Revelations of the Night Before (8 page)

He slid into a pair of briefs before pulling on the khakis and flipping through the closet for a shirt. When he turned back to her, the dark shirt hung open to the waist, affording her a view of sculpted chest and abs that made her mouth water. Tina bit her lip to stifle a whimper.

Nico’s gaze was sharp as he looked over and caught her staring at him. “Never fear,
cara
, you slept unmolested. I prefer that my bed partners participate in the activities. It is much more fun that way.”

Tina let her gaze drop. “I did not doubt it,” she said, because she knew that if he
had
tried to make love to her, she wouldn’t have slept through it. “Thank you for making sure I was warm again.”

He shrugged as he began to button the shirt. “You are the mother of my child, Tina. Regardless of how this began between us, I will take care of you. Nothing is more important than this baby.”

Her stomach hollowed. Of course the baby was the most important thing—and yet it hurt to hear him say it. To him, she was a possession, a vessel carrying a precious cargo. The thought made her ache inside. What would it be like to marry a man who loved her? To have him be excited about the baby instead of resigned?

“I have business to take care of,” he told her when he finished dressing. “The wedding will be this evening, so try to amuse yourself for a few hours.”

Tina sat in the middle of the big bed once he was gone, feeling dejected. Amuse herself. So typical. He went off to run his company and expected her to entertain herself until he returned.

He was exactly like her brother in that respect—except that Faith had kept working for Renzo until she’d hired her own replacement. There was no way Renzo would dare to tell Faith she couldn’t do what she wanted to do.

Even now, Faith oversaw his calendar of appointments and basically ran his entire life while taking care of a newborn. Faith was loved and valued and, though Tina would have never thought it possible with her macho brother, she was very much his equal. His other half.

It was his attitude toward his wife that had given Tina the hope he would eventually cave to her desire to work in the D’Angeli accounting department. She knew he’d been worried she couldn’t handle the pressure, the people, or that her innate shyness would somehow stop her from fitting in. He was wrong, though she didn’t suppose she would get the chance to show him that now.

Tina showered and breakfasted, then decided to go for a swim in the hotel pool. The exercise would do her good and it would make the time pass until evening. But first she checked her phone for messages.

There was an email from her mother, who was having the time of her life in Bora-Bora, and a quick text from Faith with a picture of baby Domenico and Renzo.

Tina’s throat hurt as she swallowed tears. Renzo and Faith were so happy, while she and Nico were merely going through the motions. What would it be like to be so overwhelmingly happy? So in love?

She pushed those thoughts down deep and went
down to the pool. She swam laps for a while, and then sat in the shade of an umbrella and stared at the harbor below. Her thoughts kept going around and around. She almost called Lucia, just to have someone to talk to, but she didn’t know what to say. How could you tell anyone that you were pregnant and about to marry the baby’s father even though he did not love you?

It was too pitiful, and so she sat and stared at the blue water until she finally gave up and returned to the penthouse suite.

The last thing she expected to find as she opened the door was a seamstress and a selection of wedding dresses. Shock rooted her to the spot as she stood in the entry with the key card in her hand and the door wide-open.

There were racks of gowns—gorgeous, expensive gowns with lace and silk and pearls—that must each have cost a small fortune.

He’d ordered them without her knowledge. Without her input. He’d made the choice for her, just as he’d made so many other choices since barging back into her life in the Pantheon.

It hurt in ways she hadn’t imagined possible. She was already feeling sorry for herself, feeling like a burden and a possession rather than a cherished companion and equal after seeing Faith’s text earlier, and her hurt feelings bubbled over until she had to act or burst with the effort not to.

She spun on her heel and marched into the office, uncaring that she was still in her bikini and flimsy cover-up.

Nico was not alone. Three men looked up in surprise when she entered the room. Nico’s expression could have stopped a bear in its tracks—but she refused to
be intimidated. The two men with him excused themselves, slipping out of the office and leaving them alone.

She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. It was only when his gaze dropped down her body that she realized the pose thrust her breasts forward. It was all she could do not to hug herself, but she refused to shrink beneath his simmering gaze.

He met her eyes again, a flicker of interest kindling in his. “What is this about, Tina?”

She took a step toward him, her heart thundering in her chest. “Wedding dresses? You picked out
wedding dresses
for me?” She was so angry that she could barely get the words out without them tripping over each other.

His brows drew down. “No, I did not,” he said evenly. “You may pick what you want. I only asked for several for you to choose from.”

She dropped her hands to her sides, clenching her fists together rhythmically. Violent emotion swept through her. He was no different from her brother in the way he viewed her. No, he
was
different. Renzo might view her as an accessory, but he loved her. This man did not.

At least Renzo didn’t think so little of her that he would pick out her clothes for her.

No, but he picked your schools. And when you wanted to major in finance, you had to convince him he should approve
.

She was so damn tired of men making decisions for her. It was going to stop. Now.

“I don’t want any of them,” she said tightly. Angry tears threatened to spill over as she worked to control her temper. She knew he thought she was being unreasonable, but she didn’t expect him to understand. How could he?

He waved his hand as if it were nothing. As if she were a bothersome mosquito flitting around his head. “Then send them away. It’s nothing to get upset about.”

“You have no idea, do you?” she flung at him. “Women are taught from the time they’re little girls to look forward to their wedding day. There are entire magazines dedicated to weddings—to gowns! You don’t pick a woman’s dress, or pick a selection of dresses, and tell her to choose one. It’s arrogant, unfeeling—what are you doing?”

He’d stepped around the desk and started moving toward her, stalking her, until she backed into the closed door with a gasp.

