Passionately Ever After
Autore
Metsy Hingle
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One
Her luck had just run out.
Steven had found her.
Maria Barone didn’t know how she knew that the strange black SUV parked in front of the Calderones’ place belonged to Steven. She only knew that she did. Easing her car around the bend in the road, she barely noticed the snow-dusted Ponderosa pines or the darkening December sky. All her thoughts, all her energy, were focused on the impending confrontation. Because she had no doubts whatsoever that there would be a confrontation.
Ever since her cousin Karen had phoned a few days ago to warn her that Steven was searching for her, she’d known it would only be a matter of time before he stumbled onto her hiding place in Silver Valley, Montana. Perhaps that was why from the moment she’d awakened that morning, she’d been plagued by a fluttering in her belly that had nothing to do with the baby growing inside her and everything to do with some sixth sense warning her that her days of eluding Steven Conti were about to come to an end.
Pulling her compact to a stop alongside the empty SUV, Maria sat behind the wheel of her car for several moments. For the space of a heartbeat, she considered turning the vehicle around and leaving to avoid what was bound to be a messy, emotional scene. Just as quickly, she dismissed the idea. She wasn’t a coward, she reminded herself firmly. And until recently she’d never run away from a thing in her life. Besides, in another two and a half months Steven and everyone else would know her secret. Determinedly she switched off the car’s engine.
All right. Time to face the music.
Mustering her courage, Maria exited the vehicle. After gathering her packages from the back seat, she made her way up the shoveled walkway. When she reached the front door, she drew in a deep breath, filling her lungs with the cool, crisp air in an effort to steady her nerves. She’d known for months now that this day would come—the day when she would have to tell Steven about the baby and lay out her plan for their child’s future. Yet she was no closer now to figuring out what that plan entailed than she had been when she’d left Boston more than two months ago. All she knew was that she loved Steven, and she loved her family. And no matter what she decided, someone she loved was going to be hurt. Worse, in choosing, she was going to lose either Steven or her family. Or possibly both.
Maria swallowed hard at that thought. And not for the first time, she wondered why the powers that be had played such a cruel trick on her.
Fate, the voice inside her head whispered. Perhaps it was fate, she thought. How else could she explain that the man she’d fallen in love with was a Conti—the one man in the world with whom she couldn’t possibly share a future? Maria sighed at the futility of her situation. No matter how much she might wish for things to be different, the past could not be changed. The Contis and the Barones were sworn enemies, had been enemies long before either she or Steven had been born. And the feud between their families that had begun when Marco Barone had eloped with her grandmother instead of marrying Steven’s Aunt Lucia was just as strong now as it had been nearly seventy years ago. In truth, the bad blood was probably even stronger now, Maria conceded, as she recalled all the misfortunes that had befallen the Barone family as a result of the Conti curse.
The Conti curse.
Maria shuddered at the thought of that horrid curse that had plagued her family for nearly seven decades. Even now, she still could recall sitting at her grandmother’s knee as a young girl and listening to the story of the Conti curse. She could almost hear her grandmother’s voice explaining….
“Lucia was so angry, so bitter, when Marco and I told them we were married,” Angelica Barone said as she related the tale of their elopement and how they had gone to the Contis and pleaded with them to understand.
“Understand?” a furious Lucia countered. “I understand that you have betrayed me, my brother and our family.”
“We love each other,” Marco Barone had told her. “I never meant to hurt you, Lucia.”
“Well, you have hurt me. You have hurt all of the Contis.”
“Perhaps someday when you are older, you will understand and be able to forgive us and wish us happiness,” Angelica offered.
“I shall never forgive you,” Lucia spat out. “And I shall never wish you any happiness. In fact, I curse you. You got married on Valentine’s Day, so from this day forward, I wish you and all of your descendants a lifetime of miserable Valentine’s Days—just like the miserable one you gave me.”
Then exactly one year later on the first anniversary of their wedding, Angelica Barone had miscarried the child she had been carrying. Maria shuddered again at the memory of her grandmother and the sadness that crept into her eyes when she had told her about losing her first child.
