Will You Marry Me?
A Marriage Made in Italy
Rebecca Winters
The Courage to Say Yes
Barbara Wallace
The Matchmaker’s Happy Ending
Shirley Jump

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

A Marriage Made in Italy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

The Courage to Say Yes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Matchmaker’s Happy Ending

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Copyright

A Marriage Made in Italy

REBECCA WINTERS, whose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.

Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website: www.cleanromances.com.

CHAPTER ONE

BELLE PETERSON LEFT the cell phone store she managed, and took a bus to the law office of Mr. Earl Harmon in downtown Newburgh, New York. The secretary showed her into the conference room. She discovered her thirty-year-old, divorced sibling, Cliff, had already arrived and was sitting at the oval table with a mulish look on his face, daring her to speak to him. She hadn’t seen him since their parents’ funeral six months ago.

On the outside he was blond and quite good-looking, but his facade hid a troubled soul. He’d been angry enough after his wife had left him, but the deaths of their parents in a fatal car crash meant he was now on his own. Today Belle felt Cliff’s antipathy more strongly than usual and chose a seat around the other side of the table without saying a word.

Now twenty-four and single, she had been adopted fourteen years ago. The children at the Newburgh Church Orphanage had liked her, as had the sisters. But out in the real world, Belle felt she was unlovable, and worked hard at her job to gain the respect of her peers. Her greatest pain was never to know the mother who’d given birth to her. To have no identity was an agony she’d had to live with every day of her life.

The sisters who ran the orphanage had told Belle that Mrs. Peterson had been able to have only one child. She’d finally prevailed on her husband to adopt the brunette girl, Belle, who had no last name. This was Belle’s chance to have a mother, but no bonding ever took place. From the day she’d been taken home, Cliff had been cruel to her, making her life close to unbearable at times.

“Good morning.”

Belle was so deep in thought over the past, she didn’t realize Mr. Harmon had come into the room. She shook his hand.

“I’m glad you two could arrange to meet here at the same time. I have some bad news and some good. Let’s start with the bad first.”

The familiar scowl on Cliff’s face spoke volumes.

“As you know, there was no insurance, therefore the home you grew up in was sold to pay off the multitude of debts. The good news is you’ve each been given fifteen hundred dollars from the auction of the furnishings. I have checks for you.” He passed them out.

Cliff shot to his feet. “That’s it?” Belle heard panic beneath his anger. She knew he’d been waiting to come into some money, if only to make up delinquent alimony payments. She hadn’t expected anything herself and rejoiced to receive this check, which she clutched in her hand before putting it in her purse.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Peterson, but everything went to pay off your father’s debts and cover the burial costs. Please accept my sincere sympathy at the passing of your parents. I wish both of you the very best.”

“Thank you, Mr. Harmon,” Belle said, when Cliff continued to remain silent.

“If you ever need my help, feel free to call.” The attorney smiled at her and left the room. The second he was gone, an explosion of venom escaped Cliff’s lips. He shot her a furious glance.

“It’s all your fault. If Mom hadn’t nagged Dad for a daughter, there would have been more money and we wouldn’t be in this mess. Why don’t you go back to Italy where you belong?”

Her heart suddenly pounded with dizzying intensity. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. Dad never wanted you.”

“You think I didn’t know that?” She moved closer to her brother, holding her breath. “Are you saying I came from Italian parents?” All along she’d thought the sisters at the orphanage might have named her for the fairy-tale character, or else she came from French roots.

Her whole life she’d been praying to find out her true lineage, and she’d gone to the orphanage many times seeking information. But every time she did, she’d been told they couldn’t help her. Nadine, her adoptive mother, had never revealed the truth to her, but Belle had heard Cliff’s slip and refused to let it go.

He averted his eyes and wheeled around to leave, but she raced ahead of him and blocked the door. At twenty-four, Belle was no longer frightened of him. Before they left this office and parted ways forever, she had to ask the question that had been inscribed on her mind and heart from the time she knew she was an orphan. “What else do you know about my background?”

Cliff flashed her a mocking smile. “Now that Dad’s no longer alive, how much money are you willing to pay me for the information?”

She could hardly swallow before she opened her purse and pulled out the check. In a trembling voice she said, “I’d give you this to learn anything that could help me know my roots.” While he watched, she drew out a pen and endorsed it over to him.

For the first time since she’d known him, his eyes held a puzzled look rather than an angry one. “You’d give up that much money just to know about someone who didn’t even want you?”

“Yes,” she whispered, fighting tears. “It’s not important if they didn’t want me. I just need to know who I am and where I came from. If you know anything, I beg you to tell me.” Taking a leap of faith, she handed him the check.

He took it from her and studied it for a moment. “You always were pathetic,” he muttered.

“So you don’t know anything and were just teasing me with your cruelty? That doesn’t really surprise me. Go on. Keep it. I never thought we’d get that much money from the auction, anyway. You’re one of the lucky people who grew up knowing your parents. Too bad they’re gone and you’re all alone now. Knowing how it feels, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even you.”

Belle opened the door, and had started to leave when she heard him say, “The old man said your last name was the same as the redheaded smart-mouth he hated in high school.”

Her heart thundered. She spun around. “Who was that?”

“Frankie Donatello.”

“Donatello?”

“Yeah. One day I heard Mom and Dad arguing about you. That’s when it came out. He said he wished they’d never adopted that Italian girl’s brat. After he left for work, I told Mom she ought to send you back to where you came from, because you weren’t wanted. She said that would be impossible because it was someplace in Italy.”

What? “Where in Italy?” Belle demanded.

“I don’t know. It sounded something like Remenee.”

“How did he find out? The sisters told me it was a closed adoption.”

“How the hell do I know?”

It didn’t matter, because joy lit up Belle’s insides. Her leap of faith had paid off! Without conscious thought she reached out and hugged him so hard she almost knocked him over. “Thank you! I know you hate me, but I love you for this and forgive every mean thing you ever said or did to me. Goodbye, Cliff.”

She rushed out of the law office to the bus stop and rode back to work. After nodding to the sales reps, she disappeared into the back room and looked for a map of Italy on the computer. She was trembling so violently she could hardly work the keyboard.

As she scrolled down the list of cities and towns that popped up, the name Rimini appeared, most closely matching “Remenee.” The blood pounded in her ears when she looked it up and discovered it was a town of a hundred forty thousand along the Adriatic. It was in the province of Rimini.

Quickly, she scanned the month’s schedule of vacations for the employees. They all had one week off in summer and one in winter. Belle was on summer break from college, where she went to night school. Her vacation would be coming up the third week of June, ten days away.

Without hesitation she booked a flight from New York City to Rimini, Italy, and made arrangements for a rental car. She chose the cheapest flight, with two stopovers, and made a reservation at a pension that charged only twenty-eight dollars a day. No phone, no TV. The coed bathroom was down the hall. Sounded like the orphanage. That was fine with her. A bed was all she needed.

Since she’d been saving her money, and roomed with two other girls, she’d managed to put away a modest nest egg. All these years she’d been guarding it for something important, never dreaming the money would ever help her to find her mother.

“Belle?”

She lifted her head and smiled politely at her colleague. “Yes, Mac?”

“How about going for pizza after we lock up tonight?”

“I’m sorry, but I have other plans.”

“You always say that. How can someone so gorgeous turn me down? Come on. How about it?”

Her new assistant manager, transferred in from another store, was good-looking and a real barracuda in sales, but he irritated her by continually trying to get her to go out with him.

“Mac? I’ve told you already that I’m not interested.”

“Some of the guys call you the Ice Queen.” He never gave up.

“Really. Anything else you want to say to me before you finish the inventory?”

She heard a smothered imprecation before the door closed. Good. Maybe she was an ice queen. Fine! So far she hadn’t seen examples of love in her personal life and didn’t expect to.

Her birth parents had given her away. Her adoptive parents had suffered through an unhappy marriage. Her adoptive brother was already divorced, and angry. He’d used her pretty mercilessly as an emotional punching bag. Belle always felt she was on the outside looking in, but never being part of a whole.

She thought about the single girls at the store, who all struggled to find good dates and were usually miserable with the ones they landed. Two of the four guys were married. One of them was having an affair. The other was considering divorce. The other two were players. Both spent their money on clothes and cars.

Her own roommates were still single and terrified they would end up alone. It was all they talked about when the three of them went running in the mornings.

Belle didn’t worry about being alone. That had been her state from the moment she was born. The few dates she’d accepted here and there outside the workplace had fizzled. It was probably her fault, because she didn’t feel very lovable and wasn’t as confident as she needed to be. Marriage wasn’t an option for her.

She didn’t trust any relationship to last, and cut it off early. Belle hadn’t met a man she’d cared enough about to imagine going to bed with. No doubt her mother had experimented, and gotten caught with no resources but the church orphanage to help her. Belle refused to get into that circumstance.

What she could depend on was her career, which gave her the stability she craved after being dependent on the orphanage and her adoptive parents. She was a free agent now. Her store had been number one in the region for two years. Soon she hoped to be promoted to upper-level management in the company.

But first she would take her precious vacation time to try to find her mother. If Cliff had gotten it wrong or misunderstood, then maybe the trip would be for nothing, but Belle had to think positive thoughts. Romantic Italy, the world of Michelangelo, gondolas and the famous tenor Pavarotti, had always sounded as delightful and as faraway as the moon. Incredible to believe she’d actually be flying there in ten days.

Tomorrow she’d see about equipping herself with a company GSM phone and SIM card, the kind with a quad-band. Once in Rimini, she’d find a local library and work from the latest city phone directory to do her research.

She was in the midst of making a mental list of things she’d need when Rod, one of the reps, suddenly burst in on her. “Hey, boss? Can you come out in front? An angry client just threw his cell phone at Sheila and is demanding satisfaction. He said it broke after he bought it.”

She smiled. “If it wasn’t broken, it is now. No problem.” No problem at all on the first red-letter day of her life. “I’ll be right there.”

* * *

It was seven in the morning when thirty-three-year-old Leonardo Rovere di Malatesta, the elder son of Count Sullisto Malatesta of Rimini, finally got his little six-month-old Concetta to sleep. The doctor said she’d caught a bug, and he’d prescribed medicine to bring down her temperature. It was now two degrees lower than it had been at midnight, and she hadn’t thrown up again, grazie a Dio!

After he’d walked the floor with her all night in an attempt to comfort her, he was exhausted. The dog ought to be exhausted, too. Rufo was a brown roan Spinone, a wedding gift from his wife’s father.

Rufo had been devoted to Benedetta and had transferred his allegiance to Concetta when Leon had returned from the hospital without his wife. Since that moment, their dog had never let the baby out of his sight. Leon was deeply moved by such a show of love, and patted the animal’s head.

There was no way he’d be going in to the bank today. Talia and Rufo would watch over his daughter while he slept. The forty-year-old nanny had been with him since Benedetta had died in childbirth, and was devoted to his precious child. If the baby’s fever spiked again, he could count on her to waken him immediately.

He kissed Concetta’s head with its fine, dark blond hair, and laid her in the crib on her back, out of habit. She never stayed in that position for long. Her lids hid brown eyes dark as poppy throats. She had Benedetta’s coloring and facial features. Leon loved this child in a way he hadn’t thought possible. Her presence and demanding needs filled the aching loneliness in his heart for the wife he’d lost.

After tiptoeing out of the nursery, he told Talia he was going to bed, then went to find his housekeeper, who’d always worked for his mother’s family. She and Talia were cousins, and he trusted them implicitly.

“Simona? I’ve turned off my cell phone. If someone needs me, knock on my door.”

The older woman nodded before Leon headed for his bedroom. He was so exhausted he didn’t remember his head touching the pillow. The relief of knowing the baby’s fever had broken helped him to fall into a deep sleep.

When he heard a tap on his door later, he checked his watch. He’d slept seven hours and couldn’t believe it was already midafternoon! He came awake immediately, fearing something was wrong.

“Simona? Is Concetta worse?” he called out.

“No, no. She has recovered. Talia is feeding her.” Relief swamped him a second time. “Your assistant at the bank asked if you would phone him at your convenience.”

“Grazie.” Leon levered himself off the bed and headed for the shower, surprised that Berto would call the villa. Normally he would leave a message on Leon’s cell. Maybe he had.

After he’d shaved and dressed, Leon reached for his phone. There was a message from his father asking him to join the family for dinner.

Not tonight.

Another message came from his friend Vito, in Rome. Leon would phone him before he went to bed.

Nothing from Berto.

Leon walked into the kitchen, where he found Talia feeding plums from a jar to his daughter, who was propped in her high chair. Rufo sat on the floor with his tail moving back and forth, watching with those humanlike eyes.

Concetta’s sweet little face broke into a smile the second she saw her father, and she waved her hands. Whenever she did that, it made him thankful he was alive. He felt her forehead, pleased to note her fever was gone.

“I do believe you’re much better, il mio tesoro. As soon as I make a few phone calls, you and I are going to go out on the patio and play.” It overlooked his private stretch of beach with its fine golden sand. Concetta was strong and loved to stand in it in her bare feet if he braced her.

Yesterday he’d bought a new set of stacking buckets for her, but she hadn’t felt well enough to be interested. Now that her health was improved, he couldn’t wait to see what she’d do with them. First, however, he phoned his father to explain that the baby had been sick and needed to be put down early.

When Leon heard the disappointment in his voice, he made arrangements for dinner the following evening if she was all better. With that accomplished he called his secretary at the bank.

“Berto? I sent you a text message telling you my daughter was ill. Is there a problem that can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“No, no. I’ll talk to you in the morning, provided the bambina is better.”

Leon rubbed the pad of his thumb along his lower lip. “You wouldn’t have phoned if you didn’t think it was important.”

“At first I thought it was.”

“But now you’ve changed your mind?” Berto was being uncharacteristically cryptic.

“Sì. It can wait until tomorrow. Ciao, Leon.”

His assistant actually hung up on him! Leon clicked off and eyed the baby, who’d eaten all her plums and seemed perfectly content playing with her fingers.

“Talia, something has come up at the bank. I’ll run into town and be back within the hour. Tell Simona to phone me if there’s the slightest problem.”

“The little one will be fine.”

He kissed his daughter’s cheek. “I’ll see you soon.”

After changing into a suit, Leon alerted his bodyguard before leaving the villa. He drove his black sports car into the most celebrated seaside resort city in Europe, curious to understand what was going on with Berto.

After pulling around to the back of the ornate, two-story Renaissance building, partially bombed during World War II and later reconstructed, he let himself in the private entrance reserved for him and his family. He took the marble staircase two steps at a time to his office on the next floor, where he served as assets manager for Malatesta Banking, one of the two top banking institutions in Italy.

Under his father’s brilliant handling as wealth manager, they’d grown to twenty-five thousand employees. With his brother, Dante, overseeing the broker-dealer department, business was going well despite Italy’s economic downturn. If the call from Berto meant any kind of trouble, Leon intended to get to the bottom of it pronto.

His redheaded assistant was on a call when Leon walked into his private suite of rooms. Judging from his expression, Berto was surprised to see him. He rang off quickly and got to his feet. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

Leon’s hands went to his hips. “I didn’t expect you to hang up so quickly from our earlier conversation. I want to know what’s wrong. Don’t tell me again it’s nothing. Which of the accounts is in trouble?”

Berto looked flustered. “It has nothing to do with the accounts. A woman came to the bank earlier today after being sent from Donatello Diamonds on the Corso D’Augosto.”

“And?” Leon demanded, sensing his assistant’s hesitation.

“Marcello in Security called up here, asking for you to handle the inquiry, since your father wasn’t available. The manager at Donatello’s told her she would have to speak to someone at the bank. That’s when I called you.

“But after I heard it was some American wanting information about the Donatello family, I figured it was a foreign reporter snooping around. At that point I decided not to bother you any more about it.”

Leon frowned in puzzlement. Someone wanting to do legitimate business would have made an appointment with him or his father and left their full name.

Was it one of the paparazzi posing as an American tourist in order to dig up news about the family? Leon’s relatives had to be on constant alert against the media wanting to rake up old scandal to sell papers.

Leon had seen it all and viewed life with a cynical eye. It was what came from being a Malatesta, hated in earlier centuries and still often an object of envy.

“When I couldn’t get you or your father, I tried your brother, but he’s out of town. I told Marcello this person would have to leave a name and phone number. With your daughter sick, I didn’t consider this an emergency, but I still wanted you to be informed.”

“I appreciate that. You handled it perfectly. Do you have the information she left?”

