Page 26 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 2

On that parting shot, the elevator doors opened, and Brenden stepped in. He turned around, his eyes filled with hate, blood dripping down the side of his mouth as he focused on Gio and then me.

“Fuck you, Gio. Fuck you both!”

* * * *

Once I’d gotten Giovanni cleaned up and sitting at my kitchen table with a bag of frozen peas pressed to his swollen neck, I slumped into one of the other chairs and pressed my forehead to the table.

“Everything is so messed up,” I admitted.

Gio reached out, put his hand on the back of my neck and started to rub the knots he found there, working the tension out with skilled thumbs and fingers.

“It certainly is. I imagine he will go straight to Bianca after what’s happened. Means she won’t be too eager to meet with me any time soon.” He sighed. “The idea that I might actually be a father to that woman’s baby is making my stomach tight.” He winced.

“We have to find out if the baby is yours though. Sooner rather than later. Maybe instead of talking to her, we go through the lawyers. It seems safer. We also need to figure out what the heck we’re going to do about work. The longer all of us sit around with our thumbs up our assess, the more work builds up, the more clients we lose.”

Gio let out a long, haggard sounding breath. “Honestly, Jules, I’ll follow your lead on how you want to handle this. Hell,I’m happy to sign over my half of the company to you if it makes things easier,” he offered.

I lifted my head and stared into his tired eyes. “You’re really generous, you know that?”

He groaned and raked his hands through his hair. “No, I’m not. I just don’t want to fight with my ex and your brother. These are people I thought would be my family and have my back, throughout the rest of my life. When we lost our parents, I clung to that gift. Saw it as a blessing that I had a woman who loved me, and a best friend I’d do anything for. And both of them betrayed me.”

I sat up and my bottom lip started to tremble. The sorrow in his eyes, in his verysoul, matched my own.

Gio cupped my cheek. “Julianne, you’re the only person in the entire world I can trust. The only person I love, who I know loves me back. And I know the romantic part of our relationship is new, but I have pined for you for years. Marrying you, making love to you…it’s more than I could have ever hoped for.” He swallowed and cleared his throat.

“Gio,” I breathed, feeling every ounce of his pain.

“I love you, Julianne. I have always loved you. I loved you when we were kids, and I loved you from afar as business partners.” He leaned forward, pressed his forehead to mine and traced my bottom lip with his thumb. “And I love you now. I don’t want anything to get between what we’re building and what we’ve already shared. As a matter of fact, I won’t let it. Brenden and Bianca don’t get to have this. They don’t get to steal what we’ve found. Does that make any sense?” His question was tortured, ripped straight from his still beating heart.

I curled my hands around his face, threading my fingers through his hair. “It makes perfect sense. Because I’ve been in love with you since we were kids too. That kiss on the dock was a dream come true for me. And even then, Brenden got betweenus. Even freakin’ then. And now…” I let the words fall away as I took a weighted breath. “Now I’m more in love with you than I ever thought possible. I don’t want this baby to be yours because I want to be the only one having your children. I don’t want to lose any part of you toher, or to him. I’m tired of going without.”

“Jules, you’ll never be without me ever again,” he swore, dipping his lips so he could take mine in a long, reaffirming kiss. “I love you. I’m not going to let them or anyone else get between us. You have my word. We’ll figure this out, and you know what? Down the road, we’ll be better for it.”

I chuckled and wiped at my nose and eyes with the back of my hand as the tears fell. “It’s not going to be easy.”

“Nothing in life worth having is easy, Jules. You know that.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Why don’t we take a long bath together, order Chinese takeout, and push all of this to handle tomorrow?”

“That sounds heavenly.” I was already imagining the heat of the water soothing the rest of the tension from my body, then possibly making love to my husband and falling asleep on his mighty chest. Yeah, heavenly fits.

Gio stood up and held out his hand.

I clasped it and let him help me up. Arm and arm we walked back to my bedroom.

No,ourbedroom.

Gio let me go and kicked off his shoes and pulled his shirt over his head, standing before me bare-chested and sculpted like a Greek god.

“Take a picture, it will last longer,” he teased.

“Oh, I plan to. Many, many, many pics for the spank bank when one of us is traveling for business purposes,” I teased.

“Filthy girl.” He grinned wickedly. Just hearing him call me that name sent a lightening burst of arousal racing through my veins.

My phone started to ring, and I glared at it on the nightstand as if it were a living breathing monster come to life.

“Ignore it,” Giovanni suggested.

I walked over and glanced at the display. “It’s my lawyer. It could be important.”

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