Page 35 of On His Bride's Terms

The truth was she was happy to see him, and she was too surprised to fight it.

‘Do you get a kick out of surprising people?’ she asked.

Primo took a sip of the wine a waiter had just poured for him. ‘Can’t say that anyone has ever inspired me to want to surprise them before...it’s uniquely you.’

She shook her head. ‘How did you even—?’

‘Once the organisers knew that I was your husband they were aghast that I hadn’t been included in the invitation, and were only too happy to accommodate me at short notice.’

‘What about your meetings in New York?’

‘Moved them. Quite easy to do when you’re the owner and CEO of the company.’

Everyone else around them faded away. Faye felt something inside her weaken. Maybe it would be okay to indulge in this...this crazy honeymoon period, or whatever it was, between them. She felt something bubbling up inside her—a lightness she couldn’t repress. And then a smile broke across her face at the fact that Primo had come all the way to Dublin to surprise her.

Primo drew back, as if shocked, and put a hand to his chest. ‘Could that really be a smile?’

Faye made a face then, and picked up a small bread roll as if to throw it at him. But her smile didn’t fade.

After the lavish dinner, Faye and Primo walked the short distance from Dublin Castle back to her hotel on the banks of the River Liffey. He held her hand and she shamelessly luxuriated in the tactility that she was beginning to trust more and more.

She pushed away the voices warning her to be careful.

Dublin was a young, vibrant city, and people spilled out of bars and cafés enjoying the unseasonably warm spring weather.

A few people stopped and did a double-take at seeing Primo in his tuxedo, and Faye couldn’t blame them. He’d opened his bow-tie and the top button of his shirt, and he looked as if he might have stepped off the cover of a book, with his dark golden hair and near-perfect features.

They passed a buzzing gay bar and Faye heard one man say to another sorrowfully, ‘All the gorgeous ones are straight.’

She couldn’t hold back a small laugh.

Primo said, ‘Careful, if the wind changes you might stay like that.’

Still smiling, Faye said, ‘My wee Scottish granny used to say that. Except she was a long way from her actual Scottish roots.’

‘Do you ever go back there?’

She shook her head. ‘No, we really have no links to the place any more—apart from family stories and some very distant relatives. Although I did manage to do a semester at Edinburgh University, which I adored.’

They were at the hotel now, and Primo picked up the key. One key.

Faye looked at him and he said, ‘I upgraded you—us—to the penthouse suite.’

She guessed Mark, her assistant, must have told Primo where she was staying. She had half a mind to resist Primo’s all too magnetic pull, but that would have taken a strength she couldn’t currently muster.

‘Okay.’

They took the elevator to the top floor, its doors opening into a corridor with a room at the end. The suite was spacious, and decorated with lots of wood and elegant soft furnishings. A balcony ran along the outside of the living space, overlooking the river.

Faye heard the sound of a cork popping and watched Primo pour two glasses of champagne, bringing one to her where she stood on the balcony.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured, still a little overwhelmed that he was here. She said, ‘You didn’t have to come all the way here. We’ll both be back in Manhattan next week. We have that function in Boston.’

Primo rested on an elbow beside her and looked at her. ‘You don’t get it, do you? I want you, Faye... I haven’t wanted anyone like this in a long time. I find you exciting—and that doesn’t happen very often for me either. The fact that we’re married... I’d still want you even if we weren’t.’

‘You’re saying this could have been just an affair?’ Faye said, almost hopefully.

Primo shook his head. ‘I’m glad it’s not. I think marrying you is one of the smartest things I’ve done in a long time.’

---