Page 29 of His Innocent's Passionate Awakening

‘Please send my best wishes for a speedy recovery.’ Artie knew the words were little more than useless platitudes when all Luca wanted was her by his side. She was never more aware of letting down her side of the bargain. Letting him down. It pained her she was unable to harness her fear for his sake.

She watched as he drove away, her heart feeling as if it was torn in two. It felt wrong not to be with him—wrong in a way she hadn’t expected to feel. As if part of her was missing now he was gone. The castello had never been more of a prison, her fear never more of a burden. Why couldn’t she feel the fear and do it anyway? Was she to be imprisoned within these walls for the rest of her life? Luca needed her and she wasn’t able to be with him, and yet she wanted nothing more than to be by his side.

She wanted to be with him because she loved him.

Artie could no longer suppress or deny her feelings about him. She had fallen in love with him in spite of his rules, in spite of her own efforts to keep her heart out of their arrangement. But her heart had been in it from the moment Luca kissed her. He had awoken her out of a psychological coma, inspiring her to live life in a full and vibrant way. How could she let him down now when he needed her? How could she not fight through her fears for him?

Rosa came out to join her, shading her eyes from the blinding sunshine. ‘Do you know when he’ll be back?’

Artie gave a despondent sigh. ‘No. I feel so bad I wasn’t able to go with him. What sort of wife am I that I can’t even be by my husband’s side when he needs me most?’

Rosa gave her a thoughtful look. ‘I guess you have to measure up which thing is bigger—your fear of leaving here or your fear of not being there for him.’

Artie bit her lip, struggling to hold back a tumult of negative emotion. Her sense of failure, her lack of courage, her inability to overcome her phobia.

You’re hopeless. A failure. An embarrassment.

Her harsh internal critic rained down abuse until she wanted to curl up into a tiny ball and hide away. But hiding never solved anything, did it? She had hidden here for ten years and nothing had changed.

And yet...something had changed. Luca had changed her. Awakening her to feelings and sensations she hadn’t thought possible a few days ago. Feelings she could no longer hide from—feelings that were not part of Luca’s rules but she felt them anyway. How could she not? He was the light to her darkness, the healing salve to her psychological wound, the promise of a life outside these cold stone walls. He was her gateway to the outside world, the world that had frightened and terrified her so much because she didn’t trust it to keep her safe.

But she trusted Luca.

She had trusted him with her body, giving herself to him, responding to him with a powerful passion she could still feel in her most intimate flesh. Her love for him was bigger than her fear. Much bigger. That was what she would cling to as she stared down her demons. She had the will, she had the motivation, she had her love for him to empower her in a way nothing had been able to before. Luca was outside her prison walls, and the only way she could be with him in his hour of need was to leave the castello, propelled, empowered, galvanised by the love she felt for him.

Love was supposed to conquer all.

She would damn well prove it.

CHAPTER NINE

LUCA GOT TO the hospital in time to speak to his grandfather before he was taken for surgery. Nonno looked ashen and there was a large purple and black bruise on his face as well as his wrist and elbow where he had tried to break his fall. Luca took the old man’s papery hand and tried to reassure him. ‘I’ll be here when you come out of theatre. Try not to worry.’

Nonno grimaced in pain and his eyes watered. ‘When am I going to meet this new wife of yours? You’d better hurry up and bring her to me before I fall off my perch.’

‘Soon,’ Luca said, hoping it was true. ‘When you’re feeling better. You don’t want to scare her off with all those bruises, do you?’

A wry smile played with the corners of Nonno’s mouth. ‘It’s good that you’ve settled down, Luca. I’ve been worried about you since...well, for a long time now.’

‘I know you have.’ Luca patted his grandfather’s hand, his chest tightening as if it were in a vice. ‘I was waiting for the right one to come along. Just like you did with Nonna.’

The strange thing was, Artie did feel right. Right in so many ways. He couldn’t imagine making love to anyone else, which was kind of weird, given there was a time limit on their relationship. A six-month time limit he insisted on because no way was he interested in being in for the long haul. Not with his track record of destroying people’s lives.

‘Your grandmother was a wonderful woman,’ Nonno said, with a wistful look on his weathered features. ‘I miss her every day.’

‘I know you do, Nonno. I miss Nonna too.’

Another good reason not to love someone—the pain of losing them wrecked your life, leaving you alone and heartsore for years on end. If that wasn’t a form of torture, what was? None Luca wanted any part of, not if he could help it.

He was already missing Artie, and he’d only been away from her the couple of hours it took to drive to the hospital. He’d wanted her to come with him to meet his grandfather but that wasn’t the only reason. He genuinely enjoyed being with her, which was another new experience for him. The women he’d dated in the past were nice enough people, but no one had made him feel the way Artie did.

Making love with her had been like making love for the first time, discovering things about his body as well as hers. Being tuned in to his body in a totally different way, as if his response settings had been changed, ramped up, intensified, so he would want no one other than her. No one else could trigger the same need and drive. No one else would satisfy him the way she did. He ached for her now. What he would give to see her smile, to feel her hand slide into his and her body nestle against him.

His grandfather turned his head to lock gazes with Luca. ‘I’ve been hard on you, Luca, over the years. I see it now when it’s too late to do anything about it. I’ve expected a lot of you. You had to grow up too fast after your father and Angelo died.’ He sighed and continued. ‘You’ve worked hard, too hard really, but I know your father would be proud of your achievements. You’ve carried on his legacy and turned Ferrantelli Enterprises into a massive success.’ He gave a tired smile. ‘I’ve only ever wanted you to be happy. Success is good, but personal fulfilment is what life is really about.’

The hospital orderly arrived at that point to take Nonno down to the operating theatre.

Luca grasped his grandfather’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Try and get well again, Nonno. I’ll be waiting here for you when you come back.’

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