Scandal and the Runaway Bride

by Donna Alward

  “But it does matter.”

  She shrugged. “To me it does, and it took me getting an hour from the altar to realize it. Either way, I have to have my eyes open now. No more foolish decisions.”

  William sighed and put his hands in his pockets. They had paused at the top of a hill, and the olive trees sloped down and away from them, running into a long, green valley. “It’s beautiful here.”

  “Isn’t it? I understand Mama and Papa never wanting to leave, although they’ve been talking about moving closer to the city, into something smaller, for a while now. Even more so since Papa became ill. The ironic thing? They had a house in Perugia and they sold it when the economy shifted. The villa was more important to them.” She knew her voice sounded sad, but she couldn’t help it. She loved the villa and the rolling hills surrounding it. “But it’s a large house with large grounds and a lot of upkeep.”

  “And they either need help with it, or need to change their situation.”

  She nodded. “And I’m not sure they want to hire help. It’s not just the cost. I think it would seem less...theirs somehow. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

  “Not really. I was born with the proverbial silver spoon. But just because I’m different doesn’t make their perspective any less valid. It’s a shame. I can tell you love it here.”

  “It’s home,” she said simply. It was the place she came back to even as she loved her life and flat in the city. There were so many memories here. And so much love.

  William held out his hand. “Let’s keep walking. We can circle around the grounds and make room for dinner.”

  She hesitated, then put her hand in his. It fit so perfectly, her fingers clasped in his slightly larger, stronger ones. That curl of awareness was back, and she was once again unsure what to do about it. The situation was far too complicated to make it more so by getting involved romantically. But nothing bad would come from holding hands, would it? She thought back to her time spent with Stephen. Holding hands had never been his thing.

  “You’re different from your brother,” she said.

  “How so?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know how to say this without seeming uncomplimentary. He’s very polite and charming, but also a bit...”

  “Cold?”

  “Reserved,” she amended.

  “He’s always been a little more somber than the rest of us. I think it’s a first-child thing, really. And something about the burden and weight of expectation. He’s the first son, heir to a title and estate. He feels responsible not only for our mother and the legacy he’s left with, but us, too. Honestly, it’s a burden he places mostly on himself. But you know the old saying, right? Heavy lies the head that wears the crown?”

  She did know it, and nodded. “We are...were, anyway, friends. I like him very much. But he’s not really easygoing.”

  “No. I’m trying very hard to understand his motives in all this. I guess his whole world was upside down and there was nothing he could do to make it right. The one thing he thought he could fix was Mother. He was determined to see her through her grief.”

  “And I was part of his plan.”

  “Stephen is a great one for making plans. Usually they’re good ones. This one was not. But only, I think, because it came from the wrong place. A broken place.”

  “You’re very understanding. And...thoughtful. Not many men I know would understand those feelings so well.”

  He squeezed her fingers. “I have a big soft spot for my brother. I see his flaws but I know the heart underneath. He would do anything for his family.” He looked away over the valley and Gabi saw his throat bob as he swallowed. “He saved me, you know. Gave me tough love and support and a shoulder to cry on, too.”

  “He did?”

  “Four years ago. Seems like a lifetime away now. I was twenty-four, done school, wasting my life, partying all the time. I had no direction, so I drifted in the wrong one. Hung around with the wrong people and did wrong things.” He paused. “I think deep down I’d always resented him being the center of everything and me being...less important. I started thinking of him as Saint Stephen, and I was determined to be what he wasn’t. I wasn’t the heir. I could do what I wanted.”

  “You thought no one cared what you did.”

  He didn’t look at her, but she took his silence for agreement. He was quiet for so long Gabi thought that was going to be the end of the story.

  Finally he sniffed and rolled his shoulders. “He found me one day, in my London flat, still high on drugs and booze. I’d promised him I’d stop and it had lasted two whole days before I scored again. Stephen came in, put me in the shower, cleaned up my flat and took me to rehab. He was with me every step of the way. And so was my father. When I was clean, my father offered me a job at Aurora. Put his faith in me even though I didn’t deserve it. There was only one way I could repay both of them. I had to live up to their faith in me because I loved them, too.”

  Tears had sprung into Gabi’s eyes as William told the story. “Addiction is a terrible thing.”

  “Getting clean has been the hardest and best thing I’ve ever done. I told you before that I can’t repay my father. That’s true. He’s gone now.” His voice was thick with emotion, and Gabi realized he was still grieving, too. “But it’s also the reason why I have been so determined to make this right for Stephen. He saved my life. Saved me from myself. I owe him everything.”

  She paused, tugging on his hand. “So this thing between you and me, this ‘back and forth, ignore it most of the time and acknowledge it occasionally’ attraction, it’s eating at you because of your loyalty to Stephen.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And it eats at me because of my father, and the company. Because that’s where my allegiance lies.”

  “It’s damned inconvenient, isn’t it?”

  But he wasn’t scowling this time, not like he’d been in France.