Berto handed the notepaper to him. “That’s the phone number and address of the Pensione Rosa off the Via Vincenza Monti. The woman’s name is Belle. Marcello said she’s in her early twenties, and with her long dark hair and blue eyes, more than lives up to her name. When she approached him, he thought she was a film star.”

Naturally. Didn’t the devil usually appear in the guise of a beautiful woman? Of course she didn’t leave a last name....

“Good work, Berto. Tell no one else about this. See you tomorrow.”

More curious than ever, Leon left the bank. A few minutes later he discovered the small lodging down an alley, half hidden by the other buildings. He parked and entered. No one was around, so he pressed the buzzer at the front desk. In a moment a woman older than Simona came out of an alcove.

“I’m Rosa. If you need a room, we’re full, signore.”

Leon handed her the paper. “You have a woman named Belle registered here?”

“Sì.” With that staccato answer he realized he wouldn’t be learning her guest’s last name the easy way.

“Could you ring her room, per favore?”

“No phone in the rooms.”

He might have known, considering the low price for accommodations listed on the back wall. “Do you know if she’s in?”

“She went out several hours ago and hasn’t returned.”

He spied a chair against the wall, next to an end table with a lamp on it. “I’ll wait.”

The woman scrutinized him. “Leave me your name and number and she can call you from the desk here after she returns.”

“I’ll take my chances and see if she comes in.”

With a shrug of her ample shoulders, the woman disappeared through the alcove.

Rather than sit here for what might be hours, he phoned one of his security people to do surveillance. When Ruggio arrived, Leon gave him the American woman’s description and said he wanted to be notified as soon as she showed up.

With that taken care of, he walked out to the alley and got in his car. He was halfway to the villa when his cell phone rang. It was Ruggio. Leon clicked on. “What’s happening?”

“The woman fitting the description you gave me just entered. She’s driving a rental car from the airport.”

“Which agency?”

When Ruggio gave him the particulars, Leon told him to stay put until he got there. On the way back to the pension, he called the rental agency and asked to speak to the manager on a matter of vital importance. Once the man heard it was Signor di Malatesta investigating a possible police matter to do with the bank, he told him her last name was Peterson, and that she was from Newburgh, New York. Leon didn’t often use his name to apply pressure, but this case was an exception.

He learned she’d made the reservation nearly two weeks ago and had rented the car for seven days. It seemed she’d already been in Rimini three days.

Leon thanked the manager for his cooperation. Pleased to be armed with this much information before confronting her, he made a search on his phone. Newburgh was a town sixty miles north of New York City. What it all meant he didn’t know yet, but he was about to find out.

He saw the rental car when he drove down the alley and parked. Ruggio met him at the front desk of the pension, where Rosa was helping a scruffy-looking male wearing a backpack and short shorts.

“She’s been in her room since she came in. She’s molta molta bellissima,” Ruggio whispered. “I think I’ve seen her on television.”

Marcello had said the same thing. “Grazie. I’ll take it from here,” Leon told him. If she was working alone or with another reporter, he planned to find out.

Once Ruggio left, he sat down. By now it was quarter after six. Without a TV, she’d probably leave again, if only to get a meal. If he had to wait too long, he’d insist Rosa go knock on Signorina Peterson’s door. To pass the time, Leon phoned Simona, and was relieved to hear his little girl seemed to be over the worst of her bug.

As he was telling his housekeeper he wasn’t sure what time he’d get home, a woman emerged from the alcove. Without warning, his adrenaline kicked in. Not just because she was beautiful—in fact, incredibly so. It was because there was something about her that reminded him of someone else.

She swept past him, so fast she was out the door before he was galvanized into action. After telling Simona he’d get back to her, he sprang from the chair and followed the shapely woman in the two-piece linen suit and leather sandals down the alley to her car.

He estimated she had to be five feet six. Even the way she carried herself, with a kind of unconscious grace, was appealing. Physically, Leon could find nothing wrong with her, and that bothered him, since he hadn’t been able to look at another woman since Benedetta.

“Belle Peterson?”

She wheeled around, causing her gleaming hair, the color of dark mink, to swish about her shoulders. Cobalt-blue eyes fringed with black lashes flew to Leon in surprise. If she already knew who he was, she was putting on a good act of pretending otherwise.

She possessed light olive skin that needed no makeup. Her wide mouth, with its soft pink lipstick, had a voluptuous flare. He found her the embodiment of feminine pulchritude, but to his surprise she stared at him without a hint of recognition or flirtatiousness. “How do you know my name? We’ve never met.”

With that accent, she was American through and through. He found her directness as intriguing as her no-nonsense demeanor. Some men might find it intimidating. Leon’s gaze dropped to her left hand, curled over her shoulder bag and resting against the lush curve of her hip. Her nails were well manicured with a neutral coating. She wore no rings.

If in disguise for a part she was playing—perhaps in the hope of infiltrating their family business in some way to unlock secrets—he would say she looked...perfect.

He pulled the note Berto had given him out of his suit jacket pocket and handed it to her.

She glanced at it before eyeing him again. “Evidently you’re from the bank. How did you get my last name?”

“A simple matter of checking with the car rental agency.”

Her blue eyes turned frosty. “I don’t know about your country, but in mine that information can only be obtained by a judge’s warrant during the investigation of a crime.”

“My country has similar laws.”

“Was it a crime to ask questions?”

“Of course not. But I’m afraid our doors are closed to all so-called journalists. I decided to investigate.”

“I’m not a journalist or anything close,” she stated promptly. Reaching in her shoulder bag, she pulled a business card out of her wallet.

He took it from her fingers and glanced at it. Belle Peterson, Manager, Trans Continental Cell Phones Incorporated, Newburgh, New York...

He lifted his head. “Why didn’t you leave this card at the bank with the security man you talked to?”

Without hesitation, she said, “Because a call to my work verifying my employment would let everyone know where I am. Since my whereabouts are no one’s business, I wish it to remain that way. The fact is, I’m on vacation and it’s almost over.”

He slipped the card into his pocket. “You’ll be returning to Newburgh?”

“Yes. I’ve talked to as many people with the last name Donatello as I’ve been able to locate in Rimini. So far I haven’t found the information I’ve been seeking.”

“Or a missing person, maybe?” he prodded. “A man, perhaps?” The question slipped out, once again surprising him. As if he cared who she was looking for...

Her gaze never wavered. “I suppose that’s a natural assumption a man might make, but the answer is no. Not every woman is looking for a man, whether it be for pleasure or for marriage...an institution that in my opinion is overvaunted.”

She sounded like Leon, only in reverse, increasing his interest.

“To be specific, the manager at Donatello Diamonds directed me to the Malatesta Bank, but it seems I’ve come to a dead end there, too. Since you prefer not to tell me your name, at least let me thank you for the courtesy of coming to the pension to let me know you can’t help me. I can cross Donatello Diamonds off my list of possibilities.”

Like a man concluding a business meeting, she put out her hand for Leon to shake. His closed around hers. Unexpected warmth shot up his arm, catching him off guard before he released her. “What will you do now?”

“I’ll continue to search until my time runs out in three days. Goodbye.” She turned and got in her rental car without asking him for the card back. He watched until she drove to the end of the alley and turned onto the street.

Her card burned a hole in his pocket. He pulled it out. If he phoned the number on the back of it, he’d find out if she’d been telling the truth about her job. But since he was a person who always jealously guarded his own privacy, he could relate to her desire to keep her private life to herself.

No matter what, this woman meant nothing to him. If she’d come on a fishing expedition, he hadn’t given her any information she could use to cause trouble.

By the time he’d driven back to the villa, his thoughts were on his daughter. It wasn’t until later, after he’d kissed her good-night and was doing laps in the pool, that images of the American woman kept surfacing. There was something familiar about her that wouldn’t leave him alone.

A nagging voice urged him to phone the head office of TCCPI, wherever it was located, to find out if she’d fabricated an elaborate lie including a business card. Leon could do that before he went to bed. If he didn’t make the call, he’d never get to sleep.

CHAPTER TWO

EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING, Belle came awake after a restless night. The tall nameless man in the light blue silk suit who’d tracked her down in the alley last evening was without question the most dangerously striking male she’d ever met in her life.

With those aquiline features, he embodied much more than the conventional traits one normally attributed to a gorgeous man, such as handsome, dashing or exciting. She couldn’t believe it, but she’d been attracted to him. Strongly attracted. It had never happened to her before.

Once he’d called out to her, she’d felt his powerful presence before she’d even turned to study his rock-hard physique. His black hair and olive skin provided the perfect foil for startling gray eyes.

For him to come from the bank armed with information no one could have known meant he was someone of importance. The fact that her inquiry had brought him to the pension convinced her she’d unwittingly trespassed on ground whose secrets were so dark, they had to be well guarded.

Who better than the man who’d suddenly appeared like some mysterious prince from this Renaissance city? Just remembering their encounter sent a shiver down the length of her body.

She was being fanciful, but couldn’t help it. His deep voice with barely a trace of accent in English had agitated her nervous system. Even after twelve hours she could still feel it resonating. Though she’d never forget him, she needed to push thoughts of him to the back of her mind. Her flight home Sunday would be here before she knew it, which meant she needed to intensify her search.

Once she’d showered down the hall, and had slipped on a short-sleeved, belted white cotton dress, she left the pension armed with her detailed street map and notebook. She’d kept a log of every Donatello name so far. Her destination for the last Donatello she could find in the city of Rimini was Donatello’s Garage.

After following the directions she’d been given on the phone yesterday, she talked to the manager, who spoke passable English. He told her a man by another name now owned the shop. The original owner, Mr. Donatello, and his wife had both died of old age. They’d had no children who could inherit the garage.

This was the way it had been going since last Sunday, when she’d started working through the list of Donatellos in the Rimini phone directory. In most cases the people she’d talked to were willing to help her, even going to the trouble of finding someone to help them understand her English.

They were proud of their genealogy. Many of them told her she could come by their house. The others told her their information over the phone, but so far there were no leads on a woman with the middle or last name Donatello, in her late thirties or early forties, who’d been to New York twenty-six years ago. It was like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack.

Resolving not to be dispirited, Belle thanked him and headed for the library near her pension, to do more research on the other nineteen cities and towns within Rimini Province. They were ten to twelve miles apart and had much smaller populations, so there wouldn’t be as many Donatellos to look up. That could be bad, if nothing was discovered about her birth mother.

En route to the library, Belle stopped at a trattoria for breakfast and filled up so she wouldn’t have to eat until dinnertime. She would be doing a lot more driving over the next few days. Before she left Rimini, she approached the woman in the research department, who spoke excellent English and knew she was looking for Donatello names.

“I have one more question, if you don’t mind. Could you tell me anything about the Malatesta Bank?” The striking Italian who’d shown up at the pension had refused to leave her mind.

“How much time do you have?”

That’s what Belle had thought. “Yesterday the manager of Donatello Diamonds directed me to the bank to get information, but I learned nothing. Why would he do that? I don’t understand the connection.”

“The House of Malatesta was an Italian family that ruled over Rimini from 1300 to 1500. There’s too much history since then to tell you in five minutes. But today a member of that old ruling family, Count Sullisto Malatesta, runs the Malatesta Bank, one of the two largest banks in Italy. They own many other businesses as well.

“Another, lesser ruling family of the past, the House of Donatello, made their fortune in diamonds, but over years of poor management it started to dwindle. Some say it would have eventually failed if Count Malatesta, then a widower, hadn’t merged with the House of Donatello.

“He saved it from ruin by marrying Princess Luciana Donatello, the heiress, whose father was purported to have died of natural causes.” The woman lowered her voice. “I say purported because some people insisted both he and his wife had been murdered, either by another faction of the Donatello family, or by the Malatesta family. Soon thereafter, the count made his power grab by marrying her, but nothing definite came of the investigation to prove or disprove the theories.”

Belle shuddered. The dark stranger from the bank had looked that dangerous to her.

“The Donatello deaths left a question mark and turned everything into a scandal that rocked the region and made the wedding into a nationwide event.”

“You’re a fount of knowledge, and I’m indebted to you,” Belle told her. “Now I’m off to the other towns in Rimini Province to look up more Donatellos. Thank you so much for your time.”

The woman smiled. “Good luck to you.”

Belle was glad to be leaving the city, to be leaving him. Before she left, she would pay her bill at the pension and turn in her rental car. In case the man from the bank made more inquiries about her, he’d be thrown off the scent. Leaving no trail, she’d take a taxi to another rental agency and procure a car for the rest of the week.

She left the library and walked out to the parking lot to get in her car. As she opened the door, she heard a deep familiar voice say, “Signorina Peterson?” Her heart jumped.

It was déjà vu as she looked around and discovered the man who’d been responsible for her restless night. This time he was dressed in a blue sport shirt that made him even more breathtaking, if that was possible. His eyes played over her with a thoroughness that was disarming.

“Why are you following me, signore?”

“Because I overheard your conversation with the librarian and am in a position to help you in your search if you’d allow me.”

“Why would you do that, when you won’t even tell me your name?”

“Because you’re a foreigner who has suffered two frights. The first from me, because I put you through an inquisition yesterday. The second from the librarian, who increased your nervousness just now when she answered your question.”

He’d been listening the whole time? That meant he’d followed her from the pension. Belle held on to the door handle for support. “What makes you think I’m nervous?”

“The pulse in your throat is throbbing unnaturally fast.”

Those silvery eyes didn’t miss a detail. “I imagine it always does that when I’m being stalked.”

“With your kind of beauty, I would imagine it’s an occupational hazard, especially at your workplace.” While she tried to catch her breath, he said, “I had you investigated.”

“I knew it,” she muttered.

He cocked his dark head. “Not in a way that anyone from your store could ever find out. I called headquarters in New York and explained our bank was doing the groundwork to sponsor an American cell phone company in Rimini, to see how it would play out.”

“That was a lie!”

“Not necessarily. American cell phone companies are one asset we’ve had an idea to acquire for some time. When I asked which store manager might be equal to the task, you were mentioned among the top five managers for your company on the East Coast.”

“What did you do? Talk to the CEO himself?” she demanded.

“Actually, I did.”

Good heavens. He was handsome as the devil and just as cunning.

“I find it even more compelling that you started with that company at age eighteen and six years later are still with them. That kind of loyalty is rare. I was told you’re going to be promoted to a regional manager in the next few months. Perhaps it might land you in Rimini.”

What?

“My congratulations.”

Who was this man with such powerful connections? Belle needed to keep her wits. “Just so you know, I have no interest in moving overseas. So now that you’ve learned I’m not one of the paparazzi, I’d like your word that you’ll leave me alone, whoever you are.”

“I’m Leonardo di Malatesta, the elder son of Count Sullisto Malatesta.”

Her heart thudded too fast. It all fit with her first impression of a dark prince, and explained the signet ring with a knight’s head on his right hand. There was a wedding ring on his left. “I understand that name connotes someone sinister.”

His smile had a dangerous curl. “If it would make you feel more comfortable, call me Leon.”

“The lion. If that’s supposed to make me feel any better...”

A velvety sound close to a chuckle escaped his lips. “I want to apologize for my unorthodox method of getting to know you, and frightening you. Considering the fact that you plan to return to the States on Sunday, perhaps if you told me exactly what you’re hoping to find, I could help speed up the process. I really would like to assist you.”

“I doubt your wife would approve.”

Those gray eyes darkened with some unnamed emotion. “I’m a widower.”

“Yet you still wear your wedding ring. You must have loved her a great deal. Forgive me if I’m being suspicious. The truth is, I wouldn’t dream of bothering a busy man like you, one with so many banking responsibilities. The only thing I was hoping to get from the manager at Donatello Diamonds was a little information about the female members of the Donatello family. It would take just a few minutes.”

“So you’re looking for a woman...”

“That’s very astute of you.”

A gleam entered his eyes. “Considering the very attractive female I’m talking to, surely I can be forgiven for my earlier assessment of the situation.”

Don’t let that fatal charm of his get to you, Belle, even if he is still in mourning.

“That depends on what you can tell me,” she retorted with a wry smile back at him.

After a pause, he said, “Obviously you haven’t found her yet. Why is she so important to you that you would come thousands of miles?”

The small moment of levity fled. “Because the answer to my whole existence is tied up with her. My greatest fear is that she’s no longer alive, or that I’ll never find her.” Sorrow weighed Belle down at the thought.

He studied her with relentless scrutiny. “Is she a relative?”

This was where things got too sensitive. “Maybe.”

“How old would she be?”

