Summer Loving
Her memory wasn’t faulty enough to have forgotten a Celine. And certainly not one who was important to Cesare.
‘Ava?’
She realised she’d missed his question.
‘Sorry—what?’ The words were forced through stiff lips.
‘I asked if seven-thirty was okay with you,’ he repeated slowly, as if making allowances for her sluggish brain.
Was seven-thirty okay with her? ‘No.’ It slipped out before courtesy or caution could stop it.
‘Perdono?’
‘You asked if the time was okay, I said no. It’s obvious you don’t want her here now I’m back. Use me as the excuse. Tell her not to come because the time is not okay with me.’
This way, she’d never have to meet the important Celine, never have to endure her gut twisting in knots the way it was now at the prospect of meeting the woman who might one day replace her and wear the famous di Goia wedding ring Cesare had presented to her with such dignified pride the day he’d proposed to her.
Cesare’s clear disbelief at her response almost made her laugh out loud. Almost.
‘As much as I appreciate your selfless efforts, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.’
‘Well, can I be excused? She is your guest, after all.’ Why did she have to break bread with the woman?
Anger laced his movements as he shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘You will be dressed appropriately and ready to greet our guest at seven-thirty, Ava. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Ooh, I love it when you go all domineering and masterful,’ she purred, only to gasp as he sank down to her level, bringing six feet two of bristling masculinity up close and very personal.
‘Did the consequences of last week teach you nothing about challenging me?’ he asked in a deceptively soft tone.
Ava knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from testing the depths of the flames. ‘You mean pushing us both to the edge before withdrawing? I don’t know, you tell me. I’m still digesting your I should never have married you. How long does blue balls last?’ she taunted.
‘Che diavolo—’ His jaw actually slackened before he managed to clench it tight again. When he spoke again, it was between gritted teeth. ‘Just be ready at seven-thirty. Capito?’
‘If I must.’ She raised the trowel in a mock salute and watched him stalk away, shoulders stiff with tension.
With renewed vigour, she dug into the earth. In a few hours she would meet Cesare’s important guest.
Maybe the gods would be kind and make Celine short, fat and dumpy as all hell.
* * *
The gods granted her one wish.
Celine was short.
But fat and dumpy she was not. She was the original pocket Venus, with the kind of fragility that made men want to instinctively take care of her, in a way that made Ava, with her five foot seven frame and the three-inch heels she’d slipped into as an added confidence booster, feel like the Leaning Tower of Pisa as she reached out to shake Celine’s proffered hand.
Celine di Montezuma reeked cute perfection from the top of her expensively styled gleaming black hair to the pointy toes of her designer heels. What grated the most were her open friendliness and genuine, pleasant smile she directed at Ava as she removed her silk wrap and handed it to Cesare.
‘I’ve heard so much about you,’ she said to Ava.
‘Really? I hadn’t heard so much as a peep about you until four hours ago.’
Ava ignored the warning glint in Cesare’s eyes as he straightened from cheek-kissing Celine.
Their guest’s warm laugh echoed in the vast hallway. ‘He didn’t just drop my visit on you, did he? Don’t you hate that about men?’
‘Hate is too mild a word.’
She laughed again and tucked her arm through Ava’s. As much as Ava wanted to hate her, she grudgingly, painfully understood Cesare’s attraction to the vivacious Celine.
The feeling increased all through Lucia’s superbly prepared dinner of egg and salmon frittata starter, followed by slow-cooked lamb in herb sauce and diced potatoes. Which she hardly touched.
The lump that had lodged in her chest since Cesare announced her arrival grew with each second she watched the warm interplay between the two Italians.
For the first time since her return, Ava saw Cesare smile with genuine affection at another adult. The whites of his teeth gleamed in the subdued lights of the dining room as he responded to some joke Celine made.
Picking up her glass, she drained the last of the white wine she’d nursed throughout the meal.
Cesare slid her a narrow-eyed glance.
What? she wanted to blurt out. If he was callous enough to force her to watch him and his new paramour enjoy each other, then she could damn well get drunk doing it.
As if sensing the change in the air, Celine turned to her with a slightly wary look.
‘How is Annabelle?’ she asked.
