Italian Groom, Princess Bride. Rebecca Winters

he would find her convulsed on the bed, he was in for a shock.

      She grabbed a nail file out of the drawer in her bedside table and sat in the middle of her bed cross-legged against the silky duvet. “Come in, Lucca!”

      When he walked in her bedroom furnished in shades of cream and pale green, she looked up at him. “If you’ve come to check on me, I’m fine. Go home to your wife and child.”

      He stood at the end of her king-size bed without saying anything. She could tell he was really angry with her. It shook her. He’d always been her sibling, but now he was a lot more than that. Somehow she hadn’t fully realized it until now.

      “You do understand why Dizo reacted the way he did—”

      “Of course. I went too far and he called my bluff because he’s the iron man. I thought I’d test him to see if he had an Achilles’ heel.” She flashed her brother a broad smile. “He doesn’t, at least not where I’m concerned. I get it.”

      She started filing the nail of her index finger.

      “It’s called decency, Regina. Respect for the crown. What shocks me is that you thought you had the right to cross the line with him.” Her brother was truly upset with her. Now that their father had passed away, he was feeling the weight of his responsibilities and she was one of them. While she waited for him to speak, she didn’t realize she’d filed her nail down to the skin.

      “From the age of sixteen when Dizo first came here, he has known that any romantic association with you was out of the question. Taken to its furthest degree, he could never marry you. When he left for Sardinia, it was to start a new life as a vet. He never once made a wrong move with you.”

      “You’re right! He’s got a stone where his heart is.” Fire filled her cheeks. “How come you managed to get away with enjoying all the off-limits-women in your life?”

      “They didn’t work at the palace,” her unflappable brother came back with his indisputable logic. “Their fathers didn’t have the kind of friendship Guido enjoyed with our father.

      “Dizo is the product of his own strict upbringing. The Forneses have an enviable code of ethics handed down from their ancestry and are the finest people I know. Would that Alexandra and I can instill that kind of character in Catarina. He did the honorable thing so you could preserve your reputation. Think what you did by flying to Sardinia—”

      “Honor be damned. When all’s said and done, he didn’t want me.” A brittle laugh escaped her throat. “Saving my reputation,” she mocked.

      “Yes. And his family’s. And Nic’s.” He stared her down. “In the end that’s all any of us has.”

      Guilt smote her.

      “I guess it’s as good an excuse as any for admitting I don’t have what it takes to turn him on.” She tossed her head back. “Well, he did a superb job of it. Never mind those hours we were in bed together where he couldn’t stop telling me how much he wanted me. That was only the alcohol talking in the heat of the moment. As soon as he was sober, he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.

      “You should have seen his eyes light up once I told him he didn’t need to worry about becoming a father. Would you believe he was so drunk he fell asleep before anything major could happen? Even out of control, Dinozzo Fornese was in control.” Her voice shook. “The joke’s on me.

      “Even if Guido lied about Dizo’s forthcoming wedding, he was being prophetic. One day soon I’ll learn that Dizo married a local girl from Sassari. They’ll help take care of his grandmother and everything will be just as it should be in the Fornese corner of the world.”

      She tossed her file on the table. “Just so you know, I’ve accepted Nic’s invitation for this coming weekend. He wants to talk over wedding plans. I think it’s time. Let’s agree that miracles only happen once. You got yours when Alexandra swept into your life at the midnight hour setting you ablaze.

      “As Dizo informed me in his doomsday voice a little while ago, the fairy tale is over for us. I’m ready to marry Nic. The sooner the better. Unlike you, I want a life and children before I reach my thirties. By then I’ll be too old to get down in the dirt and make mud pies with them.”

      There would be no fire with Nic. Nothing could equal what had taken place in the privacy of Dizo’s bedroom where Regina had known rapture of a kind she had no idea existed. She looked away from her brother’s all-seeing gaze.

      “By now Catarina will be waiting for her papa to kiss her good-night. You’d better go or Alexandra will start to worry.”

      “I’m going, but I want you to call me if you need me.”

      “Thank you, but I won’t.”

      The brother she loved had become even more protective now that their father had passed away, but there was only one man she needed and he was permanently unavailable.

      CHAPTER THREE

      “DR. FORNESE?” The voice of the receptionist came over the speakerphone in the surgery. “There’s an important call for you from the palace in Capriccio.”

      Steady, Dizo.

      Two weeks had passed since the night at the greenhouse. This phone call couldn’t be from Gina. It was as if she didn’t exist.

      “I’m still putting in some sutures,” he called through his mask. Signora Rossini’s terrier had tangled with her neighbor’s pit bull. The terrier had gotten the worst of it.

      “Tell them I’ll return the call when I’m through with this operation. Put the number on my desk.”

      Twenty minutes later he pulled off his gloves and mask and went into his office. After shutting the door, he sat down in the chair and reached for the cell phone in his lab coat pocket. He didn’t recognize the number written on the paper.

      After he punched in the digits it rang twice, then he heard the deep voice of Gina’s brother. “Ciao, Dizo. Come va?” The king’s private line?

      “Va bene, Lucca.”

      “I was pleased to discover you took the position in Savono.”

      “Thanks to you it’s working out very well. Did you receive my note?”

      “I did. It was much appreciated.”

      On the surface everything seemed fine, but Dizo sensed undercurrents and broke out in a cold sweat. “Is your family well?”

      “Our little girl is thriving.”

      “That’s good to hear.” What about Gina? Was something wrong with her? Dizo got to his feet waiting for the other shoe to fall. It wasn’t long in coming.

      “A situation’s come up I need to see you about. What’s your schedule like this evening after you leave work?”

      All his evenings were the same. Nothing went on. Not a damn thing. Some nights he spent with his family before returning to his apartment. Work was saving his life right now. “I’m free. If you want, I can be there within the hour.”

      “Good. Come to my office at the palace. The staff at the north portico will let you in. For your information I’ve asked your father and Regina to join us.”

      His heart thumped in reaction. Gina was going to be there?

      “I thought the four of us should meet unofficially before it turns into official business. A presto, Dizo.”

      His cryptic remark brought Dizo’s pacing to an abrupt halt. It was a good thing Lucca had hung up. The groan that came out of Dizo would have deafened the party on the other end.

      No amount of speculation was going to give him the answers he needed, but the fact that his father had also been summoned meant a situation of nightmarish proportions had developed. They’d