“Coming from you, that’s a great compliment.” But Gemma wished he’d stop being so...so nice and charming the way he’d been years ago, the way he’d been today during the orientation meeting.
He kept talking. “Cesare is the true expert. The light in his eyes after he’d studied the menus and handed them to me told me all I needed to know about how excited he is about our new chefs.” He drank more coffee.
“That’s very gratifying to hear.”
He flashed her a penetrating glance. “I can’t believe you aren’t married.”
She drank her limoncello too quickly and started coughing. Had he been hoping she’d found a man? Would it make him feel less guilty for disappearing from her life? Why not turn things around on him?
“What about you, Vincenzo? You’ve been in New York all this time. I don’t see a ring on your finger.”
His mouth tautened. “I’ve been too busy conducting business to think about getting married.”
No woman could resist him, so he couldn’t have suffered in that department. But there probably weren’t that many available princesses on the East Coast of the US to consider marrying. For that, he’d have to return to Europe. No doubt there’d been a short list compiled years ago for Vincenzo to consider.
She cleared her throat. “Labor-intensive work does have a way of interfering. Being an apprentice at the school hasn’t allowed me the time to consider marriage. They require nine to ten years from you. That doesn’t give you a spare moment to breathe.” Except for that one month with Paolo, which was a mistake.
“Understood. As long as we’re together, would you be willing to answer a question for me? Your last name is Rizzo, yet you used Bonucci on your application. Why?”
They were wading into dangerous waters now. “That’s a long story.”
“Is there some secret?”
Her eyes closed tightly. If he only knew.
“Bonucci is mother’s maiden name. When we moved to the apartment above my aunt’s bakery, Mamma told me to put Bonucci on my application. That way when I attended pastry school, it would be an easy identification with her family’s bakery.”
“Mirella was an intelligent woman and was always very kind to me and Dimi.”
Just hearing him say her mother’s name made her eyes smart. She nodded. “People love her. I love her terribly.”
“Gemma,” he murmured. “Don’t you know I’ve missed that old life more than you can imagine? I know she’s your whole world and you are hers. Interesting that after you left the castello, no one knew you as Gemma Rizzo. That’s why neither Dimi nor I could find you.”
Oh, no. She clenched her fists beneath the table. “Mamma would have done or said anything she could to—” Gemma stumbled “—to increase my chance to succeed.”
She knew by the flicker in his eyes that he’d caught her correction. Vincenzo was a shrewd, brilliant businessman, and she was afraid he wouldn’t let it go. “Your mamma got her wish. My colleagues have been praising your expertise.” Heat crept into her cheeks again, but this time anger wasn’t the culprit.
“That’s very nice to hear. Now I’ve got to go so I’ll be fresh for tomorrow.”
“Gemma,” he whispered. “What aren’t you telling me?”
The tone in his voice reminded her of the old Vincenzo. Slowly, steadily, he was breaking her down. His magic was getting to her. Damn, damn, damn. Her heart pounded so hard, she was certain he could hear it. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You forget I’ve known you since you were four years old. When you’re nervous or afraid, your voice falters. You did it just now. You said that your mother would have done or said anything to...to what, Gemma? You left out something of vital importance. What was it?”
She felt sick inside. “You’re wrong.”
“Now your cheeks are red. They always fill with color when you’re not telling the truth.” He wouldn’t stop until he’d wrung it out of her.
Vincenzo, Vincenzo. “Mamma said I had to say my last name was Bonucci in order to...protect me.”
His handsome face darkened with forbidding lines. “From whom?”
“I—it was a long time ago and doesn’t matter.”
He let out an oath, and his brows formed a black bar above his eyes. “Did you get into trouble that night after you left my room? I still had to stay in bed the next day, so I didn’t see you.”
Gemma was thrown by the haunted sound in his voice. “No,” she answered honestly.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Vincenzo, I promise. After looking out the door that night, I snuck down the back staircase when I knew a guard wouldn’t be there. No one saw me.”
“Do you swear before God?” A vein stood out in his neck.
She sensed an unfathomable depth of anxiety here. It wasn’t something he could hide. “Why have you asked me that?”
His body tensed. “Because if I thought my father had been waiting in the hall and did anything to you...”
“No one saw me.” It was her turn to shudder at the degree of his concern. “I swear, nothing happened to me, Vincenzo.”
“Keep talking to me, Gemma. There’s still something else you haven’t told me.”
She stirred restlessly. Now was her chance to reveal every single cruel thing his father had done to her and her mother. But looking into his eyes and seeing the pain, she found she couldn’t.
“Did you get questioned after my father found out I’d gone missing?” he demanded.
Give him some of the truth so he’ll be satisfied.
“He and the police commissioner interrogated everyone at the castello, one at a time. No one knew anything about your disappearance. At that point they looked elsewhere for answers.”
“Grazie a Dio.”
She heard the tremendous relief in his voice, but by the way he was staring at her, she could tell he was far from finished with her, and she started to be afraid.
“When were you let go at the castello?”
Her pulse raced. “Does it matter? It’s all in the past.”
He shook his dark head. “Did it happen after my nonno died?”
“Yes,” she said quietly, because with that question Gemma realized he really didn’t know anything that had happened. Neither did Dimi, otherwise his cousin would have told him.
His sharp intake of breath was alarming. “You’re lying to me again.”
She jumped up from the chair. “I can’t do this anymore. Thank you for letting me eat with you. Now I have to leave.”
He looked up at her. “Where are you going?”
“Back to the pensione.”
“If you leave now, you’ll never know the true reason behind my sudden disappearance and why it had to be carried out in complete secrecy.”
Stunned by what he’d just said, Gemma clung to the back of the chair. The true reason?
“On the strength of the years you and I spent together as children and teenagers who fell in love, isn’t learning the whole truth worth something to you?”
“I thought you said you left to make your own fortune and name.”
“That was a by-product of the real reason I left,