Page 29 of Expecting His Billion-Dollar Scandal
Her heartbeat sped up and she gulped.
‘And maybe,’ he continued quietly, ‘Iama little old-fashioned when it comes to family. Maybe it’s beyond the pale to see duty and responsibility as things to be worn proudly on one’s shoulders. Yes, I have sometimes yearned to be free to do whatever I want to do but, mostly, I have been content and proud of my heritage and my legacy. Is that a bad thing?’
Luca allowed the rhetorical question to hover in the silence between them.
‘I will love our child with everything in me. I will protect him from every sling of every arrow and he, I feel, will learn to love his inheritance the way I have. You tell me that you can’t consider marriage without love. Love you may not have, but respect you will, and in abundance.’
But he would never love her. He had just confirmed that, in case she started getting any ideas. She could see the way his brain was working. But was the search for love, if it ever happened anyway, enough to compensate for their child being torn apart from a father who dearly wanted him?
And what aboutherfeelings for Luca? They ran deep. Deeper than he could ever imagine and it was no use pretending otherwise. Who would catch her when she was falling hard for a guy who wasn’t going to be truly emotionally available to her? The balancing act between her head and her heart made her dizzy.
‘And think of that one thing you’ve always wanted, Cordelia. To see the world. That would be what our child would have were we to marry. There would be no corner of the globe left unexplored. Great wealth, I’m driven to say, can buy travel to the four corners of the world...’
‘I... I’ll think about it,’ Cordelia said helplessly, knowing that he had struck below the belt but unable to resist the glorious image of planes and ships and foreign lands and her child—theirchild—being exposed to all the adventure that went along with that, adventures she had never had.
‘Say yes,’ Luca urged, leaning forward and taking her fingers in his hand, an absent gesture that made her skin tingle with forbidden pleasure.
‘But surely you would eventually resent me? Resent the fact that I had stopped you from marrying Isabella?’
‘You haven’t stopped me from doing anything,’ Luca murmured. ‘This decision is my choice. How could I resent you, that being the case? Say yes and here is what will happen next. I will tell Isabella and her family. Tomorrow. And then we will get your father over, tell him face to face. Together. But not just yet. In the meanwhile, I will show you my land, show you my country, show you...what our child will enjoy. What do you say,mi tesoro?’
Caught on the horns of a dilemma, she breathed in deeply and sank into the earnest intent in his eyes.
‘Okay. I’ll say yes—even though...’
‘Shh.’ He placed his finger over her mouth. ‘Yes is enough. No need to qualify it.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEFOLLOWINGDAYLuca had had his chauffeur drive him the lengthy three-hour round trip to Isabella’s parents, where he’d presented the situation as afait accompli, no questions asked, no room for manoeuvre.
He had sat in a living room as grand and as formal as his own, where he had been served delicate morsels and strong coffee in china cups and watched his hosts’ disappointment as he’d broken the news. There had been no formal engagement but, between families, the unspoken understanding had been almost as strong, and, while they had politely congratulated him on a marriage no one had foreseen, they could scarcely contain the fact that they had been badly let down.
‘It would have been so good for Isabella,’ Maria, her mother, had said, shooting a glance at her husband, who had looked away. ‘She...’
‘Maria!’ Alberto had said sharply. ‘We do not need to trouble Luca with our regrets. It is as it is. Naturally, we will continue to work harmoniously together. Our great wines benefit from this close relationship, not to mention the other avenues for development that are in the making.’ At which point he had ushered Luca to the cellar where he had shown him his addition of rare reds to the collection he already had.
Both Maria and Alberto were far too well bred to show any emotion and neither had he. It was as it was.
He was more concerned about Isabella. This marriage would have suited her but maybe, he’d thought, on his way back to his villa, it was fate. Perhaps she needed to find the courage to tell her parents about her sexuality instead of trying to hide behind a façade of a happy marriage.
He had, in fact, spoken to Isabella at length on the telephone on the way to her parents’. A face-to-face meeting was out of the question as she was holidaying with friends on the Riviera. He had smiled wryly at the relief in her voice when he had broken the news of his upcoming marriage to Cordelia. Let off the hook for the time being. Her congratulations had been sincere and heartfelt and when he had hung up, it had flashed through his head that neither Isabella nor Cordelia were what might be considered orthodox candidates for walking up the aisle.
One was relieved not to be doing so and the other was doing so only because all alternative exits had been barred. Money, it had to be said, definitely didn’t buy love. Just as well, considering it wasn’t something he was looking for.
That job over, here he was now, at ten the following morning, waiting at a chic café in the stunning city of Siena. He’d returned late the previous night to find Cordelia dead to the world in one of the guest bedrooms. He had left orders for her to be given whatever she wanted for breakfast and, at a little after six in the morning, he had taken himself off to his head office, where he had powered through key emails and filled various CEOs in on what might prove a temporarily disjointed work schedule.
A makeover for his reluctant wife-to-be was on the cards.
Then, once they were back at his house, a jeweller would be personally escorted on Luca’s private plane so that a ring could be chosen.
She had taken some persuading to agree to marry him and he wasn’t going to sit on his hands and hope she didn’t change her mind. Speed was of the essence and he intended to put his foot on the accelerator until she was bound to him, with all i’sdotted and t’scrossed.
Woolly nonsense about love not being on the agenda was not going to be a spoke in any revolving wheels.
His father had offered to return to Tuscany immediately so that he could meet the lucky bride and Luca had only just managed to dissuade him, pointing out that it would be far better to wait a couple of weeks until she was fully settled before bombarding her with yet more stuff to confuse her.
‘She’s from another...er...’ Luca had thought of her, her sinewy, purposeful body, her lightly freckled face bare of make-up, her hair hanging down her back in a riot of tangled curls, and the wordplanethadsprung to mind.
