Marchese's Forgotten Bride

Cassie gave a shrug. ‘Except for your brother you’ve never mentioned them to me, not once. Not in the past or in the present. I was wondering if there was a reason for that.’

‘We have been dealing with us. I believed that was complicated enough.’

‘Will they be at our wedding?’

Infinitesimally, he tensed. ‘No. I felt it was best to keep the ceremony small and private in respect of the twins. I…could not be sure how they were going to feel about me.’ He sketched out a brief smile. ‘I did not know if I was going to have to drag you anchored to my wrist to marry me.’

Pressing her lips together, Cassie nodded, accepting that he had a point. The emotional ride they’d been travelling on for the last two weeks had not been conducive to social introductions; even Angus would agree with that, since he’d been dragged onto the ride with them for a while.

‘Your family knows about your blackouts?’

This time his tension was more obvious. ‘Would you like to get where you’re going with this, cara, because I am lost.’

Cassie wished she knew but she didn’t. Something was nagging at her but she couldn’t quite work out what that something was. ‘I suppose it bothers me that we don’t really know anything about each other,’ she said as she tried to sort her own head out. ‘Yet here we are, planning to get married like two reckless teenagers—’

‘The evidence of our two five-year-old children hijacks the teenager part of that,’ Sandro mocked.

‘That’s just arithmetic,’ she dismissed. ‘I still don’t know you and you can’t even remember me. The twins deserve a stable family environment. They don’t deserve a set of parents who marry in haste for their so-called benefit, only to repent their decision later in front of them.’

‘I will not regret marrying you,’ Sandro stated firmly.

Cassie took in a breath. ‘Well, I think we should wait.’

‘No,’ he refuted and now he was really uptight, hands out of his pockets and clenched.

‘I think it would be kinder to the twins in the long run if we—’

‘No!’ he repeated with an angry rasp. ‘I want marriage and I want it now. The twins expect it and I will not let you ruin what I am trying to build up with them! What the hell has got into you in the half an hour since we made love to each other?’

What had happened? Well, there was a clever question, Cassie thought unhappily. Then it hit, the nitty-gritty of what was bothering her.

‘You made the assumption that I’ve had a string of lovers coming into this apartment,’ she told him. ‘If you knew me better you would know I would never do that in front of my children—’

‘Our children—’

‘And I don’t like the way you voiced that assumption as if it didn’t matter to you if I had introduced the twins to a long line of passing-through uncles. What do you think that tells me about your casual attitude to sex?’

‘I don’t do casual sex!’ he denounced angrily, then took in a deep breath. By the time he let the air back out of his lungs again he had shot down the short length of the kitchen so he was standing directly in front of her, his hand coming up to cup her cheek. ‘Any woman with experience would know a man doesn’t fall apart as I do with you if he was putting it out there like a damn stud,’ he imparted huskily. ‘You, mi amore, are not a woman of experience. Therefore my comment earlier was crude and unwarranted. I apologise for making it.’

Her intake of air ready to speak was stopped by the gentle pressure of his fingers against her lips. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Just shut up and stop looking for excuses to get rid of me. We all belong together—remember that leap of faith.’

Was that what she was doing—looking for excuses to get rid of him? Searching his frowning dark eyes, Cassie decided that yes, she probably was. What kept on flaring up between them scared her. It seemed to happen with no reason or sense.

‘You want me. I want you. We can work on the rest,’ he said firmly. ‘Trust me. Trust yourself. We both want this.’

This, she discovered, was the kind of slow, gentle kiss that muddied her brain up. This, was his hands gently stroking her face. It wasn’t sexual, it wasn’t even close to it. It was tender and reassuring and…oh, God, she just fell into it like a needy fool, pushing her niggles aside—once again.

CHAPTER TEN

SANDRO stayed with them at the flat until the twins were tucked up in bed and asleep. He’d raided the fridge and cooked them all pasta, turning the whole thing into a family event in which everyone was expected to participate.

And he did it with a smooth, flirtatious light-heartedness that papered over the cracks in his own splintered veneer. Cassie had shaken him when she’d gone back to questioning their marriage. He hadn’t been expecting it; now his conscience was troubling him because he’d asked her to trust him when he knew her instincts were not playing her false.

‘I will come back first thing in the morning,’ he promised, drawing the words along her delicate jawline with the warmth of his breath.

‘You could stay…’

He could stay. The soft invitation came with the sinuous move of her body against his. For the first time she was coming on to him and he knew, with fierce regret, he had to push her away.