Page 61 of Saved by the CEO

“Your going to Dominic. It frightened me.”

“I made you feel powerless.”

She shook her head. “No. You made me feel like I’d met another Prince Charming. Actually, that’s not true,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “I already knew you were Prince Charming. Calling Dominic made it obvious.”

“I still don’t...”

No surprise. She probably wasn’t making much sense. “I liked that you came to my rescue,” she told him.

“And that scares you.”

It terrified her. With a small shrug, she turned back to the hills. “I need to be my own person. When I’m with you, it’s too easy to give in and let you run the show.”

“Could have fooled me. In fact, I seem to recall more than one argument over my trying to run the show.”

His shadow appeared in the window. Louisa could tell from the warmth buffeting her back, or rather the lack of it, that he was making a point of keeping his distance. “Do you know why Floriana and I didn’t work?” he asked.

The odd shift in conversation confused her, but Louisa went along with it. “No. Why?”

“Because she was too perfect. I realized that just now.”

“If this is supposed to make me feel better...”

“Wait, hear me out,” he said. “Floriana... She and I never argued. She was always logical, always agreeable, always in tune with my thinking.”

“She was perfect.” While Louisa was the imperfect American who ran away from her problems. Both descriptions sickened her. “I get it.”

“I don’t think you do” was Nico’s reply. The warmth from his body moved a step closer. Not too much, but enough so Louisa could better feel its presence. “Floriana might have been perfect, but she wasn’t perfect for me. That was why I couldn’t truly love her. Do you understand?”

She was afraid to.

“I need a woman who challenges me every single day,” he said. “Someone who is smart and beautiful, and who is not afraid to put me in my place when I overstep.”

“You make it sound simple.”

“On the contrary, I think it might be very hard. I don’t know for sure. I’ve never been in love until you.”

Until her. The declaration washed over her, powerful in its simplicity. Nico Amatucci loved her. And she... Panic clamped down on the thought like a vise.

“I know you are afraid,” he said when she let out a choked sob. The anguish in his voice told her how much he was struggling between wanting to close the distance and respecting her need for space.

“I know that Steven left you with some very deep scars and that you are afraid of making the same mistakes. I am not Steven, though. Please know that no matter what happens between us, I will always want you to be your own person.

“So,” she heard him say, “if you want to run away, that’s your choice. All I ask is that you don’t use me as your excuse.” There were a lot of things Louisa wanted to say in response, but when she opened her mouth to speak, the words died on her tongue. In the end, she stayed where she was, afraid to turn to look lest she break down when she saw Nico’s face. She heard his footsteps on the tile, the click of the front door, and then she was alone.

She’d said she wanted to stand on her own two feet. She also wanted Nico’s arms around her. Desperately. What did that say about her?

That you love him. The words she’d been fighting to keep buried broke free and echoed loud in her heart. No amount of running away or lying to herself would make them disappear. She loved Nico Amatucci. She was in love with Nico Amatucci.

Now what? With a sob, she sank to the floor. Did she continue with her plans? Move again and spend her life being haunted by two past mistakes?

Or did she stay in the village she’d come to think of as home and somehow find the courage to let her love for Nico grow?

Wiping her eyes, she looked out once more at the Tuscan hillside and the vineyards that stretched out before her. How much she’d come to love this view. And this palazzo.

She looked around at her surroundings. A lot had changed around here in nine months. If her ancestors could see this place now, they wouldn’t recognize their old home. It wasn’t the same crumbling building she’d found when she’d arrived.

Maybe she wasn’t the same woman either. She certainly wasn’t the impressionable young girl who’d fallen in love with Steven Clark. She’d loved, lost, withstood public scorn and found a new home. You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for, Nico had once said. Maybe it was time to start giving herself credit. Time to believe she was strong.

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