Page 55 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
‘I am afraid I have been guilty,’ he said heavily, ‘of a small amount of well-intentioned deceit.’
‘Meaning?’ This from Dante, sitting next to her on the sofa and maintaining just enough distance to remind her that they were not the loved-up couple she had ended up deluding herself into believing they were, but two people who had simply enjoyed having sex within a relationship in which they’d both given themselves permission to do so without over-analysing.
‘Ididhave a genuine scare.’ Antonio huffed defensively.
‘Meaning?’ Dante repeated, voice considerably cooler, while Kate blinked and did her best to follow the trajectory of what Antonio was saying.
‘IthoughtI was at death’s door—that was perfectly understandable, and I will not have anyone say otherwise!’
Dante got there before her and flung himself back with a groan that was somewhere between frustration and despair.
It took Kate a little bit longer. She had to hear a bit more of the explanation before she got the gist of what Antonio was actually saying and then, just in case either of them had missed the glaringly obvious, he stated in defiant summary, ‘Can anyone blame an old man for wanting to leave his house in order before he meets the Grim Reaper? Can anyone blame me for trying to steer my beloved Dante into a relationship that would benefit both him and Angelina—incidentally, the apple of this old man’s eye? If it happened that I exaggerated the health crisis facing me, then could anyone blame me?’
He made a show of mopping his brow. ‘I suppose, if we are all going to have a Spanish Inquisitionabout the whole thing, I would admit that I could have said sooner that my cancer scare turned out to be an infection, happily taken care of with the right medication.’
He flapped his hand dismissively while Kate digested this startling announcement. ‘That’s good,’ she ventured faintly into the ever-increasing silence.
‘But,’ Antonio continued as implacably as a steamroller now that he had embarked on his comprehensive confession, ‘I felt in my gut that you two...would work.’
He gestured with Italian eloquence but his eyes were sad. ‘I admit that I knew it was a contrived relationship to keep an old man happy. I do not know, and nor do I wish to know, what sort of agreement you reached, but I was very happy to encourage you both. I was so certain, you see, that love would follow in the footsteps of convenience.’
He shot Kate a sidelong, knowing look.
‘Things have not, however, lived up to expectation.’ Another elaborate shrug as he rose to his feet. ‘To conclude, there is no need for you to continue this pretence. I am fine, and it would be better to break it off before time and fate decide to cause even more mischief than I have.’
Kate was hardly aware of him shuffling out of the sitting room. The revelation had struck her like a blast of freezing air and had given her a choice in what happened next.
She was free to walk away without a guilty conscience and, more to the point, so was Dante.
She half-turned to look at him and met dark, inscrutable eyes before he vaulted upright to pour himself a whisky from the bottle that was sitting on a silver tray on one of the coffee tables.
‘So,’ he drawled. ‘An evening to remember.’
He remained where he was, standing, sipping the whisky and looking at her over the rim of his glass. ‘But it’s a good thing that he isn’t as seriously ill as we thought...’
Her head was swirling. She couldn’t meet the brooding intensity of his gaze but things were getting clearer in her mind. Antonio had said what he had said for a reason. He had seen right through her to the love that had grown out of nothing, thriving on promises of happiness that had never been made.
She was at a crossroads now.
Give it all up—the money and the hopes for her family, because there was no way she would accept a hand-out for duties unfulfilled—and know that at least she would be walking away from slow, painful heartbreak before she served out her two-year contract.
Or breathe in deeply, keep her fingers crossed that she could maintain a front and look at the bigger picture, which was the very thing that had inspired her in the first place.
Or another option...
‘Agreed.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Dante...’
‘I’m not entirely sure what my uncle was hoping to achieve with his extraordinary confession, aside from the very important purpose of putting our minds to rest on the health front. Certainly, from my point of view, it’s business as usual.’ He shot her a devastating, wolfish smile that made her blood grow hot.
‘Perhaps for you,’ Kate said quietly. ‘But not for me.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘This isn’t going to work. I should be able to get back to where we started, get back to whereIstarted, but I can’t.’
‘Let’s not over-think this,’ Dante said roughly, strolling towards her and swamping her with his proximity as he sat next to her and reached to lace his fingers through hers. ‘My uncle may have dropped a bombshell, but nothing has to change, and this situation still makes good sense. The traditional members of my family are appeased and, far more importantly, my daughter has a guiding hand for the next two crucial years of her life before she moves on to boarding school.’
‘I’m in love with you.’
