Читать книгу A Forever Family Collection - Коллектив авторов - Страница 15

BELLE LOOKED AWAY from Leon’s dark gaze, trying desperately to pull herself together. After priding herself on being able to handle her life on her own, why did she keep falling apart like this?

She should have jumped at the opportunity to go home with her mother earlier, but Leon had read her hesitation with uncanny accuracy and had offered another solution. When she’d confided her reason to him for holding back, she’d told the truth. She’d wanted to give her mother space.

But she feared there’d been another reason to stay with Leon, not so readily discernible until this moment, now that she was alone with him again. Reflecting back to that interlude in her bedroom at the pension, she was angered by her need for comfort from the last person she should have turned to.

For her to have lost control and kissed a man who still had to be grieving the loss of his wife was humiliating. It was madness.

Feigning a calm she didn’t feel, she managed to dredge up a smile. “Thank you for helping me work through my angst. Concetta is the luckiest little girl in the world to have you for her father. And like your father, you’re a virtual bulwark of strength and reason, Leon Malatesta. I’ve gotten over my jitters and can go to bed now with the hope of getting some sleep. Good night.”

Without looking at him, she left the patio and went straight to the guest bedroom, shutting the door.

A good sleep? That was hilarious.

“Signorina?”

Belle came out of the bathroom the next morning, where she’d been putting on her makeup. Earlier, Carla had brought her coffee. “Yes, Simona?”

“Signor Malatesta says to come to the rear foyer. He’s ready to drive you to the palazzo whenever you’re ready.”

“I’ll be right there. Thank you.”

She’d been up for an hour, unable to stay in bed following a restless night’s sleep. After some experimenting, she drew her hair back at the nape. In her ears she’d put on her favorite pink topaz earrings. Luciana was so elegant, Belle wanted to look her best for her mother.

This morning she’d dressed in a short-sleeved, three-piece suit of dusky pink, with a paler pink shell. Whenever she wore it to the regional meetings for her work, it garnered compliments.

When she stepped outside the door, she saw Leon in a light tan suit, fastening his daughter in the back car seat of a dark blue luxury sedan. Concetta was dressed in a blue-and-yellow sunsuit. With those dark brown eyes that saw Belle coming, she was a picture.

“Good morning, you adorable thing!”

He stood up, transferring his gaze to Belle. “Buon giorno, Arabella,” he murmured, while his eyes traveled over every inch of her. When he did that, she melted on the spot.

“Buon giorno,” she responded, sounding too American for words. “Do you mind if I sit in back with her?” During the night Belle had decided that the only safe way to be around Leon was to stay close to his daughter. It was no penance. Belle was already crazy about her.

Without waiting for an answer, she walked around to the other side and climbed in back. Rufo had already made his place on the floor at the baby’s feet. Belle rubbed his head behind his ears. He licked her hand before she turned to Concetta and fastened her own seat belt.

“How’s my little sweetie? I love those cute seashells on your top.” As she touched them, the baby smiled and reached out to pull her hair.

Leon was still looking in from the other side. Could there be such a striking man anywhere else in existence? “Like I said last night, you keep that up at your own risk.”

“After the pearls, what’s a little hair?” she teased.

He chuckled. “She’s already got her sights set on your earrings. They’re stunning on you, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Please don’t keep saying personal things like that to me.

In seconds he got behind the wheel and drove them away from the estate toward the city. This was the first time since coming to Rimini that Belle was actually able to see it through a tourist’s eyes. Until now her thoughts had been so focused on finding her mother, she’d been pretty much unobservant.

He drove her along the autostrada and played tour guide. On one side were hundreds of fabulous-looking hotels. On the other were hundreds and hundreds of colorful umbrellas set up three rows deep on the famous twelve-mile-long stretch of beach.

“It’s a sun lover’s paradise, Leon!”

“If you don’t mind the invasion of masses of humanity,” he drawled over his shoulder.

But he didn’t have to worry about that. His private portion of beach was off-limits, and no doubt strictly watched by his security men.

After a few minutes they climbed a slight elevation where an incredible period residence in an orangey-pink color came into view. “Oh, Leon…”

“This is the Malatesta palazzo. Our family purchased it in the nineteenth century. It’s of moderate size, but over the years has been restored and transformed. Like many of the elegant patrician villas along this section of the Adriatic, it combines modern technology with old-world charm.” He drove through the gates, past cypress trees and a fantastic maze.

“It’s breathtaking. When you were little, your friends must have thought they’d died and gone to heaven when you invited them over to play.”

