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He wanted the marriage to work for Luca’s sake. He was spending time with her for Luca’s sake.
Humiliation piled on humiliation.
Switching off her own emotions, Fia tried to work out how she’d react if she weren’t in love with him.
What would she say if she’d entered this marriage purely for the good of her son?
Spending time with Santo wouldn’t bother her, would it? In fact it would probably seem like a good idea to get to know each other better. It made sense.
‘Sure,’ she croaked. ‘If you want to spend time together, that sounds great.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE following morning she was woken by a shaft of bright sunlight as Santo opened the blinds.
‘Buongiorno.’ Sickeningly alert and energetic, he ripped the covers from her and handed her a robe.
Still half asleep, Fia gave a whimper of protest and stuck her head under the pillow. ‘What time is it?’
‘Time to get up,’ he said smugly. ‘You mentioned that you never see me in daylight so we are rectifying that, dormigliona.’
‘Are you calling me a sleepy-head? Because, if so, you are to blame. You shouldn’t—’
‘I shouldn’t what? Make love to my wife for half the night?’ He removed the pillow and scooped her into a sitting position. ‘I can’t believe how bad you are in the morning. How did you manage when you were the one who got up for Luca in the morning?’
‘I was cranky, irritable and generally horrid,’ she mumbled and he gave a wicked smile as he smoothed her tangled hair back from her face.
‘Fortunately you weren’t any of those things last night.’
Fia turned scarlet. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Normally I will do the early shift, and that is another benefit to our marriage. We can share the load. But today we are going to have a family breakfast.’
He was listing benefits, she thought numbly, as if he had to constantly remind himself of all the reasons this marriage was a good idea. She’d never thought of herself as romantic, but she was starting to realise she was nowhere near as practical as she would have liked to be. She would have given a lot for him to have just said he was glad he married her because he liked being with her.
He glanced at his watch. ‘Breakfast first, and then I have one short meeting I can’t get out of. After that we are going shopping.’ Showered, shaved and dressed in a suit, he looked so indecently sexy that Fia immediately wanted to grab him and haul him back into the bed.
‘I have lunchtime service.’
‘Not today. I’ve rearranged your schedule. Don’t be angry with me.’ Anticipating her response, he dived in first. ‘Normally I wouldn’t dream of interfering with your business, but today is about us. I really want to spend time with you.’
No, he didn’t want to. He thought he ought to. Not because he found her company addictive, but because he wanted to invest time in his marriage for Luca’s sake.
That was item number four on his agenda. Spend quality daylight time with Fia.
Resigned to going along with that strategy, Fia forced herself out of bed. ‘I need to take a shower.’
‘No!’ He moved away from her so fast he almost stumbled.
Fia stared at him in confusion. ‘I can’t take a shower?’
‘Yes, you can take a shower,’ he hissed through gritted teeth, ‘but I’m not going to take one with you.’ He retreated to the doorway. ‘I promised myself that today is going to be spent out of the bedroom.’
‘Right.’
‘Meet us downstairs when you’re dressed.’ He fumbled behind him for the door handle. ‘I’ll make you coffee. You take it white. I know that about you.’
‘Thank you.’ She probably should have been touched that he was trying so hard but instead it just depressed her to think he had to make such an effort. A relationship should be a natural thing, shouldn’t it?
