Boxed Set: The His Submissive Series Complete Collection (Part One-Part Twelve) (16 page)

"Things were so good with us," I said after a minute. "Like we were finally building something together."

"You
were
building something,” Allegra said quietly. “When Jacob called me a few days ago, I just knew. I hadn't heard that—something—in his voice in a long time. He was happy." She gave my hand a pat. "And that is because of you."

"Not anymore," I said weakly. I picked at invisible lint on my skirt. I'd barely taken the tags off it. Not even wrinkles and teardrops could sully the high quality fabric. I glanced at the couture dresses and blouses strewn on the floor and bed, thinking over the lavishness of my beautiful room in this beautiful country. Faced with losing all of it, it all seemed so pointless. I didn't care about the jets, the clothes, the five star hotel...I cared about him. Losing him felt like I was being split in half. A part of me would do what he wanted and go my way, but the other part would remain, haunting the dream of what we were meant to be.

A fresh stream of tears unhitched from my eyes and I swept them away, swallowing so I could recount how I’d gotten here.

"We went to the museum this morning and everything was perfect...right up until Rachel appeared."

"Oh dear," Allegra groaned, ruffling her dark, choppy hair. "I should have known she was at the center of this."

It wasn’t quite that simple, but Jacob already hated me. I didn’t want to add Allegra to the list by telling her the role I played. "She threatened to go public with information that could ruin Jacob, unless I gave her five minutes with him.”

Allegra frowned. “She has no problem intruding upon Jacob. Why would she-” She stopped, her eyes narrowing as Rachel’s true motives dawned on her. It was funny—if only I’d taken a moment and thought about it myself, I’d be trotting around Venice instead of preparing to board a jet back home.

“I lied to Jacob and let her charm her way back into his life.” I dropped my head in my hands, letting out a groan of frustration as I relived it. “You should have seen his face.” Eyes as cold and uncaring as they’d been before I scaled the walls of him to find something more. Lips in a razor thin line, sharp enough to cut. The guy who'd held my hand tight with that devilish grin as we took in the city was replaced by someone who ripped away from my touch. "I lost him, Allegra."

“Nonsense." Allegra waved a hand through the fog of my sadness. "The changes in him and the happiness he has found is not something easily forgotten." She brushed a bundle of curls from my face then used a hankie from her pocket to mop at my wet cheeks. "This is just the first fight."

"Our first fight?" I said incredulously. "He banished me from the country!"

"That is theatre," Allegra replied simply. "His anger is doing the talking instead of his heart." She glanced away, her eyes clouding over. "Just like his father."

I perked at the mention of his dad. Maybe there was something, anything in their past that would help me get Jacob back. "Could you tell me more about his father?"

Hesitation flitted across her face and she took a few steps away from me. "No good can come from digging up those skeletons." She glanced at my messy bed. “Let’s get these things hung back up, yes?”

There was nothing I wanted more than to pretend that what went down between Jacob and I was some sort of lovers spat, but deep down I knew it wasn’t that simple. When I told the lie about my father, something danced across his face. There was sadness there. But it didn’t take a psychic to know that talking about Jacob’s father was the absolute last thing Allegra wanted to do.

"I'm just trying to understand," I prodded. "When I was talking about my dad at lunch, I could tell that he was thinking about his own."

"I find that unlikely unless he was thrashing about and foaming at the mouth."

I peered over at her, expecting to see a flicker of the joke, but her face was hard as stone. She smoothed the front of her pants, her fingers shuddering like wind over water. Allegra had been a force from the moment I met her. Graceful, powerful, formidable. But talking about Jacob’s father had brought out something entirely different in her. Watching the nerves and wariness engulf her was like looking into a mirror.

"Oh my god," I gasped, the truth smacking me upside the head. "You two were in love!"

She opened her mouth to protest before she closed it and let out a resigned sigh. “You caught me.”

When she didn’t offer anything else, I moved closer to her. I was being selfish, not giving her the same courtesy she gave me, but now that I’d glimpsed the truth, I couldn’t stop until I knew more. “I know this is hard-“

"Hard?” she repeated with a sad chuckle. “It was agony. He was my everything.
Everything
." She sucked in a lungful of air. “Carlton Whitmore.” After she said the name, she rubbed her bare arms like she caught a chill.