His eyes gleamed with amusement as he looked at her through the rearview mirror. “I don’t know about that, but Dante and I enjoyed hiding out from the staff. Guests have been known to get lost in there.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

They continued on and wound around the fountain to the front entrance. Thrilled to see her mother come out the door and rush over to her side of the car, Belle hurriedly got out to meet her. They hugged for a long time.

“Now I know last night wasn’t a dream.” Luciana cupped her face. “My dearest girl, do you think you could ever bring yourself to call me Mom? You don’t have to, but—”

“I wanted to call you Mom last night,” Belle confessed.

“Then it’s settled. Come on. Let’s get Concetta and go inside.” Belle looked around, to discover Leon had his daughter in his arms. “We’re eating on the terrace,” her mother announced. “I’ve got Concetta’s high chair set up.”

Rufo ran ahead to where Sullisto stood in the elegant foyer. He sought out Belle with such a warm smile that she had to believe it was a sincere reflection of how he felt about her. It went a long way to dispel some of her fears for her intrusion in their lives.

She felt Leon’s gaze. When she looked up, his gray eyes seemed to encourage her to embrace what was happening.

Once she was inside, the palazzo’s sumptuous tapestries and marble floors left her speechless. Belle particularly loved the colonnade with its stained-glass windows. Leon explained that before the destruction in the war, they’d formed part of the chapel.

After following the passageway, they came out to the terrace, where a veritable feast awaited them. But Belle couldn’t hold back her cry of wonder at the sunken garden below. Grass surrounded a giant black-and-white chessboard. Statues of Roman gods were placed in the odd squares, each depicting one of the twelve months of the year.

“I’ve never seen anything like it! The whole estate is unreal.” Her gaze unconsciously flew to Leon’s. “To think this was your playground, growing up.”

His eyes smiled back at her.

“Come and sit by me, darling. Here are some pictures of your father.”

Belle did her mother’s bidding. Her hands shook as she studied the half-dozen snapshots. “He looks so young and handsome!” She couldn’t believe she was gazing at her own father.

“He was both. Keep those photos. I have more.”

After studying them, Belle put them carefully in her purse. Over the delicious meal, she lost track of time, answering her mother’s questions about life at the orphanage. Then the subject turned to the Petersons.

Sullisto shook his head. “I can’t understand why you weren’t adopted right off as a baby.”

“I used to ask the sisters the same thing. They told me that because I was premature, I was very sickly. It seems I took a long time to get well, and was underdeveloped. My speech didn’t come until I was about four. By then, I was too old.”

“Darling…” Luciana hugged her for a long time before she let Belle go.

“It’s all right. I finally did get adopted, but I didn’t see love between Nadine and Ben. I guess somewhere deep down he cared for her, enough to go along with my adoption. But I wished I’d been placed in a foster home, so I could have left when things got difficult.”

“You had no advocate?” her mom asked, sounding horrified.

“Not after being adopted. But at one point I gathered enough courage to talk to her about it. She said she’d wanted me to feel like I belonged. Nadine had the right instincts, but there was too much wrong in their marriage, and I know for a fact they didn’t consult Cliff. He was so angry, I got out of the house the second I turned eighteen. As you know, they were killed in a car crash later on.”

Her mother’s eyes had filled with sadness. “Where did you go, darling?”

“I’d been scanning the classifieds and found a want ad for a roommate. I went to meet three single girls who’d rented part of an old house and could fit one more person. I told them that if they’d give me a month, I’d get a job and move in. Since I needed a cell phone, I applied for work at TCCPI and they hired me. That was my lucky day.”

“Now she’s a manager,” Leon interjected. He’d just gotten up from the table to walk Concetta around. “In fact, the corporation is taking her in to the head office in New York City in two months.”

Belle’s head flew back. “You didn’t tell me that earlier. You only said I was going to be promoted.”

His features sobered. “I overstepped my boundaries when I contacted them, and didn’t want to give away all the surprises in store for you.”

He’d surprised her again.

“That’s wonderful!” Luciana exclaimed, but a look of pain had crossed over her face, belying her words. “Do you love your work?”

Bemused by the question, Belle turned to her mother. She knew what she was really asking. They’d met only last evening. After finding her parent, the idea of separation was unthinkable to her right now, too. “I like it well enough. It’s been a way to earn a living, and they’ve been paying for me to go to college at night. Another semester and I’ll get my business degree.”

“I’m so proud of you! Are you still living with roommates?”

“Yes. It’s cheaper and I’ve been able to save some money.” Belle pulled the wallet out of her handbag and passed around some pictures of her friends. She had one photo of the Peterson family to show them.

