VITTORIO'S WOMAN (The Vittorio Series) (12 page)

“I tried to explain that to Lilly several times, but she refused to listen.
  As for what happened in the gardens, I convinced Lilly she would know how you really felt about her if she made you jealous by pretending to be interested in me.”

“It was a game none of us should have played,” Simon said with a weary sigh.
  “I was hoping to get the same reaction from Lilly when she saw me with Gabriella.”

“There was something else,” Luc said hesitantly, then told him about the conversation Lilly overheard on the phone between Simon and Gabriella.

“I was trying to call her,” Simon explained, “but Gabriella came in and asked me to zip up her dress.  I thought I disconnected the call before she answered. 
Dio
, what must she think?”  

“She thinks you slept with Gabriella,” Luc voiced Simon’s worst fear.

“So she turned to you.”  Filled with self recrimination, his tone was as flat and lifeless as he felt.

“She did turn to me, but not in the way you think.
  Listen to me, Simon.  Lilly is crazy about you.  When she heard what you said to Gabriella she was hurt and just needed to get away for a little while.  I did not want her to be alone so I invited her to stay here.”

“And nothing happened?”

“We talked and that is all we did.”

Life surged back into Simon.
  He hadn’t lost her, not completely anyway.  And if he could believe what Lilly had written in her note, then she fully intended to come back to the island in a few days.  He was torn between giving her the time she needed and his own desperate desire to find her so he could explain about Gabriella.  He considered his options and decided he couldn’t let Lilly go even one more day thinking he had slept with Gabriella, not when she had to be hurting as badly as he was.

“We need to find her,” Simon finally said.
  “I want you and Milana to drive into town to find Adele and ask her where she dropped Lilly off.  See if Lilly said anything about where she was going and how she was getting there.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?
  I mean, she did say she would call tonight.”

Simon closed his eyes, a cold fear winding its way through his entire body.
  “Tell me something, Luc.  If you thought the woman you loved was slipping away from you, what would you do?”

 
                                                              ***

“Low batt.”
  Lilly frowned at the flashing signal on her cell phone.  “This is just great.”

After several minutes of scouring both her suitcase and purse and coming up empty handed, she came to the irritating conclusion that she must have left the phone charger in her bedroom on the island.
  Technology was both a blessing and a curse, Lilly decided as she flopped down onto the bed.  The phone numbers for both Milana and Luc were stored in her cell phone, which had been rendered useless by a low battery. 

Not only that, but she couldn’t even check to see if Simon had tried to reach her and it was too late at night to find a store that carried chargers so she’d have to wait until morning.
  She supposed Milana and Luc would be a little worried when she didn’t call, assuming they emerged from the bedroom long enough to discover she’d gone.

Lilly’s smile was tinged with sadness.
  Oh, she wasn’t unhappy about Milana and Luc.  In fact, she was elated that they had finally admitted their feelings for each other.  It was just unfortunate that it was her own miserable plight that had brought them together.  She hurt all over, ached for the sound of Simon’s sexy voice and the feel of his warm hands on her body. 

She longed to hear him laugh, to see his eyes light up with amusement over something she’d said, to see those same eyes grow dark with desire as they skimmed over her in that provocative way of his.
  Her skin tingled just thinking about it.  Lilly wondered if there would ever come a time when she could draw up the memory of Simon without feeling this raw desire to be with him.

But this was not the time to be dreaming of things that could never be, she scolded herself.
  She needed to keep her head on straight and make some decisions about what she was going to do.  It would have been easier if she thought for even a moment things could go back the way they were before she’d fallen in love with Simon, but that was impossible.  And now that she knew she had been nothing more to him than a minor distraction, how was she supposed to face him with any semblance of pride or dignity?  She couldn’t, and that was the cold, hard truth.  So where did that leave her?

The way Lilly saw it, she had two choices.
  She could walk away now and salvage what little was left of her heart, or she could swallow her pride and go back and finish the job she was hired to do.  Yes, it would be difficult facing Simon again, but how could she leave before she was certain she’d done everything in her power to help him? 

