“It’s all so incredible.” Bella gave a dazed shake of her head as she stared across at her brother sitting in one of the armchairs in her sitting room. Not just Matteo, but Antonio and Luca were standing behind him, and Luca’s son Stefano, the man from the coffee shop as Bella had suspected, stood guard near the door. Stefano had also been the one driving the SUV that had followed Bryce and Bella home from Matteo’s estate yesterday, doing the best he could to ensure her protection.
Matteo nodded. “It’s as Mr. Steele said. The man at the top is vulnerable unless he can trust absolutely the men guarding him.” He gave Antonio, Luca, and Stefano warm glances before turning back to Bella. “Franco slowly removed all my trusted guards and replaced them with ones loyal to him instead. By the time you left university, I was completely isolated and unable to do more than hope Ricci would keep his promise and that you would come to no harm at his hands.”
“She would have been perfectly fine if not for a whacko police detective,” Bryce put in dryly. He was seated next to Bella on the couch, his arm resting lightly across her shoulders.
Matteo nodded. “A whacko police detective who is now in police custody himself, thank goodness.”
“Probably as well he got himself arrested,” Bryce muttered.
Bella turned to give Bryce a searching glance from beneath lowered lashes.
She had fallen asleep in his arms last night and woken up in them again this morning. Bryce had continued to hold her as he explained more fully what had happened when they and the Russians entered Matteo’s estate the previous evening. How Franco Ricci had been holding Matteo a virtual prisoner and using Bella’s continued safety to guarantee his compliance. The Russians had ensured that situation was no longer allowed to continue, and now Matteo had his own bodyguards safely back in place. Bella could only feel grateful for the fact Antonio and Luca had continued to look out for her, with the help of Luca’s son, even though they had been dismissed from Matteo’s employment.
But not once during any of Bella’s conversations with Bryce had he mentioned the claim he’d made yesterday that it was his intention to marry her one day soon.
“I’m sorry I had to hurt you during your visit last night when I told you I had no sister,” Matteo now spoke gently. “I could also see how it upset you when you realized all the photographs of you had been removed from my study. I did that in the futile hope that as far as Franco was concerned, it would be a case of out of sight, out of mind.” He grimaced. “But he never forgot for a moment.”
Bella swallowed. “Did he have Mama and Papa killed?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened. “Yes. But by the time I realized that, it was too late, and I had become a virtual prisoner on the estate, surrounded by Ricci’s men.”
Bella’s jaw tightened. “Is he dead?”
“Yes,” Matteo confirmed flatly but added nothing further.
“Good,” she said with satisfaction.
“Bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you,” Bryce approved.
Her eyes flashed. “He killed my parents and threatened both my brother and me.”
Bryce reached out to caress her cheek. “I was only teasing, love.”
Bella released a shaky breath. “Looking back on the last eight years, I can’t believe I just accepted what was happening.”
“My situation is settled, and I now have a new alliance with the Russians.” Matteo nodded his satisfaction with that outcome. “But what will you do, Bella? Will you come back to live on the estate for a while?”
She shook her head. “I love you, Matteo, but this is my home now.”
“How do you feel about returning to work?” he prompted gently.
Bella had been asking herself the same question. She had loved being part of the police force, but she wasn’t sure she could ever go back into the station she was assigned to after the carnage Sean had created there yesterday. Three of her colleagues were now dead because of him. Even walking into the police station again would be hard. She wasn’t even sure reassigning her to somewhere else would make a difference to the aversion she now felt toward the job she had once loved so much. It was impossible to think of returning to work without remembering Sean and the things he had done.
“You could always go into the private sector.” Bryce eyed her curiously. “Steele Security is always looking for trained operatives, which you are.”
Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t object to me working with you?”
“If that’s what you want,” he said softly. “There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t work at Steele Security.”
It was an intriguing idea.
One Bella gave serious thought to several times over the next week.
A week of having Bryce spend the days with her, and most evenings too, unless she was visiting her brother, in which case, Bryce insisted the siblings needed time alone to get to know each other again. The evenings Bryce did spend with Bella, he always left well before midnight after giving her a chaste kiss goodnight. Nor could Bella find any reason to complain; she was no longer in any danger now that Sean was incarcerated, and Bryce’s chaste kisses didn’t encourage any suggestion of intimacy on Bella’s part either.
Confused didn’t even begin to explain Bella’s state of mind. On the one hand, Bryce now spent most of his spare time with her, but on the other hand, it was hardly in a lover-like manner.
Bryce did, however, invite her to accompany him to his brother Logan’s wedding to August at the end of that week.
Rourke was his twin’s best man, of course, but the other Steele brothers were all acting as groomsmen. Bryce took Bella to sit in the pew behind the groom and best man, coming to sit beside her only once he had fulfilled his groomsmen duties. He looked very handsome in the gray morning suit and silver brocade waistcoat, with a white shirt and a cravat that was the same shade of blue as the bridesmaid dresses.