Had Cesare tensed just then? Unfortunately Ava’s head had started to swim from the sudden intake of alcohol and she couldn’t be sure. Certainly, his fingers seemed to cup his wine glass a little tighter. Her gaze darted to his face, but his expression reflected arrogant calm.
Ava answered. ‘She’s fine, thank you for asking.’
‘Is she adjusting well to being back home?’
‘Sun, lake, swimming pool and all the toys a little girl could have, thanks to a suddenly attentive and over-indulgent father. What’s not to like?’ She couldn’t quite curb the sarcasm that emerged with her answer.
Celine’s smile slipped another notch.
Watch it, Cesare’s gaze warned.
Drop dead, she threw back. He shouldn’t have invited her if he expected her to play nice with his girlfriend.
‘I was hoping to see her this evening,’ Celine said, breaking into the tense silence.
Surprise and more than a little anger surged through Ava, until she remembered she wasn’t supposed to have been here when Cesare invited Celine to dinner.
Was that what he’d planned all along? Had he made plans to get rid of her and spend the summer with Annabelle and Celine?
The sheer scale of Cesare’s anger at her arrival suddenly fell into place.
Pain swiftly replaced surprise. Calmly she placed her wine glass on the table. She didn’t think the crystal was safe in her hand any more because the sudden urge to throw it at Cesare’s head had gained astronomical proportions.
How dared he arrange for Annabelle to meet his girlfriend...without consulting her?
She shot him a glance. His cool, composed expression told her the same story it had since she’d got to know him. Cesare answered to no one. He did what he wanted when it suited him. And if he wanted to introduce his mistress to his daughter tonight, that was exactly what he would have done.
Except he hadn’t. They’d put Annabelle to bed together with no mention of her meeting his guest.
‘She’s asleep. We put her to bed over an hour ago,’ Ava responded since Cesare didn’t seem inclined to.
‘Oh.’ Celine’s disappointment made Ava experience a small fizz of gleeful satisfaction. ‘Perhaps I can just look in on her?’
Glee and satisfaction evaporated. ‘You want to look in on her?’
Again Cesare didn’t seem surprised by the odd request. When Ava glanced at him, he merely shrugged and carried on twirling the stem of his glass between his fingers.
Ava swallowed down the heated Over my dead body that sprang to her lips. It was clear Celine was very much a fixture in Cesare’s life. Whether it was tonight or another night in the very near future, Celine and her daughter would meet.
But it didn’t have to be tonight, an irrational pain-filled voice whispered in her head. It might happen, but it didn’t have to be right now!
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea—’
Cesare pushed back his chair, and rising to his feet, halted her words. ‘Come, Celine. I’ll take you.’
‘No you won’t!’
His smile brushed the outer fringes of courtesy. ‘Don’t worry, Ava. She won’t be disturbed. I’ll make sure of it.’
He rose and beckoned Celine. The other woman’s clear discomfort made Ava cringe inside but she forced her chin up and smiled despite the tide of acid anxiety that swallowed her whole.
‘Make sure you don’t. If she wakes up she’ll be impossible to put back to sleep.’
Cesare didn’t turn around as he escorted Celine out of the dining room, their footsteps echoing in tandem down the hallway.
Ava sat frozen in her seat, unable to stem the ever-increasing tidal wave of despair. A small part of her hadn’t quite accepted it when Cesare told her Celine was important to him. Even through the ordeal of dinner, a small part of her had hoped that she was nothing more than a fond family friend.
But would a family friend insist on seeing Annabelle after being told she was asleep?
Of course not. Which meant, the woman whom her daughter might soon be calling stepmother was now upstairs, looking in on her precious daughter...
...while she sat here, clutching her figurative pearls like a tragic, overdramatic Victorian heroine.
Swift burning anger propelled her upright. She reached the sweeping staircase before she remembered she’d discarded her shoes under the dining table.
Whispered voices as she reached halfway up the marble stairs made her thankful for her bare, silent feet. Her hand curled over the smooth wood of the banister, her heart in her throat as she froze on the step.
‘How long are you going to keep this from her?’ Celine questioned passionately.
Cesare responded in Italian, his delivery too quick for Ava to follow, but she sensed it wasn’t what the other woman had expected to hear.
