Chapter Five #2
Longed for, and done nothing, Amelia thought with a flicker of impatience.
But she smothered it, nodding instead, shaking her grandmother’s hand.
It was hardly the warmth and joy they might have been hoping for, but Amelia was here.
And so, thankfully, was Massimiliano, because without him, she wasn’t sure she could have got through the evening with anything like aplomb.
But despite the fact he’d exuded a cool, single-minded determination ever since they’d met, in this environment, she saw a different facet.
He spoke easily with her grandparents, about subjects they had in common—art investments, his hotels—so Amelia found herself sitting there feeling like a child at the grown-ups’ table.
By the time coffee was served, it was a relief to know the night was almost over.
Massimiliano had also relaxed into the role of fiancé. His arm was stretched along the back of Amelia’s chair, his fingers dangling carelessly across her shoulder, so sparks flew through her body, making it almost impossible to think straight.
‘Tell us about the wedding,’ Nicoletta invited, leaving Amelia totally tongue-tied. Because of course she knew none of the specifics, and she cursed herself then for not having asked more questions.
‘It will be Saturday morning,’ Massimiliano answered, naming a church with a long Italian name. ‘I presume you can make it?’
‘Make it,’ Nicoletta sobbed. ‘We wouldn’t miss it for the world. We never got—’ She closed her eyes then, on a wave of emotion, and Amelia understood. They’d never seen their own daughter’s wedding, as Amelia’s parents had eloped. ‘We wouldn’t miss it,’ she repeated.
‘Shall we send you a guest list?’ Gianni suggested. ‘I know many of our friends would like to see—’
‘No.’ For a moment, Massimiliano’s mask of congeniality dropped. ‘It will just be the five of us.’
‘Five?’
‘My grandfather.’
At that, Gianni’s face paled. ‘I see.’
Amelia glanced at her future husband and saw the glint in his eyes, the muscle throbbing in his jaw, and realised she wasn’t the only one riding a wave of difficult emotions.
She put her hand out instinctively, curving it over his thigh, to bring him back to the moment.
The pretence. But touching him was like setting off a whole bundle of fireworks, just beneath her skin, so she gasped softly, drawing his gaze to her face.
Her parted lips. And dropping his head, before she could realise what he intended, suddenly, he was kissing her.
The whole world tilted.
Then shot into Technicolor.
Then seemed to explode with a heat and sparks, until she could hardly think straight.
It was over too quickly. Just a brush of his lips against hers, no doubt for her grandparents’ sake, but if she’d thought touching his legs had set off fireworks, then the promise of a real kiss, at some other point, had her tingling from head to toe.
She couldn’t look away from him, and, for a moment, she wondered if the same was true for him, as his eyes held to hers, boring through her with the force of his gaze.
‘You’ll send us all the details,’ Nicoletta murmured, all but slicing through the moment like a knife.
Sure enough, Massimiliano shifted, moving his leg beneath the table so her hand dropped free, but thankfully leaving his own fingers still trailing on her exposed shoulder. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘My assistant will be in touch. Naturally, I’ll send a car to collect you.’
‘That’s not necessary.’
‘It’s our wedding. Of course I shall take care of the details.’
Gianni nodded, clearly sensing there was no point arguing with Massimiliano. ‘Very well.’
With a few more pleasantries exchanged, the dinner was over. As they slid back into the limousine, Amelia expelled a long, slow sigh, closing her eyes as she tried to process everything that had just happened.
‘Was it as bad as you thought?’ he asked and, with her eyes closed, his voice wrapped around her like silk.
‘Better in some ways, worse in others.’
He made a grunting sound, which she took to be of agreement.
‘You don’t like them, do you?’ she asked, softly.
‘Why do you say that?’
She pulled a face. ‘I have eyes and ears.’
He let out a short bark of something like laughter as the car pulled into traffic. ‘I take a dim view of people like them. It’s not personal.’
‘Isn’t it?’ she murmured. ‘It sounds like the people you cared for let you down the most.’
‘They were my grandfather’s friends, not mine.’
‘Still, it must have hurt you to see him hurt.’
‘Every single person we once thought of as a friend turned their backs on us. People I would never have thought capable of it. Overnight, the name Moretti became a joke.’ His eyes glittered when they locked to hers. ‘It still would be, were it not for my net worth.’
‘And now, me.’
‘Sì. And now, you.’
A shiver ran the length of her spine as she felt his possessive heat twist around her. But it wasn’t about possessing her in the way she now realised she wanted. This had nothing to do with her as a person, or as a woman, and everything to do with the status her name brought.
‘And the whole world will soon know about it.’
Her heart sank. She understood bitterness and anger. She would feel it in bucketloads, if she let herself. But the idea of this marriage being born from those things filled her with a slow-spreading sense of dread.
‘Why did you kiss me, Massimiliano?’ she asked, after several moments of silence.
Unbeknownst to her, he’d been asking himself the same question ever since.
But she’d looked up at him with those big, pale blue eyes, and softly parted lips, he’d caught a glimpse of the bruising on her cheekbone and had simply acted on instinct.
Leaning down, brushing his lips over hers.
To comfort and console, to give confidence and calm.
It hadn’t worked. Calm had evaded him ever since.
