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His eyes went so black she thought she could see right inside him, down as far as his pulsing heart. And he kissed the fingers, then reached up to remove them. ‘Marry me,’ he repeated.
Could she do it? she asked her weaker side. Could she dare to marry this man who had used her so appallingly…? She was wavering; Giancarlo could feel her need to give in to him throbbing beneath his caressing hand.
‘Marry me,’ he said again, and felt that throbbing beat of desire pulse through him like an extra heartbeat.
She was his, he could feel it. The warmth of her lips told him, the tremor of her body. All she needed to do was whisper yes and the rest would take care of itself for now. ‘What can be so wrong in marrying this man who wants you so badly, hmm? Marry me, amore,’ he urged yet again, ‘and I will promise to love you for ever.’
Love, the keyword, he noted as her blue eyes turned warm and dark and sultry. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.
Triumph filled his head, followed almost immediately by a different sensation entirely that lost them both the will to think at all for the next few exquisite minutes while he paid homage to that tiny ‘yes’.
Then the telephone began to ring, bringing them both screeching back to reality with a jolt. He lifted his head, frowning in irritation because it was gone three in the morning and who the hell rang anyone at—?
‘Edward,’ Natalia said jerkily, and was trying to stretch over him to pick up the phone even as he snatched it up.
His arm wrapped around her, keeping her close. ‘Yes?’ he prompted, Natalia’s fear becoming his fear when he heard his sister’s voice coming back at him.
‘Edward will not settle down and rest because he’s worrying about his daughter,’ Alegra snapped at him with failing patien
ce with the man she loved. ‘If Natalia is with you will you please put her on this telephone so she can reassure her father that you are not seducing her—again!’
‘But I am seducing her,’ Giancarlo drawled lazily, settling back onto the pillows and taking Natalia with him. ‘You interrupted us, in fact,’ he added, then coolly held the receiver to Natalia’s ear so she could receive the full blast of his sister’s anger instead of him.
From being white-faced with fear she was suddenly blushing. He began to grin, all wicked white teeth and Italian devilry. ‘He—he isn’t bullying me,’ she replied to whatever Alegra had said. ‘We were—talking,’ she tagged on not very convincingly. Then— ‘Edward!’ she sighed out. ‘Will you listen to me?’
Edward? The grin altered to a frown and he snatched the phone back from her ear. ‘Edward,’ he said, cutting the older man off mid angry flood. ‘I would formally like to ask for the hand of your daughter in marriage.’
‘No!’ Natalia choked. ‘Don’t tell him that!’
‘Yes, of course she has accepted me. Do you honestly think I am going to allow her to look elsewhere now?’
At which point Natalia sank back against the pillow and closed her eyes in an act of surrender. Seeing it happen, Giancarlo smiled to himself, and settled back to convince his angry brother-in-law that the woman in his arms was going to be so cherished that her papa had no need at all to worry.
‘Okay?’ he questioned when eventually he was allowed to replace the receiver.
‘No,’ Natalia replied. ‘I feel like a hostile takeover. No trick too mean, no bribe too low. He did give you his blessing, I am presuming?’
‘With the promise that he will be well enough to give you away at our wedding next week.’
‘Next week,’ she repeated as his arms looped round her and he pulled her into the crook of his body.
‘You smell of woman,’ he growled, nuzzling her earlobe.
‘You said no sex.’
‘I changed my mind.’
‘What if I decide to change my mind about marrying you?’
‘Too late,’ he murmured, moving on to nibble at the corner of her mouth. ‘We are officially betrothed in the eyes of my family. Pull out now and they will feel honour bound to avenge my broken heart.’
‘You Sicilians have life all neatly packaged whichever way you want to look at it, don’t you?’
‘It is in the genes,’ he explained, while stringing soft, light kisses across her full bottom lip now. ‘We are very serious about family honour.’
Serious about other things, too, she thought as her body arched in response to what his hands were doing to her. ‘And if I am not pregnant?’ she asked on a last-gasp attempt to make sure everything was clear between them on this point.
‘I will make you pregnant,’ he declared, then set about showing her exactly how he intended to go about it…