Strangely enough, without being aware of it, Bella had chosen to wear a dress almost that same color blue. She had purchased the dress six months ago because it matched her eyes.
It was a beautiful wedding, the bride breathtaking, the groom handsome, as were all the Steele brothers.
Bella’s confusion only deepened when she was introduced to Bryce’s parents, Simon and Joanne Steele, and received a warm hug from both of them as if she was a cherished guest to their son Logan’s wedding to the lovely August, despite the fact they had never met her before.
“Everything okay?” Bryce prompted uncertainly as the two of them stood in the receiving line to be welcomed to the reception at the hotel by the bride and groom.
“Fine.” Bella nodded without so much as glancing at him.
It had been a frustrating week for Bryce. He wasn’t exactly the most patient person at the best of times, and it had taken every ounce of his restraint to show Bella his concern and caring, of being a boyfriend, but at the same time maintain his distance, when what he really wanted to do was throw her over the nearest flat surface and claim her in every way possible for as long as they could both remain conscious.
Bryce held back his impatience at her one-word answer. “Have I done something wrong?”
She turned to look at him with cool blue eyes. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you being so…distant?”
“I’m not.” Her tone remained clipped.
Bryce studied her. “Are you lying to me?”
“No— Yes,” she quickly amended as Bryce raised his eyebrows.
“Remember what happened the last time you did that?” he challenged.
She smile slightly. “Yes.”
Some of Bryce’s tension began to ease. “Maybe that’s what you want?”
Her gaze dropped from meeting his. “Maybe.”
“Why?”
Her eyes glittered with unshed tears when she lifted her head to look at him. “At least then I might feel something from you other than this brotherly concern!”
“Brotherly?” Bryce repeated softly. “You think my attitude toward you has been brotherly?”
“You know it has,” she accused. “You haven’t even touched me this past week, apart from those chaste kisses you’ve been giving me every night before you leave! Ugh.” She gave a disgusted shake of her head.
Bryce scowled. “I was trying to do better at the boyfriend thing than I did on Sunday, when we both agreed I was terrible at it. I was being a considerate boyfriend, respecting the fact you’ve had a traumatic week and need time to recover— No?” he questioned when Bella she shook her head.
“No,” she stated firmly. “What I’ve needed, still need, is for you to start treating me like a woman you at least desire.”
He frowned. “So what you’re really saying is that you preferred it when I was alternately spanking your arse and making love to you every chance I had?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.” Bryce grabbed hold of her wrist, pulling her out of the line and towards the doorway they had entered through minutes ago.
Bella pulled back. “Where are we going?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Somewhere I can propose to you without an audience, and then we’re going to find the nearest flat surface so I can make love to you until you’re incoherent from coming in my mouth, against my fingers, and then with your pussy wrapped around my cock.”
“Bryce!” she protested.
“Brotherly!” he repeated in disgust. “For that alone, I am going to fuck you within an inch of your life.”
“Bryce,” she protested again, but only weakly.
He waited until they were alone in a small room down one of the hallways, with the door locked, before going down on one knee. “Isabella Zalotti, Bella Smith, or, to put it more simply, the woman I’ve loved since the moment I first set eyes on you, will you marry me?”
Bella’s anger and confusion melted away in seconds. “You love me?”
“To distraction. You are a total distraction,” he acknowledged ruefully before sobering. “Of course I love you, Bella. I have since the moment we first spoke at the hospital all those weeks ago. Something just clicked into place the moment we spoke. If you don’t feel the same way about me yet, will you at least give me chance to show you how much I love you and hope you’ll come to love me one day?”
“I already love you, Bryce.” The tears overflowed Bella’s lashes and cascaded down her cheeks. “I have since the moment we met. But you’ve seemed so distant this past week, I thought you must regret having made that comment about marrying me—”
“In that case, I’m going to apply for a special license tomorrow, and we can be married before my parents return to France,” he stated firmly.
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “I usually am.”
“I— Well. Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you, Bryce.” She threw her arms about his neck. “Next week. Next month. As soon as we can arrange it.”
“Do you want a big wedding like this one?”
Bella gave it a few minutes thought before answering him. When she was a little girl and thought of getting married one day, she had always envisaged walking down the aisle on her papa’s arm. Her brother was now free to perform that task, but the circumstances of this past week weren’t conducive to them having, or Bella wanting, a large wedding.
“No,” she finally answered him. “I just want Matteo and your family there. To be with you. To become your wife. I don’t want or need anything else.”
Bryce rose to his feet. “Right answer,” he murmured before his lips claimed hers in a kiss that definitely wasn’t brotherly.
It was a good ten minutes later before they broke apart and actually looked at the room they were in.
It was a laundry room, with rows of shelving from floor to ceiling and not a flat surface in sight.
The two of them looked at each other before they both burst out laughing.
There would be no making love on a flat surface in here.
But there was laughter and love.
So much love.