Smoothing a protective hand over her stomach, Maria couldn’t help worrying again how that curse might affect the baby growing inside her—a baby due on Valentine’s Day. Despite Steven’s claim that the tragedies her family had suffered were coincidences and that the Conti curse was nothing more than superstition fueled by overactive imaginations, Maria knew he was wrong. She had only to look at this past year for proof that the curse was real and the unhappiness that Lucia Conti had called down upon all Barones was continuing to wreak havoc.
Biting her lower lip, Maria considered the disasters that had plagued her family during the past year—disasters that all commenced shortly after she’d become involved with Steven. She winced at the memory of the sabotage of the new passionfruit gelato on Valentine’s Day and the turmoil of bad press and lost revenue that had resulted. Then there had been the fire at the plant and her cousin Emily’s amnesia. And worst and most frightening of all had been the recent kidnapping of both Steven’s sister, Bianca, and her cousin Derrick.
Perhaps Steven could dismiss the curse, but she couldn’t, Maria admitted. Besides, even if she were able to get past her fears of the curse, how would she ever be able to get past the loss of her family? How would Steven get past losing his family? Because she had no doubts that both families would disown them were she and Steven to declare that they wanted to share their lives together.
She’d grown up in the bosom of her large, boisterous family and wanted the same for her baby. For her and Steven to be together, she would have to forfeit that joy. How could she possibly condemn her baby to a life in which he or she would be stripped of that love? How could she possibly allow her baby to become caught up in the ongoing feud between the Barones and Contis?
The fact was, she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. For her baby’s sake, she would have to be strong, Maria told herself again. Somehow she had to find a way to reason with Steven, to make him see that they could have no future together because too many people would be hurt. And the one who would suffer the most would be their child. She simply had to make him see that.
Squaring her shoulders, Maria shifted her packages under her arm and reached for the doorknob. As usual, she found the house unlocked. Quickly, before she changed her mind, she hurried inside out of the cold. And for the first time since she’d arrived over two months ago, the scents of the baking bread and burning wood did nothing to soothe her spirit. Nor did the sound of Magdalene’s and Louis Calderone’s laughter coming from somewhere inside the house.
“Then my Aunt Lucia said…”
Maria started at the deep rumble of Steven’s voice and sent one of the wrapped boxes from her shopping bag tumbling to the floor.
“Oh, that must be Maria now,” Magdalene said.
Chastising herself for reacting like a clumsy schoolgirl at just the sound of Steven’s voice, Maria retrieved the fallen package and began stuffing it into her shopping bag.
“Maria? Is that you?”
“It is either Maria or a clumsy burglar,” Louis joked, his Spanish ancestry apparent in his speech.
“Maria?” Magdalene called out again.
“Yes, Magdalene. It’s me,” Maria replied, surprised that she managed to sound almost normal when nerves were tap-dancing in her stomach. “I’ll be there in a minute,” she added as she tried to calm herself.
But Magdalene was already rushing out to the foyer to greet her. “You were gone so long. Louis and I were about to send out a search party to look for you.”
“I’m sorry if I worried you,” Maria told her. “I decided to do some Christmas shopping while I was in town.”
“So I see,” Magdalene told her as she eyed the bags stuffed with gifts. “And your doctor visit?” she asked as she removed the shopping bag and packages from her fingers and set them aside. “Everything is okay?”
“Yes. Yes, everything is fine,” Maria told her as she stripped off her gloves and jammed them inside her coat pocket. She removed the scarf bundled around her neck and before she could protest, Magdalene was reaching for it and draping it over the coatrack beside the door.
“Here, give me your coat,” Magdalene instructed.
“No,” Maria said sharply, then immediately softened her voice. “I mean I want to keep it on for a while. I…I’m still feeling a little chilled,” she fibbed, deciding to delay the inevitable a bit longer by hiding her body beneath the voluminous coat.
Magdalene reached for Maria’s fingers and frowned. “It is no wonder you are cold. Your hands, they are like ice. Are you sure you feel all right, la pequeña?”
For once Maria didn’t bother pointing out to the tiny, dark-haired woman that since she was a full two inches taller than Magdalene and her stomach was beginning to resemble a basketball, the pet name “little one” really didn’t suit her. “I’m fine. Really. The sun’s beginning to go down, so it’s turned colder outside. That’s all,” she offered in explanation. “I just need a few minutes to warm up and I’ll be fine.”
