Page 26 of Innocent's Wedding Day with the Italian

Anger flared at the grandfather she’d never met but whom Enzo had known well enough for Ray Claflin to confide the most personal information to. Known and trusted.

‘He was only bad for her if you don’t believe women have free will,’ she said with an attempt at tartness. ‘Mum quit university because she couldn’t bear to be parted from him. That was her choice but he blamed my father for it and he’d never even met him. Herefusedto meet him. He didn’t know my father. He had no right to make that kind of judgement.’

‘He came to accept that his attempts to drive them apart backfired and pushed them closer together.’

‘I think that’s pretty arrogant of him. If he’d given my father a chance instead of judging him as unworthy because he left school at sixteen and worked as a mechanic then he’d have seen my father adored my mum and would have done anything for her.’

Enzo didn’t say anything, just looked at her, and another flare of anger burned to know he was remembering how she’d mentioned that her first visit to Florence to see him had been only her second trip abroad, the first being a school trip to France her parents had scrimped and saved to pay for. It always made her feel wretched to know they’d been so close to doing all the things they’d never been able to afford before. Their mortgage had nearly been paid off, Rebecca close to finishing her degree and becoming financially independent... They’d barely hit middle age. They’d assumed they had multiple decades left to explore the world.

‘They might have struggled financially but I never went without and I always had emotional security. I never had a single fear that they would divorce. They were devoted to each other and just so affectionate...always having to touch each other. It was like they needed reassurance the other was there.’

She closed her eyes. Hadn’t that been one of the things she’d so adored about Enzo? His need to touch her? It had been as strong as her need to touch him. Had been one of the many things that had convinced her their marriage would be as strong and as happy as her parents’ had been. And hadn’t she quit her job to be with him just as her mum had quit her degree? All her life, she’d had a romantic, idealised vision of her parents’ marriage...

‘Cara?’

She blinked back into focus and looked at him. The concern in his stare made her heart clench. Looking away, she put her focus on her toes, painted a deep cherry red to match her nails. She’d never been one for bold colours before but there was something about being with Enzo that had made her feel bold. Seen...

‘My expectations for our marriage were entirely unrealistic,’ she whispered. ‘All along I knew there was no way a man like you would look at a woman like me but you were so convincing. And then there was the fable I grew up with of my parents; of the rich girl from the right side of town falling for the poor boy on the wrong side of town, and it all worked in my mind to convince me that you and I were meant to be, but all along, what I was looking for wastheirmarriage, to be the most important person in someone’s life, to not...’

To not what? Rebecca hadn’t meant to say any of that. Not consciously. The words had fallen off her tongue as she’d been thinking them, but now she’d hit a block and there was a heavy pulse beating in her brain.To not what...?

‘To not be the one left behind?’ he supplied quietly when her unspoken words remained unformed and unsaid.

Her heart punched her ribs and, completely thrown, her gaze shot back to him. ‘Why would you say that?’

He sat up. His clear brown eyes shrewd, the outer part of his thigh pressed against hers, he took hold of her hand. ‘Why did you feel like a third wheel?’

Rebecca had always thrilled at the muscularity of Enzo’s masculine physique compared to the slender femininity of hers. With the moonlight pouring on them, she noticed properly for the first time the paleness of her skin set against his olive tone. A day ago, she would have marvelled at the contrast,delightedin it. Now, for reasons she could never begin to understand, it opened another fissure in her heart. ‘It was just a saying.’

‘You would not have said it if it didn’t mean something. Did you feel that you were in the way?’

Cheeks burning, she shook her head vehemently. ‘No. They loved me. I never doubted that.’

‘But not as much as they loved each other?’

Her heart gave another punch, and she snatched her hand away. ‘What a cruel thing to say.’

There was compassion laced in the steel of his stare. ‘Cara, I am trying to understand—’

‘There is nothing to...’understand, she meant to add, but something like panic had thickened her throat too much for any more words to form.

‘There is everything to understand,’ he said, perfectly reading the train of thought she barely understood herself. Leaning his face into hers, close enough that Rebecca could see the flecks of gold swirling in the pupils, he pitched his tone low but with the same formidability as in his stare. ‘If you could see into my heart and head, you would know the insecurities that made you question why a man like me would want a woman like you were without foundation—’

He’d said exactly the right thing to make her fight the panic. With a bark of ironic laughter, she interrupted him. ‘Enzo, have you forgotten that I know exactly why a man like you wanted a woman like me? You set everything up between us so you could get your greedy mitts on my grandfather’s business shares.’

‘That only accounts for how things started, and if I hadn’t been so afraid of losing you I would have told you the truth a long time ago.’ He put a finger to her lips to stop her interrupting him again. The flecks of gold had turned into flames. ‘Iknowit is over for us. I know that in a matter of hours you are going to leave my life for good and that nothing I say will stop that. I will not go against my word and tell you how that makes me feel but if you didn’t have the insecurities that made you feel you’re not good enough for me, I wouldn’t need to tell you. You would already know. You would still have left me at the altar and wanted to punish me but you would never have doubtedme. Those insecurities came from somewhere.’

She snatched the finger pressed at her lips, but instead of shoving it aside, squeezed it. ‘Nice try. If I was writing a school report, I would say you were imaginative but given to flights of fancy.’

His eyes narrowed. For a long moment he stared at her with the stillness of a statue.

With a cauldron of emotions bubbling and swirling so violently inside her, it took everything Rebecca had to maintain eye contact and keep her own features poker straight.

And then he gave a disbelieving smile and shook his head slightly. ‘If you think I said that in the hope of changing your mind then you have just made my point for me. You,cara, are worth more to me than anything. I’d give you my own damn shares to make you believe that.’

Almost giddy with relief at the change of direction and being back on familiar territory, she smiled. If he wanted to play the game some more then fine. Better than him trying to dissecther. ‘Go on then.’

His right eyebrow shot up. ‘You want the whole business?’

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