After studying the photos, Sullisto leaned forward. “I must admit I’m surprised you didn’t show us the picture of your latest love interest. Why aren’t you married? Are the men in America blind? Who’s the miserable man you’re driving crazy at the moment?”

Belle laughed quietly. “I’ve been too busy with studies, along with trying to put my store on top, to get into a relationship.”

“You sound like Leonardo,” he grumbled.

“Concetta keeps me so occupied, there’s no room for anyone else.”

She sensed a certain friction between him and his father. Belle happened to know how deeply enamored Leon was of his little girl. It surprised her Sullisto would touch on that subject, when he had to know his son was still grieving over his wife’s death. No wonder she’d detected an underlying trace of impatience in Leon’s response.

Belle could only envy the woman who would one day come into his life and steal his heart. As she struggled with the possibility that he might always love Benedetta too much to move on, she heard footsteps in the background, and turned her head to see an attractive man and woman dressed in expensive-looking sport clothes walk out on the terrace.

“Ah, Dante!” Sullisto got to his feet to embrace his son, who bore a superficial likeness to him and Leon. “We didn’t expect you until this afternoon,” he said in English. “You’ve arrived back from Florence just in time to meet our home’s most honored guest. Belle Peterson from New York? This is my son Dante, and his lovely wife, Pia.”

Belle agreed Pia was charming, with amber eyes and strawberry-blond hair she wore in a stylish bob. They walked around and shook her hand before taking their places at the table. But already Belle felt uncomfortable, because Leon’s brother had seen her sitting next to Luciana, and had to have noticed the resemblance. He kept staring at them. So did his wife, who whispered something to him.

Sullisto turned to his wife. “Cara? Why don’t you carry on from here?”

Luciana cleared her throat and got to her feet. Belle’s gaze collided with Leon’s oddly speculative glance. She had the impression he didn’t know how this was going to play out, and she felt an odd chill go through her.

“After all these years, my greatest dream has come true.” She reached for Belle’s hand and clung to it. “Years ago my father sent me to New York, because he thought I was in danger here.

“You know the family history, but there are some things no one ever knew except your father, who loved me enough to marry me anyway. You’ll never know what that love did for me and how much I’ve grown to love him since then.”

Her mother’s revelations brought moisture to Sullisto’s eyes and touched Belle to the depths of her soul. But as she saw a bewildered look creep over Dante’s face, the blood started to throb at her temples.

“While I was there, I met a man from England named Robert Sloan, and we fell in love. When we found out we were expecting a baby, we planned to be married with or without my father’s permission. But Robert was killed in a hit-and-run accident. At the time I was convinced he’d been murdered, and it brought on early labor for me.”

Dante looked like a victim of shell shock. As Luciana continued talking, he transferred his cold gaze to Belle. It reminded her of Cliff’s menacing eyes when his mother had first introduced them. That memory made her shrink inside as Luciana came to the end of the story.

“Her real name is Arabella Donatello Sloan. She flew to Rimini this week to try and find me. If it weren’t for Leon, we would never have been reunited.”

Dante turned to his brother. A stream of unintelligible Italian poured from his mouth.

“Our guest doesn’t speak Italian,” Leon reminded him. For an instant his gray eyes trapped Belle’s as reams of unspoken thoughts passed between them. This was the crisis Belle had prayed wouldn’t happen.

Sullisto intervened and in English told Dante how she’d researched the Donatello name until it came to Leon’s attention at the bank.

“It’s an absolute miracle,” Luciana interjected. “It’s one that has brought me the greatest happiness you can imagine. Sullisto and I talked it over last night. We’re hoping she’ll decide to make her home here at the palazzo with all of us, permanently.”

“Mom…”

While Belle was still trying to absorb the wonder of it, Sullisto tapped his crystal goblet with a fork. After clearing his throat, he said, “We want to take care of you from here on out. Now that you’re united with your mother, we don’t want anything to keep you two apart.” He reached for Luciana’s hand. “I’m planning to adopt you, Arabella.”

“Adopt?” Belle gasped. “I—I hardly know what to say—” Her voice caught.

A smile broke out on his lips. “You don’t have to say anything.”

Belle was so overcome with emotions sweeping through her, she hardly noticed that Dante had gotten to his feet. With one glance, she saw that he’d lost color. He stared around the table at all of them. The dangerous glint coming from those dark depths frightened her.

“That’s quite a story. The resemblance between mother and daughter is extraordinary, thus dispensing with a DNA test,” he rapped out. His gaze finally fastened on Belle. “Welcome to the Malatesta family, Arabella. We truly do live up to our name, don’t we?”

“Basta!” his father exclaimed. Belle knew what it meant.

