by Jan Moran
Luca would be damned if he’d meet the same fate, caught up here in the business matters of a place he’d never even wanted. His father had brought him here, but he couldn’t keep him here.
Not even for someone like Alessia.
Reaching down, Luca drew a hand gently over the sleeping woman’s cheek. She was truly the soul of this place. She’d poured herself into it until she’d practically fused with the winery. Watching her dedication, tasting the sweetness of her kiss, who wouldn’t fall for her? Who knew, perhaps that was exactly what his father had intended.
With a sigh, Luca rose from the bed and crossed the room to rifle through his bags until he came up with a blank pad and a pen. Sinking down in an armchair, he stared at the paper in his lap, hesitating a moment before he began to write out the impromptu legal document that would once again make Costa and Ferrari whole.
Alessia would have what she wanted, what she’d practically begged him for, and Luca would be able to return to New York. His mother was there. The headquarters of his company. His entire life.
While Alessia was here.
He felt like an ass, sneaking out while she was sleeping, but deep down, he knew it was the best thing for both of them. They had never really been meant to be this close. He’d come here seeking answers, and she’d wanted the winery she loved in one piece and under her family’s control.
As far as he was concerned, all those goals had now been met, and he could walk away free and clear.
Then why, Luca wondered as he snuck quietly out, did it feel like he’d shut his heart up in the room in which he’d left Alessia with the document that would give each of them exactly what they’d wanted?
Chapter 18
Antonio Costa was perplexed, to say the least.
He’d thought everything was going swimmingly. Certainly, things had been rocky at first. He hadn’t expected Luca to arrive early, and the little mishap about his identity that had angered Alessia had been dicey, but ultimately, the attraction Bruno’s son and his daughter had felt for one another had won out.
They’d gone from being in constant conflict to casting one another sizzling gazes across the dining room, and while he knew he shouldn’t meddle so much in his daughter’s affairs, Antonio couldn’t help but be ecstatic that she and Luca had made an excellent match. And when they married, the winery would remain in the family, whether or not Luca signed over his shares.
Or at least, so Antonio had thought.
All of his plans had flown out the window when he saw Luca striding down the front walk of the hotel, luggage in hand, to a taxi waiting at the curb. He hadn’t looked happy at all, which had made Antonio frown in turn.
He watched Luca leave with no small amount of confusion.
Antonio had spent most of the previous night pretending to be asleep at the staff party in order to observe for himself the way those two acted around one another, and he’d been very pleased by what he saw. Alessia’s eyes had shone when she gazed upon her suitor, and it was clear that Luca could barely keep from kissing her in full view of all the winery’s employees.
When they had disappeared together, Antonio had been sure of victory. They were meant for one another, that much was clear. They were both enamored of wine, possessed of a strong business sense, and extremely successful in their chosen fields.
And then Luca had walked out. Without any warning and without saying goodbye.
Had they fought? Had Alessia rejected him?
Was there some urgent matter he’d had to attend to at home? Somehow, Antonio doubted it. The look on Luca’s face had spoken volumes about how he felt. He hadn’t wanted to leave, but he had.
Which meant it was now up to Antonio to get him back.
Heaven above, could the Ferrari family do nothing themselves?
Chapter 19
It had been a whole week since Alessia had woken alone in Luca’s room, reaching for him only to find empty space in the place where he’d been sleeping. At first, she thought he’d gone for his morning run. But when she saw that his luggage had disappeared, her heart skipped a beat.
He was gone.
She’d known it in an instant.
What she hadn’t expected was for it to hurt so much.
Alessia didn’t know what she’d expected—that she and Luca, after going from a battle of wits to falling into one another’s arms, would live happily ever after? No, that was a shallow notion. She supposed what she had hoped, deep down, was that he’d come to appreciate the winery the way she did. To understand how important it was to both their parents’ legacies.
She’d wanted to teach him and to be completely and totally honest. Alessia would have been content with him in her bed and at the vineyard for the foreseeable future, or at least long enough to heal the wounded look in his eyes that surfaced whenever his father was mentioned.
When she found the document he’d written, she’d stared at it for a good five minutes. All her hopes and dreams – the decision she’d waited for weeks with bated breath for him to make, it was all spelled out on a simple sheet of paper written in his neat, slanted script.
I, Luca Ferrari, do hereby sign over any rights and all shares of Costa and Ferrari Winery Inc. to Alessia Costa. In doing so, I forfeit all claim to any say in business matters pertaining to the company’s operations, relegating full ownership to the Costa family.
As tears streaked down her cheeks, Alessia’s first instinct wasn’t to jump for joy or crow in triumph. Instead, as she gazed down at the sheet of paper in her hand, she felt surprisingly hollow, and any attempt to reconcile that feeling with those she should be experiencing only made her stomach churn.
Luca had come here to make a decision, hadn’t he?
