The Billionaires' Club: Return of Her Italian Duke (The Billionaire’s Club) / Bound to Her Greek Billionaire (The Billionaire’s Club) / Whisked Away by Her Sicilian Boss (The Billionaire’s Club)

“But it turned out we weren’t the culprits. The dog of one of the guards ran off with your clothes. We chased it down and brought your things back to you, but I don’t recall you thanking us.”

She shook her head. “We were too embarrassed to talk. That was so humiliating, you can’t imagine.”

“You were our wood nymphs come to life. Dimi and I thought it was the most wonderful day we’d ever spent.”

“You would!” But even across the expanse separating them he detected a half smile.

“I’ll tell you another secret. My mother was very fond of you. But because she was a princess, she believed any feelings I had for you would come to grief. Like your mother, Mamma had also been raised in a different world of rigidity within the titled class.”

Gemma sat on the edge of the bed. “Her words were prophetic.”

“Not completely. Dimi and I broke rules all over the place. It’s a new world now. Because of a reaction to the misuse of noble titles in our country, you’ll notice a trend among legitimate aristocracy in this last decade to refrain from making use of their titles.”

“I didn’t realize.”

“What’s important is that you and I have found each other again and I’m no longer in danger from my father or uncle. The powers that be are gone.”

“Thank heaven for that, Vincenzo. But what did you mean when you said you wouldn’t be a duca much longer?”

He hadn’t meant to tell her this soon, but right now he was desperate to get closer to her. “Since my return to Italy, there are men in the government who know of my business interests in the US and here. I’m not blind. Because of my title they want me to get on board with them to play an economic role in the region’s future. It’s all political, Gemma. The title corrupted my father and uncle. It turned their souls dark. I refuse to let that happen to me.”

“You don’t know if the title did that to them, Vincenzo. I watched you grow up titled, remember? I never once saw you do an unkind thing in your whole life.” She stared hard at him. “You can’t change who you are.”

“Oh, but I can.”

“How?”

“By renouncing my title. Once that’s done, it’s permanent. If I have a son or sons, they won’t inherit it, and any daughters I might have can’t inherit it anyway. The beauty of it is that an Italian title of nobility cannot be sold or transferred. In other words, the abuse stops with me. My male children and their children and the children after them won’t be burdened.”

Her eyes widened. “If you do that, won’t the title fall on Dimi through his father?”

“Yes, but he’s taking the same steps.”

“You’d both stop the title from progressing after centuries of succession?”

Vincenzo nodded. “There are so many dreadful things my father and uncle did in the name of that title, seen not only in the scars that Dimi and I carry. You know the head gardener who was introduced at the orientation meeting?”

“Yes. I met him out in back the first day.”

“Years ago, my father got angry at him for planting some flowers Mamma wanted. He told him to get out and never come back. He didn’t give him a reference or any severance pay. While Dimi and I were looking up old employees, we found him.

“That’s just one of a hundred stories I could tell you of my father’s cruelty. If he and my uncle hadn’t been born to a duca, they wouldn’t have felt they had the right to treat people like animals. The only way to end the corruption is to rid ourselves of the title and restore the honor of those noble Gagliardis from the past by preserving the castello.”

“That’s why you turned it into a resort,” she whispered.

“What better way to make restitution than by allowing the public to enjoy its heritage, thereby giving back something good and decent to the region.”

Her features sobered. “You loved your grandfather Emanuele. He was a great duca. How would he feel about this?”

“I can’t speak for him, but if he’s looking down on us now, he couldn’t be pleased with what his sons did while he was dying. Being born with a title gives some men dangerous ideas.”

“But not you, Vincenzo. Emanuele adored you. I don’t think he’d want you to do this.”

He frowned and got to his feet. “For someone who came close to bearing the brunt of my father’s dark side, I’m surprised to hear this coming from you. I thought you of all people would be happy to see this kind of inequality come to an end.”

“But you’re a different breed of man and shouldn’t have to give up what is part of you.”

“I’m a man, pure and simple. Don’t endow me with anything else. This isn’t an idea I just came up with on a whim. When I was five, maybe six, I saw my father kick one of the young stable hands to the ground because he didn’t call him Your Highness. It sickened me. That was the day my plan was born. Now I can see it through to fruition.”

The way she shook her head filled him with consternation. What could he say to get through to her?

“Years ago I told you I’d find a way for us to be married. A few days ago I asked you to be my wife because there’d be no barrier between us. But there is one. It goes so much deeper than I realized.”

His words caused her to flinch, alarming him.

“When you said you and I weren’t the same people growing up, I didn’t understand how fully you meant it.” His chest felt tight. “It’s clear you don’t love me the same way I love you, no matter what I do. I can tell you would rather I keep the title, the very thing you think prevents us from ever getting married.”

He started pacing in frustration, then stopped. “Is this because of what my nonno said? It’s no wonder you don’t think you can marry me.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I thought if I told you about that experience, you would begin to see.”

“I see, all right,” he muttered. “Mirella deliberately interpreted it so you would only worship me from afar. She didn’t want you getting any ideas about a real relationship with the future duca. After all this time, it’s still working.”

“You can scoff about this all you want, Vincenzo, but it was very serious to me. He was a prayerful man. I saw him go to Mass in the private castello chapel every day before I left for school.”

“He wasn’t a priest destined to be cardinal one day, Gemma. Who do you think administered the Mass to him every morning?”

“You don’t have to be a priest to be a godly person. Everyone felt that way about the old duca. I know you loved him.”

“That’s beside the point. He knew he was dying. All he was doing that day was expressing his sentiment about me to a sweet girl who’d brought him his favorite dessert baked by the best cook around. But to see that as a sign from above...” He shook his head.

Gemma slid off the bed. “My mother was raised in a good Catholic family.”

He raked a hand through his midnight-black hair. “Heaven help me, so were you.”

“That’s why she honored the traditions here.”

“You’re right, but she went too far. Without giving me any voice at all, she made me out as the untouchable one, the future duca whose word was law. It’s that old divine right of kings business and it disgusts me.”

No one could confuse her like he could with his logic.

“It’s time to put the past in the past, where it belongs. There’s no room in the modern world for it. I’m a normal guy, Gemma. Warts and all.”

“You don’t have any.”

Vincenzo leaned against the door with his strong arms folded. “Of course I have flaws and imperfections, like every other man. Think about it—until I called my friends together about buying the castello, they didn’t know my last name or the fact that I inherited a title. Do you see them treating me any differently? Have they once shown me a special kind of deference?”

“Actually, no,” she said with her innate honesty.