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Matteo frowned. He couldn’t blame her if she had a deep need to use the computer, since the one he was supposed to provide her was nowhere in sight. But why didn’t she ask? She asked before doing just about anything. For the love of God, he’d had to break her of the habit of asking to take Matty out to the park when she first started. He was surprised she didn’t ask if she could use the bathroom those first few days she’d been in the apartment, she was so timid.
Knowing he shouldn’t, he glanced at her inbox, his gaze running over the subject lines, the names of the senders. Mostly junk mail from a variety of stores, an email indicating her cell bill was due, another email from someone with the last name Stewart. A relative, most likely.
He was invading her privacy and he wasn’t proud of that fact.
Moving the mouse so the cursor hovered over the red button and exited out of the browser, he paused, jerking the mouse with his hand just as a new email landed in her inbox.
An email sent by the Pavilion Nanny Agency with the subject line Resume Attached.
Anger did a slow burn in his stomach, easing into his veins, pounding a throbbing rhythm through his blood. Christ, he knew it. She’d acted suspicious when he found her in the hallway. From the time noted beside the email, she must’ve just sent it when they arrived home.
She was trying to find another job and leave him—and his son—without his knowledge.
The idea both terrified and infuriated him.
Paige avoided him all evening. Not a surprise, considering what he’d found, though she hadn’t a clue that he knew her secrets. Had she planned on sabotaging him right before they were supposed to leave the country? Abandon him and Matty so she could stay behind in New York and start her new job?
At first he’d been angry. So furious he could hardly see straight. But the emotion had slowly worn off as the night went on, until it became a low, worrisome ball of sadness in his gut. That she would walk away so easily, without hardly any notice, hurt him.
Devastated him.
But how could he approach her? Confront her pointblank with what he discovered on the computer? It was her own neglectful fault, leaving the browser up for him to find. Yes, he knew he shouldn’t have dug deeper into her email inbox but it was too late for regret now.
Memories of his past with Lucia crept in. How dramatic she’d always been, how volatile their entire relationship had been from the very start. They’d loved passionately and fought just as passionately those first few years they were a couple. He’d felt a sort of adrenaline-filled madness every time he and Lucia were in a room together and she’d experienced much the same. While the arguing had been dramatic and loud, so had the lovemaking. And in those early years, he’d reveled in it. Thought she was what he wanted.
That desperate sort of madness had slowly ebbed once they were married, until they became so completely dispassionate toward each other, it was difficult to believe they were the same couple. She’d become so cold, distant. To get away from her, he’d thrown himself into his work, their son. When Lucia died, they hadn’t had sex in nearly a year.
He’d become a shell of a man, unfeeling, not caring for his wife. She didn’t matter. So when she was gone, the guilt that had settled over him had been enormous.
Paige was the first woman who made him want to feel again. And she was so wrong for him, it was as if the fates had brought her into his life merely to test him. He’d almost failed many times.
Yet he could let her walk and pass the ultimate test. Let her slip away before he made the fatal mistake of tossing her naked into his bed so he could have his way with her. All night.
Every night.
Running his hand over his head, he gazed unseeingly at the television. He didn’t want her to go. He wanted to keep her. Possess her. Make her his.
It could never be. Not like that. But he’d be damned if he’d let her slip through his fingertips a few days before he left the country. If she made her escape now, he’d never see her again.
He could hardly stand the thought.
Quietly, he plotted. And waited for over an hour after Matty finally went to bed later than usual, considering Matty’s renewed burst of barely contained energy. Finally, Paige had calmed Matty down enough to get him into bed.
All the while, Matteo ran over and over what he would say to her.
Pretending to watch some horrendous movie in the living room, something he rarely—if ever—did, he was extremely aware of Paige’s presence in his home. And he knew without a doubt she was also equally aware of his presence, and it made her uneasy. She spent most of her time in the kitchen while he waited, he could see her from where he sat on the couch. Packing up portable snacks for Matty for the next few days, like she always did. She then sat at the kitchen table with a notepad, no doubt plotting her desertion.
