page17 (2/2)

“We yelled at each other so me like that, if he… I’d leave and never return, like Nonni had done” She rubbed a hand over her eyes, but the tears fell anyway “His face hite…he couldn’t speak One of the staff called his physician

“This was not like one of his usual teet there and I thought—God!” Her tears turned into soundless sobs and Raphael pulled her into his arms

She cath left Arms vined around his neck, she buried her face in his chest

A strange sort of weight seee in his own throat He wasn’t worried about Gio The mean old bastard would live to a hundred and torture Raphael and Pia in the process

No, it was the sound of Pia’s wretched grief that shook him

He had never seen anyone grieve like that With everything of themselves poured into it His belief that all she wanted was easy money from this trip—suddenly, his cynicism, his hard shell, felt dirty near her

Her back was slender against his broad palm; even noas unable to ste will happen to Gio”

“We don’t know that I can’t lose hi on the bed, helpless like that… All I could think of washappened to hi about me”

“You can’t ay man however decent you think he is,” he added softly, just to ht now, he couldn’t even try to fathoodfather’s Machiavellian mind

She sniffled elegantly and wiped her cheeks “No, I can’t I couldn’t sleep I orking on a toy and finally I hit on the perfect solution”

Raphael pulled her hands away froainst his chest was more than he could take in his current mood

And because, while she was obliviously dwelling on her worries over Gio, his attention had wandered frohs against his To the span of her tiny waist and the flare of her hips in his hands To how soft and sweet she smelled

To the se else