Whether Simon believed it or not, he was making remarkable progress in rebuilding his muscle tone
, and he seemed to have accepted he may never walk again because he no longer made sullen remarks about how useless his legs were.  Maybe she was just grabbing at any excuse to be with him, but she would never forgive herself if Simon lapsed back into those dark moods of his, and Lilly was just foolish enough to believe she was the only one who could keep him from falling again.

Having made the decision to go back to the island, Lilly finally started to relax.
  It would be a little rough at first because she’d have to learn to mask her feelings, but she would manage somehow.  Of course she couldn’t be sure how Simon was going to act towards her but she knew he wouldn’t ask her to leave.  There was no reason to send her away; after all, it had been
his
decision to cast her aside for Gabriella, so he could hardly expect their relationship to be anything but that of a therapist and her patient now.

That was how Lilly felt before she fell asleep that night
.  In the morning, she began to doubt the wisdom of her decision.  Was she really so eager to torture herself for another month when it was probably just her own arrogance that made her believe Simon wouldn’t accept help from anyone but her?  Every time she looked at him, her heart would die a little until there was nothing left but a hollowed out shell. 

As it was, she could barely take a breath without feeling a sharp stab of pain in her chest
, and her mind was such a jumbled mess, she would have been hard pressed at that moment to string together an intelligent sentence.  Lilly pulled the comforter up over her head and burrowed beneath the covers.  She would sleep for a while longer, that’s what she would do.  She didn’t want to think anymore, cry anymore, hurt anymore.  She’d find refuge in her dreams, retreat to that place where Simon still held her in his arms and kissed her and whispered the words she so longed to hear.

 
                                                                  ***

“Something is wrong,” Simon insisted.
 

F
ighting back the wave of panic that washed over him every time he ran into a brick wall in his search for Lilly, he asked Milana to repeat everything she and Luc had discovered so far.  She told him Adele dropped Lilly off at a car rental place and, thanks to Milana’s talent at flirting, she’d managed to gather more information from the rental clerk. 

It seemed Lilly wasn’t planning a round trip with the rental because she’d asked for a brochure of their satellite locations
, and that disturbed Simon a great deal.  Was she leaving him for good or merely planning on flying back from wherever she was going?  According to the clerk, Lilly hadn’t seemed sure of her destination and had mentioned a couple of different places.  When a second visit to the rental place by Milana that morning had revealed the car hadn’t been returned yet, Simon enlisted the help of both Milana and Luc in calling all the major hotels in the two cities Lilly had mentioned, but so far they hadn’t come up anything.

“Maybe she is staying with friends,” Luc offered hopefully.

Simon dismissed it immediately.  “No, she is alone.” 
She wouldn’t want anyone around while she licked the wounds he’d inflicted.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Milana said, but the apprehension in her eyes belied her words.

Simon stopped his restless pacing and dropped down onto the sofa beside her.  He’d given up the farce that he still couldn’t walk once he learned Lilly hadn’t called that morning as she had promised.  If he hadn’t been so distraught, Simon might have found the stunned look on his sister’s face quite amusing when she saw him pop up out of the wheel chair a few minutes after she and Luc arrived. 

She’d been equally surprised to discover Gabriella was gone
, but that had been easy enough to arrange.  All he’d had to do was mention that one of the social events of the year was coming up soon and ask if Gabby had her gown picked out yet.  An hour later, she’d left with a sizeable check from Simon tucked away in her purse and a happy smile on her face. 

“Maybe she decided not to go to either of the places she mentioned,” Luc suggested.

Simon eyed him suspiciously.  “She spent the whole night in your house, did she say anything about where she was going on her time off in any of your long
talks
.”

Milana, who was sitting between the two men, cast an anxious glance at Luc before turning to face her brother.
  “Simon, there’s something we need to tell you.  It’s not what you think,” she said hurriedly when his jaw flexed.  “I just want to put your mind at rest about Luc’s relationship with Lilly so we can concentrate on finding her.  You see, the reason she was able to leave without either of us seeing her was because I…that is
we…
I mean, Luc and I were…”

“Declaring our love for each other,” Luc rescued her.
  He slipped his arm around Milana’s waist and smiled down at her.  “I have been in love with your sister for as long as I can remember.  I did not think she had feelings for me, but when she slapped my face, I knew she loved me too.”

