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‘Neither of us experienced it as a child,’ Lorenzo said, ‘but that is why this arrangement can work for us. I know you want Emma, and your own children when we have them, to grow up in a stable environment.’
‘I know that I would never abandon my children,’ Chloe said. She looked up at him, the silvery green surface of the pond reflected in her eyes, ‘but how do I know I can trust you?’
Lorenzo met her gaze, already knowing how intensely she was committed to motherhood. He knew how far she would go for Emma. And he knew she’d fight equally hard for her own children.
Lorenzo’s mother had not bothered to fight for him. In fact she’d used him as a bargaining chip in a massive divorce settlement. What kind of mother would do something like that?
Suddenly he found his thoughts hurtling back to his childhood—to a time that he’d thought that he had blotted out of his memory. And all at once he was remembering the hurt, disappointment and confusion as acutely as the day his mother walked out.
He shook his head sharply, and focused on Chloe again. Her face was pale and worried, and he knew what she was thinking.
‘I get it,’ he said, his eyes boring down into hers. ‘You’re scared I’m going to leave you. It’s happened to you before—first your father, then your mother and sister. Even…’ He hesitated, reluctant to upset her more, but he had to make his point. ‘Even your best friend left you.’
Chloe swallowed, the lump in her throat making it painful, and blinked back tears. How did he know her so well—yet so little at the same time?
‘I’m not going to leave you,’ Lorenzo said. ‘That’s the beauty of this arrangement.’
‘But…what about when someone else catches your eye?’ Chloe asked. A dark shadow moved across Lorenzo’s face and she knew she had offended him with her comment, but she had to carry on—her future was at stake. ‘You don’t love me—what happens when you meet someone you do love?’
‘Be careful what you say,’ Lorenzo said through gritted teeth. ‘Don’t forget what happened. You are the one who left—the one who abandoned this relationship.’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she protested.
‘Even though you thought you loved me,’ Lorenzo said, ‘even then—with your own fear of abandonment so strong—you left. Not me.’
‘That was different,’ Chloe said. ‘I’d just found out you didn’t love me.’
‘Do you still love me?’ Lorenzo asked.
‘I…No…’ Chloe faltered, dropping her gaze and staring at the wide expanse of his chest. She couldn’t meet his eye, or surely he would know the truth. She did still love him, but she couldn’t expose her heart to him any more. It was just too painful.
‘My point exactly,’ Lorenzo said, his voice dripping with irony. ‘You thought you loved me—but you were fooling yourself, living in a silly romantic dream world. It wasn’t real, which is why you were able to walk out on me without a second glance.’
/> His fingers slipped beneath her chin and he lifted her face to look into her eyes. Chloe met his blue gaze and a frisson ran through her. The emotion she saw in the depths of his eyes was intense.
He said he didn’t believe in love, but she could feel how deeply he was committed to the future he was proposing. He wanted a stable, contented family as much as she did.
‘We were good together,’ he said, letting his hand slip back so that he was cradling her head. ‘This could be incredible. We could be incredible together.’
‘I don’t know…’ Chloe started to speak, but the feel of his hand was distracting.
All she knew was she wanted to be with him. She wanted things back the way they had once been, when he made her feel special and safe at the same time.
‘Make this decision with your head, not your heart,’ he repeated. ‘Tell me that you want to stay married to me. That you want to raise a family with me. That you want to be my wife in every way.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, I do.’
But she was speaking from her heart. It was impossible to do anything else. Her heart was calling out so loudly to him that she could not have heard anything her head was saying even if she’d tried.
‘You’ve made the right choice,’ Lorenzo said, pulling her towards him.
Chloe closed her eyes as he enfolded her in his arms. It felt so good, as if she truly belonged there.
Then his hands started to move across her body, and she knew that he intended to make love to her. A quiver of apprehension mixed with anticipation tingled through her. She had just agreed to this—to be his wife in every way.
But she was suddenly nervous, as if this exact moment was the moment of no return in her life.
From this point on her future was mapped out, and before she knew it she would be a mother. She would be bound in marriage to a man who didn’t love her—a man who did not even believe in love.
