Page 70 of In Italy for Love

‘Oh, yes. Goulash.’

‘And after we’ve eaten, you can say all that stuff you’re holding in.’

She understood Alex had had a shock, but the strange intensity coming off him unnerved her. There was something he hadn’t explained about Laura. It might well be none of her business, but when he sat opposite her stronglyvibingat her and saying little, she thought she had a right to knowsomething.

Especially annoying was the fact that his vibes made her want to clasp his face and press her forehead to his and try to explain without using words that he was breaking her heart.

‘I didn’t understand everything Dr Orsino said,’ she began warily, taking a spoonful of thick broth and trying not to groan. How had Siore Cudrig known the overload of iron and vitamin C and the prick of spice were exactly what she needed?

‘There is a little liquid in his lungs,’ he explained, glancing up to check on Attila again. He was curled up peacefully, his little chest rising and falling – nothing to cause the shadow that crossed Alex’s features. ‘We should just monitor his breathing.’

‘Okay,’ she said with a firm nod. Alex studied her for a moment, but then his shoulders relaxed.

Either Alex had taken her seriously about waiting until after they’d eaten to talk or he had no intention of explaining himself, but Jules was itchy from the silence by the time she took her plate to the sink. He came close behind her to slip his inafterwards – very close. Glancing at him, she wondered whether she’d misinterpreted the vibes and he wasn’t suffering his usual attack of difficult memories, but was focused onher.

Her hair stood on end as she turned to find him…looming. There was no other word for the way he stood, dipping his head to look her in the eye, his body taut. His hands landed on either side of the kitchen bench behind her and his face, tight and grim with emotion, was close to hers.

‘Is this the talking bit?’ she squeaked.

He nodded, then seemed to reconsider and shake his head. ‘Some of it.’

Jules gulped, her throat suddenly thick.

Then he said something entirely different from what she’d expected. ‘Don’t youeverdo something like that again.’

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‘I saved him,’ she pointed out, aiming for pragmatic, but suspecting he’d hear the waver in her voice.

‘You disappeared into the water under the bridge. Did you think I’d be happy to witness that?’

‘I knew what I was doing,’ she insisted.

‘You obviously didn’t. There is no safe way to walk into dangerous waters. I know Luca didn’t appreciate you, but that was his problem. You don’t need to prove anything to us.’

‘I wasn’t trying to prove anything!’

‘You don’t have to beuseful. We would be here for you even if you didn’t work yourself to the bone and I thought I’d made that clear!’

His expression was hard and when she finally accepted that he wanted a fight, she was ready to give him one. Arco sat up from his blanket by the stove and whined, but she kept her gaze on the man currently hemming her in and thrumming with emotion.

‘Alex,’ she said, her tone just as hard as his had been. ‘Isavedhim. I saved Laura’s cat. For you.’ She poked him in the chest. ‘You should be thanking me.’

‘You think I shouldthankyou for terrifying me? For thinking I might watchtwowomen I— Watch you die too?’

Her heart sank. In those few words were a whole world of meaning – a world of suffering she was only beginning to understand. She stared at him as he took a deep, unsteady breath.

‘I only thought— Attila is…’

‘Iknowwhat that cat means to me,’ Alex said, his voice softer, but still dark. Lifting his hands slowly to her face, he turned her head so she couldn’t escape his gaze. It was an onslaught, all these feelings rushing in her arteries. ‘I sat in that waiting room today unable to function, imagining that was the end – or worse, that I’d have to make an impossible decision. I didn’t want to lose him, my last living connection to the family I had.’

His expression didn’t shift, the line of his mouth as hard as ever and Jules could only watch – and feel her own heart ready to break – as he said what he needed to say.

‘I understand the enormity of what you did today.’ His voice turned husky. ‘For me. I don’t know how I feel about that, because it’s too much.’

Her hand sneaked to his cheek.Too much. That feeling was familiar.

‘But Jules, don’teverdo it again.’ His tone was pleading now and he came closer, his breath a gust as he slipped a hand around the back of her neck and kissed her, rough and raw and a little desperate. ‘I’m sorry,’ he breathed, kissing her again – hard.

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