“Probably in her forties.” Again, maybe. According to Cliff, her adoptive father had called her mother “that Italian girl.” Belle took it to mean she was young. “I learned she was from Rimini, Italy, but that could mean the city or the province.”

His black eyebrows furrowed. “My stepmother, Luciana, was an only child, born to Valeria and Massimo Donatello here in Rimini. Valeria died in a hunting accident on their estate when Luciana was only eleven. As the librarian told you, some people still believe it wasn’t an accident.”

“What she told me sounded positively Machiavellian.”

“You’re right. It was only a few months ago that the police finally solved the case. The shooting was ruled as accidental.”

“I see. It’s still tragic when any child loses its mother.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he said in an almost haunted voice. Their eyes held for a moment. “My father was fifteen years older than Luciana, and he married her against my brother’s and my wishes. She was only twenty at the time and could never have replaced our mother.”

Four years younger than Belle’s age now. “Of course not.” She could only imagine this man’s pain. Suddenly he’d become more human to her. He’d lost his own mother and his wife.

“She’s forty-two now,” Leon added. “There must be quite a few Donatello women between those ages you’ve met while you’ve been here in Rimini.”

“Yes, but so far I’ve had no luck, because none of them ever traveled to New York in their late teens or twenties.”

* * *

Leon’s heart gave a thunderclap. “New York is the connecting point?” he rasped.

Belle nodded.

What had she said in answer to his earlier question about why this was important to her? Because the answer to my whole existence is tied up with her. My greatest fear is that she’s no longer alive, or that I’ll never find her.

As Leon stared at Belle, pure revelation flowed through him. He knew why she looked familiar to him. Had Marcello picked up on the resemblance? Or the manager at Donatello Diamonds? Probably not, or they would have said something, but he couldn’t be sure. Ruggio thought he’d seen her on television.

Madonna mia!

“I told you I’d like to help you, and I will, but we can’t talk here. Leave your car in the library parking lot and come with me. It will be safe.”

“I don’t need your help. Thanks all the same.”

She opened her shoulder bag to get her keys, but he put a hand on her arm. “If you want to meet your mother, I’m the person who can make it happen. But you’re going to have to trust me.”

Her gasp told him everything he wanted to know. Those fabulous blue eyes were blurry with tears as they lifted to his. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Her voice shook.

“Let’s find out. Is there anything in your car you need?”

“No.”

“Then we’ll drive to my villa, where we can talk in private. I have some pictures to show you.”

She moved like a person in a daze as he escorted her to his car and helped her inside. At a time like this, the shape of her long, elegant legs shouldn’t have drawn his attention, but they did. Her flowery fragrance proved another assault on his senses.

“Do I look like her?”

“When I saw you come out of the alcove at the pension yesterday, you reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t place you. It’s bothered me ever since. Not until a few minutes ago, when you mentioned New York, did everything click into place.” He started the engine. “You’ll need to buckle up.”

Leon wove through the streets to the villa, not really seeing anything while his mind played back through the years to the time he’d first met Luciana. He remembered his father telling him and Dante that she’d lived in New York for a year and could help them improve their English. How much had his parent known about the sober young princess he’d brought home to the palazzo, besides the fact that she had money and was beautiful?

Yet even if she’d told him nothing about having a baby, his father would have guessed, if she’d had a C-section or stretch marks. If not, he might still be in the dark. Her terrible secret might explain why she’d always seemed so remote and elusive to Leon.

Before they reached the house he phoned Simona. After learning Concetta was back to normal and playing with her new buckets in the kitchen, he told his housekeeper to prepare lunch for him and a guest. They’d be arriving shortly and could eat out on the patio.

Engrossed in her own thoughts, the woman seated next to him hadn’t said a word during the drive. Once upon a time she’d been a baby, separated at birth from her mother by an ocean. When Leon thought about his little daughter and how precious she was to him, he couldn’t fathom Belle’s or Luciana’s history. Leon had so many questions he didn’t know which one to ask first.

When the white, two-story villa built along neoclassic lines came into view, he pressed the remote to open the gates and drove around to the back. When she saw the flower garden there, Belle gave a gasp of admiration.

Leon helped her from the car and led her up the steps into the rear foyer that opened into the dayroom. “At the end of the hallway is a guest bedroom with bath, where you can freshen up. When you’re ready, come and find me in here, and we’ll eat lunch on the patio, where we won’t be disturbed.”

“Thank you.”

The second she disappeared, he hurried through the main floor to the kitchen, where he found Concetta in her playpen with some toys. She made delighted sounds when she saw him, and lifted her arms. He gathered her up and kissed her half a dozen times against her neck, causing her to laugh. Again he was reminded that his lunch guest had never known her mother’s kiss. Obviously not her father’s, either.

Talia smiled. “She’s had her lunch and is ready for her nap.”

“I brought company, so I can’t give her all my attention, but I will when she wakes up.” He kissed her once more and handed her back to Talia. His daughter didn’t like being separated from him, and shed a few tears going down the hall to the staircase.

Much as he wanted to put her to bed himself, he was aware someone else was waiting for him, someone who’d been waiting years for any word about her parentage.

Simona looked over her shoulder. “Do you want lunch served now?”

“Please.”

He retraced his steps to the dayroom and found Belle holding a five-by-seven framed photo she’d picked up from a grouping on one of the credenzas. Her back was turned to him, but even from this distance, he could see her shoulders shaking.

“I won’t pretend to say I understand what you’re feeling. I can only imagine what it must be like to see yourself in Luciana’s image. Though you’re not identical, anyone who knows you well would notice certain similarities.”

Belle put the picture back and whirled around, her lovely face dripping with tears. She used both hands to wipe them off her chin. “My mother is a princess? Your stepmother? I—I can’t take it in,” she stammered. “In the orphanage I used to dream about what she would be like. I had to believe she gave me up because of a life-and-death reason. But my dreams never reached heights like that.”

Leon put his hands on his hips. “I’m still in shock from the knowledge that she had a baby, yet there’s never been a whisper of you.”

He heard his guest groan. “When Cliff told me my mother was from Italy, I wanted it to be the truth. But I never thought I’d really find her. Why did you bother to come to the pension?” The throb in her voice hung in the air.

It was the question Leon had been asking himself over and over. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t honestly tell you the reason. It was a feeling that nagged at me to the point I had to investigate.”

She clasped her hands together. “If you hadn’t come, I would know nothing, and I would be flying back to New York without ever getting an answer. Thank heaven for you!” she cried. “I’ll never be able to repay you.”

A strange shiver chased through his body at the realization he might not have heeded the prompting. He’d tried to ignore it, until he’d been swimming in the pool. Then it wouldn’t leave him alone.

Belle’s gorgeous eyes searched his. “But now that I see her picture, I think I’m frightened. It’s like that old expression about being careful what you wish for, because you might get it.”

She wasn’t the only one alarmed. Already she was important to him in ways he couldn’t begin to explain.

“Is it because you’ve discovered you’re the stepsister through marriage of the infamous Malatesta family?”

He’d thrown the question at her in a silky voice to combat her pull on him. His attraction to her was sucking him in deeper and deeper. He didn’t want this kind of complication in his life, not after having lost Benedetta. Too many losses convinced him it was better not to get involved. Leon had his daughter. She was all he needed.

His guest stared at him through haunted eyes. “What are you talking about? When the couple who adopted me brought me to their house, they broke their birth son’s heart. He hated me from the first day. If anything, I’m afraid of being the orphaned offspring of the woman your father brought into your home, thereby breaking your heart.”

Her words touched on Leon’s deep-seated guilt, and confounded him. She really was frightened. He could feel it. “You’re pale and need to eat. Come out to the patio with me.”

Leon showed her though the tall French doors on the far side of the dayroom. Simona had set the round, wrought-iron table with a cloth and fresh flowers from the garden. She’d prepared bruschetta and her bocconcini salad of mozzarella balls and cubetti di pancetta ham he particularly enjoyed.

He helped Belle to a seat where she could look out at the Adriatic. With the hot, fair weather, he spotted half a dozen sailboats and a few yachts out on the water. It was a sight he never tired of, especially now with the view of her alluring profile filling his vision.

Once he’d poured her some iced tea he said, “If you’d prefer coffee or juice, I’ll ask Simona to bring it.”

But Belle had already taken a long swallow. “This tastes delicious and is exactly what I needed. Thank you.”

After drinking half a glass himself, he picked up his fork and they started to eat. “I’m assuming Cliff is the son you referred to.”

She nodded. “The Petersons adopted me when I was ten. Mr. Peterson never wanted me, but Nadine had always hoped for a daughter and finally prevailed on him to adopt me. They already had a sixteen-year-old son, who had no desire for a girl from an orphanage to move in on what he considered his territory.”

Leon’s stomach muscles clenched in reaction. He could relate to Cliff’s hatred at that age. Leon had been eleven when his father had installed the twenty-year-old Luciana in the palazzo, a world that had belonged to him and his brother, Dante. No one else.

Now that the years had passed, and Leon had his own home and was a father, he understood better his parent’s need for companionship. At eleven he’d been too selfish to see anything beyond his own wants.

From the beginning he’d rebuffed any overtures from Luciana, but he had to admit she’d never been unkind to him or Dante. Anything but. As the years went by, he’d learned to be more civil to her. Maturity helped him to see that her cool aloofness at times masked some kind of strange sadness, no doubt because she’d lost both her parents under tragic circumstances.

To think she’d had a baby she’d been forced to give up! The knowledge tore him apart inside. He could never give up Concetta for any reason.

“How did it happen that Cliff told you about your mother?”

After putting her fork down, Belle told him what had transpired at the attorney’s office. Leon was astounded by what he heard. For her adoptive brother to take the money before telling her what she’d been desperate to know all her life sickened Leon. What made Cliff more despicable to him was to learn he hadn’t let her keep the money that was legally hers.

“Tell me about your life with the Petersons. I’d like to hear.”

She looked at him for a minute as if testing his sincerity. Then she began in a halting voice. “The day I was taken to their house, Cliff followed me into the small room that would be my bedroom. He grabbed me by the shoulders and told me his dad hadn’t wanted a screaming baby around the house. That’s why they’d picked me. But I’d better be good and stay out of his dad’s way or I’d be sorry, Cliff said. And in fact his father was so intimidating, I tried hard to be obedient and not cause trouble.”

Leon grimaced. “They should never have been allowed to adopt you.”

“Laws weren’t so strict then. The orphanage was overcrowded. You know how it is.”

As far as Leon was concerned, it was criminal.

“Ben was a car salesman who loved old cars and had restored several, but it took all their money. He lost his job several times because of layoffs, and had to find employment at other car dealerships. The money he poured into his hobby ate up any extra funds they had. He was an angry man who never had a kind word. The more I tried to gain his favor, the more he dismissed me.”

And destroyed her confidence, Leon bet.

“Nadine held a job at a dry cleaners and was a hard worker who tried to make a good home for us. She took me to church. It was one of the few places where I found comfort. But she was a quiet woman unable to show affection. It was clear she was afraid of her own son and stayed out of her husband’s way as much as possible. I never bonded with any of them.”

“How could you have under those circumstances?” Leon was troubled by her story.

“One good thing happened to me. As soon as I was old enough, I did babysitting for people in the neighborhood to earn money. I’d helped out with the younger children in the orphanage and knew how to play with them and care for babies. I love them.” Her voice trembled.

There was a sweetness in Belle that got under his skin.

“To tell you the truth, I liked going to other people’s houses to get away from Cliff and his father, who were so mean-spirited. He constantly asked me for money, telling me he’d pay me back, but he never did. I didn’t tell on him for fear Ben would take out his anger on me.”

With each revelation Leon’s hands curled into tighter fists.

“Finally Cliff got a job in a garage after school, and in time bought himself a motorcycle. That kept him away from me, but from then on it seemed he was always in trouble with traffic tickets and accidents.

“He was often at odds with both his parents because of the hours he kept with girls they didn’t know. Sometimes he barged into my room, to take out his frustration on me by bullying me. He never lost an opportunity to let me know I’d ruined his life,” she whispered.

“I can’t begin to imagine how you made it through those hellish years, Belle.”

“When I look back on it neither can I. The day I turned eighteen, I got a job in a cell phone store and moved in with three others girls, sharing an apartment. It saved my life to get away from my nightmarish situation.”

“Did Cliff follow you?”

“No. I left while he was gone. He had no idea where I went, and could no longer come after me for money and badger me. The few times I went to see Nadine, I went by her work at the dry cleaners so Cliff never saw me. She knew things were out of control with him and never pushed for me to come home again, because I was over the legal age.”

Certain things Belle had just said brought home to Leon how mean-spirited he’d been to Luciana when she’d first come to live at the palazzo. He’d been an adolescent and had ignored any overtures on her part. Dante had done the same thing to her, following in his big brother’s footsteps.

“I only ever saw him at the church funeral and the attorney’s office after that,” Belle explained. “When he told me my last name, I didn’t know if it was the truth. But I wanted it to be true, so badly that I flew to Rimini on a prayer, knowing I’d seen the last of him, and was thankful.”

Shaken by her revelations, Leon wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin. “You didn’t learn anything about your birth father through Cliff?”

She drank the last of her tea. “No. I decided he must have disappeared before my mother took me to the orphanage. What other explanation could there be...unless something horrendous had happened and she’d been raped? I shudder to think that might have been the case, and would rather not talk about it.”

“Then we won’t.” If Luciana had been raped, and Leon’s father knew about it, how would he feel about Belle, the innocent second victim? The more Leon thought about it, the more it was like a bomb exploding, the resulting shock waves wreaking devastation. “What’s the name of the orphanage?”

“The Newburgh Church Orphanage. Why do you ask?”

He put down his fork. “Despite the public’s opinion of the Malatesta family, we give to a number of charities. Your story has decided me to send an anonymous donation to the orphanage where you were raised. That’s something I intend to take care of right away.”

A gift no matter how large wouldn’t take away his guilt over his treatment of Luciana, but he realized the only reason Belle was still alive was due to the generosity of others who gave to charity.

“If you did that, the sisters would consider it heaven sent, but you don’t need to do it.”

“I want to. They gave you a spiritual and physical start in life. No payment would be enough.”

“You’re right,” she said in a quiet voice. “One of the sisters in charge reminded us that we were lucky to be there where we could get the help we needed, so we shouldn’t complain. The priest at the church where Nadine took me told me I was blessed to have a birth mother who loved me enough to put me in God’s keeping.”

Hard words for a child to accept, but Leon could only agree. Whatever Luciana’s circumstances at the time, she’d at least had the courage to make certain her baby would be looked after. His admiration for her choice when she could have done something else changed his perception of her. But why had she given up her baby?

Had Luciana loved that baby with all her heart, the way he’d loved Concetta from the moment he’d learned they were expecting? He knew enough about Luciana’s strict upbringing to realize she would have been afraid of letting anyone find out about her baby, causing a scandal that would tarnish the Donatello family name.

Unbelievable that her offspring had grown up into a beautiful, intelligent woman eating lunch with him, no less! You’re enjoying it far too much, Malatesta.

Luciana had lived through a nightmare, and had gone on to make a home for his father and the boys despite Leon’s antipathy. An unfamiliar sense of shame for his behavior over those early years crept into his psyche. He was now paying the price.

“Their goodness to you needs to be rewarded,” he murmured, still trying to digest everything.

“Sometimes I felt guilty for wanting to know about my parents when the sisters tried so hard to keep our spirits up. When Cliff asked me why I wanted to find someone who didn’t want me, I told him it wasn’t important if they didn’t want me. I just needed to know who I am and where I came from. But I’m not your responsibility, and I’ve taken up too much of your time as it is.”

She pushed herself away from the table and stood up. “Now that I have answers to those questions, I can go back to New York. Needless to say, I’ll be indebted to you for the rest of my life. Thank you for bringing me to your villa, and please thank the cook for the wonderful food. If you’ll drive me back to the library, I’d be very grateful.”

Leon got to his feet. “We haven’t even scratched the surface yet.”

“Yes, we have. You and I both know there are reasons why she gave me up. I would never want to cause her pain by showing up uninvited and unwanted.”

“You could never be unwanted!” he declared. He refused to believe it, but that was the father in him speaking, the father who idolized his little girl. Ever since Belle was born, she’d never known the love of her own parents. He couldn’t fathom it.

CHAPTER THREE

“YOU SAY THAT with such fervency, Leon, but we know the facts, don’t we. My mother came back to Italy and married your father. Unless you’re aware of other information, I’m sure she has never tried to find me.”

