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For fuck’s sake, I shouldn’twanther to prefer me. I’ve done all I can to keep her from wanting me. But now, the thought that I might disappoint her feels like almost too much to bear.
“Should I sign it now?” she asks, glancing at my desk as if looking for a pen. I think I hear a flicker of tentative anticipation in her voice.
Fontana holds out his hand for the contract. “Come here, and you will both sign it. It will need to be witnessed by a priest as well—we can go to the church this evening. This should all be handled as soon as possible.”
I nod. Once the Leone family is aware of what’s happened, they’ll be quick to want proof that all has been done as it should be, or else they’ll make an argument for the betrothal being null, and Gianna married to Andre instead. If my goal is to keep that from happening—and it is—then we’ll need to make sure all loose ends are tied up sooner rather than later.
Gianna’s hands are still shaking as she signs her name, what might have been pretty script otherwise turning into something slanted across the line. Without thinking, I reach out and take her hand in mine, and I hear her soft, surprised intake of breath.
When I look up, she’s looking right at me with those soft blue eyes, and I see a flicker of hope in them. She catches her lip between her teeth, and for a moment, Fontana fades away, and it’s just the two of us standing there at my desk, her soft, warm hand caught in mine, and the promise of something new between us.
Except—
No matter how this turns out, I’ll disappoint her. There’s no way for this to go how she’s hoping, and for me to still stay true to what I think is right.
Gianna stays very quiet until Fontana takes his leave, taking a copy of the contract with him. She sinks into the other chair, her face paler now, her gaze resting on me.
“So what now?” she asks softly. “You were so insistent that you wouldn’t marry me, and now we’ve ended up here anyway, all because Fontana went over your head. So that’s it? You just gave in?”
I sit down slowly, that knot of apprehension returning at the thought of what I’m going to say to her. “Not exactly,” I tell her slowly. “I’ve agreed to marry you so that Andre Leone cannot. I know how you feel about that, and frankly, I feel just as strongly that it’s not a good match—not for you, and not for your family’s legacy. Since it’s been made clear to me that it’s the only way I can protect you, Iamgoing to marry you. But it will be a marriage of convenience, Gianna.”
Her mouth drops open a little as she stares at me. “You can’t mean what I think you do—”
“We will have a chaste marriage.” I can see the disappointment in her eyes from the moment I say it, but I keep going, knowing this all needs to be said. “I will not touch you. We will sleep in separate bedrooms, and—”
“And what?” Gianna looks at me, her tone laced with burgeoning resentment. “So I’m going tostaya virgin? I’ll be married, but nothing else will change?”
“Would you rather lose your virginity to Andre Leone?” I feel my frustration rising quickly. “Would that be preferable?”
Gianna presses her lips together in that stubborn line that I’m getting to know all too well. “The marriage won’t be valid unless we sleep together.”
“Blood on the sheets can be faked.” I look at her evenly. “If you’d made friends with the other mafia daughters, I’m sure you would have met more than one who slipped up with a man before she was married and had to fake her virginity. Fontana won’t question me, so long as I have something to show him.”He’d never believe that I optednotto fuck my eighteen-year-old virgin bride, anyway.No one would.
“And heirs?” Gianna raises a sarcastic eyebrow, clearly looking for any way that she can to poke holes in my plan. “They’re going to be expected. Who will inherit after you? People will have questions if I don’t get pregnant.”
It takes everything in me not to react to the thought of her pregnant, soft and round and sweet, and of what I would do to get her that way. Of all the nights I’d spend fucking her to achieve that, filling her—
I swallowed hard, feeling my cock twitch against my fly, swelling eagerly at the thought. “We’ll say we’re infertile. As for inheritance, your father adopted me for exactly that reason. We can do the same.” I lean back in my chair, feeling suddenly very tired. “I’ve made up my mind, Gianna. I’ve been swayed to marry you by circumstances beyond my control, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still stick to the principles that I had when I agreed to take you on as my ward. I came here to protect you, not fuck you.”
Gianna flinches visibly at the bluntness. “So I’m always going to be a virgin? You’re going to be celibate? How is that fair? You’renevergoing to sleep with me, not even when you think I’m ‘old enough’?” She stares at me. “That’s insane, Alessio. To expect ofeitherof us.”
“We can discuss how to manage the issue of celibacy later.” I force down the thought of her with another man, the idea ofanyoneother than me taking her virginity, especially with her being my wife. The thought makes me incandescent with a quick-burning rage, but she’s right, of course. It’snotfair to either of us. But the alternative—
“The circumstances that made me uncomfortable before haven’t changed, Gianna. You will always be half my age. You are technically, by law, my stepsister. And—”
“This is ridiculous.” Gianna shakes her head. “YouknowI don’t want a celibate marriage or an unfaithful husband. Or don’t you remember the lessons I asked you to give me for just that reason? And now—”
“The contract is signed, Gianna. The decision is made. Or would you have rather been Andre’s wife?”
Her face is pale, her cheekbones tinged with red high at the tops. “That’s not fair,” she whispers. “You know it’s not fair. You should have told me this was how you felt before I signed it—”
“Would your decision have changed?” I look at her, wondering what I would do if she said yes. If she said her mindwouldhave been changed, that she would rather go to Andre Leone’s bed than the kind of marriage I’m offering her.
The look she gives me nearly cracks my heart in two. “You know the answer to that,” she says softly. “But at least I would have known everything before I signed.”
She gets up then, pushing herself out of the chair without looking at me as she strides to the door. And I feel sure, as I see the light glance off her skin as she steps out of the room, that there are tears on her cheeks.
Gianna
