Surrender To The Single Dad

She lifted a hand to caress his jaw. “Why?”

He kissed her succulent lips. “You’re not just any female I happen to have met. I’m not talking about the fact that you were born titled from both sides of your illustrious families. This is something that affects you as a woman. Don’t you know you’re head and shoulders above any woman I’ve ever known? Your pure honesty demands the same from me.”

“Papà said my aunt was impressed with your honesty.” She shivered. “What honesty is that? If your intention is to frighten me, you’re doing a good job.”

“Frighten might not be the best word.” He sat up and got off the swing. “What I tell you will change the way you view me, but this has to come from me. I’ll understand if you say it’s been nice knowing you before you go your own way.”

“For heaven sakes just tell me!”

Rini had angered her. This was going wrong. “From the time I could remember, I played soccer. By seventeen I was playing on a winning team with my friend Guido. On the day of the championship game, I got injured. At the hospital tests were done and I was told I was infertile. Over the years I’ve undergone tests, but the diagnosis is always the same...”

Her haunted eyes had fastened on him. She didn’t move or cry out, but he saw pain break out on her face.

“Like anyone, I grew up thinking that one day I’d get married and have children. It was something I took for granted. Even after my first diagnosis, I didn’t really believe it. I thought that surely in time the problem would go away and I’d be normal like everyone else. But every year I was tested, I was told that nothing had changed.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, sounding agonized.

“So am I, Alessandra, because the diagnosis has impacted my life.”

“So that’s why you left me without saying goodbye? You thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it?”

His lips thinned.

“Of course a woman wants babies with the man she marries. But there are other ways to have children.”

“It’s not the same. The other day when I was telling you about Valentina, you said you couldn’t wait until you could have your own baby. It’s a natural urge to want to procreate.”

“Yes, but—”

“But nothing. I can’t give any woman a baby, so I’ve been living my life with the reputation of being a dedicated bachelor. No one but my doctor, and now you, know I’m infertile.”

“It happens to people, Rini. How tragic that you’ve let it rob you of the joy of life! It kills me that your fear has prevented you from settling down with a woman because you can’t give her what you think she wants.

“I know you’d make a marvelous father, Rini. That’s why there’s adoption. Thousands of couples do it. For you to have lived your life since seventeen with such a dark cloud hanging over your head doesn’t bear thinking about.”

“You’re very sweet, Alessandra, but you’re not in my shoes.” Her incredible reaction was all he could have hoped for and let him know her support would never be in question. His doctor had told him the right woman would be able to handle it.

But there was still something else to keep them apart. All of it stemmed from his conversation with her aunt and her implied warning. Even now he held back, thinking it was better that she believe his infertility presented the biggest problem for them.

Alessandra stared at him. “What you’re saying is that you’re going to let this stand in the way of our having a relationship. If you really mean that, then you need counseling before you deny yourself the greatest joy in life.”

“Therapy won’t help me,” he responded bleakly. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Combined with the conversation I had with your aunt, a relationship with you won’t work.”

“We’re back to my aunt again?”

“She told me some things in confidence I can’t share. Don’t be upset with her. It’s because she loves you.”

“Rini—” she cried out, aghast. But she’d felt him withdraw emotionally from her. It had been a huge mistake to fly here after all.

Alessandra pulled out her cell and called for the limo to return to his house. Once off the phone she got up and walked over to the table to drink the rest of her lemonade. “Please tell the cook the food was delicious. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going outside to wait for my ride.”

Rini moved faster than she did and caught up to her outside the front door of the villa. “Alessandra—”

“It’s all right, Rini. Though your explanation wasn’t the one I expected, I got my answer, so thank you. Please forgive me for barging in here uninvited. I give you my promise it will never happen again.”

When the limo turned into the courtyard, she rushed to get in the backseat on her own. Rini was right there, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of meeting his eyes and closed the door herself. As the limo drove off, Rini’s heart plummeted to his feet.

“Where do you wish to go, signorina?”

“The airport, per favore.”

