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‘About my mother?’ he asked. ‘Of course. I cared that the house she wanted to remain in was safe. That it had everything she could need and more. I built extra rooms, extended the floors to accommodate staff to cook, clean, watch her.’
‘What do you think she would have thought about us coming here? Making it our home?’
‘She probably wouldn’t have noticed.’
‘Your mother wouldn’t have noticed that her son had brought home the woman he was going to marry?’
He shifted in his seat. ‘They are waiting for us,piccolina.’ He nodded towards the double oak doors.
Staff stood there.Security guards?Men in black suits and sunglasses.
‘You need security?’ she asked. ‘Here?’
‘I’m a billionaire, Flora. I need security everywhere, and so will you,’ he said tightly.
‘You didn’t have any at the hotel.’
‘And look what happened.’
‘You didn’t have any on the boat.’
‘We were in the middle of the sea.’ He exhaled deeply. ‘You are stalling,’ he declared. ‘Why?’
‘Because once I step off this helicopter I won’t see you again until we make our vows—promises.’
He frowned. ‘And you’ve changed your mind?’
‘Of course not. But...’
‘But what?’
‘Tell me something...’ she started, and tried to swallow down the emerging reality of her future. Her shared future with this man. The personification of wealth and privilege. Cold self-control. ‘Of all the places we could get married and build a home,’ she continued, and placed her open palm on his thigh, ‘why here, Raffaele?’
She felt the muscles tense beneath her hand. Her insides churned as she prodded to find the man beneath the suit. The man she’d slept with. Talked to. Eaten with. The man who had disappeared into the bathroom to have a shower and not come out.
‘Why come back when your mum isn’t here? Not once have I heard you call this house your home. Not once have I heard—’
His eyes blazed. ‘Enough,piccolina,’ he said between unmoving lips.
There he was. Simmering beneath the surface. The man she’d fallen in love with. With that all-consuming energy pressing against his skin.
‘Enough of what, Raffaele? Acknowledging the elephant in the room?’
Unflinching, she held his gaze steady, although she wasn’t sure it was the right move. Her rational brain told her to get out of the helicopter and fall into the hands of the people Raffaele had arranged to get her ready for a wedding.
To follow the plan.
The script for her wedding.
When she hadn’t even seen the dress.
Hadn’t even seen the church where the ceremony would take place.
And she wasn’t sure if she was marrying the man who’d shared a bed with her last night or this man beside her who was fighting her. Fighting the status quo they’d created of touching freely, expressing themselves with words, kisses, intimacy.
‘If it’s so hard to be back here—’ she said.
‘It’s nothard.’
