Page 51 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

His kiss was gentle when he tilted up her chin. His thumb swept the tear from the corner of her eye. Concern pleated his brow.

“We’ll both do better next time.” The corner of his mouth dug in with irony.

At what? Lovemaking? Fighting? Meeting old lovers? Or loving each other?

He gently withdrew and the sense of loss made her ache.

She began trying to pull herself back together, but as usual, she was in pieces. Vanquished.

While he zipped his trousers and was in complete control.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In many ways,Bree’s life was a fantasy come true.

The next weeks were taken up with decorating their new home and making the move to Capri—Capri!—where they lived from Thursday through Sunday. On Mondays, they commuted into Naples by ferry, which Sofia loved, then worked a short week before returning to their island paradise.

Their travel schedule picked up, too, which meant overnights in London, Berlin, and Madrid. Bree enjoyed it. Sofia and the nanny usually came along and Bree often had a chance to poke around the new city with or without them before she put on something a princess would wear and accompanied her husband into a ballroom.

She was growing more confident in those spaces, too, learning how to make small talk and recognizing familiar faces.

Lazy Sundays were her favorite, though, when Jax took Sofia into the pool in the afternoon and she sat on a lounger, reading or texting her mother if Melissa was up.

They would have an early dinner and remind Sofia that they were going into the city in the morning, necessitating an early bedtime. One of them would put her to bed and they would go to bed early, too, making love with unhurried passion that was always thorough and gratifying.

That’s when it was hardest for Bree to hide that she loved him. Not just during, but in the quiet aftermath when they lay tangled and sated. When his heart steadied beneath her ear and their skin dried and everything felt so right, she thought she would burst from happiness.

How would he react if she told him he possessed her heart?

She probably should tell him, but she couldn’t face him offering some kind of tepid response about that not being something she should expect from him.

“Everything all right?” he asked in a quiet rumble.

“Yes. Why?” She picked up her head.

“Your sigh sounded very heavy.”

“It’s Monday tomorrow,” she prevaricated.

He swept a hair off her eyelash, delving into her soul with a long look that she couldn’t hold. She pressed a kiss to his chest and rubbed her cheek back and forth like a cat against his pec.

Then he sighed, and she thought,He knows. He knows I’m hiding something.

It was a terrible catch-22. She was afraid to trust him with her heart, making it impossible for him to trust her.

He unwound his arm from behind her and rolled to reach for his phone. It was on silent, but with his family in different time zones, he always checked it before going to sleep.

She had got in the habit of doing the same, to be sure nothing had cropped up with her mother. On weeknights, Eve or some of her other coworkers often sent something through that was better handled immediately, so the team could keep working rather than waiting until Bree’s morning when they would be finished their own workday.

Her mother had sent photos of her and Quinto beaming inside their new condo in Virginia Beach. Bree’s smile was still on her lips as she tapped on the email from Laura.

Her stepsister must be getting married. The subject line wasSave The Date.

Bree opened it and completely lost her temper.

***

Bree spat out a word she never said, not even when they were in this bed where anything went. She threw her phone across the room, hitting the wall and chipping the plaster.

---