She hated that he was being the sensible one here. “There’s nothing to deal with, V.”
“You’ve just lost your mother, Princess. You—”
“I never really had my mother in the first place to lose her.”
He reached for her hand but Alex instinctively jerked away from him. Because she didn’t trust herself. Not with him.
He exhaled roughly. “Don’t run away. Don’t… Just stay still, with me. Show the world that you’re settling down. Show me that you’re committed to this arrangement over the next three months. And then we’ll start the custody proceedings.”
“But that’s three months that Charlie’s…”
“Visit with him in the meantime. Wrap up your other obligations. Three months is a small drop in the ocean when you consider the fact that you’ll give him a stable home for the rest of his life.”
“Three months is a long time to a child who’s just lost everything, who’s living with family members who see him as nothing but a meal ticket to a better life. You’re doing this just to punish me. Because I walked out on you.”
“No, Alessandra. I’m doing this to make sure we both know what we’re getting into this time. To make sure we’re not compounding the first mistake by bringing an innocent into this mess.”
“Both you and I know how much damage could be done to a child by the smallest thoughtless action. We can’t…” Her throat caught on the words. “I can’t leave him there alone, unprotected.”
“Fine, Princess,” Vincenzo offered in a soothing tone. His brow furrowed into a thoughtful frown while he stared at her with that same intensity he brought to everything he did. “Did your mother have any friends that Charlie knows well?”
“Yes.” Alex nodded.
“People you trust?”
“Yep. They have a little boy Charlie’s age. I met them when I visited him for his last birthday party.”
“You said you and your mother were estranged.”
Alex shrugged. “Yes, we were. But that doesn’t mean I was going to completely shut Charlie out of my life. I never missed a birthday of his, and as soon as he learned to read, I regularly sent him little cards and letters.”
“I’ll make some calls. Maybe we can arrange for him to stay with that family until the custody hearing is done. He can go to the same school as their son, keep the same routine and have familiar people around him while you and I figure this out.”
Alex nodded, gratitude cutting away any words that could rise up and ruin this temporary détente. At least in this matter, her trust in him hadn’t been misplaced. And he was right.
She’d run away from her problems in the past. More than once. But not anymore.
This time, she was going to face them, and him, head-on.
She was going to stay by his side and do everything she could to stop this destruction of the Brunettis that he was bent on, using every weapon available to her. But never again was she going to forget that there was a bone-deep ruthlessness inside him; never again was she going to foolishly believe that he was capable of love.
“I have a condition of my own too,” she threw at him impulsively, the idea of three months living in close quarters with him seeming like a lifetime. A lifetime of intimacy, of awareness and desire, of shattered dreams and naive hopes.
“What?” he said smoothly, even as he uncoiled himself and sauntered toward her. It was like watching a predator emerge from stalking, ready to pounce.
She stood rooted in place, refusing to reveal how much his nearness affected her. How much the heat of his body called to her. “I’m not sleeping with you. This is not a real marriage. Not anymore.”
“Ah… Massimo was right.”
Her breath stuttered in her throat as he lifted his hand and gently pushed away a strand of her hair from her shoulder. “About what?”
“That I don’t know you well at all. But even he doesn’t know how cruel you can be, does he, Princess?”
Alex compulsively licked her lips just as his gaze zeroed in there. “It muddies everything for me. That’s how you trapped me in the first place. You’re too damned good in bed.”
A wicked light came into his eyes, making them magnetic. “I think that’s just the connection between us, bella. A connection that you’re doing everything to run away from.”
“Hot sex, however tempting, can’t be the only bedrock of a marriage.”
“Unfortunately for my body, I agree.” He pursed his lips and leveled a thoughtful look at her. “Shall I suggest an amendment to your condition?”
“What?”
“We should each be allowed to try to seduce the other, si? If I try and you give in, you can’t hold that against me.”
“I won’t give in. And I definitely don’t want to seduce you.”
He tilted his head to the side, his gaze holding hers captive. “Then there’s no harm in the challenge then, is there?” She had somehow managed to nod when he bent his head and whispered in her ear. “I do wish you’d change your mind about seducing me, Princess.”
Her heart raced, sensation zinging across her skin. “Why?”
“There’s nothing more arousing, nothing sexier in the world than a beautiful, powerhouse of a woman who goes after what she wants with a single-minded determination.
“In fact, I’d say that’s how you trapped me, Princess.” His lips never really grazed the sensitive skin beneath her ear, but Alex felt the touch nevertheless, like a searing burn. “Being so thoroughly wanted like that by you is an incredible high unlike any other in the entire world.”
CHAPTER FIVE
ALESSANDRA HATED TO admit it, even during the most peaceful moments while she’d been hiding out in Bali, but there had been a kernel of
