Rejected by the Heir, She Married the Don novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Collar

We did not sleep.

At first light on Sunday I lay on my side with my head on his arm and watched the sea go from black to grey.

Dario lay on his back and looked at the ceiling.

"You asked why there was never another wife," he said.

"I didn't ask."

"You were going to."

I had been.

"My wife died when Stefano was six," he said. "The chair was hers, and I kept it empty. People said it was grief."

"Was it?"

"Some of it." He turned his head. "The rest was that every woman who came to my bed after her was happy to be kept. They liked my money and my rules, and they liked that I never raised my voice."

"And?"

"And not one of them would ever have said no to me at that table. I didn't want a vote I owned."

I lay very still.

"You wanted a wife who could vote against you."

"I wanted someone I could not predict." His mouth twisted. "Then you walked up the terrace with your hand like ice, and I knew you would say no to me if I was wrong."

"You didn't know that."

"I knew it when you told Stefano to call you Mrs. Bertolini, in front of the whole club." He looked at the ceiling again. "I have my own fear in this, Elise."

"Tell me."

"You came to me with his name in your mouth."

I said nothing.

"Every time I kiss you I wonder if you are looking at him through me. When he is finished, when he is on his knees and you have what you wanted, I think you'll stand up and walk away from my table."

I sat up.

The blanket fell to my waist, and the morning air raised gooseflesh on my arms.

"Dario, look at me."

He did.

"The only time I said Stefano's name to you was to say it was over. I don't want him. I never wanted the thing he called me. I wanted to be the person nobody could laugh at."

"And now?"

"Now I want to be the one who sits at your right hand and tells you when you're wrong."

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