Artemisia
I felt so drained that I'd gone completely quiet, and Romulo had picked up on it.
Everything was great, I was having an amazing time with him, to the point that I had found myself laughing more than ever before. None of our time together had been shrouded in difficulty or darkness, we were just enjoying each other's company.
Maybe too much, I hadn't actually spent a night at Carina's since the second date.
I lied to Leandro about sleeping with him. I had, multiple times a day.
Yeah, he couldn't find out about that.
I knew things were moving very fast, things were intense and with Leo's presence now involved, my newfound sense of morality had come into the picture.
This was the second time I had hurt a man that I cared about in the space of a month. Yes, Anton's reaction was totally out of order, but the fact remained that I hurt him; and with Leo, the bitterness in his voice when he mentioned Romulo earlier paired with his painful declaration of not wanting a life without me in it, made me feel extremely guilty but also made me fucking scared.
I couldn't hurt him more than I already had, and it was because I had come to terms with something the moment I gave in to picking up that phone call.
I was in love with him, I was in love with the man who had hurt me the most in this world, and I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't take away the fact that he hurt me, or that he lied to me after we had reconnected, or that he was getting married.
Leandro was getting married.
For the first time I processed it. I processed the fact that the man I was in love with was getting married to an insufferable woman who would torment me with that fact for as long as she could. Clementina didn't even know about Leo and I, but she would still make it her mission to make my life hell.
I didn't think I would be able to get up and just leave his life, not after everything we had gone through. Leo was getting married and I was going to be sitting on the sidelines either way.
But I couldn't. I had to move on.
"Cara," he murmured as we pulled into the sweeping drive of the Boterosco villa, it was clear of other cars and I hoped that meant Leandro wasn't there yet. I snapped out of it and looked over at Romulo who had a concerned look on his face. "Cosa ti passa per la testa?"
(Italian: Darling | What's on your mind?)
"Lavoro," I lied, giving him a small smile. I took his hand that rested on the console in mine, eyeing the old-english font numbers that lay across each finger of his right hand, all coming together to form the number '1479' when he made a fist.
(Italian: Work)
"Arté," he murmured, taking his other hand and tilting my chin up. This man could read me well, better than most, and right now I felt like I was being interpreted like an open book. "Non mentirmi angelo, per favore."
(Italian: don't lie to me angel, please)
What could I say? That I was in love with his boss and that I had been lying to him this entire time? That Leandro and I had been engaging in whatever it was for a while, and that his cousin's wedding looked like a sham to me?
No, I couldn't say any of that.
"È solo lavoro, Romulo. Ti prometto." I lied again before placing a kiss on his cheek, allowing my lips to linger there for a few moments before kissing his lips.
(Italian: It's only work, Romulo. I promise you)
He reciprocated, and as usual I found myself getting lost in him.
Only because I had already started to shut down though. The beautiful technique of pretending that things weren't happening around me, I was simply experiencing life as a sequence of events that had no difficult emotions attached to them.
I could be a ruthless bitch when I wanted to be, and given the sickly feeling in my stomach when I realised Leo was getting married regardless of what we had, I decided that now was the best time to get back in touch with that part of myself.
We got out the car and Romulo placed an arm around my waist, chatting to me about how he wanted me to meet a distant cousin who was here for the wedding. I hummed in agreement as I glided through the house with him, his hand tightly gripping my waist and his lips finding the crown of my head every thirty seconds.
"They're here," he mused, remaining none the wiser, and my heart dropped. I didn't know what our cover story was, let alone how to even speak to him. I felt totally out of control.
I heard his voice as soon as we stepped outside, and my eyes drew to his figure immediately. He stood there in a linen shirt and olive-chinos, his hair swept back and sunglasses on, with a cigarette between his lips.
I damned the fact that he looked so attractive in my head as we walked towards the group, and did my best to control my beating heart. I just needed more time, more time to compose myself and get control back.
Luckily an excited Carina gave me that time. Her eyes were wide as she approached us.
