But he couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t doubt her love or his. He couldn’t keep looking at his past actions and ruin his future.
“If I tell you something, will you believe me?”
She nodded warily.
“I never used Greta’s vote against Leo at the last board meeting.” He pressed his palm against her mouth. “I know that that’s not much solace. I’d already threatened to use her love for you, your happiness against them, and that itself was unforgivable.
“But that same day, I also talked to Antonio, and something he said made me realize it was he who leaked my relationship to the Brunettis to the press all those months ago. He made a calculated risk that I would be able to recover any lost ground, but his primary goal was for me to leave you and carry on with my plans for vengeance, regardless of how much it would hurt me.
“And I realized how much hatred he has in him. In him, I saw my future, bella, the companionship of loneliness and hatred instead of family and love. I had already begun questioning everything I had done against my own brothers.
“But to turn away from my path completely, it terrified me. It meant I had to face what sort of a man I had become. It meant…facing the fact that I’m not worthy of you.”
“But I never wanted some perfect man, V. I wanted you. I loved you despite everything you’d done.”
“Forgive me, bella, for not seeing that before. Do you know, I wake up in the middle of the night with the most horrible nightmare now?”
She frowned. “What do you dream of?”
“That I didn’t follow you here that first time. That for some reason or the other, I changed my mind about coming to Bali. That I never met you until I had already ruined everything. My own future with both my hands. That I never got the chance for you to love me.
“And I wake up, thrashing, the sheets cold around me. My chest the coldest of all.
“I reach for you and you’re not there.
“You saved me, bella. From myself.
“And I will love you all my life for it.”
She was sobbing again, as if her heart was breaking, and Vincenzo folded her into his arms. He settled into the lounger with her in his lap, crooning to her, kissing her temple. Rocking her. Cursing himself for causing her this much pain.
“Every night I went to bed, hoping that you’d come the next day. Walking away from you was like ripping out my own heart and I couldn’t do it again, V.”
“Shh…tesoro. You will never have to leave me again. Never, bella. Never will I doubt your love for me. Never will I make you doubt mine for you.”
She kissed him, and Vincenzo felt as if he was born again. He became a different man in her kiss, in her embrace. “When you’re ready, we will fly to New York and see Charlie. And then we’ll take him back to the villa, to meet the rest of our family.”
“Really?” she said, looking at him like he was a hero.
And for the first time in his life, Vincenzo felt as if he was, if not exactly a hero, at least not a villain.
“I have tried to return the villa to Leo and Massimo. In fact, I begged them to take it back, to come back home, and I think Massimo in particular enjoyed it. He kept urging Leo to torment me a little more, and Natalie kept yelling at him to leave me alone.
“After all these years, she still has faith in me. She threw herself behind me without a moment’s thought.” He looked away.
Fingers in his hair, Alex tugged his head back around until he looked into her eyes. “Because she loves you, V. Don’t you get it? She’s already seen you at your worst and she still loves you. That kind of love…it doesn’t go away overnight.”
He kissed her deep and hard. “I’m finally beginning to understand that, Princess.”
“What happened then?”
“Leonardo won’t take it back. He’s having another villa built to his own design and he wants to live there with Neha and the babies and her mother. And Massimo and Natalie said the Brunetti villa is too big for them.”
“What about BFI?”
He swallowed, shame filling up his throat. “Leo…doesn’t want the CEO chair back either. He said that he’s carried the mantle of the Brunetti legacy, of BFI’s weight, for too many years. He’ll still work for the company, with me, but not as the CEO. I asked Massimo if he wanted it, and he backed away as if it was the very devil. He said he was happier running BCS, that the bureaucratic nonsense wasn’t for him and keeping the jackals on the board happy should be punishment enough for me.”
“Are you okay with that?” she asked him perceptively.
Vincenzo shrugged. “Only if you are, bella. I never want you to think that BFI or the villa or anything else is more important to me than you are.”
“I won’t, V. I never thought you were power hungry even before, and I don’t now.”
“So the villa is ours, but only if you want it. Only if you’ll be happy living there.”
“And Greta? Can I ask her to live with us, V?”
“Is this another test, bella? Have I crushed your faith in me so badly?”
She cupped his cheek. “No, not at all. You know when I pushed her to tell me what you’d threatened to do, she…she broke down into tears. She…said she’d hated having to tell me what you did. She said, for all the wrongs you’d done me, she was sure you did love me. In your own Brunetti way, she