Apparently satisfied, Magdalene said, “All right. If you are sure.”
“I’m sure,” Maria informed her.
“Then, come. I have a surprise for you. A visitor,” she added, her eyes sparkling. She turned and started toward the den.
But Maria remained frozen to the spot.
“Maria?” Magdalene said when she realized that she wasn’t following. “You are sure you are okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Then come, pequeña,” Magdalene urged and motioned for her to follow. She ushered her toward the den. In a voice filled with glee she announced, “Look who has come all the way from Boston just to see you.”
Even though Maria had known before setting one foot into the room that she would find Steven waiting there, that knowledge didn’t lessen the impact of seeing him again. Just as it had that very first time when their eyes had met across the room at Nicholas and Gail’s wedding reception nearly a year ago, the air seemed to back up in Maria’s lungs. She hadn’t known back then that Steven was a Conti. All she had known was that never before in her life had she been so drawn to a man. More than drawn, she admitted. She’d been entranced by him. One look and she’d known that he was the man she had waited for her entire life. She drank in the sight of him again now. The tall, athletic frame of his body. Those linebacker shoulders that filled the black and red sweater he wore so wonderfully. The tad-too-long dark hair that made him look more like a rebel than a dot-com millionaire. Suddenly Maria could remember all too easily the texture of his hair when she’d wound her fingers through it, the feel of that hair brushing against her bare skin while they made love.
Realizing what she was doing, Maria shut off the dangerous memories. She lifted her gaze to meet Steven’s. And her breath hitched as those piercing blue eyes of his went from cool to hot as he looked at her. For a moment, Maria couldn’t breathe. Trapped in the heat of his gaze, her pulse pounded frantically as Steven started across the room toward her. His eyes never wavered and when he captured her nervous fingers in his hands, Maria feared for a moment that she might actually faint.
“Hello, Maria,” he said, his voice like a caress.
Maria opened her mouth, intent on returning the greeting, but no words came out. As though in a trance, she simply stood there and watched as Steven began to lower his head. When his mouth was mere inches from hers, sanity suddenly came slamming back. She turned her face away and his lips brushed her cheek. The kiss was light, barely a whisper of a touch, but it might as well have been a brand, Maria thought, because she felt the burn of Steven’s kiss all the way down to her toes.
Rattled and fearful she would do something foolish like throw herself into his arms, Maria pulled her hands free and stepped back. “Hello, Steven,” she finally managed and didn’t miss the flicker of annoyance that crossed his handsome face.
“It is a lovely surprise, your Steven coming to visit you, yes?” Magdalene asked.
“Somehow I don’t think Maria’s all that surprised to see me, Mrs. Calderone,” Steven offered in her silence.
“It is Magdalene,” her friend chided him.
“My apologies, Magdalene,” Steven offered gallantly and earned another smile from the older woman.
“This is true, Maria? You were expecting Steven?” Magdalene asked.
“No, not exactly,” Maria hedged. More like she had hoped that he wouldn’t be able to find her. Aware that both Magdalene and Louis were waiting for her to explain, she said, “When I spoke to Karen the other day she mentioned that Steven had said he wanted to speak with me.”
Steven arched his brow at her understatement. But much to her relief he didn’t point out that he had sworn to Karen that he intended to track her down no matter how long it took him.
Unfortunately, it hadn’t taken him long at all. Not that she was surprised, she wasn’t. After all, Steven Conti hadn’t become a millionaire before he was twenty-five by failing to attain whatever goal he’d set for himself. And according to Karen, he had been quite determined to find her—with or without her cousin’s help.
“Well, Louis and I are happy you have come. Our Maria has been moping about since Thanksgiving. Now we understand why. Don’t we, Louis?” Magdalene asked, the twinkle back in her eyes.
“We do?” Louis asked, a puzzled expression on his dark, weathered face.
Magdalene rolled her eyes. “Men! Louis, our Maria has not only been missing her family. She has been missing Steven.”
“Is Magdalene right, Maria? Have you missed me?” Steven asked, his voice somber, his eyes serious.
Her heart ached at the longing he made no attempt to hide from her. Not trusting herself to answer him, she turned away and walked over to the fireplace. For once she failed to appreciate the beauty of the Indian blanket that hung on the wall above the stone hearth. She simply stared into the fire, scarcely aware of the heat of the flames that licked at the logs or the spit and hiss of the burning wood. She pressed a hand to her belly and searched for the right words to tell Steven about the baby.