  “I really am sorry about that photo on the bench.”

  “I wasn’t really angry at you, Gabi. I was angry at myself.”

  “I know.”

  The soft admission swirled around them. It had been barely over a week and already she felt she knew him better than she’d ever known his brother. She looked up into his eyes and melted a little. “This is going to sound awful and complicated and a million other things, but I really wish I could kiss you again, Will.”

  He drifted closer, his head blocking the sun from blazing onto her face. Instead it created a halo around his hair. She wanted to run her fingers into it, pull his face down to hers. But she wouldn’t. She’d issued the invitation. She’d let him decide if he wanted to take her up on it.

  “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

  “It’s very inadvisable. And I just finished telling myself I was done with wrong decisions.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Somewhere in the olive groves birds sang, and she faintly registered their lilting song, but her sense of touch was overriding everything, making her attuned to his every move and breath.

  “And I’d be a wrong decision.”

  “After what you just told me? Don’t you think so?”

  “A kiss,” he said, his voice uncertain. “That’s all we’re talking about here.”

  “There are no photographers,” she whispered. “No one will know.”

  “I’ll know,” he answered, even closer now, so close she was dying to close the gap and press herself against his strong chest.

  “Then it’ll be our little secret.”

  “Damn you.”

  His hand curled around her neck, but not in anger and frustration as it had the last time. This time it was a caress, a strong, yet tender touch as his fingers slid beneath her hair to press against the muscles of her neck. Before she could think, she tilted her head into his touch, her eyes drifting closed as the sun washed over her
face. The light was gone again as he followed her movements, touching his lips to hers.

  At the moment of contact, her mouth followed his lead, like a sunflower arching to the morning sun. Girasole, she thought, opening her mouth wider beneath his, letting the kiss blossom and grow. She was the flower, he was the sun, and she couldn’t get enough of his light and warmth.

  “Gabi,” he whispered, then trailed his lips from her mouth to her jaw, and then back to the sensitive spot just below her earlobe. “You taste so good, Gabi.”

  Every single nerve ending in her body was alive. “Mmm,” she answered, stretching into the contact. “You feel good. You’re warm and hard and...” She couldn’t finish the thought. His mouth skittered over the tender skin of her neck and she gasped. “Will,” she murmured, turning fully into his arms, and they kissed again, a little wilder now.

  He walked her backward until she stumbled a little, and then he did the most amazing and surprising thing. He lifted her against him so that her feet dangled inches off the ground, and carried her to the shade of an olive tree. The bark was warm and hard beneath her back, providing a bolster as Will pressed close again. Not close enough. Never enough. But enough for now. It had to be.

  He kissed her for long minutes, until it seemed their control hung by a mere thread. He’d unbuttoned the top of her dress and kissed his way to her cleavage, though he’d stopped at her lace bra, much to her relief and disappointment. Her hair was a mess from rubbing against the tree trunk, and she was sure she had whisker burn down her jaw and neck. The simple cotton skirt she wore had stayed in place, but the thin material had done little to hide his desire.

  And Gabi had explored, too. Her fingers had skimmed up his ribs and then pulled his shirt out of his jeans so she could explore the warm, hard body beneath. She’d splayed her hands over his back and shoulder blades, pulling him close, wanting things she had no right to want. She was on fire and didn’t care. Nothing could have prepared her for this. Everything was different from anything she’d ever known. Chemistry, sure. But more than that. There was a connection between them that went deeper than attraction.

  “We need to stop,” he murmured, stilling his hands on her arms. “Gabi, we need to stop now.”

  “I know.” Her breath caught as she tried to slow it. “Will, this is so complicated...what I said back in Provence...”

  His golden gaze clung to hers. “You needed to come home. I understand. And you played your cards to get here. I respect that, too, even though it meant I didn’t get my own way.”

  “It’s going to be okay, though, right?”

  He lifted his hand and brushed a finger over her cheek. “I want to say yes, but this is too...” He growled. “It’s such a damned mess. If only it had been anyone but you.”

  “If only I’d met you first...”

  He reached down and gripped her fingers tightly. “Don’t say that. We have to focus on doing the right thing here.”

  Her heart hammered as her chest rose and fell with breathlessness. She knew what he meant—minimizing the fallout from the wedding, and to secure Baresi Textiles to the benefit of both companies. He was right, but that didn’t address the very real problem of them. “And what about us?”

  He looked away and his jaw tightened. “Gabi, I don’t see how there can be an us. It would be better if we could be friends. And business associates.” He swallowed tightly and his gaze touched hers again. “We leave sex out of it.”

  Sex. For a flash of a moment that word pulsed through her, leaving an indelible impression of what that glorious event might be like. Sex with Will. Desire flooded her body but she tamped it down ruthlessly.

  She stepped away from the trunk of the olive tree and heaved a sigh that was full of frustration and resignation. “Even if I know you’re right, I don’t have to like it.” Gabi kicked at a small rock with her toe. “I have such a talent for meeting men at the exact time they’re unavailable.”

