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CHAPTER NINE
ANHOURLATERhe sat on his private plane with an angry Livia sitting across from him. Her dress was bunched up around her knees, which were pulled up against her chest, her mouth turned down into a sulky frown. Her hair was disheveled, absolutely wrecked from their lovemaking earlier. She had thought she would leave him? Incomprehensible. Inconceivable.
He had taken her virginity.
He had done what he had vowed never to do to her, without the offer of marriage.
With marriage on the table, it was acceptable. Without it was not. It was that simple. He could not—ever—leave her to take another lover. The very idea sent him into a black rage. So she was coming back with him.
And kidnap is somehow acceptable?
It was not stealing if the item belongs to you. Livia belonged to him. It was clear enough in his mind.
Something fierce burned in his chest and he did not wish to guess at what it might be.
It didn’t matter.
He was set on his course. He would deal with the fallout later. Once they were back in Monte Blanco, everything would be simpler. She would not be allowed to leave. Things were more complicated when she had been in another country. A place where he did not have ultimate domain. But he did in Monte Blanco, and he would exercise it.
All would be well.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked, standing up and making his way over to the bar in the corner of the living area of the large, spacious cabin.
“I would not,” she said.
“A good idea, though perhaps a bit premature. You could be carrying my child.”
He had not used protection. And Livia had been a virgin, so he assumed there was a possibility that she could be pregnant.
Or on her way to pregnant, as the case may be.
“Oh,” she said, the sound filled with distress.
“Things you did not consider when you thought you might walk away from me.”
“I didn’t think of it.”
“Of course not. You lack the experience to think of such a thing. But you might be carrying my heir. Not a small consideration.”
“You knew it though. You didn’t use protection.”
“There is no need. I assumed that your desire for me was your agreement.”
“And here we are again, back to your ego. Wanting your body has nothing to do with wanting to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“But it will be a royal marriage, Mouse. That means we might manage to see very little of each other. If you so desire.”
“Why do you want to marry me?” she asked. “You could have asked any woman. Any random woman on the street might have said yes.”
“Because I need you,” he said, the words coming out so rough they surprised even him. “I do not know how to be a man without you. I do not know what I would do if you were not in my life, and that trip we took just before Violet cried off our engagement only underlined that. You are what this country needs. They need you more than they need me. I need you.” It was true, for he did not possess a soul, not a real one. But she did.
“Matteo, you don’t need me. Not like that.”
Her rejection of the honesty he had not wanted to issue enraged him. It was poison to admit his need and now she was telling him it was not real.
“Livia, look at us. Look at this. Are you going to sit there and defend my humanity even now? I’m a monster, but a monster who craves you nonetheless, and I will not leave you for another man to devour. That simple. That base.”
“You’re a stubborn ass, but that doesn’t make you a monster.”
