Chapter Eleven #2
The word wife, though, was still echoing in Tali’s psyche when she found herself alone with him for the first time since they had been naked together.
Awkward, much!
The afternoon breeze brushed against her oversensitive skin. She folded her arms around her waist, feeling as if she had just leapt off the high terrace, because her stomach was already in free fall.
He clasped her neck, stroked the pulse point with his thumb, his gaze locked on her burning face. ‘Now, tell me what the problem is…’
Where do I even start? Her temper ignited to cover the panic.
‘The problem is, I didn’t even know we were getting married today until eleven this morning.
And what happened to…to…’ She paused, not sure how to word the questions which had been piling up for forty-eight hours without sounding clingy, or worse, as if she was expecting more from this arrangement because they had become lovers.
‘You said we would discuss this arrangement, how it’s going to work, after we became…
’ She paused, having to push the word out.
‘Intimate. But I haven’t been able to speak to you at all. ’
‘What is it you wish to discuss?’ he asked, so matter-of-factly she suddenly wanted to punch him.
Was he really this clueless? But before she could gather her wits about her enough to come up with a coherent answer to that asinine remark, he answered it himself.
‘The only thing which has changed in this arrangement, Tallulah, is that we will share a bed. We have a rare chemistry which will enhance our time together. This was very clear two nights ago. Do you not agree?’
‘Well, yes but…’ She stumbled to a halt.
She was being railroaded, but she couldn’t seem to control all the emotions which were starting to strangle her now to form a coherent argument.
Because she wasn’t just annoyed and frustrated with him.
What did she do with that terrifying spurt of hope, of expectation, which seemed to go well beyond the physical?
‘It’s just, this is a lot, for me…’ she managed. ‘I’m not used to being…well…’
She stumbled to a halt again, more exposed than ever. Especially when his dark eyes flared with something fierce and possessive—which only made the spurt of expectation worse.
‘I know this, Tallulah,’ he said, the tone patient, and more than a little condescending.
‘Which is why I have been avoiding you for the past two days. I wished to give you time to adjust,’ he added, the husky tone making the pulse in her abdomen become catastrophic.
‘Do not worry. We will take this slowly. There is no rush. I have arranged for us to be at the palazzo for a month. There is much I need to do on the island, especially once I take full ownership of the estate—which should be soon. The Trustees were impressed with Lombardi’s article, too, and are already convinced this is a real marriage.
Having you in my bed will help with this, too. ’
His tone had lowered, the husky words and the awareness in his gaze brushing over her skin like a caress. Until one word jumped out at her.
‘A month? But I can’t stay in Capri for a month.
What about Westwick? What about my job?’ she said, because thinking about her career was so much easier than thinking about how reckless her stupid, delusional heart had already got about this whole situation.
‘The money you promised to invest will be deposited today, and I have to be there to oversee the…’
‘You will have the opportunity to contact your staff at the Hall during our stay in the palazzo if you wish,’ he cut in.
‘There is office space there, and a strong internet connection. But we cannot be apart until the Trustees are satisfied the marriage is valid. Once the ownership has been transferred to me, you will be able to return to Westwick more frequently.’
The pragmatic response had the bubble of hope under her breastbone deflating. This whole thing was still primarily about gaining ownership of the palazzo for him. Because of course it was.
Remember that, Tali. For heaven’s sake.
‘You have to let me know what’s going on, Dario.
This isn’t just about our… Our…’ She swallowed convulsively, feeling hopelessly compromised, even though she knew she shouldn’t.
‘Our sleeping arrangements. Not anymore. It’s also about my work, my life, my choices.
I know I signed on to be your stunt wife, but I did that because the Hall is important to me.
My work and the people who work there are important to me.
’ She drew in a heavy breath, not sure she should confide in him, but knowing she wanted to, so he would understand how important her work was to her.
‘When I was a kid, my father left me and my mum and started another family. For years I tried to get him to see me, to want me, but he wasn’t interested.
And it crushed me. Moving to Westwick, living there, having a job I loved, working with people I respected, eventually helped me to realise his inability to love me, to even see me, was never my fault. ’
She blinked, wondering if he could see how that gave them a connection. That they had both been neglected by inadequate men.
But there was one big difference. While she suspected Dario had been determined never to feel too much, her response to that rejection had been to try to make her father come back.
