Page 31 of Expecting His Billion-Dollar Scandal
Their marriage might not be what she had had in mind for herself but, then again, neither had she ever contemplated the prospect of a pregnancy she hadn’t planned and, while Luca might not love her, he had been prepared to sacrifice the direction of his own life to accommodate a situation that would have hit him as hard as it had hit her. That spoke volumes. That was enough because it would have to be enough.
She just couldn’t deny their baby the huge advantages of inheriting a lineage that was rightfully his.
Step one would be to accept the path she had chosen without fuss. She wouldn’t argue about everything and she wouldn’t look further than what Luca could put on the table. She would also stop thinking about the woman he had walked away from, speculating on what he might or might not have felt for her, on what she might or might not look like.
Her future was starting this very moment and glancing over her shoulder wasn’t going to do.
‘You worried me when you told me that you’d asked Roberto to stop on the way here,’ he opened, getting down to business straight away but unable to overlook the tug at his groin when he looked at her. Luca had never had a problem when it came to women and moving on, and he absently wondered whether the fact that she was pregnant with his child somehow accounted for the ongoing effect she seemed to be having on him.
‘I’m sorry,’ Cordelia parried stiffly as she sat on the chair next to him and facing out onto the square, which was great because it meant she didn’t have to look at him, which was a disaster zone for her when it came to thinking clearly. ‘I couldn’t resist. I’ve never travelled abroad. It was all too much.’ That admission of just how wildly different their worlds were brought a tinge of colour to her cheeks. ‘If we’re going to be late for...for whatever it is that you’ve arranged, then perhaps we should leave now.’
‘They’ll wait.’ Luca shrugged. ‘I thought all women enjoyed shopping and having things bought for them. You’re acting as though I’m punishing you by getting you a new wardrobe. Whatever you want. You name it and it’s yours.’
‘We’re so different, you and I,’ Cordelia couldn’t help but murmur, glancing across at him and then finding her gaze helplessly locked to his sharp, aristocratic profile.
‘We are,’ he agreed without hesitation. ‘You’re not going to start using our differences to return to the discussion about love and marriage, are you?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Good.’ He removed the sunglasses to dangle them on one finger and glanced sideways at her.
So different.
Yet she had taken the plunge and was about to enter a world she would never have envisaged for herself. She would be buffed, polished and primed for life in the luxury lane and he felt that she might be scared stiff at that unknown future ahead of her. It was one thing to talk about exploring different shores. It was quite different when you found yourself dumped on one of those shores with the signposts all in a foreign language, far from everything that might feel familiar.
‘This is going to work,’ he told her firmly, voice low, waving aside a hovering waiter and standing because there was a lot to do.
‘You can’t say that.’
‘Of course I can. I intend to be an excellent father and an excellent husband.’
‘You don’t love me.’
Luca cupped her elbow so that he could usher her into the square, away from the café and towards a corner in which was nestled an array of high-end shops, all peeking out from their grand façades of weathered, ochre-coloured brick.
‘I will, however, respect you as the mother of my child. Likewise, you will find me a faithful husband.’
Looking at him, Cordelia sighed at the confident, cocky smile he shot her. God, he was so different from her yet he got to her in ways no one else could.
‘That’s another sweeping statement,’ she murmured, although she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that some of her darkest doubts were being addressed.
Not love, but fidelity. It was an exchange that would have to do. Many unhappy relationships ended up with far less.
‘I’ve never approved of my father’s search for love,’ Luca confessed as they strolled towards the small but exquisite boutique with which he was vaguely familiar. ‘He loved once and when that was prematurely ripped away from him, he thought that he could replace it. Love was always just round the corner. Marriage always followed and heartbreak was always the eventual outcome. Not to mention vast drops in the family coffers thanks to greedy exes and expensive lawyers. A wise man can avoid all of that nonsense by making sure he doesn’t start picturing a life of happy-ever-afters. So if I’m cynical about the therapeutic powers of love, then I have every reason to be so. That said...’ He paused and looked at her with a frown. He was still dangling the sunglasses but now he stuck them on and she shielded her eyes from the bright glare of the sun.
‘That said...?’ Cordelia prompted.
‘That said,’ he drawled, shaking himself free from whatever weird hold she’d temporarily exercised on him with those gently questioning, impossibly blue eyes, ‘he was always a great believer in the value of monogamy.’
‘That’s important.’ Cordelia fell into step with him as he moved off, heading towards the far corner of thepiazza.
Luca laughed under his breath. ‘His values were always in the right place. It was his heart that couldn’t stop hiving off in all sorts of undesirable directions. We’re here. Clothes and whatever else you might see that takes your fancy. You’ll need everything from shoes to bags to jewellery. Then my PA has arranged for you to hit one of the beauty salons around here. I have the address.’
‘It’s a comprehensive overhaul.’ Cordelia valiantly tried to laugh that off rather than see it as some kind of implied insult.
‘You’ll thank me for it in the long run. I have an important charity gala to attend in a couple of weeks and you will be on my arm as my wife-to-be.’
Sudden nerves plucked at Cordelia’s tummy and she spun round to stride in front of him, stopping him from marching onwards by dint of placing her hand on his chest.