Simon shook his head, certain he hadn’t heard Luc right.
  “Milana slapped you?”

Luc chuckled at the soft blush that colored Milana’s cheeks.
  “When I told her Lilly was asleep upstairs, she thought I meant Lilly was in my bed so she slapped me.  Your sister packs quite a wallop, but I am glad she did it because it made us both realize how foolish we had been to hide our feelings from each other.”

Simon wasn’t quite sure how to take the news that Luc was in love with Milana
, or that his sister obviously felt the same way.  It did put his mind to rest about anything intimate happening between Luc and Lilly though, but it also made him realize just how little control he had over his own emotions. 

He’d been blinded by jealousy, which was something that had never happened to him before
.  He sorely regretted instilling that same helpless feeling in Lilly when he purposely allowed her to think Gabriella was a romantic interest.  Simon rose to his feet, his chin set determinedly.  Enough was enough.  It was time to find Lilly and bring her home.

Lilly groaned and dragged herself out of bed, thoroughly irritated that the chambermaid had chosen to ignore the
Do Not Disturb
sign she’d left hanging on the doorknob.  The sharp staccato tapping on the door did little to improve the throbbing headache she’d developed or her sour disposition.  So what if she hadn’t allowed the bedding to be changed in two…or was it three days?  At the prices the posh hotel was charging for the suite, she should have at least been afforded the courtesy of a call before they sent someone to rouse her out of bed.

Flinching with each incessant tap, she trudged listlessly to the door and flung it open.
  Lilly drew in a sharp breath and stumbled backwards, the blistering rebuke she’d been about to unleash on the maid dying on her lips when Simon’s massive frame filled the doorway.  She’d forgotten how tall he was, having only seen him sitting or lying down since that first time she’d spotted him across the dance floor.  He was simply magnificent; the sheer masculinity of him as potent as any drug, so it wasn’t surprising to Lilly that she found herself getting a little light headed as she gazed up into those dark eyes of his.

Simon’s hand shook when he reached out and lightly brushed his knuckles against one pale cheek.
  “You are not well.  Have you been to see a doctor?”

“I’m not sick,” she denied feebly.
  “It’s only a headache and a little upset stomach, nothing serious…”  Lilly’s voice trailed off for a moment, the dizzying effect of his presence making her sway unsteadily.  “I can’t believe you’re here…that you’re walking and…and…oh, Simon, I feel just awful that I wasn’t there for you!”

Simon pulled her into his arms, unable to endure the physical distance between them for even one more second.
  She felt small and fragile, the trembling of her slender body stirring some primal instinct to protect her against anything that might cause even a moment’s unease.  The fact that he had personally been responsible for hurting her sliced through him, accompanied with merciless pangs of guilt that seemed to intensify the longer he held her without speaking.  Somehow, he had to make it right again because without Lilly, his life would be as empty and barren as a desert. 

“We need to talk,
cara
.”

Lilly didn’t dare look up at him, not while he still had his arms around her.
  She drew away from him, her eyes darting around the room in an effort to avoid his steady gaze.  She should offer him a drink…no, it was too early in the day for that.  Coffee, maybe?  Absently running her fingers through her hair, Lilly was suddenly very conscious of just how awful she must look when she snagged a few tangles.  She was wearing a pair of old tights and faded tank top, but at least she could be grateful she’d finally pulled herself out of the dark mood she’d been in long enough to shower that morning.  She’d gone back to bed with her hair still damp, which explained the unruly mess it was in right now.

As if she had no will to stop herself, her eyes turned to Simon
.  The absolute perfection of him pitted against her ghastly appearance made her cringe.  Impeccably dressed, his dark hair was combed back with one rogue lock falling over his left temple, making him look sexy as hell.  Snug jeans emphasized his impossibly long legs and lean hips, while the black button down shirt he wore drew attention to his muscular chest and broad shoulders. 

