Carpathian 10 - Dark Symphony

certain that I surrounded myself with people I trusted. Being blind makes me even more vulnerable. I can't slap your face and walk out of here like a drama queen. If I fell over a chair, it would ruin the effect."
    "Do you want to slap my face?"
    She pushed her wet hair from her face. "No, I want you to let me make my own decision.
    This isn't a small thing you're asking of me. This is even bigger than marriage, and I was never going to get married."
    "Why wouldn't you marry, Antonietta?"
    She shrugged her shoulders. The water held heat, and right now she needed heat. "How would I ever know a man wanted me for me? I'm not how you see me at all. I'm overweight,
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    Dark Symphony
    Page 151 of 188
    and I do have scars; not like Tasha led me to believe, but they're there. I've seen firsthand how damaging a wrong marriage can be. Paul and Tasha suffered so much. You have no idea.
    Their father was such a womanizer." She rubbed her hand over her face. "He was with every maid in the palazzo and every other woman he could charm. He was in all the tabloids. He didn't care where he was or who would see him. He was capable of having sex with a woman in front of the Paul and Tasha and laughing about it. He was abrupt and disapproving with Paul and showered Tasha with presents and little else."
    "He had no honor, Antonietta. I do."
    "Aunt Selena knew about all the women. She drank so she could pretend otherwise.
    There was a rumor that one of his women had his baby." Antonietta rubbed her hand across her mouth as if trying to wipe away a bad memory. "Aunt Selena died one day under what the authorities claim were suspicious circumstances. She and Anton were in the tower. There was a terrible fight. Nonno went up and tried to calm her and get her to come down. Even Helena tried. Selena fell or was pushed. It was a horrible time in our lives. If there ever was a baby, Uncle Anton paid the woman off, and she aborted it, because it was never mentioned again.
    He went on with his life as if nothing happened."
    "How did he die?"
    "A car accident. He was drinking and went off the road." She leaned the back of her head against the rim of the Jacuzzi. "Tasha's been married. Both times her husband cheated on her.
    Franco is married, and his life is miserable. The few men I've dated that seemed a reasonable partner ended up wanting my money and/or the Scarletti business."
    "Is that what you think I want, Antonietta?" His voice was very quiet.
    She shivered despite the heat of the water. "You want me to be a creature, another species that needs blood to survive. You want me to change what I am for you."
    "Would you prefer me to walk away from you?"
    The moment he said the words, she felt a wrenching panic inside of her. "I thought you said life mates could never be apart."
    "Do you want me to leave you? Do you want to go on with a life that does not include me in it? That is the question, more than any other, for you to decide."
    "I want out of here." She stood up, the water pouring off of her.
    Byron was there instantly, lifting her out of the Jacuzzi and wrapping a soft towel around her. Antonietta clutched it to her and made her way to the bed, using the map in Byron's mind.
    "Then there is a choice. You brought me here to convert me, but you're giving me a choice."
    "You would never be happy or trust me completely if I made such an important decision for you, Antonietta. I know that much about you. I want your trust. And I want you to choose me. I do not want it to be because you are my life mate, or because you might regain your sight, or even because we have good sex. I want you to say yes because you feel the same way about me as I feel about you. I want you to know you love me that much."
    "Great sex," she corrected softly. He was tearing her up inside. If he had tried to force her, she would have fought him at every turn, but he was asking her. More than just asking her. He was stripping away his pride and laying his feelings at her feet. "Byron, if I ask you to live with me at the palazzo, the two of us together, married in my way, and we could find a way to be safe, would you do it if I didn't follow through with the conversion?"
    "You are my life mate. I would choose to live with you and grow old with you. I would end my life when