The realization that they could be lovers hits like ice water in my veins.
The ground beneath my feet feels unsteady, like it might crack and swallow me whole.
I can’t move. All I can do is watch the moment unfold between my new husband and this mystery woman.
Knox holds her with a tenderness I didn’t even know he possessed. The same hands that signed our marriage contract hours ago, the same hands that slipped a ring onto my finger with clinical precision now cradle this woman like she’s made of spun glass.
Mia’s light touch on my arm breaks the spell, and I turn toward her.
“Isla,” she whispers, her eyes wide with something that looks like regret.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
She wraps an arm around me, guiding me back the way we came.
We walk in silence. No more talk of Knox or possibilities.
It was just a hug. That’s all it was.
But it was the way he held her. Like she mattered. Like I never would.
And that’s all it takes to remind me what we really are.
A contract.
But damn my stupid heart.
I’m actually hurt.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Knox
I’min one of the side lounges with my father. A decanter of brandy sits between us, along with the last of my responsibilities laid out on the table.
One final contract to sign before Isla and I head home.
No rest for the wicked. Not even on my wedding day.
I’ve got no one to blame but myself. I don’t know how to switch off. I’ll even be working in Italy.
My impromptu marriage landed right in the middle of a crucial deal we’ve spent years trying to close. I’m taking Sheila and my business managers to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Mixing business with a honeymoon isn’t ideal, but the distraction will help keep my mind busy—and my dick in check. Though, that might prove impossible.
The instant Isla walked down the aisle this morning, the cool control I’d managed to harness over the past week slipped away from me. Then something unlocked inside me as I slid herwedding ring on her finger and she becamemy wife. Something primal and raw I didn’t want to control.
It was only quelled during the times my lips were on hers and each time I touched her.
Then I kept thinking of her as my wife, and control slipped again. It didn’t help that she looked so damn beautiful. The kind of beautiful that got under a man’s skin and made him forget why he was trying so hard to resist her.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. At one point, I found myself so lost in her I forgot my own name.
Fuck knows what I’m going to do when we leave here and I have her all to myself.
Tonight’s mission is to sleep next to her and not touch her. But when we get to Tuscany, Isla and I will have the villa to ourselves for the week. Sheila and the others will be staying in the onsite cottage. It’ll be the first time that Isla and I will be in each other’s company for so long.