"Do excuse Arté and I for a couple of moments," she smiled to Romulo, "I just need to talk to her about something."
"Of course," Romulo chuckled, and I didn't have time to say anything else before she was dragging me away back into the main house.
"Oh my fucking God Artemisia," she exhaled, "you never told me about the thing in the past, but it doesn't even matter now! He's here!"
"I know," I groaned, collapsing onto the sofa
"Does Romulo know about you two?"
"No! What could I say? Yeah, I'm in love with your Boss? Please forgive me for lying to you, i'm also the reason why--"
"You're in love with him?" She interrupted, which was a good thing as I was absentmindedly about to expose my entire history with the Torromandi family.
I stayed silent for a moment, I'd never said it out loud before but now that I had it felt so right. Like it was the absolute truth, and there wasn't anything that could change it. But then I remembered that he was getting married, and I couldn't afford to be thinking this way.
"Maybe not love," I muttered
"Bullshit Artemisia, you're the most calculated person I know, you don't say anything unless you're absolutely sure. It is love and you know it." She retorted.
I groaned, shutting my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose.
"He's getting married in three days. There's no use of being in love with him." I muttered, and as Carina was about to speak her phone started ringing.
"It's Pietro, we better go back out. We will talk about this later." Carina sighed, pulling me up off the sofa and linking my arm in hers. "I'll support you through this, I'm here for you."
"Thank you Carina, it means the world." I sighed, feeling some comfort in the fact that I wasn't totally isolated in this incident anymore. It didn't get rid of the nauseous feeling in my stomach however.
My eyes drifted to over to Leandro, and at the calling of Carina's name alongside some comment about a disappearing act, Leandro turned over to face us.
Leandro
I'd been waiting for this moment for three weeks, but in no way was this the ideal situation.
I sharply inhaled at the sight of her, she looked so beautiful, dressed in white that contrasted with her tanned skin. Her elegant frame glided towards me as if she had no care in the world, which was highly annoying considering the fact that I felt I would stop breathing in a moment.
I lifted my sunglasses and allowed my eyes to meet hers, the first time I'd been able to look into those beautiful fucking eyes in almost a month. She was so incredible, everything about her encapsulated me, to the point where I felt I was breaking out into a smile, but it was shortly interrupted as Romulo stepped around me from behind and walked towards her.
I watched as the exchange happened, he kissed her gently before snaking an arm around her waist and whispering something to her, allowing a small smile to come to her lips.
"Che bella," Gio murmued from next to me, and I held my tongue as I watched her approach the group.
(Italian: How beautiful)
Artemisia's eyes met mine once more, and her smile grew a little. I wondered if it was genuine, but something told me it was; she often had a glimmer in her eyes when she was happy, she looked relaxed.
She looked like that now.
"I think you two know each other," Romulo smiled, unassuming.
"Ciao Leandro," she smiled, and I knew what mode she was in. She was acting like this was a job where she had to go undercover, had to pretend, had to act as if what she was doing wasn't fucking hard.
I did the casual greeting, kissing both of her cheeks, the feeling of having her in my arms once more allowing a rush of relief to hit me. She trailed her hand down my back as she pulled away and kept her eyes on mine.
"So, how do you two know each other?" Romulo asked, and I interjected, stating the story I had recited before. Romulo seemed unsuspecting of anything as Artemisia leant into his side, looking anywhere but at me.
"Artemisia," Domenico smiled, greeting her in the way I had, and Luiz did too.
"Andiamo a prendere il regalo di Leo," Romulo smiled down to her, and she grinned before looking over at me. A flicker of sadness ran through her eyes before she turned on her heel and sailed away.
(Italian: Let's go get Leo's gift)
"I can see why he's obsessed with her now," Gio laughed as I turned from the pair to face the group.
"Of course, I mean, who wouldn't be?" Michele laughed, and I looked over to Pietro who was holding Carina by his side. "God bless you Carina for bringing someone here who has made that man calm down."