Because with that one simple gesture, that one touch, he’d felt yearning ignite in the pit of his belly, and a familiar, aching need pulsing through him.
Demanding more. More of this woman he’d negotiated into marriage, more of this woman he hadn’t intended to touch, much less look at twice.
He’d told himself it was little more than a contractual arrangement, like any other business merger, but he’d never wanted to rip the clothes off any of his other contractual partners, the way he’d been fantasising about doing with Amelia all night.
She shifted, moving closer to him, as if to ask the question again. He tilted his gaze down to hers, knowing he should be honest, but aware that it would be opening a can of worms he didn’t particularly wish to deal with. ‘Because we were pretending, remember?’
He saw the way her eyes softened, hurt obvious in their depths.
It wasn’t just that she was younger than him, but that she was so inexperienced.
And perhaps that she felt too deeply, couldn’t conceal as well as him.
Maybe she’d never needed to? Whatever the reason, he saw whatever she was feeling, and really wished he didn’t.
Because hurting Amelia didn’t have any place in his plans.
Yet if he told her that he’d kissed her because she’d looked so hauntingly beautiful, and he’d wanted to kiss her so much harder and deeper than that, would she read more into it than he intended?
He wouldn’t take that risk. Better to downplay it.
Except his body didn’t get the memo, and his hand was moving, slowly, towards her cheek, his fingertips brushing over the flesh that, beneath her make-up, would show the bruising. ‘How does this feel?’
‘Worse,’ she admitted, but her voice was cool, as though she was trying to pull back from him. ‘But I’ll live.’
He nodded once. ‘My security team will be providing bodyguard support to you, going forward.’
She startled visibly. ‘What?’
‘For when you leave the hotel.’
‘No. That’s…crazy. I don’t need a bodyguard.’
‘I should have thought of it before this. No one should ever have been able to touch you.’
‘It was just bad luck. I went down the wrong street, wasn’t paying attention…’
‘And that same bad luck could happen again. So you’ll be accompanied either by me, or by one of my team.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘I don’t think I want a bodyguard.’
‘It’s not unusual.’
‘I beg your pardon, but, for someone like me, it’s exactly that.’
‘Either you accept the necessity of a bodyguard, or you move in with me immediately. The choice is yours.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘That doesn’t really sound like a choice, so much as an ultimatum.’
‘It’s common sense.’
‘No, it’s bossy, arrogant and demanding. What gives you the right—?’
‘This,’ he said, moving his other hand to hers and brushing the flesh just beneath the Moretti diamond. ‘You are my fiancée—’
‘In name only.’
‘No, not in name only,’ he retorted, surprised by the anger she’d stirred him to, the feelings she’d evoked with this argument. ‘To the rest of the world, you are my fiancée, and will soon be my bride. That makes you a very valuable target. Surely you comprehend that?’
He saw the fear tremble across her features and instantly regretted being so frank with her.
But he had to make her understand. What had happened on the streets that afternoon had been a random mugging, possibly brought on by the designer bag she was wearing, and the fact she looked like an easy hit because of her diminutive stature.
But once word got out that they were married, it was the less random attacks he’d worry about.
‘I can take care of myself.’
‘Perhaps, and yet, you no longer have to.’
‘That’s no reason to give up my personal freedom—’
He stifled a scoffing sound. ‘Don’t be so dramatic. We’re talking about highly trained security operatives accompanying you out in public. You will not even know they’re there.’
‘I’ll know.’
It had been a long time since anyone had argued with Massimiliano like this. Most people saw the writing on the wall as soon as he laid down a proposal. He had to admit, sparring with her was equal parts frustrating and addictive.
‘Why are you fighting this so hard?’
‘I just don’t see the point.’
‘Even after what you went through today?’ Irritation swirled through him, and he attempted to tamp down on it. But it was intense and flooding his system, and for the first time in a long time, he felt a sense of being out of control. ‘You are being unreasonable.’
‘And you’re being overbearing.’
‘By wanting to keep you safe?’
‘You seem to think you’re safe enough and I don’t see you being trailed around by discreet security guards.’
His irritation turned into impatience, and something else. A fire in his bloodstream. ‘I have security protocols in place.’
‘But not bodyguards?’
‘I also do not look as though a gentle breeze could knock me down. You, on the other hand, are tiny. Like a doll. It would take no effort to bundle you into a waiting car and kidnap you for ransom. Do you not understand that?’
He saw something flash in her eyes, and wondered if he’d gone too far. If he’d scared her, with that warning. But she rallied quickly, glaring back at him. ‘I won’t let that happen.’
‘You are being so unreasonable,’ he growled, moving closer without meaning to, even as alarm bells sounded in his mind.
‘By standing up for myself?’
‘I’m trying to protect you, damn it,’ he retorted. ‘You are—just—seriously—’
‘Yeah? What am I, Massimiliano?’
How could he answer that? What words would suffice?
But even as he was racking his brain for something to say, for a response that was justified, his body was moving the rest of the way, his head dipping, his hand on her chin tilting her face higher, so that when his lips claimed hers, she was right exactly where he needed her to be.
And this time, it was so much more than a simple brushing of mouth to mouth.
This time, his whole world caught fire before he could stop it.