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“Are you having a good time?” Dion sauntered over, a charming smile on his handsome face.
“I feel like I’m on display at a zoo,” she replied, her gaze snagging on where her husband stood across the yard, his dark hair looking ink black against the deep indigo sky. He was nodding seriously, no doubt talking business. “With the way people are looking at me, you should be charging admission. Why bring a freak show along if you’re not going to capitalize on it?”
“You’re hardly a freak show.”
“Aren’t I?” She placed her still-full drink down on a table next to her. “What am I, then? Evidence? Proof?”
Dion raised a brow. “Of?”
“That Nico hasn’t gone off the rails and fabricated a wife.”
“You’re never going to be proof of that.” He laughed. “People will always talk about those who don’t fit the mold.”
Nico glanced over, as if sensing they were talking about him, but his attention was quickly drawn back into his own conversation. He looked incredibly handsome in a pair of light gray suit pants and a crisp white shirt that hugged his impeccable physique. The pants were cut slim down the leg, making him look even taller and leaner.
Marianna dragged her eyes away, annoyed that she still found him so attractive despite his attitude toward her. “Why do people think he doesn’t fit the mold?”
Dion rubbed a hand over his smooth, olive-toned jaw. “He’s remote. He doesn’t…connect with people.”
“I hear that’s your job.”
“I’m the charmer and he’s the brains, or so Nico thinks.”
Curiosity nipped at her. “You’ve known him a long time, right?”
“Since childhood.” He spoke slowly, as though choosing his words carefully. “We were raised in an orphanage together.”
Marianna blinked. “Oh. I didn’t know that.”
“Some people can only open themselves up so many times before the rejection wears them down.”
She wasn’t sure if Dion was referring to himself or to Nico. Or both. “Did you end up going into different homes when you were adopted?”
“We were never adopted.” Dion’s easy expression had hardened.
“Never?” she whispered. In spite of herself, her chest clenched as she watched Nico chatting to an older woman and man, a polite smile fixed onto his handsome features. It wasn’t a real smile. She might not know him well, yet, but she knew that much.
Yet? Do you think he’s going to magically open up to you out of the blue? He didn’t marry you for love, so don’t expect it.
Dion cleared his throat. “Family is what you make it. We never had parents, but we had each other, we had the sisters. And we have everyone here.” He gestured to the full yard. “This is my family now.”
People loved Dion. They smiled readily when he approached, thanked him profusely for the invite. And Marianna could see why. He introduced her around, making good-natured quips about how she was the reason Nico had been so absent of late. With Dion’s approval, the staff of their company welcomed her to Corfu, doled out dining recommendations, invited her into their homes. But when she’d been standing with Nico earlier, people had skirted around them as if afraid to approach. That was the Nico Effect, she’d come to realize.
“Don’t break him.” Dion’s low voice took her by surprise.
“Excuse me?”
“He’s not used to having people get close. I’m not stupid. I know this whole thing is going to go one of two ways. Either you decide you want more, and when he pushes you away you’ll leave. Or you decide you don’t want to be attached to a man who can’t love you the way you want, and then you’ll leave.” Dion cleared his throat. “But it always ends with you leaving.”
“Who knows, maybe he’ll kick me out.” Marianna resisted the urge to press her hand to her stomach to settle the uneasiness there.
“He won’t.”
“How do you know that?”
“He didn’t need to marry you.” Dion placed a hand on her shoulder, but whether it was a gesture of comfort or warning she wasn’t sure. “But he’ll do anything to make sure his kid has a better life than we did. And Nico doesn’t break promises, good or bad.”
She bit down on her lip. “That sounds ominous.”
“It’s meant to. He’s not going to give it to you straight, so I will: Nico doesn’t know how to be with anyone but himself.”
“Then why do you have him as a business partner?”
“Because I knew I could make us both a lot of money, and I was worried that if I left him to his own devices he would become an actual hermit, instead of a recluse-in-training.”
It seemed strange for someone whose house was always bustling with activity to be considered a recluse-in-training. But Marianna supposed that interacting with staff didn’t count as having company…not that she’d seen Nico talk to the staff all that much, mind you.
“Well, I’m not sure why you’re worried about me,” she said, turning to Dion so her words wouldn’t catch the ears of any gossip-hungry guests. “I can fend for myself.”
