The Tuscan's Revenge Wedding(28)
“I don’t know why you’re so concerned.”
“You don’t know these old Italian families. I told you before, they may look ultramodern on the outside, but inside they’re not too different from a few hundred years ago. They’re proud as Lucifer, and things like honor, manners and defending the family name are like a religion. The only person good enough for one of their own is someone from another family that’s been around as long as they have.”
“But he said you and Carita can be married if she says yes when she recovers.”
“Oh, yeah, easy enough to say, especially if he thought it was what you wanted to hear. Nico doesn’t approve of me, and he hates that his sister loves me, would probably kill me if he knew she carries my baby inside her.”
“He does know,” Amanda said shortly.
Jonathan breathed a curse. He closed his eyes tight then opened them again. “I’m surprised he hasn’t murdered me. But what it comes down to is this, Amanda. The only reason he’d come on to you so fast is because it would be the perfect way to pay me back in kind. I seduced his sister, so he seduces mine. You see?”
Amanda did see. She saw so well that she felt ill with it.
She’d realized from the beginning she wasn’t Nico’s type, had been surprised he was attracted to her. They’d known each other less than twenty four hours when he’d first kissed her and issued his challenge. She accepted it of her own will, cooperating in her own seduction.
More than that, their relationship had been immortalized in the tabloids for the world to see. Just as the accident with Carita had named Jonathan as her lover, Nico’s actions had branded Amanda as his. It was all perfectly clear.
No wonder Nico had left her without saying goodbye. He had no need for manners or concern about a woman who meant nothing to him except a means of revenge.
10
Nico heard Carisa’s voice as he reached the hospital room door. He thought for an instant that Carita must have roused from her coma; anything else was too incredible. Then he caught the lilting, happy cadence that was Carisa’s alone, heard her call her twin’s name.
The door swung wide under his hand as he hit it harder than he intended. The three people gathered around Carita’s bed swung as one to face him. Carisa’s eyes widened to circles and her small mouth opened wide. Jonathan straightened where he balanced on one crutch. But Nico saw only one person with any clarity, the woman who whirled to face him with a hectic flush rising to her hairline and anger in her face.
“What is this?” he demanded with the pain of betrayal in his voice, also the fury that his body was betraying him, hardening at the mere sight of Amanda. “What is Carisa doing here?”
“I’m talking to Carita!” his young sister announced in high-pitched excitement before Amanda or Jonathan could answer. “And she’s listening, Nico! She’s asleep, but she’s listening to me.”
He lowered his voice, keeping his tone soothing with great effort. “Yes, of course, but who explained this to you? Who brought you here, or said you could see Carita?”
“Mandy did.” Carisa gave a little bounce where she sat on the far side of the bed, close beside her twin. “She said Carita loves me and wants to see me more than anybody. That means she’ll wake up for me. She said—”
“I’ve heard more than enough of what Amanda said,” he interrupted. He had known she had done this thing, he realized as his gaze settled on her features that had turned pale now, as pale as the dress of finest white linen she wore, one he had ordered for her with such ridiculous care. It made no sense any other way.
He hadn’t wanted to believe it, could hardly accept that she would so disregard his wishes or show so little concern for Carisa’s welfare. It was so far beyond what he expected that he had required confirmation. Now he had it.
“I believe it’s time for Amanda to leave. You must go back to the villa with her, cara Carisa.”
“No, Nico, no! Mandy was right, I am good for Carita. I am a grown woman, and can do more than you think. I didn’t cry when we drove here, and I’m not afraid of the hospital or doctors or the nurses or the machines or the beds that go up and down or the tubes with medicine or little TVs that blink with green lights or the—”
“Carisa!”
“And Carita does want to see me, she does. I know she does!”
Shock that his young sister would talk back to him, much less support Amanda over him, washed over Nico in a cold wave. He hardly knew where to begin with an answer for her, much less how to persuade her to leave without a scene.
