Thorpe sipped his drink. “And that shocked you.”
“Completely. I was already infatuated with her. But her selflessness…did something to me.” And he’d never recovered.
He swallowed, remembering that he’d driven to her house that night, uninvited, and f**ked her like a man possessed. She’d been surprised, but welcoming. Happy, even. The night had been extraordinary, and he’d realized then that he hadn’t scened or had sex with anyone else since meeting her. He hadn’t wanted to. A first for him.
“The next day, Gia called me because she’d heard on the news that the same foundation would be serving an early Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless downtown and that I would be there helping. She surprised me again by asking if she could come along to lend a hand. When she refused the benefit dinner, I’d wondered if she didn’t want to be seen with me and gossiped about. But no. She really just didn’t want to take money that would help the needy. Instead of accepting a Versace gown so I could wine and dine her, she offered to donate food, cook, clean—whatever we needed.”
Jason had seen Gia’s big heart and lost his head. As he’d stood beside her and dished out trays of food to the homeless, he had totally fallen for her. A pressing need to make her utterly his assailed him. He’d been unable to talk himself out of it, so he’d set the wheels in motion.
“Your wife is a good person. I understand the circles you were raised in. A big heart is both very rare and very attractive.” Thorpe looked out the open door of his office and spied on Callie, tidying up around the silent dungeon—and sneaking a peek Thorpe’s way.
The yearning on the man’s face told Jason that he did, in fact, perfectly comprehend.
“The day after Thanksgiving, I took Gia to dinner.” He gave a self-deprecating grin. “If I’d been thinking, I would have realized that The Mansion on Turtle Creek wouldn’t have been her first choice. I probably also would have chosen a more modest engagement ring, something more her style.”
Thorpe looked mildly amused. “How big was it?”
“The center stone was about five carats, cushion cut, set in platinum with another two carats surrounding it. I might have gone overboard.”
“Might?” Thorpe raised a brow.
Jason shrugged. “Okay, so I did. My wife isn’t a little thing like Callie, but the ring looked huge on her hand. I don’t even know if she liked it. She didn’t say a word other than ‘yes.’”
That had been one of the happiest nights of his life. Gia was the most genuine person he knew, and she made him look at everything in a different light. With her around, he could be more generous and grateful, even optimistic. Other than an isolated childhood, life had been pretty damn good to him. But she’d made everything perfect for that idyllic forty-eight hours.
“You hustled her to Vegas the next day?” Thorpe asked, though he knew the answer.
After keeping her in his bed all night long. “I did. I wasn’t going to give her any time to change her mind. By that Saturday afternoon, we were married. We had the penthouse at The Venetian, along with all the room service and champagne we could consume.”
And they’d had each other. That incredible night—the only he’d ever spent with her as his wife—was forever etched in his memory. Hands down, it had been the best of his life.
“When did things start to roll downhill? From my vantage point, it looked awfully fast.” The Dungeon Master swallowed back the last of his booze, then glanced at Callie as she pranced past his door again.
Thorpe didn’t like having emotions for the girl. A hundred bucks said they made him feel somewhere between uncomfortable and unwise. Jason related.
“That Sunday at four a.m., Gia received a call from her father saying that her brother had been killed in the line of duty.”
“I heard. He was a cop too, right?”
“Yes. His partner at the time was the only one who witnessed the shooting deep in South Dallas gang turf. He apparently stayed with Tony rather than running the ass**le down. None of the other units were willing to come into that neighborhood to back him up and track the thug down. Gia was heartbroken. We rushed home. And that’s when things went wrong.”
That’s when the terrible hemorrhaging had set in.
“She was going through a lot,” Thorpe pointed out.
“And like an idiot, I stepped back to give her space because she asked me to.” He rubbed at his forehead, where he felt a headache developing. “During that conversation, she admitted that she’d never told her parents about me. She hadn’t met my mother either, so I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t really understand what a big deal family was to her until it was far too late.”
“Did she say why she turned you into her dirty little secret?”
“Yes. She’s from a family of police officers. Her parents wanted her to marry some guy named Enzo, another cop they’d handpicked for her. He’s a member of her church, and she’s known him all her life. Gia swore that she married me because she loved me. Whatever that means.” Probably not relevant since it hadn’t lasted.
“I don’t think she’s the kind of woman who would lie about her feelings.”
“Intentionally, no. I think she liked the fantasy of me better than the reality. When faced with the prospect of telling her family about the guy who wasn’t Catholic and didn’t have a drop of Italian blood in his veins…not so much.” He shook his head. “Until then, I’d never heard that money didn’t fix everything.”
“Maybe she just needed time to tell them gently.”
“I understood why she didn’t want to spring the surprise on them the day her brother died, but I thought she’d do it in the next few days. Certainly before the funeral. But she didn’t. Instead, she attended without me.”