“What did you discuss?”
She eyed him warily. “He told me about his life at university. Massimo—what’s wrong?”
“Seeing the two of you together reminded me that your decision to help take care of Nicky is depriving you of a full life.”
“Nicky is my life—” she blurted out.
He shifted his weight, making her aware of his compelling masculinity. “I agree he’s the focus right now, but in another week he’ll be used to his home here. You’ll be able to leave.”
Leave?
So he had told Dante she was only here for a visit.
Heat swarmed her cheeks. She was too angry for tears. Was this how he’d planned to exact his revenge?
“I realize we didn’t have a definite time in mind when you no longer needed my help, but I was thinking a year at least—”
“That’s out of the question.” He was sounding like her mother.
“Two or three weeks with him is no time at all!”
“It’s enough to get him over this first hump. Any more time will only make the separation harder for … everyone.”
Julie had an idea the beautiful woman who’d met Massimo at the airport was the reason for this ultimatum. Seraphina must have told him he didn’t need a nanny for Nicky, not when she was there for him in any capacity he wanted.
The vision of the two of them entwined still had the power to destroy Julie.
Though dying of the hurt, she used every bit of control she could muster not to rage in front of him. She’d done that once before and had lived in a constant state of anxiety ever since.
“You’re right,” she admitted with reluctance. She would miss Nicky so much. How could she leave him? “If you feel that strongly about it, I should probably leave by the weekend.”
“That decision is entirely up to you.”
Thanks a lot.
Almost choking with pain she said, “It’s clear to me I should never have come to your hotel. I said some outrageous things and put you in an impossible position.”
His jaw hardened. “Up to now Nicky has needed both of us.”
Up to now …
“He needs a permanent stable home. You’ve given him one, Massimo.” What could she do? After pressing her lips together she said, “Thank you for letting me come with you while you settled him in.”
Almost through the door she heard, “I’m the one who’s been grateful, particularly knowing you postponed your marriage plans to help me with Niccolo.”
Marriage plans—
Julie wheeled around and stalked back into the nursery.
“What are you talking about?”
He looked at her through veiled eyes. “The reason I went looking for you in town the other day was to tell you your fiancé had called the villa. But when Nicky became ill, everything went out of my head.”
Her body shook with anger. “Brent talked to you?”
“To Lia. She conveyed the message to me. I assumed by now he’d reached you on your cell phone.”
“Let’s get something straight.” She threw her head back. “For reasons I don’t want to go into, I didn’t bring my cell with me.” That way she could control the talks with her mother. “Furthermore and most important, there were no wedding plans. There was no official engagement. I don’t have a fiancé.”
Massimo’s hands went to his hips. “He seems to think otherwise.”
“He lied. Brent lacked certain traits that killed my feelings for him, but he has a big ego. When I told him it was over, I dented his pride and little else. No doubt he got the number of the villa from my father. Hopefully by now he realizes I’m not going to call him back.”
“You’re telling me the truth?”
Without considering the wisdom of it she said, “I guess if you told me Seraphina wasn’t your fiancée, I wouldn’t believe you, either.”
“Touché,” he muttered after a brief silence.
She heaved a frustrated sigh. “At the time Pietra told you I was involved with Brent, I thought there could be a future with him. But over the last few months I discovered a selfish streak in his nature. It all came to a head when I told him I was going to quit my job to take care of Nicky.”
Massimo moved closer to her. “I’m assuming he didn’t want to share you.”
“A man in the fast lane on his way to the top doesn’t always see what’s more important.” Brent wasn’t like Massimo. No man was.
She stared at the gorgeous male confronting her. “Before you tell me there’s still time to get my old job back, don’t! If I’d wanted it that badly, I wouldn’t have approached you. Everyone thinks they know what’s best for me. My mother, my brother, my boss, Brent, even you seem to have my future all planned out, but I have news for you. You don’t!” Her voice throbbed. “If you bothered to ask, I’d tell you Nicky is what’s best for me. I’m best for him, too. He’s my nephew as much as yours. No matter what happens, I’m not going to stop loving him.
“You said our family could come often and stay as long as we wanted. Well, I’m staying, even if Dante told me good riddance.”
Massimo’s expression turned black as a thunderhead. “When did Dante speak to you?” he demanded.
She bowed her head, wishing she hadn’t said anything.
“Tell me or I’ll get the truth of out of him myself!”
“No, Massimo—” Her head flew back. “It was just something he said as we were getting off the plane in Milan.”
“Go on.” He stood there with his hands on his hips in an aggressively male stance that prevented her from thinking clearly.
“He told me to have fun on my vacation.”
Some choice Italian invective escaped his lips. His reaction made her realize Dante’s remarks had angered him more than she would have supposed. She wished she could take comfort in the fact. But the truth remained that Massimo wanted her to leave.
Cut to the quick, she made it as far as the hall before masculine hands closed over her upper arms. He dragged her quivering frame into his chest where she felt a strong heart pounding against her back.
“I meant no offense, Julie,” he murmured in a thick-toned voice. “Don’t you understand I was only thinking of your happiness with Brent when I suggested your leaving? Nicky needs you. Anyone can see that.”
Her emotions were so chaotic right now, she couldn’t think while she was clamped to his hard body. He smelled of his own masculine scent and Nicky’s baby powder. His warmth, his lips in her hair, everything was an assault on her senses if he’d but known it.
“I need him.”
“You think I’m not aware of that?” Massimo whirled her around, his eyes blazing. “If you have any question in that regard, then you don’t know me at all,” he ground out. “No matter what happens, we’re in this together now.”
After being plunged to the depths, his words had just given her heart the workout of its life. Out of breath, she stared into his fiery black depths.
“A woman important to you might not like the arrangement, even if you and I are related through Nicky.”
He inhaled sharply. “You’re referring to Seraphina.”