Another burst of Italian, this time from Celine, resulted in Cesare’s heavier footsteps heading towards the landing, and Ava.
‘No. It’s impossible,’ he responded in an implacable voice.
Ava held her breath as they both came into view, Celine’s short steps quickening to catch up with Cesare’s longer strides.
‘It’s painful, I know, but you have to tell her. She deserves to know what’s going on.’
Cesare reached the stairs, saw her and froze. A second later, Celine spotted Ava too. Her eyes widened with alarm before they shut in dismay.
Cesare’s mouth opened but no words emerged. His hands balled into fists and his piercing eyes bored into hers with a mixture of anger and frustration.
Ava tried to swallow, but the throat muscles required wouldn’t comply. Her fingers tightened around the banister and she prayed desperately that her legs would support her for just a little while longer.
‘Ava...’ Cesare finally rasped.
But her pain was too sharp, too decimating for her to stand there, listening to whatever explanation his astute brain had swiftly concocted for her.
‘Save it, Cesare. I may be slow on the uptake, but I’m not stupid.’
His colour faded considerably beneath his tan. A look, curiously close to alarm skittered over his face as he braced a hand on the post next to him.
‘So...you know?’
The depth of his reaction to her discovery only increased her despair. She glanced at Celine, who stood clutching the rail—as white as a sheet.
For a second Ava wondered whether she would go all out and add to the overly dramatic scene by performing a Victorian swoon, perhaps save herself the embarrassment of a confrontation by fainting. But Celine stayed on her feet, even though her hand managed to find Cesare’s arm and grip it.
Tearing her gaze from that proprietorial display, she addressed Celine. ‘I know you’re sleeping with my husband, if that’s what you’re so anxious for him to tell me.’
Cesare sucked in a swift breath. ‘Dio mio—’
‘But as long as we’re still husband and wife, you’ll stay away from him and from our daughter. Do you understand?’
Celine shook her head. ‘No! Per favore, Ava—’
Ava raised her chin. ‘It’s Signora di Goia to you. Now, get out of my house.’
CHAPTER FIVE
‘MADRE DI DIO, Ava, there are no half measures with you, are there? You always have to jump in with both feet.’ Cesare had just slammed the door behind a hastily departed Celine. The fury radiating from his body made her swallow nervously.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a show of bravado that was fast fading in the face of his anger. ‘If you mean I don’t tolerate being made a fool of in my own home, then the answer is yes.’
‘Need I remind you that we’re all but separated and this is my house?’
She shrugged. ‘What’s yours is supposed to be mine too, isn’t it? I’m sure I’ve seen that tattooed on a body part somewhere.’
‘Porca miseria. You insult our guest and all you can do is crack jokes?’
‘You should’ve warned me you were sleeping with her. Maybe then I would’ve been on my best behaviour!’
His eyes narrowed, his fury intensifying by the second. ‘I’m not sleeping with Celine,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘Oh, don’t take me for a fool. You two were making enough moon eyes at each other to keep this villa illuminated for a month!’
‘I’ve known her for a very long time. There is a familiarity between us—’
‘Yes, it’s called sex.’
He took an unchecked step towards her, as if to physically restrain her from speaking. At the last moment he lurched away and stalked to the window. Shoving his fists into his pockets, he stared out into the softly lit garden.
‘Celine is the daughter of one of my father’s oldest friends. I’ve known her since she was born. We’ve always been friends but she was much closer to Roberto.’
Ava tensed at the mention of his brother’s name.
For as long as they’d been married, Cesare had remained close-lipped about his reclusive younger brother. All she’d ever been able to find out was that he lived in a castle high up in the Swiss Alps and only permitted Cesare to visit him from time to time. Ava had never been told why Roberto di Goia had withdrawn from the world.
‘So Celine is Roberto’s friend, not your girlfriend?’ Stupid hope flared to life.
He shrugged. ‘I think our respective parents hoped Celine and Roberto would marry one day. I know Celine waited a long time for Roberto to propose.’
‘You mean before he went to live in Switzerland?’
‘Yes.’ The word emerged with a poignancy that scraped her heart.
‘Don’t tell me. The proposal Celine wanted never arrived and now your parents want you to step in and do the right thing by her? Honour the agreement or something?’
