“I am sorry.”“Are you? Do you really care how much it hurt me to hear your brother talking about you like you don’t have a relationship? Does it bother you that it rips at my heart to be dismissed by you like you did at the restaurant tonight?”“I did not dismiss you.”“You didn’t introduce me as the woman in your life, either.”“You know why.”“But the reasoning isn’t enough for me anymore. I’m sorry you hate to have your private life made public, but I hate being your dirty little secret. I can’t do it anymore. It hurts too much, don’t you get it?” she begged, her voice cracking.He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “I do not wish to hurt you, amante. Please believe me.”The tears she’d fought all night would no longer be denied and began to flow hotly down her cheeks. “I love you, Marcello. So much. I need to know you care for me, too.”He went stiff and pulled away, his expression concerned, but no reciprocal love evident. “I do not want you to love me.”“What?”“I told you in the beginning that our affair is temporary, that I was not looking for love and had none to give.”“We’ve been together six months.
