A Scandal in the Headlines - By Caitlin Crews Page 0,57

day,” he said, mocking her, she was sure. “I’ll treasure it.”

She smiled back at him, cool and sharp.

“An annulment it is, then,” she said. “This has been such a useful, rational discussion, Alessandro. Thank you.”

He laughed again then, almost beneath his breath, and then he was on his feet and striding for the door, as if he didn’t trust himself to stay locked in this room with her a moment longer. She allowed herself a small, satisfied smile.

“We can argue about this in the car,” he said over his shoulder. “I have a one o’clock meeting I can’t miss.”

Because, of course, the CEO of Corretti Media didn’t stop doing business on his wedding day, not when the wedding meant so little to him. Her smile vanished. It was a brutal reminder of reality. Of her place. It didn’t matter how hot they burned. It didn’t matter how desperate he’d been. Elena clenched her hands into fists and felt the bite of the unfamiliar bands around her finger like one more slap.

And then followed him, anyway.

His mobile beeped again as they walked. He answered it, slowing down as he talked. Elena heard the words docklands, cousin and Battaglia. Alessandro pushed open the glass doors at the entrance of the village hall, and nodded her through, almost as if he had a chivalrous bone in that powerful body of his.

“Wait for me in the car,” he said, and then turned back toward the interior of the hall. Dismissing her.

The door swished shut behind her as she stepped through it, and Elena pulled in a long, deep breath. The morning was still as bright and cheerful as it had been when she’d walked inside. A lovely July day in the rolling hills of Sicily. The perfect day for a wedding.

She had to figure out how to handle this, to enjoy it while it lasted, or she’d never survive it. And she had to do it fast.

Elena kept her eyes on the stairs below her as she climbed down the hall’s steps, her legs still so shaky and the heels she wore no help at all, so she had to hold tight to the bannister as she went. Cracking her head open on the pavement would hardly improve matters.

She made it to the bottom step in one piece, and started to walk around the man who stood there, his back to the hall. Alessandro’s sleek black sports car was parked near the fountain in the center of the pretty village square, the convertible top pulled back, reminding her of how silly she’d been on the drive over—glancing at the way the ring sparkled on her hand, allowing herself to yearn for impossibilities.

“Excuse me,” she murmured absently as she navigated her way around the man, glancing at him to smile politely—

But it was Niccolo.

All of the blood drained out of her head. Her stomach contracted in a sickening lurch, and she was sure her heart dropped out of her body and lay at her feet on the pavement.

“Niccolo …” she whispered in disbelief.

Niccolo, like all of the nightmares that had kept her awake these past months. Niccolo, his arms folded over his chest and his black eyes burning mean and cold as he soaked in her reaction.

Niccolo, who she’d thought she loved until Alessandro had walked into her life and showed her how pale that love was, how small. Niccolo, who she’d trusted. Who she’d laughed with, thinking they were laughing together. Who she’d dreamed with, thinking they were planning a shared future. Niccolo, who had hunted her across all these months and the span of Italy, and was looking at her now as if that slap in his villa was only the very beginning of what he’d like to do to her.

She couldn’t believe this was happening. Today. Here. Now.

“Elena,” he said, his voice almost friendly, but she could see that nasty gleam in his eyes. She could see exactly who he was. “At last.”

CHAPTER TEN

ELENA NEEDED TO say something, do something.

Scream for help, at the very least. Kick off her shoes and run. She needed to get as far away from Niccolo as possible, to distance herself from that vicious retribution she saw shining in his black eyes and all across his boyishly handsome face.

But she couldn’t seem to move a single muscle.

His lip curled. “Did you really think you could outrun me forever?”

She threw a panicked glance back up the stairs. Alessandro was still there, on the far side of the glass