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Wow. Her brain had a lot to sift through: everything he’d said, the cold way he’d said it and the right way to react. Her thoughts tumbled over each other in a crash of confusion until she was finally able to concentrate on the single word that stood out from the rest.
“Destroy?” she asked. “You’d turn it all over to me?”
“I will,” he assured her, then lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “And I don’t lie.”
She frowned at the little slap, but instead of arguing the point, she turned her mind to what he’d promised. If she could destroy any evidence on her family, the Corettis would be safe again. But as her father had said, no one before Rico had ever managed to catch them in the act. How could she be sure that Rico had what he said he did?
“How do I know you have anything for us to worry about?”
“As you told your father not long ago, I don’t bluff.” He pushed away from the railing. “I have enough on them to make any law enforcement agency do a dance of joy as they close a cell door on your father and brothers.”
A knot tightened in the pit of her stomach. Rico was a man who said what he meant and always meant what he said. If he promised retribution, then it would be delivered with a vengeance. If he said he could lock her family away, the cell door was as good as shut.
Her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a cold fist. Looking into his eyes only made the chill she felt go deeper. Though he stood no more than three feet from her, the distance separating them could just as easily have been measured in light-years. “This is about revenge, then?”
“Absolutely.” He smiled, but it was an empty echo of the smile she remembered. The smile that still haunted her dreams. “Did you expect me to declare my love? To have spent the last five years pining away for the woman who stole from me and vanished?”
“Pining away?” she repeated with a short laugh. “Please. I’ve seen the pictures of you in the magazines. Actresses. Models. Socialites. You didn’t look like you were crying on their shoulders, either.”
One corner of his mouth quirked. “Jealous?”
Desperately. “Hardly.”
His gaze narrowed on her. “A thief from a family of thieves. Why should I believe you?”
“I didn’t steal from you,” she argued, beginning to feel a flutter of outrage building inside.
“Your family did, which makes you as guilty as they.”
Okay, she had to give him that. She was a Coretti, after all, despite the fact that she’d never taken part in one of their jobs. “So it’s revenge on my entire family that you’re after?”
“No, Teresa,” he said, moving closer, lifting one hand to cup her cheek. The tender touch was muted by the hard glint in his eyes. “From your family, I want only my property. From you...I want only the pleasure we’ll find together during the next month.”
Everything inside her rippled and pulsed. Just those few words were enough to build a fire in her blood. How was it fair that he had been with countless women over the last five years while she had lived like a nun? How was it fair that he could whisper the word pleasure and have her ready to fall into bed with him?
“And if I’m not interested in sex with you?” she asked, with a mental hah! “Would you force me?”
His blue eyes flashed a warning. “You think I would—could do that?”
“No,” she murmured, shaking her head for emphasis. “I don’t.”
He nodded. “Good.”
“But,” she said quickly, “apparently you’re not above blackmailing me into your bed.”
“You’re my wife. You belong in bed with me. And as I’ve told you, I don’t have to blackmail you into sex. Soon, you’ll be begging me to take you,” Rico told her with a smile. “And I will be happy to acquiesce. Think of it. You spend the month with me and I don’t see your family locked away.”
“I don’t remember you being so hard...” Her words trailed off as she shook her head sadly.
* * *
“A lot has changed in the last five years,” he told her.
Her eyes were golden-brown and dreamy, just as he remembered them. Her scent was the same, too, faintly floral with a hint of summer nights. His hands itched to hold her and he told himself he was just eager to get started on the revenge for which he’d waited so long.
But it was more than that and he knew it.
The memory of this one woman had tormented him enough that no other woman had ever come close to erasing Teresa from his mind. It was time now to exorcise that memory so he could move the hell on.
“Do you agree to my terms?” He asked the question because he wanted to hear her say yes. He wasn’t the kind of man to take a woman against her will—and it pissed him off that she could even suggest it to him. But he wasn’t above making sure the woman he desired didn’t have much choice, either. At least in Teresa’s case.
She was the only woman who had stayed with him, thoughts of her eating away at him day and night. And it wasn’t just her betrayal that made her so unforgettable. No, it was more than that, though the fact that she’d lied to him and used him gnawed at Rico constantly.
She was the woman who had made him feel more than he ever had. Hell, he’d married her when he had been sure that he’d never want to be with one woman for the rest of his life. With Teresa, though, he hadn’t second-guessed anything. He’d listened to his heart and thought her a gift. He’d married her because he hadn’t been able to imagine his life without her. He’d let down his guard around her and had ended up paying for that.
After she had vanished, he’d figured out that she hadn’t been a gift, but a curse. Now he was going to get past the old anger and sense of betrayal. He was going to use her to pave his way to the future.
