The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession Book 4) (12 page)

Sophia stared at him for a second and then started to laugh. But it turned into a hacking cough, undercutting all the arguments he knew she was about to make.

The cough was deep. It rattled in her chest, multiplying his guilt ten-fold. His face tightened, and he gave the doctor a little shove.

Kelly was smart enough to get out his way. She stayed for the examination, but once the doctor prescribed an inhalant to soothe Sophia’s irritated lungs, she tactfully went to the bedroom. The doctor took his leave, and he and Sophia were finally alone, staring at each other.

She held up the inhaler in her hand. “The EMTs already gave me some of this. A house call was unnecessary, Mr. Morgese.”

He closed his eyes for a long hard moment. This was excruciating.

“It really is Gio.”

One fine brown brow raised. “Seriously?”

Sitting in an armchair across from her, he nodded emphatically. “It’s what my friends call me. And most of my family. That’s why I thought you recognized me.”

Her eyes bored into him, her hostility palpable. “It should have been obvious after a few minutes that I didn’t.”

“It was…I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to lie.”

Inhaling sharply, she turned away, but not before he saw the glitter of tears in her eyes. He felt like an asshole.

“This is the worst thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “Even now, I can’t believe that I did it. You are the last person I wanted to lie to. But things were bad for me and they were getting worse. And then you thought I was someone else. It was an insane impulse, but I couldn’t stop myself from going along with it. I regretted it immediately. I swear I did. Every day I meant to tell you the truth. However, my situation kept deteriorating. I believed that if you knew who I really was I’d never see you again.”

Her fine brows pulled together. “I don’t understand.”

Exhaling, he leaned back. “I guess you didn’t Google me…”

She shrugged. “Kelly did.”

“So you know about my ex-wife?”

It was a relief, or it should have been, but Sophia was frowning in confusion.

“What about her?”

Sighing audibly, he rubbed his face. “She’s slandering me in the press. We’ve been divorced for years, but she got in trouble recently. For some reason she decided the best way to get out of it was to throw me to the wolves.” He rolled his shoulders in frustration, gesturing with his hands as he went on. “It’s a pack of disgusting lies, what she’s insinuating. But one of my old friends is enabling her—they’re sleeping together. To twist the knife, Maria-Gianna also has one of my young and stupid cousins wrapped around her finger. He’s joined in the defamation, so I cut him off.”

Her eyes widened, but she stayed quiet. “Well, you can’t choose your family, but it sounds like you need better friends,” she said eventually.

He smiled sadly. “I do have some good ones. One of them, Alex, is the one who finally told me the truth about my wife. He decided I needed to know after she tried to get him into bed. And he wasn’t the first. She pulled the same thing with my friend, Calen, too. He was still trying to figure out how to tell me when Alex beat him to it.”

Breaking eye contact, he looked down. He hated talking about that whole sordid mess. But she needed to hear it all or she wouldn’t understand why he had made such poor decisions.

“It was the holidays, and they were visiting. Maria Gianna was having one of her fits, and I was already sick of the drama. She didn’t like that I didn’t react the way she wanted. She needed to be indulged, but I wasn’t in the mood. I had just realized how immature and spoiled she was. I’d known her since childhood—she’s my father’s goddaughter. But it turns out I didn’t know her at all. I only saw the glittery exterior. What was underneath was very ugly.”

Sophia took a pillow and hugged it to her stomach, sitting back on the couch. “I’m waiting for the part where all that led to you lying to me.”

Seeing an open bottle of wine on the coffee table, he nodded and poured what was left into one of the empty glasses next to it.

“I know, it’s simply that I wanted to tell you everything for the longest time,” he said before letting his eyes unfocus, remembering the ignominious end to his marriage. “As I was saying, not all of my friends were that loyal. There was that one who was sleeping with her, Vincenzo. Every time she was angry with me, she went to him—and she was angry with me a lot toward the end. Vinny and I grew up together…I never realized how much he hated me until the divorce. There were probably others too, but unlike Vinny, they’re too ashamed to admit it.”

He checked for her reaction.

“Go on,” she said.

“Did I mention that Vincenzo’s father owns several tabloids?”

Understanding lit her eyes. “I see. So what was she saying and why does anyone care?”

Her pragmatic bluntness made him smile.

“Maria Gianna is a socialite who had small roles in a few Italian movies. The press still follows her around. She was driving while on drugs and was arrested for causing an accident. A man on his way to work was hurt. According to the gossip rags, I was the one who hooked her on drugs—when I’ve never even touched the stuff. I’ve never even smoked pot. I’m kind of boring that way.”

She didn’t smile, but her face softened. “I did. Once.” She picked at the fringe on the pillow. “So, what were you doing at the cafe?”

“I was looking for you.”

Her lips parted in surprise, and he smiled sheepishly. “I wanted to meet you ever since I saw you in that white satin dress.”

Sophia sat up straighter. “You were there? At the foundation dinner?”

“I was late—stuck in traffic—but I did eventually make it. Just not in time to meet you.”

“And then you did…and decided it was easier to lie.”

Gio shoved a hand through his hair. “No. I mean, yes. I wanted a chance to get to know you without all this
merda
hanging over my head. This is going to be hard for you to believe, but my honor means a lot to me.”

She scoffed aloud, making him flinch a little.