“Pequeña, what is wrong?” Magdalene asked. “Maria?”
At the sound of Magdalene’s voice, Maria shook off her sadness and turned her attention toward the other woman. “I’m sorry, Magdalene. Did you say something?”
A frowning Magdalene marched over to her, placed a hand on her forehead, then caught her fingers. “No fever. And you don’t feel chilled anymore. Are you still cold?”
“A little,” Maria fibbed, still unwilling to reveal her protruding belly.
Magdalene’s frown deepened. “Did you tell the doctor about these chills?”
“Doctor?” Steven repeated and Maria didn’t miss the note of alarm in his voice. “What’s this about a doctor? Are you sick?”
“No. No, I’m not sick. It was just a checkup,” Maria said quickly, silently pleading with Magdalene with a look to say nothing about the baby. “I’m just not used to the Montana winters and I was a little chilled when I came inside. That’s all.”
Magdalene’s dark eyes widened slightly as understanding dawned. “Perhaps some hot chocolate will help to warm you up,” she offered, but Maria didn’t miss the reproach in the other woman’s expression.
“Yes. Hot chocolate sounds wonderful,” Maria replied.
“What about you, Steven?” Magdalene asked as she returned to the coffee table and began loading dishes onto the serving tray. “Would you care for another cup of coffee or would you like hot chocolate, too?”
“If it’s no trouble, coffee would be great.”
“No trouble at all.”
“I’ll take another cup, too,” Louis informed his wife.
“Why don’t you come help me in the kitchen, Louis?” Magdalene suggested.
“But—”
“I’m sure Steven and Maria have much to discuss. You will excuse us for a moment. Yes?” Magdalene asked and gave Maria a pointed look.
“Of course,” Maria said.
“Come, Louis.” Magdalene smiled at her confused-looking spouse and handed him the tray. “Perhaps you will sample the cinnamon rolls I baked earlier. I am thinking that maybe I should send some for the Christmas Bazaar at the church.”
“Anything to help you and the church,” a beaming Louis replied, and with tray in hand, he headed for the door.
Magdalene paused, looked back at Maria for a moment. “I will be in the kitchen if you need me, pequeña,” she said before following her husband from the room.
Steven watched the two women exchange looks and wondered at the unspoken message that passed between them. For a moment, he could have sworn he’d picked up some strange vibes in the room, but then Magdalene was closing the door and leaving him alone with Maria.
With the Calderones gone, the room fell silent, and were it not for the hiss of the logs burning in the fireplace, Steven was sure he could have heard a pin drop. But after months of being haunted by the memory of Maria, not even the unnatural silence dimmed the pleasure of being near her again.
So he drank in the sight of her now. Like a starving man, he took in every detail of her appearance. Her hair was longer, he noted, falling like mahogany silk nearly to her shoulders. Her skin was paler than he remembered, but there seemed to be a glow to it now that hadn’t been there when she’d fled from Boston. Courtesy of the mountain air, he suspected. He wasn’t sure if the flush in her cheeks was due to his presence or to the heat from the fire, and decided it was probably a little of both.
He looked into those big doe eyes of hers—eyes that he’d seen countless times in his dreams. Much to his disappointment there was the same wariness in them now that had been there the last time he’d seen her. Shrugging off his disappointment, Steven stared at her mouth. Her mouth was the same—still sultry and tempting. He couldn’t help remembering how perfectly that mouth had fit with his. How it had felt to hear those lips crying out his name when he was buried deep inside her. How those same lips had sworn that she loved him. He wanted to go to her, pull her into his arms and kiss her, hear her say those words to him again now. And because he wanted to so badly, he jammed his fists into his pockets to keep from reaching for her.
“How did you find me?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Does it really matter? The important thing is that I did find you,” he told her, not wanting to admit that he’d broken a few rules in his quest to locate her. When she said nothing, he released a breath in exasperation. “I tracked you through your credit card. You used it to send flowers to your family for Thanksgiving.”
“But how—” she began, only to answer the question herself. “The computer. You hacked into the computer system for my credit card activity.”
