Page 53 of ‘I Do’ for Revenge
Vito reappeared, tying a towel around his waist. His face looked blank.
She’d said the words out loud.
Flora sat up, holding the sheet to her. ‘Vito—’ But he held up a hand, stopping her. She closed her mouth.
‘What did you just say?’
Flora bit her lip. She could saynothingand try to blame it on the sparkling wine and the moment, but everything in her resisted against it. She couldn’t hold it in.
‘I said I love you.’
He shook his head. ‘Why?’
Flora looked at him. ‘You want me to tell you why I love you?’ The thought of trying to articulate everything in her head and heart terrified her.
He looked frustrated. He ran a hand through already messed-up hair. ‘No, I mean... I don’t know. I mean,how?’
‘I fell in love with you. I didn’t plan on it, Vito... I didn’t expect it.’
Now he sounded accusing. ‘I told you from the start what this was. I never promised anything more than just...this.’
‘I know,’ Flora said miserably, any faint hope that he might have greeted her declaration differently turning to dust.
‘What is this?’ he said. ‘Are you playing some sort of game? Now you’ve got your inheritance and you want to see if you can get more? A serious commitment?’
Flora went cold. She felt more exposed than she’d ever felt in her life. And she’d asked for this. She’d revelled in Vito actuallyseeingher, except he hadn’t seen her at all. The pain was immense.
She said, ‘Can you hand me a robe, please?’ She couldn’t conduct this conversation naked under a sheet with the touch of Vito’s hands still warm on her skin.
He disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a robe, handing it to her. Flora pulled it on while trying not to expose her body. Ha! That horse and the entire herd had bolted a long time ago. She stood up from the bed, tightly belting the robe around her. The fact that Vito’s gaze dropped over her body and back up, sending frissons of awareness all over her skin, was like a betrayal now.
She folded her arms over her chest. ‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re still as cynical as you always were. And who’s to say that I’ll even collect my inheritance? That’s tainted money.’
‘Flora, that’s your money. You can’tnottake it.’ And then he muttered, ‘You’ll probably hand it all over to a charity anyway.’
Flora pounced on that. ‘One minute ago you’re accusing me of being an opportunist and now you’re saying I’ll give it away. Which is it, Vito? Who am I really?’
He looked at her. ‘That’s just it. I don’t know.’
Flora looked at him as her insides knotted. She’d believed that he’d seen her. The worst thing was that Vito had an air of defeat about him. Resignation.
You do know me, she wanted to shout at him. Grab him by the shoulders and shake him.
But evidently she was the fool here because he was literally telling her that, even now, after all this time spent together, he still didn’t trust her.
And could she even blame him? She was a Gavia. And it was always going to come down to this.
Still, she seemed to have some instinct for self-flagellation because she heard herself saying, ‘It means nothing to you that I love you?’
His expression had turned to granite. He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry.’
Flora needed to escape then, to go somewhere to lick her wounds and take a moment to assess how she could still be breathing. She backed away. ‘I should check Benji...we didn’t...when we came in. I’ll go back to my own room and tomorrow...’
‘We can talk in the morning.’
Mere minutes ago, Flora and this man had been so entwined they’d been one person. Now it couldn’t be more glaringly obvious that that had been just an illusion.
She turned, and somehow left the bedroom. Like an automaton, she went to check Benji, taking him out to the terrace for a few minutes and then back inside. She carried him to her bedroom and lay down on the bed, with him tucked against her body.