any more about us marrying?’ he asked.
Her answer was automatic. ‘No.’ She shook her head for good measure, her loose ponytail whipping with a crack.
He exhaled slowly. ‘What is stopping you from saying yes?’
‘Everything that stopped me when you first suggested it. Marriage is a terrible idea.’
An edge crept into his voice. ‘Why?’
Orla felt an edge form inside her too, defensive spikes lifting beneath her skin. ‘Because it wouldn’t mean what it should mean. You wouldn’t even be thinking it if it weren’t for Finn. I mean, come on, four years ago you pretended to be someone else and, while I believe you about Sophia, it doesn’t change that you did lie about your identity, and the only reason I can see for you doing that is because you never took me seriously from the start. I was so far removed from what you considered suitable wife material that you didn’t need bother tell me the truth.’
A long pause of silence opened up between them, broken when Tonino took a swig of his beer.
‘Thoughts of your suitability…’ he delivered the word with a curled lip ‘…didn’t cross my mind. When we first met my only thoughts were of bedding you. You didn’t know me. You had no preconceptions. You just wanted me. And that felt great.’
He turned his head to face her. Even with both their eyes masked by sunglasses, his gaze penetrated her flesh and set her heart racing.
She remembered her own instinctive reaction when she’d learned the wealth, connections and power Tonino and his family had. It had frightened her. For many other women, it would have attracted them.
His voice lowered. ‘But then you got under my skin and I knew I had to tell you the truth. The mistake I made was to fly to Tuscany before telling you because Sophia got to you first and fed you all those lies.’
‘No, the mistake you made was not telling me the truth to begin with.’ She shook her head to clear it from the effects of Tonino’s seductive voice. He had a voice that could recite the worst kind of poetry and make it sound like a masterpiece. ‘You were playing with me. I was just a joke to you, some naïve Irish girl you could play make-believe with.’
He downed the last of his beer. ‘Maybe it started like that,’ he admitted, ‘but that is not how it finished. I fell for you, dolcezza, harder than I had ever fallen for anyone, and you ran away rather than confront me and allow me to defend myself. You believed Sophia’s lies.’
‘She was very convincing.’ She rubbed her cheeks, feeling wretched. He was right. She hadn’t given him the chance to defend himself from Sophia’s lies.
‘Sophia is a superb actress.’
‘I think her hatred of me is genuine.’
‘What hatred? What makes you say that?’
‘Did you not see the dirty looks she kept throwing me at Aislin and Dante’s wedding?’
‘All I remember from that wedding is feeling sucker-punched by your reappearance in my life.’
‘She looked like she wanted to throttle me.’
‘Don’t take it personally. She looks at everyone like that.’ Tonino popped the cap off another beer, removed his sunglasses and looked at her squarely. ‘I’ve known Sophia all my life. She’s a bitch, yes, but she would never hurt you. She’s married now and has a child of her own.’
‘Oh.’ She gave a shaky laugh. ‘I suppose I imagined she’d spent the past four years making effigies of me.’
‘Put your fears to rest. She is a professional grudge holder, but her violence is only verbal.’
‘But why the grudge? If you didn’t cheat on her with me, why does she hate me?’
‘Because she knows I ended our engagement for you.’
‘What…?’ Until Orla had lost her memories, Sophia’s pain and her unwitting contribution towards it had plagued her. She’d hoped she could put her guilt to bed but now Tonino was saying the ending of his engagement had been about her? ‘You ended your engagement for me?’
Long moments passed before his nostrils flared. ‘It wasn’t strictly about you. It was about my desire for you. It was a desire no man who is bound to one person should feel for another.’
‘I might be Irish but that’s a riddle too far, even for me.’
He laughed but it contained a bitter tinge. ‘The truth is, Sophia and I should never have got engaged.’
‘Then why did you?’
‘It was something our families always hoped for. Our mothers have been friends since they were babies. It was a running joke between them from when we were babies that Sophia and I would marry and as I neared thirty and felt the urge to settle down, marrying her made sense. On paper we were perfect for each other. You see, dolcezza, when you’re rich you have to think of marriage in terms of reputation and with an eye to the future. My personal reputation is of little concern to me, but my parents’ reputations matter greatly to them. Marriage to a Messina, a family as old and as noble as the Valentes, could only enhance that. And vice versa.’
‘How did they take the ending of the engagement?’
She caught the flash of bitterness on his features.
‘Not well?’ she guessed.
‘No,’ he agreed shortly.
‘I suppose that was understandable.’
His features sharpened. ‘Understandable?’
Feeling she was dipping her toe in water infested by sharks that no one had told her about, she said tentatively, ‘If they were such good friends with Sophia’s parents, it must have been embarrassing for them.’
His jaw clenched. ‘They weren’t embarrassed. They were furious that I’d ruined their dream. They accused me of disloyalty. Can you believe that?’ He ran an angry hand through his hair and shook his head. ‘I knew they wouldn’t be happy about it, but I never expected my mother to come this close to slapping my face or for my father to threaten to disinherit me if I didn’t change my mind.’ He made a distinctive snorting sound. ‘As if I cared about his money. I was already worth far more than him.’
Orla, thinking of all the times her grandmother had threatened to cut her mother off without a penny without actually going through with it—after her death, her mother had shared the small inheritance with her siblings—said softly, ‘And how are things between you now? I assume they must be better if we’re taking Finn to their party.’
He made the snorting sound again.
Dismissive. That was what it sounded like.
‘I will never forgive them for putting their reputations and pride above my happiness but they’re still my parents. We’re still a family and nothing can change that.’
‘Did they disinherit you?’