And he’d been hers, she thought with a mournful sigh
.  For a short time this incredible man had given her what most women could only dream of.  Drowning in a sea of misery, Lilly turned away from him and walked stiffly towards the sofa and sat down.

Clutching her hands in her lap, she asked in a tremulous voice, “Have you come to tell me you don’t need me anymore?”

“Why would I do that?”

“I should think it was obvious.
  You really didn’t have to come in person,” she said, keeping her eyes trained on the far wall.  “You could have just called or left a message on my cell phone.”

“I
have
been calling.  I have also left numerous messages.”

None of which had been returned, she heard the silent accusation in his voice.
 

“I’m sorry
.  I wasn’t deliberately avoiding your calls.  I left my phone charger on the island and meant to buy a new one but I…I haven’t actually left the room since I checked in.”

“Why not?”

Lilly shifted uncomfortably.  She couldn’t very well tell him the truth; that she’d been so despondent over losing him she had no desire to do anything but sleep.  And if she told him she’d been sick, which wasn’t entirely untrue, he would want to whisk her off to see a doctor.  She didn’t look at him, but she could feel Simon’s intense gaze on her just the same.

“Does it really matter now?”
 she finally asked. 

Simon crossed the room and sat down beside her.
  “You promised Milana you would call and let her know where you were, but you did not do that.”

“I know and I’m…”

“You also left me in the care of Gabriella, who is hardly qualified to make sure my leg muscles were massaged properly.”

Lilly’s head jerked around, her eyes flashing.
  “She certainly acted as if she wanted the job, and you sure as hell didn’t seem to mind if she usurped my position.”

“And that disturbs you a great
, does it not,
cara mia
?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said heatedly.
  “If it doesn’t bother you to sleep with a woman you have no real feelings for, why should it bother me?”

Simon’s lip quirked.
  “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you are angry?”

Lilly’s whole body shook.
  How was it possible to want to hit someone and kiss them at the same time?  She was furious with him for sleeping with Gabriella and was devastated by the simple truth that one warm body was just as good as another to him.  But there was still that small part of her that wanted to believe what she and Simon had shared was as special to him as it was to her.  And he was here, wasn’t he?  Surely it meant something that he’d gone through all the trouble of tracking her down.   

Lilly tilted her head curiously.
  “How did you find me?”

Stretching his legs out in front of him, Simon shrugged as if it had been no great feat.
  In fact, he’d nearly gone crazy when their calls to nearly every hotel in the cities Lilly had mentioned to the rental clerk yielded absolutely nothing.  Then Milana had jokingly mentioned that he should have a tracking device implanted in Lilly like people did for their pets since he always seemed to be searching for her.  And just like that, Simon knew how to find her. 

It had taken one phone call to the car rental place and a quickly concocted story about how worried he was that his wife had not checked in with him since her departure.
  Within a matter of minutes, the clerk had contacted the company who monitored the GPS devices installed in all their rental cars and was able to provide Simon with a location.  Not that he planned on divulging any of that information to Lilly, of course. 

Turning her own words on her, he asked, “Does it really matter now?
  The point,
tesoro
, is I that I found you, and once we have had a chance to talk, I will be taking you back with me.”

“For what purpose?
  You don’t need me as your therapist and you have Gabriella at your disposal for whatever else you have in mind.”

“Gabriella is gone.”

“Bored of her already?  But then I shouldn’t be surprised,” Lilly said bitterly, “after all, it didn’t take you long to grow tired of me.”

Unruffled by her hostility, Simon’s demeanor was as relaxed as his voice.
  “Perhaps I should remind you that it was
your
decision to end our budding relationship.”

“And a good thing it was too,” she snapped.
  “Gabriella wasn’t in the room for more than thirty seconds before you’d forgotten I even existed.  You couldn’t have been too hurt by my refusal to sleep with you since you had another lover lined up in no time at all.”

Simon bit back the laughter that bubbled up inside him.
  She truly was magnificent when she was worked up.  “As amusing as your fabrications are, my darling Lilly, I think we need to start dealing in truths so we can put all this behind us and move forward from here.”

