The Vows He Must Keep

Across the table, Nicole announced that the baby had started kicking that week. Dani’s eyes lit up with wonder as she asked if it hurt, at which Renata laughed and said that some day soon she might find out for herself.

He felt her tense against him, moving away ever so subtly. Dani’s withdrawal got under his skin for some reason. As did the way his brother interacted so easily with his family, making jokes and talking about plans to build a tree house during the summer.

He had never before been jealous of the pressure Rigo had been put under as heir to the Marchesi fortune. But right now, seeing his brother rest his hand possessively across his wife’s stomach, he felt an uncomfortable tightening in his chest. Needing to excuse himself, he stood and moved inside the house.

In the master bathroom, he splashed cold water on his face and glowered into the mirror. Get it together, Marchesi.

Dani appeared in the doorway behind him, her eyes filled with concern. God, she was so beautiful. It almost hurt to look at her without touching her. He wanted to take her, to consume her u

ntil the emptiness inside him was full of her laughter and her brilliance.

It was hard not to feel as if he was using her like a drug when the effect of just being in her company was so addictive. And it wasn’t just the sex, either. He enjoyed being with her...found himself looking for ways to make her smile. What was happening to him? They had agreed on a time limit for whatever this thing was between them. And neither of them was interested in risking their business partnership over a fling. And it was just a fling.

A fling that was about to escalate into a marriage.

Valerio turned around and leaned back against the vanity unit. She didn’t move closer and he told himself he was relieved. If his face showed anything of the chaos of emotions warring inside him, she would probably turn around and call off the whole wedding.

She should call it off. She deserved so much better than this. She deserved more than a brief few days of hot sex with a man who didn’t come close to deserving her. She deserved the wedding of her dreams with a good man who was reliable and logical and safe—everything he could never be for her. And this fictional perfect husband would make her happy—he would be with her as she carried their perfect children and lived her life in blissful happiness.

Valerio was shocked at the swift kick of jealousy in his gut.

‘You left the table so suddenly I was worried.’ She stepped forward, reaching out to touch his arm in a soft caress. ‘What’s wrong?’

Her gentle touch was more than he could process. The pressure in his forehead was close to the breaking point and he couldn’t seem to gather his thoughts.

‘You shouldn’t have followed me.’

Even as he said the words, he knew he didn’t mean them. He knew he wanted nothing more than for her to keep looking at him that way, caring about him.

A look of uncertainty flashed in her beautiful eyes and she quickly removed her hand. ‘I’ll get back to the others, then.’

‘I’m fine.’

He turned away from her, splashing water over his face again and avoiding her burning gaze.

‘Before I go, I want to talk to you about this whole ceremony thing.’ Dani cleared her throat to try to stop the sudden shake in her voice. ‘The flowers...the violin players...’

‘My mother enjoys making an occasion of things, and I can’t deny her after the year she’s had. I hope that’s okay?’

He was watching her reflection in the mirror, clearly waiting until she nodded.

‘They’re all expecting to see a happy couple saying their vows, so that is what we will give them. We have no other choice.’

Dani felt his words hit her somewhere in the chest with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer on porcelain. She had followed him expecting him to have been set a little off balance by this sudden seismic shift in their plans. But this... It was as if shutters had come down over his eyes, blocking her out.

Confusion mixed with hurt, and anger rose briefly, before she shut them down tight and stretched her lips into a smile.

‘If anything, it will add to the authenticity of the whole thing,’ she said, and a breathless ghost of a laugh escaped her lips, seeming to bounce off the bathroom walls, mocking her. ‘I’m a little jealous that I didn’t think of it, to be honest.’

He turned around and stared at her, a muscle in his jaw beginning to tic rather menacingly. She waited for him to speak, in her own foolish mind still clinging on to a thread of hope that he might have something good to say. Something that wasn’t about the coldness in his eyes, the detachment.

‘We have no other choice,’ he’d said. As if he’d already been forcing himself to do this and now it was becoming an unbearable spectacle.

The fact that she had felt so connected to him for a moment just now only served to cheapen things further, making her feel weak and used even though he’d made it quite clear where he stood when it came to any feelings between them.

She felt the shameful threat of tears building in her eyes and turned quickly towards the door.

‘Dani, wait.’