Page 22 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

‘At the time, I wanted your father’s business.’

‘Enough to marry me?’

He moved between her legs, and now, when their eyes locked, sparks flooded her blood. ‘I wanted his business more than almost anything in the world.’

Her eyes swept shut. ‘I see. So what changed?’

He didn’t answer the question. ‘About ten years earlier, my father had tried to purchase it,’ he admitted, voice rough. ‘He failed. Your father wouldn’t sell. My father was...displeased. He takes all corporate losses seriously. I enjoyed the prospect of succeeding where he’d failed.’ He confessed the truth without a hint of apology.

Mia considered that carefully. ‘You don’t get on with your father?’

Luca’s lips twisted into that now-familiar mocking smile. ‘No.’

She shivered involuntarily but before she could probe further, Luca changed the subject. ‘Prior to your father proposing the term, I had no intention of marrying, Mia. I have never wanted a wife.’

‘So why did you agree to it?’

He eyed her carefully, probing, and then shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Because I met you,’ he answered after a beat. Her heart stammered. Was this the truth?

‘And I was intrigued.’

He lifted a hand, trailed water over her thigh. She shivered. ‘Do you remember that evening?’

She bit into her lip. ‘Dinner with my parents? Of course I do.’ She remembered everything about it, from Luca’s late arrival, his arrogant features, but then...he’d looked at her and time had seemed to stand still. When he’d held out his hand to shake hers, Mia had felt as though everything was falling into place. She was no longer afraid of the proposed wedding. She was no longer anxious about the future. There was something about him she’d instantly trusted and liked. And the desire that had overheated her insides hadn’t hurt.

Had he felt it too?

‘You were so beautiful, and so enigmatic. Your mother spoke all evening. Even when I asked you a question, she answered, so I found myself quite desperate to get you alone.’

Mia made a sound of surprise.

‘But I couldn’t; not then. I felt as though they were keeping me away from you on purpose, to make me mad with desire, so that I would agree to almost anything to marry you.’

‘As if,’ she said with a roll of her eyes. ‘No one in my family has that inflated view of my abilities to appeal.’

His brow lifted cynically. ‘I have spent the last year believing you played your part to perfection, but now...’

‘Now?’ she asked, breathlessly, leaning forward unconsciously.

‘I think I was wrong. About you,’ he clarified quickly, letting his fingers drop to her skin above her knee, then lower, to her calf.

Pleasure swirled inside her, but Mia tried not to let it alter her resolve. Whatever he’d felt, he’d had no right to simply disappear from their wedding day.

‘What did you imagine our marriage would have been like, Mia?’

She hesitated a moment. ‘I—I’m not sure.’ She didn’t want to admit to the fantasies she’d allowed to run rampant through her mind. ‘I didn’t really think about that.’

‘You agreed to marry me,’ he pointed out quietly. ‘So what would you havewantedthat marriage to look like?’

‘I’ve told you what I wanted,’ she murmured. ‘To make my parents proud. To escape. To gain a degree of independence.’

‘And from your husband? Simply a roof over your head?’

She still wouldn’t look at him, and Luca, using those powerful arms, pulled out of the water to sit beside her, dripping wet. He’d placed himself directly in her line of sight, his face only an inch from hers. The water droplets beaded across his face. She ached to reach out and lick them.

It made her mouth dry and her cheeks heat.

‘Mia?’ He caught her chin, lifting her face, holding her gaze locked to his.

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