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Gio laughed. ‘Of course, I plan to take you sailing.’
Leah tensed. ‘I don’t want to leave Greece. I’ve been seeing a very good obstetrician in Athens and I want to stay within reach of him for the next few weeks. Twins often arrive early and I need a C-section.’
A faint flush lit his perfect cheekbones, his lashes, momentarily dipping like black velvet sweeps over his light eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that. We’ll stay in Greek waters,’ he promised. ‘We haven’t even had the chance to discuss names for the babies.’
‘I thought of naming our son after you.’
Gio winced. ‘No, it was also my father’s name and we shouldn’t pass that heritage on to our son.’
‘I would like Aurora for our daughter. It’s pretty,’ she said stiltedly. ‘But we’ll know better what suits them once they’re here with us.’
Some guests were leaving and Cleo came out to warn them. Leah got up, wondering how she was still functioning when she felt stone dead inside herself. It was shock, she reckoned, she was still in shock from the major fault line that had appeared in her fairy-tale marriage. Gio had only proposed because her brother had urged him to do so, and he had accepted a bribe to do it. His family home, the Castello Zanetti, what else was that but a bribe neatly packaged as a wedding present? And how was she supposed to feel about being bartered off with a property dowry like some medieval bride?
‘I’d like a word with you in private,’ she told her brother on the way back to the party. ‘And it would be helpful if you could bring my bridegroom with you and leave Cleo out of it.’
His brow indented but Leah didn’t want to answer questions and didn’t linger.
Ari caught her elbow to hold her back. ‘My office in ten minutes...’
Leah rubbed her back where the tightening ache was intensifying and paused to speak to her former foster mum, Sally.
‘Are you in pain?’ the older woman asked with a frown.
‘A little. It’s my back. It’s been a taxing day,’ Leah pointed out. ‘All of me is complaining—’
‘Including those poor tortured feet,’ Sally teased, casting a speaking glance down at the bare toes visible below the hem of her gown. ‘Are you sure you’re not going into labour?’ she added worriedly.
‘Do you think I wouldn’t know?’ Leah laughed. ‘Of course, I’d know!’
Bracing herself, a cold glass of water clasped in one hand, Leah entered Ari’s opulent office. She wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone but she was not feeling well and she assumed the nausea and the occasional blurring of her vision meant that she had overdone it a bit. Gio was lounging back against Ari’s desk with a drink in his hand, the very picture of relaxation. Clearly having spoken to his wife, Ari, however, was better prepared. He raised both his hands in a surrender movement and grimaced. ‘Iknow. Don’t say it... I messed up!’ he groaned.
‘What on earth possessed you?’ Leah demanded shakily. ‘To try and barter me off like some Dark Ages bride with a dowry?’
Her brother winced. ‘It wasn’t quite that bad—’
‘No, it was worse!’ Leah proclaimed. ‘You went behind my back to interfere in my life—’
‘I was trying to protect you and achieve what I believed would make you happy—’
‘No, perhaps you were embarrassed at having an unwed pregnant sister in the family and you wanted me respectably married off,’ Leah retorted crisply.
‘That’s not true,’ Ari argued.
‘Well, from where I’m standing, it looks like it’s true,’ Leah reasoned tautly. ‘My parents weren’t married and it didn’t harm me—’
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ Ari flashed back. ‘But it’s also a debatable point because your father was already married to my mother—’
‘These days women don’t need to be married to have children—’
‘I’m aware of that but I acted... I interfered if youmustcall it that...because I knew that you wanted a father for your babies. You told me that yourself—’
Leah lost colour and turned away, stiff with embarrassment at that lowering reminder. Even so, she recalled that late-night chat when she had told her brother how guilty she felt about not being able to provide her children with a father and how it had made her feel as though she were failing them as her own mother had failed her and her siblings. ‘Yes, in an ideal world, I wanted a father for my kids, but that’s not always possible or even desirable. Please tell me how a husband you tried to bribe into marrying me was going to help the situation.’
‘But Arididn’tbribe me,’ Gio incised calmly, entering the conversation for the first time, his cool silvery eyes intent on her furious face. ‘He offered me the Castello Zanetti and I refused the proposition and walked away—’
‘Only to get it anyway as a wedding present!’ Leah fired back, unimpressed by that claim of innocence.
‘That wasmyidea,’ Ari interposed with a shake of his head.‘Thee mou,Leah. I don’t want the property. When Gio refused the deal what else was I supposed to do with his mother’s family home other than give it to him?’
