Page 15 of The Italian's Pregnant Enemy (A Diamond in the Rough)

“We’re going to die!” she shouted.

She was maybe being overdramatic, but she was doing it to try and make herself feel like it was a performance and not...a very real fear and oh, she was going to die a virgin.

She looked up at Dario and decided that was a very bad line of thinking.

But also her mother really had died in her twenties. Young and beautiful and with a whole life ahead of her...except she hadn’t had anything ahead of her at all.

“I don’t think we will,” Dario said. “Die that is. Considering we are on a powerful backup generator that has stored enough solar power to run for a week, and there are food stores not just in the fridge, but in a basement area. I have already made sure that we are fine. We are still able to use satellite internet. Though, wired services are down in the area.”

“This is... This is unreal. Unbelievable. There’s no way. I can’t be snowed in here with you.”

“But you are,” he said.

“No,” she said. “I won’t have it. I was supposed to be here with Carter.”

“Alas,” he said. “I can see how you would’ve found him to be a more agreeable roommate. But it is not to be.”

“I...”

She suddenly felt overwhelmed. By everything. By the betrayal of the weather, her own imagination and Dario himself.

“If you weren’t such an unpleasant bastard,” she said. “Perhaps this wouldn’t be so upsetting.”

“I’m sorry that you find me to be so trying,” he said. “But the truth of the matter is, we are adults, and we will figure out how to weather the situation. As soon as the sun rises in New York I will call your father and let him know that you’re safe.”

“He will be much more concerned about your safety, Dario. And I think you know that. I’m not the heir apparent to his empire.”

“Neither am I. I’m the man who acquired it. You seem very fixated on the idea that I inherited something. I bought it.”

“It’s all the same, isn’t it?”

“It isn’t. Because your father was given money in exchange for the business, and who do you think is going to get that money?”

She felt like she had been slapped.

“It doesn’t...”

“It does,” he said. “Your father gave you freedom. You have never shown the slightest bit of interest in running the company, and he knows that. Imagine, walking around feeling so wounded when your father cares for you so very clearly. I cannot imagine such a thing. Your father is one of the best men that I have ever known. Your determination to see him as an enemy is ridiculous.”

“Is it? He has certainly never given me any reassurance about the situation. I am obviously of the lowest priority to him.”

“He has given you...”

“Do you not understand that there is...more to being someone’s family, to being their father, than giving them money? I thought when he sent Carter and I here this week it was a gesture. That it was him finally acting like I had a brain and that I was capable, but it isn’t. Because here you are. You, his golden boy.”

“You are of the highest priority to him. Why do you think my intention is to let him know of your safety the minute he awakens?”

“You’re unknowable.”

“Am I? I think that actually I’ve made myself fairly clear. You’re the one having a tantrum because you are stuck with someone that you have known all of your life, as if you have been thrown in a prison cell with a stranger.”

“My week is ruined,” she said.

“What a trial for you. To be stuck in a luxury chalet. Thank you for reinforcing my opinion of you, Lyssia.”

She felt stung by that. She was upset. Did she have a right to be? She was supposed to be here with someone she actually cared about, someone who cared about her. And instead she was stuck with a man who disdained her. It was fair to be upset about that. It was fair to be upset about the fact that she was having intrusive thoughts about being naked with him when she wanted to punch him in the face. He didn’t listen. He was so arrogant his ego practically needed its own chalet.

“They’ll come and fix it, right?” she asked.

---