Amethyst's Scandal

CHAPTER 23

Amethyst St. Clair's POV

When I came down here to the garden to clear my head I didn't expect to see Franco sitting outside with a bottle of wine with him.

I also didn't expect that I would fall in his lap with his arms lock around my waist like a vice. He'd been acting weird since he came back from his sudden trip to town. I was fully aware of the hard pounding of my chest while he buried his face in my hair.

I was starting to get worried about him when I took his face with my hand forcing him to look me in the eyes. I saw the way his eyes glinted with deviltry. "Don't look at me like that." He cautioned me. "Or I will lose my self-control and attack you, my love."

I stared at him for a long moment before dispelling the thick atmosphere around us with a shaky laugh. "Do you think that will scare me?"

"I am just giving you a full warning." He said with a devilish curve of his mouth. "You became more beautiful in the years that had passed. I like your hair a mixture of brown and gold strands and course, your striking eyes how can I forget them?"

"You're acting weird," I commented as I felt the urge to stroke my hand on his handsome face. How my fingers memorize every line of his face I can easily draw him without even looking at him. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head on the concrete or something?"

He gave me a heart-aching smile. "No. I just remember the day I first saw you walking in the streets of Lake Como with your groceries. I think my heart practically stop beating that moment I laid my eyes on you."

I eyed him dryly, resting my arms around his broad shoulder. "What's with this sudden trip down to memory lane?"

"Nothing," he replied casually with a slight twitch of a smile on his face. "I just remember those happy days we have in Lake Como."

"I don't think that's a good idea," I mumbled under my breath.

"Why not?"

I glanced at him briefly before looking away from his intense gaze. "Because I will open the old wounds of the past."

I heard him sigh deeply as if his heart was so heavy at the moment. "If they didn't intentionally break us apart at that time we are probably married by now and our son didn't grow up without his father."

I stared at him with wide eyes as I grip his shoulder blades for support if I was not only sitting in his lap right now my knees suddenly feel weak. "What are you talking about? Are you saying that you're going to propose to me if you knew about Max that summer?"

"I am planning to propose to you even before you learn that you are pregnant with him." He smiled sadly in my direction which made my heart ache considerably. "That day I was late for our coffee date. The same day that the Rizzo siblings came into the picture I already have the ring in my pocket that day."

I gasped at him unable to believe my ears as my heart pounded so loudly in my chest that I was sure he could almost hear it. "No way!"

"Yes." He said gently, the pain was still in his eyes. "I went to the coffee shop thirty minutes late to the usual time we usually meet and you weren't there anymore. I went to the house you work in but the housekeeper told me that no American girl is working in that villa..." His mouth twisted with distaste. "Of course, since you are the granddaughter of the owner of that beautiful villa. But I still waited for you outside the whole night thinking that you will take pity on me and come outside so we can talk."

My jaw dropped in his direction. "No way! You didn't..."

"Wait for you outside for the whole night?" He completed it for me with a sad smile. "Your elderly housekeeper inform me the following morning to go home because the girl I was looking for was not there."