“I have no idea and neither do you. Nevertheless—”

“Nevertheless, she and your father have made a life for themselves,” Belle interrupted. “Last year I went to the orphanage for a final time to beg them to tell me something about my roots. I had a talk with the sister in charge.” The tremor in Belle’s voice penetrated to Leon’s insides.

“What did she say to you?”

“She told me she wasn’t at liberty to tell me anything, because my adoption was a closed case. Then she handed me a pamphlet to read. It was called ‘A Practical Guide for the Adopted Child.’ The material was based on research gathered by the psychiatric community. She said we’d discuss it after I’d finished it.”

“And did you?”

“Yes!” she cried. “The whole brochure described me so perfectly, I went into shock.”

“Explain what you mean.”

She moistened her lips nervously. “I’ve always had issues of self-esteem. Not to know who you are because you were given up for adoption means you don’t have an identity. All my life I’ve wanted to know if I looked like my birth parents, or acted like them.

“What if I had sisters and brothers I knew nothing about? What if I came from a large family with half siblings or extended family I would never meet or get to know? It used to drive me crazy, wondering.”

“Belle...at least now you know you have a mother and a stepfamily who are very much alive.”

“Yes,” she whispered, staring blindly out to sea. “If I do meet her I’ll be able to learn about my birth father. I longed for a father, too, and spent many hours daydreaming about him. But I’m terrified, Leon, because I was abandoned. Being abandonable meant I wasn’t good enough to be kept and loved. That’s a very hard thing to accept.”

What she was telling Leon made him sick inside. “Since you don’t know the circumstances of being left at the orphanage, don’t you realize your adoptive father and brother have contributed to a lot of those negative feelings?”

“Of course.” She took a shaky breath. “But to meet my own birth mother after all this time and find out from her own lips I hadn’t been loved or wanted would shatter me. I don’t know if I could handle it. The risk is too great.”

Leon shook his head. “That’s not going to happen to you. If you could see the loving way Luciana treats people...” Luciana was very loving to his daughter when he took Concetta over for visits. “You would see that your mother has an innate tenderness that goes soul deep.” Leon had seen and felt it, but in the beginning he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.

“Even so, I know I’m setting myself up to learn that everything I’ve ever thought or dreamed of about her and my father won’t be as I assumed. You’ve told me she hasn’t had other children, but she’s a princess who has lived a life completely different from mine in every way, shape and form. The chances of her even wanting to meet the daughter she gave up are astronomical.”

“That’s not true. You don’t know her as I do.”

“I know you want to believe she’ll be happy to see me, but you can’t know what’s deep in her heart. And there’s your father to consider. The more I know about her and their life, the more I fear a permanent reunion could never be realized.”

“It’s true I don’t know her inner thoughts.” Leon’s mind reeled when he compared the two women’s worlds. And he had no idea how his father would react upon hearing the news that Luciana’s daughter was in Rimini.

“Even if she’s willing to meet me, how will she handle it? She thought she gave me up and would never see me again. Even if meeting me could satisfy the question of what happened to me, it wouldn’t solve the issues she had for giving me up in the first place.

“What if seeing me exacerbates problems that bring new heartache?” Belle sounded frantic. “This meeting might result in trouble between her and your father, and they’ll wish this had never happened...”

She wheeled around, her face white as parchment. Tears glistened like diamonds on those pale cheeks. “What if I brought on a crisis like that?”

Tortured by the fear and pain in her voice, Leon reached for her and rocked her in his arms like he would Concetta when she was upset and frightened. “Shhh. That’s not going to happen, Belle. I swear it.” He kissed her hair and forehead without thinking.

“I—I don’t want it to happen, but you can’t guarantee anything.”

Much as Leon hated to admit it, everything she’d revealed from her heart and soul made a hell of a lot of sense. But suddenly he had other things on his mind. When he’d pulled her to him, his only thought had been to comfort her. Yet the feel of her curves against his body invaded his senses, sending a quickening through him, one so powerful he needed to put her away from him. As gently as he could, he let go of her.

Belle took a step back before looking up at him through red-rimmed eyes. “The sister warned me my time would be better served by getting on with my own life rather than wasting it trying to find my birth mother, who obviously didn’t want to be found.

“I left the orphanage with the renewed resolve to get on with my career and put my dreams away. Then came the moment in the attorney’s office when Cliff made that slip about my birth mother being Italian.”

“A providential slip, in my opinion,” Leon muttered. He was beginning to believe some unseen power had been at work on both sides of the Atlantic. Otherwise how could he account for going to her pension to talk to her, when normally he would have left it alone?

“I agree, Leon. The second it happened, I ignored the sister’s warning and the words in the pamphlet. I thought I knew better, and left for Italy, determined to keep looking. Now I wish I’d listened to her.”

To his consternation, Leon was thankful she hadn’t obeyed the sister in charge.

Belle’s pleading eyes trapped his. “My mother’s secrets are safe with me, and they have to remain safe with you, Leon. They have to.” The desperation in her voice pulled on his chaotic emotions.

“They’ll be safe as long as you do something important for me.”

“What?” Her breathing came in spurts.

“I insist you stay in my house as my guest until you return to the States. If you don’t let me do anything else, at least accept my hospitality. Our parents are married. That one fact bonds us in a way you can’t deny.”

“I wasn’t going to, but since I got the information I came for, I’m planning to fly back to New York either tonight or in the morning. Every second I’m here, it’s worse. The possibility that she could find out I’m a guest in your villa terrifies me. Whether she wanted me or not doesn’t matter. She gave me life and I’d rather die than hurt her.”

Leon’s admiration for Belle grew in quantum leaps. “I believe you would,” he murmured, before making a quick decision. “Your mind appears made up, so I’ll see you back to your rental car.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll meet you in the foyer after I let my housekeeper know I’m leaving.”

She nodded, and he went to find Simona. On his way back through the house he stopped in the dayroom to pick up the photograph Belle had been looking at. It showed Luciana and his father on their wedding day, outside the church. At twenty she bore an even stronger resemblance to her daughter.

When he reached the foyer, he found Belle studying a large oil painting of his family. “That’s my brother leaning against my mother.”

“You look about six years old there. How old was Dante?”

“Five. We’re just fourteen months apart.”

She turned to him. “What a handsome family. You resemble both your parents.”

“Genes don’t lie, do they?”

“No. Your mother has the most wonderful smile.”

“She was the most wonderful everything.”

Belle stared at him. “You were very lucky to have a mother like that. What was her name?”

“Regina Emilia of the House of Della Rovere in Pesaro.”

“A princess?”

“Yes.” He opened the door so she could walk past him. After he helped her into the car, he handed her the photograph. “I want you to have this. No one deserves it more than you do.”

Tears sprang to Belle’s eyes. “I couldn’t take it.”

“There are dozens more where this came from.” He shut the door and walked around to get behind the wheel.

* * *

Belle was still incredulous over what had happened. She hugged the photograph to her chest in wonder that she’d come to the end of her search. It was all because of Leon Malatesta, who was the most remarkable man she’d ever met. But it wasn’t his generosity that had caused her to tremble in his arms just now.

While he’d been holding her, kissing her like he would to comfort a child, feelings of a different kind had curled through her like flame. The need to taste his mouth and let go of her feelings had grown so intense, she knew she was in deep trouble. He was her stepbrother!

In the past, when her friends had talked about desire, she’d never experienced it. Until a few minutes ago she hadn’t known what it felt like. Shame washed over her to think she hadn’t wanted him to stop what he was doing to her. By easing away from her before she was ready, he’d sent her into another kind of shock.

“Are you all right, Belle?”

“Yes. I—I’m just feeling overwhelmed,” she stammered.

“Who could blame you?”

If he knew her intimate thoughts, he’d drive her straight to the airport right now. Earlier, he’d been ready to run her out of town, when he’d thought she was some gutter reporter out to dig up something salacious about his family. Instead he’d come after her at the pension and had single-handedly led her to her dream of finding her mother.

To tell him she was indebted to him couldn’t begin to convey what was in her heart. To think that after all these years of aching to know anything about her origins she had her answer...

With one glance at the amazing man behind the wheel, Belle knew she could trust him to keep his silence. It was herself she didn’t trust. There was such a huge part of her that wanted to visit her mother while she was still in Rimini; it was killing her.

The sooner Belle left Italy the better. But that meant she’d never see Leon again. How would she stand it?

You have to handle it, Belle.

Before they reached the library, she put the picture in her shoulder bag and pulled out her car keys. The minute he turned into the parking space next to her rental, she opened the door and got out, before he could help her. It only took a moment before she was ensconced in her own vehicle and ready to drive off.

As his tall, powerful frame approached, she opened the window. “Thank you for everything, Leon. I’ll never forget your kindness or the photograph.”

“I’ll never forget you,” he said in his deep voice. “Good luck in your future position at TCCPI. Have a safe trip home.”

Home. The word didn’t have the same meaning anymore. “Goodbye.” She started the engine and drove out to the main street. As soon as she reached the pension, she would phone to change her flight plans.

Through the rearview mirror she could see Leon standing there watching her, a bold, dynamic throwback from an earlier time in Italian history.

When she turned the corner and he was no longer in sight, a troubling thought came to her. He’d given her no grief about leaving Italy immediately. Her heart jumped all over the place because he’d made their parting far too easy. In truth, she knew the dark, mysterious son of the count could move heaven and earth if he felt like it.

* * *

Once Belle’s rental car had disappeared, Leon pulled out his cell phone and gave Ruggio instructions to go to the pension and keep a close eye on her. If she went anywhere, he was to follow her.

After making a call to Simona to find out how his little girl was doing, and let his housekeeper know he might not be home until late, he headed for the bank to talk to his father. Leon found him in his suite on a business call. His parent waved him inside.

While Leon waited, he poured himself a cup of coffee from the sideboard and paced the floor with it. Whether his father knew about Belle’s existence or not, what Leon had to tell him was going to come as a shock.

“It’s good to see you,” his father exclaimed after hanging up the phone. “Have you dropped in to tell me you’re willing to consider ending your mourning period and start looking at another woman I have in mind for you?”

“No, Papà.”

By marrying Benedetta, Leon had foiled his father’s plan for him to marry a woman of rank he’d carefully picked out for him. The hurt hadn’t been intentional, but Leon had always cared for Benedetta and refused to honor his father’s wishes in the matter of his marriage. No argument the count raised had made any difference to Leon.

In that regard he wasn’t so different from his widowed parent, who’d married a second time while Leon and Dante had begged him not to. But their pleading fell on deaf ears, and there’d been tension with their father ever since he’d brought Luciana into their home.

“I’m here to discuss something of a very delicate nature.” Leon locked the door to his suite so no one could interrupt them. “Since I know you just passed your annual medical exam without any major problems, I feel you can handle this.”

The count’s dark brows met in a distinct frown. “You’re beginning to make me nervous, Leonardo.”

“Not as nervous as I am.” He stared at his father. “This has to do with Luciana.”

“Do you think she’s hiding something from me since her medical exam?”

Leon heard the worry in his father’s voice, revealing how much he cared about her. “I thought you told me she’s as fine as you are. I’m talking about a secret she might have kept from you before you married her.” Leon never was one to beat about the bush.

His last comment brought his father to his feet. Their gazes clung. “You know?”

The coffee cup almost fell out of Leon’s hand. That one question told him his father had known about Luciana’s baby all these years. He put the cup back on the sideboard. “If we’re talking about a child she had out of wedlock, then yes.”

Sullisto’s gray eyes bordered on charcoal and were dimmed by moisture. “How did you find out?” he asked in a shaken voice.

Leon took a fortifying breath. “Before I answer that question, just tell me one thing. Did she want to give it up, or did she have to? I need to know the absolute truth before I say another word.”

A look of sorrow crossed over his father’s face. “She had to.”

“Was she raped?”

The question hung like a live wire between them.

The older man took a deep breath. “No.”

“Do you know the name of the father?”

A nerve throbbed in his cheek. “Yes. But I wasn’t the father, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking it,” Leon replied with total honesty. “I know you’re an honorable man.”

“Thank you for that.” The count cleared his throat. “To answer your first question, Luciana wanted her little girl more than life itself. A day doesn’t go by that she’s not missing her, wanting to be with her. She doesn’t talk about it all the time, but even after all these years, I see the sadness and witness her tears when she doesn’t know I’m aware.”

Hearing those words brought such relief to him for Belle’s sake, it broke the cords binding Leon’s chest. “How could she have given her up?”

“You have to hear the whole story, figlio mio.”

“I’m listening.”

His father paced the floor. “Luciana’s father had many enemies and believed his wife was murdered. Afraid his daughter was in danger, he sent Luciana to a special college in New York at eighteen, under an assumed name, while he had his wife’s death investigated.

“While she was away, she met a student. They fell in love and soon she found out she was expecting. Her situation became desperate because she knew her father would never agree to a marriage between them.”

“But she was pregnant! Was he that tyrannical?”

“That’s a harsh word, Leonardo. Let’s just say he was a rigid man. Luciana and her lover decided to be married by a justice of the peace in a town an hour away from New York City, where she was in school. But on the day before the wedding could take place, he was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was never apprehended.”

Leon grimaced. “Luciana must have thought she was in a nightmare.”

“Exactly. Because of what had happened to her mother, she was afraid she’d been hunted down and her lover murdered.”

Aghast, Leon said, “When did she tell you all this?”

“When I asked her to marry me. You see, despite all the rumors about my wanting to take over the Donatello Diamonds empire, the reason I married her was because I’d learned to care for her a great deal.”

“It’s all right, Papà. You can call it what it was. You loved her.”

“So you’ve guessed it.”

“Yes.”

His father breathed deeply. “Her sorrow was so great, I thought that having two stepsons to help raise would ease a little of her pain. You boys were only ten and eleven, and needed a mother, especially Dante.” His voice trembled. “As for me, I needed someone who could share my life. Naturally, it wasn’t like the feelings I had for your mother, but then, you can’t expect that.”

Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They’d never had this conversation about his mother before. Belle was the catalyst to force a discussion that should have taken place years earlier.

“Luciana’s father was overjoyed, because he knew I would take care of her. Before she gave me an answer, she said she had something to tell me that no one else knew about, not even her father. If I still wanted her, then she would accept my proposal.

“I listened while it all came pouring out. After bitter anguish and soul searching, she’d felt she had no choice but to give up the baby for adoption so nothing would happen to her precious daughter.

“When she gave her up, she had to sign a paper that meant she could never see her child again or take her back. It was a sealed document. Luciana signed it because she was positive her own days were numbered, but at that point she didn’t care about herself. When she returned to Rimini, she wasn’t the same vivacious girl I’d known before she left.”

Again Leon stood there, dumbfounded by the revelations.

“Her honesty only deepened my respect for her.”

It appeared Belle had inherited that same admirable characteristic from her mother.

“Not long after our marriage, her father died of heart failure. She needed me more than ever.” Sullisto eyed his son soberly. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

Leon shook his head. “After what you’ve told me, I’m not sure it would be the wise thing to do.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“That’s not it. I’m thinking of her daughter, who came to Rimini this week looking for the mother who gave her up.”

“What?”

Leon nodded. “Sit down, Papà, while I tell you a story about Belle Peterson.”

A few minutes later his father was wiping his eyes. “I can’t even begin to tell you what this is going to mean to Luciana when she finds out.”

“Except that Belle doesn’t want Luciana to know anything.” For the next few minutes he told his father what had been contained in that pamphlet, and Belle’s fear of hurting her mother.

“Hurt her?” Sullisto cried out. “It would have the opposite effect! I know what I’m talking about. The one thing in our marriage that has kept us from being truly happy has been Luciana’s soul-deep sadness. We tried to have a baby, but weren’t successful. She’s always believed God was punishing her for giving up her child.”

“Incredibile—”

“Not until two months ago did we learn that Valeria’s death was ruled accidental. That very day I begged Luciana to call the orphanage and find out what had happened to Belle. At least inquire if she’d been adopted. But she said she didn’t dare, because she was afraid her daughter would hate her. I told her I’d hire a private investigator to locate her, but Luciana was convinced Belle would refuse to talk to her, after she’d given her up.”

“Belle has the exact same fear, that her mother won’t like her.”

His father rubbed his hands together. “To know she has come all this way looking for her mother will be like a dream Luciana never thought could come true.”

“Then you don’t have a problem if they’re united?”

“Mind? How can you even ask me that?” he cried. “It’s my dream to make Luciana happy, but it has always been out of my hands.”

