The Marriage He Must Keep by Dani Collins Page A

his immature, hair-trigger temper had snuffed out his father’s life in the time it took to blow. Since then, he had learned to contain the wild force inside him so, even though he wanted to do violence to Primo, he ruthlessly disciplined himself to seek reprisal through legal channels. He would pursue every avenue of justice open to him and he would lose nothing in this undeclared war Primo had subversively raged against him.
    Walking away unscathed would be his ultimate revenge.
    He checked on Lorenzo, having already learned from Octavia that her instinct had been right. This was their son. Alessandro could barely take in the magnitude of how easily he could have missed knowing his own flesh and blood.
    Those thoughts fed his rage so he pushed them aside, going to Octavia’s room where he was relieved to find her asleep. He wasn’t ready to talk about all that had transpired today.
    Part of him was tempted to crawl into the bed alongside her, which he put down to his naturally possessive nature. Having a woman in his bed was something he’d always enjoyed for the obvious reason, but his need to hold her was a more primal compulsion. Protective, certainly, but an assertion of his right, too. Octavia was his and, despite Primo’s plotting, would remain so.
    Her recent surgery gave him the strength to show some decency, though. She needed her rest and he wanted her to have it.
    Somehow he had disturbed her, however, because he’d barely dozed off when she awoke, pulling away from his light fingers against the pulse in her wrist, giving him an inscrutable look he could barely read in the filtered city light that slid past the vertical blinds.
    “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, hearing the rasp of fatigue in his voice.
    “What time is it? I should check on Lorenzo, see if he’s hungry.” She tried to push herself to sit.
    “I was just in there.” He leaned forward to touch her shoulder, feeling her stiffen under the weight of his fingertips. It wasn’t the first time she’d reacted with something like rejection, which disturbed him. “He was sleeping,” he said, pretending he hadn’t noticed, offering a reassuring caress that she retreated from by dropping onto her back. “The nurse said she’d come for you when he wakes.”
    “Oh.” She licked her lips. Her mouth looked shiny and pouty. Very delectable. He’d kissed her earlier, but it hadn’t been the right moment for the kind of reunion he craved. Right now wasn’t any better. His sharpest male instincts were activated, desperate not only to go on the attack in his role as protector, but wanting a private expression between them that affirmed his role as the chosen one to kiss and touch and cover her. He wanted the physical claiming that reinforced their bond.
    Not possible, obviously. Not in her condition. He hoped that was the only reason she was tensing under his touch.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked, genuinely wanting to know, but his voice thickened involuntarily as frustration bled back into him. Primo had risked her life and Lorenzo’s by failing to call the ambulance. How had he thought to get away with that along with the rest? He couldn’t think of any of it without nearly losing what temper he’d managed to keep.
    “I’m fine,” she murmured, shifting to draw the light blanket over her arms and shoulders, all the way up to her chin.
    A lie, of course. She couldn’t possibly be fine. He wondered why she wasn’t being honest with him. The estrangement he’d been sensing took on new dimensions as he grasped how much power Primo had had, moving into Alessandro’s mother’s mansion under a guise of waiting out renovations. It had seemed insignificant when Primo had asked Alessandro’s mother four months ago if he could prevail on her. Sandro hadn’t seen any harm in it so he hadn’t interfered, but now...
    Now he saw it as the seemingly innocuous chess move it had been.
    “You’re not fine, Octavia. We’ve both had