A Ring for Vincenzo's Heir(19)

Scarlett was different.

For one thing, she didn't lust for money. In fact, she was suspicious of  it as a manipulative tool. That just proved her intelligence, which  made her even more desirable.

Seducing her in bed had been easy. Winning her heart was a little more tricky.

He'd had to share his feelings.

His regrets.

He still shuddered a little, remembering their conversation as they'd  walked beneath the cypress trees last night, in the cool October air.

"Why did you move to New York after your mother died?" She'd looked up  at the villa, the windows gleaming with warm light in the darkness. "You  were only fifteen. Why didn't you come live here?"

His body had tensed. He should have known she wouldn't let that go. He'd  wanted to say something sarcastic, or tell her to mind her own  business. But looking at her hopeful, vulnerable expression, he'd known  he had to do better than that, at least until they were safely married  and he had the signed post-nup. And as intuitive as she was, he couldn't  tell her a lie, either. So he'd shaped his mouth into something he  hoped looked like a smile and told her part of the truth.

"Even at fifteen, I dreamed of starting my own company. Building my own  fortune. My uncle was a hard-driving corporate lawyer. I knew if I moved  to New York he'd be able to help me."

And Iacopo Orsini had. When Vin was eighteen, he'd taken all the money  he'd saved from constant work, and the untouched payout from his  mother's life insurance, and asked his uncle to help him draw up the  necessary papers to set up his first company. Iacopo had also led by  example, showing Vin it was possible to work every waking hour, and  avoid inconsequential things, like spending time with family and loved  ones. Or even having loved ones.

"Oh," Scarlett had said, and the light in her eyes had faded as she bit her lip. "That makes sense, I guess."

"Flying makes me feel alive," he'd heard himself add. "It gives me a  sense of control. I can go anywhere. Do anything. Be whoever I want to  be."

"It's your idea of freedom."

"Yes."

"That's funny. My idea of freedom is being able to stay in one place, as  long as I want, surrounded by family and friends. Freedom," she said  quietly, "would be a real home, filled with love, that no one would ever  be able to take from me."

Their eyes locked in the moonlight, and for one crazy moment he'd wanted  to tell her everything. He'd been tempted to offer up not just his  body, not just his name, but his past, his pain, his heart. His future.   





 

But it was a risk he couldn't take.

"Come on," he'd said abruptly. "Let's go inside."

The memory of how he'd felt last night still left Vin feeling  uncomfortable. Vulnerable. Exposed. He didn't like it. It was a  situation he didn't intend to repeat.

He had to get the papers signed as soon as possible so he could get back to a life he recognized, a life under his control.

But first things first.

Today was their wedding day.

Vin looked at his bride now, as she stood across from him in the villa's  courtyard with the view of the wide Tuscan fields, as Giuseppe, as  mayor of Borgierra, spoke the words that would bind the two of them in  marriage.

In the distance, Vin could hear the plaintive cry of birds as they  soared across the bright blue sky, as they were watched by Joanne and  Maria and the other friends and Borgia relatives who'd packed in around  them.

Vin couldn't look away from Scarlett's beautiful face.

Her warm green eyes sparkled in the sun, shining with joyful tears as  she smiled up at him. She was wearing a simple sheath dress in creamy  duchesse satin, purchased in Milan, altered for Scarlett's advanced  state of pregnancy. Her red hair tumbled down her shoulders, and she had  a tiny fascinator with a single cream-colored feather and a bit of  netting that his sister had selected. Large diamond studs to match her  ring now sparkled in her ears, a gift from Vin. Maria had wanted her to  hold a bouquet of white lilies, but on this one detail, Scarlett was  firm: no lilies. "They're not just stinky, they're appallingly  overpriced."

Vin smiled at the thought of Scarlett being worried about the price of  flowers, when the diamonds she was wearing cost hundreds of thousands of  euros.

Instead, she held a bouquet of autumn wildflowers. It was just like her,  he thought. The vivid blooms were as bright as her hair, and the scent  as sweet as her soul. But the wild roses still had thorns-little flashes  of temper and fire.

Solemnly, Vin, then Scarlett, spoke the words that would bind them  together as husband and wife. He didn't exhale until it was done and  they were actually married. After everything it had taken to get her to  the altar, it was surprisingly easy.

