Michelle Douglas - Surrender To The Single Dad

“After living in Naples with the occasional scent of sulfur from Vesuvius in the air, I chose this flower-filled mountaintop on purpose. Follow me through the house. Your room faces on the pool. You can walk out the French doors at any time and take a swim. Come on. Let’s get you in bed.”

He saw her eyes widen in appreciation when they entered the bedroom off the hallway. “It’s a lovely room. Those blue hydrangeas on the coffee table take my breath.”

“I’m glad you like them. Go ahead and freshen up. I’ll be back in a minute.” He put her cases down and left to get her a bottle of water from the kitchen. Rini had given Bianca the next three days off so he could be alone with Alessandra and wait on her himself.

When he returned, he found her sitting on the side of the bed still dressed in white culottes with a sharp front crease. She’d layered them with a multicolored blue silk top and looked so sensational, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“I thought I’d find you under the covers. This is for you.” He put the water on the bedside table before opening the shutters to let in the early evening light from the pool area.

She smiled up at him, but it lacked the joie de vivre he’d seen while they’d been out diving. “I’ll sleep tonight. Now that I’m in your world again—but only because you invited me this time—I want to talk to you. Please sit down.”

He sat in one of the upholstered chairs by the coffee table.

“Where’s Bianca?”

“On a short holiday.”

“So it’s just you and me?” He heard a slight tremor in her voice.

He frowned. “Are you worried about being here alone with me?”

“Of course not.” She got up from the bed and walked over to smell the flowers. “Can we have a frank talk? You said you wanted to start over again. I want that, too, but I need to understand you better.”

Rini sat forward with his hands clasped between his legs. “Would I have brought you here if I didn’t want the same thing? We’ve got all the time in the world. Go ahead. Ask me anything.”

She darted him a curious glance. “You say that, but I wonder if you really mean it.”

“Where’s this doubt coming from?”

“I don’t know exactly. Tell me about what happened when you first met Dea. Being twins, she and I have shared a unique past. Sometimes it has been eerie.”

“In what way?”

“It’s hard to explain, but there are times when even though we’re two people, we think as one.”

Rini got to his feet. “I’ve heard that happens to twins. But what does that have to do with me?”

“I’m not sure and am only feeling my way,” she cried softly before turning away from him.

He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her against him. “You sound frightened,” he whispered into her fragrant hair.

“I am.”

“Of what? Of me? Tell me.” He shook her gently.

“I’ve been going over the conversation that my aunt had with you about me and Dea. You told her that you felt no connection with Dea, but it was different with me.” Alessandra turned around in his arms. “But it doesn’t provide all the answers.”

“What more do you want?”

Her eyes searched his. “Will you bear with me a little longer and tell me your feelings when you realized I wasn’t Dea?”

His hands slid to her face. “After I left your father’s office and went back to my hotel in Metaponto that first night, I couldn’t get you off my mind. Make no mistake. It was you I was thinking about. From a distance you had Dea’s superficial features, the same features that had drawn me on the yacht. But the second you said you weren’t Dea, I realized my mistake.

“You looked so adorable standing there in your shorter hair and man’s shirt that didn’t cover up your bikini. Tanned, no makeup, bare-legged, full of energy, duffel bag in hand. I thought, I’ve got to get to know this exciting woman! I told your aunt I felt a connection so powerful with you, I couldn’t wait to get back to the castle the next morning to see you again.”

He felt Alessandra’s anxiety before she eased out of his arms. “Thank you for being so honest with me.” She was shivering.

“Now that I have, do you want to tell me what’s going on in your mind?”

“After I entered the castle, I heard a voice call out signorina. You’ll think I’m out of my mind, but when I saw you walk toward me, it was like seeing the prince who’d haunted my dreams come to life before my very eyes. I felt your imprint on me before you said a word.

“But the second you started talking, I realized you thought I was Dea and my dream was crushed to grist. She’d had a history with you. She’d been there first. I’d never experienced such envy in my life. I’ve heard of love at first sight, but I never imagined it would happen to me. My pain that she’d met you first was too excruciating to bear.”

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Until I learned the truth of your relationship with Dea during our drive, I’d been forced to keep my feelings bottled up and pretend nothing was wrong in front of my father.”

Her words shook Rini. “Adorata.” He reached for her, but she took another step back. “I haven’t finished. There’s something else you need to hear.”

Rini couldn’t take much more and attempted to get his emotions under control. “What is it?”

“When Dea and I were little girls, we had many of the same likes and dislikes that in some cases baffled everyone. One of the things we had in common was to talk about the princes we would marry one day. We played our own form of house with a miniature castle and all the characters Papà had made for us.

“Our mother and aunt gave us beautiful clothes to dress our dolls. Dea always had the most glamorous and stupendous outfits because they knew how much she loved fashion. I was given a fabulous boat that would sail me and my prince around the castle and the world.”

The lump was growing in Rini’s throat.

“We played for hours about living in the castle all our lives and being happy forever with our princely husbands and children. In our case it wasn’t pure fiction considering the lives of our titled parents and heritage.”

“Alessandra—”

“Let me finish,” she interrupted. “You were there when she first laid eyes on you. You saw what I can’t see. Rini, I’m convinced that when Dea met you on the yacht, she had the same experience I did. She saw you sitting there and knew you were the prince of her dreams. It was one of those times we were both the same person. By the expression on your face, I can tell I’m right.”

He closed his eyes tightly for a minute. Incredibile! This talk with Alessandra answered the questions that had lingered in his mind about Dea. In view of what he’d just learned, the way she’d linked her arms behind his head and the ardent kiss she’d given him when they’d stopped dancing as if she’d been claiming him for her own made a strange kind of sense. Her actions had borne out Alessandra’s theory.

Guido had acted nonchalant about it, but Rini had seen the glint of envy in his friend’s eyes. That was the only time he’d ever known him to show a side of emotion that surprised him. But Rini couldn’t be that cruel to Dea or Alessandra by telling her what Dea had done that night to show her attraction to him. It had to be a secret he would take to the grave.

His head reared. “What you’re saying is, Dea is now the one devastated.”

“Maybe.”

“Then we’re back to where we were before. If your guilt is going to keep you from enjoying this vacation with me, then I’ll fly you back home in the morning.”

“No, Rini—that isn’t what I want. I just needed to have this conversation with you.”