That was all Leon needed to know. He could only imagine Belle’s joy when the two of them finally met. “I have a plan. Bring Luciana to the villa for dinner this evening. Tell her the baby is better.”

His father nodded. “She’s been waiting forever for an official invitation from you.”

“I know. I’m sorry about that, but it’s something I plan to rectify.”

It was regrettable, but true, that though his father had come by the villa on occasion, Leon had never invited them over as a couple. His cool attitude toward Luciana had prevailed all these years. He wished he’d known early on that she’d given up her child. It wouldn’t have changed his feelings over his father’s remarriage at the time, but he might not have been so quick to judge her because of false assumptions and the many rumors that had reached his teenage ears.

“It doesn’t matter, Leonardo. I know how much your mother meant to you and Dante, and I’ve understood. As for Luciana, we both know how much she loves your Concetta and will rejoice at the opportunity to be with her in your home.”

Leon did know that. “Come at seven. By then Concetta will have been fed.”

His father seemed more alive as they walked to the door. He gave Leon the kind of hug they hadn’t shared in years. It wasn’t just the fact that Leon had broken down and invited them both over for dinner. Only now was he beginning to understand how much his father had suffered in his second marriage because of Luciana’s pain.

Once Leon left the bank, he alerted Simona about the plans for the evening, then drove to the pension. Ruggio was parked two cars behind Belle’s rental near the entrance. Leon walked over to thank his security man, and told him he wouldn’t need him any longer for surveillance.

A feeling of excitement he hadn’t known in over a year passed through him as he went inside the pension and pressed the buzzer to announce his arrival. Before long Rosa appeared. “Signore?”

“Forgive me for not introducing myself before. My name is Leonardo di Malatesta, signora.” The older woman’s eyes widened in recognition of his name. “I need to see Signorina Peterson on a matter of life and death.” He’d spoken the truth and felt no guilt about it. “I know she’s here. Ask her to come out to the foyer, per favore.” He put several bills on the counter for the woman’s trouble.

After a slight hesitation she nodded and hurried through the alcove. Leon didn’t have to wait long before Belle appeared, with a tear-ravaged face and puffy eyes. He wasn’t surprised to see her in this kind of pain.

“Leon?” Her breathing sounded ragged. “What are you doing here? We’ve already said goodbye.” Maybe he was crazy, but he had the gut feeling she was glad to see him.

“Yes, we did, but something’s come up. Let’s go to your room and I’ll tell you what’s happened.”

She nodded. “All right.” Any fight she might have put up seemed to have gone out of her for the moment.

Leon thanked Rosa before trailing Luciana’s daughter into the alcove and down the hall to her small room. She was still dressed in the white dress she’d been wearing, but it looked wrinkled.

When they went inside and he’d shut the door, he saw the indention on the single bed, where she’d been sobbing. Leon knew she couldn’t bear the thought of having to leave Italy without meeting her mother.

He came straight to the point. “I went to see my father after I left you.”

“Oh no—”

“Before you get upset, hear me out. I learned that he knew all about you before he married your mother.” Belle’s eyes widened as if in disbelief. “I asked him if Luciana had wanted to give up her baby, or if she’d had to.”

Belle’s fear was palpable. “W-what did he say?”

“I’ll quote you his answer. He said, ‘She had to, but she wanted her little girl more than life itself. A day doesn’t go by that she’s not missing her, wanting to be with her.’”

Belle turned away from him to hide her emotions. Without considering the ramifications, he grasped her shoulders and turned her around to face him. Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind. Earlier when he’d held her, it hadn’t been long enough. This time he drew her against him and wrapped his arms around her.

Her gleaming dark hair tickled his jaw as he murmured, “Whatever plans you’ve already made to fly back to New York will have to be put on hold, because he’s bringing her to my villa tonight for dinner so you two can meet.”

An unmistakable cry escaped Belle’s lips. She tried to get away, but he wouldn’t allow it, and crushed her to him. “She won’t have any idea you’re going to be there. My father believes this is the best way to handle it, and I do, too. He wouldn’t want this if he didn’t believe she’ll be overjoyed. If you need more convincing, I’ll phone and tell him to come over here.”

Belle’s head was burrowed against Leon’s chest, reminding him of the way Concetta sought comfort when she was upset. He rubbed his hands over her back.

“How can you possibly leave and not see her?” he argued. “This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for all your life. You’ve been so strong. You’ve survived an existence that would have defeated anyone else. Don’t you realize how proud your mother’s going to be of you and what you’ve accomplished?”

“I want to believe it.”

“Would it help if I told you I’m proud of you? When the head of your company sang your praises, I could have told him what a remarkable woman you really are. How you survived in that household is beyond me. The methodical way you’ve gone about trying to find your mother in a foreign country, with no help from anyone but yourself, defies description.”

He heard sniffing. “Thank you for those kind words.”

Belle...

“I’ll wait while you gather all your belongings. For the rest of the time you’re in Italy, you’re going to be my guest. Don’t worry about your rental car. If you’ll leave the key at the desk, one of my staff will return it to the agency. When we arrive at the house, you’ll have the rest of the day to get ready for this evening.”

“You’re far too good to me.”

He pressed his lips against her temple. “Why wouldn’t I be? For you to find your mother with my help after all these years brings me great happiness.” It’s a gift I couldn’t give my daughter, but I can give it to you. “You wouldn’t deprive me of it, would you?”

Slowly she lifted her head. One corner of her lovely mouth lifted. “No. Of course not, but I’m so nervous. What if—”

“Don’t go there,” he interrupted in a quiet voice, kneading her upper arms. “I can promise you that if she knew what was ahead for tonight, her fear would be much greater than yours.

“Papà told me that for years she has grieved because your case was sealed when she gave you up. Even if she could get a court order for information, she’s been afraid you would find it unforgivable, what she did, and would reject her out of hand.”

“Is this the truth?” Fear mixed with hope in Belle’s voice.

“Ask my father. He wouldn’t lie to me and is excited for the two of you to meet. It can’t happen soon enough for either of us.”

“Then he’s truly not upset?”

“Anything but. He believes this reunion will help solve certain problems in his marriage.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her sadness for having to give you up, and his inability to take it away.”

“Oh, Leon...” Belle’s heart was in her eyes.

Unable to deny the attraction, he cupped her face in his hands, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to taste her, and lowered his head, kissing her fully on the mouth. Right or wrong, she’d been a temptation from the outset.

As he coaxed her lips apart, wanting more, he drew a response from her that shot fire through him. What should have been one kiss deepened into another, then another. He should have been able to stop what was happening, but she’d aroused too much excitement in him.

“Belle...” He moaned her name, hungry for her. But in the next instant she tore her mouth from his and backed up against the door. He felt totally bereft. “Why did you pull away from me?”

“Someone has to stop this insanity!” she gasped, obviously trying to catch her breath. “I’m not blaming you. I could have resisted you, but I didn’t because...I enjoyed it.”

An honest woman.

“I could say I didn’t know what got into me, but that would be a lie,” she added. “The fact is I’ve never been this intimate with a man and I forgot myself.”

“You’re saying...”

“Shocking, isn’t it? At twenty-four?” she blurted. “When I didn’t try to stop you, I—I can understand why you kept kissing me. You enjoyed a happy marriage and miss your wife. As for me, I have no excuse, so let’s just agree that this was a physical aberration that shouldn’t have happened, and promise we’ll never find ourselves in this situation again. Promise me, Leon. Otherwise I can’t go through with anything, even if it means never meeting my mother.” She had fire in her eyes.

“I swear I’ll never do anything you don’t want me to do. Does that make you feel any better?”

“No.”

More astounding honesty. “While you pack, I’ll go out to the lobby and take care of the bill.”

She moved away from the door. “I don’t expect you to pay for me.”

“I know. That’s why I want to,” he murmured. She didn’t have a mercenary bone in her beautiful body. Just now her mouth had almost given him a heart attack. Belle Peterson had many parts to her, all of them unexpected and thrilling. After Benedetta died, he thought he’d never desire another woman.

He left the room and paid her account through Sunday, adding a healthy bonus that brought a faint smile to Rosa’s dark eyes.

Belle appeared sooner than he would have thought, carrying her shoulder bag and suitcase. Evidently her nervous anticipation over seeing her mother had made her hurry, but he had a hunch she’d always been a punctual person. Another trait he couldn’t help but applaud.

He took the luggage from her and ushered her out to his car. For the second time in two days he was taking her home. A great deal had changed since yesterday morning, when he’d gone to bed after being up all night with Concetta.

Leon no longer questioned why his assistant’s phone call to the villa had prompted him to get dressed and go down to the bank for an explanation. It appeared there’d been a grand design at work in more ways than one. Even so, the thought raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

CHAPTER FOUR

AN HOUR AFTER getting settled in the fabulous guest bedroom she’d only glimpsed yesterday, Belle heard a tap on the door. She’d been drying her freshly washed hair with her blow-dryer, and turned it off to go answer. Dinner wouldn’t be for another hour.

“The signore sent me to find out if you need laundry service or would like something ironed for tonight,” said the maid standing there.

Belle had never had service like this in her life. Since she wanted to look perfect for her mother, she decided to take advantage of Leon’s incredible hospitality. But she couldn’t forget for a second that his life and the lives of their parents were unique in the annals of Italian history.

“Just a moment, please.”

She hurried over to her suitcase, which he’d placed on a chest at the end of the king-size bed. After opening it, she pulled out the short-sleeved, lime-colored suit with white lapels and white trim.

“This needs a little touching up to get out the wrinkles,” she explained as she handed it to the maid.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you very much.”

While Belle waited, she finished brushing her naturally curly hair and put on her pearl earrings. Fastening the matching pearl necklace presented problems because she was all thumbs. Tonight would be the culmination of her dreams. Despite Leon’s compliments, the fear that she’d be a disappointment to her mother wouldn’t leave her alone.

She was glad she’d brought her low-slung white heels. When she’d packed for her trip, she hadn’t really imagined having an opportunity to wear them.

Before long, the maid brought Belle’s suit to the bedroom. “The signore said you should join him on the patio whenever you’re ready,” she announced.

Just the thought of him sent Belle’s heart crashing to her feet. She could still feel his mouth on hers, filling her with an ecstasy she didn’t know was possible.

Trying to pull herself together, she thanked the maid again. One more glance in the ornate, floor-length mirror after fastening the buttons, and she felt ready to join her host. Would he approve?

What if he didn’t? Did it matter to her personally?

Yes, it mattered. Horribly. Those moments of intimacy at the pension had been a revelation to her. The way he’d kissed her had brought every nerve ending to life. The fact that he was her stepbrother didn’t matter once they’d crossed the line. What happened between them had shaken her so badly she could hardly function right now, but she had to!

Not wanting to keep Leon waiting, she gave one more glance to the photo she’d placed on the dresser, then left the room and started down the hall. She knew her way out to the patio, but before she reached the open French doors, a darling brown dog rushed over to greet her. As she paused to rub his head, she saw that Leon wasn’t alone.

Her eyes traveled to the dainty, dark blonde baby he held in his arms. She was wearing a pink pinafore and tiny pink sandals, the colors of which stood out against the black silk shirt he was wearing. The child cuddled to his chest couldn’t be more than six or seven months old and possessed features finer than bone china.

He was walking her around the patio. As he talked to her, he kissed her cheek and neck over and over again. The scene with the baby was so sweet it brought hot tears to Belle’s eyes. To be loved like that...

She shivered. She knew what those lips felt like on her mouth. To her shame, she hadn’t wanted him to stop. Right now she longed to feel them against her own neck.

Was the baby his child? Or could she be Dante’s? Belle didn’t know much about his family. Their coloring was so different, given Leon’s vibrant black hair, but his affection for the little girl touched Belle to the core.

He must have sensed Belle’s arrival. When he turned, their gazes fused. She felt him taking in her appearance. In that moment his eyes glowed a crystalline gray that made her legs go weak in response. It was that same smoldering look she’d glimpsed back at the pension after she’d pulled away from him.

“I can see you’ve already met Rufo. Now come and meet my daughter, Concetta.”

“Your baby?” Belle cried in wonder. That explained the love he showered on her. “Oh,” she crooned softly, “you sweet little thing.” She touched the hand clutching her daddy’s shirt.

“I’ve seen a lot of babies in my life at the orphanage, but I never saw one who had your exquisite features and skin. You’re like a porcelain doll.” She looked up at Leon. “She must have gotten those dark brown eyes from her mother.”

“Concetta inherited my wife’s looks.”

“Obviously she was a beauty.”

He pressed a kiss to his daughter’s forehead. “Before you judge me too harshly, I didn’t mention my daughter to you before now because we had a greater issue on our minds. I planned to introduce you after you agreed to follow through and meet Luciana.”

“You don’t have to explain. I understand. Would you think me too presumptuous to ask how your wife died?”

“No. She passed away giving birth.”

“Oh no! How awful for her—for you...” Belle’s gaze traveled back to the baby. “You lost your mommy? No little girl as sweet as you should grow up without your mother. I—I’m so sorry, darling.” Her voice broke. “At least you’ll always know who she was, because you have your daddy, who loved her so much. And you have pictures.”

Without conscious thought Belle kissed that little hand before she looked up at Leon. “What went wrong during the delivery?”

He cuddled his daughter closer. “Soon after our marriage Benedetta was diagnosed with systemic lupus.”

A moan escaped Belle’s lips before she could prevent it. “One of the sisters at the orphanage had that disease.”

He kissed the baby’s head. “My wife was the daughter of the now deceased head of the kennel on my father’s estate. She and I had been friends throughout childhood. Later on, after I came home from college and had been working at the bank for several years, we fell in love, and got married in a small, quiet ceremony, out of the public eye.

“Before long her illness became more aggressive. She developed a deep vein thrombosis in the leg, which was hidden at the time. A piece of blood clot broke off and ended up in her lung. It caused it to collapse, and heart failure followed.”

“Oh, Leon...”

“Concetta came premature. My great sadness was that Benedetta’s life had been snuffed out before she’d been able to hold our baby.”

Belle’s heart ached for them. “Will Concetta get lupus?”

“No. Thankfully, the pediatrician says my daughter is free of the disease. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the child inherits it.”

“Thank heaven!” Belle exclaimed. “How lucky she is to have her daddy! Every girl needs her father.”

Leon’s glance penetrated to the core of her being. “You think it’s possible to do double duty?” he rasped.

In that question, she heard a vulnerability she would never have expected to come from him. The dark prince who’d kissed her hungrily had a weakness, after all. A precious cherub, the reminder of the woman he’d loved and lost. “With her father loving her more than anyone else in the world, she won’t know anything else, and will have all the love she needs, to last her a lifetime and beyond.”

He hugged his daughter tighter. “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I am. Do you think she’d get upset if I tried to hold her?”

“She isn’t used to people except my staff and family. If you try, you’ll be taking your life in your hands, but if you want to risk it...” He didn’t sound unwilling, just skeptical.

“I do.” The operation at the orphanage was such that the older children always helped with the infants and toddlers. Belle had no hesitation as she plucked the baby from his powerful arms.

By now Concetta had started to cry, but Belle whirled around with her and sang a song that so surprised the baby, she stopped crying and looked up at her. The dog followed them. It was then Leon’s little girl discovered the pearls, and grabbed them. Belle laughed gently. “You like those, don’t you.”

At this point Leon attempted to intervene. She felt his fingers against her skin while he tried to remove his daughter’s hands, but she held on tighter. After a slight tug-of-war, the necklace broke and the pearls rolled all over the patio tiles. The sound sent Rufo chasing after them.

“Uh-oh.” Belle chuckled again, because the surprise on the baby’s dear face was priceless. “Where did they go?” Concetta turned her head one way, then another, trying to find them.

“I’m sorry about your necklace, Belle,” Leon murmured, while his gaze narrowed on her mouth. Heat radiated through her body to her face.

“It’s nothing,” she said in a ragged voice.

“Once the pearls are gathered, I’ll have them restrung for you.”

“Don’t you dare,” she said, to fight her physical attraction to Concetta’s father, who suddenly looked frustrated. His baby made him so human, her heart warmed to him. “This is costume jewelry I bought for twenty dollars on sale. We don’t care, do we, Concetta.” She kissed her head and kept walking with her, to put Leon out of her mind. Of course, it didn’t work.

“Let’s watch that boat with the red-and-white sail.” She pointed to it, but by now the baby was staring at her. There were no more tears. “I bet you’re wondering who I am. My name is Belle Donatello. I can’t believe I know my last name. Your generous daddy is letting me stay here for a few days.”

