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‘Only your way of protecting those you love was deliberately geared towards a bit of good old-fashioned Sicilian revenge at the same time,’ she pointed out. ‘My reasons for being with you were honest, Giancarlo. Whereas yours were only ever intended to cause me pain.’
He said nothing. The silence hung like a cloud between them because there really was no answer to her last bitter claim. So on a heavy sigh he changed tack, by ridding himself of his can and coming to pull out the chair beside her. Swinging it around, he then straddled it and sat down while she watched all of this with a distinctly wary look in her eye.
That was okay, he told himself. He could deal with wary better than he could deal with bitterness and pain. So he folded his arms along the chair back, placed his chin on the top of them, and, with her gaze held captive by her own wariness of what was coming, he repeated gently:
‘Marry me,’ and he smiled…
The smile hit dead centre, the proposal sent her head dizzy. And his wretched eyes were warming her right through! It was like being in the company of the world’s most accomplished beguiler! It just wasn’t fair—none of it! Did he honestly think she didn’t know what he was trying to do?
‘Listen to me,’ she said, having to push the words up through a thickened throat because, really, she had no defence worth mentioning against this man, and she was beginning to weaken, she could feel it happening. ‘Let’s get a few things straight before this gets entirely out of hand, she suggested. ‘In the unlikely event that I am pregnant, I do not expect or even want an offer of marriage from you. It is neither necessary nor expected in this day and age. And I’ve been there,’ she reminded him. ‘I know what it’s like to be a child of a single parent. There’s no stigma in that label any more. If or when I need to do so, I will cope as my mother coped. I don’t even mind!’ she added in the hope that it would be of some help to him. ‘So don’t cut yourself up thinking you have to offer marriage to Edward’s bastard daughter because you made a few mistakes about her. Especially when we both know we were never so much as heading in that direction before tonight’s—mess came to light. What we had here was never very real, but just a window in time we both used to enjoy each other. But tomorrow or next week or—whenever, you can go back to Milan or Sicily or—wherever, and that window will close, as it should do. So don’t try to keep it open out of some misguided sense of honour you feel you need to redress,’ she begged. ‘Nothing in this life is absolutely certain. We all make mistakes, change, move on. Let’s not further clutter up the baggage we take with us, with a set of marriage vows neither of us wanted to make in the first place!’
To give him his due, he listened. He listened without comment and without expression as she rambled through her wise little speech. His forearms remained folded across the chair back, his eyes didn’t move from her beautiful face. When she finally fell into an empty little silence, he simply allowed a small pause to hover after it, then repeated quietly:
‘Marry me…’
Natalia erupted out of nowhere. ‘Oh, stop it!’ she cried, wondering just what it took to get through to this man! ‘Why are you doing this? You know it isn’t what you really want!’
‘You don’t know what I want,’ he shot right back. ‘Try asking me instead of telling me!’
‘No,’ she refused, because she felt she had already covered it as far as she was concerned.
She went to get up. His hand closing around her wrist stopped her. Electricity sizzled along her veins and she felt a wild rush of sheer excitement. Angrily she pulled free. She had to get out of here, she decided urgently, before he really started getting to her! And she jumped to her feet, then immediately wished she hadn’t done that when old dizziness dropped over her.
Seeing it happen, Giancarlo uttered a choice curse as he leapt up himself, then was impatiently kicking his chair aside so he could pull her against him. ‘Don’t go faint on me again,’ he commanded harshly. ‘This is no time for passing out. We need to deal with this!’
‘I thought I was dealing with it!’ she snapped, feeling so light-headed that she had to lean against him.
‘No, you were talking utter rubbish,’ he arrogantly opined. ‘I just let you get it off your chest because you seemed to need to.’
Well, thanks, she thought grimly. ‘Let me go, please.’
Instead he bent to hook his arm beneath her knees and the next thing she knew she was being cradled against his chest and he was striding out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the only room she expected him to take her to.
The bedroom. The bed, where he settled her down on the top of the covers then came to lie beside her. ‘Sex isn’t the way to solve this particular problem,’ she drawled in acid derision.
‘Sex isn’t what I’m after,’ he said, coming up on one elbow so he could look directly into her angry blue eyes. ‘I simply wanted you safely horizontal just in case you decided to do something else stupid.’
I’m stupid. I talk rubbish, Natalia grimly listed. I can’t be relied upon to take care of my own safety. And, he no longer wants sex from me.
‘Now,’ he said firmly. ‘Ask me.’
‘Ask you what?’ she flashed, wishing she didn’t just love having him this close to her.
‘What I want from this relationship,’ he provided, bringing the whole darn thing back to the last place she wanted it.
Oh, play the game and get it over with! she told herself frantically because he was too close and she was beginning to feel… ‘What is it you want from this relationship, Giancarlo?’ she enquired very wea
rily.
His eyes went black. It was like looking into some terrible place where her fate lay waiting. ‘You,’ he murmured huskily. ‘I want you. I adore you. You are my life. So—will you marry me?’
‘You’re crazy,’ she breathed, closing her eyes on a sigh of burning frustration. ‘You just don’t listen.’ The eyes flew back open. ‘You didn’t even know who I really was until a couple of hours ago! So how can you know you want to marry this person?’
‘Because she is the mother of my child,’ he answered smoothly.
‘I might not be pregnant!’ she reminded him. ‘Aren’t you jumping the gun a bit?’
‘That is not the point.’ He smiled that electrifying smile again. ‘In believing you could be pregnant, I discovered how much I loved the idea. So the rest does not really matter. You are the woman I want as the mother of my children. So—will you marry me?’