“Yes,” he admitted. “And if you’re going to tell me that what I did was illegal, don’t bother. I already know that. But I was desperate to find you.”
“You could have been arrested.”
Steven shrugged. “It would have been a small price to pay.”
“You shouldn’t have risked it,” she charged.
“I would have risked a lot more than that to find you,” he said honestly. “But it seems I got away with my crime. That is, unless you’re planning to turn me in.”
“Of course I’m not,” she countered.
“For a minute there, I wasn’t sure,” he teased, wanting to lighten the mood. Much to his regret, Maria continued to look grim. “Now that I’ve answered your question, how about answering mine?”
Maria wrinkled her brow, causing the tiny crease along her forehead he’d noted whenever she was puzzling over something. “What question?”
“Was Magdalene right? Did you miss me?” When she said nothing, Steven bit back the sting of disappointment and his voice was hard as he said, “It’s a simple question, Maria. All it requires is a yes or no answer. Did you miss me? Even just a little bit?”
“Yes. I’ve missed you,” she said finally, the words little more than a whisper.
Relief rushed through him at her reply and he started toward her. “God, Maria, if you only knew how much—”
“Don’t,” she said, holding up her hand.
Steven stopped in his tracks. Frustration churned inside him. Frustration and hurt. “Don’t what, Maria? Don’t tell you that I love you? That I’ve been going out of my mind these past two months without you? That I believed you when you said that you loved me? And that you damn near cut my heart out when you ran off like you did without any explanation?”
“I left you a note,” she defended.
“Yeah, a few paltry lines saying that you needed to get away. That you needed time to think,” he said, not bothering to keep the bitterness from his voice. He paced the length of the room, jammed a fist through his hair. He whipped back around to face her. “How do you think that made me feel? I tell you that I love you, that I want to marry you and then you disappear and tell me not to try to find you. Do you have any idea how much that hurt me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” he repeated and marched over to where she stood before the fireplace hearth. “You say you love me, then rip my heart out and throw it back in my face by running away, and all you have to say is that you’re sorry?”
She stared up at him out of sad brown eyes. “Believe me, Steven. Hurting you was…is the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
“Well, you did hurt me,” he fired back. Unable to stop himself, he reached for her. “I love you, Maria. And dammit, I know you love me. So why are you doing this to us? Tell me what’s wrong. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.”
“You can’t fix it,” she said and pulled away from him. Hugging her arms to herself, she turned her back to him and stared into the fire. “No one can fix it. No one.”
The tears in her voice ripped at him. “What is it, love? Tell me what’s wrong.”
When Maria shook her head, he turned her around to face him. Tipping up her chin, he stared into eyes bright with tears and secrets. A fist seemed to tighten itself around his heart as he studied her face. He’d always thought Maria beautiful—from the first moment he’d set eyes on her at Nicholas and Gail’s wedding. Yet there was something even more beautiful about her now, an inner glow much like the waitress at his family’s restaurant when she’d been—
Steven yanked his gaze from Maria’s and moved down the length of her body. Emotion churned inside him as he registered the subtle differences in her appearance and demeanor. He took in the shapeless red coat that swallowed her slender frame, noted the protective way Maria’s hands rested near her middle. In the blink of an eye, all the changes in her hit him like a sucker punch. “Take off your coat, Maria,” he commanded in a voice so controlled and cool, it sounded foreign even to him.
She stared at him, like a deer that had been caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, he thought. And he hated the fact that it was fear that he read in her eyes. “Steven—”
“Take off the coat, Maria,” he repeated and softening his voice, he added, “Please.”
With a patience that belied the blood racing like wild-fire through his veins, Steven watched as she slowly unbuttoned the red coat. When the last button had been loosened, she pulled off the coat and tossed it aside. She lifted her head, angled her gaze up to his and stared at him out of eyes bright with defiance.
Steven lowered his gaze and stared at her protruding stomach. Emotions pummeled through him at breakneck speed—anger, joy, hurt. When he lifted his gaze to meet hers again, he read the regret in her eyes. And it was that regret that sent a knife plunging straight through his heart.
“Tell me something, Maria,” he said, taking care to keep his voice soft while rage and pain warred inside him.
“What?”
“Were you even planning to tell me that I was going to be a father?”