"Yeah," she smiled, but her eyes met mine, giving me a look that told me she knew more the others. "She does have that effect on people."
I swallowed, my heart rate increasing, and I slid my sunglasses back down before looking over at the table that Domenico and Luiz had made a move to sit down at.
As we all sat down, I noticed who's place card was opposite mine: Artemisia's, who was sat next to Romulo. I swore under my breath, knowing that I was in for a long night, especially considering that all I wanted to do was get her alone.
The sound of her laughter allowed my attention to perk back up, and I watched as she walked around the table, looking for her place card. Her eyes drifted to mine as soon as she found it, but she sat down without second thought.
Romulo walked around the table and sat down next to her, his arm stretching across the back of her chair, and he took her attention immediately. Right in front of me, they kissed, and for what felt like the hundredth time that day I felt jealousy and rage boiling up within me.
"Leo," Romulo started, "here's the gift."
I knew it wasn't fair to take out my feelings on him, he had done nothing wrong and he was none the wiser about Artemisia and I, but the urge to expose what had been happening between Artemisia and I was rife.
I watched as he pulled out a red box, the Cartier logo embellished in gold, and slid it over to me. I gave him a grin, anticipating what it could be.
"You proposing?" I chuckled
"You wish," Romulo laughed, "no, the box is too big for a ring anyway."
I looked over at Artemisia, who was looking at me with those kind eyes, urging me to open it.
I undid the latch and opened the box to see a Cartier Tortue staring back at me, the face totally unique with an intricate globe placed beneath the numbers. It was special and rare, and I remembered briefly mentioning it to Artemisia as we passed the store one day in New York, telling her how difficult it was to find one.
"It was Arté's idea and she sourced it, so thank her for that. It's brilliant, no?" Romulo said, clearly happy with himself.
I nodded as I met Artemisia's gentle smile across the table, I would've done anything to kiss her in that moment, but I settled on walking round the table and hugging Romulo before kissing her cheek in thanks.
"It's very special, thank you both." I sighed, my gaze catching Domenico's who was smiling with a small shake of his head.
"I'm glad you like it," Artemisia said and I looked back at her to see Romulo kissing her cheek.
Suddenly however, I knew she had lied to me. There was no way that the two of them could've been that close in public if they hadn't slept together, it just didn't make sense.
I nodded with a forced smile before sitting down again, leaning back in my seat to watch the two of them. Artemisia kept on looking over at me, which wasn't suspicious since I was sat opposite her, but I could tell she was reading my mind.
She knew that I had figured it out, and she also knew that this changed everything between us.
I wanted to hurt her like she had hurt me, and in a way getting married to Clementina seemed like a good way of doing it.
-
Dinner was intense, but only for Artemisia and I. Comments about my marriage were being made, asking me how happy I was to finally be settling down with a good woman, and asking me how I was feeling about married life. Every time that happened I watched as Artemisia's smile faltered for a split second, tearing her eyes away from me and placing her full attention back to the man next to her.
It was torturous, I had moments where all I wanted to do was get up and leave, and I was counting down the minutes until I could get her alone.
And finally, the moment came.
"Leandro, I need to give you the insurance policy, the documents are inside and you need to sign them, I also need you to give the guy a verbal confirmation that you got the watch," she mentioned as we walked towards the fire pit.
I nodded and glanced at Romulo who kissed her cheek and walked off without another thought. Artemisia glanced at me before walking back to the main house, far from where our companions were sitting, and I caught up to her and followed her in.
"Really? You haven't slept together?" I muttered
"I haven't seen you in almost a month and that's how you want to start the conversation?" She retorted, keeping her eyes on the house.
"I wouldn't have needed to say that if you hadn't of lied to me," I replied as we walked inside
"Oh yeah, because you're such a saint when it comes to lying." She called as I followed behind her through the halls.
She had me there.
We walked to the front of the house and took a turn by the front door, into a large entertainment room where her bag was.
"Arté," I started, watching as she pulled out documents and a pen. She didn't respond, simply walking to the bar and resting them on the counter.
