Although Luisa’s headache was a lie, his mother’s dismissal of it made the hackles that always rose in her presence strain even higher. Luisa was her goddaughter. That should mean something. “What about it?”
“I’ve heard a rumour your father and I are not being seated at the top table.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Whatever made you think you would be?”
“We’re the parents of the groom. Our place for the wedding breakfast is at the top table.”
“You’re the parents of a groom who despises you.”
She didn’t even have the grace to blush. “So this is a deliberate humiliation?”
“No, it’s a deliberate compromise. If Niccolo had had his way, you and father would have been banned from the whole thing. You’re only here because Lorenzo insisted – if you hadn’t figured it out yet, he’s very much looking forward to being related by marriage to a duke – but his one concession to Nic was that neither of you would have the honour of being treated as parents of the groom – that honour, I’m afraid, is going to your own parents.” About to stalk away, he added, “You’re damn lucky to be here and not be having to deal with the humiliation of the whole world knowing you’ve been excluded from your son’s wedding, so don’t even think about complaining to Nic about it.”
Downing his scotch, he left his mother staring at his retreating figure, uncaring if he’d wounded her feelings. The word toxic was used so frequently in today’s world that it had lost all meaning, but it was a word that perfectly epitomised his parents.
Lorenzo Esposito was in Gennaro’s eyeline, flirting with a woman younger than his daughter. Another toxic bastard with another poisonous family, but unlike the Martinellis, a proper family in the proper Italian tradition. They reserved their toxicity for everyone else, never turning it inward on each other. Once Gennaro’s brother was safely married into their family he would be considered one of them and would finally be safe.
Only three more days until that happened,he reminded himself grimly, and it was his job to make sure it did happen. There would be no cold feet. If he had to march his brother up the aisle and force him to say his vows then that’s what he would do.
Tonight, though, any cold feet his brother was suffering from were well hidden. Observing him across the dancefloor, Niccolo was giving every outward impression of enjoying himself.
As if he sensed his brother’s stare, Niccolo, like Gennaro a head taller than most of the guests, caught his eye and raised his glass.
Gennaro raised his empty glass back.
After another twenty minutes of circulating, making small talk and discreetly observing his brother, Gennaro determined it was safe to leave.
Outside, he took a moment to reflect on what he was doing. What he’d done.
He’d abandoned the masquerade ball to have sex with his wife and now he was abandoning it again for the same reason.
He’d made his wife his lover.
He’d done the one thing he’d sworn he would never do.
Just to imagine Luisa in the suite waiting for him pumped fire into his veins.
The first thing he registered when he stepped into the suite was the fragrant scent filling the air… bubble bath.
Stepping out of his shoes and removing his bowtie and jacket, he paced to the bathroom, the thuds of his heart somehow getting even stronger and weightier.
The bathroom door was ajar.
He pushed it open.
His heart exploded.
Chapter Nine
Luisa hadn’t realised how frightened she’d been that Gennaro would return to their suite having reverted to his ice-block android self, not until they locked eyes and relief to find only heat in his black stare ripped through her.
After a long, breath-stealing passage where only their eyes spoke, he said, “Is there room for two in there?”
Inexplicably shy in a way she hadn’t been since childhood, she nodded.
“How was it?” she asked once she’d untied her tongue. Silly to feel shy when he’d brought her to orgasm in a room filled with hundreds of people and then screwed her against a wall.
But he hadn’t seen her naked, and though she’d run the huge sunken bath with half a bottle of the foaming liquid currently covering her breasts and pubis, for the first time in all the years she’d known him – her whole life – she was naked in front of Gennaro.