The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain

But Therese felt like her world had rocked on its axis.

Dinner was a convivial meal, but as time wore on, it became more and more difficult for her to mask her pain. She stopped eating more than a bite or two from each course after the soup. The cramping was getting very bad again, almost debilitating. Probably because she had taken nonprescription pain meds all day, not wanting to be so loopy she could not fulfill her obligations.

Perhaps she should have taken some before dinner, but she hated zoning off in the middle of conversations. And her sisters-in-law were very astute women. They would have noticed something was wrong…unlike Claudio.

Trying to find a more comfortable position, she shifted in her chair for the third time in ten minutes. Rather than make the pain more tolerable, the shift made it more acute and she had to stifle a gasp. She couldn’t quite mask her wince though.

Claudio stood suddenly. “I believe Therese and I will retire early.”

Tomasso frowned. “But dessert has not been served.”

“We are both tired and need our rest.”

He reached for Therese’s arm, the expression in his eyes one of a hawk ready to swoop down on its prey. “Come. It is time you were in bed.”

She knew she had no chance and therefore did not argue.

“That is not a bad idea,” Tomasso said, but the look he was giving Maggie indicated sleep was the furthest thing from his mind. She blushed, but smiled back with obvious delight at his words.

Claudio waited until they were out of the room before swooping. He reached down and lifted her high against his chest with a gentle hold that made her feel secure and coddled as she had told him she did not need to be.

Liar. For it was exactly what she wanted.

“Put me down,” she protested nonetheless. “I can walk.” But it was so nice not to have to. “What if one of your brothers comes out and sees you carrying me like this, or one of the servants? There will be speculation.”

“I never realized you were so afraid of gossip.”

“I’m not.”

“Then explain why all of your doctor appointments have been secret and in the States.”

“I was avoiding a media frenzy.”

“Gossip.”

“Are you saying you aren’t worried about it? You wouldn’t care if the papers got word of my infertility tomorrow? I remember how upset you were with me for going to the hotel’s hot tub rather than staying in my room when I took Maggie shopping in Nassau.”

“You were inviting gossip then over something quite innocent. It is different to feel the need to hide a very real health problem for the sake of appearances.”

“I wasn’t hiding it for the sake of appearances.”

“Were you not?”

“No. I just…I didn’t want it to come out before we divorced. It would have made you look badly in the eyes of the public. The average person just doesn’t understand what it means to be royalty.”

“Since there will be no divorce, your concern was not justified.”

“You’re being foolishly stubborn and I don’t care what you say. I don’t want your family getting all worried over nothing.”

“Your condition is far from nothing, but as for your current agitation. Calm yourself. Any servant who saw me carrying you like this, or my brothers for that matter, would assume I was in a hurry to have my wicked way with you.”

“That’s not on.” Not that she didn’t want him…she always did, but pain was a strong deterrent from making love.

He stopped halfway up the marble staircase and glared down at her. “Do you really believe I would try to seduce you in your current condition?”

He looked thoroughly put out with her.

She grimaced. “No, of course not. I don’t know why I said it.”

She really didn’t. She knew in the very depths of her being that he would never willingly hurt her physically. She remembered the pains he’d taken with her virginity and felt a familiar lump of emotion form. He was such a good man and the last thing she wanted to do was let him go.

She’d spent months shoring up her defenses against him, enumerating his faults in her mind so that she would not be tempted to fight for her marriage, but all those defenses were crumbling. It was going to hurt so much to walk away from this man that she loved.

“Good, because only a selfish bastard would ignore both your period discomfort and pain to try something like that.”

“I never said you were those things.”

“Perhaps not in so many words…” he allowed, but the implication was clear that she had convinced him she thought that.

She stared in shock at his granitelike features as he resumed his climb up the stairs. “I have never implied I believe that about you.”