Page 29 of His Willing Wife

“You do?” Bella asked.

The waiter came back, this time with theirfood. Tillie hadn’t even taken a sip of her water. Shethanked him for the foodand then let go of her mother’s hand to pick up the knife and fork,as did her mother.

“It is new, because obviously we were not alove match, nor did we know each other for years beforehand, but itworks for us. I am getting to know him and there is so much more toLuca than being a rich man who tears apart companies.”

Tillie smiled just thinking about him. Afew flashing moments of them together, watching a movie, and Lucaholding up the pillow on a scary part so she didn’t getscared. Him feeding hersome of his own food. Hanging out at the library, reading a book tohim as he sat and listened to the words. Even the memory ofdancing, and Luca asking her to continue dancing for him. They werefew and far between, but they were their moments.

“I know that look,” Bella said.

Pulling out of her thoughts, she lookedtoward her mother. “What look?”

“The look of a woman falling in love. Youhave that look, my dear,” Bella said. “Are you falling in love withyour husband?”

Tillie thought about Luca and the insane thing was, she couldn’thelp but smile. “I think I am.”

Chapter Ten

Three Months Later

Luca stood in his brand-new office and looked over the city. Eventhough he was over twenty floors high, he could still see thehustle and bustle on the ground below. He’d never been afraid ofheights, in fact, being high off the ground had actually been moreof a thrill to him than fear.

What amazed him most was the fact his newoffice was inside the Goodwin company. He’d not changed thename, but he hadrelocated to this very building. Why? He couldn’t fucking believeit, but in the last three months, it was like his whole life hadchanged.

First, his marriage to Tillie was fuckingincredible. He couldn’t have imagined a better marriage. Waking upwas like stepping into a dream. When it came time to leave for work, he felt a mixtureof emotions as he hated leaving Tillie, but what he loved wasseeing David and Andrew, his father and brother-in laws, whichtotally blew his mind.

Yes, he liked his father-in-law, and had taken the time toget to know Andrew. At first, it hadn’t been easy. He’d come tolearn that Andrew was a very proud man, and when he inherited thecompany from his father, he’d done so with the responsibility oftaking care of it, and the promise of making it thrive. Uncle Ed,Andrew’s brother, had nearly destroyed everything their father andgrandfather had worked toward. Andrew had felt personallyresponsible because he’d been the one to hire his brother in thefirst place, even though David had warned him not to. Their ownfather hadn’t fired Ed, and even though there had been multiplewarnings going off inside Andrew’s head, he’d listened to his heartand trusted him.

Luca hadn’t believed it at first, but thenhe didn’t know what true family meant, not until he opened his lifetoward Tillie and her family.

Bella, Tillie’s mother, was wonderful.Ever since Tillie had gone to dinner with her mother, the two hadgotten closer, and hadcertainly been making up for lost time.

He’d lost count of the number of dinners,barbeques, or family get-togethers he’d been part of in the lastthree months.

All his life, he’d been an outcast.Growing up, he’d been the kid without parents, so the only peoplehe had anything in common with were his fellow foster kids. At the same time, he didn’thave anything in common with them for long, because while theystill had hope of their own parents coming to adopt them, as wellas the prospect of being adopted, he’d long lost any of it. He’dsimply accepted his fate and decided not to hold out for anyone.The only person he could rely on was himself.

There was a sudden knock at the door, andhe didn’t even have to call out before David stepped into his office. This hadbeen a regular occurrence as well. He and David had becomefriends.

“Hey, man, just wanted to stop by and makesure everything was okay,” David said, coming to stand close tohim.

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know. I called Tillie to check onher, like I do every Friday, and she seemed a little strange.”

He frowned and then moved toward his desk.“Strange how?”

“You know, just distracted.”

“She was fine when I left her this morning,”Luca said, concern rising inside him for his wife.

He’d woken up like he had every morning this past three months,taking a few moments to watch her sleep. Tillie would always wakeup, and then turn toward him with this soft, sweet, but knowingsmile that never failed to arouse him.

Luca had never seen her look at anyoneelse the way she lookedat him, and it turned him on to know he was the only man she did itfor.

“Shit, man, I didn’t mean to make you worry.It’s probably nothing, and a bad connection or something. I wasworried the two of you might have gotten into a fight orsomething.”

He looked at David and saw how nervous theother man seemed, and he didn’t like it.

“Tillie and I don’t fight.”

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