I’m staying at my peril.

She lifted her head to find Leon standing a few feet away. “How do you say daddy in Italian?”

“Papà,” he answered in a husky tone.

Belle turned so Concetta could see him. “There’s your papà.”

All of a sudden his daughter started to whimper, and reached for him. Belle closed the distance and gave her back to him. But the baby quickly looked around and kept staring at Belle in fascination.

Leon’s sharp intake of breath reached her ears. “If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed what just happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“She didn’t break into hysterics with you. Anything but.”

Belle’s mouth curved upward. “I learned in the orphanage that all babies have hysterics. It’s normal. The trick is to get their attention before they become uncontrollable. The sisters were lucky, since between their habits and crucifixes, they were able to quiet the babies down fast. My pearls did rather nicely, don’t you think?”

Leon had a very deep, attractive chuckle. “I think the next time you hold her, you’d better keep her hands away from the pearls in your earlobes. Inexpensive as they might be, the rest of you is...irreplaceable.”

A certain nuance in his voice made her realize he’d been remembering what had gone on earlier. It wasn’t something you could forget.

“Did you hear that, Concetta?” She poked the child’s tummy and got a smile out of her. Lifting the hem of the pinafore, she said, “Pink is my favorite color, too. I bet your papà bought this for you because he couldn’t resist seeing you in it.” The gleam in his eyes verified her statement. “Even if you weren’t a real princess, you look like one.”

For the first time since she’d joined him, his features hardened. “There are no titles under this roof and never will be.”

Meaning even after his father died? It followed that, being the elder brother, he would be Count Malatesta one day, but he’d just made it clear he wanted no part of it.

“After what I’ve learned of my mother’s tragic history, I think that’s the wisest decision you could make as her father.”

He switched Concetta to his other compact shoulder. “Before she and my father arrive, this little one needs her dinner. I’ll take her to the kitchen.”

“Can I come, too, and help feed her?”

A quick, white smile transformed him into the kind of man her roommates would say was jaw-dropping gorgeous. He was that, and so much more Belle couldn’t find words. “If you do, you may have to change your outfit.”

She sent him a reciprocal smile, attempting like mad to pretend she hadn’t experienced rapture. “That’ll be no problem.”

Together with the dog, they walked through the dayroom and down another hall. Belle glimpsed a library and an elegant dining room on their way to the kitchen. From one of the windows she could see a swimming pool surrounded by ornamental flowering trees. A vision of the two of them in the water after dark wouldn’t leave her alone.

In the kitchen three women were busily working. Leon introduced her to his housekeeper, Simona, the maid, Carla, and the nanny, Talia, who reached for the baby. If they knew who Belle really was, rather than simply being a guest, they showed no evidence.

After tying a bib around Concetta’s neck, Talia placed her in the high chair next to the table and drew a chair over to feed her.

Belle shot Leon an imploring glance. “Could I give her her dinner?”

He looked surprised. “You really want to? Sometimes she doesn’t cooperate.”

“That’s all right. I’d love it! I moved out of my adoptive parents’ house at eighteen and haven’t tended a baby since.”

To her joy, he said something to Talia in Italian. She smiled at Belle, then brought the baby food jars to the table. Belle opened the lid on the meat.

“Hmm...smells like lamb.” She glanced down at the dog, who sat there begging her with his eyes. “Sorry, this food isn’t for you, Rufo.” The other jar contained squash. “Oh boy, Concetta. This all looks nummy.” Belle took the spoon and dipped it in the vegetable. “Here it comes.”

Slowly, she lifted it in the air and did a few maneuvers. Those black-brown eyes followed the action faithfully. Belle brought the spoon closer to the baby, who’d already opened her mouth, waiting for her food. Belle saw Leon in the shape of his daughter’s mouth and felt an adrenaline rush that almost caused her to drop the utensil.

He burst into laughter. “You’re a natural mother.”

“Not really.” She began feeding Concetta her meat while the women watched. “I fed the babies at the orphanage. This is the only thing I have a natural aptitude for.”

“The CEO at TCCPI has told me otherwise,” he stated.

If she wasn’t careful, she might start wanting to hear more of his compliments. And believing them, Belle?

“When you’re on your own and forced to earn a living, you learn a trade fast.”

A troubled expression entered his eyes. “Your adoptive father never helped you after you left home?”

She shook her head, with its dark, shiny mass of flowing hair, and continued to feed the baby. “But I’d be ungrateful if I didn’t acknowledge that he and Nadine fed and clothed me for eight years while I lived under their roof. Some of my friends in the orphanage never got adopted, and lived their whole lives there until they were old enough to leave. I was one of the luckier ones.”

Concetta hadn’t quite finished her food when she put her hands out as if to say she was full. She was so adorable, Belle could hardly stand it. “I think you’ve had enough.” Without thinking about it, she untied the bib. After wiping Concetta’s mouth with it, she put it on the table and lifted the baby out of the high chair.

“Uh-oh. I can tell you need to be changed. Where’s your bedroom?”

Leon had been lounging against the wall, watching them. “Upstairs.”

Belle darted him a glance. “If you’ll show me, I’ll change her, but only if it’s all right with you.”

One black brow lifted. “Since you’ve got her literally eating out of the palm of your hand, I have a feeling she’d have a meltdown if anyone else dared to interfere at this point.”

“Leon...” The man had lethal charm. It had been getting to her from the first day and had worked its way beneath her skin.

“Follow me.”

The only thing to do was concentrate on the baby. “You have the most beautiful home, Concetta. I always wanted to live in a house with a staircase like this. I wonder how long it will be before you slide down the banister when your papà isn’t looking.”

She heard the low chuckles trailing after him, and it was impossible to keep her eyes off his hard-muscled frame. She knew what it was like to be crushed against him, and came close to losing her breath, remembering. In father mode, Leon was completely different from the forbidding male she’d first met. Like this he was irresistible.

Rufo darted ahead of them. They entered the first room at the top of the stairs. “I might have known you’d live in a nursery like this. Your father has spoiled you silly, you lucky little girl.” Belle felt as if she’d entered fairyland. He’d supplied everything a child could ever want.

There was a photograph on the dresser of a lovely, dark blonde woman who had to be Leon’s deceased wife. Concetta would always ache for the mother who hadn’t lived through childbirth. The thought made Belle’s heart constrict. She knew what it felt like to want your mother and never know her.

She carried the baby over to the changing table against the wall and got busy. After powdering, she put a clean diaper on her. Concetta’s cooperation made it an easy operation.

Leon stood next to Belle. The scent of the soap he used in the shower lingered to torment her.

“You’ve mesmerized my daughter.”

“It’s the lime suit.” She picked up the baby. After giving her a kiss on her neck, she placed Concetta in her father’s arms. “I’m wearing a different color than she’s used to seeing.”

“So that’s your secret weapon?”

When Belle raised her head in query, the crystal gray eyes she remembered had morphed to a slate color. Just now she’d detected an edge in his tone, and didn’t understand it. If he hadn’t wanted her to feed or change the baby, he should have told her.

As her spirits plummeted, she heard a male voice, and spun around to discover Leon’s father in the nursery doorway. Rufo had already hurried over to him. She recognized him from the photographs, but since the time those pictures were taken, his dark hair had become streaked with silver.

His presence meant Belle’s mother was here! Her mouth went dry.

* * *

Leon saw the shock on his father’s face. Normally, he headed straight for Concetta, but not this time. The count was staring at Belle. Her beauty stopped men in their tracks, but he’d also seen the resemblance to Luciana and was obviously speechless for a moment.

His father wasn’t the only one. Leon had felt out of control since their first meeting. Just now her easy interaction with Concetta, and his daughter’s acceptance of Belle, had caught him unaware. It had to be because Belle reminded her of Luciana. To his chagrin he’d experienced a ridiculous moment of jealousy.

“Papà? May I introduce Belle Peterson. Belle? Meet my father, Sullisto.”

The older man walked over to Belle with suspiciously bright eyes. “It’s like seeing your beautiful mother when she was in her twenties.” He kissed her on both cheeks and grasped her hands. “My wife’s not going to believe it. I’m not sure I do.”

“I don’t believe it, either,” Belle answered in an unsteady voice. “It’s like a dream. I’m so happy to meet you.”

He studied her features for a long moment. “How do you want to do this, my dear?”

Leon appreciated his father’s sensitivity and stepped in. “Where’s Luciana?”

“I left her in the living room, playing the piano.”

“Why don’t you entertain Concetta up here while I take Belle downstairs to meet her?” He kissed the baby and handed her over. “I’ll come back for the two of you in a few minutes and we’ll go down together.”

His father hugged the baby to him before looking at Belle. “Take all the time you need.”

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do, signore?” Her question went straight to Leon’s gut.

“Call me Sullisto. You’re going to make a new person of my wife,” his father reassured her.

A hand went to her throat. “Thank you for being so kind and accepting.”

Leon could only wonder at the emotions gripping her. “Let’s go.”

She followed him out of the room and down the stairs. The sound of the piano grew louder. When they reached the front foyer, he turned to her. “Ready?”

Belle nodded. “I’ve been waiting for this all my life, but I’d like you to go first.”

Taking a deep breath, he opened the French doors. “Good evening, Luciana.”

The playing stopped and she got up from the baby grand piano looking lovely as usual in a draped midriff jersey dress in a blue print. Though her daughter wasn’t wearing Versace, Belle had the same sense of style and good taste as her mother.

She hurried across the Oriental rug toward him. “Thank you for inviting us, Leon. Where’s your precious baby?”

He noticed the two women had the same little tremor in their voices when they were nervous. They were both the same height, but Luciana wore her hair short these days in a stylish cut. After giving her a kiss on both cheeks, he said, “Upstairs with Papà. But before he brings her down, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

“A special woman?”

He knew what she was thinking. His father had Leon’s love life on his mind and no doubt had been discussing the list of eligible titled women with Luciana. “This one is very special. You’ll have to speak English. Come in,” he called over his shoulder.

After Belle stepped into the living room, he watched Luciana’s expression turn to incredulity, then shock. She went so pale he put an arm around her shoulders and helped her to the nearest love seat. “Your daughter has come all the way from New York looking for you.”

A stillness enveloped both women before Luciana cried, “Arabella?”

Tears splashed down Belle’s cheeks. She, too, had lost color. Fear that she might faint prompted Leon to help her sit next to her mother.

“That’s my real name?” she asked in wonder. “Arabella?”

“Yes. Arabella Donatello Sloan. Your father was English. Arabella was his grandmother’s name. She told him it meant beautiful lion. You are so beautiful. I don’t know how you ever found me, but oh, my darling baby girl, I’ve missed and ached for you every moment since I gave you up. You’ve been in my every prayer. Let me hold you.”

It was like a light had gone on inside, bringing Luciana to life, illuminating her countenance. Like her mother, Belle glowed with a new radiance. They weren’t aware of anyone else.

The sight of the two women clinging desperately while they communicated and wept and made dozens of comparisons brought a giant-size boulder to Leon’s throat.

The explanation of Belle’s name reminded Leon of his conversation with her the day before, about his own name meaning lion. Belle remembered, too, because she darted him a quick glance. It was an odd coincidence.

“I want you to know about your father. I have pictures of him back at the palazzo.”

Belle flashed Leon a smile. He knew what seeing a picture of him would do for her.

“Arabella was the grandmother who raised him before she died. We talked about names before you were born. That’s the one we liked the best. You would have loved him, but he was killed before we could be married. I was so terrified he’d been murdered that, when I had you, I made the decision to give you up because the danger you might be killed, too, was too great.”

Leon moved closer to them. “We now know that no one was murdered, and Robert’s death had to have been an accident.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know it until a few months ago. When I think about the years we’ve lost...” Her mother broke down sobbing.

Belle held her for a long time. “What happened to my father?”

“Robert and I had been in downtown Newburgh and we’d just left each other. He’d started across the intersection when this car crossed over the lines and came at him at full speed. The driver just kept going, leaving Robert lying there lifeless.”

Belle’s groan filled the room.

“It was so horrifying I went into labor and was taken to the hospital. You came a month early, Arabella. You were still in the intensive care unit when I had a graveside service for Robert. The police never found the man who killed him.”

“How terrible for you.” Belle reached out to hug her harder.

“It was terrible, since I couldn’t tell my father. He didn’t know about Robert. I knew if I took you back to Italy, he wouldn’t let me keep you at the palazzo. Worse, I was afraid you wouldn’t be safe with me anywhere.

“When I made arrangements for you at the orphanage, you still needed a lot of care. But my father sent for me to come home. He wasn’t feeling well, because of his heart, and hinted that he wanted me to meet Count Malatesta, who’d recently lost his wife to cancer. My father wanted him for a son-in-law.

“We married on my twentieth birthday. The fact that he still wanted me after I confessed everything to him in private proved to me he was a good man. But while I was still in New York, I couldn’t imagine ever marrying again. It was agony, because I had to rely on the sisters to watch over you. I told them I’d named you Belle. That way no one could ever trace you to Robert or me. I also told them they had to promise that whoever adopted you would take you to church.”

“Nadine always took me.”

“Thank heaven for that.”

In all the years Leon had known Luciana, she’d never made such long speeches. In one breath he’d already learned enough about her past to erase the lies he’d heard whispered by the staff and others who lived on gossip. Those lies about her being shallow and of little substance had colored his thinking for years.

He left the living room and remained outside the doors for several minutes to get a grip on his emotions, before taking the stairs two at a time. When he entered the nursery, he found his father helping Concetta stack some blocks. Sullisto saw him in the doorway. “Well...I guess I don’t have to ask how it went. Your eyes say it all.”

Leon nodded. “You were right. This was one reunion that was meant to be. Come downstairs and see for yourself.”

He plucked his daughter from the floor, still clutching one of her blocks, and they headed out the door with Rufo. When they’d descended the staircase and entered the living room, he discovered the two women still seated on the love seat, deep in conversation punctuated with laughter and tears.

“Forgive us for barging in on you, but my daughter wants to join in.”

“Concetta...” Luciana rushed over to take her from Leon’s arms. Belle was right there with her. Both women fussed over his daughter, laughing, and his little girl broke out in smile after smile. She’d never had so much loving attention in her life.

Leon glanced at his father. They shared a silent message that left no doubt this watershed moment had changed the fabric of life in both Malatesta households.

“Dinner’s ready. Let’s go in the dining room. Tonight we’ll all eat together.” Leon’s words delighted the women.

After he brought the high chair in, they both begged him to put Concetta between them at the candlelit table. Happiness reigned for the next hour, with most of the attention focused on the baby.

Leon looked around, realizing he hadn’t felt this sense of family since before his own mother had died. His father hadn’t seemed this relaxed and happy in years, either. As for Luciana, being united with her daughter had transformed her to the point Leon hardly recognized her. Gone were the shadows and that underlying look of depression.

But it was the new addition to his table that filled him with emotions foreign to him. Since Benedetta’s death, Concetta had been the only joy in his life. Having lost his wife, he hadn’t been able to think about another woman. As for marriage, he had no plan to marry again. His daughter was all he could handle, all he wanted to handle.

Before Benedetta had died, she’d been Leon’s comfort. With two losses in his life, plus Dante’s aloofness, it was Concetta who was the beat of his heart now. Though she was loved by his staff, he guarded her possessively, afraid for anything to happen to her.

He’d been functioning on automatic pilot at work, unenthusiastic about the pleasures he’d once enjoyed. His good friend Vito had phoned, no doubt to make some vacation plans, but Leon hadn’t even called him back yet.

While he’d been going along in this whitewashed state, Belle Peterson had exploded onto the scene. Her presence reminded him of someone who’d come along his private stretch of beach and purposely destroyed the sand castle he’d made for his daughter with painstaking care.

In Belle’s case it wasn’t intentional. Far from it. But the damage was just as bad, because nothing could be put back the way it was before. Leon didn’t like having his world turned upside down, leaving him with inexplicable feelings percolating to life inside.

He should never have kissed her. Obviously, he needed to start dating other women. There were many he could choose from if he wanted to. But it was disconcerting to realize that none of them measured up in any way to Belle.

When Carla came into the dining room to pour more coffee, he asked her to tell Talia to come and put the baby to bed. Concetta was too loud and squirmy, a telltale sign she was tired. But after the nanny arrived and pulled her out of her high chair, his daughter cried and fought not to be taken away. To his astonishment, she reached for Belle and quieted down the second his houseguest grasped the baby to her.