A future without Teresa Coretti.
“So?” he asked, a casualness he didn’t feel coloring his tone. “What is it going to be, Teresa? Do you stay with me for a month or do you wave goodbye to your family as the jail doors slam shut?”
She lifted her chin, fixed her gaze on his and whispered, “I’ll stay.”
* * *
Teresa was surprised Rico had let her out of his sight.
Although, she told herself an hour later, maybe she shouldn’t have been. He knew all too well that she wouldn’t do anything to endanger her family. So of course she would agree to his terms. And of course she wouldn’t make a break for freedom. And of course she would end up having sex with him. How could she not? Teresa had been dreaming about Rico for five years. Sleeping beside him wouldn’t be enough and she knew it as well as he did.
She walked along the dock, headed for the boat launch where her father and brother waited. Rico had made arrangements for her family to be taken from the island to St. Thomas. From there, they could take a plane back to Italy and hopefully retrieve Rico’s dagger from Gianni’s collection. Thankfully, her brother hadn’t sold the dagger, as he did most things the Coretti family liberated from their owners. Gianni had a small, priceless collection of his own and she knew that dagger was a part of it.
In one month, her family would be back to return the antiquity and free Teresa.
A soft breeze caressed her and tossed a long lock of her hair across her eyes. She plucked it free, plastered a fake smile on her face and studied her family as she approached them.
Her father was cool and calm—nothing shattered the reserve Dominick wore as elegantly as the three-piece suits he preferred. But Paulo looked agitated. He paced back and forth in front of their father, gesticulating wildly and arguing. Though his words were caught by the wind and carried away from her, Teresa had no problem guessing what he was saying. He was furious and she knew that her brother in a temper was someone to avoid. Though there was no chance of that now. She had to face them both, give them Rico’s ultimatum and then watch them go.
“Cara,” her father murmured as she came closer. “You’re leaving with us after all?”
“No, Papa,” she said and withstood the urge to throw herself into her father’s arms for a hug she badly needed. “I’m staying here.”
“For how long?” Paulo demanded.
“A month.”
“Hell with that!”
She looked up at her older brother and winced when she saw just how angry he was. He was tall and dark and right now his brown eyes were flashing with fury. “Paulo, you being mad isn’t helping me.”
“I’m supposed to just accept this?” he asked. “Just leave you here with that man for a month?”
“Yeah. We all have to accept it.” Reaching out, she gave Paulo a brief hug and felt better when he squeezed her back. Paulo and Gianni had always looked out for her. Since she was the baby of the family and a girl, it was to be expected, she supposed. So naturally Paulo would have a hard time seeing her caught in a web he couldn’t get her out of.
“Like it or not,” she said, looking from her brother to her father, “Rico is still my husband.”
“Yeah, and I want to know how that happened,” Paulo muttered.
“Me, as well,” her father said.
“I’ll tell you everything when I leave here, okay?” Teresa took a deep breath and blew it out in a rush. “Look, the important thing to remember is that Rico won’t hurt me.”
“No, just trap you.”
“Paulo...”
“Color this any way you choose, Teresa,” her brother said, “but the hard truth is, he’s using us to get you back into his bed.”
She winced and tried not to look at her father. Maybe Paulo was right—but what her brother didn’t know was that Teresa was torn about her own reaction to the situation. Yes, Rico wanted his dagger back, but was it also possible that he wanted her, too, even if he couldn’t admit it to himself?
“Surely not,” Dominick muttered.
“Why else would he keep her here for a month?” Paulo threw his hands high in disgust. “He knows we could get hold of Gianni and have that damned dagger back here by tomorrow. He’s doing this deliberately. To keep Teresa where he wants her.”
“This is not acceptable,” her father said shortly.
“Papa, we’re married.”
“This does not give him the right to—”
Thankfully, he didn’t finish the sentence. There was only so much more Teresa could take today. Besides, she knew Rico well enough to know that nothing would change his mind. Firing a glare at her big brother, she said, “One month. Then you can return the dagger Gianni stole and Rico will let me leave. With the evidence he’s gathered about us.”
Paulo pushed one hand through his hair. “I still don’t like it.”
“I don’t either,” she admitted, “but we don’t have a choice.”
“I won’t leave you here with him,” her father said softly. “I won’t use my child to bargain for my own safety.”
“What Papa said,” Paulo muttered. “If your ex wants to throw us in jail, let him.”
She loved them both for wanting to make the sacrifice, but she couldn’t allow it. “You’d all go to prison for years.”
“But you didn’t do anything wrong,” Paulo argued. “Not right that you should be the one to pay this price.”