He turned from the window, his tawny eyes gleaming with grim amusement in the half-light. ‘You’ve watched too many vintage mafioso movies, Ava. No one demands honour marriages like those any more. There was never any agreement, just a wish.’
A pang of discomfort made her realise she was twisting her fingers into knots. ‘So what happened between Roberto and Celine?’
The fleeting amusement faded, to be replaced by a pain so deep and gut-wrenching she took a step towards him. ‘Cesare?’
He didn’t respond for a long while, his bleak gaze fixed in the middle distance. Finally, he heaved a heavy sigh.
‘I should’ve told you... I’m sorry, there didn’t seem to be the right time to announce that sort of thing.’
She frowned. ‘Announce what? What didn’t you tell me?’
‘Roberto...’ He stopped and another pain-filled sigh ripped from his chest. Fear clutched Ava’s chest.
She bit her tongue, torn between screaming for an answer and the need to protect him from the obvious pain of what he fought to say.
The need to know won out. ‘What about Roberto?’
He inhaled again. ‘He...died two weeks ago.’
Shock ripped through her. ‘What?’
Cesare shot her a dark, tormented look. Then he glanced absently around the room. When his gaze returned to hers, his features were once again resolute.
‘Roberto is dead. Celine never got the chance to marry him. The fact that she didn’t doesn’t mean I see her as anything more than a friend, so you can contain your hysteria about us having an affair. And I would appreciate you curbing any such future outbursts in front of our guests.’
This was the Cesare she knew—commanding, resolute, domineering.
He strode past her, ready to walk out.
She grabbed his arm. ‘Wait! You can’t just announce that Roberto is...you can’t just drop something like that and walk away. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?’
Another flash of pain crossed his eyes. ‘Think about what’s happened between us lately—the earthquake, the trauma you and Annabelle have been through. When do you suggest I should’ve dropped this on you?’
‘You could’ve found a way to tell me. He was my brother-in-law—’
‘A brother-in-law you never met.’
‘And why was that? You’ve always been reluctant to talk about Roberto, what happened to him or why you two weren’t close.’
His eyes grew bleaker. ‘Leave it, Ava.’
‘Why should I? You accuse me of jumping to the wrong conclusions. How can I arrive at the right one when I seem to be operating in the dark? Tell me what happened between you and Roberto.’
For a long time she thought he wouldn’t answer. ‘Valentina happened,’ he slid out.
Ava was almost too afraid to ask. ‘Who’s Valentina?’
‘Celine’s older sister. Seven years ago, I’d just opened my New York office when I met her at a party. She was thinking of relocating and she had a good head for numbers so when she asked me for a job, I offered her one.’
‘Did you sleep with her?’ The words shot out before she could stop herself.
His eyelids descended. ‘Ava...’
‘It’s okay; it was before we met. I guess I have no right to ask you that.’ Although the jealousy that seared her insides told a very different story.
‘The answer is no, I didn’t sleep with her. But Roberto thought I had. He turned up in New York a month later and accused me of poaching his woman. Turns out they’d been dating in Rome before she came to New York. I didn’t know.’
‘Hell. Surely you explained things to Roberto?’
He gave a bitter laugh. ‘Until I was blue in the face. But he wasn’t in a listening mood. We had the mother of all fights, right in the middle of a meeting in full view of my board members.’ He paced to the window and turned back sharply. ‘Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it. In the middle of all that carnage, Valentina announced she was pregnant with Roberto’s child.’
Ava frowned. ‘How was that worse?’
‘Roberto got down on one knee there and then and asked her to marry him. She declined his proposal.’
‘Oh no.’
‘I got the blame for that too but I convinced him not to give up so he kept trying. She told him she wasn’t ready to get married or settle down, even though she intended to keep the baby. Roberto begged her to return to Rome with him. I think he wore her out in the end...’
‘But...?’
‘Roberto never truly believed the child was his—Valentina liked to party hard and often. He talked her into having an amniocentesis. She nearly lost the baby.’
Ava gasped. ‘Oh my God.’
‘After that she flatly refused to stay with Roberto. She came back to New York...asked for her job back. She was carrying my brother’s child. I could hardly say no.’
‘And Roberto blamed you all over again?’