“He was an actor, right?” I said, remembering the snippet she’d shared about him when we first met. When she was telling me why I shouldn’t judge Jacob by the role he played for the world.

"
Si.
He walked around Venice like a king. And every woman worshipped him." She spread her arms wide. "His head was this big!"

"I guess that runs in the family," I smirked.

"Oh yes,” she said, twisting her lips into a rueful grin. “Pride is in the Whitmore DNA. And Carlton was stubborn as a mule. Whatever he wanted, he got. I was the only girl in Venice that showed no interest."

"Out of principle?"

"Out of respect," she said wryly. "Respect to his wife."

My eyes widened. "He was married when he pursued you?"

She nodded. "He was relentless. Swore that he was unhappy. That he wanted to leave her." She cut her eyes at me. "I do not have some fancy US education, but I wasn't stupid. I kept at him, telling him if he wasn't happy he should leave her. He said he couldn't but would not explain why."

I bit my lip. It was the age old crutch. Stay together for the kids. "Because of Jacob."

"Yes. Eventually the truth of his hesitation came out." She let out a groan, massaging the bridge of her nose. "But it was too late. Instead of being horrified, I accepted it. I accepted it because I fell in love." She paused, her eyes glazing over. "For three years, he came in the summer and we played house. He even brought Jacob with him. I was 'Aunt Allegra'."

I winced at that. “Just three years?"

"I grew tired." Her voice wavered. "Lonely. A summer just was not enough." She rose from the bed. "I gave him an ultimatum." She paced back and forth and with every circuit, my heart broke for her. I could practically see her decades younger, swooning after him. Loving him. Needing him.

"I was young and foolish. A part of me actually thought he would leave her." Her eyes glittered with tears. “I thought he would choose me, as selfish as that was.”

"I'm so sorry." I meant it. I wasn’t even on a plane yet and I felt the devastation of losing Jacob. If we’d had all the time that she and his father had, it really would have destroyed me.

She flashed a smile that lit up her face. "Do not feel sorry for me. I had a good life once I stopped waiting. I married a good man. We had beautiful children.” She looked at the floor. “It wasn't until Jacob became a man and found me that I learned that his father never got over me—and turned that anger, that loss, toward his family."

No wonder he doesn't get attached
, I thought, crossing my arms. Cold, calculated contracts that rule out emotion—because his own flesh and blood hurt him so deeply. It all made sense now.

"His father lived a lie and all the money in the world couldn't save Jacob and his mother from emotional hell," Allegra tried to clear the emotion from her face but I caught a sliver of guilt before it disappeared. “It's why your lie hurt Jacob."

I thought back to the company stairwell after I let him touch me for the first time.

I lost myself, Leila. It won't happen again
.

I'd thought he was just sorry that he came off as a carbon copy of the playboy that was slathered on magazines. Now that I knew he grew up with a father that wished for another life altogether, no wonder he kept me at arm's length. No wonder he was hesitant to let me in. A lie defined his childhood. I couldn't let a lie define our future.

I turned to Allegra, ready to fight for him. "I have to get him back."

She brought me in for a hug, holding tight. I felt her blessing radiating in her smile when she pulled back. "I was hoping you would say that."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out a phone. "Jacob scheduled a last minute meeting at Bella Monica, but it smacks of Rachel. You will go and get
your
time with him."

My mind jolted me back to standing awkwardly at the table at lunch, nerves eating me alive. I hadn’t been able to get through to him before. I had to do something different this time or it would just be a repeat horror show. "How do I make him listen?"

Allegra's heels clicked on the floor as she moved to the closet. She reappeared with the deep red dress I’d worn back in the boutique when I began this crazy journey. In that dress, I’d had my epiphany—the moment that I believed that I actually belonged in Jacob’s world.

"In this dress," Allegra said with a mischievous smile, "how could he not?"

