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“Isn’t that enough?” Her voice broke. “I’d married you. I’d agreed to live with you, to be your wife. Why did you have to lie? Why did you tell me you weren’t going to buy the bank? Why did you make me fall—make me fall—”
“What, cara?” Tenderly he brushed her honeyed curls back from her cheeks. “What did I make you do?”
Why hide it now? Her pride lay in tatters; by the end of this, she would have none left to lose. Then she would leave him. She couldn’t live this way, loving him and knowing he had never loved her.
And yes, she loved him. Despite everything, she loved him. She would always love him.
“Cara,” Nicolo said softly, “are you telling me that you love me?”
She didn’t answer.
And, for the first time in his life, Nicolo found himself terrified of what a woman’s answer might be because if his wife didn’t say that she loved him—
If she didn’t, he would be lost.
Lost, because he loved her with all his heart. He would always love her. The vows they had taken said it would be until death, but that was wrong.
He would love her until then, and beyond.
Months ago, a woman had run into him on the street and she’d left him in a rage he hadn’t been able to understand.
When he saw her again, in a club that same night, his rage had changed to desire so savage it had baffled him.
And, through the twists and turns of destiny, he had married her.
He’d told himself he’d done it for the child they’d created but even then, deep inside, he’d known that he’d done it for a simpler reason.
He loved her.
And that love had grown until it was the most important thing in his life. But he was too much an idiot—all right, too much a coward to admit it.
After all, he had never loved anyone before.
No. That wasn’t true. He’d loved his parents, but they had not loved him. He’d loved his gran-nonna, but she had died. He’d even loved a couple of his governesses, but they’d disappeared like puffs of smoke.
He would not, could not make himself that vulnerable again.
Instead he’d come up with ways to show what he felt for his wife. The engagement ring. The wedding bands. Dio, he had never thought he’d want to wear a ring. Wasn’t a ring a more civilized version of shackles?
It turned out it was not. A ring was a way of telling the world he adored his wife.
His problem then had been telling the same thing to his wife. Words had terrified him. Suppose she hadn’t felt the same? So he’d come up with what had seemed a clever plan.
He’d tell her grandfather he didn’t want to buy the bank.
Good, as far as it went. His Aimee’s smile, when he told her what he’d done, had filled him with happiness….
&n
bsp; Then, a little while later, he’d thought of something even better. He’d buy the bank, then give it to his wife as a gift.
So clever. So brilliant…
So stupid.
His plan had backfired. And now, his wife wanted to leave him.
No, he thought fiercely, no….
