‘Felicitazioni!’ Benito proclaimed, ignoring both Micha’s frown and the growl that would have scared a lesser man. But Benito had been with him for nearly eight years now, and had seen pretty much all there was to see.
What little was left of Micha’s conscience forced his steps to slow and to at least ensure that Benito greeted his new wife—hiswife—with the respect that her family clearly hadn’t afforded her.
‘Signora, welcome home,’ Benito said.
The words struck Micha like an anvil, and for a single moment, his eyes connected with hers, took in the sight of her in a wedding dress, hovering on the threshold to his home,her home, before he let out another growl, stalked into his study and slammed the door behind him.
Of course, he should have known better than to think that Maria would leave him to his peace.
Less than five seconds later, she threw the door back open, only to come into the office and slam it behind her. It had taken more than he’d care to admit to stop himself from flinching from the sound of the door hurtling against its frame.
She stood there like one of the furies, her fists on her hips, glaring at him as if she had the right to be mad athim.
‘Go to bed, Maria. It’s too late for this.’
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Before opening it and then closing it one more time.
‘How…how dare you send me to bed like achild,’ she whisper-hissed.
How dare he?Cristo, if she only knew that he was trying to spare her from the thoughts he was struggling to contain.
‘Va bene.Out with it,’ he commanded.
‘You can’t ignore me like this, Micha. You’ve been furious with me all afternoon. You didn’t say a single thing to me through the wedding breakfast or reception.’
He shrugged off his tux jacket. ‘And?’ he said with his back to her.
‘And?’ she asked, eyebrow arched in surprise. ‘So much foreveryone believing this marriage is real,’ she said.
He clenched his teeth together and turned, leaning back against the table.
‘Don’t do that.’ She gestured angrily to where he perched and turned her back on him.
‘Do what?’ he demanded.
‘Dothat, lean back likethat.’
‘Madonna mia, Maria, this is my office, and I just need—’
‘What?Whatis it that you need?Tonight.On yourwedding night?’ she demanded angrily.
‘Space!’ he shouted, swallowing immediately and regretting his outburst. It wasn’t that he was angry. It was that it was uncontrolled, and she would know that and he was so tired of fighting her.
‘Do you think I wanted this?’ she accused.
‘Do you thinkIdid?’ he fired back. ‘Seriously Maria, do you think that I wanted this either? Me, whose mother had to sell her own body to put food in my mouth. Do you think that I would have ever,ever, wanted to force a woman to marry me?’
The shock on Maria’s face would have stopped his words, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the dam was well and truly burst and now everything was pouring out.
‘Just the thought of ithorrifiesme, Maria. It fills me with the kind of self-hatred I wouldn’t wish on anyone,’ he growled, slashing his hand through the air between them.
‘Iwilldo everything in my power to protect you and our child, but damn it Maria, do you actually think I’menjoyingthis? Contrary to what you and your family think, I’m not actually a monster and I donotenjoy forcing women against their will to do something they don’t want to do. Of course, I appreciate that it would be hard, no, near onimpossible, for you to credit that one day,one day, I might actually have wanted to be with someone who had chosen to be with me because they cared for me. And now, that is impossible.’
He shook his head and huffed out a bitter laugh.
‘I could never bring myself to regret what happened in Paris,’ he admitted, ‘because I wouldneverregret what led to the birth of our child. But by my word, I wish you’d never come to my office that night.’
For just a moment, he thought he might have seen a flash of hurt in her gaze, but he must have been imagining it. He stared into the fire that Benito had lit just before they’d arrived.
