Natalie would never go near Giovanni. She was safe here in the house after the deal I’d made, and even if Giovanni decided to test me, he’d never do so in front of Ariana. My instincts screamed for me to go back inside just to be sure, but I couldn’t yet. I couldn’t because I was still vibrating from a rage I was barely holding back. And I didn’t want to unleash it in front of my parents.
I didn’t want to unleash it on the one person who was supposed to be on my side but who now seemed to be aligning herself with my enemies.
3
Natalie
Luc hadn’t come back yet.
With every passing minute, my stress rose another notch and my ability to keep down the dinner I’d eaten became that much more difficult.
When Giovanni left the dining room, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I set my napkin beside my dessert plate and pushed back from the table, forcing a smile toward Luc’s mother that nearly made me vomit. “Excuse me for a moment. I need to use the restroom.”
“Of course.”
The woman’s words were clipped but polite. As I left the dining room and made my way down the hallway, searching rooms for Luc, I fought the urge to gouge her eyeballs out with my thumbs.
She’d been cold and dismissive when we’d first sat down to dinner—both Luc’s parents had been—and I’d been so worried something explosive was about to happen, I’d forced back every bit of my rage and morphed into the perfect Stepford wife they expected me to be.
Every courteous word had made me want to scream, but I’d pushed them past my lips, even as I felt Luc’s anger and disbelief rising across from me. I needed to find him and explain before he had a massive coronary. I needed to get to him before Gio ran into him and said something about our meeting the other day that would destroy everything I’d been trying to do.
I looked right and left, not even knowing where I was going. When I reached the courtyard, I searched everywhere for Luc but couldn’t see him. Moving back into the house, I followed another corridor, but the castle was so big, I got turned around and didn’t know where I was. I walked through a library and into yet another long hallway. Turning a corner in the dimly lit passageway, I drew up sharply when broad shoulders blocked my path.
A gasp slipped from my lips, and I stumbled back, immediately sucking in a breath that told me the dark-haired man in my way was not my husband.
“Mm, bella.” Giovanni moved in closer, pushing me up against the stone wall at my back. “We have to stop meeting in dark corners like this.”
My heart rate shot up. I lifted both hands to put space between us. “Luc is here.”
He braced one hand on the wall near my head and chuckled. “My brother is indisposed at the moment. Trust me, he’s not thinking about anything but himself.” He fingered a curl against my shoulder. “I forgot how soft your hair is, bella.”
My stomach pitched. I pushed against his chest, trying to keep him back, but he was like solid steel. “Don’t touch me.”
His gaze lifted from my hair to my eyes, but there was no warmth in his gaze. Just a malicious glint that told me he got off on power and that this had nothing to do with me and everything to do with hurting Luc. “How easily you forget. You like my touch, bella. At that party on Long Island, you were all but begging for it.”
“You drugged me at that party on Long Island.”
One corner of his lips curled. “And you enjoyed it then. You’re enjoying it now as well.” He trailed his knuckled down my check, over my jaw, and along my throat, the revolting sensation making my heart beat faster. “I bet you’re a screamer. I bet when you come, you make all kinds of sexy soun—”
I lifted my knee and aimed for his groin. He shifted to the side, and my knee slammed into his thigh, making him grunt. Before I could react, his eyes darkened and the hand at my throat drew back, then smacked with a crack against my cheek.
The blow sent me twisting into the rocks at my back. I gasped as pain ricocheted across my cheekbone.
Giovanni growled, but before he could grab me and throw me to the ground as I knew he wanted to do, I heard Ariana’s shocked voice screaming at him in Italian.
My hand went to the side of my face. Breathing hard, I chanced a look at Giovanni, standing several steps back from me now. Malice and the promise of retribution reflected in his eyes, but he didn’t lunge for me. He didn’t speak to me. He only muttered something to Ariana, then shoved past her and disappeared down the corridor.
I slumped to the floor, unable to hold myself upright. My hands were shaking. My breaths coming fast and shallow, too fast to draw a full gulp of air.
Ariana knelt beside me and held my hand in both of hers. Looking right and left, she said, “Come on. We need to get you fixed up before anyone sees you.” She pulled me to my feet and wrapped an arm around me. “I’ve got you. The stairs are right over here.”
I didn’t know where she was taking me. We moved up a set of stone steps to the second floor, down another corridor, this one wider and brighter, with sconces on both sides and a plush red rug along the floor, then finally into a bedroom suite.
She walked me around the bed to a sitting area near the wide arched windows and pushed me onto the couch. With a muttered, “Sit here,” she turned and left the room.
I glanced around the space as I tried to bring my heart rate back down. A huge four-poster bed that looked like something right out of Medieval Times took up the middle of the room. Large, antique furniture filled the rest of the space. Dark red draperies hung from the oversized windows and each corner of the bed. The room was bigger and nicer than the one I’d stayed in the last time I’d been in this castle, and I knew instinctively this was Ariana’s bedroom.
She returned a few minutes later with a towel in her hand. Closing the door, she folded the ends of the towel over and sat beside me. “Here. It’s ice.”
She lifted the make-shift ice pack to my cheek and shifted my hand to hold it there. I winced, then relaxed as the cold seeped into my hot skin. “Th-thank you.”
She shot me a sad smile. “I’m just glad I found you before Luc did.”
I closed my eyes against the sting of tears already rushing in. “I-it wasn’t what it looked like.”
“It was exactly what it looked like. I know Giovanni. And he knew exactly what he was doing.”
I shook my head, wondering how I could have thought staying for dinner was a good idea. “He... I...” Those tears grew hotter, choking my voice. “Luc doesn’t—”
“You’re not going to tell Luc. If you do, he’ll lose it and go after Gio, and then all of this will be for nothing.”
I blinked and slowly looked up at her, confused by her words. “W-what do you mean?”
“I know about the deal you made with my parents, Natalie.”
My eyes widened. “H-how?”
“I heard my parents talking about it one night when they thought I wasn’t around.” She squeezed the hand against my thigh. “I know Luc thinks I’m clueless, but I’m not. I know exactly what’s been going on. And I know he has to hold it together, because Giovanni can’t ever be allowed to take our father’s place with our House. You know how evil Giovanni is. You know what would happen if he took control.”