A Scandal in the Headlines(64)

“It was love at first sight,” Alessandro snapped at her. “And you know it.”

That was like a deep, terrible rip, so far inside her she didn’t think she could survive it.

“Don’t you dare say that!” she hurled at him. “Don’t you dare pretend!”

“I love you!” he thundered, the words ricocheting from the stone walls of the village, the rocky cliffs, the thick fog and the water below.

Or maybe that was only in her head. Maybe that was her heart.

Alessandro found her gaze, held it. Frustration and determination gleamed there in all of that dark green, along with something else.

Sincerity, she thought, from some stunned distance. He meant it. She heard a small noise, a kind of gasp, and only dimly realized she’d made it.

“I love you, Elena,” he said, his voice serious. Certain. “Since the moment I saw you, I’ve never been the same.”

“You …” But she couldn’t seem to speak.

“There were no contracts,” he said then, fiercely. “No discussions about assets or settlements. No prenuptial agreement. I simply married you, because I can’t be without you. I can’t let you leave me.” His dark eyes flashed. “I can’t.”

She tried to say his name, formed the syllables of it with her mouth, but no sound came out.

“I have a great darkness in me,” he said then, intently. “I can’t pretend I don’t. But it’s not going to win. It can’t, if I have you.”

She shook her head, as if she could shake this off. As if she could push him back into those neatly labeled boxes she’d set out for him. She had to do it, or she might die where she stood. She didn’t question that—she simply knew it.

“We were always destined to burn ourselves out, Alessandro,” she said when she could speak. “This was doomed from the start.”

He closed the distance between them then, and took her shoulders in his hands. Kind and gentle. Heartbreakingly firm.

“Do you want me to convince you?” he asked roughly, a broken look in his dark eyes. “Is that what this is? Because we both know I can.”

“What?” Her ears were ringing, louder by the second. “No, I—”

“Tell me what you want, Elena,” he said, all of his ferocity and all of the desolation she’d sensed in him right there between them, suddenly. Alive in the damp air. “Do you want me to hunt you down, make you accept what’s between us? Do you want me to leave you alone? You need to choose. You need to fight.”

He dropped his hands then, stepped back, and the distance between them was unbearable. It made her shake.

“You can’t put this all on me,” he continued, his voice low but with the ring of a kind of finality that made everything inside of her twist tight in anguish.

“I don’t know what I want,” she lied, and the look in his eyes then shamed her. Destroyed her. Because he knew she was lying. He always knew.

“I loved you before I knew your name,” he said then. “I love you more now, even when you lie to my face. All you have to do is own this, Elena.”

She shuddered. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t—

“I do,” she said desperately. “I love you.”

“I know you do,” he replied, a slight curve to that hard mouth, but it wasn’t enough. “But that’s not the issue, is it? It never has been.”

And something in her finally broke then. Pride, fear. Selfishness and vanity. All the things she’d been accused of, all the accusations she’d levied at herself. It all simply cracked into pieces and washed over her.

“I left because I couldn’t bear to be so stupid,” she told him in a rush. “To make such a terrible mistake again.” Her eyes filled with tears, spilled over, wetting her cheeks. “But I married you because I wanted to marry you. I wanted you.”

She wiped at her eyes, then focused on him, and he took up the whole world. Commanding and strong. But waiting to hear what she’d say next. What she’d decide. As if she was the one with the power, after all.

“I still do, Alessandro,” she whispered. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything else. I can’t fight that. I tried.”

“You don’t have to fight that,” he said, his dark green eyes so fierce on hers she trembled. “You don’t have to fight me. Just fight for this, Elena. Don’t run away. Don’t hide.”