquake? He broke out in a cold sweat. If anything happened to her, his life wouldn’t be worth living. To hell with what her aunt had told him. He needed to go to her and wouldn’t let anything stop him.
“According to the news, apparently two or three divers were injured and transported to chambers at various
