‘Every single person we once thought of as a friend turned their backs on us. People I would never have thought capable of it. Overnight, the name Moretti became a joke.’ His eyes glittered when they locked to hers. ‘It still would be, were it not for my net worth.’
‘And now, me.’
‘Sì.And now, you.’
A shiver ran the length of her spine as she felt his possessive heat twist around her. But it wasn’t about possessing her in the way she now realised she wanted. This had nothing to do with her as a person, or as a woman, and everything to do with the status her name brought.
‘And the whole world will soon know about it.’
Her heart sank. She understood bitterness and anger. She would feel it in bucketloads, if she let herself. But the idea of this marriage being born from those things filled her with a slow-spreading sense of dread.
‘Why did you kiss me, Massimiliano?’ she asked, after several moments of silence. Unbeknownst to her, he’d been asking himself the same question ever since. But she’d looked up at him with those big, pale blue eyes, and softly parted lips, he’d caught a glimpse of the bruising on her cheekbone and had simply acted on instinct. Leaning down, brushing his lips over hers. To comfort and console, to give confidence and calm.
It hadn’t worked. Calm had evaded him ever since. Because with that one simple gesture, that one touch, he’d felt yearning ignite in the pit of his belly, and a familiar, aching need pulsing through him. Demanding more. More of this woman he’d negotiated into marriage, more of this woman he hadn’t intended to touch, much less look at twice. He’d told himself it was little more than a contractual arrangement, like any other business merger, but he’d never wanted to rip the clothes off any of his other contractual partners, the way he’d been fantasising about doing with Amelia all night.
She shifted, moving closer to him, as if to ask the question again. He tilted his gaze down to hers, knowing he should be honest, but aware that it would be opening a can of worms he didn’t particularly wish to deal with. ‘Because we were pretending, remember?’
He saw the way her eyes softened, hurt obvious in their depths. It wasn’t just that she was younger than him, but that she was so inexperienced. And perhaps that she felt too deeply, couldn’t conceal as well as him. Maybe she’d never needed to? Whatever the reason, he saw whatever she was feeling, and really wished he didn’t.
Because hurting Amelia didn’t have any place in his plans. Yet if he told her that he’d kissed her because she’d looked so hauntingly beautiful, and he’d wanted to kiss her so much harder and deeper than that, would she read more into it than he intended? He wouldn’t take that risk. Better to downplay it.
Except his body didn’t get the memo, and his hand was moving, slowly, towards her cheek, his fingertips brushing over the flesh that, beneath her make-up, would show the bruising. ‘How does this feel?’
‘Worse,’ she admitted, but her voice was cool, as though she was trying to pull back from him. ‘But I’ll live.’
He nodded once. ‘My security team will be providing bodyguard support to you, going forward.’
She startled visibly. ‘What?’
‘For when you leave the hotel.’
‘No. That’s…crazy. I don’t need a bodyguard.’
‘I should have thought of it before this. No one should ever have been able to touch you.’
‘It was just bad luck. I went down the wrong street, wasn’t paying attention…’
‘And that same bad luck could happen again. So you’ll be accompanied either by me, or by one of my team.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘I don’t think I want a bodyguard.’
‘It’s not unusual.’
‘I beg your pardon, but, for someone like me, it’s exactly that.’
‘Either you accept the necessity of a bodyguard, or you move in with me immediately. The choice is yours.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘That doesn’t really sound like a choice, so much as an ultimatum.’
‘It’s common sense.’
‘No, it’s bossy, arrogant and demanding. What gives you the right—?’
‘This,’ he said, moving his other hand to hers and brushing the flesh just beneath the Moretti diamond. ‘You are my fiancée—’
‘In name only.’
‘No, not in name only,’ he retorted, surprised by the anger she’d stirred him to, the feelings she’d evoked with this argument. ‘To the rest of the world, you are my fiancée, and will soon be my bride. That makes you a very valuable target. Surely you comprehend that?’
