Page 34 of Bound by a One-Night Vow

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ANDREA DIDN’T BELIEVE IT. Refused to believe it. How could she walk away from her inheritance? How could she walk away from more money than most people saw in ten lifetimes?

How could she walk away from him?

His feelings were as raw as when he’d been a kid of fourteen, kicked to the kerb as if he was worth nothing. It freaked him out how similar the feelings were. Feelings he had spent a lifetime avoiding. He’d taught himself not to need people because he didn’t want to feel like this.

Empty.

Blindsided.

Gutted.

He’d barely been able to speak to Izzy without betraying how shocked and disappointed he felt. He hadn’t seen it coming. She couldn’t have picked a worse time to drop that on him. He hadn’t been prepared for her sudden bombshell. He’d fooled himself she wouldn’t jeopardise her inheritance. Fooled himself that what they had together was...was what? More lasting?

No.

He didn’t do forever. It wasn’t on his radar. Short-term and simple was his credo. He had made no promises. He had made it clear right from the start he didn’t want the complication of a long-term relationship. He accepted that it worked for other people but he didn’t want it for himself. How could he when he had seen first-hand—felt first-hand—the blunt blow of rejection?

What was Izzy thinking? She had too much at stake to pull out now. They were only two weeks into their marriage. They had months left. Months and months he’d been looking forward to far more than he should. He’d known it was dangerous to get close to her. Known it and done it anyway, and now she had walked away. Thrown him over for what? She couldn’t inherit without him.

She was calling his bluff—that was what this was. How could it be anything else? It was an attention-seeking tantrum to make him confess something he hadn’t confessed to anyone and never would. The wedding had got to her. It was a grand and romantic affair that would have got to anyone. Even he’d felt a twinge or two of envy over Patrizio and Elena’s commitment to each other.

But that didn’t mean he wanted it for himself. He was happy with how things were. He and Izzy had been getting on so well. Their relationship was working the way he’d hoped it would—mutually satisfying, exciting and passionate.

And close...

Yes, well, that was the problem right there, wasn’t it? He’d allowed her too close. Way too close. He’d been blinded by the intimacies they’d shared, not just the physical but the emotional. He had got to know her, the real Izzy, not the wild child façade she put on as a form of armour. Getting close to her, knowing her more deeply, had brought out the protector in him. She was the first woman he’d allowed close enough to stir that in him. Close enough to see his pain and shame over his troubled past.

But would she go through with her threat to walk away? There was no way she would walk out on him in the middle of his colleague’s wedding. She knew how much was at stake, and not just for him but also for her. Was this her way of exacting revenge? Was that what she was doing? Making him pay for forcing her into marriage? But that didn’t fit well with his new understanding of her. She wasn’t a brash pay-you-back type. She was impulsive and feisty and, yes, a little sensitive and emotional, but those were the things he’d come to admire about her.

He’d thought they were getting on just fine. He’d thought their relationship was going exactly the way he’d wanted it to. They enjoyed each other’s company. They were good together. Better than good—amazing. They’d shared the best sex he’d ever had and he’d looked forward to it continuing for another few months.

Anger coiled in his belly, tight and terrible anger mixed up in a toxic stew of disappointment and an even more disquieting sense of dismay. He was not the sort of man to feel dismayed or distraught. He hadn’t felt like that since he was a teenager without a home, without a family.

Without anyone.

He never allowed anyone the opportunity to hurt him the way he’d been hurt back then. Izzy was probably still feeling a little hormonal. She would cool off in an hour or so and realise what was at stake for her and rethink her decision. By the time he got back to their hotel tonight she would be tucked up in bed and waiting for him.

He was counting on it.

* * *

Izzy only stayed at Andrea’s hotel long enough to collect her passport and her overnight bag. She booked an early-morning flight back to London and moved into another hotel so she wouldn’t encounter Andrea. How could she spend another night with him, knowing he didn’t love her? Would never love her? Refused to love her? As much as she wanted him, it would be emotional suicide to continue to sleep with him. Even if he came back now and said he loved her, how could she be sure he wasn’t pretending? Hadn’t she heard her father say it numerous times without once meaning it?

Izzy barely slept that night and got to the airport early and boarded her flight with her heart so heavy she wondered if she would be charged an excess baggage fee. London greeted her with rain and dismal skies and when she called her flatmate, Jess, she found her room had been rented out to someone else.

‘I’m so sorry, Izzy, but I thought you weren’t coming back,’ Jess said. ‘What’s happened? Where’s Andrea?’

‘We’re not together any more,’ Izzy said. ‘I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have married him. He doesn’t love me.’

‘Do you love him?’ Jess’s voice was soft with concern.

Izzy bit her lip to stop it from trembling. ‘I’m an idiot for falling for someone like him. I don’t know how it happened. One minute I hated him and the next...’

‘But what will you do now? Doesn’t this mean you lose your inheritance if you break up before the six months?’

‘I don’t care about the money,’ Izzy said. ‘Well, only a little bit.’

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