Now that it was all said and done, why should it matter to her that he’d left? They were both consenting adults. So they’d slept with one another a few times. Why should that leave her with such an acute feeling of abandonment? It wasn’t like Alessia had a lot of experience with men to draw from, but she’d never felt like this before.
An odd sensation of discomfort took root in her belly the morning she discovered that Luca had gone and stubbornly refused to move all week. Of course, the first matter of business she’d taken care of once she’d left Luca’s room and freshened up was to tell her father the good news about the shares.
He, like her, seemed less than enthused. He even went so far as to inquire about whether she was all right in the wake of Luca’s departure. Alessia had planted a smile on her face and assured him she was, of course, before beginning her day like she always did. Unfortunately, it seemed as if all her energy had left her. She went about that first day, and every day afterward, with a certain sluggishness. She felt tired, no matter how many hours of sleep she got, and where making her way to work had once been the highlight of her day, it now seemed like a trial.
She kept expecting to see Luca trailing behind her, or walking out of the hotel as she entered it. It was strange; he hadn’t been at the winery for too terribly long, but she’d already begun to consider him a somewhat-permanent fixture. That, Alessia supposed, would change with time. Once she was a month – six months – a year away from this particular incident, she’d seldom think of it.
Just as she’d seldom think of him and the way his hands had felt sliding over her skin, the warmth of his kiss, or the way his mouth turned downward when he was frustrated. She only hoped that he’d found what he was looking for and that it hadn’t been anything painful. But then, he had told her that his father’s letter had contained information he hadn’t particularly wanted to know.
Unfortunately, she could only wonder about the contents of Bruno’s letter, as it and its owner were now long gone.
Alessia was in the midst of completing the paperwork that would officially return Luca’s shares of the company to her and her father when she was interrupted by one of the cleaning staff.
She looked up when Mia addressed her, doing her best to smile. Smiling had seem
ed so exhausting lately; it was all Alessia could do to put up a good front all day before going home to her newly renovated cottage to fall into bed. Her mouth hurt from all her attempts at cheerfulness. “What’s up?”
The dark-eyed woman’s answering smile was hesitant, as if she could sense Alessia’s own reserve. “Alessia…forgive me for not handing this over to you sooner, but I found it in Mr. Ferrari’s room after his departure and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I thought the best thing to do was give it to you.”
It was on the tip of Alessia’s tongue to ask what she was talking about, but the words died when she took in the very familiar envelope the older woman extended to her.
It was Bruno’s letter to Luca. He’d obviously left it in his room, and instead of throwing it out, Mia had brought it to her out of respect for the winery’s former partner. Slowly, hesitantly, Alessia took the letter from her. “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say. Her mind was too busy trying to simultaneously process why on earth Luca would have left this letter behind and deal with the flood of curiosity about what exactly its contents were.
Luckily, Mia simply flashed her a quick smile before going back to her duties and leaving Alessia alone with her thoughts. At first, Alessia placed the letter in her bag, resolving to give it to her father. It was none of her business what Bruno had written to his son, and reading his letter would be no small invasion of privacy.
But Luca had left it.
Alessia was pretty certain it wasn’t something Luca would have done accidently. Which meant he hadn’t taken the letter with him because he never wanted to see it again.
She lasted about half an hour before she packed up her computer and left the sunny gardens where she’d been working for the isolation of the mostly deserted dining room. There, she extracted Bruno’s letter, and began to read.
As she did, tears filled Alessia’s eyes.
The discomfort in her belly rose, thick, into her throat, and her chest suddenly felt the yawning ache of emptiness. For the first time, she was able to admit to herself that when Luca left, he’d taken a piece of her with him. A piece she might never get back.
Had Bruno known? Had he brought his son here, knowing what would happen when Alessia met him? She would never know. But for the first time in her life, she found herself resenting Bruno, who’d been a fixture of her childhood.
After all, if he hadn’t brought Luca here, she would never have known the pain of losing the man she loved.
Chapter 20
New York
Luca had always loved the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. It was for that reason that he’d established the headquarters of his company in the middle of the financial district. Ever since he was a child, living with his mother in Queens, he’d wanted an office in the city.
Opening one had been one of the proudest accomplishments of his adult life. The artfully renovated space always gave him a deep sense of satisfaction, or at least it had, before his father’s death and everything that had happened in California.
Now, as he stared out the window of his corner office, Luca regretted ever going. He regretted setting foot on the vineyard’s property, and most of all, he regretted meeting Alessia Costa.
Ever since he’d come back, it had been nearly impossible to concentrate.
A pile of work had built up in his inbox, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch it. All he could think about was Alessia. He’d left her sleeping; when she woke, he had no doubt she’d been thrilled to discover that he’d given back the part of the company his father had willed to him.
Unfortunately, the clean getaway Luca had planned wasn’t so clean. When he woke in the morning, the first thing he thought of was Alessia. He pictured her strolling along the grounds of the winery in her bare feet, as he’d once caught her, her face upturned to the sun. Or in that sinful black lace dress. He remembered her soft, breathy moans as he’d peeled the fabric from her body and grew instantly hard.
