Married for His Secret Heir

“I’m sorry about that. It was a very emotional day and it crashed in on me.”

“I think it’s best we stick with the original agreement.”

What was that supposed to mean? Her mind jumped to all the wrong conclusions. But then she stopped herself. In the past, jumping to conclusions had done nothing but get her in trouble.

With great trepidation, she asked, “Why is it for the best?”

“You know why.”

She pulled back. “No, I don’t. But I’d like you to explain it to me.”

He shook his head. “Let’s not get into this now. It was a nice evening. Let’s leave it at that. I’ll sleep on the couch. You can have the bed.”

“No.”

He turned to her. “No, what?”

“No, I’m not going to leave it at that. I want to know what you meant.”

“Why do you always have to be so stubborn?”

“I guess I was born that way.” She pressed her hands to her hips. “Now quit trying to change the subject.”

He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed in defeat. “Because the one night we spent together, I awoke in the morning to find you crying. You regretted our night together. And I don’t want a repeat of that experience.”

He’d heard her? He’d never said a word about it. If he had, would it have changed things between them? She wasn’t sure, but she wanted to clear the air now.

“I wasn’t crying be

cause I regretted that you and I had gotten closer. It was quite the opposite. I enjoyed it and that scared me.”

“Scared you?”

“Yes. I knew you didn’t want a serious relationship. And without us being able to move forward, I knew I would lose you—lose our friendship. I thought I’d once again made a huge mistake. What you saw was me being afraid of losing you.”

His eyes searched hers. “Really? That’s what you were upset about?”

She nodded. “After all, we’ve been through thick and thin. I couldn’t imagine never speaking to you again.”

“You never have to worry about that. I don’t know how this whole thing with us is going to work out, but I will always be here for you. That I promise.”

“I will be here for you, too. Always and forever.”

His head lowered, and he claimed her lips. It seemed so natural, so right. Maybe that was because they were, in fact, newlyweds. Or more likely it was because they’d been made for each other, but one of them had just been too stubborn to see it until now.

But suddenly Luca pulled back. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“We just talked about this. Everything is okay now.” She lifted up on her tiptoes to continue the kiss, but Luca leaned back.

“There are still things we need to talk about.”

“It can wait. I promise, it’ll be all right.” She ran her hands up over the front of his shirt to his shoulders, where she slipped off his tux coat. It fell to the floor in a heap. “Tonight isn’t for talking.”

“It isn’t?” His voice was deeper than normal.

“No.” She pulled on his bow tie, loosening it. And then she undid the top button of his shirt. “I can think of other, more pressing matters.”

“I think I’m getting the idea, but could you be a little clearer about what’s on your mind?”