Italian Groom, Princess Bride

Lucca extended his hand. “Congratulations on becoming a vet. Your father hides his feelings well, but he makes little comments here and there that let me know he’s bursting his seams with pride over your accomplishment.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

“I’m Lucca. Surely after all these years of reminding you, you can finally bring yourself to call me by my first name.”

Dizo liked and respected Gina’s brother more than any man alive except his own father. “Grazie, Lucca.”

“Prego, Dizo. I know that’s Regina’s name for you. It’s a good one. Clever, just like my incorrigible sister.” He stared directly into Dizo’s eyes. “You have my undying respect for the way you’ve handled her attention to you all these years. Any other man would have taken advantage long before now.”

“I’ve hurt her by coming to you,” he muttered, “but I didn’t know any other way to protect her.”

“I thank you for what you’ve done for her, Dizo. One day when she’s married with children of her own, she’ll thank you, too.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Let’s not deceive ourselves about that.”

Lucca put a hand on his shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do for you, all you have to do is ask.” The man’s sincerity resonated deep inside. “Castelmare needs more vets.”

Not this one. When Gina married Nic and went to Pedrosa to live, there would still be too many memories of her for him to stay on in Castelmare. “I’ll think about it,” Dizo lied.

“That’s good because there’s a new vacancy in Savono. As you know, my father was a great animal lover. One of his best friends ran the practice there, but he had to retire because of health problems. Another vet is temping until a permanent replacement can be found. Before father passed away, he asked me to tell you about it. Frankly he hoped you would take the position.

“The animal clinic is on the main street across from the civic center. Before you leave Castelmare, will you look into it as a personal favor to him and me? I understand you specialize in small animals, the clinic’s specialty.”

Under the circumstances Dizo couldn’t very well turn him down. “I appreciate the suggestion. I’ll drive up there in the morning.” Before I leave the country for good. “Thank you.”

“Thank you. Ciao, Dizo.”

Dizo went out to his rental car and took off for his father’s house, staggered by events that had plunged him from one inferno into another. No matter what decision he made, he was going to be scorched alive.

If he were totally honest with himself, Sardinia held no attraction for him anymore. He’d found that out last night when it had taken a whole bottle to help him bear the thought of being back for good. Though he would always go there for family visits, his old roots didn’t tug at him. He’d made a life in Castlemare and had become entrenched ages ago.

Tonight while he was driving along the coast road and saw the white renaissance palace in the distance, his heart burned within him…because he knew Gina was there. Sixteen years of memories couldn’t be torn out of his soul.

Her brother didn’t know he’d opened up a new can of worms by mentioning the job opportunity in Savono. Dizo was touched by King Rudolfo’s interest in him. He could picture the town in his mind’s eye. It was only a mile above Capriccio to the west. Not far enough away from her at the moment, but then neither was Sardinia.

After her avowal tonight, he knew she’d leave him alone. With her wedding imminent, there was nothing more to fear on that score. They’d be living in Pedrosa. If he never ventured on the palace grounds again, the chances of meeting up with her were one in a billion. She would function with Nic in their privileged world, sealed off and protected from the average citizen. That’s what was destroying him now.

With emotions eating him alive, he found himself taking the hairpin turns up the steep mountain road past pink and ochre villas whose gardens hugged the cliffs. Soon he reached his destination and drove through Savono, one of the most charming locales on the Ligurian coast.

Nighttime brought out the tourists. They strolled in and out of shops and ate on the café terraces while enjoying the view of the yachts in the bay far below. The jewelry stores with their displays of diamonds for which Castlemare was famous stayed open for business until late, drawing in the crowds.

He slowed down in front of a cluster of buildings across from the civic center. The plaque on the middle door read Savono Veterinary Clinic And Boarding Kennel. Dizo pulled to a stop, drinking in the perfumed air.

He could easily imagine himself living here, except that everything reminded him of her.

If he lived in Sardinia, nothing would remind him of her, but that wouldn’t stop him from thinking and aching. His pain would probably be worse.

There was no question where Guido would like him to settle. His father loved Castelmare. He’d stayed on after Dizo’s mother had died and his brothers weren’t going anywhere.

Dizo stared at the clinic. A referral from Lucca and his father were as good as a guaranteed job offer. His dream to make something of his life was coming true, but without Gina, there would be no joy. This was worse than death. If she’d been the one to die, he would have been forced to accept it and go on living.

Unfortunately his beautiful Giannina was very much alive and going to be married to someone else!

Not unfortunately—

Dio mio, he didn’t mean that. He didn’t know what he meant anymore. An abyss had swallowed him whole. Everywhere he turned he bumped into terrifying darkness.

As soon as Regina reached her suite in the palace, she kicked off her shoes and phoned her secretary.

“Will you please fax a note to Nicolas in the morning? Tell him I’m sorry it has taken me this long to respond to his invitation, but my father’s passing prevented me from doing so until now. Let him know I’d love to spend the weekend with him.”

Regina didn’t care how it looked. She’d done all the mourning for two men there was to do in one life. Enough of that. If Nic wanted to make final wedding plans, so be it!