  William chuckled a bit, relieving some of the tension around them. “Everyone has a skill,” he said, and she couldn’t help but laugh despite herself.

  “I’d like to develop a different one.” She lifted her chin. “So what, we go back to the villa and that’s it, friends only?”

  “I think we have to. For everyone’s sake, including ours. It’s messy, but I also don’t want to hurt you, and I think I could.”

  She wondered if she could hurt him. She doubted it. And that alone was reason enough to walk away. Her eyes burned with regret and sadness. “We should get back, then.”

  “Can I kiss you once more?” His eyes pleaded with her. “I don’t want the last time to be, well, the last time. One more to take away with me.”

  Torture. This was torture of the sweetest kind.

  She lifted her face and opened her lips slightly. “One more.”

  He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her with such gentleness she wasn’t sure what to do with all the feelings that crowded her heart. Why did it have to be this way? Why did the perfect guy have to show up now and be completely unavailable? Why did he have to be so damned ethical and loyal?

  He pulled away, leaving her empty and bereft. Without speaking, and now without holding hands, they made their way back toward the villa, where her parents and sister waited. The day after tomorrow Stephen would arrive. The day after that her father would have his surgery. And then the Pemberton brothers would walk out of her life forever.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  WILLIAM COULDN’T REMEMBER the last time he’d had such a wonderful meal.

  It wasn’t just the food, though that was spectacular. The chicken was to die for, and he sopped up the sauce with the most amazing bread. Then there was almond cake for dessert, and the most delicious wine to go with it all. But the real wonderfulness was in spending time with the Baresi family.

  Giulia’s boyfriend, Marco, was there, so the table rounded out at six. It was clear he’d been close to the family for a while, and Will grinned at how he teased Lucia and made her laugh and how he’d wink at Giulia and make her blush. Despite his illness, Massimo’s laugh was big and booming, and Will could tell they were a family who enjoyed being together.

  The Pembertons were like that as well, but it had been different since his father’s death. Not so much laughter. An empty spot at the table when they were all together. Cedric had died and taken a lot of the family joy with him. Will had missed it, he realized. And if anything happened to Massimo, the Baresi family wouldn’t be the same, either.

  He pushed away his plate and looked across the table at Gabi. She was smiling and watching her family, too, and her gaze slid to William’s and held. She was thinking the same thing, wasn’t she? She loved them so much. Perhaps her agreement with his brother had been impulsive, but he still believed she’d done it for her family. She’d do anything for them.

  Massimo laughed and her gaze was diverted for a moment, but when she looked back again, he saw the certainty in her eyes. Even without help from Aurora, Inc., Gabi would do whatever she could to keep the business going. She had that kind of burning passion inside her, didn’t she? He should know. He’d had to turn it away earlier in order to do the right thing.

  Stephen was an idiot.

  When dinner was over, he pulled Gabi aside. “Tomorrow, I think we should meet to discuss Baresi’s current situation and go over the notes I made. When Stephen arrives, I want to present him with a plan he can’t say no to. One that will keep Baresi profitable and stable, enable your father to take the time off to have the treatment he needs, and that also benefits Aurora.”

  “One that keeps the majority of ownership in our hands?” she asked.

  “That’s never been a question. Of course. I want Aurora to invest in it. And I want you to be able to use our resources so you’re not trying to do this alone, Gabi, but you would still have control.”

  “All right. Tom
orrow morning, after breakfast.”

  He nodded.

  “We should join the others.” The family had taken drinks out to the patio, where the breeze was refreshing, and Gabi turned on her heel and walked away. William followed her outside and took a seat with everyone else. But his earlier joy had dissipated. Gabi had followed his guidance impeccably—friends, business, but no intimacy at all. It was what he wanted, and what had to happen.

  But it left him distinctly unsatisfied, because his heart didn’t always follow logic a hundred percent. After this afternoon, his heart wanted more. He was dangerously close to falling for her, and he wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t because she was supposed to be off-limits. Worse, he knew she could be a huge distraction, when he’d carefully built a new life and wanted to keep on the right course. All in all, Gabriella Baresi did not fit into his life.

  So he stared into his cup and frowned, and after a few minutes, excused himself to go back up to his room.

  * * *

  Gabi wasn’t sure what to expect when she saw Stephen again, and her chest was cramped as anxiety took hold on Tuesday morning. He was scheduled to arrive around eleven. The last time she’d seen him, the last time they’d spoken, was the night before the non-wedding.

  Will had been the buffer all this time. She hadn’t even had to speak to Stephen on the phone. And today Will had offered to be there for her first meeting with his brother. But Gabi said no. She had to face Stephen on her own, if she were to have any self-respect and any agency with him at all.

  Besides, she and Stephen had been friends. Their friendship demanded she be honest and up front with him, and not hide behind his brother. It wasn’t fair to put Will in the middle any more than he already was.