The Billionaire’s Heart (His Submissive #4)(5)
Author: Ava Claire

A fresh stream of tears unhitched from my eyes and I swept them away, swallowing so I could recount how I’d gotten here.

"We went to the museum this morning and everything was perfect…right up until Rachel appeared."

"Oh dear," Allegra groaned, ruffling her dark, choppy hair. "I should have known she was at the center of this."

It wasn’t quite that simple, but Jacob already hated me. I didn’t want to add Allegra to the list. "She threatened to go public with information that could ruin Jacob, unless I gave her five minutes with him.”

Allegra frowned. “She has no problem intruding upon Jacob. Why would she-” She stopped, her eyes narrowing as Rachel’s true motives dawned on her. It was funny—if only I’d taken a moment and thought about it myself, I’d be trotting around Venice instead of about to board a jet back home.

“I lied to Jacob and let her charm her way back into his life.” I dropped my head in my hands, letting out a groan of frustration as I relived it. “You should have seen his face.” Eyes as cold and uncaring as they’d been before I scaled the walls of him to find something more. Lips in a razor thin line, sharp enough to cut. The guy who’d held my hand tight with that devilish grin as we took in the city was replaced by someone who ripped away from my touch. "I lost him, Allegra."

“Nonsense." Allegra waved a hand through the fog of my sadness. "The changes in him and the happiness he has found is not something easily forgotten." She brushed a bundle of curls from my face then used a hankie from her pocket to mop at my wet cheeks. "This is just the first fight."

"Our first fight?" I said incredulously. "He banished me from the country!"

"That is theatre," Allegra replied simply. "His anger is doing the talking instead of his heart." She glanced away, her eyes clouding over. "Just like his father."

I perked at the mention of his dad. Maybe there was something, anything in their past that would help me get Jacob back. "Could you tell me more about his father?"

Hesitation flitted across her face and she took a few steps away from me. "No good can come from digging up those skeletons." She glanced at my messy bed. “Let’s get these things hung back up, yes?”

There was nothing I wanted more than to pretend that what went down between Jacob and I was some sort of lovers spat, but deep down I knew it was more than that. When I let out the lie about my father, something had danced across his face. There was sadness there. But it didn’t take a psychic to know that talking about Jacob’s father was the absolute last thing Allegra wanted to do.

"I’m just trying to understand," I prodded. "When I was talking about my dad at lunch, I could tell that he was thinking about his own."

"I find that unlikely unless he was thrashing about and foaming at the mouth."

I peered over at her, expecting to see a flicker of the joke, but her face was hard as stone. She was smoothing the front of her pants, her fingers shuddering like the wind over water. Allegra had been a force from the moment I met her. Graceful, powerful, formidable. But talking about Jacob’s father had brought out something entirely different in her. Watching the nerves and wariness engulf her was like looking into a mirror.

"Oh my god," I gasped, the truth smacking me upside the head. "You two were in love!"

She opened her mouth to protest before she closed it and let out a resigned sigh. “You caught me.”

When she didn’t offer anything else, I moved closer to her. I was being selfish, not giving her the same courtesy she gave me, but now that I’d glimpsed the truth, I couldn’t stop until I knew more. “I know this is hard-“

"Hard?” she repeated with a sad chuckle. “It was agony. He was my everything. Everything." She sucked in a lungful of air. “Carlton Whitmore.” After she said the name, she rubbed her bare arms like she caught a chill.

“He was an actor, right?” I said, remembering the snippet she’d shared about him when we first met. When she was telling me why I shouldn’t judge Jacob by the role he played for the world.

"Si. He walked around Venice like a king. And every woman worshipped him." She spread her arms wide. "His head was this big!"

"I guess that runs in the family," I smirked.

"Oh yes,” she said, twisting her lips into a rueful grin. “Pride is in the Whitmore DNA. And Carlton was stubborn as a mule. Whatever he wanted, he got. I was the only girl in Venice that showed no interest."

"Out of principle?"

"Out of respect," she said wryly. "Respect to his wife."

My eyes widened. "He was married when he pursued you?"

She nodded. "He was relentless. Swore that he was unhappy. That he wanted to leave her." She cut her eyes at me. "I do not have some fancy US education, but I wasn’t stupid. I kept at him, telling him if he wasn’t happy he should leave her. He said he couldn’t but would not explain why."

I bit my lip. It was the age old crutch. Stay together for the kids. "Because of Jacob."

"Yes. Eventually the truth of his hesitation came out." She let out a groan, massaging the bridge of her nose. "But it was too late. Instead of being horrified, I accepted it. I accepted it because I fell in love." She paused, her eyes glazing over. "For three years, he came in the summer and we played house. He even brought Jacob with him. I was ‘Aunt Allegra’."

I winced at that. “Just three years?"

"I grew tired." Her voice wavered. "Lonely. A summer just was not enough." She rose from the bed. "I gave him an ultimatum." She paced back and forth and with every circuit, my heart broke for her. I could practically see her decades younger, swooning after him. Loving him. Needing him.

"I was young and foolish. A part of me actually thought he would leave her." Her eyes glittered with tears. “I thought he would choose me, as selfish as that was.

"I’m so sorry." I meant it. I wasn’t even on a plane yet and I felt the devastation of losing Jacob. If we’d had all the time that she and his father had, it really would have destroyed me.

She flashed a smile that lit up her face. "Do not feel sorry for me. I had a good life once I stopped waiting. I married a good man. We had beautiful children.” She looked at the floor. “It wasn’t until Jacob became a man and found me that I learned that his father never got over me. And turned that anger, that loss, toward his family."