Alessandra didn’t look back as they turned away.

No more looking back.

Just now she’d wanted to comfort him over his infertility, but she sensed he wouldn’t have been willing to listen to her. For him to have revealed his agony to her had been huge for him. Now that he’d told her the truth, he’d backed away, certain that she—like any other woman—wouldn’t see him as a complete man.

Was that image of being incomplete the reason for his meteoric rise in the business world? Had he worked day and night to compensate for what he saw as an inadequacy? She’d detected the love in his voice when he’d talked about his sister and her babies. Pain pierced her heart to realize that every time Rini eyed his nephew, he was reminded that he could never give a woman a child from his own body.

She’d seen the way he’d kissed and loved Valentina’s baby. The man had been there for her throughout her pregnancy. Yet all that time, he’d been gutted by the knowledge that he’d never be able to look forward to having a baby from his own body. Her heart ached for him.

As for his conversation with her aunt, that was something else again. If he’d been sworn to secrecy, then she wouldn’t be getting an explanation out of him. Alessandra could go to her aunt and demand to know the truth, but it wasn’t her right.

On the flight back to Metaponto, she stared out the window of the plane. Rini Montanari had been an earthshaking interlude. But interlude was all he’d prepared for their association to be and became the operative word in her romance-less life.

* * *

Sunday evening the helicopter dipped lower over Ravello. Rini was late for his brother Carlo’s birthday party, which Valentina and Giovanni were hosting.

For the last three weeks Rini had traveled to four areas of Calabria in Southern Italy, exploring the possibility of developing more oil sites. But he’d been in agony since Alessandra had left his villa and couldn’t concentrate.

Nothing he’d visited turned out to be as promising as the land owned by the Caracciolo family. But he’d written that off. Unfortunately, blotting Alessandra from his heart was another matter entirely. With love in her eyes, she’d reacted to the news that he was infertile as if it was of no consequence to her. She’d assured him it didn’t matter. The way she’d kissed him, as if he was her whole life, he’d believed her.

But her aunt’s fear that a relationship with Alessandra might cause a permanent rift between the twins had prompted him to back away. Fulvia had told him how close the girls had been growing up, how much fun they’d had as children. But everything changed when Alessandra fell in love and then was betrayed by her sister and the man she’d thought she would marry.

The girls had finally gotten past it, but now they’d reached another impasse because Dea had met Rini first. Apparently she’d been devastated when he didn’t want to date her. Hearing that Alessandra had been showing him around the property had upset her.

Though the situation was totally unfair, Fulvia had looked him in the eye and asked him if he wanted to be responsible for bringing on more pain between the two of them that might last. It was his decision to make.

In the end, Rini couldn’t do it, so he’d had to let Alessandra go. All he could do was watch news clips on television about the discovery of the Temple of Hera beneath the waters off Basilicata in the Ionian.

Dr. Bruno Tozzi and his team had been given credit for the find and Alessandra’s name had been mentioned. Every few days more information was being fed to the media about more discoveries of a courtyard and temple walls.

Rini was proud of Alessandra and the amazing work she was doing. Thanks to the coverage, he was able to keep track of her without having to make contact with her father. But having said goodbye to her had thrown him into a black void.

Once Rini arrived at the Laurito villa, he was besieged by family. He played with Carlo’s daughter, then took turns enjoying the two baby boys. Giovanni chatted with him for a while, but it was Valentina who sequestered him in the sunroom just off the terrace. He couldn’t get out of it.

“I thought you’d be bringing Alessandra with you. She’s fabulous!”

“That’s over.”

“Why? I know you’re in love with her.”

His eyes closed tightly. “It can’t work.”

“Rini—are you saying she doesn’t love you?”

He inhaled sharply. “She’s never said the words.”

“Have you?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does! Alessandra came to your house unannounced. I saw the look in her eyes when you walked out on the patio. If ever a woman had it bad...”

“There are things you don’t know and I can’t tell you. Don’t make this any harder on me.”

