“All right,” Talos said through clenched teeth.
He would lose this battle to win the war.
“All right?” she repeated.
“We’ll wed in Tuscany.”
“Oh, thank you!” she cried, whirling around in his arms to embrace him. “You’re so good to me!”
“I’ll get my car,” Roark said.
“No.” Holding her in his arms, Talos looked over her head at Roark. “My men will sort out your car. We’ll take my plane. There must be no delay.”
“I understand.” Glancing between the two of them with an amused grin, his friend gave a snort. “I’ve felt that way myself, too.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll tell Lia we’re on our way.”
Eve had never expected when she woke up that morning that today would be her wedding day. Or that she would get married in a castle in Tuscany.
The beautiful Lia Navarre, called Contessa by her housekeeper, had immediately taken Eve under her wing. She’d treated her like a dear friend, even though they’d apparently met only once or twice before. When Eve had nervously told her about her amnesia, Lia had only laughed and said she thought amnesia would be an asset in any marriage.
“Believe me,” she’d added dryly, “there are a few things about my own marriage I wouldn’t mind forgetting.”
Eve had watched in awe as Lia simultaneously arranged for a designer to bring six wedding dresses into the bright morning room and organized flower arrangements over the phone, all as she chattered in Italian with her three-year-old daughter and nursed her new baby son to sleep in her arms.
“I hope to be a mother with half your skill,” Eve said wistfully as the wedding designer helped her try on yet another dress. She watched Lia tuck her sleeping baby into a nearby bassinet. “You do everything so well, and all at the same time.”
Lia looked up with a snicker. “It might look that way, but believe me, I always wonder if I’m doing enough, or if I’m even doing it right. I’m sure you’ll do much better.” She tilted her head at Eve. “You know, I never knew you very well, but something about you always confused me.”
“What?”
“You’ve cultivated this image as a party girl, but the time I worked with you on a charity fundraiser, I was shocked at your hard work and drive. You are the most determined person I’ve ever met, but you just don’t let on. You hide it. Why?”
Eve blinked at her, then frowned, turning away with a sigh. “I don’t know what to think. Talos described me differently. And now according to you, I’m hardworking and driven? It’s like I’m two different people!”
Lia looked at her thoughtfully. “Sometimes we show different sides of ourselves to people for a reason.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. From a desire to please. From something to hide or something to gain. Oh, this one is lovely.” Zipping up Eve’s dress, Lia stepped back with a critical eye, then nodded with satisfaction. “Perfect.” She looked down at her three-year-old daughter. “Do you like it, Ruby?”
The little girl nodded, her eyes big.
“What do you think?” Lia asked Eve.
Eve looked into the large gilded mirror across the room. The dress was in simple cream-colored silk, cut to accentuate the swell of her breasts and her lush body, falling softly over her belly. Her hair looked glossy and dark, brushing the edges of her pale, bare shoulders. Her blue eyes shone back at her.
Her throat suddenly hurt too much to speak, so she just nodded.
“This is the one,” Lia told the designer, who happily started pinning the hem.
“I’m the flower girl,” Ruby intoned solemnly to Eve.
“Thank you so much,” Eve told her with a big smile. But as Lia positioned a veil over her chignon, Eve saw herself in the mirror and her heart pounded in her chest.
In one hour, she would be married to a man she still barely knew. A man she’d only really known for the last few days.
But I’m carrying his child, she argued with herself. And when he kissed her, he’d managed to brush aside all her nervousness, all her fears. Something about his kiss was magic. And tonight, he would be kissing her again.
More than just kissing her.