Her smile, the gleam in her eyes when she laughed, it was as if they’d been embedded in his mind and he couldn’t extricate them. In the weeks he’d been back, how many times had Luca tried to bring himself to take other women home? More than once, he’d gone out with the express purpose of banishing Alessia from his mind, only to fail in each and every attempt.
He wasn’t able to so much as kiss another woman without the California beauty entering his mind, and so Luca resigned himself to his torture. He went to bed alone every night and brooded and, alone in his office every day, tried to forget her and the way she made him feel.
He was in the middle of making notes on an involved proposal for a new company when his secretary buzzed him.
Scowling, Luca answered in a terse voice. “What is it, Christie?”
She hesitated; she’d received the brunt of his irritation since he’d returned from California and had learned to choose her words wisely. “Mr. Ferrari, your mother is here to see you.”
Luca suppressed an exasperated groan. His mother had been trying to see him ever since he got back to New York, but he hardly considered himself in a fit state to address her. She could be difficult in any circumstances, but as he was now? He didn’t think he could handle her. But he barely had time to take a breath before she came barging into his office.
Selena Ferrari had always been a force of nature. Now in her mid-sixties, she was still dark-haired, fashionable, and vivacious, and she’d always doted on her only son. It was a quality of hers that Luca found both exasperating and endearing as he grew older. At the moment, he found himself glaring at her, though he was trying his best to be cordial. “Hello, Mother.”
“Luca, darling! How have you been?” She crossed the room in a flurry of silken scarves and Chanel perfume to envelop him in her arms.
As she did so, Luca found his tension easing somewhat. As much as he’d dreaded having this conversation with her, he’d missed her as well. “I’m all right.”
It was probably the first lie he’d told his mother since he was a teenager, and of course, she saw through it immediately. “All right?” His mother pulled back to cup his face in her hands. “You most certainly are not! You look like you haven’t slept in ages, darling. Look at those circles! And when’s the last time you had a decent meal?” For a moment, a thoughtful look crossed her face before a scowl appeared that was exceedingly similar to the one he sometimes wore. “What happened?”
He sighed, shaking his head slowly, and turned back to his computer screen. “I don’t want to talk about it just now, Mom.”
For a moment, Selena merely stared at him, and then her gaze took on an angry edge. “What did he do, Luca? I knew he couldn’t have wanted you out there for anything decent. What happened?”
Did she always have to assume the very worst when his father was involved? Mind you, Luca didn’t feel too favorably about him either at this juncture, but he was now old enough to know that not every accusation she made against his father was completely founded.
“Nothing happened. He left me his shares in the vineyard, I gave them back to Alessia, end of story.”
“Alessia.” His perceptive mother arched a brow at the name. “Antonio’s daughter, Alessia?” Her eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
“She’s the winery manager, Mother.” Luca struggled to keep the edge from his voice as he stared at his computer screen. “We… spoke. At length. During my stay.”
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the rhythmic tapping of keys as he typed nonsensical notes. A large part of him was hoping that his mother would give up on getting anything further from him and merely leave. Instead, she rounded his desk to face him, her expression incensed.
“What on earth did the little tramp do to you?”
Luca jumped to his feet, his face going red. His eyes were so fierce that his mother took a hesitant step back. “Don’t call her that. Ever.” He made himself take a steadying breath. “Mom, I k
now how you feel about Antonio. I know you think he took Dad away from us, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re entitled to those feelings. But Alessia had no part in Dad’s decision to stay in California, so don’t bring her into this. He wanted me to know what Costa and Ferrari is all about…” Luca trailed off, falling silent as his father’s words came back to him: Costa and Ferrari is love.
In remembering his time there, he couldn’t recall a single gloomy face. Alessia’s family had flourished in the shade of the California grapevines. Then his father had used his own death as a way to bring his son back into the fold. To find love.
Whether Bruno had known it would be with Alessia or not, Luca could see that his father had only wanted him to find happiness. He hadn’t sought to trick or force him into leaving New York. He’d only wanted him to discover that beyond the perceived contentment he’d felt in the big city, there was much more to be had outside of it.
In that moment, the office, his computer, and his mother’s incredulous expression all ceased to exist. For Luca, all that mattered was that he wanted to see Alessia’s face again.
It was a crazy notion. He was in the middle of his workday! He was a month behind on his projects! But very suddenly, none of that mattered. “Mom.” The words escaped him in a low murmur. “I have to go.”
With that, he took her by the shoulders and kissed her cheek gently before he grabbed his jacket to race from the office. It was a rainy, dreary day in the city, but he knew the California sun must be shining brightly.
And it was beneath the glow of its rays that he would undo the mistake that had almost cost him the life his father had wanted for him—the life he’d never known he needed until she had walked into his life.
Chapter 21