Page 35 of Saved by the CEO

“Louisa, don’t...”

“Don’t what? Blame myself? Tell the embarrassing truth?”

Don’t tell me at all. Rising to his feet, Nico walked behind her and curled his hands atop her shoulders to steady her. There was no need for her to go on; he’d heard enough.

Unfortunately for both of them, Louisa had unsealed a bottle that insisted on being emptied because she immediately shook her head. “I think maybe I need to tell someone,” she whispered. “Maybe if I say the words aloud...”

Nico could hear her breath rattle with nerves as she took a deep lungful of air before she began to speak. “When it first started, I barely noticed. When you’re in love you’re supposed to want to spend every minute with each other, right?”

“Yes,” Nico replied. His hands were still on her shoulders, and it was all he could do not to pull her tight against him.

“And then, after we were married, when Steven suggested I stop working to avoid gossip, well that made sense, too. It was expected I would be with him at corporate dinner parties and charitable functions. Could hardly do that if I was working full-time.”

Lots of women managed both, thought Nico. Louisa could have, as well. But that would have meant having a life of her own, and it sounded as though having an independent wife was the last thing Steven Clark wanted.

He honestly could strangle the man. Here was one of the things that made Louisa such a treasure. Challenging her was exciting. If Nico had a woman like her in his life, he’d do everything in his power to aid in her success, not pin her down like some butterfly under glass. Steven Clark was an idiot as well as a thief.

“When did you realize...?”

“That I was trapped?”

“Yes.” Actually, he hadn’t known what he’d meant to ask, but her question was close enough.

“I skipped a charity planning committee to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. One of the other members told Steven, and he lost it. Demanded to know where I’d been all day and with whom.” She pulled the leaf she’d been playing with from its branch, sending a rustling noise rippling down the row. “To this day I’m not sure what frightened me more. His demand or the fact there were people reporting my actions to him.”

Neither aspect sounded very comfortable. “You stayed, however.” Because she loved him.

“Where was I supposed to go? None of the assets were in my name. I’d alienated everyone I used to know, and Steven didn’t have friends so much as business associates. I couldn’t trust those people to help me, not when Steven was handling their money. I couldn’t go anywhere. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I was stuck.”

The proverbial bird in a gilded cage, Nico thought sadly.

“Surely your mother or your friends...”

“And have to listen to them tell me how right they’d all been? I couldn’t.” Nico wanted to smile despite the sad situation. That was his American. Stubborn to the end, even when it hurt her.

* * *

“Discovering I’d inherited the palazzo was torture. Here I had this safe haven waiting for me, and I couldn’t get to it. Even if by some miracle I did find a way to evade Steven’s radar, with his money and connections, he would have eventually tracked me down.”

The leaf she’d been holding fluttered to the ground as she sighed. “In the end it was easier to go along to get along.”

“You mean accept the abuse,” Nico said.

“I told you, it wasn’t abuse.”

They both knew she was lying. Steven might not have hit her or yelled insults, but he’d abused her in his own despicable way. He’d stolen her innocence and her freedom and so much more. Nico could feel the anger spreading through him. If it was possible to kill a man by thoughts alone, Steven Clark would be dead a thousand times over.

Arms hugging her body, Louisa turned to look at him with cavernous eyes, the white-blond curtain of her hair casting her cheeks with shadows.

“The day I stumbled across those financial reports was the best day of my life, because I knew I could finally walk away,” she said.

Only walking away hadn’t been as easy as she made it sound.

The truth wasn’t as simple as she described. Walking away was never easy. The details didn’t matter. Her story explained a lot, however. Why she balked every time he offered to help, for example. It definitely explained why she feared her friends would cut her off.

“Do you still love him?” It was none of his business, and yet he could not stop thinking about her words before. Love makes you blind.

“No. Not even in the slightest.”

If he shouldn’t have asked the question, then he should definitely not have felt relief at her answer. He did, though. To save her heart from further pain, that was all.

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