The Italian Billionaire’s Nubian Queen

Chapter 6

Alyssa got away from there with her life.

Or at least, that’s how she felt as she made her escape, claiming that she had to get to her sister. Whatever family stuff was going on between the Colombo brothers, she had no intention of getting involved. She had her own family to worry about. People like her did not get in the middle of family battles like that, things that she didn’t understand and, frankly, she had no intention of trying to understand.

In her understanding, family stood by each other. She’d been under the vague impression that Italians really took that to heart, but judging by the tension she’d sensed in the air simmering between the two brothers, she’d been quite wrong.

Alyssa spent the rest of the day avoiding both of them. It wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be, because Brianna had signed them up for a special tour of the vineyard, and it was interesting enough that she almost forgot about everything that had happened.

By the time she got back, it was time for dinner and she was so tired that all she wanted was to fall asleep. This time, she didn’t have that long soak that hadn’t ended so well the last time. She fell asleep, exhausted, but it didn’t take long before the dreams came again.

This time, he wasn’t in the fog. He stood at the top of a hill, watching, waiting, and she knew that he was waiting for her. She stood in the shadows, under a rock outcrop, and she hated herself because she didn’t go to him. She knew he was there, she knew that he would call out her name any minute. But she didn’t go, because she was afraid. There were too many things pulling her back from him, and it was only her heart that urged her to go to him.

She could ignore her heart, couldn’t she? She’d followed it before and regretted it. She’d never felt so strongly pulled to anybody before, but it scared her. The sheer force of what she felt scared her.

The wind picked up and whistled in her ears. She heard her name on it. It was him, calling for her. He needed her, he said. He needed her to breathe, for his heart to keep beating. But she didn’t go. She stayed there, huddled in the dark, denying herself both life and light, and she knew that he would go away if she waited long enough.

She justified it by telling herself that if he went away, it wasn’t real. If he went away, it wasn’t love.

So she sat there and she waited, for the sun to finally rise and the night to end. But there was no end to that night. The sun didn’t rise. The voice calling her name faded away, became more and more infrequent, but it didn’t stop.

He was still there. She felt him, felt his presence.

Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She clapped her hands against her ears and tried to shut it out, but she couldn’t stand it.

She looked up, ready to give in, ready to go to him, and felt a presence close by. Somebody was walking closer, and closer.

Was it him? Had he come looking for her? But he wasn’t supposed to move away from the hilltop. She knew that, somehow. He was supposed to stay there and wait for her. It was supposed to be her choice. Fear gripped her. Something was wrong. Something was…

A figure loomed, casting a long shadow, and she thought, for just a moment, that he’d abandoned his post, his charge, and come to her after all. But only for a moment. She wouldn’t be fooled for more than a fraction of a moment, because it wasn’t him. It was…

Her eyes flew open, a scream strangled in her throat, her hands over her mouth.

What was that? What the hell had that been? What were these absolutely insane dreams she was having? She’d never been such a vivid dreamer before. This place, and Matteo—they were driving her insane. She was experiencing things she had never experienced before.

She had to leave.

It didn’t matter that she’d waited so long for this opportunity, that she’d looked forward to it for so long. She couldn’t stay, because if she stayed, she really might go crazy. She couldn’t do it.

Alyssa checked the time and saw that it was four in the morning. Moving quietly, she got up and started packing.

It didn’t take long.

By five she was ready, and she’d made herself a cup of really bad coffee with the instant coffee powder in the cabin. Then she waited for Brianna to wake up, knowing that she had to explain. It wouldn’t be easy, but she’d already come up with an excuse. Naomi and Howie would give Brianna a ride back home. Brianna would understand and let her go.

She had to, because Alyssa couldn’t stay any longer. She had to leave.

***

Matteo looked for her, and he didn’t find her.

He’d looked for her the evening before, too. Finally, he’d found out that she’d been on a day trip. It had frustrated him. Almost as much as Gabriel had frustrated him.

Still, he’d assumed that he would see her the next day, and he’d be able to explain everything, and it would all be fine. There was something special there. He knew that. He wanted to see Alyssa again, and he would see her again.

She had such joy in life. From what he’d gathered, she hadn’t had a particularly easy life, but nothing had taken her optimism away. She was lovely, but he’d known many lovely women. He’d never known somebody with such verve for life, who enjoyed every moment and lived in the present so completely.

She was everything he hadn’t realized he’d been looking for.

In a wife.

Matteo had thought that he would marry in about five years. Thirty-five, he felt, was a good age for a man to become a husband and then, soon after a father. Of course, being a father was as important as being married was. After all, he’d reasoned it all out.

He’d indulged his little brother far too much. It had been fine when Gabriel had only wanted the perks of being a Colombo. He’d never wanted the responsibility before. He still didn’t want the responsibility, to be honest. Matteo was sure of that. What he wanted was the power.

Matteo couldn’t understand that. Gabriel had never been powerless, never. He’d never known what it was like to be belittled by people who knew so much less, simply because he didn’t have a pedigree. He’d shielded his little brother from that. All his life, Matteo had shielded him.

But now…

In the last year, Gabriel had changed. Matteo blamed Alexandra for it, and he was honest enough to admit that it was as much out of habit as anything else. He blamed Alexandra for most things, and to be perfectly fair, Alexandra usually deserved it.

Now, Gabriel reminded him more and more of his mother. It was as if she was pouring her spirit and all her spite into him, turning him into somebody else. Somebody who was vindictive and full of a resentment that Matteo didn’t understand.

Gabriel could not take over Colombo. Maybe before that year, Matteo would have considered it. But in the last year he’d realized that his little brother had grown into a man who could not take over Colombo Wines and Vineyards. He would not be able to handle it. He would not be able to make it grow.