“Yes, Your Highness.”

No sooner had she hung up than she heard her brother’s rap on the outer door of her suite. She’d been expecting him. If he thought he would find her convulsed on the bed, he was in for a shock.

She grabbed a nail file out of the drawer in her bedside table and sat in the middle of her bed cross-legged against the silky duvet. “Come in, Lucca!”

When he walked in her bedroom furnished in shades of cream and pale green, she looked up at him. “If you’ve come to check on me, I’m fine. Go home to your wife and child.”

He stood at the end of her king-size bed without saying anything. She could tell he was really angry with her. It shook her. He’d always been her sibling, but now he was a lot more than that. Somehow she hadn’t fully realized it until now.

“You do understand why Dizo reacted the way he did—”

“Of course. I went too far and he called my bluff because he’s the iron man. I thought I’d test him to see if he had an Achilles’ heel.” She flashed her brother a broad smile. “He doesn’t, at least not where I’m concerned. I get it.”

She started filing the nail of her index finger.

“It’s called decency, Regina. Respect for the crown. What shocks me is that you thought you had the right to cross the line with him.” Her brother was truly upset with her. Now that their father had passed away, he was feeling the weight of his responsibilities and she was one of them. While she waited for him to speak, she didn’t realize she’d filed her nail down to the skin.

“From the age of sixteen when Dizo first came here, he has known that any romantic association with you was out of the question. Taken to its furthest degree, he could never marry you. When he left for Sardinia, it was to start a new life as a vet. He never once made a wrong move with you.”

“You’re right! He’s got a stone where his heart is.” Fire filled her cheeks. “How come you managed to get away with enjoying all the off-limits-women in your life?”

“They didn’t work at the palace,” her unflappable brother came back with his indisputable logic. “Their fathers didn’t have the kind of friendship Guido enjoyed with our father.

“Dizo is the product of his own strict upbringing. The Forneses have an enviable code of ethics handed down from their ancestry and are the finest people I know. Would that Alexandra and I can instill that kind of character in Catarina. He did the honorable thing so you could preserve your reputation. Think what you did by flying to Sardinia—”

“Honor be damned. When all’s said and done, he didn’t want me.” A brittle laugh escaped her throat. “Saving my reputation,” she mocked.

“Yes. And his family’s. And Nic’s.” He stared her down. “In the end that’s all any of us has.”

Guilt smote her.

“I guess it’s as good an excuse as any for admitting I don’t have what it takes to turn him on.” She tossed her head back. “Well, he did a superb job of it. Never mind those hours we were in bed together where he couldn’t stop telling me how much he wanted me. That was only the alcohol talking in the heat of the moment. As soon as he was sober, he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.

“You should have seen his eyes light up once I told him he didn’t need to worry about becoming a father. Would you believe he was so drunk he fell asleep before anything major could happen? Even out of control, Dinozzo Fornese was in control.” Her voice shook. “The joke’s on me.

“Even if Guido lied about Dizo’s forthcoming wedding, he was being prophetic. One day soon I’ll learn that Dizo married a local girl from Sassari. They’ll help take care of his grandmother and everything will be just as it should be in the Fornese corner of the world.”

She tossed her file on the table. “Just so you know, I’ve accepted Nic’s invitation for this coming weekend. He wants to talk over wedding plans. I think it’s time. Let’s agree that miracles only happen once. You got yours when Alexandra swept into your life at the midnight hour setting you ablaze.

“As Dizo informed me in his doomsday voice a little while ago, the fairy tale is over for us. I’m ready to marry Nic. The sooner the better. Unlike you, I want a life and children before I reach my thirties. By then I’ll be too old to get down in the dirt and make mud pies with them.”

There would be no fire with Nic. Nothing could equal what had taken place in the privacy of Dizo’s bedroom where Regina had known rapture of a kind she had no idea existed. She looked away from her brother’s all-seeing gaze.

“By now Catarina will be waiting for her papa to kiss her good-night. You’d better go or Alexandra will start to worry.”

“I’m going, but I want you to call me if you need me.”

“Thank you, but I won’t.”

The brother she loved had become even more protective now that their father had passed away, but there was only one man she needed and he was permanently unavailable.

CHAPTER THREE

“DR. FORNESE?” The voice of the receptionist came over the speakerphone in the surgery. “There’s an important call for you from the palace in Capriccio.”

Steady, Dizo.

Two weeks had passed since the night at the greenhouse. This phone call couldn’t be from Gina. It was as if she didn’t exist.

“I’m still putting in some sutures,” he called through his mask. Signora Rossini’s terrier had tangled with her neighbor’s pit bull. The terrier had gotten the worst of it.

“Tell them I’ll return the call when I’m through with this operation. Put the number on my desk.”

Twenty minutes later he pulled off his gloves and mask and went into his office. After shutting the door, he sat down in the chair and reached for the cell phone in his lab coat pocket. He didn’t recognize the number written on the paper.

After he punched in the digits it rang twice, then he heard the deep voice of Gina’s brother. “Ciao, Dizo. Come va?” The king’s private line?

“Va bene, Lucca.”