Teresa fought down a tide of guilt that seemed to swell up from the bottom of her heart. If that were true, she thought, she wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. She had been wrong. She’d lied to Rico from the beginning and then she’d run away rather than tell him the truth.
“Gianni stole the dagger, that’s true,” she said, with a glance over her shoulder at the Tesoro Castle up on the hill behind her. “But I’m not entirely innocent in this either.”
“This doesn’t feel right, Teresa,” Paulo told her, “leaving you here. With him.”
Shaking her head, she looked back at her brother. “He’s still my husband, remember?”
Her father gave her a long look. “Not for much longer.”
“One month, Papa. I’ll tell you everything at the end of the month.”
One of the island’s launch boats fired up its engine, shattering the quiet and bringing home the fact that soon Teresa would be alone with a man who’d waited five years for revenge. Sadly, she was both concerned about that...and aroused.
Talking to her family again, she said, “Don’t worry. I’m not in any danger. Rico’s angry, but he would never hurt me.”
“He’s keeping you here against your will,” her father reminded her.
“I’m staying because I choose to stay, Papa,” she said.
He frowned, glanced at the launch boat that would take them to St. Thomas, then turned back to her. “We’ve already tried to call Gianni. He’s not answering his phone. We’ll find him, though, and get the dagger your husband requires.”
Briefly, she wondered where her oldest brother had vanished to this time. Gianni hadn’t been around much in the last couple of years and when he did spend time with the family, he was even more secretive than usual.
“Wait a month before returning, Papa. Rico means what he says.”
“I will wait,” Nick answered with a hard look at Paulo, who was grumbling under his breath. “If you’re sure you want to do this.”
Want was a strong word, she thought. Oh, she wanted Rico, there was no denying that. But if she had any real choice, would she choose to stay with a man who could barely stand to look at her? Probably not. But the truth was, they were all out of options.
“I’m sure,” she said and hoped her voice sounded stronger than she felt at the moment.
“I still don’t like it,” Paulo muttered.
“Neither do I,” their father agreed, then stepped close enough to draw his daughter into the circle of his arms. He held her tightly for a long moment and Teresa snuggled in, taking the comfort he offered before he leaned back to look at her. “You are the one who decided to not be a part of the family business, Teresa. It is not right that you are the one to pay for your legacy.”
She forced a smile she didn’t feel. “It’s only a month, Papa. Then I’ll really be free. And so will my family. That’s all that matters.”
He huffed out an exasperated breath then snapped, “Take the bags to the boat.”
With a last look at his sister, Paulo scooped up their luggage and headed down the dock.
“You’re certain you’ll be safe here?”
“I will,” she lied. Of course, she wasn’t worried about Rico actually hurting her. Not physically, anyway. But every time he looked at her through eyes that spat fury, a new emotional wound opened up inside her.
Nodding, Nick looked up to the white hotel on the crest of the hill behind them, as if he could see straight into Rico’s eyes. When he turned back to his daughter, he sighed. “I should have listened to you, cara, about staying away from this man. I swear to you now, when this month is over, Rico King will be nothing but a bad memory. For all of us.”
He had never been a bad memory to Teresa, though. And she knew that after another month with him, most likely spent in his bed, she would never again be able to pry him out of her mind. But her father didn’t need to know that her heart was still uncertain when it came to the man who was now pulling their strings like a master puppeteer.
“It’ll be fine, Papa.”
Still frowning, he nodded. Then he kissed her forehead and stepped back. “One month, Teresa. We will come back for you in one month.”
She nodded too, though her heart was breaking. Her family was leaving and any minute now she would be alone with the one man who could shatter her heart and soul. “I’ll see you then.”
She watched them board the small craft and stood on the dock, gaze locked on the boat until it was no more than a smudge on the horizon. Then she turned and stared up at Rico’s castle—wondering what kind of dungeon he had in store for her.
Four
A half hour later, her family had left the island and Teresa was exactly where Rico wanted her. In the bedroom of the home he’d had built for himself on the island. Just beyond the hotel, there was a rise of land that overlooked the ocean on one side and the forest on another. Rico had known the moment he’d seen it that this was where he would build his house.
And though he had furnished it and staffed it and lived in it for almost a year now—it had felt empty to him until today. Now she was here and the palatial home felt...crowded.
He watched her walk around the room, stepping tentatively, as if she expected land mines to be lying beneath the gleaming bamboo floor. White linen curtains rippled and danced in the island breeze that wafted through the open windows. Birds in the trees beyond sang in harmonies that lent a peaceful air to this confrontation that was anything but peaceful.
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