She met Vincenzo’s hard, midnight gaze. ‘No,’ she said.
He ignored her. ‘Pack your things. You’ll be leaving in an hour.’
‘No,’ she repeated.
Vincenzo’s expression became even harder than it already was. ‘No? What do you mean, no?’
Lucy looked him in the eye. ‘I mean no. I’m not leaving. I want to stay.’
The expression on his face darkened. ‘This was what you wanted, Lucy. A new life. That’s what you promised your mother.’
‘Well, that’s not what I want now.’ And she didn’t hesitate. She gave him the truth, because that was always what she gave him. ‘What I want is you.’
A muscle flicked in his jaw, tension gathering around him like a storm gathering electricity. ‘Civetta...’
‘I want the moments I’d planned. I want another day. I want more than that. I want a future, Vincenzo. I want a future with you.’
The tension around him became even more electric, a subtle vibration in the air. ‘No.’ The word left no room for argument. ‘You will go and you will go now.’
‘Why not?’ She took a step towards him, holding his black gaze. ‘Don’t you want a future too?’
‘No.’ Something broke in him, the stillness shattering.
He threw the passport onto the bed suddenly, then he closed the distance between them in an explosive movement, reaching for her, his fingers closing around her upper arms and holding her in a grip that bordered on painful. It might have frightened her once, but there was nothing about him that frightened her now, and certainly not with the emotion blazing in his dark eyes, a black fire that nearly swallowed her whole.
‘Yes,’ he said roughly. ‘Yes, I want that. I want a future. I want for ever with you, civetta. But if I take even one day I will never let you go. Do you understand now?’
Her heart was full, emotion flooding out of her, and she didn’t hide it. She let him see what was in her soul.
‘Then don’t.’ She leaned into his strong grip and his heat. Leaning into him. ‘Don’t let me go.’
For a second the fire in his eyes blazed so hot it nearly burned her to the ground, the grip he had on her searing her. But that was okay. She wanted to burn. She wanted to burn with him.
But then, as abruptly as he’d grabbed her, he let her go and stepped away, leaving her swaying, leaning into a warmth that was no longer there. The fire in his eyes had gone, the blaze doused. He was cold again, expressionless. Emotionless.
‘You say that,’ he said, casual. ‘But you don’t understand what your life would be like with me. People want to kill me every day. I’m a target and so you’ll be a target too. You won’t be able to go anywhere without a security detail or without planning your every movement. Your life will be curtailed. The only place you’ll ever have any freedom is here in the villa, with me.’
‘So?’ She smiled, wanting him to understand. ‘None of that matters, Vincenzo. Don’t you see?’
His eyes were black stars, glittering cold and sharp. ‘No, I don’t see. And you may not think it matters, but it matters to me. I don’t want you to be a prisoner with me on this island. I don’t want you to have a life limited by safety concerns and security. You should be free to explore the things that interest you, that excite you. And, more than anything, you should be safe. And I can’t give you that. I can never give you that.’
A crack ran slowly through her heart, sharp and jagged. Because it was obvious that he didn’t understand. And why would he? He’d been betrayed by someone who loved him, the person who’d mattered most. No one had protected him the way her mother had protected her. She might have lost her mum, but she’d known that Kathy had loved her. Had he had anyone who’d cared about him?
He was so hard, so cold. So shut down. All the passion she knew lived in him locked away... No, he hadn’t.
‘Vincenzo—’
‘I don’t want to hear it. That is my decision, whether you like it or not.’
She studied him, sensing the battle in him. He’d been at war with himself the whole time she’d been here, torn between his principles and his passions. But he didn’t have to choose, couldn’t he see that? Didn’t he know? He could have both. Love was big enough.
He’s afraid.
The insight came almost forcibly and she saw it, because she knew fear, knew it intimately. It was there in his eyes, in the lies he was telling himself and her. And they were lies. He was afraid of what was between them and he didn’t know what to do.
‘If you really wanted me, you could have me,’ she said quietly. ‘It doesn’t have to be a choice, Vincenzo. It’s not one or the other. It’s not black and white. And all this stuff about keeping me safe sounds good, but it’s just a convenient excuse, isn’t it?’
He said nothing, the tension around him almost humming.
The crack in her heart became deeper, wider, and her eyes prickled with tears. Because he was desperate, she could feel it. He was fighting so hard, her poor Vincenzo, and she didn’t know what to say to reach him. To show him that he had nothing to fear.
She took a step closer, but he didn’t move, towering over her, his gaze utterly forbidding. Intimidating. Yet she knew better now what that aura of menace actually was. It was his armour, his protection. His heart had been broken into pieces once before and now he was desperately shielding it.
‘It’s okay,’ she said softly, trying to calm him the way he’d calmed her days ago. ‘It’s all right. You don’t have to be afraid.’
His eyes glittered, cold as the depths of space. ‘I’m not afraid. You deserve freedom, Lucy. And what I deserve is freedom from you. You’re a distraction. You’re getting in the way and taking up my time. I have more important things to do than sleep with you.’
It might have hurt her badly if she’d been the same Lucy that had come to Capri days before. But she wasn’t the same Lucy. She was changed, and he’d changed her. He’d shown her where her true strength lay, and it wasn’t running and hiding, it was in embracing what was in her heart. And she knew he was lying. That what he was doing was protecting himself. He was a city under siege and he would do anything he could to keep the invaders out.
And she could storm those walls with anger and pain, but she knew that wouldn’t work. It would only make him call for reinforcements. No, if she wanted to crack his defences she was going to have to drop her own.
Lucy reached out and gently touched his cheek, the faintest brush of her fingers. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you, did you know that?’ The words were soft, yet the power of the feeling inside her vibrated in every syllable. ‘You make me so happy.’