Celine shook her head. ‘No! Per favore, Ava—’
Ava raised her chin. ‘It’s Signora di Goia to you. Now, get out of my house.’
‘MADRE DI DIO, Ava, there are no half measures with you, are there? You always have to jump in with both feet.’ Cesare had just slammed the door behind a hastily departed Celine. The fury radiating from his body made her swallow nervously.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a show of bravado that was fast fading in the face of his anger. ‘If you mean I don’t tolerate being made a fool of in my own home, then the answer is yes.’
‘Need I remind you that we’re all but separated and this is my house?’
She shrugged. ‘What’s yours is supposed to be mine too, isn’t it? I’m sure I’ve seen that tattooed on a body part somewhere.’
‘Porca miseria. You insult our guest and all you can do is crack jokes?’
‘You should’ve warned me you were sleeping with her. Maybe then I would’ve been on my best behaviour!’
His eyes narrowed, his fury intensifying by the second. ‘I’m not sleeping with Celine,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘Oh, don’t take me for a fool. You two were making enough moon eyes at each other to keep this villa illuminated for a month!’
‘I’ve known her for a very long time. There is a familiarity between us—’
‘Yes, it’s called sex.’
He took an unchecked step towards her, as if to physically restrain her from speaking. At the last moment he lurched away and stalked to the window. Shoving his fists into his pockets, he stared out into the softly lit garden.
‘Celine is the daughter of one of my father’s oldest friends. I’ve known her since she was born. We’ve always been friends but she was much closer to Roberto.’
Ava tensed at the mention of his brother’s name.
For as long as they’d been married, Cesare had remained close-lipped about his reclusive younger brother. All she’d ever been able to find out was that he lived in a castle high up in the Swiss Alps and only permitted Cesare to visit him from time to time. Ava had never been told why Roberto di Goia had withdrawn from the world.
‘So Celine is Roberto’s friend, not your girlfriend?’ Stupid hope flared to life.
He shrugged. ‘I think our respective parents hoped Celine and Roberto would marry one day. I know Celine waited a long time for Roberto to propose.’
‘You mean before he went to live in Switzerland?’
‘Yes.’ The word emerged with a poignancy that scraped her heart.
‘Don’t tell me. The proposal Celine wanted never arrived and now your parents want you to step in and do the right thing by her? Honour the agreement or something?’
He turned from the window, his tawny eyes gleaming with grim amusement in the half-light. ‘You’ve watched too many vintage mafioso movies, Ava. No one demands honour marriages like those any more. There was never any agreement, just a wish.’
A pang of discomfort made her realise she was twisting her fingers into knots. ‘So what happened between Roberto and Celine?’
The fleeting amusement faded, to be replaced by a pain so deep and gut-wrenching she took a step towards him. ‘Cesare?’
He didn’t respond for a long while, his bleak gaze fixed in the middle distance. Finally, he heaved a heavy sigh.
‘I should’ve told you... I’m sorry, there didn’t seem to be the right time to announce that sort of thing.’
She frowned. ‘Announce what? What didn’t you tell me?’
‘Roberto...’ He stopped and another pain-filled sigh ripped from his chest. Fear clutched Ava’s chest.
She bit her tongue, torn between screaming for an answer and the need to protect him from the obvious pain of what he fought to say.
The need to know won out. ‘What about Roberto?’
He inhaled again. ‘He...died two weeks ago.’
Shock ripped through her. ‘What?’
Cesare shot her a dark, tormented look. Then he glanced absently around the room. When his gaze returned to hers, his features were once again resolute.
‘Roberto is dead. Celine never got the chance to marry him. The fact that she didn’t doesn’t mean I see her as anything more than a friend, so you can contain your hysteria about us having an affair. And I would appreciate you curbing any such future outbursts in front of our guests.’
This was the Cesare she knew—commanding, resolute, domineering.
He strode past her, ready to walk out.
She grabbed his arm. ‘Wait! You can’t just announce that Roberto is...you can’t just drop something like that and walk away. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?’
Another flash of pain crossed his eyes. ‘Think about what’s happened between us lately—the earthquake, the trauma you and Annabelle have been through. When do you suggest I should’ve dropped this on you?’
‘You could’ve found a way to tell me. He was my brother-in-law—’
‘A brother-in-law you never met.’
‘And why was that? You’ve always been reluctant to talk about Roberto, what happened to him or why you two weren’t close.’
His eyes grew bleaker. ‘Leave it, Ava.’
‘Why should I? You accuse me of jumping to the wrong conclusions. How can I arrive at the right one when I seem to be operating in the dark? Tell me what happened between you and Roberto.’
For a long time she thought he wouldn’t answer. ‘Valentina happened,’ he slid out.
Ava was almost too afraid to ask. ‘Who’s Valentina?’
‘Celine’s older sister. Seven years ago, I’d just opened my New York office when I met her at a party. She was thinking of relocating and she had a good head for numbers so when she asked me for a job, I offered her one.’
‘Did you sleep with her?’ The words shot out before she could stop herself.
His eyelids descended. ‘Ava...’
‘It’s okay; it was before we met. I guess I have no right to ask you that.’ Although the jealousy that seared her insides told a very different story.
‘The answer is no, I didn’t sleep with her. But Roberto thought I had. He turned up in New York a month later and accused me of poaching his woman. Turns out they’d been dating in Rome before she came to New York. I didn’t know.’
‘Hell. Surely you explained things to Roberto?’
He gave a bitter laugh. ‘Until I was blue in the face. But he wasn’t in a listening mood. We had the mother of all fights, right in the middle of a meeting in full view of my board members.’ He paced to the window and turned back sharply. ‘Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it. In the middle of all that carnage, Valentina announced she was pregnant with Roberto’s child.’
Ava frowned. ‘How was that worse?’
‘Roberto got down on one knee there and then and asked her to marry him. She declined his proposal.’
‘Oh no.’
‘I got the blame for that too but I convinced him not to