I sighed, joining her, and began to sign the pages as she stood next to me. I watched out of the corner of my eye as she leant her elbows on the bar and dropped her head, taking in a long and steady breath.
I had finished by then, and there was only one thing I could possibly say to her.
"I love you," I rasped. I expected her to freeze, to turn away from me and storm out the room. But she didn't.
Artemisia straightened out and looked over at me, "I know, and I wish I didn't feel the same way."
Silence held us in it's grip, our eyes burning into one another as the foot between us kept us apart like a fence.
"Say it," I replied, she dropped her head, shaking it slightly.
"I love you Leo," she sighed, "but why does it matter? You're getting married, I don't want a place in any of that."
"I know angel," I nodded, taking a step closer. She didn't flinch, she held my gaze as I remained desperate to have her in my arms.
"I should've known," she laughed in disbelief, "I should've known that the worst thing I could've done was take this job, because look at me now."
"You don't mean that," I muttered
"I do Leo, because now as a result of letting someone in for the first time, I have to watch them get married, and I still can't bring myself to truly resent you for it." I took her hand in mine, drawing her closer. "and the worst part is, I actually really like Romulo, and then you come back into the equation and everything I feel for him seems so insignificant to what I feel for you."
"Arté, it's because we were meant for one another." I murmured, bringing her knuckle to my lips. There was another pause before she spoke again.
"If we were meant for each other why are you marrying her?"
Her eyes glazed over, and finally she had let me in again. But, this time I wouldn't be able to console her, because once again I was picking family over her.
I had done it when I let her go thirteen years ago, I had done it when I didn't rescue her twice, and I was doing it again with this marriage. We were back to where we started.
But then I remembered what her fate would be if I didn't get married.
"Exactly," she muttered, yanking her hand from mine and turning away.
I spun her back around and pulled her into my chest, tilting her chin up to look at me and staring into her shining eyes.
"You know what I would do for you Arté, I have to do this to keep you safe. Anton will come for you, Clementina's father will come for you, a life in hiding is no way to live and that's if you survive." I said, my tone was rough as my grip on her waist tightened.
She remained silent, evaluating the logic of it in her head, and I desperately wanted to tell her that I would ditch it all for her, but I couldn't say that. Not if I wanted to keep her alive.
We were both the kind to act out when we experienced true emotions, mainly anger, and now love had come into the mix. It was too dangerous to tell her what I felt.
"Do you trust me?" I rasped
"Barely," she muttered, we were close now, I could've kissed her with a sudden move forward. My grip around her tightened as I pressed her further into my chest, I couldn't handle her not trusting me.
"Fidati di me. Ti amo, angelo, lo sto facendo per noi." I rasped, and I watched as she shut her eyes for a moment before wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
(Italian: Trust me on this. I love you angel, i'm doing this for us)
"A volte ti odio Leandro," she muttered, opening her eyes again.
(Italian: I hate you sometimes Leandro)
I don't know what came over me, maybe it was because I hadn't been able to stop thinking about her and how I needed her in every way, or because of how fucking beautiful she looked standing in front of me (more than usual which seemed impossible), but I slipped my hand between our bodies and applied pressure to her core over her dress.
"Mi ami in ogni caso," I shot back before moving my fingers over the fabric. She let out a short breath, her head tipping back. "Voglio che tu dica a Romulo che stanotte resterai qui per passare un po' di tempo con Carina..."
(Italian: you love me either way | I want you to tell Romulo that you're staying here tonight to spend some time with Carina)
"I will," she breathed, looking at me once more.
"Brava ragazza. Ti vengo a prendere all'due di notte dai cancelli, capito?"
(Italian: Good girl. I'll pick you up at two am from the gates, got it?)
"Si, leo." She whispered, and within a second her lips were on mine in an all-consuming kiss. I removed my hand and slipped it under her dress, squeezing her ass causing a small moan to emerge.
The first time in almost a month, and I couldn't fucking wait to have her fully again.