Reunited with Her Italian Ex by Lucy Gordon Page A

her?’
    â€˜Please—please don’t,’ she gasped. ‘It’s in the past. It doesn’t matter now.’
    â€˜Meaning that you still don’t believe me.’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ she said in anguish. ‘There are so many things battling each other in my mind—’
    â€˜I know the feeling,’ he said wryly.
    â€˜But it doesn’t matter.’
    â€˜Natasha, how can it not matter? You always prided yourself on being logical, but if you think what happened between us didn’t matter you’re talking nonsense.’
    â€˜I didn’t mean that. It mattered then, but not now. The world has moved on. We’ve moved on.’
    â€˜Ah, yes,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ve moved on.’
    â€˜And I think we were never meant to be together. Something was always fated to go wrong.’
    â€˜Now you sound like Giorgio.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜Just before you arrived, he and I were talking about Romeo and Juliet being “star-crossed lovers”. Sometimes a couple is meant for each other but just can’t get it together. They just have to accept that fate is against them.’
    â€˜Yes,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘You could say that fate was against us. My problem was that you had more women in your life than you could count. Or that I could count.’
    â€˜And mine was that you don’t trust any man. I’ve always wondered why. Was there some other guy who walked out and broke your heart?’
    â€˜In a way, yes, but it’s not how you think. The man who walked out was my father.’
    She fell silent until he said, ‘Tell me about him.’
    â€˜I loved him, and he loved me, so I thought. And then he just vanished. I never heard from him again. We seemed to be so close but he just wiped me and my mother out of existence.’
    As you did with me
, Mario thought, but was too tactful to say.
    â€˜My mother was so bitter. She told me a million times that no man could ever be trusted, but she didn’t need to say it. I felt it for myself.’
    â€˜So when we knew each other you were always reminding yourself that no man could be trusted—especially me.’
    â€˜No, not especially you. You mattered more than anyone else but—’
    â€˜But you instinctively thought I was no different from the rest of them. Except perhaps a bit worse.’
    â€˜No, no—it wasn’t like that.’
    â€˜From where I’m sitting it was exactly like that.’
    â€˜And so you’ve come close to hating me,’ she sighed. ‘Perhaps I can’t blame you.’
    â€˜Please, Natasha, forget I said that. I was in a temper. I wanted to hurt you because I resented the way you’d just shown your power over me. The way you kissed me made a point I didn’t want to admit.’
    â€˜A point?’ Her heart was beating fast.
    â€˜You showed me that I’m not the strong, independent fellow I like to believe I am. So I hit back with the worst thing I could think of. I didn’t mean it and I’m not proud of it. Do you think you can forgive me?’
    â€˜That depends.’
    â€˜On what?’ he asked cautiously.
    â€˜On whether
you
can forgive
me
.’
    â€˜There’s nothing to forgive.’
    â€˜Really? What about the way you say I—?’
    â€˜Stop there,’ he said quickly. ‘Whatever I may have said, I take it back. It’s over. It’s done with. Let us be friends.’
    She considered a moment before smiling and saying wistfully, ‘That would be nice.’
    â€˜It’s settled then.’
    â€˜Shake?’ She held out her hand, but he fended her off.
    â€˜No. We shook hands the first night as professional associates. But now we’re friends—and friends don’t shake hands. They don’t need to.’ He leaned over and kissed her cheek. ‘That’s what friends do. And they