“Mi dispiace, Papà,” he answered with sarcasm. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Pia and I have other things to do.” He strode off the patio with an unhappy wife in pursuit.

“Don’t look alarmed,” Sullisto advised Belle the minute they were gone. “Your mother and I discussed it last night. There’s no right way to handle a situation like this. We didn’t expect them home until later, but since he walked in on us, we felt it was better to let Dante know up front. When he and Pia have talked about it, he’ll apologize for his bad behavior.”

Belle got up from the table. “For you to welcome me into your home leaves me thrilled and speechless, but I’m afraid the shock of hearing your plan to adopt me was too great for Dante. I’m not so much alarmed as sad, Sullisto. It’s because my adoptive brother, Cliff, had the exact same reaction when Nadine brought me to their house from the orphanage. He was unprepared for it.”

“But it’s not quite the same thing,” Sullisto impressed upon her. “You’re flesh of Luciana’s flesh. Dante is flesh of mine. Both of you are beloved to me and your mother.” His words touched her to the core. “The difference lies in the fact that Dante’s not a teenage boy. He’s a grown man who’s married, with expectations of raising a family of his own. Your being brought into the family has no bearing on his life except to enrich it.”

“E-even so—” her voice faltered “—he has lived under your roof all his life and has sustained a huge shock that will impact your family and create gossip. If it’s all right with you, I would feel much better if the two of you had the rest of the day to be alone with him and his wife. They’re going to need to talk about this.”

With an anxious glance at Leon, Belle implored him with her eyes to help her out of this, and prayed he got the message. “Since Concetta is ready for a nap, I’ll go back to the villa with Leon.” She leaned over to kiss her mother, then Sullisto. “Thank you for this wonderful morning. I don’t deserve the gift of love you’ve showered on me. You have no idea how much I love both of you. Call me later.”

Leon had already lifted the baby from the high chair and was ready to go. They left the palazzo and she climbed in the back of the sedan to help him fasten Concetta in the car seat. Rufo hopped in and lay down.

Belle kissed the baby’s nose. “You were such a good girl this morning, you deserve a treat.” She reached in her bag and pulled out her lipstick. The baby grabbed the tube and immediately put it in her mouth. It kept her occupied during the drive.

If Belle hadn’t made the suggestion to escape, Leon would have insisted they leave the palazzo immediately. The shattered look on Dante’s face had revealed what Leon had always suspected.

Like a volcano slowly building magma, his quiet, subdued brother had hidden his feelings beneath a facade. But today they had erupted into the stratosphere, exposing remembered pain and fresh new hurt.

“When we get back to the villa, I’ll ask Talia to put the baby to bed so you and I can talk about what’s happened.”

“I can’t bear that I’ve brought all this on. It’s disrupting your life and everyone else’s. I didn’t want to hurt Mother’s feelings by leaving so fast, but when I saw poor Dante’s eyes…” Belle buried her face in her hands.

“You can be sure she and Papà understood. Dante finally reacted to years of suppressed pain. His behavior wasn’t directed at you. It’s been coming on since the day our father told us he was getting married again.”

“I feel so sorry for him.”

So did Leon. He eyed her through the rearview mirror. “Do you have a swimming costume?”

She blinked. “Yes.”

“Good. When you’ve changed back at the house, meet me on the patio and we’ll go down to the beach. We both need to channel our negative energy into something physical.”

Belle nodded. “You’re reading my mind again. A swim is exactly what I crave.”

“In that case, you’ll want a beach towel. There are half a dozen on the closet shelf in the guest bathroom.”

“Thank you.”

The drive didn’t take long. When they entered the villa he showered his loving daughter with kisses before turning her over to Talia. Once upstairs in his room he changed into his black swimming trunks.

His last task was to phone Berto and tell him he wouldn’t be coming in to work. Unless there was an emergency, Leon was taking time off until tomorrow. On his way out the door he grabbed a towel.

It didn’t surprise him to find Belle in bare feet, waiting for him on the patio. The woman needed to talk. He could sense her urgency when their eyes met.

She’d swept her hair on top of her head, revealing the lovely stem of her neck. As he was coming to learn, every style suited her. The pink earrings still winked at him. His gaze fell lower. He knew there was a bathing suit underneath the short, wispy beach jacket covering her shapely body. It was hard not to stare at her elegant legs, half covered by the towel she was holding.

“I’m glad you suggested this, Leon. Like you, I’m anxious for some exercise before I lose it. Let’s go.”

Lose it was right. Dante’s behavior at the table had cut like a knife.

Together they descended the steps to the sand. She removed her jacket and threw it on top of her towel before running into the water. He caught only a glimpse of the mini print blue-and-white bikini, but with her in it he felt a rise in his own body temperature despite the sorrow weighing him down.

