Page 24 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

His response was to bring his wet, beautiful body over hers and kiss her senseless, until white-hot need drove them inside, to his bedroom, and the essential supply of contraceptives he kept there. But Mia, by then, was too saturated in pleasure to care.

‘You’re not safe, Luca. You’re not good for me.’

Her words played over and over in his mind like an awful song he couldn’t switch off. Back at home in Palermo, he heard her voice, the sad yet determined tone, and wanted to reach out and kiss her again, to kiss away that pain and, indeed, the entire sentiment.

Luca had no fantasy of being any woman’s saviour. He’d assiduously avoided relationships, rarely got involved with the opposite sex. He dated, from time to time, but he was always careful to manage expectations. His mother had driven that lesson into him. Not by anything she’d said directly, but whenever she’d refer to his father, it was always with that wistful, lovelorn look in her eyes, so Luca had grown up understanding the truth: she’d loved Luca’s father, he hadn’t loved her back. He hadn’t wanted any part of their family, because he’d already had a family of his own. A family who could never know the truth. And so Luca’s mother had moved them down to Sicily, where she had family, in an attempt to hide Luca away, and Luca had grown up understanding more than any little boy should ever have to.

While he had no fantasy of becoming Mia’s knight in shining armour, nor did he want to be her villain.

Somewhere along the way, he’d promised himself he would never be like his father, leaving a string of broken hearts in his wake. He’d promised himself he would act according to his strict moral code, a black and white system of right and wrong, and he had. Even his departure from Italy had, at the time, met that criteria:an eye for an eye.

He had no doubt Mia’s parents had been scamming him. The business figures were fraudulent. They’d lied to make Marini Enterprises appear far more profitable than it was, and perhaps they’d been hoping he’d be so fascinated by the silent, enigmatic, beautiful Mia that he wouldn’t notice—or care. He’d naturally presumed she’d been a part of the deception.

And if she hadn’t?

Notif. He knew she hadn’t.

Mia just wasn’t capable of that kind of deceit. She was all that was decent and good. Which meant her parents had used her, too. Perhaps out of love, out of a desire to see her taken care of, as she’d said. Or maybe it was more sinister?

Either way, on the eve of his wedding, he’d taken great satisfaction in leaving the country without an explanation. But now, a year later, her words were a form of torture because they forced him to reckon with the fact he’d made a mistake. He’d acted out of his unfailing black and white morality but he’d been wrong. Whatever trouble her parents’ business was in, whatever means they were using in order to sell it without disclosing the true financial situation, Mia wasn’t complicit in that and never had been. She’d agreed to marry first him and now Lorenzo out of a sense of love for her parents, and a duty to them that was completely unreasonable, and he’d only made everything worse for her.

But could he see her again—as he desperately wanted to—without hurting her? Could he do this and protect her? Luca knew he had nothing to offer Mia long term. He wasn’t interested in a real relationship, and marriage wasn’t on his radar. Children were unequivocally off the table. So in going to Mia, he had to make sure he didn’t do anything that would jeopardise her plans, that would make life more difficult for her than it already was. What she did with herself next wasn’t Luca’s concern—he wanted her in the here and now, but Mia’s future was her own to plan for.

‘You can’t be here.’ It was one of those instances where her words were at complete odds with her feelings. She was scandalised and terrified, but also exhilarated. Luca appearing in her office was both incredibly stupid and...everything she’d been wanting, since coming back from San Vito Lo Capo two days earlier, feeling as though she were missing a limb.

‘You left me no choice,’ he responded with a sardonic drawl.

Heat bloomed in Mia’s cheeks as she moved quickly to the door of her office and closed it, swooshing down the venetian blinds. Everything felt smaller with him in this space. He stood with feet planted wide apart, so he was like a statue made of stone in the centre of the room, and she was torn between wanting to run towards him to embrace him, or to push him over.

Her fingers shook as adrenaline rushed through her body.

‘This is my office. My father works two doors down. He could haveseenyou.’

‘I waited until he left,’ Luca said, arms crossed over his chest.

She gaped. ‘Luca—’

His nostrils flared. ‘What we do with our time is our business.’

‘How do you do that?’

‘Do what?’

‘Make it all sound so easy,’ she said, pressing her fingertips to her forehead and then, as if it were a talisman, holding her hand towards him, displaying the large engagement ring she wore. ‘I’m getting married.’

Luca’s expression didn’t alter, his appearance didn’t change. ‘To a man you barely know and don’t care about.’

She let out a deranged half-laugh. ‘Yes. That’s true. But I amgetting marriedand you know why. And you’re—’

He moved closer, putting his hands on her cheeks, just like at the beach, so she felt safe and valued and calm even as a storm raged in her chest. ‘What am I?’

‘I am so angry at you,’ she said honestly, because she needed to cling to that. ‘For what you did a year ago. I can’t forgive it.’

His eyes held hers but they were impossible to read, despite the strength of their connection. ‘I’m not asking for your forgiveness.’

Of course he wasn’t. Luca wasn’t a man who cared for the good opinion of others. What did it matter to Luca Cavallaro how Mia felt about him? His sense of self was far too assured for her feelings to have any impact.

‘Then what are you asking for? What do you want from me?’ She lifted a hand to his chest. ‘What do you want from me?’ she repeated, groaning, because she’d been going crazy with wanting him and suddenly, she didn’t care about anything except the fact he was here and seemed to need her as she needed him.

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