For him, perhaps. Not for her.
She knew it for certain now. Because with his every kiss, his every thrust, she’d felt herself falling deeper.
Disaster. But there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t pick and choose her feelings like Maximo could. She was falling in love with him. With a playboy prince who hated her grandfather, who’d married her only to get his revenge and who planned to casually divorce her, tossing her in the trash like stale bread.
She’d lost their war. Lost it completely. She would have only three months with him before she lost him forever. Before she lost the perfect husband and perfect father who had only one flaw—that he wanted to be neither a husband nor a father.
And of course there was that additional problem of him insisting that her grandfather die miserable and alone.
Her hand involuntarily clenched against his chest. Giuseppe Ferrazzi was a stranger to her, but he was still her family. She couldn’t allow him to suffer. Not when she could do something about it.
She had to end the feud between the two men.
Not just for her grandfather’s sake—but for Maximo’s. She had to find out what demons haunted him. She had to find out what her grandfather had done. Only then could she end the feud and save them both…
Maximo covered her hand with his larger one. “Do you want more already, cara?” His voice was sleepy. Eyes still closed, he turned toward her, pulling her to nestle closer to his naked body. “I can see you’re going to keep me very busy.”
She took a deep breath. “Maximo? What did my grandfather do to your family?”
The lines of his face hardened and he started to roll away. “I don’t wish to discuss it.”
&nb
sp; “No. Stop.” She grabbed his bare shoulder. “We’re going back to Aquillina tomorrow. If you don’t tell me the story, I will hear it from him.”
“No!”
“He’s my grandfather, Maximo! Contract or no contract, you can’t expect me to just leave him to die alone. Not without good reason!”
He stared at her, his eyes alight and terrible. Moonlight traced the whites of his eyes.
“Bene, cara. I’ll tell you.” His voice was low and dangerous. “The day you were born, there was a blizzard in Aquillina, the worst ever seen. My mother and sister became sick with pneumonia. We were living far from the village, in my aunt’s old pensione. My father phoned Ferrazzi, asking him to send the only doctor from his villa.”
“Go on,” she said in a tiny voice.
“Ferrazzi refused to even give him the message. My father snapped on some old skis and set out for Aquillina to get him.” His hand tightened around her. “But he never returned. He froze to death in the snow. And without the antibiotics my mother and sister needed, they died two days later.”
She sucked in her breath. “Oh, Maximo.”
“I promised my father I’d stay with my mother and sister. That I’d take care of them. But all I could do was watch them die.”
“Maximo, I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do to take the pain away. I…I…”
She wanted to say I love you, but the words stuck in her throat. How could she say them when he’d warned her against ever loving him? What if he responded with anger, or worse—pity?
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“You and your mother were both healthy and strong after the birth. It was only selfishness that made Ferrazzi keep the doctor at his villa—selfishness and spite. He’d already ruined us, but it wasn’t enough for him. The day I buried my family, I knew I would get my revenge. I would take everything from him. Everything.”
She wrapped her arms around Maximo, trying desperately to offer comfort. He was her husband, and she loved him. All she wanted to do was comfort him.
He took a deep breath.
“In three days, we’ll have a wedding. He will hear about it across the village—across the world. And he will realize the enormity of what he’s lost. His company. His fortune. His place in society. And his granddaughter.”
Maximo’s voice was grim and cold. Troubled, she drew away. How had she fallen in love with a man like this—a man who was not only incapable of love, but who could be so vengeful and cruel?
“Go to sleep,” he said, rolling over on his side. “We leave very early for Aquillina.”