LITMIR.BIZ

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blinked in confusion. “An overnight bag? Why? Are we going somewhere?”

      He put his hands on her shoulders, skimmed them down her bare arms. His touch left her glowing and hot, like burning embers on a cool spring night. “We are going to Gibraltar,” he told her.

      Tina’s heart plummeted. “Gibraltar?”

      He frowned, but it wasn’t unfriendly. “You know why couples go to Gibraltar, Tina. You cannot be that sheltered.”

      She shook her head as a tide of apprehension began to bubble to life inside her. “I do know why. But why must we? I had thought—”

      His pitying look told her he knew exactly what she’d thought. That they would have a normal, though perhaps hurried, wedding. That she would spend the next month or so choosing a gown, flowers, a cake and a venue. That she would somehow persuade Renzo to put aside his dislike and give her away.

      She was exactly like other girls in that she’d always imagined she would have a fairy-tale wedding.

      But it was not to be. She’d done everything backward, and now this man she barely knew anymore, this man she’d agreed to marry, was taking her to Gibraltar for a quickie wedding. They would be married within twenty-four hours of their arrival on the rock. She would be Signora Gavretti—

      But no, she would be the marchesa di Casari.

      Tina’s knees melted like butter and she nearly sank onto the soft cushions again. Nico steadied her, his strong arms coming around her and pulling her close.

      “There is no need to wait,” he told her even as he held her against the heat and hardness of his body. “No need to prevaricate.”

      “But my family …”

      His eyes flashed hot. “I am your family now, Tina.”

      By nightfall, they were on his private jet, winging their way across the Mediterranean toward Gibraltar. Nico sat across from her, his laptop open, his gaze fixed on the screen, while Tina couldn’t seem to concentrate on the book she’d been trying to read. Her eReader sat on her lap, forgotten, as she stared at her own sad reflection in the jet’s window.

      Her life had changed so fast. Two months ago, she’d been looking forward to a masquerade party with Lucia. Everything she’d thought about her life up to that point had been blasted apart in the space of one night, though she had not known how completely it would change her at the time.

      Just a little fun, she’d thought. The chance to be someone different, someone more free and spontaneous. Someone brave and bold and in control.

      Ha. Some control.

      With Niccolo Gavretti, she had no control. She slanted her gaze toward him, her breath catching as it always did when confronted with the evidence of his staggering male beauty. He frowned as he studied the screen, his fingers tapping a key here and there.

      She wanted to go to him, wanted to smooth the frown from his face—and she wanted to run away at the same time. She had never been so tormented over one male in her life as she had over this one.

      Always this one.

      He looked up then and caught her watching him. She didn’t jerk her gaze away, didn’t try to hide that she’d been looking. What was the point? He closed the laptop and put it away.

      “I know this isn’t the way you expected this to happen,” he said. “But it’s for the best.”

      “The best for whom?” she asked automatically.

      His silver gaze didn’t waver. “For us. For the baby.”

      “I don’t think waiting a month would have hurt.”

      He shrugged. “When I decide to do a thing, I do it. I see no point in waiting.”

      When he decided.

      “What about your mother? Don’t you think she might like to see her son get married?”

      His laugh was unexpected. It also sent a shiver over her. “The only thing she cares about right now is the fact I’m forcing her to live on her allowance. I doubt she’d trouble herself to bring me water if I were dying of thirst on her doorstep.”

      Sadness jolted her at that statement. She knew he was an only child, and of course she knew that his father had recently died, but she’d had no idea his relationship with his mother was that bad. “Perhaps she’s still upset over your father’s death. Grief does unexpected things to people.”

      She felt a little foolish for saying such a thing considering how his father had died, but stranger things had happened than a wife still being in love with her philandering husband.

      He stared at her disbelievingly. “She is not sad, tesoro. Or, if she is sad, it’s not because he died, but because I’m now in charge of the money.”

      “I’m sorry,” she said because she didn’t know what else to say.

      “Not all families enjoy each other’s company the way yours does.”

      Tina dropped her gaze from his. Yes, her family loved one another, there was no doubt about it. But she also thought perhaps they failed to understand one another, as well. They would absolutely not understand, for instance, why she’d agreed to marry Nico.

      No, they would be furious. Renzo would pop a gasket when she told him.

      Nico’s phone rang and he took the call, ending their conversation. A short while later, the plane landed at Gibraltar airport. It was dark when they stepped off the plane. She couldn’t see the ocean, but she could smell the tang of the salt air.

      They climbed into a waiting car and were whisked to an exclusive hotel high above the city. They checked into the penthouse suite, which the staff assured them came with breathtaking views of the Bay of Gibraltar and the Spanish mainland—as well as the Rif Mountains of Morocco—though it would be morning before they would see the view.

      But once they entered the suite, Tina was more concerned about the room. Room, as in singular.

      “We need another room,” she said to Nico when she realized there was only the one.

      She wasn’t ready to spend the night with him, not like this. Not when everything was spiraling out of control and she felt as if her life was no longer her own. If he’d kissed her earlier beneath the pergola, she might have yielded to him like a flower bending in a storm.

      But he had not, and she’d had several hours now to fret about what was happening. From the moment she’d agreed to marry him, he’d shifted into high gear. She should have realized that he would. He was a businessman, and he had every intention of closing the deal before anything could happen to derail his plans.

      To him, she was another acquisition. A bit of land, a factory, an exclusive source of some necessary component for his motorcycles.

       What did you expect?

      Nico crossed the main living area and opened the balcony doors. The bay spread like spilled ink below, and the lights of ships lit up the harbor. Across the bay, the Spanish town of Algeciras glowed in the night.

      “There is only this room, cara,” he said when she came to stand in the open doorway.

      Tina crossed her arms over her chest, her heart thrumming along like she’d just had a caffeine injection.

      “It’s happening too fast for me, Nico. I only said yes this afternoon, and now we’re here, and we’re in the same room together, and my head is spinning.”

      He turned his head to look at her. She couldn’t read him, couldn’t tell what was in that enigmatic gaze of his, and her pulse skipped. He was probably annoyed she was giving him trouble.

      “There is only one room because it’s all they have available, Tina. We’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”

      He

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