Alessandro felt anger and frustration settle so deep into his bones that he thought they might live there forever.

She was talking about another man.

Not just any man—a husband. A faceless, nameless stranger who would one day have the right to touch her, to hold her, to bury himself inside her while she moaned his name instead of Alessandro's.

His jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached.

He had always known, logically, that this day would come. That someday, when the fire between them had ...