“Okay.” She patted his arm. “I’ll leave it alone. Keep your secrets and come on back out. Papà wants to talk to you and find out what new areas you’ve found for drilling.”

“I wish I had better results to report.”

Together they joined the others. Near midnight he flew back to his villa and did some laps in the swimming pool before going to bed. To his chagrin, sleep wouldn’t come. He spent most of the night outside on a lounger.

Three weeks... If he didn’t see Alessandra again soon, he’d go mad. But he had certain knowledge that bound him to stay away from her. Early Monday morning he put his emotional needs in the deep freeze and left for his office, prepared to announce some new sites for drilling that would please the board. He worked steadily until Thursday, when his secretary put through a call from his sister.

“Valentina?”

“Have you heard the news?” She sounded frantic.

His gut clenched. “What is it?”

“The seismic research facility in Malta registered a six-point-nine quake in the Ionian. The impact was felt all along the coast. It affected the diving site where Alessandra has been working with the institute.”

Earthquake? He broke out in a cold sweat. If anything happened to her, his life wouldn’t be worth living. To hell with what her aunt had told him. He needed to go to her and wouldn’t let anything stop him.

“According to the news, apparently two or three divers were injured and transported to chambers at various hospitals on the coast. I found out the institute’s oceanography boat docks at Crotone, so I’m sure some of the victims were taken there.”

“I’m on my way. Bless you, Valentina.”

* * *

He alerted his pilot and flew to the Naples airport, where he took the company jet to Crotone. En route he phoned to make certain a rental car was waiting. Following that he made calls to the three hospitals in the town, but no one would give him information about the injured because he wasn’t a relative. Other injuries over the southern area had been reported and hospitals all along the coast were filling.

Emergency vehicles and fire trucks filled the parking area of the first hospital. He made it to the ER and learned that one diver had been brought there. No one would give him information, but one of the ambulance crew helped him out by telling him they’d transported a male diver here.

Thanking him, Rini drove to the next hospital. Again it was the wrong one. He made the rounds until he reached the last hospital. When he spotted Bruno Tozzi in the waiting room, he knew Alessandra had to be here. Avoiding conversation with him, Rini walked through the hospital to the director’s office. He’d do whatever it took to be granted permission to see her.

* * *

“I’m fine,” Alessandra assured her parents after she’d spent six hours in the chamber.

“Are you in pain?”

“No, not at all. The doctor told me I have a light case of the bends.”

“Dr. Tozzi wants to see you.”

“He worries about all the team, but I’m not up for visitors. Tell him I promise to call him tomorrow when I’m feeling better.”

“All right. We’ll find him out in the reception area and be back in two hours. The doctor said you’ll be here overnight. We’ll stay with you and drive you home in the morning. Try to rest in the meantime. Love you.” They kissed her before slipping from the room.

No sooner had they gone than the door opened again. It was probably the nurse coming in to check her vital signs. When she saw who entered the room, her heart fluttered dangerously fast.

“Rini—what are you doing here?” After three weeks of not seeing him, the sight of his tall, well-honed body wearing a navy blue business suit was too much to handle in her weakened state.

“When I heard what happened, I couldn’t stay away.”

She turned on her side, trying to hide from him. “Did you talk to my parents?”

“They don’t know I’m here.”

Her breath caught. “You shouldn’t have come. We’ve said all there is to say.”

“I had to be sure you were going to recover,” he said, his voice throbbing.

Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let him see them. “I don’t see how you found out where I was.”

“A simple deduction after Valentina phoned me with the news about the epicenter of the quake.”

She sighed. “How did you get past the desk? No one is allowed in here.”

“I have my ways. Alessandra, you could have died out there. The doctor said you lost consciousness. It could have been fatal. Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through thinking I might have lost you?”

“Maybe now you know how I felt when you let me leave Positano and I knew it was over with you.” A bitter little cry escaped her lips. “My parents will be taking me home in the morning. The only reason I can imagine you’re being here is because of your guilt.

“What a surprise I’m going to survive! Surely it’s a relief to you. That way you don’t have to tell me what you’ve been holding back. It would only add to your guilt.”