“Why not let her stay?” Jonathan asked in harsh appeal as he glanced from Carisa to Carita before turning his clear gray gaze toward Nico once more. “What can it hurt, as long as she’s here already?”
“You will keep out of this, please,” Nico told him with a growl of warning in his voice.
“But she seems to be all right with it, and she might do a world of good. Carita squeezed my hand yesterday, and she moved her head just a minute ago.”
Carita looked exactly the same to Nico as every other time he had seen her. Amanda’s brother was either deluded or lying to put a good face on this fiasco. “You presume to know better than I what is best?” he asked in quiet fury.
“Oh, please, Nico, come off it,” Amanda said, stepping toward him. “You may be the Conte de Frenza, final authority on everything that comes into your orbit, but you aren’t infallible. It could be Jonathan is right, and Carisa being here will help.”
The scorn in her voice was like a slap in the face. Still he was glad to seize on the distraction. “So this was your brother’s idea,” he said. “I might have known. It isn’t enough that his reckless driving put Carita in hospital, he must push Carisa to the point where she may need medical attention.”
Jonathan Davies face turned dark and his mouth set in a hard line before he spoke. “If you want to talk about harming a sister, then we can do that. You aren’t exactly innocent yourself, but the damage was no accident. It was revenge, pure and simple.”
“Jonathan, no,” Amanda breathed.
“Dio santo, what are you saying?” Nico demanded.
Derision burned in Jonathan’s eyes, so like Amanda’s, while his good hand gripped his crutch like a knotted fist. “I seduce your sister, so you seduce mine. Sound familiar?”
“No, no, no….”
The furious pounding of the blood in his ears almost drowned out that soft whisper. It came not from Amanda, however, or even from Carisa.
It came instead from the bed where Carita lay.
Amazement gripped Nico as he turned in that direction, only half aware of Jonathan and Amanda doing the same. They eased closer, drawn by the miracle taking place there.
Carita stared at them with her eyes wide open and a little wild. She tried to lift her head, stretched out a hand to him as he stepped within reach. He took it, even as he pressed the control which raised the head of the bed so she might see them, speak to them in more comfort.
“Grazie a Dio, Carita,” he in strained wonder, “how grand this is, how truly amazing. We had begun to think you would never wake.”
“I knew you would!” Carisa crowed with pleasure shining in her soft round face as she leaned toward her sister. She flicked him a look of triumph. “I said so. Yes, I did!”
“So you did, cara,” he allowed before he spoke again to Carita, switching from Italian to English for the sake of her other visitors. “I regret you were disturbed by our disagreement, though it brought you back to us. But is there anything I can get you, anything we can do for you now?”
“Water.” She swallowed, spoke again in a rasp. “My throat … so dry.”
A small pitcher sat on the bedside table. Amanda, being closest to it, splashed an inch or so into a glass and moved closer to him as she held it to Carita’s lips. Nico watched in grim forbearance as Jonathan moved nearer as well, bracing his crutch under his arm and taking Carita’s hand as if he could not help himself.
Carita smiled into Jonathan’s eyes with such loving affection that an ache formed in Nico’s chest as he watched. Then she turned back to him with a resolute lift of her small chin. “Nico, my dearest brother, you must not — must not say hard things to Jonathan.”
“Carita—”
“You must never, never think of vengeance. He — he doesn’t deserve that from you.”
“Cara, I would not—”
“Hear me, Per piacere.”
“Naturalmente.” He waited, even as he wondered that she would have to plead to be heard. Had he become so autocratic she thought he would not listen to her?
“He didn’t, that is, he is not—”
Jonathan shook his head. “It’s all right, Carita. You must be so tired. You don’t have to say anything, really, you don’t.”
Nico was impressed against his will by this show of concern, just as he was impressed in retrospect with the younger man’s understanding of how close Carita had been to consciousness. All the same, he had the distinct feeling there was some extra communication between them, some meaning only they grasped.