Bound by the Italian's Contract(72)

                And now? She shook her head, admitting she hadn’t escaped that yet. Sure she was his business associate as well as his convenient lover. But once the contract was finished, all of that would end.

                It was what she wanted. What she’d demanded from the start. So she shouldn’t feel melancholy now.

                Luciano was never going to change, so it was useless to continue trying.

                For the first time in weeks, she knew exactly what she had to do. After the grand opening at his lodge, she would return to Colorado and begin the lengthy process of putting him from her mind.

                * * *

                Hours later, Luc landed his private Eurocopter atop his towering glass and steel office building in Milano. He still got a special thrill seeing the helo’s reflection on the structure’s sides. This was his baby. The pinnacle of taking a million-dollar business that had gone stale and expanding it into a multibillion-dollar corporation.

                He’d done it in less than a decade, which was much more than Mario could boast.

                Mario. The detectives he’d hired confirmed his old friend had stayed in Milano, living and working out of his office. The fact he’d gotten away with rape still filled him with rage. But it wasn’t his place to bring that revelation to the public.

                Only one person could do that. Caprice. So far she wasn’t inclined to do so.

                He pounded across the helipad to the rooftop door, recalling the last time he’d rushed here on business was the morning after his ex-wife’s fatal accident. The tabloids had been filled with truths and half-truths and lies.

                Guilt had nipped at him for ending their marriage so swiftly. For giving her no chance to explain or apologize.

                But that guilt wasn’t near as biting as what he felt for the sweet young attendant he’d hired at the World Cup in Val d’Isère. Caprice had done everything he’d asked and anticipated his needs to the heartbeat. And she’d fallen into puppy love with him—a dog of a man.

                Instead of putting her down gently, he’d dismissed her in the same manner he would fire a lazy employee. All because her kiss had stirred feelings in him that he’d only felt for his wife. The tender emotions that were a prequel to love.

                That realization had scared the hell out of him. He’d vowed never to love again. Never to give his heart to another. He could not risk being around her.

                So he’d left her vulnerable. And his friend Mario—his damned friend, of all people!—had taken advantage of her.

                Luc remembered his treks down to the caretaker’s house to tempt Mario away from his chores. They’d been closer than brothers for years.

                Before Luc had begun training vigorously for Alpine, he’d convinced his father to pay for Mario’s way. They’d been an unbeatable duo on the slopes, and pursued by countless women across the globe.

                But that had changed as well after the accident. Mario had remained in his life as a friend, and if not for Caprice’s tearful confession, he never would have known the depths Mario was capable of sinking to.

                Luc drove his fingers through his hair and swore. He would not repeat past mistakes and cause Caprice more grief. The fact he’d done so years ago made it even more difficult for him to face himself in the mirror. And to think he’d thought his father was a careless bastard!

                The American saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” certainly was true in Luc’s case. He wasn’t worthy of tying himself to a good woman. He’d already screwed up badly two times. He wouldn’t do so a third time.