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She smiled too as he spoke.
‘lt is time to go, cars.” Salvatore slid his arm around her in a way that blatantly claimed possession .
Shocked, she stiffened against him, but he pulled her close to his side and kept her there through the! r goodbyes .
Her father didn’t act surprised, though, and Therese had the look of an Italian woman making wedding plans in her mind. Elisa felt as if she’d been measured for the wedding gown and eyed for the cut of the veil by the time Salvatore tucked her into the passenger seat of his car to take her home.
Salvatore waited for the inquisition to start. Elisa had been ominously silent since he and her father had rejoined the women in the garden.
She was too smart not to realize that certain things had been said between him and Francisco.
The older man’s smug acceptance of the situation gave that away. Not that he had easily been convinced of the rightness of Elisa staying with Salvatore. Even after he promised her father he intended to marry her Francesco had balked.
But Salvatore had refused to budge and he had reminded Francesco just how independent his daughter was. Her threat to go off on her own was not an idle one. Neither man wanted that to happen.
Commenting that the world was a different place from when he had courted Therese Francesco had finally agreed to Salvatore taking Elisa back to his home.
Elisa shifted in her seat until he could feel the weight of her beautiful green gaze on him.
‘What did you tell my father to bring such an about-face?”
‘I told him the truth.”
‘Which part of the truth?” she pressed.
‘That I intend to marry you.”
No gasp of outrage was forthcoming. ‘ls that aII?” He could tell nothing of what she was thinking from the bland tone in her voice.
‘Not precisely, but it is all you need to know.”
When Fran
cesco had pressed for a promise Salvatore would not take advantage of his daughter Salvatore had made the commitment with a clear conscience. Making love to her was not taking advantage. It was absolutely necessary, both to his campaign to convince her to agree to marriage and to b0th their well-being. She might be unwilling to admit it, but she needed him every bit as much as he needed her.
‘I see’.
He stood the silence for a full five minutes of monotonous driving before breaking it.
‘I do intend to marry you.”
‘you’ve said so.”
He cursed under his breath. ‘Si. I have.”
It was her own intentions in the matter that were in question. He fully expected to have his way, but he wanted her acceptance. He wanted her to admit that life without him would not be an option, regardless that she had spent the last year pretending it was.
‘And that was enough to convince Papa my virtue would not be compromised by staying alone with a single man?”
At the mention of her virtue, Salvatore’s grip tightened on the steering wheel and the discussion of their future took a back seat for the time being.
‘I am sorry’. ”
‘What are you sorry for?” She sounded only mildly interested, but he was not fooled.
Her own hands were clasped in her lap with white-knuckle intensity.
‘I misunderstood your father and because of it I caused both you and myself untold grief.”
