Marco only grinned. “Back to your same stubborn, brooding self. I’d say he’s been rehabilitated. What do you think, Fee?”
“I think you may be right.” She moved up on Marco’s side in the entryway and slipped her arm around his waist. “Be nice to your pretty wife. She doesn’t want to be here any more than you do. And, for the record, we women are always right.”
As the two slipped out the door and it closed at their backs, Luc’s gaze slid my way again.
His eyes weren’t quite as hard as they’d been before, but they weren’t all that inviting either. “I still don’t think you should go.”
“I know.” But there was no way in hell I was letting him do this on his own. I moved toward him and stopped when I was only a few inches away. “I’m still going with you.”
“Natalie...” He closed his eyes and drew in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know how I’m going to react when I see them.”
“That’s why I’m not letting you go alone.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest. “You need me there even if you don’t want to admit it. And I need to be there to keep you safe.”
For a heartbeat, he didn’t move, then he sighed and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. And as his warmth and familiar scent surrounded me, my heart raced just as it did every time I was enveloped in his love.
“You can’t protect me from them,” he whispered into my hair.
“I will, though.” I held him tighter and closed my eyes against the sting of tears once more. “They can’t have you. You’re mine. You’re only mine, Luc. I’m going to make that clear to them.”
He leaned down and pressed his face into my hair, holding me even closer. “Non lasciarmi mai.”
I held him to me, unsure what he’d said. But I didn’t need the words to know what he felt. It was the same thing I felt. That together, we were unbreakable.
I squeezed my eyes tighter and prayed he still felt that way after tonight.
As soon as I turned onto the Salvatici property in the rolling hills just outside Florence, I knew I’d made a mistake.
I should have grabbed Luc and run. We shouldn’t have come back here. Memories of that depraved ritual I’d seen in the woods the last time I’d been here filled my mind, mingling with flashes of that awful ritual in which they’d raped and tortured my husband.
Luc’s hand slid across the console and closed over my thigh, his fingers gently massaging the muscle beneath my slacks. The sensation jolted me out of whatever trance I’d slipped into, and I blinked, only to realize I’d stopped the car right in the middle of the long drive.
I looked over at him, my mouth dry, my mind spinning with a thousand thoughts and options. The loudest of which was telling me it wasn’t too late to grab him and run.
“It’s okay.” His voice was soft, and for a man who’d looked ready to detonate all day, he was surprisingly calm. Way calmer than me. “Marco was right. You’re safe.”
It wasn’t me I was worried about.
He squeezed my thigh. “Nothing’s going to happen here tonight, angioletto. I’ll make sure of it.”
I didn’t know what that meant. And I didn’t want to ask. I just wanted to run. “Luc—”
A horn honked behind us. I startled at the sound and glanced up at the rearview mirror.
Twisting in his seat, Luc looked back then muttered, “Merda. So much for the element of surprise. Pull over so he can pass.”
My heart pounded hard. I wasn’t sure who “he” was, but I did as Luc said, pulling the Mercedes to the right so the car behind us could move by.
As the red Lamborghini drew up beside us, I turned to look, then wished I hadn’t. A blonde sat in the passenger seat, but it was the driver I focused on. The lights from the dash illuminated Gio’s long dark hair and the devilish smile he cast my way, one I recognized from our ill-fated date back in New York. One that sent sickness surging in my belly all over again.
His smile widened to a predatory grin, then he stepped on the gas and tore ahead of us up the hill, sending gravel and dust flying in the air. The blonde never once looked our way.
Luc’s jaw clenched hard as he stared after Gio’s red taillights in the dark. “Stay close to me just in case. Even though he’s got a kitten with him, I don’t trust that porca puttana.”
I didn’t trust Gio either. With or without a kitten to distract him. And I had no intention of letting Luc out of my sight.
Knowing there was no way we could run now, I eased my foot off the brake and moved back onto the gravel drive. The headlights illuminated the curves in the road and the tall trees lining each side. It felt as if it took forever to wind our way to the top of the hill where the Salvatici castle was perched on the highest point south of Florence, but that was probably only because I was dreading what would meet us when we arrived.
Giovanni was helping the blonde out of his sports car when I pulled around the sparkling fountain lit up from below and shifted into Park. My stomach twisted as he stood under the lights illuminating the circular drive and the front steps of the castle.
I hadn’t gotten a look at him in the dark in Edinburgh, but he was exactly as I remembered—wavy dark hair to his shoulders, olive skin, pale blue eyes, and a muscular body. He was just as tall and broad-shouldered as Luc, but not nearly as handsome. And tonight, his expensive slacks and white dress shirt open to show off his chest hair didn’t impress me as it once might have. It only reminded me he was a predator. A slimy and vile predator who enjoyed hurting and murdering innocent women. Women like my long lost-friend Elena.
A bitter rage brewed inside me. One that gave me strength. I reached for the door handle, but Luc stopped me with a hand on my arm. “Wait.”
I turned toward him, suddenly realizing he had to be freaking out more than me. But when our eyes met, I saw he wasn’t on the verge of a breakdown. His stormy gaze was very focused and glinted with a dangerous gleam. One I’d seen only once before. Behind that phantom mask back at that party in New York when he’d watched me with Gio.
My nerves shot straight up. “What?”
“He needs to know where things stand.”
I had no idea what he meant. Then he slid his fingers into my hair, tugged me toward him, and devoured my mouth with a kiss that curled my toes in my sensible heels.
I was breathless when he finally let me go. Breathless and aching for him to kiss me like that again because for that brief moment, nothing had mattered but us.
He reached for his door handle. “That did the trick. Come on.”
My head was in a fog, but somehow, I climbed out of the car and even remembered my cardigan and my purse. The night air was much warmer in Tuscany than it had been in Scotland, but I was still cold. Chilled to my bones. Scared to death about this night.
Slipping the strap of my purse over my shoulder, I moved around behind the vehicle and grasped Luc’s hand when he reached for me. Giovanni and his kitten were gone. We were alone as we moved up the front steps toward the open double doors ahead.
I glanced toward Luc, dressed in slacks, a gray dress shirt that matched his eyes and was unbuttoned at the collar, and a silky soft suit jacket I knew had to cost a fortune. Marco’s staff had filled the closets for us, and I loved what they’d picked, but I couldn’t wait to get back to the villa so I could tear those clothes off him. So I could show him just how serious I was that he was mine.