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The words were hollow He was leaving the rest of the job to her He believed in her ability to run his hotel She supposed she should be happy about that, but instead it si it without him
“I also spoke to er of the Fiori Cascade”
It hat she’d wanted, what she’d ai the administration job Now it felt like the consolation prize When had she started wanting more?
She looked down at her knees She knehen When she’d stopped giving Robert all the power and she’d started living for herself
“Thank you, Luca It’s…it’s what I wanted and I appreciate your faith in me I won’t let you down”
Luca stared at her dark head and wondered how the hell he’d screwed this up so spectacularly
He should have kept things as he had thisCool and businesslike
Mari was important to him Somehow he’d let her become important and that wasn’t fair to either of them And he’d tried to remind himself of that all day Instead he’d lost his head when he’d seen her coown She race that spoke of a little shyness But Mari was not coy She did not play games And he’d wanted her on his ar to him Not even Ellie
And he’d kissed her and touched her and ached to make love to her so badly he’d nearly lost hiht to hurt her And he knew her well enough now to know that to love her once and leave her behind would be thehe could do
The best thing he could do for her would be to give her what she’d wanted fro of the hotel It didn’t matter that he wasn’t completely happy himself His father’s summons had irritated hi at the beck and call of his father and kneanted more Yet…his first loyalty was to his fao He couldn’t have both
“You could never lether down and it hurt like hell
He fingered the ring on his hand, the gold one with the lily emblazoned upon it
“That ring is important to you, isn’t it” Her voice was quiet now, the soft tones burning through him like a brand “I’ve never seen you without it on”
He nodded, resting his hands on his knees Perhaps if he explained about the ring she’d understand why he had to go “My grandrandfather It went on to becoth”