Page 20 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

‘So?’ She lifted her shoulders. ‘That’s no guarantee that any new owner would keep me in the role—it’s important to my father that a Marini remains in the company. Besides, it’s about more than the business.’ She frowned, trailing off, not answering his question.

She’d misunderstood him anyway, but he was glad, because he didn’t want to put any more blame at her feet. He wasn’t in the mood.

‘I meant what I said, Mia.’ He moved closer to her again, pulling her against his body, linking his hands in the small of her back. ‘I didn’t bring you here to argue over what happened then. As far as I’m concerned, that was then, this is now, and now, this, is what I’m interested in.’

She swallowed, her throat shifting. ‘You mean sex?’

His eyes bored into hers. He didn’t particularly like her description and yet, wasn’t it the most accurate?

‘Sure. Sex. Why not?’

‘Because I’m engaged?’

He hadn’t forgotten about Lorenzo, exactly, but Mia’s fiancé was a thousand miles away from what Luca wanted to contemplate. When she lifted her hand to show him the sparkling diamond ring she wore, something strange filtered through him. He didn’t want to see it. He knew she was planning to marry another man, someone else she didn’t know, and didn’t care for, but, for some reason, he didn’t want it thrown in his face.

‘And is marrying Lorenzo di Angelo really what you want with your life?’

She blinked up at him as though he’d sprouted three heads, and then she made a strange noise, dropping her head into her hands and laughing silently for a moment. Luca’s heart squeezed tight.

‘What I want doesn’t matter. It’s what has to happen,’ she said, but through a sad, awful smile that pulled at his insides and made them hurt. She knew how bad their finances were, despite what she was trying to claim to him, that much was abundantly clear. Why else would she feel such a sense of obligation? This was the only way to save her parents from destitution.

‘You are a free woman, Mia. You can do what you want.’

She lifted a brow. ‘Says the man who kidnapped me?’

He ignored her accusation and the accompanying jab of guilt. ‘Why must you marry him? This is the twenty-first century.’

‘Yes, and I’m the overprotected only child of a very old, proud Sicilian family.’ She shook her head. ‘You couldn’t possibly understand.’

A muscle jerked in his jaw as he tried not to let her throwaway rejoinder dig beneath his skin. ‘Because of how I was raised?’

She furrowed her brow, shaking her head, looking confused, so he’d clearly read too much into her comment. ‘No. Because you’re not me. You don’t know what it’s like growing up as I did.’ She bit down on her lip. ‘My duty—and obligation—is to make them happy. It’s the least I can do. Marrying Lorenzo will do that.’ Her eyes were swirling with angst. He analysed her words, her statement—she would do anything her parents asked of her. Lie for them? Con him? ‘It will fix everything that broke on our wedding day. I have to do this.’

The world tilted sideways, and his brain power, all of it, homed in on her final statement. He’d had no idea the ramifications of his rejection would be so intense for Mia. He’d thought her very much a part of the scheme to dupe him, but what if she hadn’t been? What if she’d been innocently, blithely going along with her parents’ plans and when those plans had fallen through, she’d been blamed?

‘They cannot have thought it was your fault.’

Her eyes swept shut. She was pushing him away. His hands were clasped behind her back, he pulled them now, jerking her against him, demanding with his body that she face him, and this, head-on.

‘They never said as much,’ she admitted. ‘But I felt it. I know how devastated they were, how completely blindsided we all were. Whatever you may think, my dad clearly had no idea you wouldn’t go through with the wedding.’

‘Then he’s a fool.’

She blinked at him with consternation. Belatedly, he remembered what he’d said, about not discussing the past. He tried to pull the censure back from his tone, to focus on the present, and the future, but, in the back of his mind, how could he not dissect what she’d said? Mia had been a part of the deal he’d resented at first, but he’d wanted the company enough to go along with it. But then, as they’d spent time together, he’d been struck by how much he wanted her, by how drugging her company was. Which had made him even angrier when he’d learned the truth. If they’d shared no chemistry, if he hadn’t been prepared to ignore his usual caution with relationships and jump into bed—and marriage—with her, maybe he would have cared less? But Mia had wronged him and he’d hated that. It had all seemed so right at the time but now he wasn’t so sure, and Luca hated being uncertain about anything, least of all his decisions.

‘So you’re marrying Lorenzo to redeem yourself, in their eyes?’

‘People get married for all sorts of reasons,’ she said with quiet pride.

‘Love is generally the most common.’

‘Thisisabout love,’ she murmured, and he was very still, because that changed everything. Was he wrong about their relationship? Had she fallen in love with the other man? Were they actually a couple? Infidelity was not something Luca had any interest in, being, as he was, the by-product of a messy affair. ‘Love for my parents,’ she continued unevenly, eyes not meeting his. ‘They’re far from perfect, I know that, but they chose to adopt me, to raise me as their own, to give me every advantage they could in life. They’re not perfect, but I care about them, I’m grateful to them, and I want—’

She broke off, eyes troubled when they lifted to his. She was nervous, not sure how to finish what she wanted to say, but he needed to hear it, because it seemed important, and he wanted to hear all her secrets, even when he could guess the conclusion to that. She loved her parents enough to do anything for them. Even commit criminal fraud. It hardened his voice, just a little. ‘Yes?’

‘I want them to be proud of me,’ she finished softly, closing her eyes again, and then his heart seemed to split in two. He went from sitting in judgement of her to pitying her and hating her parents more than he already did. That they weren’t already proud of her made him despise her parents more than previously, which was saying something.

‘But it’s more than that.’ Her voice continued, and there was renewed strength in it, determination. ‘I want freedom from them, too. My parents show love by exerting control. I’m twenty-three and they treat me like I’m a teenager. When I’m married, I’ll move out. I’ll have my own home, my own life, my own family.’ She shrugged. ‘Those seem like pretty good reasons to get married—even to someone I barely know. Don’t you think?’

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