Diavolo! He couldn’t blame it on the green suit or the shape in it. Belle herself, with her creative ways of doing things, had captured his daughter’s interest.

Those dark blue eyes sought his with a trace of concern. “If it’s all right with you, I’d love to get her ready for bed.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen, but what could Leon say? “I’m sure that will make Concetta very happy.” When he saw the way she interacted with Belle, it came to him that his daughter needed a mother. Until now he’d been thinking only of his own needs. It had taken Belle’s advent in their lives for him to realize a father wasn’t enough for Concetta, who deserved two parents to make her life complete.

“Oh good! Come with me,” she said to Luciana. “We’ll do it together.”

“You’ll find a stretchy suit in the top drawer of the dresser,” Leon suggested.

“A stretchy suit?” Belle said to the baby. “I wonder how many pink ones you have.”

“It’s a beautiful color on her, but then she’s lovely in every color,” Luciana said as they left the dining room, chatting together like a mother and daughter who’d never been apart. “She’s already a great beauty.”

Once they were alone, Sullisto eyed Leon. “I can see that Luciana won’t want to be separated from Belle now that they’ve found each other. You say she’s flying back to New York on Sunday?”

“That was the plan,” Leon muttered, not able to think that far ahead.

“Well, as long as she’s in Rimini, she’ll stay with us at the palazzo. I’m anxious to get them both home.” After a slight hesitation, he said, “I haven’t told Luciana this yet, but I’m planning to adopt Belle so she’ll be an integral part of the family.”

After learning how much Luciana had suffered since giving up her daughter, Leon wasn’t surprised by the announcement. What it did do was convince him how deeply his father had learned to love Belle’s mother.

Feeling restless with troubling thoughts he hadn’t sorted out yet, Leon got to his feet. “I’ll go up and make sure Concetta is settling down without problem. Have you told Dante about Belle?”

“No. Pia has been so upset because she hasn’t conceived yet, he took her to Florence for a little break. They won’t be back until sometime tomorrow afternoon. It’s probably a good thing. I want to give Luciana and Belle the next twelve hours or so together before we break the news to them.

“They don’t have your advantage of getting to know Belle first, and her reasons for coming to Rimini. It will take time for him and Pia to absorb everything that’s happened while they’ve been gone.”

Dante wouldn’t be the only one. Leon was still attempting to deal with the reality of Luciana’s daughter, whose response had almost sent him into cardiac arrest earlier. Sullisto had been brilliant at keeping his wife’s secret from their family. But for some reason his plan to adopt Belle didn’t sit well with Leon.

He left his father at the table and went to the kitchen to find Talia, asking her to get Concetta’s bottle ready and take it upstairs. “You outdid yourself on the dinner,” he said to Simona, before bounding up the staircase.

He found a beaming Luciana holding his daughter, who’d been changed into a white stretchy suit with feet. Belle stood next to them, playing with his daughter’s toes. The baby was laughing out loud.

Luciana saw him first. “Oh, Leon, she’s the dearest child in the whole world.” There was a new light in her eyes.

Belle’s expression reflected the same sentiment. “We wish she didn’t have to go to bed.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t want to be put down, either, but it’s time.” He walked over and reached for his daughter, who clung to him with satisfying eagerness. Talia wasn’t far behind with the bottle.

She sat down in the rocker, so he could hand her the baby, who’d started to fuss the second he let go of her. “Buonanotte, Concetta. Be a good girl for Talia.” He kissed her cheeks before following the two women out of the nursery.

Sullisto met them at the bottom of the stairs. He reached for Belle’s hand. “Your mother and I would like you to stay at the palazzo with us while you’re in Rimini. Would you like to come with us now?”

Leon sensed her slight hesitation. He was pleased by it when he shouldn’t have been. Though he didn’t know what was going on in her mind, he made the instant decision to intervene.

“Belle has already settled in as my houseguest for tonight, Papà. As it’s late and I know she’s exhausted, why don’t I bring her to the palazzo in the morning for breakfast, and we’ll discuss future plans?”

Luciana hugged her daughter. “Of course you’re tired. After the shock of coming face-to-face with my beautiful daughter, whom I thought would always be lost to me, I confess I am, too. Tomorrow we’ll spend the whole day together. I can’t wait.”

“Neither can I.”

“I love you, Arabella.”

“I love you, too.” Belle’s words came out in a whisper.

They hugged for a long time before letting each other go. Together everyone moved to the front foyer. Luciana’s gaze moved to Leon. “Please bring Concetta when you come. We can’t get enough of her.”

Leon nodded to his stepmother and father before the two of them disappeared out the door. When it closed he turned to Belle.

“Did I speak too soon for you? It’s not too late to go with them.”

She shook her head. “Actually, I’m very grateful you said what you did. No matter what you say, this meeting put my mother and your father in a difficult position. By my staying here in your home, they’ll have time to talk alone tonight. She put on a wonderful front, but—”

“It was no front,” Leon contradicted. “I’ve known her close to fourteen years. The joy on her face when she saw you changed her to the point that I hardly recognized her.”

Belle bit her lip. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that she gave me up and no one knew about it. Now that I’m here, she has to worry about people finding out she had a child before she married your father.”

“Do you honestly believe that matters to either of them now?”

“I don’t know. She said she gave me up to keep me safe. But since that’s no longer a concern and I’ve shown up, she’ll have to deal with gossip. I’m not worried for myself, but the last thing I want is to bring more unhappiness to your family.”

“That’s very noble of you, Belle, but she’s already let you know you’re welcome with open arms.”

Her chin lifted. “Maybe. I think it would be better if she comes over here in the morning, where we can talk in private before I go back to New York. Her presence in your home won’t draw attention. If I thought my coming to Italy could upset her life in any way...”

He raked a hand through his hair. “Come out on the patio with me and we’ll talk.”

Without saying anything, she followed him down the hall to the other part of the house. When he opened the doors to the patio, they were greeted by a sea breeze scented with the fragrance of the garden flowers. Belle walked over to the railing. “How absolutely heavenly it is out here.”

“It’s my favorite place.”

“I can see why.”

Leon stood next to her, studying her stunning profile, which was half hidden by her dark hair. “Forget everything else for a minute and answer me one question.”

She turned her head in his direction. “You want to know how I feel.”

Belle had the disarming habit of being able to read his mind. “Can you put it into words yet?”

“No,” she answered promptly. “Luciana is wonderful. More wonderful than I could have ever hoped. So’s your father. But over these years, this need to find her has been all about me and what I want. Sitting with her on the love seat while she explained her life to me, I realized what a terrible thing I’ve done to her.”

Leon looked into those blue eyes glittering with tears. “I don’t understand.”

“She didn’t deserve to have me sweep into her world, bringing up all the pain and unhappiness she’s put behind her. No—” Belle put up her hands when he would have argued with her.

“The sister in charge warned me I could be taking a great risk in trying to find my birth mother. I thought I knew better when you told me I could meet her at dinner tonight. When I met your father, I still felt good about it. But I don’t anymore.”

Leon had to think fast. “I’m guessing the part of you that feels unlovable has taken over for the moment. You’re terrified that any more time spent with her and she’ll see all your flaws.”

Belle gripped the railing tighter. “I’m nothing like her. She’s lovely and refined. I never met anyone so gracious. She’s not the kind of person to tell you what she’s really thinking inside. She and your father have made a life together. There’s no place in it for me and there shouldn’t have to be.”

“You’re wrong about that, Belle.” If his father had his way, it wouldn’t be long before she found herself being adopted for the second time in her life.

“It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I’ve trespassed on their lives.”

“Trespassed... If you feel like that, then blame me for facilitating the meeting.”

Tears again sparkled in her eyes. “I could have decided not to go through with the plans for this evening. Of course I don’t blame you. You’ve been wonderful. You all have. I’m the one who doesn’t belong in Rimini.”

“That’s another part of you talking, the part that feels you don’t deserve this outpouring of kindness and acceptance. You’re going to have to give this time, Belle. In the past you’ve been too used to rejection from your adoptive father and brother. If you turn away now, after one meeting, you’ll be giving in to old habits. Consider your mother’s feelings.”

“She’s all I’m thinking about right now.”

“How do you imagine she’ll feel if you let your fear of rejection prevent her from really getting to know you? It works both ways.”

Belle shook her head. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Do you think she does?”

A troubled sigh escaped her lips. “I’m not sure. If she’d begged me to come with her tonight...”

Ah. “What if she was afraid to pressure you, in case you had reservations? I’m the one who mentioned your fatigue, and she grabbed on to it for an excuse, in case you didn’t feel comfortable going with them. Don’t you see?”

“I—I don’t know what I see,” Belle stammered. “I love her so much already, Leon, but I’m more anxious than ever.” Her eyes met his, full of despair and confusion.

He wasn’t immune to her pain, but he couldn’t take her in his arms again, not after he’d sworn to keep his distance.

Yesterday, when he’d drawn her against him, he’d become instantly aware of her as an alluring woman, but he’d fought those feelings. He couldn’t handle the complication of a woman in his life. Yet when they’d been at the pension, he’d reached for her again, because he couldn’t help himself. Much more of this and he would lose every bit of objectivity.

Already her presence was making chaos of the well-ordered existence he’d been putting back together since Benedetta’s death. Otherwise why would he have stepped in to suggest Belle remain under his roof tonight?

CHAPTER FIVE

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.

CHAPTER SIX

IN A PANIC over feelings completely new to her, Belle raced to her room and jumped in the shower to wash her hair. In getting what she’d wished for by finding her mother, her world and everyone else’s had been turned upside down. Nothing would ever be the same again and it was her fault!

Since she turned eighteen she’d been leading her own life as a liberated adult, in charge of herself and her decisions. No matter the situation now, she refused to be a weight around Leon’s neck.

Her roommates would tell her she was stark staring crazy to run from the situation. They’d kill for the chance to stay with a gorgeous widower in his fabulous Italian villa. What was her problem?

Belle could only shake her head. What wasn’t her problem? When Leon had driven her away from the palazzo earlier, she’d left it in an emotional shambles. After trying so hard not to hurt anyone, she found out that every life inside those walls standing for hundreds of years had been changed because of her driving need to know who she was.

Are you happy now, Belle?

In a matter of minutes Dante’s life had been turned into a nightmare. She couldn’t live with herself if something drastic wasn’t done to staunch the flow of pain for him.

But she couldn’t stay with Leon any longer, either. Through an accident of marriage, he was her stepbrother, for heaven’s sake! Yet she had to face the awful truth that her feelings for him were anything but sisterly. She could be arrested for some of the thoughts she’d been having about him.

Just now on the beach, the ache for him had grown so acute she’d literally melted when he’d grasped her arms. It wouldn’t be possible to stay with him any longer and not act on her feelings for him.

She finished blow-drying her hair and slipped on the only pair of jeans she’d brought, along with a khaki blouse. It was time to play tourist while she decided what she was going to do.

Before leaving the room in her sneakers and shoulder bag, Belle dashed off a note, which she propped on the dresser. In it she explained she’d gone for a walk and would be back later.

No one was about as she retraced her steps to the beach. It was the only way to leave his gated property. She hurried past a lifeguard tower. For all she knew, the guy on watch was one of Leon’s security people. But she wouldn’t worry about that now, because she’d reached the crowded public part of the beach. From there she entered one of the hotels.

After taking a couple of free pamphlets printed in English from the lobby, she walked out in front to get a taxi. She told the driver where she wanted to go. In a few minutes he dropped her off at the ancient Tiberius Bridge.

The leaflet said it was begun by the Emperor Augustus in AD 14, and completed under Tiberius in AD 21. It was a magnificent structure of five arches resting on massive pillars. Incredible to think that she was here in such a historic place, but she couldn’t appreciate it.

Tormented because she didn’t know what she should do, Belle crossed the river to the city center to window-shop and eat a late lunch. The brochure indicated the Piazza Cavour was once the area of the fish and vegetable markets during the Middle Ages.

It was fascinating information, but partway through her meal she lost interest in her food. Sightseeing hadn’t been a good idea and there were too many tourists. She decided to find a taxi and return to the villa. As she got up from the table, she almost bumped into Leon, who was pushing Concetta in her baby stroller.

“Leon!” Belle cried in utter surprise. The sight of his tall, powerful body clothed in jeans and a white polo shirt took her breath. “Where did you come from?”

A seductive smile broke out on his firm lips. Her gaze traveled to the cleft in his chin. The enticing combination was too much for her. “We’ve been following you.”

Belle might have known Leon’s security people would keep him informed of her every step. In spite of knowing she’d been watched and followed, a rush of warmth invaded her. To offset it, she knelt down to give the baby kisses. “So that’s what you’ve been doing. Are you having a wonderful time?”

Concetta kept smiling at her as if she really recognized her and was happy to see her. That sweet little face had a lock on Belle’s emotions.

“When we found your note, we thought we’d join you.”

No... To spend more time with him and the baby wasn’t a good idea. “I was just going to find a taxi and go back.”

“Fine. My car is parked right over there on the side street.”

Caving to the inevitable, Belle said, “May I push her?”

“Go ahead, but you’ll have to dodge the heavy foot traffic.”

She rubbed her hand over Concetta’s fine hair. “We don’t mind, do we, sweetheart.”

As they navigated through the crowds toward his car, every woman in sight feasted her eyes on Leon. His black hair and striking looks compelled them to stare. Belle felt their envy when they glanced at her. She had to admit that if she’d been a tourist and had seen him with his little girl, she would have found him irresistible. There was nothing that captured a female’s attention faster than an attractive man out with his baby and enjoying it, especially this one.

“On the way home we’ll stop by the Delfinario.”

“That’s an intriguing word.”

With half-veiled eyes, he helped her and Concetta into the backseat of the sedan. “I think you’ll be entertained.”

“Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?”

Leon burst into rich laughter. “You’ll get your answer before long.”

Her heart went into flutter mode, something that had started happening only since she’d been in Leon’s company.

He drove along the beach until they came to what appeared to be a theme park. After they got out he said, “I’ll carry Concetta. Come with me.”

Belle followed him to a large, open-air pool. She spotted some mammals leaping out of the water. “Dolphins?”

“Sì, signorina. Delfino.” Leon paid the admission and found them two seats in the packed arena where they were performing. Belle could pick out a few familiar words spoken by the man narrating the show in Italian. She loved the sound of the language. The children in the audience were enraptured by the sight.

“Look, Concetta!” Belle pointed to them. “Can you see the delfino?”

The baby got caught up in the excitement and clapped her hands like the kids surrounding them. More enchanted by her reaction than by the remarkable tricks happening in the water with the trainers, both Leon and Belle laughed with abandon.

After one spectacular feat, their eyes met and she flashed him a full, unguarded smile. Belle found it impossible to hold back her enjoyment in being here like this with the two of them, as if they were a family. It wasn’t until later, on their drive home, that she was brought back to reality, knowing she had a huge decision to make.

“I think my little tesoro needs her dinner.”

“Would you let me feed her and put her to bed?” Being with the baby brought Belle comfort, the kind she needed right now.

“Of course. It will give Talia a break.”

“Oh goody. Did you hear that, Concetta?” Belle was sitting next to her in the back of the sedan and kissed her half a dozen times.

Once they arrived at the villa, Leon carried her in the kitchen to her high chair and got out the baby food for Belle. Another fun-filled half hour passed while the child ate and played with her food, smearing some of it on the traytop as well as herself.

Laughter rumbled out of Leon. “I had no idea she could be this messy an eater.”

“Most babies make a huge mess when you make a game out of eating. She’s so happy. Look at the way she beams at you, Leon. It’s the cutest thing I ever saw. But let’s be honest. She’s in need of a bath big-time.”

“You took the words out of my mouth. Her little plastic tub is under the sink in the bathroom.”

“I’ll get everything set up.” As Belle turned to leave the room, Concetta started to cry, causing Belle to turn around. “Oh, sweetie, I’m just going upstairs.”

Leon darted her a piercing glance while he cleaned the baby off. “My daughter is already so crazy about you, she’s not going to want Talia’s attention.”

Belle’s heart thudded. “I hope that’s not true,” she whispered. “See you in a minute, Concetta.” She hurried through the house and up the stairs to the nursery. Once she’d started filling the tub, she found the baby shampoo and a towel.

“Leon?” she called out. “Everything’s ready!”

“Here we come!” He breezed into the bathroom, carrying his daughter in the altogether and lowering her into the water. Concetta talked her head off and splashed water everywhere.

“Already you’re a water baby, aren’t you, sweetheart? That’s a good thing, because you’ve got a swimming pool and the Adriatic right in your own backyard.” Leon grinned as he poured a little shampoo on her head.

