LITMIR.BIZ

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      But she wouldn’t. She wasn’t that bold. And besides, she’d come in here for a different reason altogether. A reason she’d forgotten the instant he’d touched her.

      “That is why we are marrying,” he said, his voice lashing into her with its coolness as he tucked in his shirt again. “Not because this is a fantasy, or a love affair, or any other reason that suits your romantic sensibilities. We are marrying because we have passion, cara. And because, as you so helpfully pointed out to me last night, there were consequences to that passion.”

      He turned and walked back to his desk, raking a hand through his hair as he went. “Now go and choose a dress. Or send them all away. But don’t come in here crying to me because you believe you’ve been cheated out of your little girl fantasy.”

      Tina sucked in a fortifying breath. She felt like a fool, and it wasn’t a feeling she enjoyed. “It’s not my fantasy,” she told him angrily. It wasn’t entirely true, since she and Lucia had often dreamed of their wedding day when they were teenagers, but she was quickly adjusting her expectations of what her adult life was going to bring her.

      He looked thunderous. “Maledizione! Then why did you barge into my meeting as if someone had stolen your puppy?”

      Chastened, Tina felt her anger crumple under the weight of embarrassment. She’d wanted to be taken seriously, and yet she couldn’t manage not to storm into a business meeting because she’d been focused on her own hurt feelings. No wonder her brother didn’t think she could handle the pressure of working for him.

      “You didn’t ask me what I wanted. You simply assumed,” she told him. She took a halting step toward him, clasped her fist over her heart, which beat hard. She wanted him to understand. Needed him to understand.

      “I’m a person, Nico. An individual with wants and needs of my own. I don’t need to be told what to do. I want to be asked what I want.”

      He picked up a pen and tossed it down again. Then he sat at the desk and pushed both hands through his hair, resting his head in his palms. The move stunned her. “What do you want, Tina? What will make you happy?”

      Her throat ached at that single gesture of defeat. Now she felt petty. How did he do that? How did he move her from blazing anger to embarrassment and then guilt in the space of a few seconds?

      She realized that he must have gone to a lot of trouble to bring the gowns here. After all, they’d left Italy quickly and arrived in Gibraltar with no preparation.

      He’d done something miraculous, something he’d not had to do but that he’d probably thought she might want. Tina’s throat ached. Outside this room, a seamstress waited with several top designer gowns. All she had to do was choose one, and the woman would fit it to her body in the space of a few hours.

      It was all too real, too fast. She swallowed hard. She didn’t know what she was doing. She wasn’t ready for any of this—and neither was he. They were like two people turned loose in a vast forest without a compass or a map. They were stumbling, fumbling and getting more and more lost.

      And hurting each other in the process.

      She knew what she wanted, what she wished she could do. It was impossible, but she said it anyway.

      “I’d like to go back to that night in Venice and make a different choice,” she whispered. For both their sakes.

      He looked up, his eyes sharp, hard. “Clearly, that isn’t going to happen. I suggest you find a way to be happy now.”

      If only she could.

      Tina chose a gown. In the end, she’d been unable to send the seamstress or the dresses away. The one she picked was a gorgeous creation, a strapless gown that hugged her torso and then fell in a lush fall of voluminous fabric from her hips. The dress was unadorned, which was part of the reason it had appealed to her. The beauty of it was its simplicity.

      She chose to wear her hair up, though she left it curly, and tucked in a few sprigs of tiny white daisies. The wedding was to take place in the hotel, so there was no need to worry about piling herself and the fabric into a car.

      No, all she had to do was go downstairs at the appointed time and arrive at the small chapel the hotel had set up for the purpose. She’d chosen to walk down the aisle by herself, since Renzo was not here to give her away. She refused to allow one of Nico’s security detail to do it though he had suggested it. When she’d declined, he’d shrugged.

      Now she gathered the small bouquet of flowers the hotel had provided her while the woman who’d helped her dress sniffled.

      “You look so lovely, miss,” she said. “He will be so proud when he sees you.”

      Tina managed a smile. She didn’t think Nico would be anything other than relieved to get this over with, but she didn’t say so. “Thank you, Lisbeth.”

      Lisbeth dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “It’s so romantic, isn’t it? Your man flying all those gowns in to surprise you. I could have melted on the spot.”

      Tina’s fingers shook as she twisted a curl that had fallen over her brow. Her stomach dived into the floor. He’d flown the gowns in special, and she’d reacted so furiously over it. She felt childish and hollow inside as she remembered him with his head in his hands.

      It made her remember the younger him, oddly enough. He’d been different then. More human. She could picture him at their kitchen table, laughing with Renzo and her mother while she sat very quietly and tried not to blush or stammer or let her adoration of him show whenever she looked at him.

      He was a harder man now. He wasn’t vulnerable in the least, and yet he’d shown that single moment of emotional vulnerability. As if the weight of the things pressing down on him had, for a moment, been too much to bear.

      She’d wanted to go to him and put her arms around him. She’d wanted to ask him to share his burdens with her, but she had known he would not. Now she was ashamed of herself. She’d been so focused on her own feelings that she’d failed to consider his.

      He’d insisted they marry for the baby, but it couldn’t be what he’d planned to do with his life. A family was such a life-changing decision; to have it forced upon you was not what anyone would wish for. It wasn’t just about her feelings. It was about his, as well.

      Tina left the suite and took the elevator down to the main level, Lisbeth making the trip with her in order to guide her to the right place. Nico was waiting for her outside the chapel. Tina nearly stumbled to a halt, but managed to keep walking anyway. It was just a superstition that it was bad luck for him to see her before the wedding—though how could it get any worse than a wedding neither of them truly wanted?

      He was dark and forbidding in his tuxedo as he stood near the entrance. He looked so serious that her heart notched up. His gaze raked her, those stormy eyes smoldering with heat when he met hers again.

      “Is something wrong?” she asked.

      “There is one last thing we must do before we wed,” he told her. He led her into a small adjoining room with a desk and chairs. The two men she’d seen with him this morning were there. With a jolt, she recognized them for what they were.

      Lawyers.

      If the serious expressions on their faces didn’t give it away, then the briefcases and neat pile of papers would have. Nico handed her a pen as one of the lawyers pushed the papers toward her, which were conveniently flipped back for her signature.

      And she’d actually felt a glimmering of sympathy for him earlier? Tina turned to look at him, anger kindling in her belly.

      “Certain things must be spelled out before we marry, Tina,” he said before she could speak.

      “I am aware of that,” she said tightly as she settled into a chair and jerked the papers from beneath the lawyer’s fingers. A prenuptial agreement wasn’t unusual or even unexpected. But there was something

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