‘Can I ask you something?’
A small smile played around that gorgeous sexy mouth. ‘Do I have a choice?’
‘Not really,’ Sidonie said cheerfully, and then, ‘Why did you turn your back on your inheritance to make your own way?’
She’d asked him the question that first evening in his apartment but he’d deflected it easily. Now his face became inscrutable, and Sidonie prepared herself for another brush-off, but to her surprise his chest rose and fell in a deep sigh. As if he was giving in.
He said carefully, ‘You do know that if I tell you I’ll have to kill you?’
Sidonie nodded with mock seriousness. ‘I know. However, I feel like I’ve packed a lot into my twenty-three years, so I’m prepared to go if I have to.’
Alexio took some of her hair between his fingers and caressed it, saying, ‘Such a pity...but if you’re positive...?’
Mock resolute, Sidonie said, ‘I’m positive.’
Joking aside, Alexio lifted one shoulder and said, ‘It’s really not that exciting.’
‘I’m intrigued. It’s not many people who would turn their back on an Onassis-sized inheritance.’
Alexio grimaced. ‘The size of the inheritance was vastly exaggerated...’
Sidonie stayed quiet.
With clear reluctance Alexio told her, ‘I am my father’s only son. Even though my half-brother grew up with us, my father used to taunt him every day that he would not receive a cent from him. I always resented my father’s lack of generosity and the way he wielded his power over everyone else. But I saw how it forged in my brother a will to succeed and prosper on his own. I envied him because he wasn’t constrained like I was. Bound to my father’s expectations. My father used to pit us against each other all the time, me and my brother.’
Alexio grimaced.
‘Obviously this didn’t do our relationship much good, and by the time my brother left home it’s safe to say we hated each other’s guts. My father just assumed I would be joining him in his empire. He never listened to me long enough to know that I had no interest in his shipping business. I rebelled against that expectation. The business wasn’t even his—not rightfully. He was the second son and his brother had died at a young age, leaving him in line to take over. His own father hadn’t wanted it for him, but my father grabbed it with both hands and ousted my grandfather as soon as he could.’
Sidonie’s eyes grew wide. ‘But that’s so...’
‘Ruthless?’ Alexio interjected with a grim smile.
Sidonie nodded.
‘That’s my father’s way. To grab at things. Take them. He wanted me to inherit and join him—but not as an equal, as someone he could control.’ He sighed. ‘In the meantime I saw Rafaele, my brother, single-handedly resurrecting his own family name and business out of the ashes. All those years of rivalry were still in my blood—if he could do it so could I.’
Sidonie spoke softly. ‘So when your father expected you to follow in his footsteps you said no?’
Alexio looked into Sidonie’s clear eyes and felt in that moment as if he could just spill all the secrets in his guts and keep spilling. It was dangerous. Too dangerous. He stifled the impulse with effort.