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‘A very rich husband. Being classy is a challenge on a budget.’
Kerry’s lips parted, rounded and then closed again, her smooth brow still indented. ‘And what was your answer to this incredible proposal?’
‘Santo cielo! I said I’d think about it…and why not?’
As Kerry fully grasped what Luciano was telling her, furious anger lanced up through her and a shaken laugh of disbelief fell from her taut lips. ‘No wonder you were so keen to let me know that marriage wouldn’t be on the cards! All the time you’ve been with me, you’ve been planning to marry Paola!’
‘Dio mio! That’s not how it was!’ Luciano was startled by that accusation. ‘I don’t have a relationship with Paola. What she offered me was a business deal and as such worthy of consideration. I won’t apologise for that—’
‘Oh, won’t you?’ Kerry gasped in fevered interruption.
‘No, I will not. At the time that offer was made, I was still in prison. I was in the mood to consider a practical marriage that had nothing to do with sentiment,’ Luciano launched back at her with hard golden eyes. ‘I was very bitter…I’d lost five years of my life, five years when I had expected to be married, setting up a home and starting a family. But I’d forgotten what the outside world and freedom would feel like!’
&
nbsp; ‘So you then decided to make the most of your freedom before you made the sacrifice of settling down with her!’ Kerry condemned, brushing past him in her eagerness to reach the door.
‘But I’m obviously not cut out for much in the way of freedom,’ Luciano murmured with wry self-mockery. ‘Within weeks of my release, I was back with the same woman I was with before I went into prison.’
Only a couple of feet past him, Kerry stopped and tried to swallow the thickness of tears in her throat. ‘Yes, but—’
Lean hands closed over her slight shoulders and gently imposed pressure to turn her back to him. ‘It’s also several weeks since I informed Paola that I wouldn’t be taking her up on her offer. But she’s persistent.’
‘It doesn’t matter. All she’s done is force me to think about stuff I should’ve thought about sooner than this. When you said that what we once had was gone, I didn’t really listen because I didn’t want to believe that,’ Kerry admitted unevenly.
His strong jawline clenched hard, golden eyes screened by his thick lashes as his wide, sensual mouth compressed. ‘And I didn’t want to believe that what we once had could still be there. Now I’m afraid that your sisters have managed to convince you that I’m bad news—’
‘No, they’re not like that—’
Luciano snatched in a ragged breath. ‘But, bad news or not, I want to marry you, and if you say no I’m just going to lock you in here and deprive you of sleep until I wear you down into agreeing.’
Engaged in fighting back the tears stinging behind her eyelids, Kerry could not persuade herself that he had truly said those words. Slowly she tipped her head back and looked up at him with questioning intensity.
His brilliant gaze clung to her pale, taut face. ‘I feel like we’ve never been apart, only we’re closer than we used to be. I want you with me all the time, bella mia.’
‘Are you s-serious?’ Kerry stammered.
‘When I reach the stage where I’m worrying that your sisters will send in a hit squad to steal you away in the middle of the night, it’s time to bite the bullet like a man and head for the church…before I lose any claim to sanity that I ever had,’ Luciano mocked in a roughened undertone.
‘But you said you weren’t going to marry me—’
Beautiful dark golden eyes sought and held hers. ‘I was wrong. I want to marry you—’
Kerry was starting to tremble, almost afraid to believe, for she could see how much her answer meant to him in the depths of his clear gaze and it was a look she had believed he might never give her again. ‘I know you’re saying that but—’
‘As soon as possible. I’d like to get married here in Italy and I won’t wait a day longer than necessary…we’ve already lost out on too many years.’
The gruffness in his accented drawl made her own throat ache. She pushed forward into his lithe, lean, powerful frame and he crushed her so close that she could hardly breathe.
‘Yes…I think I’m going to cry,’ she mumbled shakily.
Luciano looked down at her, a slashing grin curving his wide, sensual mouth. ‘Over me? Can I watch?’
‘Pervert…’ Kerry laughed, for he had successfully banished all threat of tears.
Just when Luciano was in the act of backing her towards the bed, dark golden eyes smouldering, she looked up at him in sudden appeal. ‘Would you mind…would you mind if I just rang Misty?’
Disconcerted by that particular request, Luciano tensed.
