dark golden gaze rested on her resolute face. ‘I’m afraid you do if you’re married to me. I refuse to look outside my marriage for sex. That would degrade both of us and I couldn’t live with it. I have strong views on fidelity,’ he completed with finality.
Grace groaned out loud, not having expected him to be quite so set against what would in effect have been a marriage only on paper. ‘I really did think that that would be the sensible option.’
‘No, it would be a recipe for disaster.’ Leo stared at her with his black-lashed dark eyes glittering like stars in a lean, angular face that was so handsome it made the breath trip in her tight throat. ‘And I speak from experience. My father was persistently unfaithful to my mother and their unhappiness poisoned life for both them and their children.’
‘My goodness...’ Taken aback by that unexpectedly frank admission, Grace regrouped as she finished eating. ‘But it wouldn’t be quite so personal with us. For a start, we’re not in love with each other or anything like that.’
‘But I still want you, Grace, as a man wants a woman,’ Leo delivered with savage candour. ‘I won’t pretend otherwise. I want a normal marriage with all that that entails, not some unnatural agreement that increases the odds of divorce. I also want to be there for our child as he or she grows up.’
‘You’ve made your point,’ Grace conceded grudgingly, willing to admit that she had not thought through the consequences of a platonic marriage. It had been naïve to assume that Leo might be willing to live without sex while the alternative of her having to turn a blind eye while Leo sought sexual consolation elsewhere was even less appealing to her. But how could he say that he had strong views on fidelity after what he had done to Marina?
As she pushed her plate away and stood up, her curiosity still fully engaged on the mystery of Leo’s thought processes, Leo stood up as well.
‘So, we’re getting married in forty-eight hours?’ Leo mused huskily, resting a hand on her arm.
‘I think that’s a yes.’ Still striving to keep her distance, Grace tried to gently detach her arm from his hold but she didn’t act fast enough because his other arm just closed round her spine to entrap her slim body against his lean, powerful frame. He was hard...everywhere. Hard-packed with muscle, tense and...fully erect. Her face burned in the split second before his mouth came crashing down on hers, nibbling, licking, tasting in a carnal assault on her senses that absolutely no other man could have contrived. Her head fell back and her mouth opened, treacherous excitement lighting her up like a shower of fireworks inside. It was so incredibly sexy. In a mindless moment she was convinced it was the sexiest kiss ever.
A knock sounded on the door and he pulled back from her. A waiter brought in champagne. Flustered by the power of that compellingly provocative kiss and shaken by the thought that she was actually going to marry Leo, Grace backed away to the window to practise breathing again.
Leo extended a champagne flute to her. ‘To our future.’
‘I shouldn’t drink.’
‘One sip for the sake of it,’ Leo suggested.
Grace touched the flute to her mouth, moistening her lips.
‘I’ll set up a shopping trip for you today. You need clothes.’ Unusually, Leo hesitated. ‘Marina has offered to help out.’
‘Marina?’ Grace exclaimed, wide-eyed.
‘We’re still good friends. She’s probably feeling a bit guilty that she approached you yesterday to buy you off because that sort of behaviour really isn’t her style,’ Leo remarked with a wry roll of his eyes. ‘What you see is what you get with Marina. But if you would feel uncomfortable with her, I’ll make a polite excuse...’
In the taut silence, Grace swallowed with difficulty, her mind functioning at top speed. Leo’s ex-fiancée was offering to assist her in preparing for their shotgun wedding out of a genuine desire to be helpful? Grace’s curiosity about the unconventional nature of Marina’s relationship with Leo literally shot into the stratosphere at that revelation. Evidently their ties of friendship had withstood the breaking off of the engagement and the bitterness that Marina had briefly revealed, and that more than anything else impressed Grace and made her want to know more.
‘No, don’t make an excuse. It’s an unusual situation but I think that Marina’s kind gesture should be met with equal generosity,’ Grace pronounced, hoping that she was making the right decision and not setting herself up as a target for the sort of spiteful comments of the type her cousin and her aunt had specialised in.
‘FROM A PRACTICAL point of view, I’ve been up to my throat in wedding arrangements for the past few weeks, so I know exactly what I’m doing and who to contact,’ Marina proffered as she sat beside Grace in the back of Leo’s opulent limousine an hour later.
‘But there isn’t enough time to organise anything fancy.’
‘When a man is as rich as Leo is, there are always people willing to meet a challenge for a substantial bonus,’ the brunette told her drily.
‘But why should you help us?’ Grace asked baldly, no longer able to swallow back that burning and obvious question.
‘I have my pride. First and foremost, I would prefer our friends to believe that the break-up was amicable rather than inspire a pity party,’ Marina fielded wryly. ‘I’ve also since had a radical rethink about my own future. Yesterday when I went to meet you I was fighting to preserve the status quo but, having cooled down, I’m now more inclined to think that Leo and I were just treading water and never meant to be. My father is deeply disappointed that he’s not getting his dream whiz-kid son-in-law but I’m afraid I want to do what’s right for me.’
‘You’re being very understanding.’
Marina laughed. ‘Not as understanding as you probably think. To be frank, I have someone else in my life too and I believe that eventually Zack will make me happier than Leo ever would have done.’
Grace absorbed that unexpected admission without visible reaction. Yet it was undeniably a relief for her to learn that the svelte brunette was not the innocent and cruelly betrayed fiancée Grace had initially assumed she was. ‘Even so, you and Leo still seem to be very close.’
‘But there was always a flaw in our relationship.’ Marina turned to look at Grace with a self-mocking light in her lively dark eyes. ‘Although most men consider me attractive Leo never wanted me the way he wanted you.’
‘I can’t believe that,’ Grace said uncomfortably, her face burning with sudden heat.
Marina grimaced. ‘It’s true and his detachment was bad for my ego. However, because we were friends from a young age, Leo believed we were an ideal match.’
‘But you must’ve loved Leo as well,’ Grace incised, cutting through the brunette’s frustratingly guarded comments.
‘Oh, yes, when I was younger I was absolutely mad about Leo! He was the full package—gorgeous, successful, strong—everything I wanted in a future husband,’ the other woman admitted with a rueful laugh. ‘Unfortunately, though, when it mattered I never