Lilly bristled, her irritation at his rather sedate manner escalating by the second.
  “What fabrications would that be,” she demanded, “I haven’t said one thing that isn’t the complete truth.”

“The truth as you see it
, perhaps, but it is a bit jaded by your jealousy of Gabriella and your confusion as to whether you should strike out at me right now or continue to fight your desire to fall into my arms.”

Lilly’s eyes widened in alarm.
  My God, was she really so transparent?  His smile mocked her, the smug arrogance of it wilting any hope she still harbored of being able to hide the burning love she felt for him.  She turned away from him, her shoulders slumping in defeat.  She could no more stop loving Simon than she could will her own heart to stop beating, but that didn’t mean she would allow him to continue tormenting her with his presence.

“Why are you here, Simon?
  Have you come to feed your ego by making me confess I was jealous of your affair with Gabriella?  Or was it so you could see for yourself that I’m an emotional wreck because I can’t bear the thought of you making love to another woman?”

“Is that why you look so ill?”
  Simon leaned forward, waiting for her to answer but Lilly remained obstinately quiet.  “I did not mean to hurt you,” he said softly.

“It’s my own fault,” she admitted bleakly.
  “I let myself believe in things that could never be, and was even delusional enough to think you might care for me as much as I did you.  But when Gabriella arrived and I saw how quickly you could turn off your feelings, I realized how incredibly naïve I had been.”

“You honestly believe I am so shallow, that I would share something so special with you
and then hop into bed with another woman as if it meant nothing at all?”

“Are…are you saying you didn’t sleep with her?”

“Did you sleep with Luc?”

“No!
  Simon, I wouldn’t…I couldn’t!”

“Because of how you feel about me?”
 he coaxed, then smiled with satisfaction when she slowly nodded her head.  “I did not sleep with Gabriella either, nor have I ever had the desire to. 
Cara
, listen to me.  My father was partners with Gabriella’s father back in Italy.  We grew up together.  When I moved my family to the States, she came with us.  We do love each other, Lilly, but only as one sibling would love another.”

“Is that the truth?”

“I swear it.  I know it was wrong of me to make you believe otherwise, but I thought if you were jealous of Gabriella you would admit how much you still wanted me and stop pushing me away.”

“I wanted you to be jealous too, but when you just let me go with Luc without even trying to stop me
, I thought it was because you wanted to be alone with Gabriella.”

Simon chuckled.
  “You have no idea how hard it was for me not to beat Luc within an inch of his life, but I did not dare show how much seeing you together affected me.  I was only trying to protect you from Gabriella’s gossiping tongue.  She has earned her nickname, Gabby, and though she would have meant no harm, I was afraid your reputation would suffer if anyone found out you had seduced a patient.”

Lilly’s head snapped around, the denial that she’d been the one doing the seducing
remained unspoken when she saw that Simon was smiling.  “Stop teasing,” she admonished, but couldn’t quite keep herself from smiling back at him.

“Come here,” he said huskily, then effortlessly scooped her off the sofa and onto his lap.
  He held her for a moment, the pounding of his heart roaring in his ears as he drowned himself in the depths of her blue eyes.  “
Bellissimo
,” he murmured. 
Beautiful
. 

Her smile was soft and surrendering as one delicate arm curled around his neck and pulled his mouth down onto hers.
  It was the sweetest thing he’d ever experienced in his life.

 
                                                               ***

Lilly’s skin was warm from the blush that was slowly working its way up her neck.
  “Simon, if you don’t stop looking at me as if you want to devour me, I swear I’ll torture you by ordering dessert and make you wait even longer.”

Despite her threat, the hunger in his eyes grew even more intense as his gaze flickered over the woman beside him.
  “I promised you dinner only because the doctor said you had been neglecting your health, but do not push me too hard,
cara,
or you will find yourself being carried out of here.”

Lilly smiled demurely.
  “Very well, no dessert.  But if you don’t let me finish dinner, I might not have the…strength to do anything but sleep tonight.”