“I know. How do you move on from that, though?” She takes a bite of salad, seeming to think it over. “She was convinced that she knew him, was head over heels in love with him, and it turns out he was scamming her the whole time. How do you ever let yourself trust again? Fall in love again?”
“I think it takes a lot of time and healing.” I pass her a hot roll. “She may need some therapy. Does your family have access to a psychologist?”
“Yes, my father has one on staff. She’ll have a lot of support and anything she might need available to her, of course. I just feel for her.”
“You love her.” I take her hand in mine and squeeze.
“Yeah, and I can count on one hand the number of people who mean something to me in this world, and she’s in the top three.”
“Who are the other two?”
She frowns, pulls her hand out of mine, and returns her attention to eating. “How are Shane and Rafe?”
“Shane’s back at his place in the mountains, and Rocco was pulled to something in Seattle.”
“I can’t believe you guys still call him Rocco.”
I shrug a shoulder, watching her eat. Her lean throat moves as she swallows her food, her eyes heavy with fatigue.
She’s magnificent.
And after tonight, she’ll know without a shadow of a doubt that I do not want to say goodbye.
“I’m thinking Paris,” I say, earning a surprised glance.
“For what?”
“For our first stop.” I eat some potatoes. “A week at the Ritz would be nice. And then I think we should spend another week in the south of France, on the beach. There’s a lovely resort there that I’ll arrange.”
“Did you hit your head today?” she demands.
“Not to my knowledge, no.”
She takes another bite of steak and watches me. “So, you’re going to take a several-week vacation in Europe? Awesome. Have fun.”
“Not me.” I wipe my mouth on a napkin. “We.”
“Who’s we?”
“You, my lovely Nadia. And me. Us.”
“But I thought you said—”
“I didn’t say anything. I asked you if it was what you wanted, and you didn’t answer the damn question.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t want to say goodbye. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Yes, actually. It is.”
“But I don’t see an alternative. I live in Atlanta. You live in Seattle. We’re not working together anymore.”
“The last time I checked, we’re both adults.”
“You know that it doesn’t matter for us. Our lives aren’t ours, Carmine.”
“Do you really think our fathers will lose their damn minds if we spend some time together on vacation? I think they have enough to worry about.”
She doesn’t respond to that.
“So, we’ll spend some time in Paris, and then in Cannes. We’ll shop, we’ll eat, and we’ll explore. And I’ll make love to you day and night, damn it. I’m going to soak you into every pore of my body. When it’s all over, you’ll be sick of me.”
“Doubtful,” she whispers.
“Sweetheart, don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying. There’s an onion in my salad.”
I scoop her into my lap and kiss her softly. “Let’s enjoy each other for a while. No pretenses, and no tracking down murdering assholes.”
“I should stay here for a couple of days to make sure Annika’s okay.”
“Of course.” I kiss her once more. “We’ll stay here for as long as you need.”
“Carmine.”
“Hmm?” I kiss down her neck, unable to resist her.
“I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
I can’t help but smile against her skin. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted. She’s my match in every way. And my opposite.
“No, there will be none of that.”
But there already is. And we both know it. We’re just too fucking stubborn to admit it.
Chapter 12
~Nadia~
“He’s in the ground, and it’s time to move on.”
Annika rakes her hand through her long, blond hair and blows out a shaky breath. She’s sitting on the couch, her feet tucked under her, still in her black mourning dress.
Ivie sits next to me. Now that the guests have gone and it’s just the three of us, we’ve kicked off our shoes.
“I didn’t think his mom would ever leave,” I say, staring down into my wine. “She just kept going room to room, loading up everything she could into her arms like she was on a game show or something.”
“I don’t even care.” Annika turns tired eyes to me. “She can have it all.”
“And she’ll take it.” Ivie’s voice is heavy with bitterness. And I can’t blame her. “She has no right to any of it. You’re his wife.”
“Do you think I want it?” Annika demands. “I couldn’t care less about the clock he bought in Germany or any of the other fancy knickknacks he had lying around. I’d just sell or donate it all anyway. There are some papers that I need to go through myself, and I have my things, of course, but I can’t get out of here soon enough.”
“Did you say that the realtor is coming tomorrow?”
Annika nods. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to put the house on the market, but as soon as the lawyer gives me the go-ahead, I’ll list it and find something else.”
“You should buy one of those fun little condos downtown,” Ivie suggests. “Right in the heart of the hustle and bustle. You can shop, eat, go to shows or games.”
“I don’t even know if I want to stay in Denver,” she admits softly.
“What about Seattle?” Annika’s mouth firms at my suggestion. “It’s a great city, and I’m sure the Martinellis would give you the green light to live there.”
“No.”
I sigh and tip back my head. I’m done beating around the bush on this one.
“What in the hell is up with you and Rafe?”
Annika blinks rapidly, and Ivie scowls, first at me and then at our friend.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, yeah, you do. I overheard you two in the kitchen when we were all here for dinner.”
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop, you know.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sorry.”
“Wait.” Ivie shakes her head and sits forward. “I’m missing something. Annika had something going with Rafe?”
“It was years ago,” Annika says with a sigh. “We were kids. We’d see each other at things like weddings and such, and we both went to college at Duke.”
“Rafe went to college at Duke?” Ivie asks, clearly impressed. “Wow.”
“There’s chemistry there,” Annika whispers. “And, yeah, we saw each other for a while. But you guys, we’re in mob families. Opposing ones. My parents would have thrown a fit.”
I frown, thinking it over. “We aren’t exactly at war with the Martinellis.”