Page 59 of The Tycoon's Shock Heir

‘Great—of course I can. That’s amazing,’ he said, looking at the retreating back of Ruby, at the long ponytail defining the perfect symmetry of her perfect body.

Her posture was graceful and proud in every movement. She smiled as she handed her passport to the ground crew, and her eyes, as they flicked to him, held that secret dark promise that he still couldn’t read.

And he was going to marry her. He was going to marry that woman because he damned well wanted to have her in his life. He wanted to be with her. It made him feel good. It made him feel happy and hopeful and as if there was a point to life.

Things were coming together. A beautiful, perfect fit. He was going to pull this off. He was going to be a father.

He was going to be a husband.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THERE WASN’T A sound when Ruby woke for the third time, alone in the antique brass bed, swaddled in the finest cream linen sheets. She’d barely slept, but already the brightening tones of morning were pushing against the windows and seeping in through the heavy drapes. She reached an arm out to check the time on her phone. Six a.m. Five hours to go.

Five hours until her life changed irrevocably—though hadn’t it changed already? Hadn’t it changed the moment she’d put on that red dress, opened that bottle of beer and shared the story of Rumi’s poetry on that flight from Rome to London with the most wonderful man in the world? There was no going back from that moment—because that was when she had fallen completely and hopelessly in love with him.

Nothing else and no one else would ever have induced her to step from her path—her blinkered, stubborn path that had been going nowhere other than forward into loneliness. But at least then she had known every step—she had been sure where her foot would land, where her path would eventually lead.

Now she was on some slippery path, in a changing landscape that made her feel giddy with excitement one minute and sick with dread the next. So she was marrying him—she was going to do the one thing that Lady Faye had wanted more than anything else. But they weren’t marrying for love. They were marrying for the sake of a baby. And a bank.

She traced the patterns on the ceiling with her eyes. The ceiling of the room that from here on forward would be her bedroom in Rome. In a house that she would never have been able to afford as a dancer—even as the prima ballerina in one of the world’s best companies. Even as a director...

From along the hallway the noises of the day started to sound. Unfamiliar voices were talking in an unfamiliar language. They hadn’t seen a soul last night when they’d arrived at his home. The flight had been short but the dinner with Matteo’s clients had been long—delicious, but long—and despite his apologies, and his thanks for agreeing to the last-minute change of plan, she’d felt exhausted when he’d finally slid the key in the lock of his Roman villa and they’d quietly made their way to bed.

He’d made love to her. Romantically, passionately, adoringly. And then he’d slipped off to another room for the sake of tradition—as if their marriage was somehow real. As if she was going to have something old and new, borrowed and blue too. And a father to give her away, a mother to weep, and bridesmaids to throw her bouquet to. And a happily-ever-after.

The wincing pain of self-pity cut at her, making her crush her eyes closed. Because even though she’d been in denial about her deepest wishes, now that they were finally coming true she wanted even more.

But she was here in Rome, healthy and comfortable and with more choices than she’d ever had before in her life. She could work, rest, have the baby, then go back to work, back to dance.

The only thing she couldn’t do was make Matteo love her. Or make him love himself.

There was another noise now—closer, outside the door.

‘Prendo che. I’ll take that.’

She strained to listen and had just figured out that it was Coral Rossini’s voice when the door was opened and in came the lady herself, carrying a tray.

Ruby sat bolt-upright, totally shocked by the interruption. She’d known she would have to see her new mother-in-law at some point—but now? Like this...?

‘Good morning, Ruby!’ She came right into the room, put the tray down and opened first one set of curtains, then the other. ‘Sleep well?’

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