“The sea feels like a bathtub,” she cried in delight while treading water. He decided it had been a good idea to come out here. They both needed the distraction. Her dark sapphire eyes dazzled him with light.

He swam closer. “You’ve come to Rimini when the temperature is in the eighties.”

“No wonder the city is a magnet for beach lovers. This is heaven!” For the next hour she kept her pain hidden. While she bobbed and dived, he swam lazy circles around her.

Leon held back bringing up the obvious until they’d left the water and stretched out on their towels. He lay on his stomach so he could look at her. She’d done the same. Belle had no idea how much her innate modesty appealed to him. It didn’t matter how ruthlessly he tried to find things about her he didn’t like in order to fight his attraction. He couldn’t come up with one.

“What’s going on in that intelligent mind of yours?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said in a dampening voice, “especially when we both know you’ve been able to read me like a book so far.”

He turned on his side. “Not this time.”

She let out a troubled sigh. “I learned a lot after living with Cliff for those eight years. Whether justified or not, he felt betrayed by his parents. The family should have gotten professional counseling to help him. When I saw Dante’s expression, he reminded me so much of Cliff, I got a pain in my stomach.”

“The news definitely shook him.”

“It was more than that, Leon.” Slowly she sat up and looped her arms around her raised knees. “All I saw was the little boy who a long time ago fell apart at the loss of his mother. Your father said he’s a grown man now, with a wife, and can handle it, but I’m afraid Dante’s world has come crashing down on him again.”

Leon nodded slowly. “If I don’t miss my guess, his turmoil came from the fact that Papà wants to adopt you. Call it jealousy if you like. He and I suffered a great deal in our youth over his remarriage.”

“Now he’s reliving it. He sees how devoted your father is to my mother. When he said he planned to adopt me, maybe you couldn’t see Dante clearly from where you were sitting, but his face went white.”

“I noticed,” Leon muttered. “There’s no question her sin of omission has caught up with my brother.”

In that moment he’d realized Dante had disliked Luciana perhaps even more strongly than Leon himself had years ago. But Dante had held back his feelings until this morning, when she’d revealed news about her secret baby. To make it even more painful, Belle had been sitting next to her mother at the table, bigger than life and more beautiful.

“I can see only one way to stop the bleeding.”

Her thoughts were no longer a mystery. He rolled next to her and grasped her upper arms. “You can’t go home yet—”

That nerve in her throat was throbbing again. “I have to. Don’t you see? As long as I’m in Rimini, I’m a horrible reminder of his past. Mom and I have the rest of our lives to work things out. I have a career, Leon. In a few days I’ll be back at my job. She can fly to New York and visit me. If I leave, then there’ll be no gossip, and Mom’s secret will remain safe.”

His jaw hardened. “There are two flaws in your argument. In the first place the damage has already been done to Dante. Secondly, now that you’ve been united with her, she won’t be able to handle a long-distance relationship. I’ve already learned enough to know a visit once every six weeks will never be enough for you, either. You can forget going anywhere,” he declared.

Her chin trembled. He had the intense desire to kiss her mouth and body, but sensing danger, she eased away from him and got to her feet. “To remain in Italy for any length of time is out of the question. Don’t you see it will tear Dante apart? It’s not fair to him! He didn’t ask for this. None of you did, but he’s the one at risk of being unable to recover.”

Leon stood in turn. “He’ll recover, Belle, but it’s going to take time.”

“I don’t know. I keep seeing his face and it wounds me. I have to leave. As for the rest of this week, I couldn’t possibly stay at the palazzo while I’m here. That’s always been Dante’s home. My only option is to fly back to New York ASAP.”

“No. For the time being you’re going to stay with me, where you’ll be away from Dante and yet still remain close to Luciana.”

A small cry escaped Belle’s throat. She shook her head. “I…couldn’t possibly remain with you, and you know why. If I stay anywhere, it will be at a hotel.”

Before he could think, she backed away farther. In a flash she’d gathered up her jacket and towel and darted across the sand to the steps leading to the villa.

Long after she’d disappeared inside, Leon was still standing there trying to deal with a tumult of emotions regarding his brother. But he also had been gripped by unassuaged longings, and realized he had a serious problem on his hands.

Just now he’d wanted to kiss Belle into oblivion. The chemistry had been potent from the first moment they’d met. Though Benedetta hadn’t been gone that long, Leon found an insidious attraction for Luciana’s daughter heating up within him.

Like father, like son?

Something warned him it could be fatal. How was that possible? If she’d sensed it, too, that could be the reason she’d run like hell.