“I know how that sounds, but it’s true. The last few months, I’ve suddenly become a bad guy in other people’s eyes. Acquaintances have been looking at me like I was some sort of monster who’d been unmasked. Women that I've worked with for years were whispering behind my back at the bank. One woman, an associate who’d been angling for a date for months, was now canceling business dinners because she didn’t want to be alone with me. And some kid threw their coffee on me. There’s this stupid hashtag going around, pushing my ex’s fans to “get” me.”

Her brows went up. “All because you supposedly pushed drugs at her?”

“Well, there was the other insinuation—that I verbally abused Maria Gianna…and pimped her out to my friends.”

She raised her brows, and he laughed humorlessly. “I know, the irony. If she’d been faithful, I might have stayed married to her, tried counseling or something. My father was crushed by the divorce. So was her father. They’re best friends.”

Sophia put the pillow aside and crossed her arms. “And you thought I would believe all of these accusations?”

“Don’t you?”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know,” she said softly, and his heart sank.

“You lied. We slept together, and I didn’t even know your real name. How can I believe anything you say now?”

“Because you know me now.”

She made a protesting sound.

“
You do
. The real me without all the money and the crazy ex-wife baggage. You know I’d never do drugs, let alone push them at someone. And I sure as hell wouldn’t encourage anyone I was with to cheat as punishment, no matter what they did. Think about it…do I seem like that kind of man?”

She was quiet so long he wanted to take that pillow she was holding and rip it to shreds in frustration.

“No, I guess you’re not,” she admitted grudgingly.

He relaxed incrementally. “I wanted to tell you the truth. I tried a million times, but I didn’t know how. And when I had finally worked up the courage, you told me about your ex-boyfriend and how you shouldn’t date anyone with money.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I stand by that.”

“Not every rich man is like your ex,” he pointed out. “I’d never try to control you or tell you what to think. But it became a lot harder to confess after you said that.”

Her head titled back as she remembered something. “That was the day you told me you worked in a bank…”

“Yes. I thought I would break the news in stages.”

“And I thought you had a day job as a
bank teller
, not that you owned the whole damn bank!” She huffed.

“I don’t own it. I simply run it,” he hedged.

Mentioning that he and his family had controlling interest wouldn’t help matters right now. He stared at her downbent head, his stomach somewhere around his knees.

“Sophia, all I wanted was a chance to get to know you. I never wanted to hurt you. Please believe that.”

There was another long pause but eventually she nodded. “I believe you…but I think you should go now.”

His face fell. He couldn’t blame her for how she felt. But it was too soon for him to give up. “All right. Um, I’m going to be in town for a few days. Can we talk later? Have coffee or something? I could come by the lab.”

A look of what he hoped was mock horror spread over her face. “Absolutely not.”

Gio wrinkled his nose. “I am sorry about that, too. The accident was my fault. I should have done it some other way. Surprising you at work was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, no shit,” she muttered, looking down at her hands.

He frowned. “I had no idea lab work was so dangerous. You should use some of that grant money to hire an assistant to work with the hazardous chemicals.”

Sophia sat up straighter. “I like to mix up my own solutions. Consistency is better when you do it yourself.”

“But if it’s dangerous—”

“
Gio
.”

He stood, uncomfortable. He wanted to press her. Her safety was everything to him, but it would have to wait until he was in better standing with her. And he would be. All he needed was one more chance. There would be no need for another.

“All right. I’ll go. Is Kelly staying here tonight?”

She shrugged.

“You shouldn’t be alone. Ask her to stay. You need to be monitored. Chemical pneumonitis is a possible complication, or so I’ve learned in the last few hours.”

“Look, Gio—”

“I’m
staying
,” Kelly called out from the bedroom in a sing-song voice.

Embarrassed to realize everything he’d said had been overheard, he flushed. “I’ll be in touch, okay?”

Deciding that giving her a chance to say no would be a bad idea, he took his leave.

****

Kelly popped out of the bedroom, wineglass in hand, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Oh, my freaking God!” she said, sloshing her glass.

Sophia frowned. “I’m glad you brought chardonnay instead of a red…and that I don’t have carpet,” she said dryly as some of the wine landed onto the hardwood floor.

“Oh, sorry,” Kelly said, putting down the glass and curling up on the couch next to her. “
Day-um.
I knew he was handsome from the tabloids, but in person, he’s gorgeous! Like knicker-dropping gorgeous. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband, but that hair and those
eyes
. Not to mention that square jaw—doesn’t it just make you want to lick it up and down? Did you do that with the billionaire?”

Yes
.

She shot her dear friend a dirty look and some of that enthusiastic energy subsided.

“Okay, okay. He’s a liar, and we hate him. I’m totally on board with that, for however long you want to play it that way.”

Sophia collapsed on the couch cushions. She drew her knees up, hugging them to her chest. “You think I should forgive him, don’t you?”

Kelly laughed. “Actually, I think you should punch him in the balls…and then possibly maybe think about having coffee with him so he can continue groveling for forgiveness.”

She snorted and Kelly held up a hand. “I’m not saying you
should
forgive him, especially if anything his ex is saying has the tiniest kernel of truth to it. But you didn’t sound like you believed any of it when you were talking to him. Do you?”

Sophia took the empty bottle Gio had finished and started peeling the label. “I don’t know. I want to say no. None of that sounds like him. But there’s this huge lie staring me in the face, and I feel like an idiot for wanting to believe anything he says now.”

Kelly gave her a sympathetic look. “Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. Other than I don’t blame you for hitting that—street artist or not.”

Sophia snatched up a pillow and smacked her with it until she begged for mercy.

“Truce! Truce!” Kelly yelled before grabbing the pillow and disarming her. She straightened up. “So what are you going to do?”