Page 37 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

‘Why?’ He prowled towards her but stopped on the other side of the desk, a strange echo of a time in their lives when their businesses had been destined to merge. Her heart crackled. How different it should have been...

‘Because we had an agreement.’

‘Agreements can be changed.’

She shook her head angrily—angry with herself for being secretly glad to see him, angry with him for arriving like this and skittling her common sense. ‘You promised me.’

‘So? I’m breaking it.’ Then, with an angry sigh, ‘Apparently that is a skill of mine.’

She flinched, because she didn’t like to hear him speaking that way about himself, and because she hated the truth of his words. She tried to remind herself that she had also thought she couldn’t trust him—wouldn’t trust him.

Her heart stammered, because even as she thought that, on a soul-deep level, her trust for him was intrinsic. Perhaps his being here showed why shecouldrely on him.

‘I need to see you.’

Need.

Yes, it was need. He needed her as she needed him. But it was lunacy. This thing with Luca had no future, they needed to end it.

‘We had a deal,’ she reminded him through gritted teeth. And then, as if to remind them both: ‘I’m getting married.’ She lifted her hand between them, showing the ring she wore, a ring she’d come to feel was unnaturally heavy.

‘Don’t.’ His eyes whipped from the ring to her face, his lips were tight. ‘I don’t want to talk about your wedding right now.’

She stared at him, completely lost. ‘Well, what do you want to talk about?’

He paced away from her then, towards the office, bracing an arm against the window and staring out at the setting sun.

She took advantage of his distraction to study him, to drink in the sight of him, because she’d been missing him with all of her soul. She was so weary. So exhausted.

It felt to Mia as though she’d boarded an express train to the wrong destination and there was no way to get off it, no way to stop. She’d made a commitment—to Lorenzo, to his family, to her parents. She couldn’t back out.

Oh, none of them was pretending this was a romantic connection. They all knew it to be a business deal. But that didn’t mean they weren’t taking it seriously, that they didn’t have their hearts set on the union.

Two powerful, prosperous families uniting was the epitome of her parents’ hopes for Mia, and Lorenzo’s for him.

‘My father is dying.’

It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.

Luca had made an artform of evading her questions.

She knew a little about his family empire—the Stone jewellery stores were famous the world over, so too was the fortune attached to the business, but Luca’s own business concerns were distinct, based largely outside Australia, his prosperity his own creation. Luca had never discussed his father or brother with Mia. She pressed her palms to her desk.

‘My father is dying,’ he repeated, turning back to Mia, frowning, staring at her as if trying to make sense of something she couldn’t understand. ‘And all I could think, when I heard this news, was that I had to see you. I have spent the last two days fighting the urge to come to you,’ he explained with urgency, and she felt it—how hard he’d fought, how annoyed he was that he’d lost that fight. ‘I know what we agreed, what I promised. But I need you. I need your help. Is that selfish of me?’

Was it? She didn’t know. Needing someone and being able to admit that seemed like a watershed moment, but for what? Mia couldn’t answer, she knew only that she felt something forging between them, interlocking, something important, and she knew that she was glad. He needed her, and she wanted to be there for him. His father was dying, and he’d come to her.

Something rose inside her chest and it wasn’t until she heard the noise that Mia realised it was a sob.

She smothered her mouth with her hand and came around her desk, striding quickly to Luca and standing in front of him.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, lifting up onto the tips of her toes and kissing him, salty tears in her mouth as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held herself there, breathing in his scent, hoping that her closeness would give him strength and whatever else it was he needed from her.

‘Will you give me tonight?’

‘Just tonight?’ she asked, softly, pulling back so her eyes could read his face. When would it ever be enough with them? She was drowning in the middle of the ocean, and she wasn’t even sure she cared.

Emotions flickered in his eyes and then, to her immense relief, he shook his head once. ‘I won’t make that promise again.’ The words were virtually growled from him. ‘Give me tonight, Mia. We’ll negotiate what comes next...later.’

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