No man could now tear them asunder.

"You may kiss the bride," Giuseppe said happily.

Scarlett Ravenwood-Mrs. Scarlett Borgia now-looked up at him with joy suffusing her beautiful face.

Looking into her eyes, Vin felt dizzy with happiness. She was wearing  his ring. Carrying his baby. Bearing his name. He hadn't felt like this  since-

A cold chill went down his spine.

The last time he'd felt this happy had been in this very same villa,  that Christmas when Giuseppe and Joanne had asked him to live with them.  At fifteen, for the first time in his life, he'd felt wanted and loved.  But within a week, he'd lost everything.

Looking at his wife's beautiful, joyful face, Vin felt a sharp twist in  the gut, a darkness curling around his heart like a poisonous mist.

Letting himself be happy, letting himself care, was like asking for abandonment. For loneliness. For pain.

He couldn't let her change him. He couldn't let himself be vulnerable. He had to be tough. Strong. He had to keep his fists up.

"You can kiss her, son," Giuseppe repeated in English, smiling.

Lowering his head, Vin kissed her. The touch of her lips electrified him like a blessing-or a curse.

He heard applause and teasing catcalls from the loving, kind people  around him. He wrenched away from the kiss. Staring at Scarlett, he  suddenly couldn't breathe.

Giuseppe, Joanne, Maria and even, especially, Scarlett were so wrong to love him. If they only knew the truth-

As beaming family and friends came forward to offer their  congratulations, Vin loosened the black tie of his tuxedo, feeling  attacked by all the overwhelming, suffocating, terrifying love around  him.





CHAPTER EIGHT

AS SCARLETT SPOKE her wedding vows, looking up at Vin's dark eyes, she  felt like every dream she'd ever had was coming true today.

Every day had been a new dream, from afternoons spent together in the  cool autumn countryside, walking hand in hand as they talked about  everything and nothing, to the deliciously hot nights they'd explored  each other in bed, doing things that had nothing to do with talking. He  made her feel...joyful. Sexy. Exhilarated.

He'd made her feel free. Like he accepted her just as she was. Like he...cared for her.

And she'd come to care for him, to respect and admire him. She'd started to even... But the thought scared her.

After all the romantic days and nights together, gazing into each  other's eyes beneath the loggia and teasing each other with hot kisses  behind the thick hedges of the garden maze, today's beautiful courtyard  wedding, presided over by Vin's father, was the perfect end to such  perfect days.   





 

As she and Vin spoke their vows in the courtyard, surrounded by his  family and friends, Scarlett looked up at him. She'd never seen such  stark emotion in his dark eyes.

Was it possible Vin might be falling for an ordinary girl like her?

Scarlett's voice trembled as she spoke her vows, but Vin's voice was  calm and steady and deep. She felt his lips brush softly against hers as  a pledge of forever, and she thought she might die of happiness.

Then everything changed. The tenderness in Vin's expression hardened,  turned cold. As their family and friends came forward in the villa's  courtyard to congratulate them, her brand-new husband dropped her hand  as if it burned him and backed away, loosening his tie, as if he could  barely stand to look at her.

What had happened? Scarlett didn't understand. She felt confused and  hurt as she followed him into their wedding reception lunch, held  immediately afterward in the great hall inside the villa. She tried to  tell herself she was being too sensitive. They'd just gotten married,  with a lifelong vow. That was what mattered. Not that he'd dropped her  hand after he kissed her, and his eyes suddenly looked cold.

But it troubled her as she sat beside Vin at the head table through the elegant wedding lunch.

She looked around the great hall. Maria had outdone herself. The  enormous room was filled with flowers and people and music. It was so  warm with love, it barely needed the fire in the enormous stone  fireplace. When the staff served a lunch of pasta and salad, Vin ate  silently beside her. Scarlett smiled at him shyly.

He glowered back.

Scarlett's cheeks turned hot with embarrassment as she looked away.  Maybe it was the sudden tension between them, but her lower back and  belly started to ache strangely. She sipped sparkling juice instead of  champagne, one hand rubbing her belly over the knee-length,  cream-colored satin dress.