I shrugged. “Okay.”
“She and I were never really together.”
I lifted my palms. “Look, I really,reallydon’t care.”
I began to move past him. His hand shot out and clamped around my forearm. “Fabiana.”
“Let go of me.”
His hand stayed. “You’re obviously upset.”
“Not at all. Maybe I would be if this was still a real engagement, but it’s not. It’s just a transaction. I would’ve preferred some discretion on your part though.”
I could tell he didn’t like how I was reacting. Was he hoping that I’d break down in tears and demand he promise me this wouldn’t happen again?
When I first came back to New York, he’d been determined to do the bare minimum when it came to our engagement. He’d treated it like a job he hadn’t signed up for that he begrudgingly had to do.
Maybe that was the attitude I needed to have. I already thought of this as a job, but for some reason, I’d defaulted to wanting to do it well.
Why bother when I could also skate by doing the bare minimum?
“So just to be clear, for the next six months, I assume we’re both good with sleeping with other people if we’re discreet about it, right?”
His gaze grew very dark. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because in less than an hour, you’ll be my goddamn wife.”
“Yourfakewife,” I spat out.
“You seem to be confused.” He stepped closer, one hand still locked around my arm as the other rose to cup my jaw. “Fake or not, for the next six months, you’remine.”
Anger pulsed inside me even as my skin came alive beneath his touch.
“Those words I wrote on you—are they still there?”
I glared at him as I shook my head. “I washed them off that night.”Lie.I’d scrubbed off the signatures on my arm until my skin had gone pink, but his words had merely gotten a rinse.
Three days. That’s how long his claim on me had stayed.
“That’s too bad.” He leaned in closer, his nose almost brushing against my own. “Maybe I’ll get them tattooed on you instead.”
“Only to have to pay for their removal in six months? I thought you despised frivolous spending.”
“You won’t let another man touch you unless you want him dead. That’s not a bluff, Nettle.”
I gave him a cold smile. “Fine. I guess I’ll have the rest of my life for that.”
Planting my palms against his chest, I pushed him away. “Most of the guests have already arrived. I’ll see you at the altar.”
I walked back inside and didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 20
COSIMO
There wasn’ta single free seat in the church. Ferraros on the left. Messeros on the right. The two sides of the pews were split by the red-carpeted aisle like a bloody gash.