“I was pleased to discover you took the position in Savono.”

“Thanks to you it’s working out very well. Did you receive my note?”

“I did. It was much appreciated.”

On the surface everything seemed fine, but Dizo sensed undercurrents and broke out in a cold sweat. “Is your family well?”

“Our little girl is thriving.”

“That’s good to hear.” What about Gina? Was something wrong with her? Dizo got to his feet waiting for the other shoe to fall. It wasn’t long in coming.

“A situation’s come up I need to see you about. What’s your schedule like this evening after you leave work?”

All his evenings were the same. Nothing went on. Not a damn thing. Some nights he spent with his family before returning to his apartment. Work was saving his life right now. “I’m free. If you want, I can be there within the hour.”

“Good. Come to my office at the palace. The staff at the north portico will let you in. For your information I’ve asked your father and Regina to join us.”

His heart thumped in reaction. Gina was going to be there?

“I thought the four of us should meet unofficially before it turns into official business. A presto, Dizo.”

His cryptic remark brought Dizo’s pacing to an abrupt halt. It was a good thing Lucca had hung up. The groan that came out of Dizo would have deafened the party on the other end.

No amount of speculation was going to give him the answers he needed, but the fact that his father had also been summoned meant a situation of nightmarish proportions had developed. They’d been sitting on a time bomb after all. Yet as ugly as he knew it was going to get, the thought of laying eyes on Gina again caused an overriding explosion of excitement nothing could dampen.

Regina couldn’t imagine why her brother wanted to see her in his office, but obviously he was working late. She explained that she needed to change out of her T-shirt and sweats. A shower was in order first, but he told her not to bother. He’d be waiting for her in the small conference room.

When he spoke to her like that in what Alexandra teasingly called his monarch’s voice, no one dared argue with him, especially not Regina. Once upon a time she could tease her brother and get away with it, but no longer.

“I’ll be right there.”

She ran a brush through her hair before leaving her suite. Too bad she hadn’t worked out in the gym this morning, but there hadn’t been time. For the last two weeks she’d doubled her capacity to get things done in between visits to Pedrosa to be with Nic. As a result she hadn’t been able to fit in the gym until an hour ago. Much as she hated the sticky feeling, her brother’s request had first priority.

After passing by frescoed walls framed with gilt cornices, she descended the white marble staircase to the main floor with its checkerboard design of white and rose marble. It led to his work area that took up the entire west wing of the palace.

“Piccina.” Her brother motioned for her to come in and sit by him at the conference table. He had a packet of papers in front of him. It looked like he’d called an emergency meeting and she was the first to arrive.

“What’s happening?” She took her place at his right side. “Who else is coming?”

A sound at the entry supplied the answer. Guido. He had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

Her head jerked toward her brother, but he was already on his feet to shake the head gardener’s hand and ask him to be seated on his left.

Before their father’s funeral, their mother had talked about erecting a flowered arbor at the end of the east rose garden. It was their father’s favorite spot on the grounds. Regina was glad Lucca had decided to act on the suggestion. The fact that their mother wasn’t here meant he intended to surprise her.

“Buona sera, Guido,” she greeted him. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen him dressed in anything but a work shirt and trousers. Tonight in a business suit and tie, he looked different. Attractive. Though shorter than Dizo, the resemblance to his oldest son in coloring and facial features was more pronounced. His brothers had inherited more of their mother’s softer traits. At the thought of Dizo she fought to quiet the sob in her throat.

He nodded. “Principessa.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. While she was wondering what her brother was waiting for, Dizo suddenly appeared in the doorway.

A gasp escaped her lips.

He’d flown all the way from Sardinia to be here? Their gazes collided for a heart-stopping moment. Her hungry eyes fastened on his fiercely handsome face, reminiscent of an ancient Sardinian warrior. A light gray suit covered his tall, masculine physique. He looked absolutely…incredible.

Too late she realized she was staring and averted her eyes.

Don’t pass out, Regina. Don’t let him know the kind of power he has over you. Never again.

“Dizo?” Since when had her brother addressed him by the nickname she’d given him? “Would you mind closing the doors so we can be private?”

After doing Lucca’s bidding, he sat down next to his father.

The shock of seeing him like this released a burst of adrenaline. It caused the back of her skull to throb, the sure sign of a headache coming on.

“I want to thank everyone for being on time. A situation involving the four of us has developed, one I can no longer ignore. At this point it needs to be resolved speedily because we’re running out of time.”

Lucca reached in the packet and pulled out some photographs. “During the last month before our father’s death, Regina’s pain reached its zenith. Our mother worried over her behavior. Frankly, so did I. To make certain she was all right, I asked her bodyguards to keep a close watch on her and report back if they thought she was in trouble and needed me.”

Humiliated by the admission, Regina bowed her head.

“After her unannounced trip to Sardinia in the dead of night, they brought me some pictures they took to give me proof she might be endangering herself.”

He distributed them around. One of the eight-by-ten black and white glossies showed Regina propping Dizo in the back doorway of the farmhouse. They were fused together in a clinch that practically set fire to the paper.

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