Page 44 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

The penny dropped but before he could speak, Mia continued.

‘You knew what he was going through and you didn’t tell me. You knew how bad it was, and you saidnothing, even when you had the opportunity, even when I begged you. How dare you keep this from me? After everything,everything, we’ve shared?’

Her words landed with a thud against his chest but he refused to let her accusation stand. He could see her anger, acknowledge her grief, but he wouldn’t take the blame for that. While he hated the idea of Mia thinking the worst of him, the businesslike part of Luca’s brain took control, calmly wading through her accusation to find a logical thread. ‘These are your father’s errors, not mine.’

‘How can you be so callous? How can you stand there and apportion blame?’

‘Isn’t that what you are doing?’ Why was he allowing them to argue? It was clear that Mia was upset, that she was spoiling for a fight, but why was Luca fanning the flames of her anger? Why didn’t he go to her to offer comfort? Why did he allow her to glare at him and simply stare back, as if his heart were cold, his emotions incapable of being stirred even now, when the opposite was true?

‘With good reason,’ she roared, stalking towards him then stopping, turning around, shaking her head. ‘You are to blame.’

‘For your father’s ineptitude and dishonesty? Really? How so?’

She spun back, eyes wild, fury unleashed—and hell, he deserved that. It was an utterly insensitive thing to have said. But he was angry—and for no reason he could easily identify, so he sought refuge in the kind of wide-nozzle spray of anger that was immediately satisfying, even if he feared it would turn out to be a mistake.

‘Are you mocking him?’

He had—finally—the good sense to slam his lips together.

‘You are a pig!’ She thrust her hands onto her hips, standing right there, feet wide apart, body tense, ready to fight.

‘How could you keep this from me?’ she demanded again, lips white-rimmed.

‘Your father should have told you. It is him you are angry with, not me.’

‘I’m angry with him, yes, but I’m angrier with you.’

Something buzzed in the back of his brain. A realisation. An understanding. But it flitted away again as quickly as it had appeared.

‘Do you have any idea what he’s done? This is very likely criminal, Luca. As in, illegal. If Lorenzo’s parents were to find out, and decided to press charges, not only would he be ruined, he’d go to jail. I could go to jail too, if they suspect, as you did, that I’m involved in this. How could you know this, and not tell me?’

The bottom of his world fell away in a spectacular fashion and an awful heat began to burn Luca’s insides. He hadn’t even contemplated, for one second, that Mia would pay the price for her father’s crimes. But she was right. He’d easily jumped to the conclusion that she was a part of the deception. What if a court thought the same thing? Evidence might exonerate her, but not necessarily. It was easy to allude to a person’s involvement and raise a conviction against the odds.

His hands shook. His control was slipping. He turned away from her on the pretence of getting a drink from the bar. A Scotch. God knew he needed it. He threw it back in one harsh motion, then turned to her, slowly, focusing all of himself on containing his emotions.

‘I will not allow that to happen.’

‘You think you have the power to stop it? You think you’re some kind of god?’

A tear slid from the corner of her eye and he stared at her, unable to look away, even when the sight of her was tearing him into pieces.

‘It’s all so misguided,’ she groaned with a shake of her head. ‘I cannot understand what he was thinking. It’s like the stress temporarily deprived him of sanity. Do you think that might work in his favour? Luca, he’s a good man. You have to believe me, this isn’t like him.’ Tears were falling freely now, and his body physically ached with the need to cross his living room and pull her into his arms.

God, but he wanted her. All parts of her. He wanted Mia for himself. He didn’t know how long he’d feel this way, but he wasn’t ready to walk away from her, and she clearly still needed him, if even just to sort this out.

And out of nowhere, like the most perfect blade of lightning, Luca saw it. A solution.

An answer to his problems, and to Mia’s too.

‘I can fix this.’

‘You can’t,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s gone too far. Oh, why didn’t he tell me?’

Luca didn’t have time to analyse his idea. He was used to acting on instinct, to taking gambles that almost always paid off, and that had emboldened him, so even when he acknowledged this was a risk, he didn’t feel overly worried, because there was, finally, light at the end of the tunnel.

There were limits to what he and Mia could be. They wanted different things. Mia deserved better than him long term. But in the short term, their common goals could be met.

‘Agree to be mine, and I will fix everything, Mia.’

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