Page 6 of The Convenient Cosentino Wife

She didn’t lean now. Although petite, she stood tall, her chin up, her eyes flashing at him. Her new toughness wasn’t the only change, though. Her hair was darker, the light golden strands now a rich cocoa. Her face had some color, as if she’d spent hours on the sunny terrace, or perhaps down on the sand. It would be impossible to avoid the sun when living here at the sea.

“I ask your forgiveness,” Rocco said formally in English before switching to Italian, and repeating it. “It was not my intention to make us enemies. We are family—”

“We’ve never been family,” she interrupted, walking toward him. “You never wanted me as family,” she added, voice dropping. “Remember?”

The bodyguard had stepped back into the shadows and Clare now stood in front of Rocco, hands on her hips, her dark head thrown back, revealing her stunning violet-colored eyes.

She was right. He did not want Marius to marry her. He did not want her as a sister-in-law, but to admit it now was adding insult to injury. He said nothing rather than make things worse.

Her full mouth curved, a faint dimple appeared in her cheek, but there was fire in her eyes. She was not happy with him, not happy to see him. He sensed that she would have preferred to never see him again.

“You’ve never really talked to me,” she said. “But maybe it’s time we were honest. We should be truthful. We both know you never liked me.” Clare held his gaze, daring him to contradict her. “Can you at least admit that?”

“How will this help anything?”

“I can’t trust you if I don’t know you. I can’t know you if you don’t have a real conversation with me. I think we both owe Marius that much. A conversation, and maybe a chance to come to an understanding.”

She barely reached the middle of his chest. Her dark hair fell below her shoulders. Motherhood hadn’t aged her. She was still exquisite, and still oblivious of her beauty. “These truths might make things worse,” he answered.

“They will if we’re wanting to wound. I do not wish to hurt you, and to be honest, I’ve no desire to be hurt by you. I just want to understand why...” her voice faded and she sighed, shadows in her violet eyes. “Why you tried to keep Marius and me apart.”

“I didn’t think you were a person of substance, and thus, I didn’t think you were right for my brother,” Rocco answered bluntly.

“Butwhy?”

“It’s difficult to articulate. The only way I can explain it is a gut instinct.”

“A gut instinct?” she repeated, color deepening in her cheeks. “That’s it? No proof? Nothing to substantiate this?”

“It was my job to look after my brother, and in my mind, you weren’t the right one for him.” Rocco’s voice dropped, deepened. “I told him as much.”

“You had no right.”

“I had every right. I was his older brother, as well as the only father figure he remembered. I had to represent the entire family—”

She laughed, interrupting him. “That’s so ridiculous,” she said, walking away, leaving him to go stand against the balustrade. For a long moment she didn’t speak and Rocco watched her, studying her, taking in the white dress with the dark purple trim, it was such a simple sundress, but it flattered her.

Clare turned to look at him. “Your brother was also an adult, a man, capable of making his own decisions.”

“And yet he looked to me for reassurance,” Rocco said.

“Because you exerted too much influence. He felt as if he had to constantly please you, but that shouldn’t have been necessary. No younger brother should ever have to grow up fearing his older brother’s censure—”

“That’s not how it was between us, not at all.”

“Then how was it?” she asked, leaning against the railing, head tipped, expression somewhat mocking.

He slowly crossed the distance between them until he was just a foot away, blocking the sun, and able to clearly see her light eyes with the lavender irises, so stunning, so unusual. Like her. He’d never met anyone like her, which was both good and bad. “Marius was my family, my world—he was very loved.”

“He was alsomyworld,myfamily and his death broke my heart. I will never love anyone the way I loved him, which is why I’m so careful with Adriano. He is so young, so innocent. He is to be protected, not pulled between us.”

“I would never do that.”

“No?” she challenged.

“No,” he replied firmly. “I swear to you as a Cosentino, and on my family honor, to do what is best for Marius’s son always.”

She considered this and then nodded. “Good, because he will be coming down soon, and you shall have the chance to meet him.” Clare gestured to the grouping of chairs where they’d been sitting earlier. “Shall we sit, and try this again?”

---