“Alessandra—” His mournful voice reached that vulnerable place inside her before he’d come around the side of the bed. She felt him cup her face with his hand. “Grazie a dio you’re alive and safe.”

She kept her eyes tightly closed. “I admit I’m happy about it, too.”

His fingers toyed with her hair, sending fingers of delight through her exhausted body. “I once came down with a case of decompression sickness and know how it feels.”

“One of the hazards when you’re having fun.”

“You don’t need to pretend with me. I know you’ve had a fright and need sleep. Do you mind if I stay here with you for a little while?” He leaned down and kissed her lips. It felt like the touch of fire.

“The doctor won’t like it, but that’s up to you.”

Peering at him through slits, she watched him draw a chair to the side of the bed next to her. He looked like a man with the weight of the world on his powerful shoulders. She needed him to go away and never come back, but she couldn’t find the words.

In a minute a nurse came in to bring another bag for her IV. She checked Alessandra’s vitals and left without saying a word to him. The man could get away with murder. “What did you do to get permission?”

“I told the administrator that Montanari Engineering would make a generous donation to the hospital if they’d let me in to see you.”

There was no one like him, her heart cried out. “Rini Montanari. That was a naughty thing to do.”

“It worked. That’s all that mattered to me. To find you alive means everything. These last three weeks without you have been a hell I never want to live through again,” he admitted, his voice breaking.

His pain was tangible. “Now you’ll have to make good on your offer and work all hours of the day and night to recoup the loss.”

“It’ll be worth it since the hospital helped save your life. You’re the most precious thing in my world. I love you, bellissima,” he said in the huskiest voice she’d ever heard. “Now go to sleep and don’t worry about anything.”

When Alessandra woke up in the middle of the night, she decided she’d been dreaming that Rini had come to visit her. Had he really said he loved her? There was no sign of him. The night nurse came in and helped her to the restroom, then walked her back to bed.

CHAPTER SIX

THE NEXT MORNING Alessandra awakened to find her parents in the room. They’d brought her a fresh change of jeans and a soft top, which she slipped into. At 11:00 a.m. the doctor discharged her with the proviso that she rest, stay hydrated and do no diving for at least fourteen days.

It felt good to be wheeled outside to her parents’ limo. They made her comfortable before driving her back to the castle. Yet not at any time had they or the medical staff mentioned that Rini Montanari had been a visitor.

She’d really experienced a whopper of a dream to imagine he’d left his office to fly to Crotone in order to find out if she was all right. Alessandra was terrified it would take years, maybe a lifetime, to get over him. But what if she couldn’t? The ache in her heart had grown acute.

Instead of going upstairs, she told her mom she wanted to stay in the day room and curled up on the couch under a quilt to watch television. Supplied with water and nuts, she didn’t lack for the creature comforts. Alfredo wandered in and jumped up on her lap. He supplied the love she craved.

“Alessandra?” She lifted her head to her mother. “Are you up for company?”

“If it’s anyone from the diving group, could you tell them I need a few days?”

“It’s Rinieri Montanari.”

She reeled in place.

“He said he visited you at the hospital, but the nurse put something in your IV and you fell asleep. He’s anxious to know how you are.”

Rini had been there!

She hadn’t dreamed it after all and couldn’t believe it. Thrilled, yet tortured by what her mother had told her, she couldn’t concentrate on anything else. “I—I look terrible.”

“That would be impossible,” her mother assured her, “but if you want me to send him away, I will.”

“No—but don’t tell him to come in yet. Could you hand me my purse? It’s over on the credenza.”

Her mother did her bidding. Alessandra’s hand trembled as she brushed through her hair and applied a coat of lipstick.

“Ready?”

Alessandra nodded. While she waited, she checked her phone to find a dozen texts from friends, one of them from Bruno, who wanted to know how soon she’d be back. Fulvia had sent her love and condolences. She wanted a good talk with her when she was feeling better.