He looked angry—and so very handsome he stole the breath from her lungs. When he reached out and hooked an arm around her, she could only squeak in surprise. Then he hauled her against his hard body until she was pressed to him, breast to belly to hip.

“How is this for unfeeling?” he growled before his mouth came down on hers.

F
OR
a moment, Tina was stunned into immobility. But only for a moment.

Though her brain told her to resist his kiss, she wound her fists into his shirt instead and arched her body into his. He threaded one hand in her hair and tilted her head back, his other hand sliding down to cup her bottom.

Excitement shot through her in a chain reaction of sparks and sizzle and longing so sharp it made her moan.

She thought that she’d remembered what kissing him was like, but she hadn’t remembered even a tenth of it. He consumed her, his tongue sliding against hers, his mouth demanding everything she could give.

Had it been like this in Venice? Yes—and no. Yes, he’d kissed her with this kind of passion—but he hadn’t kissed her without restraint. Now there was no restraint. He was a sexual animal, pushed to the edge of control, and she welcomed his fierceness.

His kiss turned her inside out, and she only wanted more.

His hand slid beneath her cover-up—beneath her bikini—and she gasped. He cupped her bare bottom,
squeezed, pulling her harder against him until she could feel his erection straining against her abdomen.

Liquid need melted into her core. She wanted him, wanted to feel his body inside hers again. She wanted that perfect storm of passion and heat, the tactile pleasure of touching him everywhere.

She’d never felt more beautiful, more alive and wonderful, than she had when they’d made love the last time. She desperately wanted that feeling again even if it was bad for her. Even if she’d wake up afterward, feeling hungover and hating herself for giving in.

She. Did. Not. Care.

Tina yanked his shirt from his trousers, desperate to feel his bare skin beneath her palms, but a sudden noise outside the door startled her and brought her crashing back to reality.

There were people out there. And dresses. Dresses that had made her so angry she’d come in here to confront him about his lack of respect for what she might want.

But before she could summon the energy to push him away, he stepped back abruptly. He looked wild, his eyes gleaming, his hair mussed where she’d threaded her fingers into it. Not only that, but his body was still aroused, still ready for her. She could see the outline of an impressive erection straining against the fabric of his khakis.

A part of her wanted to close the distance between them, unzip him and wrap her hand around that steely velvet part of him.

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 about the cold-blooded efficiency with which he’d orchestrated this entire marriage thus far that had her on edge.

Yes, he’d gone to a lot of trouble to get the gowns. And she’d actually felt badly that she’d been mad over what she’d considered to be his high-handedness—but now she was angry again. Angry because he’d waited until the last moment, when she was dressed and ready for the ceremony, to spring this on her.

No doubt because he expected her to sign without question. Because he thought she was empty-headed and in need of someone to tell her what to do. Maybe he
expected her to simply do as she was told, which made him no better than Renzo in that respect.

She glanced up at him, the agreement in her hands, and hoped she looked coolly controlled. “You may want to sit down,” she said. “This might take a while.”

His lips twitched. She wasn’t certain if it was annoyance or humor that caused it. Regardless, it only made her more determined.

“It is a fair agreement,” he said. “You get quite a generous settlement should we divorce, and maintenance for life.”

Tina flipped to the pages where the financial portion was spelled out. “Very generous,” she said after she’d scanned the numbers. “And yet you’ve made a mistake.” She tapped the pen against the page.

One of the lawyers cleared his throat, and Tina sliced her gaze in his direction. The look she gave him must have been quelling because he subsided without speaking.

“I believe that Pietro wanted to say there is no mistake,” Nico said. She thought he sounded vaguely amused, but she was too irritated to be sure.

“Well, there is. You are forgetting that this sum—” she tapped the pen on the page again “—must be adjusted for inflation. A divorce in a year is quite a different animal than a divorce in twenty.”

“So it is,” Nico replied.

“You’ve also failed to take into account any money I may bring into the marriage.”

“I don’t want Renzo’s money.” His voice was harder this time.

Tina fixed him with an even stare. “I’m not talking about Renzo’s money. I’m talking about mine.”

One eyebrow lifted. “I wasn’t aware you had any.”

“I do, in fact,” she told him evenly. “I’ve made investments of my own.”

“I’m not interested in your petty investments,” he snapped, and anger seared into her. Petty investments, indeed. She wasn’t about to tell him what she’d accumulated, unless it became a point in the contract. Her wealth came nowhere close to his, or Renzo’s, but she’d earned it herself through the strength of her skills—and she wasn’t going to give him control over it.

“Great. Then you won’t mind adding a clause that states that fact.” How typically arrogant of him to assume that she brought nothing to the marriage other than what Renzo had given her.

Nico’s eyes burned hot as he took the pen from her and bent over the papers. He crossed out the figure that was written there and substantially increased it. And then he flipped to the end and added a clause about any money she brought into the marriage.

The first lawyer took the page and read it, then handed it back with a nod.

“Satisfied?” Nico asked as he shoved the document toward her again.

“I’ll let you know once I’ve read the whole thing.”

It took over twenty minutes, but she finished reading and attached her signature in bold strokes. She’d worked hard on that signature, ever since Frau Decker had told her she wrote like a mouse that expected to be eaten by the cat at any minute.

“Grazie, cara,”
Nico said, taking her hand in his and helping her from the chair. A frisson of excitement rolled through her at his slight touch. How very annoying in light of what had just happened.

He lifted her hand to his mouth, as if he knew how she reacted to him, and pressed his lips lightly to her
skin. A tingle shot down her spine. “Now, let us get married.”