Page 45 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

She shook her head again. ‘I don’t understand.’

A strange lurching sensation tipped through him. He ignored it. ‘Yes, you do. Agree to stay here with me. Do not marry Lorenzo. Forget about him. Be mine, and I will fix this.’

She bit down on her lower lip, eyes huge in that face that haunted his dreams. He felt euphoric. Victory was within reach. Here was a way to have Mia in his life, his bed, without the guilt, the ticking time bomb of a countdown to her wedding, without the need for secrecy and the hovering certainty that within weeks she’d become someone else’s wife. She would be his.

‘Your father’s business is in a parlous state, but I spent twelve months looking at strategies to strengthen it, twelve months understanding it, inside and out. I will honour the original terms of our deal and become his partner.’

‘Do you mean—are you saying you want to marry me?’

It was like a grenade blowing up in his face. Strange that before, when their marriage had simply been part of a business deal, he’d been able to blithely accept the necessity of the albeit odd term of the contracts. But now that he knew Mia so well, now that he’d made love to her over and over, marriage was utterly unimaginable.

Before, there’d been no feelings, and so the idea of a businesslike arrangement had been entirely feasible. Now, it would never be the case. His emotions were dangerously close to the surface with her.

There could be no marriage.

‘No. I’m not suggesting we marry, only that you call off your wedding to Lorenzo.’ He spoke pragmatically, with no concept of how the words affected her. If he’d been paying attention, he might have seen the way she shrank down into herself, but Luca was fixated on the nearing victory. He could make everything okay for her—and they could get what they wanted too: more time together.

‘There’s no need for us to do anything stupid. We’re adults, it’s the twenty-first century, and I’m telling you now, I will bail out your father. I will pay off his debts, ensure the company remains liquid and then set about rebuilding it fully. God knows I need a challenge, particularly now. It’s partly what attracted me to the purchase in the first place. I can see the potential in Marini Enterprises, just as my father did before me.’

She flinched, and that, finally, he did see.

But she nodded, slowly. By way of acceptance?

‘And I would stay here, with you.’

‘Yes.’ He breathed out, relief making his body feel light, his feet barely on the ground.

‘Until?’

A hard note entered her voice.

‘I don’t have a crystal ball. Until we agree it’s no longer working.’

‘How lovely and simple,’ she murmured, wrapping her arms across her chest, the phrase at odds with the tension in her body.

He began to tread with care, aware that perhaps victory was not so assured as he was hoping. ‘Every bit as simple—if not more so—than our marriage would have been.’

‘But you’re missing one important thing,’ she said, eyes narrowing as they met his.

‘I don’t believe I am.’ He ignored the blinking light in the back of his brain. ‘You want to keep seeing me, yes?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘And your father needs to be bailed out, or it’s likely he’ll face charges in the future. So? Stay here with me, terminate your engagement and I will immediately release the funds needed for his business to remain solvent.’

Her tears began to fall again. Tears of relief? Not joy, he noted, going by the stern pull of her lips.

‘I don’t want to stay with you like that.’

He stood very still. There were rejoinders at the forefront of his mind, but he didn’t speak them. It was better to let her speak, so he would have an idea of how to reply. Because he would win her over. He would convince her this was for the best. Luca knew it would work out—he could have his cake, and eat it, too. Unlike his father, he would be completely upfront with what he wanted, what he expected and how much of himself he was willing to give. Mia wouldn’t be hurt the way his mother was hurt, because he was being completely transparent.

‘What you’re offering isn’t enough.’

Her words hit him like a sledgehammer. It was the fear at the very heart of his worst fears, the core damage inflicted on him by a lifetime of having been let down by those he dared let himself love—and hope to be loved back by.

He wasn’t enough.

He’d offered her more than he’d ever offered another woman, and it wasn’t enough.

‘And yethe’senough?’

She tilted her chin, glaring at him. ‘Lorenzo has nothing to do with this.’

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