Alessandra’s editor was thankful she was all right and told her not to feel pressured about delivering the book. He hadn’t given her a deadline. But there was no message from Dea, the one person Alessandra wanted to talk to. The pit grew in her stomach as she realized her own sister hadn’t tried to contact her. Why?

“You don’t look like you’ve been sick,” said the deep, familiar male voice she was dying to hear.

She looked up at the sinfully gorgeous man. “You’re right. I’m a fraud.”

Rini walked over to her. He’d dressed in jeans and a pullover sweater in slate blue. Combined with the soap he used in the shower to assail her, his presence had put her senses on overload. He reached down to scratch behind the cat’s ears. “You have the right instincts, Alfredo. I’d trade places with you if I could.”

In the next instant he leaned down and pressed a warm kiss to her mouth. “Welcome back to the land of the living. Your doctor told me you lost consciousness down there.”

“Only for a moment. My buddy Gino knew exactly what to do. It all happened so fast.”

“We can be thankful the divers with the institute are experts.” He stood there looking down at her with an intense expression.

She squirmed. “Rini?” Her voice shook. “Why are you here?”

“Though I had my reasons, I treated you badly when I left here the first time without saying goodbye. My behavior was worse when you flew to Positano to see me and I wouldn’t explain myself. I thought I was doing the right thing both times, but your accident has changed the way I feel about everything.

“I love you and I’ve never said that to another woman in my life. Almost losing you has made me realize I could no longer let my reason stand in the way of being with you, so I’m back to find out if you’d be willing to start over again with me.”

While she sat there in shock, Liona wheeled in a tea cart laden with a meal for them. “If Alfredo is bothering you, I’ll take him out.”

“Oh, no. I love him right here. Thanks, Liona.”

After she left, Rini got up and served both of them a plate of food and her favorite iced tea. His gaze found hers. While they ate he said, “Life has given both of us a second chance. What I’d like to do is invite you to my villa for a week where we can spend real time together.”

Alessandra couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She said the first thing that came into her head. “Can you take a vacation?”

“Of course. I want to get to know you without work or interruptions getting in the way. The nice thing about being CEO is that I can arrange it when I want. The doctor told me you shouldn’t dive for at least two more weeks. You’ve shown me your world. Now it’s time I showed you mine.”

She smiled. “Like fishing?”

“Only if you’d want to.”

“Rini, I adore the outdoors. Hiking, camping, all of it.”

“The mountains are beautiful this time of year. Could you talk to your editor and ask for an extension to turn in your book?”

“He already told me to take all the time I need.”

If only Rini knew she loved him so much she felt like she could move mountains for him, but she was afraid. “When the week is over, then what? Will you consider you’ve done everything possible to obtain my forgiveness?

“Will we say goodbye like sensible people who’ve enjoyed their interlude together but knew it had to come to an end? You’ll go your way because you can’t offer me any more than what you’ve already done? I’ll go mine?”

His jaw hardened. “Why don’t we stop worrying about the future and just take things one day at a time? I need help because I’ve never done anything like this before.”

She took a deep breath, surprised to hear the vulnerability in his voice. “Like what?”

“Invite a woman I care about to stay at my house.”

“I’ve never done anything like it, either.” Talk about needing help...

“The doctor told me you need rest and that you shouldn’t fly until tomorrow. So if I leave you now, will you think about my invitation? I’ll call you in the morning. If you decide you want to come, I’ll arrange to pick you up in the limo and we’ll fly in the company jet to Positano.” He stood up.

“Where will you be in the meantime?”

“At the airport in Metaponto. I’m working in my office on the jet and will stay in the bedroom overnight. I’ll give you until ten a.m. to get in touch with me. If I don’t hear from you by then, I’ll be flying back to Naples.”

She knew he meant it. This was it.

“If you’ll give me your phone, I’ll program my number for you.”

Alessandra handed it to him. “Rini, whatever my answer is, I promise to call you.”

Lines marred his arresting features. “I can’t ask for more than that.” He put the phone on the table. “You need rest now. Take care of yourself, adorata.”