Belle massaged it in. “Are you having fun, my little brown-eyed Susan?”

“What’s that?” Leon asked. His command of English was remarkable, but once in a while he could be surprised.

“A yellow flower like a daisy with a center just like her incredible eyes.”

He nodded. “The first time I looked into them, they reminded me of poppy throats.”

Spoken like a father in love with his little offshoot. “They’re both apt descriptions. One day she’s going to grow up and drive all the Rimini ragazzi wild.”

A burst of laughter broke from his throat. “Your knowledge of Italian is impressive. But let’s hope that eventuality is years away yet.”

“I don’t know. They grow up fast.” Belle kissed the baby’s neck. “Are you having fun, sweetheart? I know I am.” Truly, she’d never had so much fun in her life.

“That makes two of us,” Leon said in his deep voice.

He made a wonderful father. If every child could be so lucky...

Once the bath was over, she slipped a diaper on Concetta and Leon found a light green sleeper. “Here’s the bottle.” He handed it to her. “Would you like to give it to her?”

“You know I would.”

Belle sat down in the rocker with the baby and sang to her. So much playtime had made Concetta sleepy. Her eyelids drooped almost at once while she drank her formula. The long lashes reminded Belle of Leon’s. Before long the child stopped sucking and fell sound asleep.

Leon watched as Belle put the baby down in the crib on her back. After they’d left the nursery he turned to her.

“Now that we’ve got the evening to ourselves, I’m taking you out on the cabin cruiser so you can get a view of the coast from the water. It’s a sight you shouldn’t miss. The pier is a few steps down the beach, in the opposite direction from where you went earlier today.”

“I figured the lifeguard was one of your security people, but he didn’t try to stop me.”

Leon’s lips twitched. “While we’re out, I’d like to discuss something of vital importance with you. I’ve worked out a solution to our problem.”

“So have I.” She was going home on Sunday as planned, with no interference from him.

His black brows lifted in challenge, as if he could read her thoughts. “Then we’ll compare notes,” he said in an authoritative tone. His hauteur came naturally to him, because it was evident few people had ever dared thwart him. “Meet me on the back patio in twenty minutes. Bring a wrap. It will get cool later.”

She nodded before hurrying downstairs to her room. She couldn’t imagine what kind of solution he’d worked out, and didn’t want to listen to him, not when Dante’s happiness was at stake. But she was a guest in Leon’s home and couldn’t forget her debt to him. It was one she could never repay.

Without him acting on his uncanny instinct to follow through on her inquiry at the bank, she would have gone on searching for her mother in vain. The situation was untenable any way she looked at it.

A tap on the door a few minutes later brought her head around. “Signorina?” Belle rushed over to open it and discovered Carla. “The Countess Malatesta phoned while you were bathing the baby. She would like you to call her.” The maid handed Belle a note with the phone number written on it.

“Thank you, Carla.”

After she left, Belle pulled the cell phone out of her purse and called her mother. Two rings and she answered. “Arabella?”

It was still unbelievable to Belle that she was talking to the mother she’d ached for all her life. “Mom—I’m so glad you called. To hear your voice...it’s like a miracle to me.”

“I was just going to tell you the same thing, darling. What have you done with your day?”

Belle bit her lip. “I went sightseeing and Leon took me and the baby to see the dolphins. Then we fed her and bathed her. Now she’s just gone to sleep.” But Belle didn’t want to talk about Leon and the way he made her feel. Her mouth had gone so dry thinking about him, she could hardly swallow. “How’s Dante? I’ve been worried sick about him.”

“To be truthful, we’ve been worried, too. They’ve stayed in their wing of the palazzo all day. Since they have their own entrance, they could have gone out without our knowing it. Sullisto and I thought we’d done the right thing to tell him the truth this morning...” Her voice trailed off. “I know my husband’s hurt by this.”

Belle gripped the phone tighter. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think it would have mattered when you told Dante. The outcome would be the same. Maybe tonight he’ll decide to talk to you, so I’m not planning to come over. Can we see each other tomorrow?”

“That’s why I phoned you. I’ll pick you up in the morning and we’ll take a drive. I want to show you my world. We’ll talk and eat our heads off. How does that sound?”

She smiled. “Like heaven.”

“Let’s say eight-thirty.”

“Perfect. I’ll be ready. I love you, Mom.”

“I love you. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to say it to each other?”

“Yes.” Oh yes.

After they hung up, Belle threw herself across the bed and thought about the day Cliff had let her know she wasn’t wanted or loved.

She’d been a child then, with a child’s reaction. But she was a woman now, and understood Cliff’s behavior, just as she understood Dante’s. In both cases Belle had been the one to bring on more suffering. This time she had the power to end it.

When it was time to meet Leon, she grabbed her sweater and hurried down to the patio. She would listen to what he had to say, but it wouldn’t change her mind about leaving on Sunday.

* * *

Leon knew something was up the minute he saw her. “What’s happened since you went downstairs?” he asked as they headed for the dock.

“I just got off the phone with Mom. They haven’t seen Dante all day.”

“My father told me the same thing a few minutes ago, but it isn’t surprising. His way is to hide out.”

“What do you mean, his way?”

Leon sobered. “There are things you don’t know.”

She took a shuddering breath. “Well, I know one thing. My arrival in Rimini has hurt him.”

“It’s not personal, Belle. I’m the one who has hurt him.”

Her brows met in a frown as she looked at him. “How can you say that?”

“Because it’s true. You saw and heard what happened at the table when Father said I was the one who made the reunion possible. Dante couldn’t handle it and blew up at me in Italian.”

She shook her head. “The whole thing is tragic. Mom’s going to take me for a drive tomorrow. Maybe if Dante knows she’s out of the palazzo, he and your father will be able to talk.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why do you sound so sure about that?”

“Once we’re on board, I’ll explain.” Leon couldn’t let Belle go on thinking she was the cause of everything.

He helped her climb over the side of the cruiser. After giving her a life jacket to put on, he undid the ropes and started the engine. They moved at a wakeless speed until they were past the drop-off before he opened it up.

She knelt on the bench across from the captain’s seat, looking out to sea. “Is it always this placid?”

“It is this time of evening. Much later a breeze will spring up.”

“You weren’t exaggerating about the view. With the blue changing into darkness, all the lights twinkling along the shoreline make everything magical.”

“Your eyes are the same color right now. Twilight eyes.”

His words seemed to disturb her, because she turned around to face him. “You said you would tell me about Dante. Let’s talk about him.” She was a businesswoman who’d been fending off men’s advances for years and knew how to probe through to the marrow.

He shut off the engine and lowered the anchor. After turning to her, he extended his legs. “When Dante and I lost our mother to cancer, he was ten and I eleven. For several years we were pretty inconsolable. Father had always been so preoccupied with business, she was the one who played with us and made life exciting. No one could be more fun. We could go to her with any problem and she’d fix it.”

“You were blessed to have her that long.”

“We were, but at the time all we could realize was that her death left a great void. Sometimes Benedetta saw me walking on the grounds and she’d join me with her dog. She wouldn’t say anything, but she was a comfort, and I found myself unburdening to her the way kids do. Unfortunately, Dante didn’t have that kind of a confidante. All he had was me, and I was a poor substitute.”

“Don’t say that, Leon. Just having a sibling, knowing you’re there, makes such a difference. There were several siblings at the orphanage. They had a special bond without even talking. If you could discuss this with Dante, I’m sure he would tell you how much it meant to have a brother who understood what he was going through.”

Leon studied her for a moment. “You have so much insight, Belle, there are times when I’m a little in awe of you. But you haven’t heard everything yet.”

She smiled sadly. “I was the great observer of life, don’t forget. You’ve seen people like me before. We hover at the top of the staircase, watching everyone below, never being a part of things. But I eventually grew out of my self-pity. I had to!”

“Look at you now, a successful businesswoman.”

Belle leaned forward. “What happened to your relationship with Dante? I want to know. Was it terrible when your father told you boys he was getting married again?” The compassion in her eyes was tangible.

“The truth?” She nodded. “We both felt betrayed.”

“You poor things.”

“To be honest, I couldn’t fathom him marrying anyone else. Our mom was a motherly sort, the perfect mother, if you know what I mean. She made everything fun, always laughing and lively, always there for us.

“Her death brought a pall over our household. Dante came to my room every night and cried his heart out. I had to hold back my tears to try and help him.”

“That’s so sad, Leon. I believe the heartache you two endured had to be worse than anything I ever experienced at the orphanage. To be so happy with your mother, and then have her gone...”

He sucked in his breath. “Things got worse when Papà brought Luciana to the palazzo to meet us. The diamond heiress looked young enough to be his daughter. In fact, she didn’t look old enough to be anyone’s mother. I found her cool and remote.”

Belle’s heart twisted. “I can’t picture her that way.”

“That’s because meeting you has changed her into a different person. At the time I hated her for being so beautiful. Anyone could see why she’d attracted our father. As you heard through the librarian, there’d been rumors that both Luciana’s mother and her widowed father might have been murdered.”

Belle nodded.

“Some of those rumors linked my father to the latter possible crime. I knew in my heart Papà couldn’t have done such a thing, but I was filled with anger.”

“Why exactly?”

“Because I was old enough to understand that love had nothing to do with his marriage to her. He’d done what all Malatestas had done before him, and reached out to bring the Donatello diamond fortune under the far-reaching umbrella of our family’s assets.

“Gossip was rife at the time. People were waiting to see if he produced another heir. It felt like he’d betrayed our mother, and I couldn’t forgive him. Dante felt the same way and threatened to run away.”

“How terrible,” Belle whispered sadly.

“I told him we couldn’t do that. But when we turned eighteen, we would leave. Until then we had to go along with things and deal with the ugly rumors surrounding the Donatello family. But I let him down when I made the decision to go away to college.”

“You had to live your own life.”

He raked his hair back absently. “This morning’s explosion lets me know I made a big mistake in leaving.” Pain stabbed his insides, forcing him to his feet.

“What do you mean?”

“I left Dante on his own to deal with his pain. I should have stayed and helped him, but I didn’t. Papà’s marriage to a princess shrouded in gossip and mystery was so distasteful to me, I couldn’t get out of the palazzo fast enough. I could have gone to college in Rimini, but instead I went to Rome in order to get away.

“During the years I was gone, Dante’s pain turned to anger. When I returned, he was involved with his own friends. I moved to the villa, one of the properties I inherited from our mother’s estate, and dug into business at the bank. Later on I began to spend more time with Benedetta. My brother and I had grown apart, but that was my fault.”

Belle put a hand on his arm. At the first contact, tiny sensations of delight he couldn’t ward off spread through his body. “You couldn’t help what happened then,” she murmured.

Leon looked down at her hand. “Oh yes, I could have, but I was too caught up in my own pain to reach out. Dante didn’t display any outward signs of rebellion, but obviously, he was riddled with turmoil once our father’s marriage was a fait accompli. I didn’t see it manifested until I came home from college.”

“Didn’t your father try to prepare you for his marriage to my mother?”

“No, but to be honest, if he had tried, it wouldn’t have done any good. Be assured I’ll always love my father, but there was a gulf between us. While I was gone I stayed in touch with him and Dante, even made a few short visits on holidays. But it was four years later before I returned to Rimini to live.

“By that time Dante no longer shared his innermost thoughts with me. The closeness we once enjoyed seemed to have vanished for good. I’m afraid that for him, it was a hurt that never went away.

“He married Pia Rovere, a distant relative from our mother’s side of the family. They chose to live in another wing of the Malatesta palazzo. That arrangement pleased my father and suited me, since I preferred living on my own at the villa.”

“She’s lovely.”

“And very good for Dante, I think. Since then the three of us work in the family banking business. Unfortunately, the relations between my father and me continue to be frayed because of my marriage to Benedetta.”

Belle’s delicately arched brows met. “I don’t understand.”

“When I married her, I did something no other Malatesta has done, and took a woman without a title for my wife. I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with such an archaic custom. My father has had no choice but to look to Dante to follow in his footsteps.”

“Which he has done by marrying Pia, who’s from a royal house.”

Again Leon frowned. “But now that Benedetta is gone, Papà is counting on my marrying a titled woman he has in mind to be Concetta’s new mother. He’s made no secret about it. Every time he brings it up in front of Dante, which is often, I keep reminding him that even if I weren’t in mourning, I would never do as he wants. I’ve told him I’m not interested in marriage and only want to be a good father to my daughter.”

Belle let out a troubled sigh. “Why do you think he’s so intent on it?”

“Because I’m the firstborn son and the firstborn is supposed to inherit the title.”

“In other words, he would prefer you to receive it over Dante.”

“Yes. It isn’t that he loves Dante less, but he’s a stickler for duty. Luciana’s father was of that same ilk. It’s the one area where Father and I don’t get along.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t forbid you to marry Benedetta.”

“He did, but we got married in a private ceremony before he knew about it, and his hands were tied.”

Belle studied him for a minute. “I’m sure you must miss your wife terribly. Tell me about her.”

“I knew her from childhood. She was Dante’s age. Our mother was an animal lover. We spent hours at the kennel playing with the dogs. Benedetta was always there, helping her father. She’d lost her mother to pneumonia, and our mom took her under her wing. It was like having a sister.”

“So your love for her was based on long-standing friendship first.”

He nodded. “It wasn’t until several years after I returned from Rome that my feelings for her underwent a change.”

“What happened?”

“She worked for her father and had a Spinone who’d been her devoted pet for a long time. I happened to be at the palazzo one day in the fall when word came to us that her dog was missing. I knew how much she loved him, so I gathered some staff to go look for him. We found him shot dead by a hunter we presumed had trespassed on the property.”

“What a dreadful thing to happen. I can’t bear it.”

“Neither could I. When I saw him lying there, I felt like I’d been the one who’d received the bullet. Benedetta was so heartbroken, I didn’t think she’d recover. I dropped everything to be with her for the next week. We comforted each other. She’d always had a sweetness that drew me to her.”

“You must have had a wonderful marriage.”

“For the short time we were given, I was the happiest I’d ever been.”

Leon heard Belle take a deep breath. “One day your daughter is going to love hearing about your love story.” After a slight hesitation, she added, “How hard for both of you to find out she had that disease. What was it like? I hope you don’t mind my asking.”

For the first time since it happened, Leon felt like talking about it. “At first she grew very tired, and then suffered some hair loss. I came home from the office early many times to be with her, console her. After a while she couldn’t go out in the sun. As time passed, more symptoms occurred. She had painful swollen joints and fever, even kidney problems.”

“That must have been so awful, Leon.”

“I didn’t want to believe it would get worse. We prayed she’d get it under control, and were both looking forward to the baby. I never dreamed I’d lose her during the delivery. I was in shock for days.”

“Of course. I’m so sorry. Did she suffer a long time?”

“No, grazie a Dio.”

“Then you received two blessings, one of them being your adorable daughter.” Belle shifted position and lowered her head. “How did you cope with a newborn?”

“You’ve met Simona and Talia. They worked for my mother’s family and I trusted them implicitly. They fell in love with the baby and have been with me ever since. I couldn’t have made it without them.”

“Did your father help?”

“Yes. Everyone did what they could. Their love for Concetta brought us all a little closer together.”

“Then you’d think that after a marriage like yours, and that sweet baby, your father would give up his futile desire and leave you alone to decide what you want from life.”

Leon nodded. “That’s what a normal parent would do. Perhaps now you’re beginning to understand what I’ve always been up against. The point is, I would never choose a woman of rank.”

“Why do you feel so strongly about it? I’m curious.”

“My parents were officially betrothed before they ever met each other. They made their arranged marriage work. From what I saw, they were kind and decent to each other, sometimes showing each other affection. But until Mother was dying, I didn’t know she’d loved another man and had to give him up.”

His mother had told him something else, too.

“I can’t begin to imagine it,” Belle was saying.

“After realizing the sacrifice she’d made to marry for duty, I made up my mind that her situation wasn’t going to happen to me. When the time came, I proposed to Benedetta without hesitation.”

Belle shifted restlessly in her seat. “I guess that meant your father had to sacrifice, too.”

Leon nodded. “You know what’s interesting? The other night Father told me that when he asked Luciana to marry him, he said, ‘Naturally, it wasn’t like the feelings I had for your mother, but then you can’t expect that.’”

“So what do you think he was really saying?”

“That he was still trying to protect me by pretending he’d loved our mother, but I knew it wasn’t true. They were never in love with each other. Do you want to know something else?”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.