****

W
hen Allegra slid behind the wheel of the car, she had a twinkle in her eye. We had to make one last stop on the way to the restaurant. That stop included picking up an olive skinned man with silky black hair, angular features, and a thick accent that stroked my eardrums. His name was Silvio De Luca, Allegra’s nephew...who just happened to be a professional model.

I’d bypassed nervousness and headed straight for terrified.

I teetered on my heels while every move my impromptu date made was suave and graceful. He gave me a dizzying smile as I brought us to a stop a few feet from the cobblestone steps in front of the restaurant.

"Everything is fine?" he asked, his voice sending goose bumps over my bare arms.

"Y-yes," I lied. "I just need a minute." At least that was a bit of the truth. I needed time to digest what was about to go down. Time to believe that Jacob would even notice or care if I sashayed into the restaurant with some sexy guy at my side.

Oh god what if he totally ignored me? What if he saw right through it? Saw right through me?

"Leila." Silvio's warm hand cupped my cheek. "You’re all red. There is no need for nervousness."

I gave him a look. "My..." I paused as I realized I had no name for what Jacob was to me. "Jacob is in there." My heart beat erratically as I pictured him behind a table, Rachel across from him. "The man I'm in love with is here with another woman."

"
Si
," Silvio grinned slyly. "And as soon as you glide through those doors he'll see what a big mistake he made."

"Or he'll just ignore me entirely," I said, biting my lip.

Silvio frowned, lost in thought. He snapped his fingers and pulled me toward a fountain tucked away from the entrance. The smell of roses mingled with the rush of water.

Silvio gestured at the water. "What do you see?"

I stepped forward and looked at the woman reflected back at me. "Someone playing dress up."

"Then you do not see," he said, turning me back to face him. "I see a woman that would be beautiful in Valentino or a potato sack."

I laughed at that, a bit of a snort that scooped out the trembling and insecurities as I looked at Silvio, realizing that I’d seen his face in several magazines during the trip. This was so not my life. Falling in love with Jacob Whitmore, losing him, and using some male model to get him back.

Silvio ran a hand through his long, raven colored hair, regarding me pensively. "Maybe that's it."

I cocked my head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"That you don't see," he explained. "You don't know how dazzling you are and it makes you devastatingly so." He gave me another handsome smile. "This Jacob is a lucky man."

"We're both lucky," I said softly. And that’s what I needed to tell Jacob. That we were good together. Good for each other.

I stood tall and tucked my arm back into Silvio’s. "Shall we?"

We stepped through the doors of Bella Monica and I held my breath as I scanned the impressive room for him. I stopped breathing when I found him, clad in a smoky, charcoal gray suit with a hint of color in his tie. Rachel was chattering on about something and from the way Jacob restlessly glanced about, it was far from anything he was interested in.

When his eyes tilted in my direction, I felt dizzy as I saw his face change, the primal hunger I'd seen when he showed me his private room gripping his eyes. His lips parted and-

"Are you ready?" Silvio whispered in my ear.

Jacob's eyes shot to him and the lust in his gaze was promptly replaced by something dark and dangerous.

I forced a smile and gave Silvio a nod as I turned my back to Jacob. We walked to the bar and I eased onto the plush chair as Silvio went to get us drinks. It was hell to not look back over and see if he was watching me. As soon as Silvio brandished two crystal glasses filled with dark brown liquid, I shoveled it down my throat in two gulps.

"Relax," Silvio chuckled gently. "The hardest part is over."

"Oh I doubt that," I groaned. "We shared a..." My cheeks flared with warmth. "A, uh, moment. And then he saw you."

Silvio grinned around the lip of his glass. "He was angry, yes?"

"Yes."

His midnight eyes looked past me and the corners of his mouth nearly touched his hairline. "Then there's only one thing left to do."

I fondled with the pearls at my neck. "And what's that?"

"Dance with me."

The alcohol must have kicked in quicker than I thought because it sounded kind of like he was asking me to dance.

Silvio cocked his head toward the dance floor. "Dance with me."

It was a simple request and a handful of other patrons already heeded the sultry call of the violin and castanets. But fear of making things worse kept me locked in place.

I shook my head. "I don't think that's a good idea."