He shrugged. ‘We’d never been particularly close growing up. He was ill more often than not, constantly in and out of hospital as a child, while I was away at boarding school ten months out of twelve. Valentina was his first and only serious relationship.’
Her heart clenched hard. ‘So the big brother he thought had everything had swooped in and stolen the only woman he cared about.’
Cesare’s jaw clenched hard. ‘Si. He refused to believe that I’d had no hand in Valentina’s defection. Nothing I said made a difference. I tried to talk to Valentina but she refused to return to Rome.’ He sighed. ‘I gave her all the support I could. In hindsight, I think I may have given her too much support.’
‘She never went back to Roberto?’ The question slid from numb lips as it struck her just how very little she really knew about the man she’d married.
‘No, she never got the chance.’ His husky reply broke through her thoughts. ‘She overdosed on sleeping pills midway through her second trimester. Turned out she was manic-depressive and her state had been heightened by her pregnancy. Roberto lost his mind with grief. He cut me off, he cut our parents off and moved to Switzerland.’
Ice drenched her soul and, for the first time in her life, Ava found herself struck dumb. Neither of them moved for what seemed like an eternity.
Then he exhaled a harsh breath. ‘You wanted to know. Now you know.’
The words hit her like a slap in the face. ‘You still should’ve told me. At the very least our child deserved to know she’d lost her uncle.’
His gaze slid away. ‘Roberto died two weeks after the earthquake. I didn’t think it was fair to burden you with that news.’
‘And in the time since then? You could’ve texted, emailed...hell, you could’ve Tweeted me, for heaven’s sake.’
A rough hand shoved through his hair. ‘Yes, I could’ve done all of that. But I didn’t. Let’s just chalk it up to me being the heartless bastard you think I am and move on, shall we?’
Ava wanted to rail at him but, seeing the grief behind his words, she opted for peace. ‘Will you at least tell Annabelle? She deserves to know.’
Cesare’s gaze met hers and Ava’s heart caught at the pain in the dark depths. ‘Sì, I’ll tell her about Roberto when the time is right.’
A thought niggled, but danced away before Ava could fully grasp it. ‘Was that what Celine meant when she insisted you tell me?’
‘She thought you needed to know about Roberto, yes.’ His tone implied he would very much prefer if she dropped the subject. Pain stung again.
The niggling persisted. ‘But why did she insist on seeing Annabelle? It all seemed a bit OTT to me, to be honest.’
A grim smile crossed his mouth. ‘Celine, like most women, doesn’t know the meaning of subtle. She knows about the earthquake and has been asking to visit since you and Annabelle returned. She takes her role of honorary aunt very seriously.’
‘As long as that’s the only role she’s banking on.’
‘Drop it, Ava.’ The warning was back in his voice, tension sizzling in that flattened line of his mouth. ‘You insulted her and jumped to the wrong conclusions. You should thank your lucky stars I’m not rescinding our truce after that performance.’
Her heartbeat thundered. ‘It’s your fault. If you’d told me all of this before she arrived, we wouldn’t be having this conversation!’
Cesare pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘You push me...all the time you push. You never stop.’
The bone-deep weariness behind his words pulled her up short. ‘What do you mean?’
Tawny eyes turned grave. ‘From the very beginning you pinned high hopes on me—your need for a family, for togetherness. Don’t think I didn’t know what the Bali trip was all about. Did it occur to you that I wasn’t in a position to provide you with all of that?’
Ice skated down her spine. ‘Where is this coming from? If you felt like this, then why did you bother to come to Bali?’
He looked away. ‘You rarely ask me for anything any more. You asked for that and I couldn’t refuse you.’
‘So you came anyway, knowing I was trying to save our marriage but knowing you had no intention of engaging with me?’
‘I was hoping you’d see we were beyond help.’
‘Well, silly me. That sailed right over my head.’
His jaw tightened. ‘I was wrong, of course, to think things would go smoothly with you around; wrong to think I would be spared the reminder that I’ve failed you.’
‘I’m just trying to understand—’
‘Understand why I don’t fit into your mould of a perfect husband and father? Because, above all else, it’s what you want, isn’t it?’
‘Above all else? God, you make me sound like a needy, pathetic creature.’ He remained silent and the ice unfurled. ‘Is that what you really think of me?’