“What are you hiding, Arianna?”
“Nothing that concerns you.”
“I think it does. Anything about you concerns me and you know that.”
“Christian, I told you, I…we shouldn’t see each other again.”
“Are you seeing someone?”
“No.”
“Do you really want me out of your life, Arianna? Look at me!” His dark eyes burned into hers.
She couldn’t look into his eyes.
“Christian. Please, don’t make this harder for me.”
Christian got up and walked over to the balcony to watch the turquoise blue waves swoosh and hit the coast below him. The air was warm and gusty and palm trees swayed to the rhythm of the island summer breeze. Jamaica was one of the most beautiful places he’d frequented. He enjoyed visiting to relax, any time he could get away from his work. Heck, he worked twenty-four hours around the clock in his commercial real estate business. Thanks to his uncle Toni, most of the Romeros were invested in businesses and owned assets around the world. Christian had even teased Ari once about buying her out and turning the Duponte Hotel into a sweet merger.
“Don’t you think you owe me an explanation? I think you owe it to us, Arianna.”
“Christian, you’re right.” Arianna got up and moved closer to him. “This is very hard for me.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Being hurt.”
“Hurt? By whom?”
“You.”
“Me? Are you kidding? Why would you think that?”
“Because I didn’t want you to…know about my…my family.”
Christian held his head back and chuckled. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? What do I look like to you, Arianna? So what if your mother is a recluse. What does that have to do with us?”
Her eyes opened wide.
“Yeah, that’s right. I know all about your mother’s…illness. I know that my step-mother got a bit…nosy and prying at dinner that night but she really didn’t mean it, Arianna. We want to welcome you into our family.”
“Christian, it wasn’t just that. It’s the way people talk about….people like my mom.” Arianna looked away then back into his eyes. “Christian, you come from a well-off family. Everybody has opinions. I…just don’t think I would fit in.” Her eyes were filled with tears.
“Hey,” he said softly, tilting her chin up with his finger to face him. “I love you, Arianna. And do you know what love means?”
She gazed into his eyes.
“Love means in spite of, Arianna,” he continued. “Nobody’s perfect. No one’s family is without flaws. And if they try to pretend so, they’re lying. We love people in spite of their weaknesses. What I have for you is so freaking strong you wouldn’t believe it. And if my family didn’t accept you, that would be fine with me. Nothing in this world could tear me away from you, girl. I’d abdicate my position in the family if I had to.”
Arianna grinned.
Ha! That got her laughing.
“You’re not a king, Christian. You can’t abdicate.”
“You’re my queen. I can do whatever the hell I please!” He grinned, looking into her eyes. His smiled faded when he could still see raw pain flashing in her pretty brown eyes.
“What else are you hiding from me, Arianna? What else is bothering you?”
She pulled away from him and hugged herself. “Christian. Oh, God! Christian, there’s so much more that you don’t know about my family and me. So much more,” she said, her voice trailing off.
“Like what, Arianna? Why won’t you open up to me?”
“I want you, Christian.” She turned to him. “Oh, God, Christian. I wish I could tell you everything but I don’t think you’d understand. And I couldn’t bear it if you didn’t respect me anymore.”
Christian rubbed his stubble. He was confused as hell. “Why don’t you try me, Arianna? I’m sick and tired of you making assumptions about what I will and will not accept about you. Heck, I don’t even care if you turned out to be a freaking alien or something. Do you have any idea what you do to me? Over the past month, I could do nothing else but think about you. Every time you left a sign for me online, I wanted to reach for the phone but I just couldn’t because I didn’t want to deal with the pain of you telling me we shouldn’t see each other again. It really messed with my head. Why do you keep doing this to us? To yourself?”
It was true that Christian was a put-together, well-adjusted man. He often didn’t give a rat’s ass what others thought of him. He was ambitious, confident and did his thing. Being named the youngest real estate mogul to take over one of Mayberry Hill’s famous landmarks had earned him many enemies and jealous rivals. He just stuck to his guns and got on with it. Like a true Romero, their skins were smooth and thick as leather. Nothing could penetrate. They never backed down from any pressure—whether in the boardroom or the business world, but Arianna, she really brought him down a notch. Never had he been so wrapped up in another person as he was with Arianna Duponte.