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‘Your brother knew that the baby wasn’t his?’ Her thoughts raced to process the flow of information.
‘Violetta couldn’t hide it—the dates made it utterly impossible. Cristiano told me he was out of the country for a significant amount of time when Mattio was conceived. If my brother had lived he would have been the child’s father and that is all that mattered to him...’
Would he have been as big a man as his brother? It was a question Samuele had asked himself many times. How could any man know the answer until he was faced with the situation himself?
‘Mattioisan Agosti, heismy heir and I will do anything it takes to keep him safe and keep my promise to my brother.’
Including marrying me.
‘Who else knows about this?’ she asked.
‘I have told no one but you.’
His trust and giving her joint responsibility for the secret he had shared with her changed things in a way she could not put words to—it altered the dynamic between them.
Samuele trained his gaze on her face. ‘I’m asking for two years of your life... You would still be young enough later to go on and have a family of your own,’ he pointed out, conscious of an odd ache in his chest at the thought of her holding children she’d created with another man. ‘There would, of course, be the option to extend that period should both parties be agreeable, and the golden handshake you’ll receive at the termination of the marriage would obviously mean that you’d be able to maintain the living standards you’d have become accustomed to.’
‘I don’t give a damn about money!’ she snapped. She wanted his love and he was offering her a soulless marriage.
He watched as she covered her face with her hands again and felt a tug of guilt.
‘We have nothing in common... Look at this place,’ she said, spreading her hands wide to encompass the room and everything beyond.
‘We do. We both love Mattio.’
The response cut right through her defences and directly into her weakness.Love...She did love Mattio, but she loved Samuele too. Only what the heart wants the heart can’t always have...But isn’t it better to enjoy what the heart can have while it lasts?that insidious voice tempted.
Halfway through the internal dialogue she realised that she was actually considering it. Maybe he read the self-revelation on her face because he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small box.
He opened the box, flicking the catch up with his finger to reveal a velvet lining that was old and worn. Maya wasn’t looking at the box, but the prize it contained, a prize that would be a great big fat lie on her finger.
‘This was my grandmother’s, with a few greats added, who was Russian originally. I repurchased it quite recently.’ Along with several other items with a similar Russian royal family provenance. He could already see in his mind’s eye the emerald necklace in the stunning enamelled setting sitting comfortably between Maya’s lovely breasts... The image came with a distracting rush of that mix of painful yet pleasurable heat.
With a tiny gasp she put her hand to her mouth, her big eyes going from the ring to his face and back again. Even he could see that the square-cut emerald surrounded with clusters of brilliant diamonds, set on a wide gold band etched with a scroll pattern and inlaid with yet more precious stones, was stunningly beautiful.
She shook her head.
‘People often marry because there is a baby,’ he pressed. ‘The baby might not be ours, but is this situation so very different? The principle is the same, securing the welfare of a vulnerable child.’
Maya looked up at him, loving every line, every carved angle and patrician hollow of his face... She also loved Mattio and she knew her heart would break if she left him. She had so much love to give, so wasn’t it genuinely better to give it even knowing that, in this case, it would never be returned?
It was as if all her secret dreams of love and her worst nightmares about abandonment had collided. She couldn’t possibly see how this would end well for her, but Samuele was right about one thing: Mattio had to be protected.
Her hand shook as he slid the ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit.
‘I have one stipulation.Idon’t think that monogamy is an unrealistic expectation.’ She could stand many things, but that was the one betrayal that she knew would totally crush her.
There was a pause, then he said slowly, ‘I think I can accommodate that.’
She immediately started tugging the ring off her finger. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked sharply.
‘Taking it off. I can’t walk round with a fortune on my finger. We can wait until things are official and I’ve told my family.’Oh, God, my family!she groaned inside.
‘Things are already official, so I see no reason to wait. It is the formal opening of the Villa Agosti gallery in Florence in two weeks, so your first official role as my bride-to-be will be to act as hostess.’
‘I’m not really a front-of-house sort of girl, Samuele. I am more backstage, prop moving, that sort of thing. I thought I’d just be doing nursery things.’
‘You will be doing all the things that would be expected of my fiancée,’ he said flatly.
