Page 5 of His Innocent's Passionate Awakening

‘The way I see it, you don’t have any choice. You will lose the castello if you don’t agree to marry me.’

Artie ground her teeth and clenched her fists, anger flicking along her nerve endings like a power surge of electricity. It was all she could do not to slap him. She pictured herself doing it—landing her palm against his lean and chiselled jaw with a resounding slap. Imagining how his rougher skin would feel under the soft skin of her palm. Imagining how he might grasp her by the wrist and haul her closer and slam his mouth down on hers in a passionate kiss...

Eek! She shouldn’t have watched Gone with the Wind so many times.

She stretched out one arm and pointed her index finger towards the door. ‘Get. Out.’

Luca raised his long, lean, athletic frame from the sofa with leonine grace and came to stand in front of her. She fought not to step back, determined to show he didn’t intimidate her with his commanding, disturbing presence. Even though he did. Big time. She had to crane her neck to maintain eye-contact, and give her traitorous body a stern talking-to for reacting to his closeness with a hitch of her breath and an excited leap of her pulse.

‘I’ll give you twenty-four hours to consider my proposal.’

Artie raised her chin to a defiant height. ‘I’ve already considered it and flatly turned it down. I’ll give you the same answer tomorrow, so don’t waste your time or mine by coming back.’

His lazy smile ignited a light behind his eyes as if her refusal had thrilled rather than disappointed him. ‘You have a lot to lose, Signorina Bellante.’ He swung his gaze around the room before bringing it back to meet hers. ‘Are you sure you want to throw all this away for the sake of your pride?’

‘Pride has nothing to do with my decision. If and when I marry, it will be for love.’

The loud cackling of her conscience rang in Artie’s ears like clanging bells.

Marry for love? You? Who’s going to love you?

His eyes flicked to her mouth and lingered there for a heart-stopping moment. ‘You love this place, do you not? Your family’s home for how many centuries? If that’s not marrying for love, I don’t know what is.’ The deep, mellifluous tone of his voice had a mesmerising effect on her. She had to fight to stay focused on resisting him. It would be so easy to say yes. To have all her problems solved by agreeing to his plan—even if by doing so it threw up new ones. Dangerous ones. Exciting ones.

Artie pressed her lips together. ‘Of course I love it. It’s the only home I’ve ever known.’

The only home I can ever know.

His eyes meshed with hers. Dark, mysterious, unknowable. ‘If you don’t marry me, you will lose it. And I won’t lose a wink of sleep about taking it off you. Business is business. I don’t let emotions cloud the issue. Think about it, hmm?’

She tried to ignore the cynical gleam in his eyes. Tried to ignore the slippery eels of panic writhing in her belly. Tried not to think about her home being lost for ever. Of it being made into a plush hotel with strangers walking through every room, occupying every private space, every special corner made into a flashy showpiece instead of a private sanctuary where her most precious memories were housed. ‘You can’t force me out of my home. I have some rights, surely?’

‘Your father signed those over to me when he begged for my help.’

Artie raised her chin, summoning every bit of willpower she possessed to stand up to his monumental ego. ‘You came here expecting me to say yes, didn’t you? Does anyone ever say no to you?’

‘Not often.’ He reached inside his jacket pocket and took a velvet box and held it out to her in the middle of his palm. ‘This might help you come to a decision.’

Artie reared back from the box like it was a cockroach. ‘You think you can bribe me with diamonds?’

‘Not just diamonds.’ He flicked open the velvet box with his thumb and a glittering sapphire and diamond engagement ring winked at her. ‘Take it. Try it on for size.’

Artie brought her gaze back to his, her mouth tightly compressed. ‘No, thank you.’

There was a beat or two of silence.

Luca snapped the lid of the ring box closed and placed it on the coffee table. If she had offended him with her point-blank refusal then he didn’t show it in his expression.

‘I’ll be back for your decision tomorrow. Ciao.’

He gave a mock bow, and without another word he walked out of the salon, closing the door on his exit.

Artie let out a scalding breath, her body sagging with the aftershocks of too much cortisol racing through her system. She sat back on the sofa before she fell down, her legs shaking, her hands trembling, her mind whirling.

How could this be happening? It was like something out of a period drama. She was being blackmailed into marrying a man she didn’t know in order to save her home. What had her father been thinking to plant such a ridiculous idea in Luca Ferrantelli’s head? This was nothing but a business deal to Luca but it was her home that was on the line. And not just her home—her security. Her future. She would have nothing to fall back on if she didn’t have the castello.

It was her heritage.

Her birthright.

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