And in the process, she’d developed a bad habit of wanting to fix broken things.
That’s why it had given her so much pleasure making a surly, injured boy smile.
But when she’d discovered she was powerless to fix the relationship with her father, no matter how hard she tried, it had destroyed her.
Westwick had saved her, eventually. But she couldn’t let anyone destroy her confidence again, the way her father had.
Not even Dario. Especially as she was beginning to sense that despite what Mia had told her in Sicily, Dario had no desire to let her, or anyone else, get too close to him.
Yes, he was a complex and fascinating man, but he also guarded his heart even more fiercely now than he had when he was a teenager.
Perhaps now would be a good time to tell him she’d met him all those years ago.
But the fact he didn’t know about their history, because he hadn’t remembered her, made the confession stick in her throat.
Blurting all that out now would only make her feel more exposed, and she was exposed enough already.
He hadn’t said anything… But she couldn’t tell from his blank expression whether he was shocked or bored or simply dumbfounded by her oversharing… Because his reaction was as inscrutable as always.
Maybe just get to the point then, Tal!
‘You have to stop ordering me about if we’re going to be sleeping together…or it will make me feel…’ She sucked in another harsh breath, let it out. ‘Powerless again, like I did then.’
He continued to stare at her for the longest time, but when he nodded and then cradled her cheek, to skim his thumb across her skin, his blank expression becoming as tender as it had been that night, the panic finally released its death grip on her chest.
‘Your father was un idiota,’ he said at last.
She huffed out a relieved laugh. ‘Absolutamente,’ she murmured, her fledging Italian making his lips curve.
‘I apologise for not informing you of my plans sooner,’ he added, the tone strained as the smile died. Even so, it felt like a major concession that he’d at least acknowledged she deserved to know what the hell was going on. ‘But I want you to come to Capri with me.’
It wasn’t really a request, more like a statement of purpose, but it felt vindicating nonetheless—that he had also acknowledged she deserved a choice.
‘I… I’ll come on one condition,’ she countered, determined not to be a total pushover.
She couldn’t spend a whole month getting jiggy with Dario Lorenti on Capri without consequences, because that amount of quality time with him was bound to make it next to impossible for her to keep their fling in perspective.
He was just so hot and fascinating and demanding, and so unlike any other man she had ever met.
Giving herself some time-outs during their not-so-fake honeymoon to visit the team at Westwick and keep abreast of the renovations would help ground her, while also reminding her of the main reason why she had agreed to this arrangement in the first place—to save Westwick, and not to indulge in a flaming hot affair with its owner.
That was merely a fringe benefit, which she could only come out of unscathed, if she didn’t get overinvested in it… and him.
His jaw tensed. He did not look pleased about having to negotiate with her, but instead of attempting to ride roughshod over her wishes for once, which she knew was his default, he simply said, ‘And what is this condition?’
She smiled, because it felt like another big win for Team Take-No-Shit Tali.
‘I need to return to Westwick for a couple of days each week during our month together on Capri. I want to oversee the new investments being made to the infrastructure in person as well as over the internet,’ she rushed on when he frowned, determined to make her request all about Westwick’s future and not about her insecurities, because it totally was…
mostly. ‘I can do some of that remotely, but my staff also need me to be present.’
The muscle in his jaw hardened. ‘You may return once,’ he said. ‘And for no longer than two days. And not in the first week.’
She sighed, forcing herself to ignore the silly leap in her pulse at how keen he seemed to keep her with him for the whole month.
It’s all about fooling the Trustees so he can acquire his palazzo, Tali. It’s not you he needs. He just wants to make this marriage look convincing.
She needed to stay focussed now, so she didn’t start getting delusional again, and remember her ‘marriage’ to Dario was a diversion, an adventure, an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride which would end soon enough…
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I guess I can live with that.’ But when she held out her hand for them to shake on it, he grasped her fingers and tugged her into his arms. Cupping her bottom, he caressed her through the satin.
‘Our guests are watching, Tallulah,’ he said, his gaze fierce with the heated promise which made her pulse bounce, her nipples peak and arousal swell and pound between her thighs.
Then he kissed her so thoroughly, her focus shattered. Completely.
Because all she could feel was the insistent erection rising against her belly. And all she could think about was what tonight would hold, once they were finally alone together—and she could climb aboard the adrenaline-pumping thrill ride that was Dario Lorenti…again.